The Good Fight Series #5
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 6/30/2026
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54:09
Summary
Pastor Elms explores the Shield of Faith as a call to active, stubborn faithfulness and communal protection, challenging the church to move beyond casual doctrine into deep, interlocked commitment.
Key points
- •The Christian life exists in a non-neutral environment defined by spiritual erosion and active opposition; there is no 'retirement' from the spiritual battlefield.
- •Faith, in the biblical and Hebraic sense, is not merely mental assent or positive thinking, but an active, lived faithfulness and 'holy stubbornness' in response to God's promises.
- •The shield of faith was designed to interlock with others, emphasizing that spiritual survival depends on the community and mutual support of the body of Christ rather than 'maverick' individualism.
- •True maturity in a believer is marked by humility, compassion toward the backslider, and a refusal to allow convenience to replace commitment.
Scripture
Spiritual Warfare
Faith
Community
Discipleship
Perseverance
Life application
Commit to the 'fast of negativity' this week by refusing to speak discouraging or cynical words, instead following up every necessary negative report with a testimony of God's goodness.
Reflection questions
- In what areas of my life have I treated faith as a 'feeling' rather than 'faithfulness' in action?
- Who are the people in my life whose 'shields' I can interlock with for mutual protection and encouragement?
- How can I practice 'holy stubbornness' when facing a difficult health or financial report this week?
- Am I behaving like 'God's policeman' toward others, or am I running toward them with the compassion of the Prodigal's father?
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Full transcript
0:02Oh my goodness. That felt good right there. To God be the glory. That's
0:08what God's people are, isn't it? It's not special with one person. It's what
0:13God's people are. Steadfast unmovable always abounding in the word of the Lord.
0:19That's what the scripture says. We are to be steadfast unmovable always abounding
0:25Sometimes we don't reach it, but that is our aspiration steadfast unmovable always
0:30abounding in the word of the Lord and that everybody say always Abounding
0:36those are two powerful words right there always abounding because we know we're
0:42not always abounding you have a bad health report Not
0:47always abounding. My ride to the emergency
0:53room that I just got the bill
0:59for today, always abounding. Night. That day
1:05I didn't mind taking that trip. Today
1:11I'm wondering why I needed to go.
1:17Steadfast. Unmovable. Always abounding in the word.
1:23Some people that says, well, I'm abounding in my scriptural knowledge. That's not exactly what
1:29it means in the word of the Lord. Abounding in the active, present promise that
1:35God has your back. That's what the word of the Lord is. He's good. That's
1:41the word of the Lord. He provides. That's the word of the Lord. He makes
1:47a way. That's the word of the Lord. That's the word of the Lord.
1:53So when the devil comes with his report, your kids aren't going to make it.
1:58I'm sorry. You know, when I was younger, I didn't always reference my kids when
2:02I was pastoring. But now, you know, just you just get up here and you
2:08start throwing in where you're at right now in your life. And if you're not
2:13in the place where I'm at right now, your place is perfect for you. You
2:17were made for that space. You were prepared for that space. And the enemy doesn't
2:22want you to know just how prepared you are. He wants to tell you it's
2:27overwhelming to you. You're barely treading water. You're barely sucking air. And I'm telling you,
2:33the Lord said, I've got a lamp for your feet and a light for your
2:39pathway. I have a way for you that's a prepared way. I know what is
2:45the good path wherein I shall find rest. My soul, hallelujah. You know, that kind
2:50of introduction wound me up a little extra, so please forgive me. I got a
2:55little extra wound up for that one. But I want to tell you, brother, we're
3:00starting our month of consecration this July, and I want to welcome everybody to this
3:05great season of consecration. I love this church because you know what I feel from
3:10this church? A hunger. There's a hunger resident in this church that that is it
3:15has grown. It seems like every time of a month of consecration, there are new
3:21there's a new grip we're getting. It's you know, have you ever had shoes that
3:27slipped and then you finally put on some shoes that didn't slip? It's good
3:33when you get a good grip and I feel like that's happening in this church
3:38as we stack these seasons on top of each other Seasons of I'm never happy
3:44with how much harvest we get I just admit that okay I did I say
3:49that out loud just now I'm never happy with how much harvest I get but
3:55it's back to the fact that Enough is never enough is it but I think
4:01the Lord gave us a permission to always strive for more. But one
4:06thing I can do, I can't create the harvest, but I can
4:12plant the seed. I can go and consecration is that. But I'm
4:18about to throw you a curveball. I don't, Sean, brother executive pastor,
4:24I don't think they're ready for this curveball. I really don't think
4:29they're ready for it. This first week of fasting, you're not ready
4:35for this. I'm sorry, onliner, you may not be ready for this.
4:41Your first week of fasting. Now, we're... My grandson's ready
4:46for it. Bowdoin is ready for it. The first week of fasting is
4:52you have to not, you're still not ready. You're still not ready. Brother
4:58Garfinkel's sitting down on me. That's how much he's ready. It's already hitting.
5:04I'm going to let you all sit down. I let. You may be
5:10seated. I'm sorry, not let. I don't let you all do anything. You're
5:16all full-grown adults. Here's what the first week of fasting is going to
5:22be. It starts Sunday. You cannot speak negatively.
5:29You're gonna have to fast Negativity now y'all are
5:34gonna help each other because you're gonna forget you're
5:40on that fast. You're gonna have to write yourself
5:46notes You're gonna have to put reminders on your
5:52odometer in your car. I'm not eating the negative
5:58wives You notice this is a man of color.
6:04You didn't notice that that's Isaac. He made this
6:10slide me put himself in it I'm joking. I'm
6:15joking Austin designed it. Is that Isaac in it
6:21literally I That looks like Isaac. We knew the only way we could
6:27get Brother Isaac on his knees all year was right there. But this is for
6:33all you white folk too. Listen, the negativity. Shut it down. Put a cork in
6:38it. When you start, stop. Now some of y'all work in jobs. Every once in
6:44a while you have to make a bad report. So follow it up with a
6:49good report, okay? You're not ready for it. I'm telling you, I know you're not
6:54ready for it. But it's going to be a good one. It's going to be
7:00a powerful one. Sister Haiti you listening to me you don't have
7:06to be sweeter that honey bun of yours I'm picking on
7:11the women us men are angels in the Bible all the
7:17angels are men so so I Just got to stay in
7:23the Bible and how many of them fell from heaven brother
7:28listen I Married me some sauce folks. I married me some
7:34sauce. Let's go to the Word of the Lord Isn't it
7:39fun to have fun in church? Isn't it great to know
7:45that God's got it? Finally, my brethren,
7:51Ephesians 6, 10. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
7:56might. LXM, did you see me catch myself right then? Okay, I wanted to
8:02know if you saw me. Put on the whole armor of God that ye
8:08may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle
8:14not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
8:19the darkness of this world. against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
8:25you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
8:31evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about
8:37with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the
8:43preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
8:49shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
8:55That's it. That's where we're going to stop. A few things I want to
9:01state as we get into the shield of faith. First of all, we've got
9:07to recognize that the environment that we live in when we start living for
9:12God ceases to be a neutral environment. Brother Tom Trimble talked to us about
9:18how when you live for God, there is no neutral. Either you're making forward
9:24movement or your lack of action means you're moving back.
9:30If you're not actively pursuing something forward, there is no neutral. And
9:35the reason is, is because our environment is one that is made
9:41up of a great amount of erosion. The natural environments of nature
9:47is erosion. It is the state of being. Heat brings erosion. I
9:53don't want to get off into my straight A's in physics. It's
9:59not haughtiness, is it? Made C's in chemistry so that brought me right
10:05back down to earth But the environment that we live in is not neutral and
10:10so once you buy into the fact that I don't just fight when I go
10:16to church that when I'm going to work I've got to recognize I'm not walking
10:21into a neutral environment and when we do that then we ignore that we have
10:27an opposing force and That act as if there's no real content contests
10:32going on that there's no battle gear that is needed and our battle as
10:38we read is not against flesh and blood Paul tells us very plainly our
10:44battle it means we have one you don't get it when you're 18 and
10:49You do not lose it when you retire. I've seen some Pentecostals think that
10:55you can retire from active duty But there is no such thing as
11:01retiring. I've watched some people, both saints and preachers alike, who I do not
11:07respect. I'll just say it out loud. If they think that because I am
11:13retired from a position in this earth, that the battle has now ceased and
11:18the devil has seen my age and declared, you're now applied for Social Security.
11:24And since you now collect Medicare and Medicaid, that the battle is no longer
11:29going. I want to correct that thinking and adjust you in Jesus' name and
11:35tell you that the battle never ceases. Amen. That you've got to understand as
11:41long as you're breathing God's air, you have a foe that is working against
11:47you. And it is seen in our culture. There is a battle of racism
11:52and it's everywhere. It's not just in America. Racial wars. Prejudice is not of God.
11:58It's straight from hell. Prejudging another is straight from hell. The idea that one person
12:03is better than another person is straight from hell. You may have a better looking
12:09bank account than I do, and I'll acknowledge it's a better looking bank account. I'll
12:14trade mine for yours. But that does not mean you're a better person than me.
12:19I've seen some very wealthy people who are some of the greatest poor in spirit
12:25people you will have ever met. And I've seen some people that are broke busted
12:30all the time. They don't have any investment strategy. They don't understand the power of
12:36compounding money. They don't know how to save or to spend. And yet they are
12:41so full of haughtiness that I can't hardly stomach them because they believe when the
12:46Bible says blessed are the poor That means the people who are broke all the
12:51time. That is not what the Bible means It means poor in spirit so you
12:56could have just gotten ten trillion dollars given to you and you can stay poor
13:02in spirit and so this is why when I come to church, I want adjustments
13:07and Want adjustments they were telling us last night brother who was it telling us
13:13about that spine? Adjusting a place was that brothers act did we at home last
13:18night? We were talking about some spinal adjustment that sister that Nani might need who
13:23was telling us about that Was that it was that you Austin who know it
13:28was Tessa. I Tessa was telling us about her dad. Okay, her dad had a
13:34major back situation happened to her literally put him on his face and he they
13:40found him in the floor of the business that he owns Tessa's father owns a
13:45dealership for Triumph motorcycles and they walked in and he was on the ground just
13:51in pain and he started a new process of some kind of a hyperbolic chamber
13:57back Chiropractic adjustment and it was amazing for him because it really has set
14:03him back to where he feels normal again Well when I come to church,
14:09I need a Holy Ghost hyperbolic adjustment to my spiritual spine to where I
14:15can get healthy and active in the Holy Ghost and I'm still on the
14:20battlefield with my Lord I may not be healthy enough to jump three inches, but
14:26I'm on the battlefield with my Lord. I want the Lord to know I have
14:31taken on this battle. We've got to understand the battle is against
14:37our mind. It's against classism. It's a battle of religious Manipulation that can happen in
14:43every church group every church of every type of religious activity that's the reason there
14:48are such a obstinance to the word religion nowadays because some people get in it
14:54and all of a sudden they practice a type of class warfare because they know
15:00how to pray and They know how to read the Bible. None of that is
15:05becoming, and it's not the way we win. We win through humility. We win through
15:10being poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
15:14of heaven. When I pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as
15:19it is in heaven, I need to understand the only way that I can help
15:24apply kingdom of heaven living on this earth is if I understand what it means
15:29to be poor in spirit. The flaming arrows that the Lord talks about
15:34here, they include secular spirituality. What is secular spirituality? It's fleshly spirituality. You can play
15:40spiritual cards, but what it does is it makes your flesh feel a lot better
15:45in itself. I'm a little bit better than you now. Did you know that? If
15:50you didn't know that, I'm going to find a way to let you know that.
15:56That is secular spirituality. That's not biblical spirituality. That's the reason we have months of
16:01consecration. Lord, let me get in the mirror and see who I've become. Who am
16:06I becoming? And who am I aspiring to be more like? You know, everybody says,
16:11I want to be like Jesus. Well, have you ever seen him? No.
16:17I did a funeral today. I was at the funeral of the family that I
16:22was involved with last week and it was at St. David's and I sat in
16:27St. David's and I was admiring some of the structure in the work and they've
16:32got a depiction of the the Last Supper there upon the stained glass and as
16:37I was looking at that I thought that's not what Jesus looked like and
16:43I'm not sure what Jesus looked like, but he was very manly man. I'm just
16:49going to tell you that right now. He was a carpenter. He had wide shoulders.
16:54He had thick biceps. He was a powerful man. He's not any slight built man.
17:00A carpenter that didn't have power tools, okay? That means if you've done woodwork with
17:05no power tools, I promise you your shoulders and your arms are powerfully built.
17:12And listen, it was artistic. I was admiring the room at Coral backdrop I could
17:16tell you all about st. David's right now, but I don't need you to go
17:21there to find out how it looks All right, but my point is is that
17:26that we don't know what Jesus looked like So how am I gonna be more
17:31like Jesus? Paul said follow me as I follow Christ you need to find somebody
17:36that you think boy the way they carry themselves makes me think of the Lord
17:41and When I watch them worship, there's a freedom of spirit. There's an approach of
17:47gratitude. There's a praise that is constantly present. And I want to be like that
17:52person. So if you want to be like Jesus, find somebody that prays like you
17:57think Jesus would have prayed. Find somebody that had the joy of the Lord. Has
18:02it the way you think Jesus had the joy of the Lord. Find somebody that
18:07had compassion in the way...
18:13You can't have a church built out of people who refuse to
18:19grow up. People who will not mature. When convenience replaces commitment. When
18:25we outsource consecration and it's everybody else's turn to consecrate. But we
18:31excuse ourselves from practicing the discipline of personal consecration. That's immature. That's
18:37childish church. This church is not built on saints who just know
18:42slogans. But it is built on saints who are acquainted and embrace sacrifice.
18:48Our words matter. Our actions matter. Our worship matters. Our approach to prayer
18:54matters. Our approach to guests matters. Our approach to backsliders, as Mindy talked
18:59about just now, it matters. You see a backslider you used to be
19:05close to, it's hard not to personally think you've abandoned me. It's hard.
19:12But if you just treat them like I'm expecting you back Maybe even today
19:18and I know you're coming back whether you know it or not I know
19:24you're coming back. You know what that does to them that tells them there's
19:30hope in the house of God Immature Saints won't do that immature Saints act
19:36like they're God's policemen immature Saints think that God gave them handcuffs and
19:42I'm going to put handcuffs on you with my eyes. How dare
19:48you act and think the way you've been acting and thinking. No,
19:54when I see them, I'm saying just like the father of the
20:00prodigal, he saw him while he was a very hot, a very
20:06long way off. And he didn't wait to see what attitude he was coming home
20:11with he didn't wait to see if he had the right mindset He didn't
20:17wait to see if he was gonna come and clean his room like he
20:23used to know to do No, he saw him a long way off and
20:28that father started running. Ha ha running I know you're coming back to be
20:34back and that's the way mature Saints are commitments to they constrain us
20:40to readjust our thinking. We all need to readjust
20:45our thinking continually. I know you think that's not
20:51flesh anymore, but I shook your hand. It's still
20:56flesh. We've got to put out the bad and
21:02take out that which is good. If you have no
21:08knowledge, the enemies and the infiltrators of the church. And by the way, there are
21:13people in the church that Jude warned us about that have come in. The King
21:18James says unawares. They have come in. And what that means is you don't know
21:24who they are. I know you think you operate in the full gift of discernment.
21:29But Jude said, you don't know who they are. They came in unawares. So there's
21:35enemies and there's infiltrators that come into the church and they want the knowledge
21:40of who you are and what you are suppressed. They want to reconfigure who
21:46you think you are. They want to readjust what you know about yourself until
21:52you forget who you really are. And they can tell you now who you are
21:57now. And they can redefine what a child of God is supposed to act like.
22:03And redefine the attitudes that a child of God is supposed to have. And they
22:09get around you and gently and subtly and sneakily and snaky. They change with their
22:15slithering tongue, and that's the perfect metaphor, because the way they do it is with
22:20sly words of men's wisdom. They readjust how you think the church ought to be.
22:25And if you have no knowledge of your own history, you will have no way
22:31to discern what is the truth and what is the lie. That's the reason every
22:36once in a while you need to go back and find out who we are.
22:42So you cannot be conned into believing something that you are not. When
22:48you were filled with the Holy Ghost, you got a part of a
22:53new tribe. You were brought into a new family. It wasn't a tradition.
22:59You're not put in a new fishbowl. You were born in the church
23:04of the living God, the fellowship of the redeemed, the people who have
23:10been blood, water baptized. And so here's what the Lord said. He said...
23:16that I want you to put on the whole armor of God.
23:22And what we're talking about tonight is the shield of faith. It's
23:28God's battle of unconventional warfare. And he talks about the whole armor.
23:34Now this is a different kind of armor. This is resurrection armor.
23:40It's Kevlar for the soul. Kevlar that enables you to move.
23:46It enables you to battle. It enables you to not be killed, but maybe survive
23:52a missile. If you treat Ephesians 6 as just the closing of the book and
23:57he's trying to rouse a people to their feet, then you miss the very edge
24:03that Paul is writing with. Paul is writing with an edge in this
24:09book. He's not just reminding people what they already believe. He's telling them
24:15how to keep standing when everything around them seems to be degrading. Spiritual
24:21living is degrading. Culture is degrading. The intellectual approach to faith is degrading.
24:27And the enemy wants you to be affected in your mind so you
24:33collapse and it makes it to where all the doctrine you want to
24:38believe is just the good looking doctrine. The socially acceptable doctrine. The doctrine
24:44that may not have what the Bible calls the offense of the cross.
24:50The offense of the cross. There's sometimes the preaching of the cross is
24:56going to offend you. And if you're not careful, you'll blame the preacher. You'll
25:02say, boy, if that preacher had any sense about him, he'd understand. He needed
25:07to phrase that a little differently. There is, and I will not excuse the
25:13ministry choosing to offend because they enjoy the moment of offending. No, that's
25:19not excusable. But there is a preaching that takes you back to an altar and
25:25takes you back to a cross and gets you dipped beneath a crimson stream of
25:31blood. I said it in a generation that doesn't want the blood of the Bible.
25:37I'm going to tell you to thank God for the blood that washes white as
25:43snow. So we have taught about truth
25:49must be the protection of our core we've talked about having a breastplate that's uncommon
25:54and uncomfortable and it's cumbersome of Sorts and I put on my bulletproof vest and
26:00showed you that I talked about having peace as your mobility that when you
26:06put your shoes on it means you're going somewhere and the night Paul says
26:12when you put on your whole armor that the pieces are not modular accessories
26:17picked according to fashion decisions but they're facets of a coherent way of
26:23life personal protection has always been a beaut brutal equation if
26:29I'm gonna be properly protected then I've got to make an
26:35understanding of what survivability I have but also have mobility The
26:41way I'm going to live is not just by building a wall of steel around
26:46me because I've got to have mobility as well as survivability. And that's the reason
26:52Paul said these pieces, they're not optional. They're not always fashionable. But the one thing
26:58that I want to tell you, you've heard about the girdle of truth. You've heard
27:03about the breastplate of righteousness. You've heard about the shoes of peace. But above all,
27:16Above all, above all, take the shield of faith. Now, I did a
27:22series a few months ago called Faith Defined, and I called it Faith
27:28is Faithfulness. And I want to redefine that to you again tonight, because
27:34the culture that we live in has amused itself to death. And
27:39it has reduced spiritual warfare to casual doctrines that are comfortable for the
27:45ears to hear. The Bible said there will be a generation that will
27:51have, the King James calls it, itching ears. It just means they want
27:57to hear sweet platitudes of digestible doctrines. their digestive system is so tender
28:02that they can't have meat the Bible said there are some that are babes and
28:08they have milk but then he said but strong meat are are for those that
28:14are men and it's referring to mature people and here's the problem when
28:19all the church is made up of is childishness and small ideas that
28:25are easily offended then church is not the church of the living God
28:31When all they want are casual doctrines that are pluck as you choose. It's as
28:37if they go through a cafeteria line to take what they want to eat and
28:43leave the rest. And church is known as evangelistic entertainment. What they're essentially doing is
28:48they're dropping the shield of faithfulness. Now, I know they say
28:54it says shield of faith, but I taught, and I'm going to say
29:00it again, that the shield is an action. It is not a theory.
29:06And I taught you, and I'm telling you again, when faith was taught
29:11in the Bible times, it was taught with the Hebrew interpretation of faith.
29:17And faith in the Hebraic understanding is action of thought. I believe something
29:23and I act on it. You don't know it by theory, but
29:28when the Grecian and the Greco-Roman training and ideals came into it
29:34and began to pepper the thought of Christianity, it became a philosophy
29:40where faith began to drift and seep towards just the idea of
29:46interior ascent. It's just mental, yes. It's toward a model of a philosopher contemplating and
29:51settling on an ideal of an eternal truth. And in the Greco-Roman framework, it is
29:57mainly that faith is a way of thinking. It's not an action of doing. And
30:03that's the reason they think, well, what is your faith? And you think, well, I've
30:08got positive thoughts about God, so I have faith. That's the spoiling and
30:14the seepage of the sewer of a Grecian mindset of what faith was Hebrew
30:20faith and first church faith was never a faith that was just sitting around
30:26and thinking it was always a Movement it was a movement and when the
30:32Bible spoke of doubt it wasn't an internal debate Doubt was stopping between two
30:37opinions doubt was what stopped you calm down Elms. I Doubt
30:43was what stopped you from believing and acting on the fact that God said he
30:49was on your side. It was breaking covenant because you weren't sure of the covenant.
30:54And so it would break away from God who has walked into history for you
30:59because you're not certain that God understands where you live. Faith cannot be
31:05that thin Greco-Roman notion of merely thinking positively about God. It's what
31:11some people think of as optimism. This shield is not optimism. Well,
31:16you must not have a lot of optimism. You need to put
31:22up your shield of faith. No, the shield of faith is acting
31:28like God said he's on your side. Faith is not thin. Faith
31:33is strong. But the thing about this shield is that it's standing with God,
31:39in God, for God, over a period of time. I don't know which way I'm
31:44going to go, but I know I'm going with God. I'm not sure where my
31:49help is, but I know my help is in the name of the Lord. I
31:55know that trouble's all around, but the name of the Lord is a strong tower
32:00and the righteous run into it and they are safe. So watch me get in
32:05my safety zone. Watch me shout when all the reports are
32:11bad because you can't steal my shout by throwing doubt at me and now I'm
32:16supposed to stop and be caught between is he for me or is he not
32:21for me? Is he for me or is he not for me? The minute I
32:26start dancing The minute I spend ever a message to every demon in hell
32:32God's for me God's for me You've been telling me all week that
32:38he's not for me But my praise is reminding you that I know
32:43if God be for me who can be against me Oh, yes, he's
32:49for me. That's the reason I sing I sing I Don't always sing
32:55because I'm happy I I like that song. I sing because
33:01I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. Those are two good words,
33:06but I don't always sing because I'm happy. Sometimes I'm in the
33:12middle of the soul's valley, but you're going to find me singing
33:18because doubt says, are you sure he's with you? My song says,
33:24I know he's with me. That's putting on a shield of faithfulness.
33:30When Paul says, do it above all, He means above all.
33:36He's not neglecting truth as your core. He's not neglecting the uncommon
33:41breastplate of your pursuit of righteousness. He's saying without this lived action,
33:47the rest of the armor collapses into a costume. The pieces hang
33:53on you, but they do not hold you. That shield is the only
33:58thing that can be turned on every direction from wherever the missiles of hell come
34:04from. You can't turn your breastplate. It's affixed to you. You can't turn your girdle
34:10because it's got your core covered. But there's a lot of cracks in that. But
34:16I don't know what angle the missile's coming from. But my faithfulness. I said
34:22my faithfulness moves me to a place where wherever he's
34:28coming from, I've got a block for that. So I've
34:34got to close. Number one, Roman shields were designed to
34:39interlock. When you study the shields that the Lord was
34:45referencing through Paul, This is not an accurate depiction, and I told Brother Andrew, who's
34:50providing, God bless, I'll give him some extra credit. He's providing all of my materials
34:55for this series, and this is amazing. But this is not an accurate depiction. It's
35:00right because it's it was made like this. They were made with like plywood glued
35:05together They took several thin pieces of wood and glued them together and that was
35:09the shield It was the lightest they could do it But then on top of
35:14that they would cover it with the felt of sorts and over the felt they
35:19would cover it with a Deer skin or a leather that was literally empowered to
35:24extinguish the enemy. Many times when they say fiery darts, they would dip them in
35:29a tar pitch or dip them in an oil and light them on fire before
35:34they shot them at you in that day. And so the Romans had constructed their
35:39shield. It was to a two point five, two and a half feet wide and
35:44about four feet tall. So I got about the height about right. But the width
35:49is it's four and a half tall. OK, so it's close. But it's not all
35:54the way right, but I appreciate it and I thank the Lord for it But
35:59I'm telling you that shield was meant it sort of had a curve in it
36:04and they would lock them together and They would work there was a literal name
36:09they called for that grouping of the gathering of soldiers when they would interlock They
36:15would lock themselves together and it was like a wall of protection that they could
36:20lift high and hold and duck under like a roof or they could move forward.
36:25It didn't stop them from moving, but it was the literal thing. And Paul is
36:30writing this while chained to a Praetorian guard and and the Praetorian guard had the
36:35shield with him. So he can sit there while he's writing and observe this shield,
36:41and he says, I see how that thing can involve others in its making. This
36:46shield is not made for mavericks. It's not made for lone wolves. It's not made
36:52for people who are always on their own all the time. The body, the Bible
36:58says, the church is a body fitly joined together. Say the word together.
37:03Say it again together. That is the way God wants this. Nobody stands alone
37:09in the church of the living God. The shields were intended to overlap. When I
37:15see your faithfulness and you see my faithfulness and I come to church and see
37:20that one over there's faithfulness and I see how that one's transmission just went bad
37:26and they're still being faithful and this one over here had a bad circumstance and
37:31they're still being faithful. I overlap my shield and you bless me and it might
37:37be that I bless you and we stand together. It's not
37:43about the heroism of an isolated warrior. There's no superstars in this kingdom. I'm always
37:48not drawn. That's a way to say it. I'm always not drawn to those who
37:54act like they've got a super spirituality. No, we're in this thing together. Sometimes I'm
38:00a little higher and sometimes you're a little higher. But none of us are going
38:05to say I'm higher. I mean, there will be some that do that. But that's
38:11not going to ever have a place in this house. Because in this house,
38:17we're all needing Jesus. And so it's the bit fitting together. Paul said, above all,
38:22take the shield of faith. In other words, above all, anticipate you're going to need
38:28one another. Above all, I know you've got the core of truth and the uncommon
38:34righteousness over your heart and peace on your feet. But above all, make sure you
38:40get faithfulness. Sometimes your faithfulness will take you through your deepest doubt. just wake up
38:46and you don't even feel like saying hallelujah but faith faithfulness demands that you cannot
38:50be silent and so instead of sitting there you stand up and your faithfulness says
38:55hallelujah sometimes you don't feel like going to church but you know what faithless demands
39:01it demands that I get there and I show up and on the inside I'm
39:06tore up on the inside I've broken up on the inside I'm busted up but
39:11my faithfulness got me to the house of God and when I got there I
39:16found The manna was sitting in that place for me. And there was
39:22a chalice of Holy Ghost wine that was there for me to drink
39:28of the cup of the Lord. The Bible said, above all, the shield
39:34of faith. The flaming arrows of the evil one. Sister Elms, come, I'm
39:40closing. They're not just temptations. They're also accusations. And we never share the
39:46accusations we hear in our head with others. We don't. And I don't
39:52want you to. Please don't do it. You know, the
39:58Bible, some people say confess your sins. The Bible says confess your
40:03sins one to another. There's some folks you do not need to
40:09confess your sins to. You need to be very wise who you
40:15go confessing to. Don't run around. And then when you confess, I
40:20want you to ask yourself who's getting the glory. If you grew
40:26up in the church, you've been in some testimony services. Now, if
40:32you've been here and I'm leading the testimony service, You seasoned saints
40:38know what I'm about to say. I can interject and turn that
40:43thing. I'm not going to let it go on. I'll stop it.
40:49If it starts going that way, I say, well, good old devil,
40:54we're going to beat him though, aren't we? If you come to
41:00my testimony service. Why? Because I've seen him. Man, the sin is
41:05more glorious that by the time they're done describing their fall, the
41:11devil's got all kinds of glory. Falls aren't special.
41:17I mean, you meet somebody that fall, they act like,
41:22oh, you just don't know. Yeah, that temptation was so
41:28strong. You should have seen what I put up with
41:33before I fell. One of my favorite messages I've preached
41:38all around the country when I was getting it. It's
41:44called, Tell Hell I'm Getting Back Up. One of the
41:49favorite illustrations that always blessed wherever I was preaching. In
41:55fact, I know of a preacher in Texas. who
42:01preached it to his church and he preached it almost exactly
42:07like I preached it. And even the last illustration. But that's
42:12at least when I saw him at conference, he said, I
42:18preached your message. I thought, that's a good message, but every
42:24point. But at the end, I have the devil, the accuser
42:29of the brethren, walking up to God and saying, look at
42:35him. Look how he fell. So I play that out
42:41a little bit and then the devil spins around to walk out
42:47of the presence of the Lord in my Scenario and the Lord
42:52reaches out and grabs him by his collar said come back here.
42:58You can't leave just yet sit down I have the devil having
43:03God make him sit there while he watches his child get back
43:09up and I have the longest and illustration of getting
43:15up that anybody could do. I take probably three minutes getting
43:20back up. And every time the devil's wanting to look away,
43:26wanting to look away. But I just keep getting up. And
43:31the more I did it, the more the audience. Man, it's
43:37an awesome message. And I finally stand back up. And then
43:42the Lord said, did you see that? Tell hell I'm getting
43:48back up. Forget how long the fall was. Have you seen
43:54God's people get back? What is that? That's choosing to get
44:00a shield faithfulness again. We're not talking about, oh yeah, I had a good praying
44:05through. No, that's good, but that's theoretical. What are you going to do with it
44:10now? I'm going to go and change what I'm listening to, change my podcast, change
44:15my websites. I'm going to go clean out the glove compartment of my car. I'm
44:20going to clean out, and you know all the rest of the stuff you can
44:25clean out. Too much preaching has neglected endurance training. They've only taught
44:31light workouts to their church. When I'm telling you what,
44:37the Lord wants us to understand, ye shall reap if
44:43you faint not. That's the reason preaching like I preach
44:49Sunday. Stay with me. That's what the Lord said. He
44:55appealed to his disciples, stay with me. Stay, stay. Faithfulness
45:01is not a warm feeling attached to doctrine. Faithfulness is
45:06not an emotional intensity. People mistake momentary fervor covenant
45:12loyalty and when the missiles come and illness comes and betrayal
45:18happen and cultural hostility Surround you it doesn't mean God has
45:23left you stay Don't confuse the shield with the breast with
45:29the breastplate with the shield don't confuse it There are two
45:35different parts the breastplate is saying God what you do matters
45:40to me. I It's uncomfortable. You don't always like putting it
45:46on. And the Bible says, put it on. That's your righteousness. The
45:52shield is his righteousness. Faithfulness to his righteousness. I'm not saying my
45:57righteousness will save me from anything. It won't. But it's a gesture
46:03that I need his righteousness. Antinomianism is a big theological word that
46:09means lawlessness. Lawlessness. And it means I want to serve God,
46:14but I don't have any laws that I have to abide by.
46:20I'm not bound to consecration. And some people confuse the shield on
46:26the other side with God's done it all, so I don't have
46:32to do anything. I got his shield. No, you need both your
46:38pursuit and his promise. Faithfulness then is not perfection. Faithfulness is not
46:44presumption. Faithfulness is stubborn. I said it right.
46:50You know that song that some people don't like
46:55us to sing. I have decided no turn. I'm
47:01talking about stubborn steadfastness. You're not going to turn
47:07me around. I'm sick, but I'm not about to
47:13quit. I had a situation happen that I don't
47:19want to tell anybody about. I'm not about to
47:25quit. Holy stubbornness. That's the way I want to
47:30call it. Holy shall we stand because we have
47:36an enemy. The Bible calls him a serpent.
47:42You know, you can cut the head off a rattlesnake, and that
47:47rattlesnake head will still bite you. I had a family reunion in
47:53Texas, and we were all out there in Claude, Texas. My kids,
47:59my wife, we were all there. Man, it was hot. It felt
48:04like a hot air dryer was blowing all the time. The wind
48:10was so terrible, we could not grill outside. And that's bad. When
48:16you can't grill outside, it's just terrible.
48:21There was stairs right out of the kitchen my cousin the one we interviewed for
48:26deep owned this ranch It had a barn just for our eating it had a
48:31soda machine in the barn Obviously, you know, he's blessed because I told you about
48:36it by the way Some of y'all are gonna be blessed like that, too We
48:40got multi multi millionaires that are sitting in this house right now. You just haven't
48:45seen it yet, but don't doubt be faithful So he's one of those
48:51he's multi multi-millionaire and he put he thought a soda machine ought to be in
48:56my bar I like a man. I used to dream that in heaven I'm gonna
49:01have knee-high orange coming down a tube in my bed and chocolate milk coming down
49:06another tube like you go to oil get your Jiffy lube and they bring down
49:11that oil put it in I was gonna have chocolate milk root beer Dr. Pepper
49:16knee-high orange new grape cheer wine
49:24Walking out of the stairs in the kitchen
49:30was a rattlesnake right on the ground. And
49:35that woman that's sitting right over here went
49:41and got a shovel. That woman right there
49:47was a murderer. Don't play. Don't play. You
49:52animal lovers, you need to deal with her
49:58at the church. She took that shovel with
50:04her own bare hands and decapitated that rattlesnake.
50:10But she wasn't done. She proceeded to reach
50:15down and grab tail of that snake, not the head. And
50:21she held that. We've got a picture of her holding that
50:26rattlesnake. And it's still moving. It's still moving. Y'all don't know
50:32the danger I'm married to. I'm afraid to go home tonight.
50:38I'm afraid to go home tonight. We have a foe that
50:43the Bible says is a snake. And even if you think
50:49God decapitated him at the cross... He is still dangerous. And
50:55the way you're going to defeat him, the fiery missiles, is
51:00by the shield of faithfulness. The battle's not over. I know
51:06we sing when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown.
51:12But the battle's not over. I need a church that is
51:17seeking to be more faithful, more faithful, more faithful. We've
51:23got some people in this church right now that come both to the Spanish church
51:29and the English church. Sister Vicki, sitting back there quiet. Sister Vidalia, the sweet onion
51:34of the cathedral. Listen, she tries to be out of the limelight. She doesn't want
51:40any attention. But she comes to both the English church and I watched her Sunday.
51:45I watched Sunday. In fact, I let her know and she started worshiping a little
51:50extra when she found out I was watching. No, I don't know if she even
51:55saw that. Did you see my text, Sister Vicki? Be honest, the Lord's listening. Did
52:00you see my text? And later that night, well, I was watching Sunday and my
52:05heart just glowed for the people that come to both the Spanish and the English
52:10church because the Spanish church is a Stab into a community that we've got this
52:15building and I want to reach it. We've already done it once This is our
52:19second time and we may do it 20 more times I don't know but there's
52:24some of you that your faithfulness is amazing some of you band members You never
52:28whine and you come to long practices and this church don't know how often you're
52:33here some of you prayer warriors that never miss a Saturday morning extra prayer and
52:37it's a pretty exclusive group because I walk in on that exclusive group and I
52:43mean it's open for everybody but you know for some reason
52:49those announcements don't get in there. But I'm telling you that
52:54faithfulness matters. It matters. It matters. Saying to people that aren't
53:00like you, it matters. Being kind to that mean person at
53:06work, it matters. It matters because we're the voice of the
53:11Lord and faithfulness fights off the missiles. Master, this is your
53:17people. This is your house. We want to know you more. We've got
53:23to have you. We want to be more like you. I'm opening this front. Why
53:28don't we just all gather around here as it is a custom of ours to
53:33let the word settle into our spirits with some seasoning. Come and pray a responsible
53:38prayer. Come and pray a deep prayer. Come and look at yourself for just a
53:43moment in prayer and say, Lord, what is it about this word that I've got
53:48to get more of? What faithfulness has been slipping in me? What faithfulness?
53:54Faithful to meet guests. Faithful to welcome the backslider. Faithful to love that
54:00one that doesn't necessarily like me. Faithful to be kind at work. Where
54:06do I need it?