Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. the founder and perfecter of our faith. Flaming arrows of doubt sometimes come our way, challenging our faith, making us question if God is truly good. Today, why we need the shield of faith to deflect these arrows, and how we're to use this piece of spiritual armor. Stay with us.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, a lot of people wonder why God allows circumstances that make our doubts seem justified. Dave, you know, even as you were asking this question, my mind went to the book of Peter, chapter 1. where he says, The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and the honour and the glory of God.
The simple fact is this God accepts honest doubters. and those doubts oftentimes lead us to a sense of certainty Doubt, of course, can be debilitating, but it can also be a step of growth if we go in the right direction. I've written a book entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit, and I want to introduce this book to you. because for a gift of any amount it can be yours. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com. or call us at 1-888. 218. 9d337. At the end of this message, I'll be giving you that contact info again.
For now, Let us listen. I've talked to people who've tried to commit suicide. And they may cut themselves, or they may actually follow through and take pills. and try to die. Why?
Satan says, Oh, you really see yourself as damaged goods, don't you? You really see yourself as worthless. Nobody wants you. And because nobody wants you, look at the mess you've made, people have turned against you, God is against you. and you believe his lie.
And you follow through when that flaming missile comes, that strong temptation, that burning desire to get out of life. at thinking that something may be better on the other side. The list is long of the things that He will use in our lives to fight against us. You know, I'm told that out in the wild, bull moose will fight over a herd. And once they win the battle, They never fight again.
The loser simply submits. It's a major contest. And if The loser loses as losers do. He's finished. That's what Satan wants.
You've fought that problem long enough, and look at that. God hasn't helped you, you've prayed about it. Give up. I am going to control your life at this point. Don't fight.
anymore. And that's what he does as his arrows of doubt His arrows of self-hatred. His arrows of unforgiveness. come against your soul. You see, that's why we need the shield of faith.
Because Satan says God can't help you, and even if he can, he doesn't care. Resign yourself to the fact that God is not on your side. You know What that does is it blots out God and His promises. Isn't it amazing that you could take a coin, maybe a dime or a quarter, and you could hold it up to your eye? and it blots out the entire light of the sun.
Satan says, I want to give you enough arrows to blot out God's promises, to disbelieve Him, and to give you credible reasons why you should not trust Him. And when he does that, the shield of faith. has fallen.
So, the next question we have to answer, obviously, is: how do we take it up? You'll notice that the Bible says here in verse 16. Take up. The shield of faith. Take it up.
How do you Pick it up. And the reason that I think it is so important for us to understand, number one, We need the help of others to do it. Remember I told you about those Roman shields? They were all hooked together. They were linked together.
And there were times when one soldier couldn't go up against the enemy, but unitedly. They could. There are some of you here with huge problems personally. Huge problems and you can't pick up the shield probably. on your own.
Because here's what happens when you drop the shield of faith. Let me tell you what else you immediately drop. You immediately drop all hope. And once hope is gone, there's very little left, isn't there? Once you give up hope, That is really a bad way to go.
Instead of love in your heart, there is now cynicism. Cynicism against God and cynicism against others, and so. you become very cynical because the shield has been dropped into the dust. What you find is that instead of peace in your heart, As we mentioned last week, Instead of that, what do you have? You have fear.
You have huge bolts of fear going through your body. And you cannot anticipate the future. You can't even give your future to God because you don't trust Him. The shield of faith. has fallen.
You know, we need the help of others. And that's why we have here at the Moody Church what we call the TMC communities, the Moody Church communities. You should join a small group, whether it's a community or whether it's our small group ministry. Don't think that you can manage on your own. Even if you're doing well in the Christian life, we just cannot do it.
without one another. One day, Over in Colorado, I was doing a series of seminars, and someone else was doing seminars as well. He was a man who was giving seminars on how men. could overcome pornography. He had had that problem in his own life and God taught him some things and so he was sharing it with others.
I didn't have a chance to attend his seminars, but I did have lunch with him because I said, you know, I can't go to your seminars, but give me just the bottom line. I was expecting him to say something like, well, You know, there's this truth in the book of Romans that really is the answer, or some verse. that others had overlooked. He surprised me. He said the healthiest way to overcome pornography is through a series of friendships.
Friendships that are open and honest. and healthy. And he says, that's the way in which. A relationship is established with other men where there can be honesty, where there can be prayer for one another. He said, That's the way to do it.
And I thought to myself, that's very interesting. It's just like God to make sure that we can't live the Christian life alone. Because he wants us to be connected. I'm so glad for the announcement that was given regarding our men's ministry, how desperately we need that as men. And you see, what happens is we always drop the shield when we're alone.
Isn't that true? Isn't it being alone, that you drift off. Into these huge problems, and you live there, and you disconnect yourself from others, and you disconnect yourself from Talking to others, and shame oftentimes drives people there. And we have to create an atmosphere where shame does not hold people bound. Because Jesus, the Bible says, on the cross, he despised the shame.
He overcame the shame.
So in all honesty, in all openness, in all recognition that as fallen human beings, we all have problems and we all have struggles and temptations, we need to, in this church, create an atmosphere where it's okay to say that I struggle. And we need to struggle. Together. holding up one another's shields of faith. By which we will be able to prove that Satan's arrows are nothing but smoldering lies.
We need to do that. Together. So, first of all, we need one another. Let me give you a second truth that is very important. We need to review what God has said.
The Bible says that faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the word of God. You say to yourself, well, I don't have much faith. You know, my shield has been thrown in the dust long ago. Long ago, I've given up on prayer, I've given up on God, I've been so disappointed in the fact that He hasn't answered my prayers.
He hasn't come through. I prayed that he'd heal somebody, and he didn't heal somebody that I was praying for. And so I'm kind of on furlough. Like one man told me on the plane, he said, I'm on furlough. of living the Christian life.
The shield of faith. is in the dust. What we need to do is to renew ourselves in the promises of God. Every single day we read the Bible and we do not put it down. Until We have found something.
Until we have found something that we can take with us throughout the day. This past week I was reading 1 Corinthians, and every day as I read a chapter, I didn't put my Bible down until I said, Now, what is the truth that I'm going to take with me? a promise that can be believed, a prayer that I can pray. A truth that should transform me today. And so, what we do is we build the word of God into our lives.
And we recognize that the more we learn, the more we know, the more scriptures we memorize, the more faith is built into our lives. And then we begin to realize. That all around us we may look, and there's no evidence of God's care. It was C.S. Lewis.
Who said this? Faith, you know, is very precious to God, by the way. Without faith we can't please God. The Bible says in 1 Peter, in fact, that it is our faith. That is to the honor and the glory of God at His appearing.
I personally want to have something for the honor and the glory of Jesus at His appearing, and I pray that I'll have some faith.
Now, He gives us the faith through His Word, so it's actually all of God. But, see, as Lewis said. There is no faith that so honors God. And I'm paraphrasing. There's no faith that so honors God than the person who looks around and sees no reason to believe in God's care.
Sees no reason to trust him. and yet goes on believing God's bare word. Anyway. The person who does that Has the shield of faith, and Satan sends those arrows. and they hit the shield.
and they fall to the ground.
Now So what we need is one another, we need to review what God has said, we need to uncover the lies. We have believed. In an ideal world, It would be wonderful if, after this message, I could give an invitation and ask people to come to a certain room and. Most of our rooms are all taken after this, and so I would like to Counsel you as a group, or if I were counseling you as an individual, we talk about the lies that you have believed. What is it that you have believed about God that is a lie?
What is it that you've believed about sin that is a lie? And some of you who are skirting all this, Would have to face it directly and to say, What is it that I have believed? that is not biblical. You have to identify those lies. In fact, the passage of scripture I might use if I were counseling a group, and sometimes I have about these matters, comes from the book of James, where James says in chapter 4, he says, humble yourselves in the mighty hand of God, before the mighty hand of God.
Humble yourselves, James says, and then he says, submit to God. He also says, Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your mind, you double-minded. We have to get rid of our double-mindedness. And it's in that context. that James says resist Resist.
The devil. And if you resist. He'll flee from you.
Now that does not mean he won't be back. Jesus proved that. Jesus used the word of God against the devil three times, and it says in the Gospel of Luke. Satan departed from him, waiting for a more opportune. time.
Don't ever think Don't ever think your battle will be over. Don't ever think you have outgrown spiritual warfare. My father was 100 years old. As you know, he's a lot older than that now. But he was 100 years old.
When Satan brought to his mind the sins of his youth, and he went to my mother who said, You know, Satan is just. assaulting me about my past sin. And my father was going to ask forgiveness for his sins, but my mother wisely said, No, you don't. This is not a time. This is not a time to ask for forgiveness for sins.
This is a time to praise God that your sins have been forgiven. I thought, how remarkable. that at the age of about a hundred, The devil should still assault my father, who lived a godly, righteous life. all of his days and still throw up those sins of his youth. I'll tell you.
The only time you're safe from the devil's assaults is when you pass from this life to the next. And you're in the presence of Jesus, then you can safely say, you know, the devil, the devil. He'll hassle you. Until you die.
So, what we need to do is to uncover the lies. And then, as James says, we have to resist. the devil.
Sometimes this can't be done just in a few moments. We're talking here. About some of you who need to go home and you need to spend time alone, maybe an hour, maybe an hour or two, and really wrestle this out with God. To be willing to face what you believed Your shield is in the dirt. You've asked other people to help you pick it up.
They're going to be praying for you, they're going to be encouraging you, and you are not going to give up. Until The devil must flee.
Somewhere. I came across this quote from a missionary, I think in New Guinea. You know, when you work on the mission field, it must be very discouraging. And by the way, discouragement is always of the devil. Say, discouragement you begin to put down.
your shield. Because discouragement says, God isn't going to be there for me. He's not really believable anyway. And I'm just gonna have to make it somehow and he's not gonna be there. When I bungee jump, he's not going to catch me.
So this missionary Wrote these words. Man It's great to be in the thick of the fight, to draw the old devil's heaviest guns, to have him come at you with depression, discouragement, slander, and disease. He doesn't waste time on a lukewarm bunch. He hits good and hard when a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by the one that you get back.
When you are on your back with a fever and your last ounce of strength is gone, when some of your converts backslide. When you learn that your most promising inquirers are only fooling, When your mail gets held up, And some of your friends back home don't even bother to answer your letters. Is that a time to begin mourning? No. That's a time to pull out the stops and shout hallelujah.
The old fellow is getting it on the neck and he's getting it back now. Heaven is leaning over the battlements and watching, wondering if we will stick it out. When the angels who are with us. When they see our unlimited reserves, The boundless resources. the promises As they see the impossibility of failure, how disgusted and sad they must be.
When we run away, In defeat. Wow, isn't that great? There's a missionary who says, I'm going to go on believing those promises no matter what. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God, and those who come to God must believe that He is. that He rewards those who diligently seek Him out.
They're the ones who keep that shield of faith by being in the word, being in prayer, being with fellow believers.
So that they can detect Satan's lies and they can say with authority, Begone, Satan, for it is written. And they stand on the Word of God. and the trial of their faith. as I mentioned, being much more precious than gold that perishes. though it be tried with fire.
Might be found unto praise and honor and glory. at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Fellow Christian. Pick. On up.
That Shield. And if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as Savior, I have to tell you that without Jesus, You don't have any armor. Without Jesus, there is no armor. The arrows just come and they fling through you, and all that you can do is to get on drugs or alcohol or something like that to deaden the pain. That's all you can do.
Trust Christ. who died for sinners, whose whose death on the cross was a victory over Satan. Take his side in the conflict because I can tell you. There's no doubt. as to who The winner is.
Let's bow together to pray. Our Father, we ask today for those who have given up hope. Along with the shield of fate went hope. And love And peace. We ask today, Father, that you might renew our faith in your promises.
Help us to pick up the shields of one another, to encourage, to strengthen, to be part of all that you plan to do here at the Moody Church. And we pray that our victory might be translated into the victory of others. As brothers and sisters in Christ, hold hands and say, let's together. Defeat the enemy. the powerful name of Jesus.
Now before I close this prayer, what is it that you need to say to God, my friend?
Some of you need to say, God, I'm going to deal with these issues. I'm going to listen to this message a second time. And I'm going to deal with these issues.
Some of you need to say, Lord, you need to save me.
Some of you need to say, Lord, who shall I go to who will help me? in the battle. What is it that you need to say to God? Father, hear the cry. Hear the cry of everyone who's praying to you right now.
Listen. We pray, O Father. and answer. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I'm sure that you understand that the battle is often intense. I've been in situations where people have struggled with demonic spirits. Situations in which we discover that Satan has won a victory. But thank God that above all that, is the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
And God uses these battles so that we might better depend upon Him that we will have the opportunity to prove that we do love him And so we continue on. in the future. I'm so glad for the many of you who support this ministry. You've heard me say this before, but because of people just like you. running to win us now in fifty different countries in seven different languages.
At the same time, we exist to make sure that you have resources that we believe will be of help. in your journey of life. I'm holding in my hands a book I've written entitled How to Break a stubborn habit. I wrote it because as I saw Christians struggling, oftentimes with the same kind of sins and setbacks, over and over again, I wanted to give a path forward. help them to see the future In a better light, and not spend all of their time analyzing their past.
Now for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-2018. Mm-hmm.
ninety three thirty seven.
Now I trust that as you're thinking about the weekend, that you will take time to go to church. Those of you who watch online, we do understand that, but there is no substitute for being together with the people of God. Take advantage of that. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.
Someone has said, What you think you are. we must protect our minds from the devil's attacks. And the helmet of salvation is what we need when doubts arise about our status as God's children.
Next time, how to use yet another piece of the armor of God. Thanks for listening. for Pastor Erwin Lutzer. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
