Read-along
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Hey. Good morning. Rock Point. Yes.
If if you're new around here, I'm Bill Bush. I'm the lead pastor at the church, if you've only been here a few weeks. So sorry to disappoint you. But, no, it's good to be back. We were on a tour, a group with
not only just going and seeing Greece and the by the footsteps of Paul, but also serving the people. We did some service projects while we're there. Tiring, but awesome awesome trip. But one of the the the one of the the
the things that was impressive about it was we got to see all these old the the cities that you know, these letters in the New Testament have names like Philippians. We went to Philippa. You know? Thessalonica, Corinth. But the coolest part was we got to go to Ephesus.
And that's in Turkey. I get it. One of our stops on the boat was we stopped in Turkey and went to Ephesus. And it was kinda cool to be able to be in the ancient city that's been excavated in the time when Paul would have been writing this this letter.
But I gotta tell you, when when you first go to a lot of these cities, I it's the same in Israel. There's a lot of ancient Roman cities. And the one problem is when you start seeing them all, they blur together because the Romans were like the original franchisers. They franchised cities.
They liked the way they lay out a city. So if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. And it starts to get a little bit weird. But I gotta tell you, I for the first time in a long time, Ephesus was impressive because of the enormity of it. It's unbelievable how much of it they have, and they've only excavated
15%
of it. And and it has two amphitheaters, this giant gym, like all this space. It's it's a crazy place. And just like back then, it's filled with, you know, these temples to all these different gods. It's religion is all about all these different idols and very basically find your truth kind of a deal. Matter of fact, there's still some religious practice being done by by the the people that still live in ancient,
Ephesus. I got a picture of one of them right here. That I I dubbed it Catfucius meditating there by a tree because there's a lot of cats there. And but, you know, I don't think
his philosophy works because as he was meditating, a woman tried to touch him, and he attacked her. So he needed to go back to work on his philosophy a little bit better. But no. A couple pictures just to see a little bit of it. This next picture is, right there.
That that's me in front of that's the facade of what's left of the library. They were very learned. Big place of learning. But what's crazy is right across from that was where there was a brothel,
and they actually have a tunnel, like a little secret tunnel. So men would actually say to their wife, I'm going to the library, and they'd go across the street. So some things don't change.
And then the other one, took one picture of see, I I only have one facial expression for pictures because I don't know what to do with my face when I'm taking pictures. That's one of the amphitheaters. Now you don't understand, we're far enough away. I wanted so you could see it all. That held over 20,000 people.
That's the big one. Down the street a ways, there's a little one that held 3,500, three times this room. And so if you look around, Ephesus was the financial capital of the Roman Empire at the time. Massively wealthy, all about business.
It was highly political charge. They're always fighting about that. It was very intellectual about finding truth and discovering stuff. There's obviously,
you know, sexual things going on. Matter of fact, one of their largest temples was to Diana, fertility goddess, where the way you worship was you you paid the tithe, basically, and you slept with a prostitute. So a lot of, it's all about sex and partying and all that. They had a gigantic gymnasium.
They had two amphitheaters. They're about entertainment, about sports, about money, about sex, about politics. And doesn't it make you thankful that we have evolved way past all of that?
In other words, when you walk around, that city would have been it was impressive in ruins. We think of old time, it's like whatever. That would have been a way more impressive the street to walk down than like Downtown Gilbert.
It it it is. And then what you what I realized while you're there is as we're reading and going through this letter of Ephesians, Paul is writing to a group of Christians that are facing the same things we deal with today. It hasn't changed.
And as we looked at this book all the way through, it starts with the most important thing is do you know who Jesus is? And if you know him, do you understand that that's where your identity is found?
That's who you are. It's not found in the entertainment. It's not found in your job. It's not found in the money. It's not found in the sexuality. It's not found in all this other stuff. It's not found in these idols out there. It's who we are is found in who he is.
And then he when we moved into where he started applying that to relationships and we talked about that, and now he ends this with this idea because he's chained at the time when he's writing this to a Roman soldier. He uses his armor to explain the things that God has given us, to armor up, to be able to live
faithful to our identity in Christ in a world like that. And that's what we've been unpacking. And today, we're gonna look at two pieces of the armor, a shield and a helmet. And what we are gonna see the big idea of what Paul is really expressing
on how this is supposed to play out in our lives is simply this. I need to faith my feelings and focus my mind. I didn't lisp. I meant to say faith. Faith my feelings and focus my mind. And what it means is because we're gonna see the shield really is to protect
and and be able to fall follow God no matter what feels come. No matter what it's like. His feelings are real, but they're not always right. And a lot of us, we cannot be led around by feelings because that's what the enemy wants to do.
And then we also gotta focus our mind because that's the other place of attack. So what does that look like? What does that mean? First, let's read the couple verses that that mention this armor. It's in Ephesians six verse sixteen and seventeen. It says, in addition to all of these,
hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil and put on salvation as your helmet. And then finishes with, and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's next week. The last week of this, we're just gonna look at the the one offensive weapon we we have.
So it says, take up the shield of faith and put on this salvation as our helmet. In order to do what? It says, for the shield of faith, it says, to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. So first of all, what is the fiery arrows of the devil? The fiery arrows of the devil is back then, the shield would have been pretty big,
enough you could get your whole body behind it. They're made of wood, but then they'd be covered in leather. And then what they would do if you're going in a battle is you would soak it in water.
Because the enemies, when you to try to fight, if you're in the fixed position and someone's trying to attack you with their shields, the the number one weapon was you would take the bow, the arrows, you would dip them in pitch, light them on fire because then it's a double whammy. So they shoot you. If they didn't actually pierce you with the arrow,
your shield could catch on fire and burn and start a fire. Now you're you're you don't have the protection of the shield. So he's trying to say this is an attack, and it's meant to be a weapon to stop you from coming towards this fight.
And and so the fiery arrows, what did he mean by that when he says, because they're of the devil? And he says, don't be,
don't be clueless to his schemes. And we see all through scripture what that means. What are these fiery arrows that try to hit us in the chest and and attack our feelings and get us to drop our shield and to stay out of this fight? And and that is is is basically either to pierce or to burn us.
In other words, to either shift whatever it takes to shift our faith to someone or something other than Christ and our identity in him. That's what the fiery arrows are. Anything. Even a good thing. It could be a good thing. If you take a good thing and you you make that the focus,
you put your faith in that, you chase after that. That's what a fire arrow is. It's anything that'll make you shift that focus. And it's and that idea of protecting the the body and stuff is the enemy joint. Boom. Get your feelings to get adjust. Like, anything it takes to say, I can't believe God on this.
I have to have this. Or be hurt. Enough trouble or whatever that I'm not gonna trust God because of. Or I can't do that because I don't have you feeling that's what he's talking about. It's basically he'll use doubt, anxiety, open rebellion, troubles, anything are those fiery arrows.
And he's saying we need to hold up the shield. So what does that mean? It means we need to faith our feelings.
That's how. How do you use the shield? It's super practical. There's two things that means if you're gonna hold up the shield. And the first one is to act on and beyond my belief. Act on and beyond my belief. You'd notice it's called the shield of faith. Right? Not the shield of belief.
And that's where we get confused. We we we we get confused on what faith is. We think faith is a feeling. We think faith is a thing. We think faith is a thing that we have to have more of or less of. And then we try to say, I gotta put faith in my faith. That's not what it's saying. Faith is an action, not a feeling.
Faith is not a set of beliefs. You have belief. Faith is saying acting on the belief. So if I believe that God is my salvation, if I believe that Jesus died for me, if I believe he loves me, if I believe he has a great plan for my life, I can then step forward and act on that belief
by saying, I'm gonna trust him with my life and where he wants me to go. So faith is the actual action. It's not about amount. Because what faith is is an action based on a who, not a what and not an amount. It's basically an action based on what your faith and belief is.
So you don't need to have more faith. That's one of the fiery arrows. I don't have enough faith. It's not about having enough faith. It's about what you have your faith in.
If you believe in Jesus, if you put your faith in Jesus and choose to trust him, the shield of faith because the faith you held it up for a battle to walk forward, to not get hurt walking forward. So if you say, I believe in Jesus and faith, all you have to do is believe in Jesus. That's the faith.
And if you do, take a step. Act on that belief and beyond. Because sometimes if you only act on the things you are absolutely convinced you already know work, you know what that's called? Experience. And that's not called faith.
If you did something one time, oh, it works. I'll do that again. Well, look at my incredible faith. I did the obvious thing that I already know works. That's that's that's that's I I I have the shield of belief.
It's it's really the shield of faith is, okay. Well, now it says I need to I need to trust them here. I'm feeling this way, but God's word says this. I mean, I'm not sure. I'm scared to get that's why you gotta faith your feelings. When it's beyond your belief, beyond the experience,
you're gonna have feels about it. You're gonna feel worried. You're gonna feel scared. You're gonna feel nervous. Shield
of faith. It's that simple. That's what he's saying to do. So the question for us that if you know that you know Jesus, what is the step that you're afraid to take that you need to pick up the shield of faith? Because you know what the shield is? It's not a thing. It's a person. Jesus is the shield, and he's going this way,
and he's saying, stay behind me and walk with me.
Where is it? Now somebody's like, no. I'm doing those things. I am taking those steps, and I'm still taking on fire. I feel like I'm getting hit in the throat. I'm getting hit here. I'm getting hit. I feel like I'm taking on arrows. I'm getting depressed. I'm getting discouraged. I'm getting defeated.
What's going on? It could be because you're not doing the second part of this. The second part is not just act on and beyond your belief. The second part is act with others.
I wanna show you a picture. Jonesy already used it in his sermon a few weeks ago. It's a picture of how these shields are supposed to work. Jonesy stole my thunder, used it when he shouldn't have. He told me is like I mean, he goes, I'm just trying to help you preach shorter. He said, like, that'll work.
Anybody remember what he called this formation? Turtle. Comes from tortoise, the Latin for turtle.
And I think it's because some Roman general, like, they they would try to attack because the Romans were attacking. They were moving. They were taking ground. So when they came upon a fixed position, a city with a wall, the or or normal way, you run at the wall, you try to climb up, but you take a ladder. But, man, you take a lot of fire. You get a lot of arrows. And then if you get close enough, you get rocks to the head. And and some general was like, you know what? He was probably sitting there trying to figure this out and saw a turtle crawling along, which I literally saw a turtle at Ephesus. And and said, I got an idea.
And and basically, those shields are designed to lock together. They're meant to be used in unison to do this, to protect you from the above, from behind. Because here, some of you might be trying to hold your shield of faith and walk, but you're trying to be Rambo. You're doing it all by yourself.
If you're acting alone, you can you can block a lot of arrows with your shield of faith, but you are exposed on too many ways. You can handle some arrows coming straight at you. You will not live through a volley, and the enemy attacks with volleys. You know the movies like, they light it up. Hold. Hold. Release.
And then the sky gets dark, also you see people running around. I'm always amazed at how they have people just running the wrong direction. Like, you not ready? You knew what you were doing. Anyways, that's just one of my problems with movies.
That's what community is all about. Somebody said, I don't have time to get in community. So you have time to die on the battlefield of life over and over and over again? It's just why we encourage, find your turtle, man. We call it find your circle, although I think we should get shirts that say find your turtle,
and and and act together. They're meant to lock together. And here's what's interesting about this. We get this weird idea about a shield of faith and how they're supposed we wanna use it by ourself, and we think it's only for defense. It is to defend you as you're on offense.
That turtle formation was not meant to be like they didn't have where they had the fixed position. When you're sitting behind the walls in Rome, if someone attacked Rome, they the soldiers didn't sit there behind the wall go, Tortoise. You know what they did to is is Tortoise was, we're gonna go attack that.
We are meant to be on mission together.
The Tortoise position of locking shields together is to go win the war. It's not to circle the wagons to keep ourselves safe from the messed up world. Paul sent these people into a culture that was just as brutal, just as harsh, just as weird, just as hostile to them as today is. And he goes, this is the plan of attack.
It even says, we are on the offense. We'll see you next week because you get to the point that you need to have hand to hand combat, and you need to know how to use the Bible. Because the reality is it says in the Bible that he will build his church on himself, but we're his church. And he says, what's gonna happen?
The gates of hell will not prevail. Gates are walls. Gates are defensive. The arrows that are getting shot at us are coming from behind a gate because the enemy doesn't want us to crash that gate
and go actually trust God's plan for us and our mission for us to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. He wants us to think, oh, being a Christian is being a good little person and keeping my kids safe, having the right theological beliefs, having the right thoughts, having the right politics,
having the right this, and doing this and having a good life. That's not what we're called to be. We are called to lock shields and go win a war. And the truth is too many of us get stuck.
We don't wanna move forward. We can't move backwards. We just wanna stay where we're at, and you can't do that. You have to keep moving forward. The Roman armor is designed even the tortoises, it's designed to go forward, not backwards and not sit still. What about you? My dad learned this lesson in in in 1944
on the sands of Iwo Jima when he was 17 years old in World War two. When they took the beaches, the thing you had to do was not stay on the beach.
That's what he had to tell. He had to listen to his training. You had to just push forward. You can't stay on the beach. Because guess what? The enemy's already targeted. They knew you're coming. So they have their cannons. They have their mortars. They have their machine gun positions. Everything is fixed to hit the beach and the water where the ships are coming in. They are tiled in on that. That is a kill zone right there. What you're supposed to do is get off the beach as fast as you can. The best way to do it is lock arms. Not just go one guy at a time. One guy can't run-in there. I'll take the island. Follow me.
No. The whole forest lands, and you gotta get off that beach as fast as you can. And here's the problem. The way you gotta do that is the most counterintuitive thing in the world. You have to run at the thing that's trying to kill you, and that is the only way you live.
If you freeze up, you die. If you turn around and run back, you die. You still might get shot moving forward, but guess what? That's where victory lies,
and that's where life lies. When God is telling us to do this, guys, as a church, we are supposed to move forward. Too many of us wanna sit on the beach. We think it's a vacation. I'm gonna believe in Jesus and relax on the beach, and he
and guess what? That's what the Bible says in Proverbs when it says there's a way that seems right to man, but in the end, it leads to death. That's not a threat from God. That's a warning.
Because it makes sense to go, I don't have enough faith, or it doesn't make sense. Why can't I just stay here? I don't have the time. I have the money. I don't have this. I can't do what God wants me to do. I don't have time to connect. I can't he's saying I get it. From a human point of view, that makes sense.
But he's saying, you will die if you stay on that beach. That's what the shield of faith is for. It's meant to protect. It's meant to get behind it so we don't get led by our feelings, move forward, and better yet, lock shields in community so we can go forward to the victory that God has for us, the one he died to give us.
Where are you stuck? Where are you sitting on the beach at? Are you not connected? Because the next move is even more insidious. It's faith your feelings, but then focus your mind.
And I say focus your mind on what's already yours. That's what he's trying to say when he says put on salvation as your helmet. See, they had this big thick metal helmet,
and it was basically they knew that even with the shields at some point you get into a battle and it gets so close and pitched, you're gonna have to have your sword out. And they know that the easiest way to end a soldier's fight is to hit them in the head. Watch a boxing thing. Watch a kickball. Watch any kind of fight.
If someone lands a really good shot to the other person's head, the fight is usually over at that moment.
And and and that's what the enemy knows. It's like, hey. If I can't hit you with the arrows from afar and you start getting close, I'm gonna hit you in the head. I'm gonna get in your head. And and and and and really, it's it's get in your head.
Try to get into your thoughts and get you to think wrong and have the wrong perspective and and and and do that. And so this helmet was kinda like for us, it's like Magneto's helmet. It keeps doctor x out of your head.
And so and it was to protect the thoughts, protect the mind, to protect that. It's kinda like in in baseball, back when I invented the game with Abner Doubleday because I'm that old. What we realized is pitching is very mental.
And and because you're the nothing happens in the game until so it's kind of a weird game. You sit there at baseball, and you're the pitcher. I'm standing there, and nothing is happening until I do something. Everyone's staring at you. And and you start throwing a lot of balls. Your own team starts getting mad at you, and you know they're talking behind your back except for the catcher. He's the only one in front of you.
And so as as you're doing it, it's it's a really mental game. And so we knew when you're playing, if you can jack you know, talk smack and
you wanted to get in his kitchen is the term we used use. I don't know if that's still a term today. Is it? Anybody ever heard get in his kitchen? Alright. Still around there. And know what that meant is get him psyched out. Get him to be nonconfident.
Get him to be frustrated. Get him get anything to throw off his mental rhythm and get him doubting and and all that. And and while you say get in your kitchen, it means you wanna be in there hitting his pots and pans. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. And you could see him melt. You see him getting mad, looking down discouraged. And you're like, we're in his kitchen, baby. And then you knew you're gonna he's gonna get knocked out of the game. That's what Satan tries to do. He wants to get in your kitchen.
And guess what? If he gets in your kitchen, you're cooked. Yeah. We're done with the sermon. I'm out of here. Tweet that. And that's what it means to focus your mind. And why does he say home on a salvation? It's to focus your mind on what you already have. Salvation.
We think of, oh, so just go to the moment that Jesus died so I can go to heaven. No. Salvation is not just a moment. It's a mindset. It means I need to think from the perspective that God has saved me. He always saves me. The song we just sang, it's a mindset that said he's faithful then, he's faithful now.
It's why we need to know the word of God because you can go back and see the faithfulness of God to his people even when they're mess ups, which we relate to, all the way through time, and now it's us. And so we have to focus our mind, especially on who we are in Christ,
because the enemy will get in your kitchen and say, you don't have enough faith. Lie. Because now it's making about you.
You mess up too much or you don't really want that. You can't trust God on this because if you really, really, really wanna be happy, you need this, and God doesn't seem to be giving that to you. Therefore, you should listen to him. And that idiot up front preaching,
he just told you to trust God on that, and you know he's an idiot because he's telling you to do something that's impossible, so he must not like you either, and now he's trying to manipulate you. Those are the the things that get in our head, And and and we gotta go back to the truth.
We have to focus our mind and Kai. Because the what does our mind do? It guards our identity, our security, our eternity. How we think is where we go. It's interesting. You can't control feelings. It's like herding cats. It won't work. And and and and but you the bible does say in Corinthians, you can take a thought captive.
How? Because a thought is just a thought. Ignore the feelings. If you faith your feelings, you can look at this and go, what is truth? And if a thought starts to come to you, step back from that thought and say, what is lie about this? I'm being lied to. What does truth say? And you speak truth to a lie. This sounds ridiculous, but I'll get this is the one that gets me. I usually don't put down my shield of faith, but sometimes I will start having being a preacher up here, we have to build buildings, and we have to do something on I start to not get this wrong idea that it's it's on me to make this happen.
It's not on me. It's on you guys. So if it doesn't happen, I can just blame you. No. Just kidding. It's on the Lord. The Lord uses us, but I just need to share the message. But what happens is I start to feel this person. How the enemy gets, he goes, hey. He knows this guy. I'm holding up my shield of faith. I have enough experience. I believe God. I'll keep going. But my I leave my head exposed, and I start to feel this pressure, and it starts to weigh on me that, oh, this is on me, and then that changes the way I act.
It starts to affect me. How about you? How do you take a thought captive? I'll literally speak out loud truth to it. Go, you know what? That's just like that's ridiculous.
I go, this isn't on me. And I'll go, God, I'm being faithful what he asked you to do. So however you're gonna make this work, you're gonna make it work. Because I know I'm doing what you asked me to do, so I'm not gonna listen to this stupid lie and let it bother me anymore.
And sometimes, literally saying it out loud helps.
And if it doesn't, you still feel a certain way, you gotta go back to the truth of feelings are real, but they're not always right. We live in a culture that is convinces if you feel it, it must be true. If you feel it, you gotta act on it. And if you don't feel right about something, go do something that makes you feel good.
That's the quickest way to losing that's ever existed ever.
And so we need to get back to that. And how? And you know what? There's a bible verse that explains it very clearly. Romans twelve two. Throw it up here. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. In the Greek that uses the word don't be conformed, that Greek word for conform means a mold that you pour cement into. Don't get poured into a mold and dry into the shape of the world.
Don't act like the world acts. But how? Let God transform you into a new person. See, it's God that does it. But what do we need to do? By changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. What's interesting about this, he says, oh, then you'll know God's will, and you'll know it's good and pleasing. You know what it means by know? You'll know that because you'll do it. And when you do it, you'll experience it. So now it's not just faith anymore. It's belief because of experience.
And every time you do that, you grow because now you go further on just experience. I don't need faith to go there anymore. I've experienced it. I've gotten further along. It's almost like the more you do hard things, normal things become easy things.
And and and so but how do you do it? Let him change the way you think. That's the key. That mean that word says transformed. It it it's a word that means perspective. So the way we're supposed to change the way we think is not like, hey, I'm gonna learn new math or or whatever. It says
it's simply, I am gonna choose God's point of view. That's all it's saying. It says if you come to a scenario that scares you or confuse you, just choose to accept God's perspective on it. You faith your feelings. You need the shield of faith for that. You focus your mind. You let this take care of the feelings,
and I take God's point of view. And if you do that, you win. Plain and simple. Super practical. But that's why you gotta know God's word. How many of us are out there trying to figure out, I believe in Jesus. I have no understanding what that means for my life. And you're just guessing.
You know why we don't like to read the word? Because you're getting hit by the fiery arrow. I don't have time. It doesn't make sense. I'll just wait for Bill to explain it because he'll say stupid things and it's more fun. It's the enemy tricking you. So we need to take the shield, put on the helmet because
I said if he gets in your kitchen, then you're cooked. A more serious way to say that is if Satan can shape your thinking, he will shape your living. I said he can shape your living, but he will. And how many of us believe in Jesus but live like the world.
You're right where he wants you. And that's probably why you have anxiety. It's probably where the frustration comes from. It's probably when I say something that God wants us to do as a church in this direction, you get mad at me.
Because we're listening to the fears. We're listening to the lies.
In other words, faith stops the flaming arrows. Salvation, the helmet, stops the slow poison.
That's how we go on mission. That's how we live out God's will, and we start to see that it's perfect and pleasing.
You notice he didn't say it was easy. Easy isn't on that list. But in the end, he'd be like, that was worth it. That was worth it. Because in looking at this passage, in looking in ancient Ephesus, and looking at that, and looking at where we're at today, and reading the bible, God's people have always faced lies, fears,
and trials. But those who trusted the truth won every time. Every time. You know why? Because God is the God of always. He's always faithful. He's always love. He's always got grace. He's always true. He's always right. He's the God of always. So bottom line, you know what this is really telling us to do?
I have to say to God, since you are the God of all ways, I need to trust you in all of my ways. That's all he's asking. I am the God of all ways, so trust me with all your ways. He says, try that. Taste of me and see that I am not good.
And if you don't understand that it comes from love, if you don't understand that he loves you so much, if you don't, if you lose the battle of the mind of understanding who he really is, you're gonna be threatened by that. But you gotta see him clearly. You know, was reminded
yesterday. I got up and ate so much food in Greece. I'm like, dude, I gotta work out, but I have no energy. So I took pre workout, and the main ingredient of that is a heck a lot of caffeine.
So I took it to get all hyped up, and then I realized my daughter came over to drop our youngest grandson off so my wife could watch him because my older grandson
had his second year of a t ball game, and I forgot about that. So I was like, oh, I'm gonna go to his game. So I drove to his game all hopped up on pre workout. I would not recommend watching t ball
at all, but especially not hopped up on pre workout because I'm not a patient person and t ball to me is like my my doctor, it's the second year. You'd already played a game. They're so much better. I'm like, yeah. So much better.
I mean, my thing with t ball is is it's cute and all, but but they they look kids running around at t ball look like a video game that has lag in it.
You know how it's like they're one minute, they're like, they're nothing's happening and all of sudden they're like, they're over here. And then it's like they're supposed to throw this way and all of a sudden the ball goes
that way. You're like, I'm pushing the buttons, but it's not going where it says until three minutes later. And and I especially noticed that on on on all hopped on on pre workout. I'm like
and and as I'm watching it, that really has nothing to with my story. Actually, it does. As I'm watching, my my my son-in-law, David, his his father, who's our worship pastor, he was up here playing, and and and I watched him out there coaching with him, and he's so patient. And it reminded me of my dad,
which is weird. I tell you these stories. My dad and I used to coach baseball together, and and and I I realized I needed older kids, some that already knew what they're doing. I was terrible with newbies. And my dad, you know, war hero, professional athlete, missing an eye.
He could look at you and you get afraid if you wanted you to. Was the most patient, awesome coach with little kids,
and my son-in-law reminded me of him. Like, God, it reminds me of my dad. And I got thinking about how he coached me and what it was like with him coaching me growing up and how he was so patient. I'd describe the lag. He'd be like he was direct. He would say, hey. Here's how to do it right. He wanted me to do it right. He wanted me to win. He wanted, but he would guide. He would correct,
but he always had grace. I knew it was coming from a place of he loved me. He I never felt like I had to perform for him. I never felt like he was angry if I got it wrong. I he just I just always felt that way as I was watching. I was thinking about it, And and then I I realized that it wasn't even just about the times I was actually playing these coaching. We would learn together just like you're the focusing the mind. We would go to games and watch and and learn the sport together. We would we used to go to the Phoenix Giants games because we lived right near there, and and it was a triple a team for the San Francisco
Giants. And he would
buy the good seats right behind the dugout as a pitcher too. So we talk about what do you think this pitcher should throw? What would he we would talk about the truth and the principles of this game. And and and one game we went, and and we were gonna he couldn't get the seats behind the net, so we were right behind the dugout. And I'd always bring the glove he bought me because I really I love doing that, but I really wanted to catch a foul ball also.
So he goes, bring your glove and you got your he goes, keep that glove on today, and you're gonna have to keep your head in this game. Why? He goes, we're sitting right behind the dugout. There's no net. That you'll you'll probably get a chance for a foul ball. The problem is it's gonna come in the form of a line drive.
Like a flaming arrow right at your face. So you have got to pay attention if you want that foul ball and instead of a concussion. And and I'm like, alright. So we sit down, like, I'm so excited. I'm like
and the problem with baseball is it's a little bit slow of a game, especially for kids. And and and and and and I was, like, nine years old at this time. And so I really loved talking baseball and paying attention for about three innings.
The problem is the game's about six innings too long for me. So I did it. And then around the fourth inning, I'm starting to get distracted. I'm like
is that a bat? I dropped my glove. I'm looking at I'm just like, hey, son. Get your glove up. Hold your glove up and and and and get your head in the game. Oh, oh, yeah. Awesome. Is that gum on the ground? Get your glove on and get your he kept telling me, son, pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention.
One time I was like looking, I don't even remember looking at him like, I'm like, was that cotton candy? Can we get cotton candy? But he's like, sure. Get cotton candy, Laura, but pay attention. Get your glove back on. Why is it over there? You know? And it's like, oh.
And then I'm doing it, and then finally, get this one. I don't even remember what happened, but we're in a wedding. I'm just not even looking at all, gloves on the ground, not paying attention, and then crack.
And you know how something happens so fast? You just we have instincts, peripheral vision. Something's coming at me. I sense it. I sense a disturbance in the force, and it was coming at me with great force. And I kinda had just enough time to barely look, and I saw the blur of a baseball coming right on my head.
And I did what any kid would do when you ask them to clean their room. I closed my eyes and pretended like it wasn't there. And I just I actually closed my eyes and brace for impact because I have lag because I'm a kid. You know?
It's all I knew how to do. And right when I closed my eyes and waited to have my occipital lobe crushed, I heard the crunching sound of a ball smacking into bone and meat. Just The problem is I didn't feel anything. And then I heard cheering. And then I thought, maybe I'm dead.
And that's the throngs of heavenly witnesses saying congratulations. You live such a faithful life for your nine years. And then I opened my eyes, and I realized everyone was cheering for my dad because what was right in front of my face was his hand wrapped around that ball. He had reached out and grabbed that thing.
One eye and all too. How do you have the depth perception for that? He's like Yoda or something. But I could see it swelling already. He broke his hand catching that. And I thought, he pulled that ball in, and he started
could see him wincing as he was rubbing his hand. He had the ball, and he's just like, oh. And I went, oh, no. I didn't pay attention. I put my glove down. He's gonna be so mad. He just broke his hand, saving me. So I just quietly did what I thought I should I while he was rubbing his hand, I grabbed my glove, and I went,
Maybe he didn't notice. He looks at me. He bends down. He grabs the top of my glove, tilts it towards him, and I here it comes. He takes this ball. He looks at me in the face. He sets it in my glove, gives me the foul ball, closes my glove, looks me right in the eyes and says, Son, pay attention.
And then he called out to the cotton candy guy. Guys, when I think of what God is saying when he says, wear this armor, when I think of why he wants me to, when I think and read through the history of the Bible, when I read the scripture, when I pray to the God I know, when I look at what he means, I see my dad
Because that was my dad acting like Jesus is for us. He loves us. He says, put the glove of faith up to protect yourself. Wear the helmet of pay attention and and stay in the game because he does save us. He does do that. But guess what? He died to give us the power that we can do that too
using the power, the armor he gave us, and then we experience the victory. We get to see that we can trust God's love. We can see how much he loves us.
If you don't know how much he loves us and you're new here, do not leave without going to the prayer room and asking or go out to new here or start here. Ask the person that invited you.
Because you have to understand all of this goes back to that first lie. Do you understand God's love for you and what it means to know him? Because, yes, salvation. He went to the cross. He spread his arms out and he took those nails and he grabbed that ball for us. He grabbed the ball of death and said, not today
and not ever.
He was faithful then. He's faithful now. But salvation is a mindset, not a moment. God still grabs the ball from hitting us in the face. He is still faithful when we're not. We put down the shield. We we take the helmet off and we mess up, but he's still there. He's still saving. He's still rescuing. You don't even know it.
He's just saying pick it back up. Get in the game. That's where the win is.
That's where the love is. That's where I am is what he's saying. And it's okay to get back in the game. It's okay to not sit there and listen to the lies. And one of the best ways is to focus, to remember, to let God change the way you think, and to remember, he is the God of always.
The God of always. He was faithful then. He's faithful now. He has always taken taken imperfect broken people. And even though we weren't perfect, used us for great victories in great ways by just taking faith. Doesn't have to be our faith. It's not faith in us. It's just taking the faith in him in one moment, just stopping. In one moment, in the moment in front of you, just saying, I am going to trust you in this moment.
And God has given great victories. And if you don't believe me, let's look at what God's word says. The sword of the spirit from cover to cover. God has always been faithful. He always saves. Adam, hidden shame, but God still covered him. Noah looked crazy building a boat, but he believed the storm would come.
Abraham laughed at the promise, but trusted the impossible. Sarah doubted in her barrenness, but gave birth by faith. Jacob deceived and was deceived, but it was renamed by grace. Joseph was betrayed and forgotten, but clung to God's dream. Moses stuttered in fear, but led with boldness.
Joshua faced fortified walls, but marched in obedience. Rahab was labeled a harlot, but believed in rescue. Gideon felt too weak but fought like a warrior. Deborah stood, one other shrank back. Ruth walked into the unknown but trusted God's hand.
Samuel heard God's whisper in the dark. David faced giants with a shepherd's sling and a soldier's faith. Elijah feared Jezebel's threat but stood on Mount Carmel. Elisha saw what others couldn't and prayed others would do. Esther risked her life to save her people. Job lost everything but never cursed God.
Daniel was thrown to the lions but prayed anyways. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in the fire and didn't burn. Ezra rebuilt the altar in a ruined land. Nehemiah built with one hand and battled with the other. Jeremiah wept through rejection, but still preached truth. Isaiah saw the glory and still said, send me.
Mary believed the impossible before it was even visible. Joseph obeyed when it made no sense. John the Baptist called people to repent without fear. Peter denied him, but stood up at Pentecost.
Thomas doubted, but then believed with both hands. Paul was struck blind, but saw clearer than ever. John was exiled, but saw heaven open. And the saints in Revelation overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony because Jesus
got on that cross, spread out his arms, caught the ball of death, and said, not anymore. Not anymore because he loves you and he loves me. And when we can embrace the faith of the always, the one who was faithful then and faithful now, we will see the victory. Do you get that? Do you understand?
Because now, all through scripture, he's always been faithful. It's our turn. It's your turn. It's my turn to be on this list. It's the same God then, the same God now, the same truth, the same to armor, the same faithful God then, and the same faithful God now. Amen.
Amen. Amen. God, you are so good and you are so faithful. Amen. Hey. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on our Rock Point social media to stay connected throughout the week and see what's happening here at Rock Point.