Gear Up!

 Read Ephesians 6:10-20

There are several ways to view our relationship with God and with the world.

We have a walk—a journey if you will—through our time in these bodies on this planet. We want to be on the path that the Lord has directed.

We run a race of faith.  We are commissioned to take the gospel to the world.  This requires focus and purpose.  As people who run this race, we will never know a day without purpose.

We are students.  We learn and we grow. We must trust in the Lord with all of our hearts as we grow in God’s grace. He will never leave or forsake us.  If we remain faithful, we will grow in our trials. God will take all of our life experience and use it for good.

We are letters and ambassadors and messengers.  We deliver good news.  We are examples of right living and right relationship.  That doesn’t mean we don’t fall short. It means that we confess and continue our missions.

We are sowers of seeds. Some plant. Others water. Some harvest.  It seems that we are all involved in agriculture.

We are part of a family.  We are brothers and sisters with our Lord. We are known as the body of Christ. We each have different gifts and talents and roles to play in this family.

We are in a relationship where we are abundantly blessed yet called to live sacrificially.

We could frame our relationships in other ways. It’s not a multiple choice.  It’s not one for each day.

Monday we’re walking.

Tuesday we’re running.

Wednesday we’re learning.

Thursday we’re delivering.

Friday we’re sowing and harvesting.

What do you think?  How does Sacrifice Saturday sound?

We actually do some of each on almost every day.  We might have a streak where we just learn for a couple weeks or have a season of sacrifice or just enjoy the walk with the Lord.

But there is one way of framing our relationship with God and with the world that I have omitted. It is that of warrior.  We are also warriors for the Lord.

We can go back to Abram and note that he led 318 men in battle, and won. He won against some big armies.

The Lord had Gideon reduce his numbers so there was no doubt that God was with him in military victory.

Joshua led God’s chosen people into battles as they took possession of the promised land. The Lord preceded these warriors.

David was renowned as a warrior. He was credited with killing thousands upon thousands of Israel’s enemies and one very large Philistine.

These examples all have one thing in common.  They were physical battles.  God was with these warriors, but they battled flesh and blood enemies.

We may have some flesh and blood battles in our time, but Paul’s words are to ready us against enemies in the spiritual realm.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

We battle Satan, evil, and the sinful nature in our hearts daily.  Some battles are tougher than others. You might think, I don’t know if I have ever encountered Satan or pure evil, but you have battled them

How?.

For half of my time in the Marine Corps, my war was the Cold War.  It involved readiness and a forward-deployed presence. There were some small and very short shooting matches, but not full-scale war, as we saw in the Arabian Gulf.

Make no mistake, the world was full of enemies of the United States. 

Make no mistake, Satan is at work in the world, but our readiness to serve the Lord does wonders to keep him at bay.  Do you remember, resist the Devil and he will flee?

Paul tells us that our battles are against the powers of the dark world.  They are less flesh and blood and more those in the spiritual realm.

Know with certainty, that God wins. God has won!  The outcome is certain but we still battle spiritual forces. We still battle our sinful natures.  We still have battles.

In addition to everything else, we must be warriors.

To win, we must be equipped.  We must put on our gear.  This is not accessorizing. These are not articles of clothing that make a fashion statement.  Listen to what Paul projects in this metaphor.

The belt of truth enables us to stand firm—to hold our ground.

We can hold our ground because of God’s righteousness that he imputed to us in the blood of Jesus.  We call that the breastplate of righteousness. That would be our flak vest in this era.

Our combat boots are readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  You remember that Cold War reference.  We won because of readiness.  This country’s readiness came in the commitment of its service men and women, funding of our military forces, and a forward deployed presence that said, “You don’t want to find out what happens…”

Our readiness resides in the gospel that we are to take to the world.  We will never live a day without purpose.  God trusted us with the gospel.  Living that purpose makes us ready for the battles ahead.

We take up the shield of faith. It shields us from the attacks of the evil one. Yes, sometimes we are under attack.

But we go on the offensive as well. We are fitted with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

We do not sit passively hoping for the best. We invade a godless world with the word of God. It’s all a metaphor, yes, but that makes us no less a warrior.

We don’t go looking for a fight but we are always prepared to make a defense of our faith as we take the gospel to the world.

The old Marine Corps recruiting slogan was “Nobody likes to fight, but somebody has to know how”

As spiritual warriors, you are not looking for a fight, but are prepared for one and know how.  Our mission takes us into the world.  We should be examples, light in a dark world, messengers and ambassadors for the Lord, and yes, even warriors.

There is a single word, an adjective, in this pericope that I want us to anchor on as we wrap up.  The word is full.  We are to put on the full armor of God.  It’s not just a piece here and there.

Do you remember what Colin Powell said as we neared combat in the first Gulf War?  Desert Shield got us into place. Desert Storm would be the combat operation that put the German blitzkrieg to shame.

He said, we learned our lessons from Vietnam. This time were are not holding back. We are bringing all of our toys and using them.

In similar fashion, we are to put on the full armor of God—every piece, every day.  We may not fight on that day, but we will be ready.

We will be ready!

This is not a strange concept. You have heard it from me for years.  We take the full biblical witness, not just a verse or two here and there, and seek to please God.

We take the full message that God has sent to us and put it into practice.

As we prepare for spiritual warfare, we put on the full armor of God

Gear up!

Amen.