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.

Put on the Full Armor of God

 Read Ephesians 6

It’s Memorial Day weekend.  It’s the time to remember those who gave their last full measure of devotion for their country.  These days we take time to remember others who serve—firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement. That’s fine, but the day itself was set aside to remember those who said, I will fight for you, and who never came home to a parade or welcome of any sort.

So, Tom gets to talk a little bit about war and combat and some memorable phrases that go with these things. We will start in World War I.

The Marines joined in the battle later than other allied combatants of World War I.  Up to that point, they had been used in small wars special missions.  Now they had just arrived at the front as the Germans were mounting a three-pronged offensive.

The Marines had barely gotten into position, digging shallow individual trenches they called “foxholes,” when the German army renewed its offensive on June 2. Demoralized French troops in the forest began falling back. One French officer, as he passed through the Marine lines, advised the Americans to join in the retreat. Capt. Lloyd Williams responded, “Retreat, hell! We just got here!” The French officer and the other French troops continued on. Soon the Marines were alone.

What the world did not know was that the Marines could hit a target at 600 yards and beyond with the new 03 Springfield rifles.  The rest of the world’s soldiers were good up to about 250 yards.  The Marines turned the battle around, and General John J. Pershing who didn’t really care for the Marines, but knew that he had a winner, ordered the Expeditionary Force to the offensive.

Again, In World War I while fighting with the 6^th Marines in France against heavily fortified German positions, First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates sent this report to his commanding officer.

I have only two men out of my company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try and get it here as we are swept by machine-gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I WILL HOLD.

Ok, Tom’s not just going to talk about Marine Corps battles and words to remember, but he will keep us in the country of France, though at a time before our nation was conceived.

On 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin’s Day), King Henry V of England defeated a numerically superior French force near the down of Agincourt, France. William Shakespeare would immortalize the victory in the words of the playwright attributed to King Henry.

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother

This section is about putting on the Full Armor of God.  It’s about battle.  It’s about combat, but you can’t draw the battle lines on a map.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 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.

Before we get into the armor itself, let’s affirm where our strength in battle comes from—it is from the Lord.  Think to David when he faced Goliath.  Saul’s armor didn’t fit him.  He couldn’t more—he couldn’t fight in it.

David already knew what was going to happen. The battle belonged to the Lord.  He had his part but the battle belonged to the Lord. David did not understand the armies of Israel shaking in fear.

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

David’s strength was not in the armor of men.  It was in the Lord.

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

You know the story.  David fell Goliath with one, well-aimed smooth stone.  Then, he rushed to the fallen body, drew the giant’s sword, and cut his head off with his own sword.

David might be what today we would call light infantry.  Modern combat has lost that concept.  Today, an infantryman carries 60 pounds on a light day and upwards of 100 pounds on most days.  It’s more if you have to dress for extreme cold weather or chemical warfare.

The armor that you are called to wear doesn’t weigh nearly so much. We are battling the forces of evil and we should be equipped much like David.  Paul uses the metaphor of the armor of his day, but our victory lies in the strength of the Lord.

But, let’s put on the armor-all of it.

The belt of truth

The breastplate of righteousness

Feet fitted—these are your combat boots—with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace

The shield of faith that extinguishes the arrows of the enemy

The helmet of salvation

The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

We are equipped with truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, and the word of God.  We are well equipped for the fight—for the battles ahead.

We are not armored to fight flesh and blood but the spiritual forces of the Evil One that work both on earth and in the heavenly realms.  These forces want to fight in the battlefield of our minds.  They want to engage our sinful human nature.

In the examples of earthly combat, did you note where they took place?  They were all in France.  That’s over there for the American World War I examples and across the Channel for the King of England.  That’s where we like to fight our battles—over there.

Think how gut-wrenching the 9-11 attacks were to those of you who were alive then.  They were perhaps more devastating than Pearl Harbor was to our grandparents.  Our enemies had struck the mainland on that September day.

We want to fight our enemies on their territory.  We don’t want them here, where we are on the defensive. But in our battle against evil, the enemy has penetrated our lines.  They're in the wire. The enemy is within our minds. 

Elsewhere, Paul counseled us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ Jesus.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

On most days, I charge you to love your neighbor.  Let everyone know that you follow Jesus, not by the VBS or camp tee shirt that your wear, but by your love.  They will know that we are his disciples by our love.

But on every day, we are to suit up for combat with evil.  We may not engage any form of evil for the entire day but we are ready.  It’s too late to go put on your gear once you are under attack.  You must show up ready.

There are no time-outs in combat.  Sure, truces are called from time to time but consider how many combatants are still killed during a truce.  There are no time-outs. You must come prepared to fight.  We are not fighting the axis forces or a Philistine giant, but the forces of evil that exist in the spiritual realm.  Sometimes, we have to fight them on our home turf—in our minds.

We must be able to make our stand where the enemy brings the fight to us.  We must be able to say, I will hold.

So, we must be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Our part is to put on the full armor of God.

We are to be equipped with truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, and the word of God.  We are well equipped for the fight—for the battles ahead.

And Paul adds that we are to pray for each other.  We have our individual battles, but battles are won by mutual support.  I pray for you and you pray for me.

Suit up and fight not only for yourself but for one another.  The victory is already won in the blood of Christ Jesus, but we still have battles to fight.

Gear up.

Amen.

Parents and Children

 Read Ephesians 6

Paul begins this section with the fifth commandment.  Honor your father and mother.  He focuses on the central part of honoring your parents—obedience.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Obey!  That’s a tough word in 2022.  It’s a really tough word for a two-year-old in 2022 when they suddenly develop a propensity for the word, “No.”

Children, obey your parents. Oooooh. I thought God was so cool.  I thought Jesus was my friend, but now they tell me to obey my parents.

Yes, that’s the instruction.  There is a guide for the parents in this directive.  The children are told to obey their parents in the Lord.  That last part is a reminder to the parents to bring up a child in the way he should go.

The directives that we give our children should be godly instructions.  Those do include clean your room, make your bed, do your chores, say your prayers, and of course, read your assigned chapter in the Bible each day.

Parents, make sure that the instruction that we give our children is from God.  It’s not just the fruit of momentary anger with them.  Yes, our kids will do some stuff that will anger us or perplex us or just leave us wondering whose kid are you?  But our response is always to give godly direction and correction.

Sometimes, godly instruction comes in words like, get me a switch! Some of you younger folks don’t know what that is.  It’s twentieth-century speak for God disciplines those he loves and sometimes that discipline came with the words get me a switch.

Parents have other counsel from Paul.  We need to pay close attention.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

What does it mean to exasperate?  It’s to push too far.  It’s to frustrate.  It’s to irritate.

Parents, you may be frustrated.  You may think your kids have pushed you to far, but remind yourself that you are the parent.  This is not a competition.  You have life experience and your kid is just beginning to explore life.

That means, when your child is pushing the limits, you stay with the limits.  You are the adult. You have been trusted with this precious gift of a child—which at the moment is pushing all of your buttons—but you are the one trusted to bring your child up in the way he should go, in the way she should go.

Is there even a time for exasperation?  Absolutely, but not for you.  The Marines have drill instructors for that.  They want to see if you can handle more than you think you can handle. As you bring up your children, you don’t want to give them more than they can handle.  You are the safeguard.

Next comes some guidance that might seem outdated in this modern century.  You decide.  Slaves obey your earthly masters.

Yes, there is still some slavery in the world.  In the western world, we would think it repugnant.  In our modern society, I preach more about the self-inflicted slavery of debt than the traditional forms of slavery.

Paul speaks of slavery in which one person is owned or indebted to another person.  It was a part of life at that time, perhaps much more so than today, but the principle involved speaks to us today.

Whomever you work for—an earthly master, a boss, a company foreman, or any other supervisor—remember that you ultimately work for the Lord and not an earthly master.  We will see that again when we get to the letter to the Colossians.

And to the masters of earthly servants, Paul provides this counsel.  Remember, there is one Master and he is Master of all.  In relationships that really count, you are brothers and sisters who serve the same Master.

Masters, serve as an earthly master as if you are serving the Lord, not yourself.  You know who is really the Master.

Some are disappointed that Paul did not decree that all slaves should be set free. I think that was his desire, but not his mission.  His mission was to instruct us on how to live a life worthy of the calling that we have received.

So, children, obey your parents. That’s what God expects from you.

Parents, bring up your kids the right way.  Remember, you are the parent, not the ruthless ruler of the universe.

Adults, as you go about your livelihoods, whether boss or work hand, remember that you are working for the Lord and not for a paycheck or another person.  You will have a supervisor or boss and surely hope to get a paycheck, but what drives you is that your work pleases the Lord.

Amen.

 

I will hold!

Read Ephesians 6:10-18

Some days you wake up and are just singing about how good life is.  Some days, not so much.

Some days you are wrestling with your human—sinful nature, and other days you just seem totally in sync with our new nature.  Some days it is as if God’s Spirit is at the wheel and we are enjoying the ride.

Some days we wrestle with evil—sometimes in the physical world and sometimes, mostly in the spirit realm.  It is perhaps not a daily event for most, but we are called to readiness on a daily basis.

We are counseled to put on the full armor of God.  We are charged to stand our ground against the evil one and told when the dust settles, we will still be standing.

There’s a quote familiar to most Marines from the 19^th Commandant of the Marine Corps.  Long before he was a general, Clifton B. Cates was a company commander in WWI.  He sent the following situation report to his commander.

"From Co. "H" -- Date: July 19. Hour 10:45A.M. To: Lt. Col Lee. "I am in an old abandoned French trench bordering on the road leading out of your command post and 350 yards from an old mill. I have only two men out of my company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try and get it here as we are swept by machine-gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I WILL HOLD."

I will hold! We are almost completely out of good guys here, but nobody is taking what we have.  I will hold! 

We as Christians are invading a pagan—a godless world—with the news of the one true and very much a loving God who wants all to know that they can repent of their sinful lives and come to him.  The blood of Jesus has made a way where there was no way.

We are invading a godless world with good news, but sometimes you just have to hunker down and hold on to what you have.  To use the words of Jesus as he gave them to the churches via John the Apostle in his revelation on Patmos:  Strengthen what remains.

Your work here is not finished.  Hold on.  Reinforce where you can.  Stay strong to the end.  We may have to just hold on to what we have.  We should be ready for intense spiritual warfare.

Paul begins with the Belt of Truth to be wrapped around the warrior’s waist.  We are equipped with truth in this age of falsehood.

Next comes the breast plate—I’ll go 21^st century here and say the flak vest of righteousness.  Remember, this is not righteousness of our own making, but it is ours now.  God has done this for us.

Feet are fitted with footwear representing the gospel of peace.  Now if you were brought up in the way you should go—a credit to your parents, and their parents were brought up in the way they should go, then your grandmother did wear combat boots.

She was outfitted with the Gospel of Peace footwear—Gospel of Peace combat boots.  Ready to do battle shod in the Gospel of Peace.

We put on the Helmet of Salvation.  I’m thinking better than next generation Kevlar. Here is the thing.  We go into battle knowing that we might lose this life in this physical body but our eternal life is secure.

And we are armed with the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.  I think of the word of God being living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, capable of separating soul and spirit, joints and marrow.  It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Now, I skipped over one component of our battle gear.  I did not mention the Shield of Faith because we  continue our exploration of faith, so we return to what should be a very familiar defining verse from the King James Version.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We take up the shield of faith with which we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.  We may not engage in spiritual warfare with the evil one every day, but every day we dress for battle with every component.

So, understanding the armor of God is to be worn as a battle system—the full armor of God—not just a component put on here and there, we will look at just one component this morning.

Let’s look at the shield of faith.  We have talked about healing and moving mountains when we think of faith.  We think of the paradigm believing is seeing.

We want to walk by faith and not by sight, knowing that we still teach our kids to look both ways when they cross the street.  We understand what it is to have a life governed by faith.  We may still struggle with leading with our faith, but we are still following Christ in our faith.

It’s a growing process, but today we talk about battle.  We consider direct confrontation with Satan and the forces of evil and we are told that our shield of faith will extinguish his flaming arrows.  We have exactly what we need.

Conventional tactics would say shoot the people shooting the arrows at you.  If you get them, they can’t shoot you anymore.  It’s also our human nature to retaliate. Remember Lex Talionis?  The Law of Retaliation was given as an improvement to the Law of Escalation, but the human heart desires to retaliate.

But we are told to take up the shield of faith.  When we are under attack by evil in any form, we must defend ourselves and our loved ones by faith.  Faith must be first. 

Now if ISIS or the Taliban or some other group set on the destruction of our country comes into Burns Flat looking to do us harm, call me.  I’ll get on my roof and pick them off before they hit the city limits. They’re not even going to have to close Rudy’s.

Don’t send me a Facebook message.  I might not see it for several hours.  Call me.  I will still have my shield of faith but I will have my AR 15 as well.

But the battles that I am talking about are less about terrorists and sworn enemies of our country. These battles are more about the evil that operates in the spiritual realm.

We are not equipped to fight evil with our flesh and blood minds and bodies.  We must understand that we are fighting a different sort of enemy.  We will not flank them or envelope them.  We won’t succeed with an ambush.

Human tactics fall short against evil in the spiritual realm.  We must strengthen our faith, not at the moment of attack, but on every day preceding it. 

Paul reminds the Ephesians and us that the shield of faith will extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. 

We are not to see if we can outsmart evil.  We stand strong in our faith.

We are not to try and overpower evil.  We stand strong in our faith.

We don’t make a peace treaty with evil.  We stand strong in our faith.

In fact, our course of action is the same in any encounter with evil.  Take up the shield of faith.

Faith in God.  Faith in Jesus Christ.  Faith that he overcame sin and death.  Faith that he lives again.  Faith that the name of Jesus is more powerful than any weapon of our enemy.

We live by faith and we fight by faith.

And we pray. We pray in the Spirit.  We pray all the time.  Prayer is part of who we are.  Prayer says we live by faith.

And we stay alert.  We are vigilant.  We are ready for battle.  We are vigilant because evil will likely not come as an armed group of terrorists riding pickups with mounted machine guns.  Evil will attempt to invade your mind and your decisions.

Most days, we just wrestle with the old self, the sinful nature, the human heart.  We must win these daily struggles to be ready for greater battles, but most days we are not in face to face combat with pure evil.  We must win these daily battles with our own sinful nature and the evil that somehow, we have not expunged from our hearts.

How do we win them all?  With Christ and by faith.

But for those days that we are confronted by evil, we are to stand firm, hold our ground, and when all is said and done, be found standing at the days end.

To do that, we must put on the full armor of God.  Truth, righteousness, the gospel, salvation, and the word of God—all gifts of God.  We didn’t have to go to Amazon 1-Click to get them.

And we must take up the shield of Faith.  We have all been given a measure of faith but we are to grow in our faith so that it is a shield against enemy attacks.  Our shield should be an impressive part of our battle gear.

Back in the day—that should be specific enough as none of us were alive—warriors armed with sword and shield sometimes had a shield bearer.  You know of shield bearers because Goliath had one.  His shield bearer walked ahead of him.

Great warriors shouldn’t be worn out when they get to the battlefield so some had shield bearers.  Our shield of faith must be large and growing larger each day, but not too heavy.  It grows larger and lighter the more we live in and live by faith.

 Having put on the full armor of God to include taking up our shield of faith, we are told that when all is said and done, we will stand.

Today, and every day we put on the full armor of God, but our shield of faith should grow stronger and stronger each day.

On that day when we are surrounded by evil and evil seems invincible, take up the shield of faith and declare, I will hold!

Amen.