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.

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.

Engaging Ephesians

Engaging Ephesians with homiletic enthusiasm:  AKA growing in grace.

The church located at Ephesus was not one plagued with problems or being led away from one true gospel.  Surely they had their battles, but most of all they were a group of believers who were ready to grow in God’s grace.

Are you worshiping and serving in such a body of believers?  If so, perhaps these messages will help you too grow in his grace.

Chapter 1 – That Predestined word again

Chapter 2 – One in Christ

Chapter 3 – Wisdom of God made know

Chapter 4 – Don’t let the sun go down…

Chapter 5 – Wisdom, Love, & Respect

Chapter 6 – Under His Armor

Under His Armor

Read Ephesians 6

Paul takes a very didactic form in this chapter, the first part being something of a catchall segment.  Children, parents, slaves and masters are all provided with instructions for living.

Sometimes people joke that they wish life came with instructions.  The 10 on stone tablets seemed too hard, the other 513 even more difficult, and the extra regulations heaped on top of these by the religious hierarchy made living by the rules seem to be insurmountable.   But then came living by faith, but in our faith, Paul adds some specific counsel.

Children, obey your parents.  This following Jesus stuff doesn’t get you off the hook for obedience.  It is obedience that leads to a good life.  This goes all the way back to the fifth commandment.

This honor your father and mother stuff is good stuff with the promise of a good life.  Parents wish this had been hard-wired into our kids in the womb.  Our parents probably had the same thought.  But parenting is about bringing up children in the way they should go.  God’s design is that our children learn his ways from us.

So Paul’s counsel shifts to the father.  He says do not exasperate your children.  There’s a fun word:   παροργίζω (parorgizó) and it comes with a variety of meanings--Irritate, agitate, provoke, provoke to anger, annoy, vex, and many others.

The Greek roots mean “from close beside” and “become angry.”  Someone very close to another person knows exactly what buttons to push to move them to anger.

Fathers—parents—don’t’ push your kid’s buttons.  This does not mean do not discipline.  It means do not use manipulation to parent.

As parents, we all know that one thing that our child really values, and threatening to take it away all the time just keeps them on edge.  Our children should never doubt that God loves them and their parents love them.

There will surely be consequences for inappropriate behavior; but as parents we don’t push their buttons to produce the most antagonizing response.  Our goal—remember, we are the parents in this equation—is to lead our children to be the people that God made them to be, not to get caught up in some competition with them.  We are the parent.  We lead them, bring them up in the way they should go.

Many parents say or think, “But my kids surely exasperate me!  I ought to be able to get them back.”

We need to remember that we are the parents.  We can put our kids on restriction any time we want on some trumped up charge, but we must not provoke them to anger by pushing their buttons.

In defense of some bad parenting, but not in favor of its continuation, we must acknowledge that we live in a society that rejects most authority and the authority that we often accept is ungodly.  Sometimes parents feel like all they can do is push their kids buttons to get any sort of compliance from them.

Compliance is a long way from honoring your father and mother.  But remember mom and dad, our children are either learning from us or from the world and if our model is the same as the world’s model, then they are not learning God’s model.

In the previous chapter, we were counseled to be wise.  We were admonished not to live as the world lives.  We were charged to make the most out of every opportunity, and the biggest opportunity to put God’s wisdom into practice is with our children.

Don’t push them to the limit of what they can handle; lead them in God’s way.

Don’t provoke them to anger; guide them to understanding.

Be the wiser person in your relationship with your children.

Next we come to a part of Paul’s counsel that doesn’t seem to apply today.  He talks about slaves and masters.  Slavery is a concept that seems repugnant in this 21^st Century, but it is still widespread.

In Paul’s day, some were slaves because of wars and the spoils of war.  Some became enslaved because of indebtedness.  Ouch!

The latter case seems to have not only survived but thrived in modern times.  The borrower is slave to the lender.  The average American family is $131, 000 in debt.  About $15,000 of that is in credit cards and the rest for our home, vehicles, and for many student loans.

Don’t think that slavery has left the building.  It has adapted most adeptly to the modern century.

So how do we apply Paul’s counsel to our debt to banks and corporations?    How do we live as slaves to our financial masters?

We do it in the same way as men and women were counseled to live 20 centuries ago.  We live to honor Christ in our servant and slave relationships.  We do not want to maintain our slave status.  Paying off our debt surely honors God and the financial masters of today.  We live up to our side of the agreement into which we entered and we do it with goodwill knowing that how we live has more to do with our relationship with Christ than it does with the lender.

Does this pairing of teachings seem interesting to you?

First Paul talks about bringing up our children and then about slavery, which in our time generally translates to debt.  Read the proverbs sometime and note this pairing (Proverbs 22:6-7)

Train children in the right way,
    and when old, they will not stray.
The rich rule over the poor,
    and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Perhaps one of the best things that we can do for our children and their children is to bring them up in the way they should go to include the wise and godly use of money.

While it would be quite unusual to meet a slave owner in this nation, we do have instructions for these folks that likely apply to anyone who has subordinates.  Be good to them.  No abuse or threatening language.

Remember both master and servant, supervisor and subordinate have the same Master in Christ Jesus.  Our rank and authority here is very temporal.  Jesus reminded his closest friends and followers that if we want to be great in the life to come, we must be the servant of all in this life.

Paul changes gears from specific counsel to specific groups of people to some general counsel to everyone that has said, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”

We need to understand that we wrestle with our own human nature.  We struggle with the temporal pressures of the world—job, traffic, budget, family conflicts, busyness, and slow download speeds.

We need to understand that Jesus told us ahead of time that we would have trouble in this world and that we would be persecuted because we follow him.  In fact, Jesus said that we are blessed to be persecuted for following him.

So we wrestle with our own nature and the sinful nature of others that don’t like the fact that we follow Jesus, but we also must be ready to contend with evil.

Previously, Paul counseled us not to let the sun go down on our anger so as to give the Devil a foothold.  That was a single strategy for a single avenue of approach for combating the enemy and not giving in to sin.  Now Paul tells us to be ready for every form of spiritual combat.

 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.

How do you fight against spiritual forces of evil?  You gear up, cowboy up, and saddle up, that’s what you do.  Those terms are common to the world, so let’s say we Christian Up!

We put on all of our gear before we head out to face the day.  What gear is that?

·      Belt of Truth

·      Breastplate of Righteousness

·      Combat Boots are the Gospel of Peace

·      Shield of Faith

·      Helmet of Salvation

·      Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

This is an integrated system of body armor with a sword to boot.  It is integrated.  Any one item provides some capability but we are counseled to put on the whole armor of God.

Obviously, Paul is using figurative language to explain this integrated defense system; otherwise after someone confessed their faith we would hand them a helmet.  

Sometimes we do give them a sword but Paul counsels all of us to put on the complete armor of God.

Christian up and put on all of your combat gear.

The armor is not all that is integrated.  Our prayers are to be mutually supporting.  Yes, we pray for ourselves, but we also pray for each other. 

We are not just praying for people who have heart attacks, are pending surgery, or who have lost a loved one.  We pray that we may not only survive but that we may stand and stand strong against whatever attacks come our way.

We pray for each other that we may advance the gospel, that we will proclaim it boldly whatever our circumstances.

We must understand that even on days where we just expect the typical level of insanity that we know in the world; we dress for full scale attack. 

We must also understand that we go into a godless world on a mission every day from now until Jesus comes to claim us or these bodies give out.  We take the gospel and God’s love into the world every day.

On most days, we face apathy and ambivalence as our main adversaries.  On some days, we may be ridiculed; and on some days, we may be opposed by evil.

We are charged to dress for spiritual combat every day. We put on the full armor of God daily.

Paul wraps up this chapter and this letter telling those in Ephesus that Tychicus is headed their way.  He probably brought the letter and his coming permitted Paul to stick to mostly instructional matters in his letter.

The saints in Ephesus would want news of Paul and even something of an in-person assurance, but that would come from Tychicus and not this letter.

Paul concludes his letter with a benediction of peace and grace.  He has issued some serious counsel in this chapter and this letter, but it is counsel to fellow believers who are ready to grow in grace.

Paul’s counsel to children, fathers, and those in debt or in authority is about growing in grace.  Whatever roles and position that we have in this life, we can all grow.

So we conclude this letter understanding where we began—assured of being holy and blameless before the Lord and ready to grow in grace as we head into the trials and blessings of our days spent in this age, on this earth, as God’s kids who take a wonderful message of love into the world.

So let us consider Paul’s counsel, dress properly for the day ahead, and make the most of every opportunity to share God’s love and grow in his grace.

Amen