Armoring a Movement

The Book of Ephesians ends on a note, I want to take our congregation coming into 2013. It’s a good segway, if you will, into our Christmas series and our end of year series, but more importantly our 2013 plans. For some of you, you probably don’t know what those plans are explicitly; but I’m sure all of you know what they are intrinsically because I beat up on the subject every single weekend. So let’s your memory as we segway into the last substantive portion of the “Letter to the Ephesians Church”: We’re not here to build a great gathering on any given Sunday morning. Absolutely not. We’re not even here to create a community of like-minded believers that support each other in tough times and celebrate the good times, I’m going to leave that for our parents. This church, our ministry of very little, here in a neighborhood that seemingly doesn’t care or need us needs to evolve into a movement of students (because there are 5 college campuses here in this neighborhood), and professionals to:

• Encouraging the faithful in the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, sowing the peace and mercy of God upon a broken world
• Leading people in stretching their faith so all may believe and be transformed into new creations of Christ
• Sharing each other’s burdens so that all can walk on the path set out by Jesus, the perfecter of our faith and Lord of our lives
• Loving all people by doing good to everyone – both non-Christians and Christians alike
• Teaching the message of restoration from the slavery of sin

Here’s what that means very practically: we’re not here to do “good works” and sing kumbaya. No, we’re here to flip culture upside down and wrestle against rulers, authorities and spiritual forces holding people back from their potential in God. Let’s read Ephesians 6:10-20. ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. – Ephesians 6:10-13 A few months ago, when I preached from this passage down in Viriginia, I looked at these verses and said to myself—submission (that is living into the will of God by fulfilling our maximum potential) is literally the act of putting on the “armor of God.” Today, I am convinced that this passage means far more than fulfilling our potential by submitting to God’s purpose for our lives. I think it is a calling to be so plagued and so troubled by a problem we are experiencing and living through, that we cannot do anything except drop everything to do what God would have us do through the innately latent gifts God birthed into us that can only be tapped when we submit to God and put on his whole armor. I know that was abstract, so let me tell you where this comes from. I was watching a 30 Rock episode a few days ago about affirmative action, which was more a parody on how bigotry lives through the very people who have benefited from affirmative action, but now are so well culturally indoctrinated that they resent how other people are now benefiting. More clearly and less precisely, it was about how once you become mildly successful and middle class all you really do is complain and not appreciate any type of blessing that comes your way. Oh right, so the conclusion is this: “In America, everybody gets an opportunity even though we don’t deserve it.” Which got me thinking—that’s exactly true with our faith. If you didn’t read the quiet time posted for Thursday and Friday you need to go online and read that; but we don’t deserve love, grace and mercy, but we got it. And it feels so amazing and we fail epically so we think we have nothing to offer in terms of fruit, but that’s where we’re wrong. That’s where God takes over and changes our view point. Verse 10—“Be strong in the Lord.” I want you to underline that in your notes and write: implies that we can’t be strong in ourselves and therefore we can’t be strong in other people. We can only be strong in the God that raises the dead to life! This got me thinking. How often does our church, as a gathering of people, which is what it is now rely on the strength of God to do something? Also, if that is as lame as I think it is, maybe that’s why we only have a gathering of people and not a community. However, let me postulate for a second here because you probably believe that we don’t have just a gathering of people because we know each others private lives in too much vivid detail and therefore we must be a community that shares all things—good things, and mostly bad things. Then, let me think about this verse—why does a small thing like a community even need to be strong on something outside of the community. Better question—can a community be strong once we go outside the gated community of the Christendom? Let’s face it, the world is against you and me and us all. If you don’t believe me, just watch all those Final Destination movies. Or just watch the news on any given night and you’ll realize that you’re only alive by chance because it was by chance or divine intervention that you’re even in this country born to the parents you have because you sure didn’t chose them. Paul’s imperative for us in the 21^st century then is clear—stop pretending you can be strong and instead be strong in the Lord and what we know He does in his strength. It’s as a result of this that we “put on the armor of God.” Before I talk about the armor of God and what exactly that is without Christianizing it to be fairytale like, I want to go over verses 11-13, which I already sort of glazed over quickly just a few minutes ago. In particular, I want to talk about the “schemes of the devil.” Here’s what that means: so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Yes, it’s everything in the world that keeps us from seeing the vision we need to have laid out before our lives; and more importantly, it is the obstacles that keep us from obtaining those goals and mostly through this thing called “contentment.” Write this down: the world will keep you from living into the life God envisioned you to live by distraction—that is the scheme of the devil. You got to remember, fundamentally, taking the dichotomous “good versus evil” out of the analogy, the devil is numero uno on those who have been distracted away from the vision God had. You know what I’m saying? This is why we put on the armor of God as individuals. So what is the “armor of God?” Let’s read, verse 14. ¹⁴ Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷ and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ¹⁸ praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ¹⁹ and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. – Ephesians 6:14-20 I know that seemed to be just an aside because I’m not going into greath depth explaining these verses here between 14 and 20 because I think the Apostle Paul was very straight forward. Here are the pieces to God’s armor:

• Belt of truth – so you don’t get caught with your pants down
• Breastplate of righteousness – that is confidence that God is changing you even if and when you get hit in the chest by unrighteousness caused or unintentional
• Gospel of Peace—an understanding that what come next will not unnerve you
• Shield of faith—that which you can hide your entire body underneath and if you dipped your shield in water (living water) flaming darts would be extinguished by the water.
• Helmet of salvation—hope in the future
• Sword of the spirit—the Bible

This all brings us back to verses 12-13: ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Remember when I said that we are currently just a gathering of people and some of you disagreed with me and said that we are a community of faith. And I said whichever of the two we are, that’s lame and that the vision for this ministry is not to be either, but greater than that, more evolved than that and instead we want to be a movement. I said that was the vision of 2012 and that is the vision for 2013 and more effectively we want to be individual movements in history that wrestle against the way the world operates to create a something better—that is, a submission to God that fully brings people into understanding who they were supposed to be. Yeah, I know. All of those things (the armor of God) Paul is saying is necessary for individuals as part of a movement. His example is in verse 20, he put on all those things in the armor of God and he launched a movement by speaking “boldly” the Bible says. In fact, it was because of Paul’s movement for the fulfillment of lives by the vision he was given and the vision people had in the eyes of God that we even sit here in these nicely manicured pews. Therefore, we must continue that tradition and become the evolution of a gathering and a community into a movement that powerfully fights against the things that keep us far from God. Here’s what Martin Luther King Jr wrote about the social justice movement that was bread by the vision that God had for people. Listen to this: “It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills.” “We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” “Was not Jesus an extremist in love? ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’ Was not Amos an extremist for justice — ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’ Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ — ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’ Was not Martin Luther an extremist — ‘Here I stand; I can do none other so help me God.’ Was not John Bunyan an extremist — ‘I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.’ Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist — ‘This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.’ Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist — ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ So the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice — or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?” Here’s my challenge to us this morning—will you evolve with me and see God’s vision for His people and become a movement that puts on the armor of God? Let’s pray.