(This is a very short version of a Sermon I wrote a year ago)
Ephesians 6:13-17
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 Above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The SHIELD OF FAITH, the HELMET OF SALVATION, and the SWORD OF TRUTH.
The way I want you to view this armor is as a big CIRCLE, they are all connected.
I would like to begin by saying that these are all beautiful metaphors. I don’t know about you, but I happen to LOVE God’s metaphors. These instruments would have been something all people could understand—the Ephesians were the people who were dealing with the Romans, and we all know how interesting THEY were—and these metaphors and symbols represent battle and honor to us even now.
Shield of Faith Shield- Faith (relationship)
FAITH comes from a RELATIONSHIP with God. That is why faith is our shield, our defense and our protection.
As in any relationship the honeymoon phase ends and we really begin to see the true nature of people. It is at that point that we must decide whether or not the relationship is what we want.
The same goes for our relationship with God.
While he is unchanging WE are the ones who change and begin to notice God in different ways; so to US God is changing. But what he is really doing is allowing us to see more of Him as it relates directly to our lives.
Flaming Arrow
There is a reason why they are Flaming Arrows.
After being fired from a taunt thread and arrow cuts deep into the body. The head of the arrow has two triangles at the back of it for speed, but also to create more damage. The fire on the arrow not only increases the pain, once lodged inside the skin it burns the wound shut around the stem. We can only imagine the pain of ripping one of these arrows from our body.
Yet this is how Paul describes the flaming arrows of sin that we are continually up against.
It gets inside you. It burns itself away into your inner being, where who you are is affected. And it would have been so much better just to keep the faith shield up. The scars that are left behind from our sins are painful., and God knows this, and wants to give us everything in defense of this happening.
Helmet of Salvation Helmet- Salvation (promise)
God gave us the power over all the animals of this earth. Within the mind we have the ability to make choices and to understand right and wrong; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We were never intended to have to bear this type of power, but we do. Our minds can either be a wonderful tool of salvation or infested and manipulated for the work of sin. We must protect this vast tool for good, and be able to discern as God would and not as the dust, flesh and blood that we are.
That is why we must wear the Helmet of Salvation.
Let me put it to you another way.
If I am standing here with my arms out, I’m not really affecting the world (besides breathing). It’s how we move and interact within the world that make us alive, and how we build legacies and bring about change. The brain controls all these actions. It’s all connected.
Sword of Truth Sword- Truth (His word)
Great fighters have always used their swords as an extension of themselves, like a hand or a foot—imagine knowing the word of God so well that we had the ability to use it like an extension of ourselves, as valuable and connected with us as a limb.
How do we begin to fully understand Gods word?
The more we know Jesus through His word and our relationship, the more we trust Him.
We see the angry Jesus in the temple. We see the compassionate Jesus healing the blind. We see the trusting Jesus getting baptized. We see Jesus fulfill promises by rising from the dead.
And as a result:
We begin to have more faith in the promises He made for us.
Yes our own relationship with God is important, and God makes it clear that it should be our first priority. But there is a step after being filled with wisdom, after learning, after sitting here in this very room and hearing what God would have to say to us.
We are to take our knowledge of God and USE IT.
