10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power;
11 put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
12 for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present[b] darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness
15 and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace.
16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.
The Word of God, for the people of God, thanks be to God.
Good morning, beloved,
After reading the sermonic text earlier this week I was reminded of a song. I'm not going to sing it - that isn't something that you'd want - but I will recite some of the words;
You may have heard of it ...
"Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before!
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle, see his banner go!"
The refrain reads as;
"Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before!"
In 1865, Anglican priest (and part time songwriter) Sabine Baring-Gould penned this hymn with themes taken from New Testament scriptures such as;
A. "Share in suffering like a good soldier in Christ Jesus" - 2 Timothy 2:3
B. or today's sermonic text, found in Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. A text that many of us know as it instructs the reader to put on the "whole armor of God" so that we can defend ourselves against the attacks of the enemy.
The hymn became so popular that it was adopted by the Salvation Army - a denomination founded by a Methodist preacher - as it's go-to processional hymn.
In the 1912 Progressive National Convention - not too dissimilar from this week's Democratic National Convention where we just saw (for the first time) a black woman receive a major party's nomination to be the President of the United States - the song was adopted by the delegates as their anthem. Theodore Roosevelt - who was nominated at this convention - declared that his party was going to "battle for the Lord".
If we were to travel further through history, there was a time in 1941 when Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met on a battleship to discuss four (4) freedoms.
• the freedom of speech,
• the freedom of worship,
• the freedom of want
• and the freedom from fear
This meeting led to an agreement known as the "Atlantic Charter". After this meeting, they held a worship service.
Why? Because it's good to worship the Lord while assembled together with likeminded brothers and sisters.
This is one of the reasons why we are encouraged by Sunday worship experiences
• The music
• The corporate prayer
• The preached Word of God
• ... sometimes the food after service.
But allow me to get back to this moment in history. Prime Minister Churchill - like any good worship leader - chose the hymns. He selected "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and afterwards jumped onto the radio to explain why he did so;
He said essentially that the fight - as this took place months before the US entered World War 2 - was the only hope of saving the world from measureless degradation.
It was the only way to prevent unquantifiable tragedy
If this war wasn’t fought, then the world wouldn’t be in good shape for their family, friends and future generations.
Churchill said that that fight was necessary because the world was under attack.
When I was younger, I was instructed
• To never start a fight
• Not to go about life being a bully
• But if I were to ever find myself in a fight started by a bully, then I better be sure to finish the fight. "If you come home beat up, it's going to be me and you" is something I heard from my mother after coming home lamenting about an altercation with a bully.
You see, there weren’t any weaklings in the Harris household.
Nor are there any weaklings in the body of Christ.
• You won't roll over me because I proclaim that I love God.
• You ain't going to have you way with me because I have decided to follow Jesus
At this point, my sisters and brothers, I’m no longer talking about Churchill but instead I am talking about us.
• As a people, our meekness has been mistaken as weakness.
• As a group of believers, our search for peace has labeled us as inferiority.
We said that when they go low, we go high, but then it seems as if our legs are getting cut out from underneath us.
• The time has come, beloved, for us to defend ourselves
• For us to defend our faith
• And for us to defend those who are defenseless.
But to do that:
WE ARE GOING TO NEED SOMETHING A LITTLE STRONGER
For the case of the hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers", the song has been associated with protests against the established order, particularly in the case of the civil rights movement.
Oddly enough, everyone hasn't always been a fan of the hymn. An attempt was made in the 1980s to remove "Onward, Christian Soldiers" from the United Methodist Hymnal due to perceived militarism - they didn't want it to appear on page 575 any longer.
Thankfully, church folks got mad (as they sometimes tend to - not you, you guys are perfect) and the backlash caused the committee to back down.
Some would say that the church folks stood their ground - in the name of the Lord - and victory was won. Please, please, please don't take this as a sign to fight with me on some matters - I have access to the full armor of God as do you. I'd prefer that we'd get along peacefully and continue serving the Lord together - preferably over food.
(Please tell me that someone cooked today. If not, I invite you to order something for delivery immediately after service - I like chicken.)
Like Paul, like Baring - Gould, like Prime Minister Churchill or like former First Lady Michelle Obama who just this week said;
"If we start feeling tired, if we start feeling that dread creeping back in, we've got to pick ourselves up, throw water on our faces and do something."
We must do as those great women and men have instructed:
• We have to mount a defensive.
• We have to put up an effort.
• We have to put on something that will help shield us from the barrage of attacks that we will face.
Because we're going to face them. In all honesty, we are already facing them.
This isn't something that we can do in our everyday attire.
Our Sunday's best just won't cut it.
Even the finest of name brand clothing won't do us any good as we embark on the fight that's ahead of us.
Friends, we're going to need something just a little stronger.
Paul - in this subsection of his letter - points out three (3) things:
1. There are battles that we're in. This is the rationale for the task of standing against the wiles of the devil. We tend to not use that name much - but there is a Devil and he don't like us.
2. He brings up the armor that we have. We have been given much-needed armor by our eternally gracious Father. This armor is truth, it’s righteousness, it’s peace, it’s faith, it’s the gift of salvation and it’s the Word of God
3. He brings up the prayers that we need. Pray for me as I pray for you, because we're going to need it.
I. The Battles
Some people aren’t going to like the sermon, as they don’t particularly care for this scripture text.
• It’s too combative
• it’s too militant
• it’s too forceful
• it’s too violent.
There’s some notion that serving Christ means happy sing-a-longs in the worship service, taking no consideration for what’s going on outside the four walls of the church
Taking no care for the community
Taking no care for the struggles that we face outside of the worship service
There is an idea that “If we act like everything is alright, then everything will be alright”
Beloved, if we turn a blind eye to the war that’s outside – the war that’s facing all of us – it’s the fastest way possible to become a causality of war.
• We are being attacked because of our skin color
• We are being attacked because of our gender
• We are being attacked because of who we love
• We are being attacked because we have the audacity to want to strive for better in our lives
• We are being attacked in our finances
• We are being attached in our relationships
• We are being attacked in our heads – yet many within the church will tell you NOT to seek professional help and that it ain’t nothing but the devil
But here is some breaking news:
If we blame everything on the Devil then the Devil is going to win
Friends, we have some real battles going on here and now
The beautiful thing – and yes, there is beauty in this – is that we serve a God who fights our battles AND gives us the tools to defend ourselves if the need were to ever arise
The tools were given before we ever knew that we needed them
This is just another example of prevenient Grace – they were there before we were here.
Let us be mindful that in this battle with evil, we the children of God are on the defensive. We’re not going out looking for a fight.
We aren’t bullies.
• The loud, rude, disrespectful, malicious politicians you see on TV are the bullies.
• The systems created to keep us poor, to keep us uneducated and to keep us stuck in horrible conditions are created by the bullies
• The Devil is a bully.
We, sisters and brothers, are simply standing firm and fighting back the attacks of evil.
This is where the tools given by God – our armor – come into play.
II. The Armor
Now, what is this armor?
• It is Righteousness
• It is Peace
• It is Faith
• It is he gift of Salvation
• It is he Word of God
This armor isn’t a weapon of destruction - it's not meant to bring harm to the innocent. This armor is a set of tools which - when used properly - fortifies communities that are disenfranchised and prepares those who are tired of being bullied to defend themselves.
Righteousness reminds us that we were made in the image of God and should never allow those who aren't any more special than we are to treat us less than.
We speak truth to power and truth in the transformative love of our risen Christ.
Faith encourages us to move forward even when the world is against us, because we believe in a God that has power over the Devil. We serve a Redeemer who not only triumphed over death, but also left us with the best souvenir ever - the Holy Spirit - that gives us the power we need to stand up to;
• the bullies
• To stand up to the battles within our minds
• To stand up to the forces of the enemy that try to kill us every single day
They have their weapons, we have the Holy Spirit.
I like our chances
We have Jesus, who saved us and redeemed our ransomed souls with His sacrifice on Calvary.
We have God, who wins every single battle ever presented to Him.
The same God who gave us His Word so what we can do just like he instructed Joshua - not depart from it, but study it so that our ways will be made prosperous and that we will be successful.
III. Prayers and Support - The Close
Often in church we sing the lyrics;
“I pray for you, You pray for me
I love you, I need you to survive
I won't harm you with words from my mouth
I love you, I need you to survive”
The song speaks to praying and being there to support those in need. (With the idea that others would do the same thing for us when we are in need.
Before I sit down, I’d like to share this story;
During the second World War, there was a man named Desmond Doss. Doss was a church-going young man who desired to enter the medical field. Between almost killing his younger brother while fighting – in their youth - and keeping the commandment of “Thou shall not kill” Desmond lived life as a pacifist.
Then the attack on Pearl Harbor happens, Doss enlists in the Army as a combat medic. He doesn’t want to wage war, but his desire is to save lives.
Bro. Desmond recognized that there was a difference.
He excels during basic training – he’s in great shape. But he refuses to
1. pick up a rifle
2. train on the Sabbath day
He’s mocked and ridiculed.
His superior officers labeled him as being “crazy” and attempted to have him discharged in the name of psychiatric concerns.
Bro. Desmond just wanted to help his fellow man.
He was lied on and mistreated.
He was fighting a battle on two fronts – attacked by own people and attacked by the Axis forces.
• The good brother was like us;
• We stand for what’s right in the name of the Lord even if our own people attack us
Because sometimes, it be your own people.
Through it all, Bro. Desmond presses forward
He’s even arrested due to his refusal to carry a weapon of destruction. They court-martial him until it is proven that the Constitution protects his right to be a pacifist.
Desmond goes back to the war and his unit is deployed during a skirmish called the “Battle of Okinawa”
The battle rages on and the causality count is high.
Desmond hears the cries of his platoonmates and prayers to God as he goes back to grab a soldier. He can only take one at a time – but that’s what he does.
He saves one, then prays to God for the ability to save one more.
Saves another soldier then prays another time.
Another soldier.
Another prayer.
Another soldier.
Another prayer.
When all is said and done, Bro. Desmond has saved 75 soldiers – all alone.
(In reality – he did it with the help and guidance of the God he prayed to. Our God who provides us with the armor to face the battles in our lives.)
The tide of the battle changes and Desmond’s unit has an opportunity to overtake the enemy.
His commanding officer – who has seen the same guy he tried to have kicked out of the Army single handedly save 75 of his men – tells Desmond that they won’t go on without him.
It’s the Sabbath – Desmond must observe it - but they will wait.
So, they wait.
The Sabbath passes, and the unit wins the battle.
So it was, the battle was won by a man who called on the name of the Lord and fought the only way he knew how.
He didn’t need a gun, he just needed rope to carry his wounded comrades.
He looked at the weapon they tried to give him and said;
I’M GOING TO NEED SOMETHING A LITTLE STRONGER
I don’t need your guns - I need your prayers.
I don’t need your grenades - I need to talk to Jesus.
I don’t need your ammunition.
I need to know that;
• I am made in the image of God, and that I am His
• I gotta know that I need the peace that passes all understanding.
• I gotta know that I need the faith to know that the God I serve is standing with me to fight my battles.
• I gotta know that I need to be assured that my salvation was secured for me by a Savior that’s above any king, above any politician and above president.
• I gotta know that I need to have confidence that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword and will help me defend myself from those who try to do me harm – foreign or domestic.
We get talked about and beat down. That’s part of the life that we are living. Those are the battles that we will face.
Stand up for yourself.
Beloved, stand up for others.
We have been given what we need to fend off the forces of the Devil. However, the things we need to fend off the forces of the enemy aren’t formed under our own power or innate abilities.
It isn’t anything we can do on our own. There’s nothing that we can buy with our own money or build with our hands.
If we tried to arm ourselves, we’d eventually say;
I’M GOING TO NEED SOMETHING A LITTLE STRONGER
What we – and our community - need to be victorious comes from God and God alone.
He’s done it before, and He will do it again.
Be encouraged.
