Secrets of Abundant Living

THE SECRET OF PROTECTION

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Ephesians 6:10-17

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The armor of God protects us from our enemies…= and ourselves.

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

October 28, 2007<= /o:p>

One of the most unforgettable experiences our = family ever had was the vacation we took a few years ago to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I can’t imagine any part of God’s natural world being any more awesome! What we didn’t know until we= got out there was that August is their rainy season, so we had a rain shower almost every day we were there. In f= act, you could stand on the rim, looking out over miles of multicolored landscap= e, and watch the thundershowers as they watered other parts of the canyon. It was something to see.

One day we were standi= ng out on a precipice, taking in the scenery, when we began to realize that the thundershower over the canyon was headed toward us. So we quickly backtracked to the r= oad, where there was a bus stop. We hoped there would be a bus we could get on. As we came to the road, we saw no bus. Neither could we see the= point where we had stood a few minutes earlier.&= nbsp; The rain was coming down in sheets.= Then we saw the raindrops bouncing off the paved pathway, and we realized that those weren’t raindrops. They were hailstones—marble-= sized pieces of ice falling at us at a great rate of speed! We had our ponchos, but they weren’t much help, and they were no big rocks or trees to hide under. So the four of us̵= 2;and about twenty other unfortunate tourists—just stood there and got pelt= ed by the hail and soaked by the rain. In 15 minutes, it was all over, just in time for the bus to pull up = to offer us protection.

That’s not the o= nly time in my life I have longed for shelter, and I’ll bet you have been there, too. Sometimes it seem= s like we are facing the storms of life all on our own, standing there, pelted by problems, exposed to the elements, and there’s no way to escape. Ever feel like you’ve been t= hrough “hail”?

For several weeks, we’ve been talking about God’s plan and God’s desire for = us to live life abundantly. I= 217;ve been sharing with you some secrets revealed in Scripture for achieving that= kind of life. Today I want to give= you the secret for surviving the storm—the secret of protection.

We need protection fro= m our enemies. Some of our enemies = are real people who have hurt us, who hate us, who threaten us and want to do us in. As Americans, we are very= aware right now of the presence of our enemies in the world.

But some of our enemie= s are even harder to identify than Al Qaeda terrorists. In fact, Paul says, “Our struggle is not against enemies of= blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cos= mic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”[1] We are soldiers in the great = cosmic war between good and evil, and our physical enemies pale in comparison to t= he spiritual enemies we face. We= need protection.

Sometimes the Enemy is= as close as our own heart. There= is a battle going on inside of us most of the time, as we struggle to give contr= ol of our lives to good or to evil. We need protection from our own evil impulses, from our own human tendency to self-destruct and royally mess up our lives. What was it the comic strip charac= ter Pogo said? “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Sometimes we are our own worst ene= my.

The Great Wall of China was built for protection from the enemies of the Chinese people, the barbarian hordes from the central Asian plains. The wall is 30 feet high, 18 feet = thick, and 1,500 miles long. It is the only man-made structure visible from space. You would think a wall= that huge would be an impenetrable defense against any enemy. Yet within the first hundred years= of the wall’s existence, China was invaded three times.

How did the enemies ge= t over or through or around the wall? They didn’t. All three times= , the enemies simply bribed one of the gatekeepers, and then marched right in thr= ough the open door.[2] The wall held; it was humanity that fell.

What is the secret of protection against all our enemies—physical, spiritual, external, and internal? How can our defense= be sure? Paul tells us in verse 10 of our text: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.̶= 1; Be strong in the strength of God; = he is your protection in all the storms of life.

Paul gives a great ima= ge in our Scripture today of the armor that God gives us to protect ourselves from evil. This is how we win the victory: “Therefore take up t= he whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, = and having done everything, to stand firm.”[3] I want to point out four stre= ngths of this armor that are our strengths today, if we depend on God.=

Paul says, “Fasten the belt of truth around your w= aist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.”[4] This is the armor of INTEGRITY. The best protection against si= n in your own life is to strive for truth and righteousness in your words and actions. The best way—s= ometimes the only way—to defend yourself against the enemies who would destroy= you is to maintain your personal integrity.&nb= sp; Keep your head held high, your eyes on the prize. Do the right thing, and the destro= yers will eventually fail. You will escape the storm.

Kim Duk-Soo is a hospi= tal administrator and church organist in Taegu, South Korea, but he will never forget the date of November 20, 1950. Kim was a child in the human wave = of Christians that fled North Korea when the Communists took over. They were suddenly criminals, and Kim’s father was a Christian pastor, so they fled. When the Communists soldiers came = near, Kim and his father hid in a root cellar.&n= bsp; Kim’s father told him they were not to tell a lie to save their lives. The soldiers found the= m and took them to prison. They were separated and scheduled to be executed the next morning.<= /p>

Late in the evening, a captain entered his cell, looked Kim in the eye and asked, “Are you a Christian?” For a fleet= ing moment, Kim considered buying his life with a lie, but then he answered fir= mly, “Yes, I am a Christian.”

The captain drew close= r, and whispered, “I am a Christian, too.&n= bsp; I was a Sunday School teacher before the war. You must escape tonight. I will help you.” So under cover of darkness, Kim ma= de his escape. Had Kim not had the integrity to answer the captain truthfully, he would have faced the executi= oner at dawn. Tragically, his fath= er did not escape. But girded with t= he truth and wearing the breastplate of righteousness, both Kim and his father were released from their enemies.[5]

The second part of the= armor is the shoes. Paul says, R= 20;As shoes for your feet put on whatever= will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”[6] This is the armor of WITNESS. We can protect ourselves if we dev= elop a sense that we are constantly witnessing about our faith by everything we sa= y or do. We are less likely to mak= e the self-indulgent, self-destructive mistakes if we know that we are the only B= ible that some folks will ever read, and they are reading us daily. Even more, we can have the victory= over our external enemies if we try not just to endure them, but to share the lo= ve of Christ with them.

There was an incredible runner from Finland<= /st1:country-region> several years ago named Lasse Viren. In the 1972 Olympics in Munich, he = won both the 5,000-meter and the 10,000-meter runs, which he did again in the 1= 976 Olympics in Montreal. After this stunning achievement, Viren’s coach decided he should go for the grand slam of running and = try to win the marathon as well. = Only one other runner had ever done that in the modern Olympics. There was only one problem: Viren = had never run a marathon, never trained for one, and the Olympic marathon runne= rs were the best in the world. B= ut on the last day of the Olympic Games, there he was, lined up to go. He was standing right next to Frank Shorter, the American marathon runner, who had won the gold in 1972 as well.

As the race began, Fra= nk Shorter found he had a shadow. Since Lasse Viren had never run a marathon before, his coach told hi= m to stay beside Shorter the whole time, to run as he ran, to surge when he surg= ed, to hold back when he held back, to match him stride for stride and try to b= eat him out at the end.

Shorter won the race, = and Viren came in fifth—not bad for your first marathon. The American runner served as an example, a mentor, a guide—could we say a witness?—to the runner from Finland.= = [7]

Doesn’t it make = you want to run the race a little better, knowing that someone is looking to yo= ur life to know how to live it? = As your children or grandchildren, your spouse, or your friends watch you for clues on how to live, you realize what a great impact you have on the lives= of others. So you want to live well. That is another way God protects our walk; he gives us the shoes of witness.

The third part of the Christian armor is our RELATIONSHI= P WITH GOD: “Take the shield of = faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation.”[8] These pieces of equipment are= perhaps the most important of all. The helmet, of course, protects your head, and the shield can protect any part = of you, depending on where you hold it. Faith and salvation, too, are the most important parts of the Christ= ian armor. We come into a relatio= nship with God by faith; that’s how we are saved—by faith in Jesus Christ. This relationship is = the basis of abundant living; this is the foundation of our victory; this is the bulwark of our defense. If you don’t have this—faith and salvation—you’re lost.

On December 8th, 2004,= a young soldier asked a question that touched off a media firestorm. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Ru= msfeld had come to deliver a pep talk to the troops at = Camp Buehring in Kuwait. But the usually unflappable Secreta= ry found himself blindsided by a bold question. As news cameras rolled, Army Specialist Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team asked Rumsfeld, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?"= = = [9]

Someone had dropped the ball. Specialist Wilson clearly felt vulnerable, being s= ent into battle without proper protection.&nbs= p; People began to scramble, from the Secretary of Defense on down, to = make it right.

Can you imagine being a soldier walking onto the battlefield without adequate protection? Can you imagine facing the enemies= of this world without God on your side? Can you imagine being a doctor or a lawyer or a schoolteacher or a carpenter or a waitress or an executive or a student or a preacher without = your relationship with God forming the very foundation of your being? We need that protection.

The last piece of armo= r God gives us is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”[10] This is the armor of the WORD. When the enemy flings his darts at= us, we can find protection in the Scriptures.&= nbsp; When Jesus was tempted by Satan, he answered every temptation with Scripture. When we are tempte= d to fall off the path, or when we need direction, or when we just need the comf= ort of a word from the Lord, we have it. The Bible is how God tells us what we need to know to live abundantly. I like the way St= eve Bartkowski, former quarterback for the NFL Atlanta Falcons, put it: “= For years the Bible was a dead book to me…like grits without salt. But after I gave my life to Jesus Christ, it became alive. I sa= w that the Bible was God’s way of talking to me.”= [11]

When God is talking to= you through the Scripture, and you’re listening to him, then you are not paying attention to what the enemies are saying. You’re eating your grits with salt—and pepper and butter, too!

Finally, we have the a= rmor all assembled: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sho= es of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword = of the Word. We are clear on the concept of integrity, witness, relationship, and the word. Now, how do we make it work? This is heavy stuff; how do we liv= e and move in our armor?

As the Nike ads used t= o say, “Just do it.” Exercise. Train. Apply. Consistently practice the principl= es of Christian living in your everyday activities. Have the discipline of a disciple—it’s no accident that both words come from the same root. The secret of protectio= n is the exercise of Christian discipline in your life.

Think of being a soldi= er for Christ. Soldiers are constant= ly training and doing exercises to stay sharp on their skills for warfare. Be a soldier.

Or be a musician. What great musician learns to play without practice? Musical abi= lity takes years to develop and hours upon hours of practice to achieve the quality of beauty. Be as disciplined in = your discipleship as a musician.

Or think of the athlet= e: hours on the practice field, days in the weight room, conditioning the body, learning the game, perfecting the skills.&= nbsp; It takes dedication; it takes discipline.

If discipleship sounds difficult, it is. In fact, you can’t do it under your own power.&nb= sp; But the good news is, the armor we wear is God’s armor, the en= emies we face are his enemies, and the power to follow him is his power to give.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Remember the first verse of our text? “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.̶= 1;= [12] We are not on our own. We can do great things because we = have a great God!

Put on the armor of Go= d today. Be strong in his strength. Whatever storms arise, you will be protected. That is the secret= of abundant living. Amen! <= /o:p>