The Armor of God - Dividing By Zero

Intro -

[remind guests of series]...So last week, we kicked off this new section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians by talking about who we are together. Specifically, because of who we follow, we now look at who we are to become. What our life, and our relationships should look like.

And as you heard last week, when we go out on a limb and serve God by serving His people, wherever they are - in Mexico or in Kentucky, or even here in Burke county - when we take that step, we realize that the thing that makes the biggest impact on us, and no doubt them as well, is the connection.

We are all connected to each other, and in particular, we are all connected in suffering. If someone around us is hurting, we want to fix it. At least we should if we truly love Christ. So just as our missionaries reminded us, those connections we have and that we make daily, are important. So important, that just having that connection can guide our lives to God’s plan for us, even when we just don’t understand it.

And those connections start by our realizing that we are all the same. Black, white, rich, poor, American, Mexican - whatever - we are all the same. We all were once apart from Christ, but through His love and sacrifice for all creation, we have been brought near to Him. And if all the same, and all worthy of the same sacrifice then this I know to be the truth, and the best way to describe our situation:

We are all one.

We are one.

But sometimes, probably most times, it doesn’t feel like we are one. In fact, if you turn on the news, read a paper, get on the internet to catch up, it becomes immediately clear that not only are we not one, we have become legion.

All different ideas of life. All different moral compasses. All with differing ideals as to what people should do and be. All of them, church, even if gleaned and adapted from scripture, intended to serve self rather than God and neighbor.

Basically, we want what we think is right, and we will in turn, become angry at any person or group who doesn’t agree with us. Hostility grows in us, and in fact, even when we try in vain to be patient and convince others of our tolerance, even still we become inwardly hostile of others.

[story about married folks getting angry but not showing it…]

That is the state of humans in our time. But hear this clearly, it is not our destiny or call. God’s plan, the plan for this earth, it doesn’t require dividing people from us or each other. It requires connections, relationships, that will foster and develop the Spirit of God in each of us.

A spirit of love, and peace, not a spirit of hostility. The very Spirit of God.

That is our subject today. That is our next aspect of the Armor of God, the peace that is given to us when we allow Him to tear down the Spirit of hostility within our hearts. So lets turn...

talk about how last week kicked off several weeks of speaking about Unity. We turn the page that just as Paul turns his attention to that as we walk through this letter to the Ephesians Christian together. So last week we talked about Connections and how we are all connected to others in particular connected in their suffering. Them are missionaries talked about how important this connections were. And this week we're going to talk about some of the things or the thing that causes us to not make that connection to not have that empathy to not want to be unified with others. That is perceived hostility. Give examples of ways we have hostility towards others. Get to text and then to the sermon.

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

----

pray

[dividingbyzero]

Since I know you all came here today for a math lesson, I figured I would get right to it. I can almost feel some of your thoughts right now. That tension from our school days. I can hear you tell yourself, “it was my understanding that there would be no math.”

Well there is; just a little though.

If you have ever learned about division, you know that dividing by zero is impossible. Specifically, it is referred to as “undefined.” In other words, it doesn’t really even exist. You see, if you divide something by zero, you haven’t really done anything. You can’t divide something if there is nothing to divide it in the first place!

Church, I want you to take that little lesson to heart though. Internalize it. You can’t divide something if there is nothing there to divide it.

Paul tells us that here in this text. You see, all humans, from the beginning of time until now, search for differences. And when we find those differences, we begin to assign value to those differences. We all do it. It is part of the way we are wired to survive. It was that way, it turns out, for all creation. I say was, because for the past 2,000 years, it hasn’t had to be the case - even if we have insisted it to be.

Ephesians 2:14 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Eph 2

It hasn’t had to be the case, because that math problem was solved long ago. I say that, because all that stuff that once divided all people, in particular, the things that set apart some and not others - that is to say, those who had God and those who didn’t - had been accounted for by Christ. That is what Paul is saying here.

Understand this letter is destroying this idea that God was the God of the Jews only. This letter is an announcement to the believers there in Ephesus, and each and every person to ever believe in Jesus, that God wasn’t just theirs, He belongs to everyone! And more to the point, everyone who has ever lived is so loved and cherished by God, that He allows for them to come back and to live in relationship with the one who created them!

He has become our peace. He is the common thread in all of our lives! He is the link. He is the one we should see when we allow hostility to build in our hearts towards another. He is the one we should see because we all one!

Paul tells us that he has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. That means that there is nothing left to divide us by! Zero! And you can’t divide by zero!

Church, BECAUSE we have been made one - or made whole with one another - in Christ, there is nothing that can divide us except for ourselves, and our own lack of trust and faith in God.

[pictureofpeoplearguing]

But what about those people who I disagree with? What about those who do stuff I don’t like? What about all those things that the television, or Facebook, or whatever talking head you decide to invest your time in, tells you? They say those other people are bad! If we listen to them, or trust them, or work with them, or heaven forbid listen to Jesus and love and pray for them - if we do that, they will just take advantage of us, or maybe even kill us!

Sure

Besides, I don’t like them. They look different. They think different. They are just different. So I don’t trust them.

Every day we go through those thoughts, those emotions. At the very least, we are sold that line of thinking. And church, if you have already tuned me out, listen closely if you will.

All those people who gas light us, all those people who dog whistle us into believing the world is against us. All those people who seek to draw us from a position of love and peace to a position of anger or hate. All those who know nothing of compassion, but rather only worship ratings, or likes, or follows, or money and power.

They are all lying.

I don’t care if you like what they are saying or not. I don’t care if you think they are right or not. I don’t care if you have trusted and followed what they say and do all your life. I don’t care about that, because frankly - the last time I checked - there is only one person to whom I owe my life and allegiance! And that is the very person who tells me, through His sacrifice of flesh - that we are all the same! We are one!

Ephesians 2:15–16 ESV

by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

That’s really the point here. Before Jesus we were all fending for ourselves. Without God, scripture tells us. We all had to look out for number one. We all had to get our way - because only we could be trusted! And because of that we looked at others with hostility. We doubted their intentions. We questioned everything they did. And when we viewed life through that lens - the lens of self and hostility - we found out that we are right! We need to be hostile because everyone else is hostile toward us!

Just ask our missionaries who presented last week. Surely they were all welcomed with a slanted eye, and questions of their intentions, right? After all, they were foreigners! There weren’t from around here!

No. You see, when you approach someone in love - with a spirit that is willing to accept them as they are and help them to become the best they can be - it turns out they will love you.

When you preach to the world peace, you will, for the most part, get peace and love in return. Just imagine if we would all finally take Jesus seriously and do that. Imagine if we just loved those who don’t go to my church. Or don’t think like me. Or look different. Just imagine the difference in our lives, and in this world.

After all, they don’t go to my church. They don’t think like me. They look different.

And in our country as well.

Church, we divide each other, constantly, over nothing. Jesus, through His love and sacrifice for us all, created in Himself one new man. To put it more appropriately, the sacrifice of Christ made all humans one. There were no more chosen people and everybody else. No more sinners and saints. There is humanity saved. There is a world that must now be viewed through the lens of the sacrifice of God for everyone! Not that they all accept it, but they were the very people God gave everything for! And if them, so also you and me! We are all the same! We are all reconciled to one another and to God through the cross! And because of that there is no more need for hostility or bitterness!

[picofcarowinds]

But instead of facing that fact and rejoicing, we act like spoiled kids at an amusement park. We complain about the long lines. Or those people with the fast pass. Parking is bad. We need to hurry up or we will miss out on this ride or that attraction! I mean, do we ever just sit and realize how blessed we are to be there?

Likewise, do you ever stop and praise God that He gave his life for those people you are led to hate?

Those people you have become hostile towards, and let roots of bitterness grow between. Those people with whom you could never find peace, because they hold an opposite position on some social or political or interpersonal affair. So how could you ever like them?

How could you ever appreciate them?

[picofjesusoncross]

You may as well ask how could Jesus have died for them. Because He did.

And through that death, He has opened the door for us to have peace. A peace that passes all understanding! A peace that this world desperately needs right now!

I want to be as transparent and confessional as I can be right now. I struggle with this. I struggle with being at peace when I see so many screaming at others. I struggle with wanting to fix a world that, in my opinion, has become broken by those who lie consistently and shout conspiracy theories and falsely view the world as “us against them.”

But understand, it is because of that, and of them, that I must preach peace. And not just peace to those who agree with me, but peace to those with whom I disagree.

I have to do that - we must do that - because if we are following a voice, whether political, social, or even the voice in our own heads - if we are following a voice that preaches violence and not peace, we aren't following the voice of Christ! In fact, it can be better claimed that we are rejecting the voice of Christ!

Isaiah 1:16–18 ESV

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

We are called to so much more! [read]

Christ, in His flesh, broke down the need for hostility in this world! And in it, in that moment and in that sacrifice for all people, He preached to us peace! Peace for everyone! War will come, there is nothing we can do to stop that! There are moments when violence may overtake us, and we might have to defend ourselves. But church, those are just moments! Our overarching goal, the thrust of our lives, should always be towards unity and peace! And let me tell you, if it isn’t, then I am afraid that you - or whomever it is we are listening to, is not following the one we are called to follow!

Christ broke all hostility in his flesh and in it's place preached peace, and made peace for everyone. will war come, perhaps. do we defend ourselves in situations, God will guide your actions, if you let Him. Those are moments though. Our overarching goal, our bent should always be towards unity and peace, and if it isn't, then I am afraid you - or whomever we are listening too, is not following the one we are called to follow!

if you follow a voice, whether political, social, in your own head, that preaches violence and not peace, you aren't following the voice of Christ - rather the exact opposite. Christ broke all hostility in his flesh and in it's place preached peace, and made peace for everyone. will war come, perhaps. do we defend ourselves in situations, God will guide your actions, if you let Him. Those are moments though. Our overarching goal, our bent should always be towards unity and peace, and if it isn't, then I am afraid you - or whomever we are listening too, is not following the one we are called to follow!

HE IS THE ONE WHO PREACHED PEACE TO THOSE WHO BEAT HIM! PEACE TO THOSE WHO BETRAYED HIM! PEACE TO THOSE WHO MOCKED HIM! PEACE TO THOSE WHOSE SIN NAILED HIM TO THAT TREE! HE PREACHED PEACE TO YOU AND TO ME!

AND THAT PEACE, THAT ABIDING PEACE OF CHRIST MUST REIGN IN US IF WE EVER WANT IT TO REIGN IN THIS WORLD!

[lettherebepeaceonearthandletitbeginwithme]

This isn’t a pipe dream church. This is real. And it is really important for you to internalize this right now.

Until that dividing wall of hostility is broken in our own hearts - until peace reigns in us fully - until that happens, there will never be peace on this earth. There will never be peace in your home. There will never be peace in your heart.

Until you realize that God loves everyone else, just as He loves you; until you find peace in knowing that there is no need to have something someone else has, or to be right all the time, or to be famous, or in charge - until you come to grips with God’s sovereignty in your life, and in this world, you will never truly know peace.

And if you don’t know peace, this world can’t know it.

It is up to us - all of us - Christians first, by the way. If we, as followers of Jesus, would all in unison declare our Unity to one another and to the other people of this world. If we would accept the peace that Christ offers us. If we would just let Him tear down that dividing wall of hostility, and understand that we are all the same, He would place in our hearts the total peace of Christ.

Today at 8:32 AM There should be a big chunk talking about peaceperiod until peace Reigns in our hearts peace can train in the world. It's not a pipe dream. It's an absolute cause and effect. If Christians would all in unison declare their Unity to one another and to the other people on this world and place in their heart the total peace of Christ then there would be peace on this planet. It's not up to everyone else to have peace when they don't have Jesus! It's up to the followers of the creator of everything the Prince of Peace to take up that piece and to bring Unity to this world. Segway from there too when we follow other voices, the hostel voices stuff.

Sure life still might no got they way we want. But ultimately, we would realize that it just doesn’t matter. We are loved by the eternal. And through that love, and that tearing down of the wall of hostility, we could have peace! And with that peace, we would see no need to tear down others! We would stop following the voices that incite hatred and violence! We would become beacons of peace and love to this world! And if we could just do that, church, then there would be peace on this planet.

It's not up to everyone else to have peace when they don't have Jesus! It's up to the followers of the creator of everything - the Prince of Peace - to take up that peace and to bring Unity to this world.

Ephesians 2:22 ESV

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Eph 2:

After all, we are the dwelling place of His Spirit.

Does your life reflect that? Do you words reflect that? Do your intentions reflect that? Has that hostility been torn down from your heart and does peace reign?

Church, if it doesn’t, today is the day to let it begin.

Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me Let there be peace on earth The peace that was meant to be With God as our father Brothers all are we Let me walk with my brother In perfect harmony

Let peace begin with me Let this be the moment now With every step I take Let this be my solemn vow To take each moment And live each moment In peace eternally Let there be peace on earth And let it begin …let it begin in me.

In this moment of reflection and response, I want you all to look into your heart and identify the ways in which we reject peace and let hostility grown. And I want you to pray to God about that, and ask Him to take it away, and put in its place His peace. And not just in this moment, either. You see, we must do that every day! Every time we feel anger well in our hearts, we must remind ourselves that we are one! And until peace reigns in us, it cannot reign in this world.

And to do that, we must stop following the voice of hate, and start following the voice of love. The voice that knows your name. That knows you every thought. The voice of the one who gave everything for you to know peace and love.

So whatever your needs are, lets take a moment to make them known to God as we respond to Him in this moment.