The Armor of God - Living in the Upside Down

Living in the Upside Down

Intro -

If you are my age or older, you no doubt have heard the phrase, “winning the hearts and minds.” It was used at length during the Vietnam War as a description of the strategy we were employing. One in which we tried to convince people of our cause being righteous and just by aiming to change their hearts - by winning them over not with reason as much as emotion - and then allowing that changed heart to guide their mind to the only logical end, which is that they should support us.

Now, the validity of that tactic not withstanding, it brings to mind for me our own struggles and spiritual journey. You see, we tend to rely on our hearts, what we can feel and how our emotions lead us, to guide our heads to what seems to make sense based on our “gut” feeling.

But what happens when those feelings or our limited reasoning ability lead us to a difficult spot? When the stress and troubles of this life overwhelm us, what protects us from harm?

For Paul, it was the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation. Those things that protect our hearts and minds from the troubles of this life. And today, I want us to keep those pieces of armor in mind as we leave Ephesians for a moment, and read about Jesus speaking to this very issue.

Matthew 6:25–33 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew

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pray

[picofupsidedown]

Sometimes I think we are living in the upside down. That we as Christians have so much going for us, so much that we can hang our hats on, but still we want to do things the wrong way. Our way. We want to rely on instinct and reason.

Whether it is living out our faith lives, or dealing with others, and with God, we each have this set of rules - this standard we have been taught or have gleaned from society - that we force onto ourselves; like armor that just doesn’t fit.

David and the armor

...that armor didn’t fit him because it wasn’t God’s armor, it was man’s. Just like our rules, our thoughts, our ideas of faith and salvation, they just get in the way of what we are really called by God to do!

Isaiah 29:16 ESV

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

And when we do that, we start to become the molder of our faith. We flip things upside down. We live a life that is completely the opposite of what it is called to be!

Sure there are similarities, there are some constants, but ultimately we become a piece of pottery looking back up at God wondering why He won’t bend to our will.

Anxiety, worry, fear, they become our armor. They become our portion. And not only them, but when those more primal feelings come, right behind them are all those thoughts. Those moments when we begin to justify our actions, or lack thereof. We start to figure out this life, and begin to feel like we have all the answers!

If only they would have done this or that, we say! If you go into any barber shop or beauty salon, much less any family table, you will find countless people who could all fix this world if only someone would put them in charge!

The clay is looking up to the potter, demanding to be made into something else. Or even worse, demanding that He make everyone and everything else different so that we might be more comfortable!

That is what I mean by living in the upside down. A world where worry and anxiety reign. A world where we strain to follow God under the conditions we and society impose on us when following God can and should be the easiest path for all of us!

A world where we each have our own ideas of righteousness. And even some have their own ideas about salvation!

And all those ideas, all those different thoughts about how God works - most caused, by the way, by our unwillingness to allow God to form us, and our seemingly deep desire to worry about things that are beyond us - they not only cut us off from the life we are intended to live, they serve as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy! The start of a vicious cycle that feeds on itself until all that remains are our stilted set of rules that govern righteousness, and our worry of never living up to those expectations.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

We are seeking a world that doesn’t exist. A world that is formed in our own image. The upside down world where we are in control and God isn’t. We fight against the wind and in so doing, lose our life - lose our opportunity to make a difference in this world.

So how do we fix it? How do we flip the world back right side up?

- By following the one who turned the world upside right in the first place.

- Church, Jesus came not to destroy the law, or the rules that dictated righteousness, but to fulfill them! Not to destroy life, but to grant life that is lived to the full! Not to condemn, but to save!

Jesus came into this world to offer live to all who would seek it! Mercy to all who longed for mercy, and grace to all who would accept it! And if that wasn’t enough for us, He offers to us all a life that can be lived without fear, and without worry! A life lived right-side up! A life that doesn’t impose on anyone - much less ourselves - the armor that we ourselves make. Those rules and standards that we think make us look holy. Those words we use that we think lead others to believe that we must be good people, because we say things like “share our story,” and claim things as “blessings.” We use spiritual words for physical situations and think that armor is enough to protect our minds and our hearts from the difficulties of this life.

It isn’t. And honestly, it could never be. There is stuff in this life that is just too big for us to make any sense of. In this upside down world, church, we must lose ourselves in Christ to help show the world how to live upside right.

[picofbreatplateandhelmet]

How do we do that, though?

We, Paul lays it out for us. We put on His armor. This breastplate of righteousness.

This thing that protects our hearts from worry and fear. You see, all humans want to set the standards. We all want everyone to do as we do - at least what we show we do outwardly. But we want to set the standards by which good behaviour, or right behaviour, is set. And we want that, because frankly, if we get it our way, we know that we never have to struggle, we never even have to try!

BUT WE CAN’T LIVE LIKE THAT, AND WE CAN’T HAVE IT OUR WAY! JESUS ALONE is the standard! And if we want to be protected from this world; if we want our hearts to be at peace with all that happens in and around us, then we must let His righteousness protect us!

- After all, He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God! So church, we must put on His righteousness, not our own! We must lay claim to the perfect life of Christ so that our hearts can take the blows of this life!

And when we do that, church, we begin to see the world the right way, a world right-side up. When we put on His righteousness and live by His rules - Love God and love neighbor - we slowly but surely start to be formed by Him to look and think like Him.

[rules of fighting..keep it light...maybe BTTF race scene?]

We don’t tell the potter what the rules are. We don’t even recite His rules back to Him! We live by the very righteousness of Jesus, the one who came to fulfill all the law!

And we do that, church, because He is not only our righteousness, He alone is our salvation!

And we need to remember that. We need to put on that helmet, to protect our thoughts, so that we never forget that salvation was given to us freely through His grace, and that we must freely give that same grace to others!

Romans 11:5–6 ESV

So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

You see, His salvation alone can protect our minds, and guide our thoughts!

I remember when I was a young man, we wore those WWJD bracelets...

…but what was great about those things is that they reminded us to think about Jesus before everything! To view this life, not just scripture, through the lens of Jesus - and further - protecting our minds with the helmet of salvation!

Olivia and Daisy - voice in their head

Christ alone can protect our minds, and we must open the door to that by putting on His salvation and righteousness.

We have to do that, church, because if it is us, living in the upside down, our righteousness, our ideas of faith, our hearts desire for the truth, it would be enough. But WE ALL KNOW IT ISN’T!

BUT EVEN SO, CHRIST CAN AND WILL SET US RIGHT! HIS GRACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS MUST REMIND US OF OUR DESPERATE NEED FOR HIM! WE ARE ONLY THE CLAY! WE MUST BEND TO THE WILL OF THE FATHER, HAVING OUR HEARTS AND MINDS PROTECTED BY HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HIS SALVATION! AND CHURCH, WHEN WE LIVE THAT WAY - WHEN WE PUT ON THOSE PIECES OF ARMOR - WE WILL HAVE THE CONFIDENCE AND COURAGE TO GO OUT INTO THIS WORLD LIVING THE LIFE WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO LIVE!

AND WHAT IS MORE, CHURCH, WHEN WE LIVE THAT WAY, PEOPLE WILL TALK! OH THEY MAY STOP ASKING TO HANG OUT, OR TALK ABOUT YOU, BUT DEEP IN THEIR HEARTS, WHEN THE WORLD HITS THEM AS IT HITS US ALL, THEY WILL REMEMBER THAT SEED PLANTED.

[Jim story]

THAT MOMENT WHEN THEY LOOKED AT ONE WHO LIVED NOT BY THEIR OWN POWER, NOT BY THEIR OWN IDEAS ABOUT GOD - THEIR OWN RULES AND REQUIREMENTS - BUT THAT YOU LIVED A LIFE OF GRACE THAT DIDN’T WORRY ABOUT SEEMING TO FOLLOW JESUS. THAT DIDN’T WORRY ABOUT LOOKING THE PART, OR ACTING THE PART. BUT BY LIVING A LIFE THAT WAS UNAFRAID OF ANYTHING - THAT WAS UNMOVED BY ANYTHING - APART FROM FAILING TO LIVE BOLDLY ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY FOLLOW IN THE PATH OF CHRIST!

[picofarmor]

That is why we put on armor in the first place! You see, when you where armor, especially armor that protects your hearts and minds, you have the confidence you need to go into battle. You know that you are protected.

And being protected, you are now free to live boldly for Christ in this world. The one who calls us to love and sacrifice. Mercy and Grace.

A life without worry. A life not wasted fretting about things that don’t matter, but instead focusing on the battle before us. The battle to love as Christ loved and live as Christ lived.

And the only way to do that, to live relatively worry free, is to guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.

He is our righteousness, not our rules. He is our salvation, not our standards. No matter what, church, we must put on His grace, His mercy, His love - His armor - if we want to live this life; His life, to the fullest.