The Armor of God - Even If...
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Even if...
Even if...
Intro - [we are told to stand protected by this shield, which is an obvious metaphor, but we can only stand behind it if we understand what “it” is…]
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
----
pray
[pic of patriarchs]
What sets apart those great people from history? What is the common thread for all those who are able to boldly step into a world that doesn’t look or feel like they want it to, but one that must be changed?
What sets apart those great people from history? What is the common thread for all those who are able to boldly step into a world that doesn’t look or feel like they want it to, but one that must be changed?
What made those great soldiers of WWI step up out of the trenches knowing that bullets rained all around them? What makes people give their lives for their country, or family, or even their neighbor?
We use words for them like: Duty. Sacrifice. Trust. Allegiance. Love. Perseverance. And far too many other thoughts along those same lines. All those words, they all exist in this world where they mean everything to us, but at the same time, we can’t put our fingers on them. They mean everything, and they mean nothing.
Not that they are meaningless, but rather, they are undefinable. Sure we can put our own spin on them, we can offer examples of them, but they exist instead as ideals, high thoughts that can inspire us to mimic the actions of those who take on those qualities.
They are, in short, the substance of things hoped for that can never really be seen.
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
But looking around this world, it is pretty clear that we can’t place our full trust in ideals, even those as pure and wonderful as those - not to mention many others. We can’t trust them alone, because like all things controlled and governed by humans, they are twisted and abused in the hands of those seek to gain control of others. They become a crutch for the demagogue and the tool of anyone who in the name of some cause might mishandle the best of mankind.
Still we look up to those ideals. We laud those who employ those ideals. But those ideals alone are never what we place our total faith in.
Don’t get me wrong, they are great identifiers of those whose faith is in the right place, but just like other tools in this life, they aren’t what we should rely upon above all else!
Some trust in sacrfice. Others may trust in blind allegiance. Some count on love. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but church, we must trust in the name of the Lord our God!
[faith,hope,love]
Again, hear me clearly on this, I don’t mean that those aren’t important to our lives - quite the contrary! Those ideals are the highest that people can offer this world! That is, on their own power.
They are also determinate - that is to say, there is an end to them. Allegiance has a result. Trust has limitations. Humanistic love demands a finite response.
But ultimately, if you want to show the world God, as is the call of every believer, you can’t do it on your own power. In fact, if you really want to boil things down, these pillars offered by Paul in Corinthians - faith, hope, and love - they alone are our call to live out! And church, we can’t live them out by checking off a man made set of boxes!
And what is more, you can’t really do any of it, until you have the first -
faith.
The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The tangible mystery that stands behind all those best qualities of those we laud and honor.
But what things should we be hoping for? I hope for a lot of things! So all I need is some faith and then - BOOM - I will get what I am hoping for right?
[picofthatsnothowthisworks]
I see it all the time!
People will go to others with a problem they are facing, with a life change or an obstacle that must be overcome, and the counsel of a well intentioned believer who has no other answers is always to play the faith card.
Just have faith! [examples…end it with “just have faith!”]
That isn’t how faith works!
Listen, I am not saying that God will not help. I am not saying that prayer doesn’t affect a situation. I am saying, though, that if you get to the end of your rope and THEN you begin to place your faith in God to extricate you from some bad situation, you are missing out on how faith works!
That doesn’t mean He won’t save you, after all, I have no way of knowing that. But church, faith isn’t the tokens that we put in God’s cosmic vending machine when we want something fixed, or to have the desires of our hearts!
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
[σέσωκέν]
It’s not your fault though. I blame us. Well intentioned pastors, who want nothing more than to instill in our church a sense of the best possible result of our faith, while couching the more difficult but far more real expectations.
Many of you may well remember the numerous examples of Jesus healing those who placed their faith in them. What we miss, I think, in some modern translations of the texts in the mean of the words we see as “well.” This word behind me. It comes from the root “sós” which literally means “to save”.
It is used in just about every miracle where healing is involved. You see it translated as healed, and well, and my favorite, which actually comes from the King James, which in this case gets it closest to correct I think - whole.
It is translated that way, I believe, to make clear that Jesus could and did heal people physically. He literally made them well. But what Jesus does for us, just as for them, is so much bigger and more important than being made well, right?
I mean this world, it isn’t our home! So to be made well in it, while nice, isn’t really the point! Church how much more powerful can those stories be for us, if we just take the real root meaning of the word and plug it in? How much more of an impact can be made?
Let’s try it!
And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.
Matt 9:20
[read]
Church I want to be clear about this. When you replace that word and reframe what really happened there, you get a better picture of how God works in our lives. You see, just like those soldiers coming out of those trenches, Enoch trusting he would not taste death, Noah blindly building an Ark, Abraham offering up his own son, Moses standing and demanding God’s people to be set free, the Jewish people wandering in the desert, Ruth’s devotion, David’s call, Christ himself offering His life for all of us! Just like those people, this woman wasn’t praised for her physical effort - though to be sure, it was a requirement of her faith! She wasn’t assured perfect health the rest of her life! She wasn’t absolved of any troubles that might come her way!
No! She was saved from the abyss of a life and death without God!
You see, faith isn’t intended to offer us a victory! Faith is the victory!
Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtah, Samuel, Isaiah - all those great patriarchs who lived out their lives for their God, they all were commended for their faith! They all clung to their faith when this world turned upside down! And all of them, church, EVERY SINGLE ONE. “THOSE WHO THROUGH FAITH CONQUERED KINGDOMS, ENFORCED JUSTICE, OBTAINED PROMISES, STOPPED THE MOUTHS OF LIONS, QUENCHED THE POWER OF FIRE, ESCAPED THE EDGE OF THE SWORD, WERE MADE STRONG OUT OF WEAKNESS, BECAME MIGHTY IN WAY, PUT FOREIGN ARMIES TO FLIGHT. SOME RECEIVED BACK THEIR DEAD BY RESURRECTION. SOME WERE TORTURED, REFUSING TO ACCEPT RELEASE, SO THAT THEY MIGHT RISE AGAIN TO A BETTER LIFE! OTHERS SUFFERED MOCKING AND FLOGGING, AND EVEN CHAINS AND IMPRISONMENT.
Heb 11:39
THEY WERE STONED, THEY WERE SAWN IN TWO, THEY WERE KILLED WITH THE SWORD. THEY WENT ABOUT IN SKINS OF SHEEP AND GOATS, DESTITUTE, AFFLICTED, MISTREATED.” ALL OF THEM, LIVING A LIFE THAT THIS WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY TO EXPERIENCE.
Sacrifice, duty, love, honor, persistance - all became the ideals through which they were able to convey a devotion to something bigger than themselves, in fact the ONLY THING that is really bigger than us! God Himself.
And church, they didn’t get there with reasoning, or logic, or any well thought out arguments, they all got there by faith, and through that faith they all experienced the same results!
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
[read]
You see, faith was never intended to give us a prize. Faith IS the prize. It is the gift.
This shield of faith, that Paul calls for us to stand behind, it is for us a bulwark, a blockade for the worst that this life can through at us. But at the same time, it stands as a reminder that no matter what might happen to us, no matter what we might have to face in this world, we have already been made whole. We are saved!
Even if things don’t go the way we think they should.
EVEN IF WE DON’T GET INTO THAT COLLEGE, OR GET THAT JOB, OR THAT RAISE, OR THAT BOYFRIEND.
EVEN IF ALL THOSE PROBLEMS THAT SEEM TO DOG US DAILY - MAYBE A RELATIONSHIP THAT JUST ISN’T HEALING AT THE PACE WE WANT, OR SOMEONE WE LOVE IS STRUGGLING WITH LIFE.
EVEN IF EVERY MOUNTAIN THAT COMES INTO YOUR LIFE SEEMS TO NOT ONLY NOT MOVE, BUT GROWS EVEN BIGGER!
EVEN IF YOU FEEL COMPLETELY CUT OFF FROM GOD, AND FIND YOURSELF, LIKE OUR CHRIST, BROKEN, AND CRYING, AND SWEATING BLOOD FROM UNBRIDLED FEAR AND DOUBT AND DISTANCE FROM GOD!
EVEN THEN, CHURCH, THAT HOPE - THE SUBSTANCE BEHIND ALL THOSE HIGH IDEALS THAT WE HOLD SO DEAR - IT WAITS FOR US ALL AS A REMINDER OF THE PROTECTION WE HAVE! OF THE HEALING THAT IS WAITING FOR US! OF THE RESOLUTION - THE ONLY REAL RESOLUTION - TO ALL OF OUR ISSUES; MAYBE NOT THE WAY WE CAN CONCEPTUALIZE, BUT EVEN SO, THE RESOLUTION THAT AWAITS ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE VERY CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE - OF ALL THAT SEEN AND ALL THAT IS UNSEEN. THE ONE WHO NUMBERED THE STARS AND BROUGHT LIGHT OUR OF THE VAST DARKNESS. THE AUTHOR OF ALL THAT IS CRIES OUT TO US ALL WITH THOSE FAMILIAR WORDS: HAVE FAITH!
HAVE FAITH THAT YOU ARE LOVED AND PRECIOUS! HAVE FAITH THAT YOU HAVE A PURPOSE! HAVE FAITH THAT YOU ARE PROTECTED! HAVE FAITH THAT YOU ARE SAVED, AND YOU ARE WHOLE!
AND KNOWING THAT, CHURCH, WE ARE CALLED TO STAND THERE, BEHIND THAT FAITH, AND LEAD BY IT, KNOWING THAT IT IS ONLY THROUGH STANDING BEHIND FAITH - THE SUBSTANCE OF ALL WE HOPE FOR THAT WE CAN NEVER SEE - THAT WE CAN EVER TRULY REST IN OUR SALVATION!
AND ONLY WHEN WE CAN REST IN OUR SALVATION CAN WE REST IN OUR WORLD. IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS. IN THE HARD TIMES, AND THE GOOD TIMES.
In that rest, church, we find the answer to everything.
[cometome]
Not in our gatherings; although they are vitally important. Not in our spiritual habits; though they offer us unbelievable value.
We find our faith and our resting place in Jesus Christ alone, the one who calls us to come to Him, especially when we are weak and weary, so that He can give us rest. And not only that, we must find faith and rest in the fact that each of us, though still sinners, are so loved that Jesus died so that we might have access to the only proof of our faith we ever really need.
His Grace. And His Spirit.
Our protector. Our comforter. Our delivered. Our friend.
Our shield.
Jesus. Only Jesus.
[Invitation]