Abide – Ephesians 6
Welcome friends. Welcome to Abide. Hear this truth from Psalm 139 afresh as we begin.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there,
and if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea.
Even there, your hand will guide me.
Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for the darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.
Father, we come together today from all over, all times of the day, to abide in you, our truest home. So friends, find your space of quiet as we figuratively close the door in the bus, on the train, in the car, in our bedrooms or living rooms or offices. And let's dedicate these 30 minutes. Let's bring our attention to our master and our Lord.
And I ask you to begin, what is it that you are seeking today? Why is it that you've come to pray? What do you long for and what do you need from God? Let's start there.
And as we lay our first intention down at the feet of Jesus, let's notice our bodies and become more settled as we take a nice inhale and exhale. And just begin to notice your full body from your head to your toes. Notice where you might be holding stress or gripping, where there might be fatigue or soreness, and just breathe space and a sense of calm over your physical body.
Let's inhale once again and exhale to become more still in ourselves. And this last inhale, exhale, let's inhale the presence of God and let's exhale anything that's on our to-do List in the next few hours. OK, so let's inhale this, just all-encompassing extravagant love of God. And let's exhale all of the to-dos and place them into our Lord's hands, so that we might be more open and free to listen and to receive what God might want to offer us today.
Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be.
Today for our gratitude practice, we're going to think over this last semester. Here we are at the final Abide of the semester. And I'd love for us to look over something that we've learned in the last three months. Maybe it's something you've learned in class by a professor. Or something that you've read in a textbook. Or even something you've learned while you've written a paper. Take this time now to review this past semester, and in joy, something that you've learned and talk about it with Jesus now.
And now I'd love for us to think about the “who”. Who has been important in our lives, in our stories these past months? Who has been that person that has encouraged you, has surprised you with joy or help? Who sticks out as someone who has been a gift to you from God? And so, spend this time now talking to Jesus about the person or the people that have been so important in the last three months.
And lastly, we're going to just show God our gratitude in an activity that we've been able to be a part of this past semester, maybe you've gotten to be a part of a band or maybe a walking club? Maybe you love to read, and you've gotten to read. Maybe you'll love to cook, and you've been making new recipes. Or sew. Or sing. Take some time now to just review any activities you've been able to be a part of this semester, and just celebrate those with Jesus, thinking back upon them and just being grateful how these have aided you and nourished you this semester.
Wonderful. It's so good to spend some time gazing at the actual elements of our life and enjoying them, and allowing these things to nourish us, and to notice them again and again and again. Thank you, God, for your generous love, through what we're learning, through who you're surrounding us with, and the activities that we get to participate in.
And Jesus, one of the things we are grateful for is this letter from Paul, that he had the heart to write it, in prison, to get these words down from your spirit and that it's been sent to us afresh this day. And so we're going to open the letter, we're going to come to Ephesians Chapter 6 together. And we're going to take a nice steady breath to prepare ourselves for this word.
Hear this word, Ephesians 6:10-20.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the evil schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Hear this word, and allow it to mingle into your thoughts, your heart’s space and into your physical being.
As you know, we've been on this journey with Paul, and he's been training us, in how to live out and how to manifest the gospel in our everyday lives, and this has to do with how we speak and how we act and how we physically use our bodies, and it manifests in how we are in a day. And he's going to end the letter by reminding us that we have some hard work to do. That this will not be easy. That this will be a battle that we face. And so, as we prepare to go deeper into this together, I'm just reminded how I often think following God will just, it just will come naturally or every morning I wake up, I'll want to do it and it will just naturally flow. And we as people don't really like to work too hard at anything or get too uncomfortable. But this is uncomfortable work. This is daily. This following after Jesus will take everything. But it won't be in our own strength. And so let's read and investigate some of these words together. And again, if you find that you get distracted during this time that we're together, you begin thinking about what you're going to have for lunch or what you're going to do later today or concerns you have. That's OK, just again, gently return back to wherever we are. And we'll begin again.
Verse 10: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” So I read in this verse that we are to be strong. But it's not in ourselves, it's in the Lord, and it's in his mighty power. It's in the connection and in the abiding and in the dependence on God that we will be strong. And I ask you today, where in your life have you sensed that you can handle this? You got this, don't need much help here. But then that begins to wear thin, and you're reminded. You're humbled. You're fatigued. And this is Paul's reminder to us that we would be strong in our connection to God, and in our abiding in him, and that is where the power and the strength will arise from. So let's envision ourselves re-plugging into this power source, to our fullness of life, our new life. It's not the old life, it's the new life, the new creation that God has called us into. Let's envision re-plugging in to that strength and to that source.
We know, Lord, that apart from you, we can do nothing.
Hear these next verses starting at verse [11]: “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then.”
In this section, you can hear the word “stand”, “stand firm”, four times. And this isn't, you know, these are terms not standing, we're going to go out to battle. We're going to move forward; we're going to make things happen. This is stand up, stand firm. And Paul goes on to say why in which we need to stand firm, because there is going to be a swirling amount of activity around you that is against you. And I can't go into, I can't even pretend to understand the differences between all of these evil forces and where they come from and how it manifests. All I know is that it's swirling and that we are asked to stand firm.
This passage makes me think of a tree that is rooted, deeply rooted into the earth and I know this past week, there have been swirling winds. And watching the trees, the branches sway from side to side and up and down. And where is their grounding? So that they can hold, hold their whole being together, it comes from their roots in the earth. Or I also think about these little toys that I grew up with, these weeble wobble toys, that, they're weighted at the bottom and if you hit them down, they come all the way down and they slowly pop back up. And they moved from right to left and forward back and then they slowly returned back up because they're weighted, down low, deep into their being.
And so for us today, let's just begin to notice and allow our grounding, even when I'm sitting here, I'm thinking about my sit bones grounded into my seat. Think about being grounded right where you are physically. Begin to feel grounded in God right now. And I don't know about you, but walking with my peers this week and through my own life, even just being in one hour of your day, you can have an assignment, a text from a friend, a family emergency, your own struggles within your physical body, and they all can come tumbling down on you in a matter of moments, hours and day. Swirling, everything in life seeming to be against you, coming at you, and you can get lost. This is what Paul is talking about when you're at those moments of swirling lostness, you can stop and you can stand and you can reconnect to the stronghold of your life that comes above and beyond anything in your day.
This is what Paul is requiring of us as disciples, that we would stand firm in something that is beyond our conditions, beyond our circumstances, beyond our own strength, we would ground in Him. And then he's going to go on to this beautiful image of how that looks. Verse 14: “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
You know, Paul is in prison while he's writing this letter, and as he looks around the prison, I'm sure he's seeing many Roman soldiers, and what they're wearing and they are a soldier of Rome, and every day they get up and they put this armor on because they serve a master. And I'm wondering if Paul is seeing this on a daily basis and saying “I serve a master, and I need to be ready, and I've got to put some stuff on in order to survive my day. I won't make it!” So he gives us these beautiful six pieces of clothing and he brings them to us in an order, possibly that the Roman soldier might have put them on.
The belt, put on this belt of truth. Integrity, friends, integrity in your inner being. Put it on. Be reminded of it. This breastplate of righteousness, of goodness, of being put right with God. Put it on. Put on these shoes of the gospel, and in a readiness to move, in and out of circles of your life with feet of peace. Peace between you and God, and peace between those around you. And there's this shield, it's like a door goes right in front of you, of faith, trust. Trust in God's resources and his care for you, so that you can handle these arrows coming every which way. Don't forget the helmet of salvation, that it's already been accomplished, that you're already saved, that you're always in the palm of his hand. Don't forget that before you leave, put that helmet on. And then grab your sword, which is the word of God. Take it with you. Don't leave home without it.
These are resources that protect us individually, but they're also resources, we’re meant to put on for the safety of the community, of the church, of unity. These are going to be needed in order to interact with people that are different, that think differently, that act differently. We're going to need these resources to bring peace within ourselves, and into the church, and into the world. Lord, have mercy and clothe us with these resources.
And lastly, Paul writes: “And pray, pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.”
So after you've plugged in to the strength of God to be strong, and then you're standing firm, remembering to stand up, and then you're putting on different pieces. Over it all, you're going to pray. Friends, we're going to just pray each moment. And here, Paul says, we're going to pray all kinds of prayers, all kinds of requests all through the day. Just keep it going. Keep the conversation going, all kinds. And be alert, looking out for the people around you that might need prayer, encouragement, love, support.
O Lord, this is a daunting task for us as just little humans. But we do long to be soldiers in this life for you, our master. And we don't want to go out without our equipment on. We want to be readied. We want to have our tools. And so, God, I just pray that you would remind us of all the resources we do have and that we'd put them on. And when the resources seem to fall away and we get distracted by the swirling winds of the forces that are against us, help us remember we can put them on again, and again.
God, thank you that this communication of prayer that we're doing right now in this time doesn't have to stop here, that it just can keep going. That ultimately, our surrender and our dependence on you is our deepest portal to connection. So in our weakness, in our inadequacy, in our fumblings, we fall to your feet. We abide in you, which then gives us strength, which then help us stand, which then helps us put on the belt, breastplate, shoes, the shield, the helmet, sword. And we will move forward, and we will pray. And we will live a life that glorifies you and that is readied to serve.
Allow us, allow me to read this last passage from Paul, verse 23: “Peace to the brothers and to the sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
Peace be with you, my friends, and thank you for being a part of this beautiful time in the Lord's presence.
