Good afternoon!
A couple of updates from our time together on Sunday:
- 47 folks casted ballots during our Affirmation Vote for the 2023 Budget. The budget was affirmed unanimously.
- My presentation during the Sunday School hour was video recorded. If you were not able to join us you can view it here: https://youtu.be/b5ptTJ2AsxA . Please note that this video is not publicly available on our church Youtube channel…you have to use this direct link.
As you process my presentation and how you feel about the direction of Andrews Bridge you may well have some thoughts or questions or concerns. Please reach out to me or one of elders with them. I can’t promise that we’ll have the answers, but I can promise that we are willing to listen. I’m always available to talk, especially if it’s over a cup of coffee!
I was also hoping to give an update on the gentleman who passed away in our parking lot earlier this week, but I do not have one at this moment. If and when I do have an update I will pass it along.
Towards the end of the message this Sunday I am going to talk about our need to put on the armor of God. I’m not going to talk about the armor in great length, so I want to share some thoughts with you here. In Ephesians 6 Paul calls on all believers to put on the armor of God so that they will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Paul uses the imagery of a Roman soldier to help his readers connect to what he was talking about.
Paul first mentioned the Belt of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness in Ephesians 6:14. Satan wants to attack us with his lies. Jesus himself calls Satan the “father of lies” in John 8:44. Satan tells us all kinds of lies, but his three main ones are that we don’t need God, God doesn’t have our best interests in His heart, and that our sin isn’t that big of a deal.
Satan seeks to accuse us of unrighteousness, so that we have doubts about our faith. In Revelation 12:10 we learn that another name for the devil is accuser. He loves to point out all of our failures, and heap on guilt and shame. So we are to be so familiar with God’s truth that it is like we are wearing it. And that just as the belt of a Roman soldier held in place the soldier’s breastplate, so too does wearing God’s truth hold in place our righteousness. We must seek to live in righteousness…to become what we believe, so that the very lives that we live show that we have no doubts about our faith.
Paul then says that we need to have feet fitted with readiness in verse 15. Satan wants us to be afraid of him so we won’t stand firm against him. So how do we stand firm? Well, trusting in Jesus as our Savior brings us with God. Because of that peace, we need not fear Satan or others. It is the Gospel, so well encapsulated by John 3:16, that allows us to stand with confidence! Having feet fitted with readiness also means we must always be ready to share the Gospel so that others might know that same peace with God.
Next Paul calls on us to take up the shield of faith in verse 16. Satan is often a coward…he seeks to inflict us from afar with his flaming “arrows”. Those arrows are burning desires to hate God’s will for our life, to hate others, and to sin.
And so we must take up our shield of faith…to trust in God’s will and plan for our life…to trust that He loves us and wants the very best for us…to have faith that all that He has promised will come to pass will in fact happen just the way He says it will.
The final pieces of the armor of God are the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (verse 17). Satan seeks to not only attack our hearts but also our minds. We must make the mental choice to trust in God and lean not our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) for deliverance from our trials and tribulations, for when we feel we are under attack. The sword of the Spirit is our lone offensive piece of armor. Paul tells us that our “sword” is the Word of God. We have been given the very Word of God, yet too many Christians either don’t know it, don’t know how to use it, or both. We must become familiar with the Scriptures, so that when we are tempted or attacked by our enemy we can fight back with God’s Truth.
What is interesting to me about verse 17 is that Paul uses the Greek word rhema, which refers to the spoken Word of God, not logos, which is the written word of God. Just having the Word of God sitting on our bookshelves or coffee tables isn’t enough, for it to be effective it needs to be a living, breathing, spoken part of our lives!
I am sure that at some point we’ll do a much deeper dive into the armor of God, but hopefully this brief look at it is helpful for you in your daily walk of faith.
Here’s what’s happening:
- The Senior High Youth meet THIS SUNDAY January 22nd right after the worship service till around 1 pm for lunch and the normal youth group time. Football games don’t start till 3 pm and the Eagles play Saturday night, so join us for a fun time!
- After a bit of a staggered start to the year, Sunday School for all ages returns this Sunday.
- We will be having a fellowship meal after the service on Sunday, January 29.
- Junior Youth next meet on Sunday, February 5 after church.
- We are looking for people to serve as “on call” nursery staff each week. This would entail being a church and willing to be in the nursery for the worship service should the need arise. Of course, if there isn’t a need these folks can join us in the worship service. Please see Amber McMillion if you would be interested in helping out.
This Sunday we are going to be looking at Jesus calling his first disciples and one of the wilder church services found in Scripture as Jesus teaches at the synagogue in Capernaum! We’ll look at what specifically caused the people to be astonished and (of course) how the passage applies to us today.
Looking forward to Sunday!
Scott