Paul's Seven Essentials

This sermon was preached at North Hill Adventist Fellowship on February 19, 2011. This is a very rough sketch of the sermon done a week after preaching it. For the full sermon, check out the audio. See the link to the right.



Here in the Northwest the Mountaineers Club is famous for its advocacy of the out of doors. They want you to get outside, especially to get up into the mountains. However, with all their enthusiasm, they don't encourage people to “just go.” Just as loudly as they urge people to get outside, they also urge people to take with them the “Ten Essentials.” Extra clothes for protection against changes in weather. Water. Food. Compass. Map. Fire starter. Knife. Light and batteries. First aid kit. Sunglasses and sunscreen (and insect repellent, space blanket, whistle, GPS, duct tape, etc.).

If you talk to those of us who spend a lot of time in the Cascades, you will hear a lot of enthusiasm. It is a beautiful, wonderful world up there. However, we are aware there is an enemy up there. It's called weather. And because of the enemy. We carry our Ten Essentials. When we are hiking, when we see weather closing in or darkness, we don't panic because we know our Ten Essentials will enable us to handle the enemy.

In the Book of Ephesians, Paul recognizes there is an enemy in the world. He then outlines seven essentials we can equip ourselves with. If we equip ourselves with these seven essentials, we don't have to worry about the enemy. Paul assures that if we arm ourselves with these seven essentials, if there is a crisis, we will survive and when it is all over we will still be standing.


The Belt of Truth
For Paul, the most important element of truth is the incredible news about what God has accomplished through the saving mission of Jesus. The center of truth, the most important elements of truth are good news. If your spiritual life is characterized by a fascination with the dark and dangerous, you need to change your focus. Don't spend your time studying the devil or his friends.
In politics, beware of giving too much attention to people who specialize in bad news.
Of course, there is a place for appropriate awareness of dangers and perils. But that place should not have highest prominence in our thinking or conversation.
Another implication of “truth” as a necessity: my feelings, my perceptions, even my convictions are not the same thing as reality. My feelings, perceptions and convictions need to be open to the correction that comes from the Bible, other believers, science, and history. My own experience and study are never sufficient to place me beyond the need to be corrected and shaped through respectful listening to others.

Breastplate of Righteousness
Paul uses the word righteous in two senses. The most prominent in his writing is acceptance with God or approval by God. I am righteous when God looks at me and declares me okay, approved, innocent. This links with the message of forgiveness and my union with Jesus. The second meaning of the word refers to doing right, to character. A righteous person, in this sense, is one who does right.
Healthy spiritual life is inseparable from both meanings. We are approved by God because Jesus died for our sins and God acts with reference to his own love quite apart from our performance. Those who are engaged with God will be learning to act more and more like their heavenly Father. Their characters will change.

Sandals of the gospel of peace
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
We live in the full assurance that God is seeking reconciliation. God's goal is to eliminate his enemies by making them friends. And we are called to join him in this ministry of reconciliation.
Shield of faith.
If we have faith, Paul assures us, we can quench ALL the darts of the enemy. No worries. No fretting about whether we will be able to stand through some future trouble—whether that trouble is a theoretical period of temptation and persecution at the end of time or the very real experience of old age dementia, divorce, alienation from children, or losing our job. Faith in God makes all these threats less than terrifying. They are not pleasant. They are not trivial. But we can withstand them.

Helmet of Salvation.
God has your head. If the devil trips you or throws you off your bike or snow board, if someone drops a wrench while working above you on the job site God has your head. No worries.
Sword. The word of God
Paul uses “the word of God” in some places as a synonym for “my gospel.” (See 2 Tim. 2:8.) Other times he uses the phrase to mean the Old Testament. Other times it refers to God's personal communication through conscience or even visions and dreams. God speaks into our lives and through our lives. As we cultivate openness to God's communication to us and through us, we will be effective agents of the kingdom of heaven.

So pick up your essentials and get out there. Don't be intimidated by the enemy. There is a saying here in the Northwest: there is no bad weather, just inappropriate gear. With the right clothing you can safely go adventuring in any kind of weather. And you don't have to worry about being surprised by changes.
Those who think they can guard themselves by studying the tactics of the enemy are likely to be unpleasantly surprised. About the time you figure out what his tactics are, he'll change. Far better to equip yourselves with the seven essentials. Then you are secure no matter what.
I sometimes poke a little fun at my friends who constantly talk about the ten essentials. But I've had my cavalier attitude rudely challenged a couple of times. Once, I ended up walking for hours in pitch blackness following a leash I could not see that was attached to a dog I could not see who was “hopefully) following a trail I could not see. I had nothing with me besides the dog. No extra clothes, no fire starter, no light, no food. I had to make it out before I stopped. It was scary.

Another time, I was hiking with a young friend. The weather changed. We ended up navigating by compass cross-country for about five hours, unable to see any landmarks. Shortly before dark, we called our respective families to let them know we would not make it home that night. We were going to drop off the ridge into the valley where there would be no cell phone reception but where we would be out of the wind and where there was wood for a fire.
We weren't worried. We figured we'd probably be uncomfortable, but we would survive because we were carrying our Ten Essentials.

Paul wants us to face crises with similar confidence. And we can.