The Armor of Religion - Part 1

In Ephesians 6:11-17 we read about the type of "armor" that God wants us to put on in order to resist the attacks on our hearts. At the youth retreat a couple of weeks ago, I presented the idea that way too many Christians are using the Armor of Religion instead of the full armor of God for their spiritual well being. I used the example of Iron Man to tell this story about how we build up our own systems in order to deal with our heart condition... and these religious systems are just not good enough.

Since that topic really hit home for me personally I thought I'd share that here on my blog.

Jesus didn't come to start a new religion... he came to restore our relationship with God and to free us from the slavery of trying to live up to religion! So... I believe the Armor of Religion is the exact opposite of God's armor! Over the next few days I'll talk about the different pieces of the Armor of Religion.

Piece #1 - The Belt of Lies

In 2 Peter 2:3 we read "In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money."

Let's face it, in religion we lie. A lot! We lie about how well we're really doing spiritually. We lie about the struggles that we are going through in our lives. We lie about how much we donate to charity or to the church. We lie to hold on to our positions in the church. We lie to look better then others. We lie to show how smart we are. We lie about so many different things... and why do we do that? So that we can look religious! We figure no one else struggles with the stuff that we do so we all go around pretending to be something that we're not.

Instead of wearing the Belt of Truth... which by the way, it's the truth that will set us free, we exchange that in for a Belt of Lies. Instead of living in the reality of who we are... instead of confessing our sins to one another... instead of encouraging one another... instead of praying for one another... the Armor of Religion traps us to live out a lie.

The lie of looking like the perfect Christian.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practical Atheist

Image
Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view
Read more

Revitalized Pastors and Leaders

Image
On March 15, 2023, the Barna Research Group released the "The Resilient Pastor Initiative". Its goal was to explore and share the state of pastors in America in the post-COVID climate we find ourselves in. According to the data, the state of pastors may not be as good as it appears from behind the pulpit. From 2015 to 2022 Barna notes the following where pastors responded "Excellent" in a number of categories: Spiritual well-being dropped from 37% to 14% Physical well-being fell from 24% to 9% Mental and emotional health plummeted from 39% to 11% The overall quality of life dipped from 42% to 18% The level of respect they felt from the community tanked from 22% to 10% Level of ‘true friends’ dropped by 50% from 34% to 17% The data also showed that this drop in wellness was more prevalent in younger pastors! Older pastors are riding it out to retirement. Now, before anyone from my church begins to panic, I'm OK. As shared in a blog post from January 2023 entitled
Read more

The Worship of our Worship

Image
  Every once and a while an idea pops into my head that I just can't shake. It keeps me up at night. It consumes my waking hours. It turns around and around in my head. It shows up in my dreams. It starts coming up in more and more conversations. I pray that God would just get rid of this idea because I know a lot of church people are not going to like what I have to say. This doesn't happen to me often. When it does, it's usually because I need to get this out of my head and into the world. Because I always find that I'm never alone. Others have been wrestling with the exact same idea.  I don't put this out to be confrontational or to cause division. I write this as a simple man who loves Jesus, who trusts in the teachings of Scripture, who tries hard to listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and who has been pastoring a local church for 14 years. What Started It Recently I heard the current COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the Christian Church compared to the Ba
Read more