Armor For A Busy Week

We share a quick Rush Church update from a packed week of events and summer planning, then pivot to a short devotional that brings the Armor of God into real life. We read Ephesians 6 and talk about truth, peace, faith, and salvation as daily habits that help us stand strong and show up for each other.
• quick update on a busy week of community events and Rush 1.8 plans
• Pineapple Palooza details and simple ways to volunteer
• Graduation Sunday reminder and what we need to recognize seniors
• Kids Jam glow theme, Amazon wish list, and why we’re investing in reusable supplies
• paintball camp spot update and who can attend
• youth Nerf war recap and why it led into the devotional
• Armor of God overview from Ephesians 6:10–18
• the battle not being against people but against unseen schemes like lies, stress, and temptation
• armor as a daily mindset instead of a last-minute rescue
• practical breakdown of each piece: truth, guarding the heart, peace, faith, protecting the mind, and God’s word
• church community as a unit that stands together and has each other’s backs
If you have a graduate or you know a graduate, I need their information as soon as possible. We still need some people, we need some volunteers. Go read the passage, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, and pick one of the pieces of armor that you need to work on the most.

www.rushchurch.com

Transcript

Quick Check In And No Full Episode

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome everybody to a short version of Rush Hour. It's just me and Britney here this morning, and we've had a busy week. Yes, we have. We've been doing things every day. We've been out with Rush 18 at Ben Logan doing some things. You might have seen our pictures on Ben Logan's Facebook page about some events. We were with uh what's the thing? Rally for the Cure.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Rally for the Cure. Was Relay for Life. Now Rally for the Cure.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah. Yeah. Some people still call it.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

I still call it Relay for Life.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

It's the same thing. Good cause. But they asked us to come out and help. And so we're actually recording this update for you on Friday morning. So we were out yesterday at the middle school, and we're about to head in about 20 minutes to the high school today to do some things. But we'll update you about all that and how it went next week on next week episode. We just wanted to get on and say that and just give you an update about our week because it's been busy. So we don't have a full episode for you guys, but we have some announcements about Rush Church and then a quick devotional for you, real

Rush Church Announcements And Summer Dates

SPEAKER_00 0:56

fast. So we've had a lot of things going on at Rush Church. Rush 28's kicking it off for the summer. We have Pineapple Palooza June 6th in Bellfoun. We still need some people.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

We do.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

We need uh some volunteers. And then yeah, just come check it out. It's really easy. I promise. Anybody can do it. Uh you might have heard that, but like you just gotta come and you know watch people on the obstacle course, tell them when to go, tell them to get off.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

And then what else are we doing uh there? I can't remember. Obstacle course photo booth and photo booth.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

And then we'll have an information tent.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah. And if you don't want if you just want to come see us, that's too, and come to check out what it's like, and then maybe volunteer for the next time. But we're gonna have lots of things going on. If you see Rush 1.8 going somewhere and you maybe can't stay the whole time, but you want to come check it out, just come see it. If you haven't yet, the trailer and all the things that go with it, it'll be cool. And then maybe next time you could be like, oh, I could do that. Yeah, and then you could sign up and help us and spend the day with me and Britney and Ashley.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yes, it's very fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

We do have a good time. It's tiring sometimes, but this one won't be. This one's this one's gonna be easy. It's tiring pineapple Palooza. So that's that. Graduation Sunday is May 17th. That is next Sunday. So if you have a graduate or you know a graduate, I need their information as soon as possible. Where they graduated from, a couple pictures, could be senior pictures, could be, you know, just a few pictures of uh of them and then where they're going next and what's next. So love to have that kind of stuff to recognize those graduates next Sunday. Let's see, kids jam, it's coming up in July. The glow theme. We got we started to advertise that a little bit more, put out some posters this week and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Put out our wish list for Amazon. We've had some stuff come in. It's been pretty fun to watch it.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

You guys can help in that way too. Maybe a hundred kids is a little stressful for you to be here and think about, but you can still donate and still give in that way with the wish list, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, a lot of years we did crafts, you know, we're always creating things for BBS and working really hard on that. And now we've decided to kind of move over to Kids Jam, which we've talked about before, but the things that we are spending our money on are things that will last for several years that we can keep reusing and things like that. So we're very appreciative when people decide to help us with that.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah, I think it's a really cool thing if you haven't been. I mean, it's still VBS. We just call it Kids Jam. It's uh it's it's cool how I actually set it up though. I like the color teams and the challenges and the points and kind of very competitive, of course. I like it, but then you know it's still not that competitive. You can still get it. Yeah, no, it's not that serious, not that serious, but but for the prize of the giant duck. Some of those kids it is serious. Yes, you get your team name on the giant relatable duck, apparently. So that's really cool. Let's see, what else? I don't think I have anything else. Uh paintball camp, I have a few extra spots. If anybody wants to go to paintball camp, that's nice. Um, if you're going into seventh grade, you're able to come. But uh yeah, so that's cool. Yeah. We're able to work some magic and open a few extra spots for people that might want to go.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah. And Erica's camp is full though. There's no extra spots for her. That's about the girls' camp. So all right. Like I said, well, uh we just wanted to jump on and actually have an episode go out to tell you that there is no episode this week, but like a mini

Nerf War Recap And Devotional Setup

SPEAKER_00 4:26

episode. So we did have a nerf war at the church Sunday night with the youth, and we just brought a bunch of nerf nerf guns and ammo.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I think that Jocelyn's still cleaning that up a little bit. Yeah, I think she only found like 20.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

We did a pretty good job of cleaning the building afterwards, but there's always some nerf darts laying around. But we had about 15 students come and hang out that night, and we had fun. Ran all ran all over the building, didn't break anything, nothing went wrong, so that's good. Yeah. But nerf guns, you know, there's not much you can they're they're fine. They're fine. But we had a good time with that. But I did want to share with you a little devotion that I kind of gave the kids after the nerf war just to have something for you guys this week. From the book of Ephesians in the New Testament, Paul's writing to the church in Ephesus, and he this is a famous passage. You might have heard it before. It's called the Armor of God passage. I'm just gonna read it real quick and then give you a quick breakdown, and then me and Brittany have to get going. So here we go.

Reading Ephesians 6 Armor Of God

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Finally, oh, this is Ephesians 6, starting in verse 10 through 18. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We kind of talked about this a few weeks ago during our spiritual beings kind of talk and stuff. But here Paul is referencing this again, saying the true enemy is unseen, it's not against people, even though we think it is most of the time. Uh he says, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. And he borrows this from the Old Testament, actually. I think it's Isaiah, where it lists like God's armor pieces, and so he kind of fleshes this out a little bit more, which is really cool. Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, which with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication, to that the end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And so he goes on and talks about just praying. He's like, and but above all this stuff, always pray. So put on all your armor pieces and pray in all times. And so kind of break

Armor As A Daily Mindset

SPEAKER_00 7:02

this down a little bit. When we think about the armor of God, it's easy to picture like what do you picture when you think of like armor?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Well, a knight. A knight.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

See, that's what we all said that Sunday night too. I was like, What do you guys picture when you think of armor? And they're like, a knight. Yeah like a suit of armor. That's what I think of in my head. So Paul's not actually talking about physical pieces of armor, he's thinking this is like a spiritual thing, but he's using a Roman soldier, and what a Roman soldier wears as an example. He's like, I'm gonna take these pieces, we'll call it call it the armor of God, and it represents all these different things. And so more it's a more of a daily mindset that Paul wants us to have. You know, have have your have your faith, have truth, have peace, have remember your salvation, where it comes from. Um, and he has all these things, and he's talking about it. So he uses the closest thing as a Roman soldier and and the stuff that he wears and puts on. So he reminds us that the battle isn't against people, it's against the powers of darkness, and it's against like stress and lies and temptations and things that drag us down on a daily basis that you know make our life more difficult or make it harder. So I think that's what he's trying to get to. Because we all have stress, we all have temptations, we all have anxieties about things and worries and things like that. And Paul's saying, remember, you have this armor available to you. God gives us the armor, but I don't think he makes us put it on.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Unfortunately, no.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Right? You know, and God gives us gifts, but we still gotta open the gift and use it. Like I can give somebody a cool present, but if they just let it sit on the shelf, it's no use.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

God's like, I have all these cool things for you to help you in life, like peace, like remember your salvation, like truth, and then you know, all these different things that he lists. But it's we still have to put the armor on and put it to good use. Yeah, sometimes we just let it sit in the closet, yeah. And we're like, Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And then we wow, I wonder why that hurt. Oh, I'm not wearing any armor.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Exactly. And you know, and then we run to the armor, yeah. But then it's you've already been shot with an arrow in the shoulder or in the leg, and you're like, Oh, this is this is hard. Yeah. And God's like, Well, armor's in the closet, you could have had it on, you could have been wearing it, and this it wouldn't have hurt as much.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, we actually just went through this last week. No, and the week before. So we're all slow learning.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I think if we learn to practice these things and we learn to practice, you know, integrity and peace and trust and remembering who God is and the salvation that he offers us, not through our deeds, but through Jesus and all these different things we can put on and remember these on a daily basis. It's a the armor is a daily mindset. You'll be ready, yeah, just in case. Yeah, you know, it's a dangerous world out there. You don't want to go wandering around in our culture without armor.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

We do that all the time, though. Yeah. We're like, left my armor at home, got shot with an arrow, but like, oh, I should have had that armor on. Right. Well, now clean yourself up, bandage up your wounds.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And then so many times we bandage ourselves up, then we're like, I don't need the armor today, I'll be fine. And I go out and get shot again with an arrow. So this was just a reminder to my students when I did this lesson to kind of you know keep your relationship with Jesus in perspective and keep it at the forefront. It's gotta be the top of the list. Even when life's going really good, and you're like, Life's good. I don't really think I'll be safe. Yeah. And I don't really need this right now. I'll leave it over there. I know it's there, but then by the time you realize you need it, it's always too late.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

I think this is always when I've heard this message before, it's always to kids. And I feel like our kids really need this, but so do we.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Oh, yeah. This is not Paul wasn't writing to kids. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

And so I think we kind of forget that because it's just such a good visual for kids to kind of wrap their brains around it. They like it.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I mean, you can get a suit of armor out and you can point at it and be like, look, it's especially middle school boys, I've always they've always liked the armor of God.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yes. This is Rush Church. Yes, but it's like so much needed in our adult lives.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah. And so my goal to you guys that are listening, go read the passage, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, and pick one of the pieces of armor that you need to work on the most, I guess, and

Picking One Piece To Practice

SPEAKER_00 11:25

see. And and they are the belt of truth, and that's integrity. Being honest when it's easier to, you know, not be. Or integrity is always being consistent with who you are, no matter where you're at. Be the same when you're by yourself as you are with the people at church or your family, or you know, all those different things. Right. That's the truth. Keep the truth, the truth, no matter where where you are. If you need to work on that, focus on that one. All these are the things. The the breastplate of righteousness, guard your hearts, protect what's going in. What are you consuming? What are you taking in? And guard because what goes into the heart is what comes out of your life. Peace, the gospel of peace, the shoes of readiness. We're supposed to be peacemakers. Don't give in to conflicts. I mean, it's okay to argue to an extent, right? But we shouldn't be going looking for fights. We shouldn't be adding to the flames. I guess you could say, yeah. Remember, we have a calling to be peacemakers and help people resolve conflicts, not add to conflicts, which can be easier said than done. Right. You get out there and just find yourself talking in this conversation, you'd be like, oh shoot, I am not helping. Maybe you need to work on that one. And then the shield of faith, remembering God's got you all the time. So stressful moments, anxiety hits, and just go back and rely on him through those moments. Easier said than done. All these things are easy to say, which is why we leave the armor in the closet a lot of the time. And then we have the helmet of salvation. Don't let the thoughts of negative thoughts overtake your brain, I guess. Remember who you are, who you belong to, and that he's got you, and not let lies like you're not good enough, or God doesn't really care about this. It could be anything.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Have enough conversation, have enough conversation with God that you know what his word sounds like over your own.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Which is the last one. Paul talks about the sword of the spirit, and he's talking about who God is, his word, what he stands for. That's our that's our weapon, I guess you'd say. Fall back on what does God say? How does God handle these kind of things? So there you go. That's the armor of God. Those are things go read one, pick one that you need to work on, or that you you know, either several. Or several. I mean, I feel like most of us can pick at least one that we could work on and do better at. But yeah, be prepared. It's hard, the world's rough. Yes, lots of things going on out there. But thanks, Brittany, for listening to my little

Armor Works Best In Community

SPEAKER_00 13:50

okay. And we will all we've been talking about church, we've been talking about like why it's important to go to church. Yeah. And Roman armor isn't does the way the Roman soldiers worked in the army, like one person by themselves can't really do much. Right. But their armor was made to kind of come together and and make lines and make a fortified unit. So it's the armor is for the church, and we should all be wearing it together and protecting each other, have each other's backs. And so I think that's a cool that's really cool. A cool another take. So it's it ties into what we've been talking about a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I like that. Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

So that's what that's how the Roman you know army worked. It wasn't just one out on its own, with you know, it can help, but you need a lot of people with all the armor on, and you come together and it creates this kind of fortified stronghold. So that's what we can do. That's why it's important to be among other believers also. Just wanted to tie that in.

Prayer And Closing

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Perfect. But all right, let me pray, and then me and Brittany got to go. God, thank you so much for this time. Thank you for the opportunity to talk and just have conversations and learn and grow that we can do this cool podcast together. Pray as we go out today for Rush 1.8 stuff and whatever's to come up this summer. I pray for those listening, whatever they're going through, you know what it is. So we'll just uh leave it to you. Uh leave it in your hands. Pray for healing where it's needed, comfort where it's needed. Praise you for all the good things that you're doing, also. So in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

unknown 15:14

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

All right. We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for listening. This was Rush Hour.