SHOES OF READINESS - EPHESIANS 6:10-20

If everybody could make their way to your seats. Good morning.

I can make the, I can say the three key words to get everybody to get in their seats.

Let us pray. I'm just kidding.

But we will be doing that today. But we do have a lot to cover in this day.

And typically we don't do announcements, but there are several very important things in the life of the church, especially today, that I want to remind everybody about.

First is Spencer's and Angela's baby shower.

I just got told this so I didn't have time to write it down. I'm too old for this. Is it 630

Friday night in this church? At the church, 630 Friday night, baby shower.

Everybody's welcome. Are men welcome? Darn. Oh, there's food.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Okay. Second announcement is today, and we've been telling everybody this, we'll be having a family meeting.

It'll be in the place of sermon discussion, which follows the Koinonia feast.

Several things we're going to be covering. One is we're going to present several reports on the health of the church.

We'll discuss and vote on a new budget that's going to carry us six months into the future.

We're going to present a policy on giving and disbursements. We're going to discuss the future direction of the church.

Where are we headed in the future as a church? And then we'll be presenting other church business.

So it's a very, very important business meeting that we're having. This is a family meeting.

I've been calling it a business meeting, sorry, for 40 years. I've been going to business meetings. This is actually a family meeting, so unfortunately only members of the church can attend.

Okay, you must be a member to attend this meeting. The next announcement is the love offering we announced last week.

Taking up a love offering today for the Hargrave family because some situations that they're going through as a family, this isn't something that we regularly do, but we'll be taking up the normal offering that goes into the general fund of the church right before the sermon.

So then we'll be taking up the love offering after the Lord's Supper. It'll be one of the last things we do before the

Koinonia feast, and so I'm telling you this because we really don't want to get the two offerings mixed up if we can keep from it.

We're trying to keep it separate for accounting reasons, so we appreciate you helping us do that.

So now that the announcements are out of the way, we'll start the real service, and we want to welcome you here as we gather as a body in Jesus Christ on this

Lord's Day. We gather together to praise Him, to worship Him, to learn more about Him, to proclaim

His Word, to grow together in love and in unity as His Bride.

If you've been attending, you know that we're nearing the end of a long and profitable journey through the book of Ephesians.

We've learned many things about God our Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the

Holy Spirit. If you've not been with us, we're currently in the section of Ephesians. I'm sorry, currently in the section of Ephesians, where it says to be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of His might. Note that it does not say in the strength of our might, but in the strength of His might.

In these verses that we've covered so far, we've learned that we are strong when we rest in Him.

And one of my favorite verses that speaks of this is found in Isaiah 41.

It says, Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your

God. I will strengthen you. I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand.

It is I who say to you, Fear not, I am the one who helps you.

So if you just keep in count, 11 times in this passage God mentions Himself and what

He does for us. Not once does He mention that we do something. It is in Him.

And this is a great promise to hold on to when we're under spiritual attack, which is what we've been talking about.

This tells us that we can only be strong when we wait on the Lord, not in our own strength.

It is His righteousness that strengthens us. So as we progress through the rest of this extended metaphor about the armor of God, let us not forget that it's not the actual pieces of the armor that makes a difference, but what the armor represents to us.

And what the armor represents is what the Lord has already done for His elect.

He has given us His truth, His righteousness, His peace, His faith in Him, our salvation.

He's given us His Word, access to His throne with prayers. Rest in that.

Abide in that. And He tells us we will stand firm. So having said all that, this is a special day.

I was talking to Nathan. He said last week, they seem like every Sunday is a special day.

And it is. And you may have already recognized when this big black book, this big

Bible is sitting up here, we have member recognition for the sixth week in a row.

And that is amazing. Praise the Lord for that. So we have a new family joining the body, and it's the

Carter family. If y 'all come up here, please. Josh, Josh and Marianne Carter, Morrison, and Karis are joining the church today.

And they've been through the membership classes. They've been talking, visiting for quite some time.

In fact, I was talking to them, and I remember Nathan telling me, it's been at least six months or longer, that they had sent a note saying that they were moving to town, and they were going to be coming to this church.

And I just went, awesome. They've already done their research. They're already a Berean before they even, before they even came here.

Well, they went to the interview with Elder, and we're here today to present them before the body and to affirm them.

So all who will stand with this family, who will hold this family up, who will pray for this family, who will go through hard times and good times with this family, would you please stand up to affirm them as a member of our church?

Amen. Yes, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So we have this

ESV study Bible. I use mine frequently, as all should.

This isn't a gift. This is us giving you the Word of God and covenant that we will read through the

Word of God, study through the Word of God, speak the Word of God with you and into you. And we look forward to you doing the same with us.

So this is commissioning you as the Word of God, as a family of this church. So happy to have you.

Thank you. Praise Him. Before you go, I'm sorry, I have one more thing.

I'd like to just pray over y 'all. Father, we're just, we're amazed at your goodness, at your greatness, how you've built this body, how you brought the families, the people, the members, the gifts that we need to serve you better,

Lord. And we recognize this is a gift from you. It is not because of us.

We pray that your hand would be upon this family, that you would guide them and direct them in their way.

In Christ's name, Amen. Amen. So next, we're going to be praying for a local church.

Oh, you can be seated. Sorry. Grace Covenant Church, which is over by Bono, Arkansas, is who we'll be praying for.

So if you'll bow your heads in praise, in prayer, please. Lord, Heavenly Father, we lift up Grace Covenant Church to you.

We're praying that you give them wisdom in carrying out your will, that you grant them strength in the face of their trials, that you bless them with unity as their adversary tries to divide them, that you shower them in your love and keep them ever desiring you, always humble and seeking to do your will.

Show them that their strength rests in the power of your mind. Pray these in Christ's name,

Amen. So next, we have the call to worship, which is responsive reading out of Psalm 119, verses 57 through 64.

I will start out, and if y 'all reply, go ahead and stand, please. Thank you, Joe.

The Lord is my portion. I entreat your favor with all my heart.

When I think on my ways,

I turn my feet to your testimonies. Through the cords of the wicked ensnare me.

At midnight, I rise to praise you. I am a companion of all who fear you.

The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love. Join me in my prayer of adoration.

O Lord, we recognize you as the author of all our existence, the source of all our blessings.

We adore you for making us capable of knowing your greatness, for forgiving us in our sins, for giving us reason, assurance, and confidence in your word, and for leading us in our desire for you.

We praise you for the revelation of yourself in your word, for your heart is a dwelling place of your forgiveness, for your patience, and for the vastness of your grace and mercy.

We bless you, eternal God, for the comfort of your word and the hope of your promises.

In Christ's name, amen. Every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me song, eroding song, in songs by flaming tongues of God.

Raise a mountain fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help

I've come. And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.

Jesus saw me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God.

He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.

Oh, to grace, how great a debtor, daily

I'm constrained to be. For let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the

God I love. Is my heart, Lord, taken, seal it?

Seal it for thy people. Prone to wander,

Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Is my heart, Lord, taken, seal it? Seal it for thy people.

Okay, everybody should know this one. We sing it every Sunday, so it's a little bit different, but...

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him, above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Heaven and earth, and ye saints, complain.

The power and might of His greatness, let us exalt on ended knee.

Praise God, the Holy Trinity.

Sing it out. Praise God, praise

God. Praise God who saved my soul.

Praise God, praise God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise to the King, His throne transcends.

His crown and kingdom never ends.

Now and throughout eternity.

I'll praise the one who died for me.

Praise God, praise God.

Praise God who saved my soul.

Praise God, praise God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise God, praise God. Praise God who saved my soul.

Praise God, praise God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Let's do that first verse one more time. Praise God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him, above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Sing this, Be Thou My Vision. Be Thou my vision,

O Lord of my heart. Not be all else to me say that Thou art.

Thou my best thought, by day or by night.

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word.

I ever with Thee, and Thou with me,

Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true

Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee.

Riches I heed not, nor may's empty grace.

Thou my inheritance, now and always.

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart.

High King of Heaven, my treasure

Thou art. High King of Heaven, my victory won.

May I reach Heaven's joys, O Heaven's Son.

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall.

Still be my vision, O ruler of my heart.

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall.

Still be my vision,

O ruler of my heart.

Your God reigns. Amen. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice.

Together they sing for joy. For eye to eye, they see the return of the

Lord of Zion. Please bow your heads in prayer of confession and assurance.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we recognize that your love is the standard for all we can do.

We ask that on the basis of your love you receive our petitions.

Even in the presence of your grace and mercy, we recognize that our sins are far too numerous.

We think as we should not think. We act as we should not act. We have full knowledge because of the sacrifice of your

Son that you listen to His ongoing petition on our behalf so that we may hear you say that our sins are forgiven.

Father, it is at your throne of grace where we obtain mercy in our time of need, where we plead the name of Jesus Christ, where we sharpen the sword of the

Spirit, anoint the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, and strengthen for each conflict.

And we are thus empowered to conquer every adversary. Amen. Come what depths of peace

When fears are stilled and strivings cease

My Comforter, my all in all

Here in the love of Christ I stand

Christ alone, who took on flesh

Fullness of God in helpless pain

His gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones

He came to save Till on that cross as Jesus died

The wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was made

Here in the depth of Christ I live

In the ground

His body lay Light of the world by darkness slain

And mercy borne in glorious day

Love from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me

For I am His and He is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ Built in life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Lord, every word is true, Lord No power, no scheme of man

No power from hell Nothing can ever pluck us from Your hand How awesome is that,

Lord And we praise You for that this morning Jesus, Lord, I just pray, Lord That You would just bless this service this morning,

Lord Lord, I pray that You would just anoint Pastor Nathan, Lord As he comes and stands before us this morning

And just boldly preaches Your word Lord, I just pray that You would just Lord, if there's someone here this morning,

Lord I pray everyone is saved here this morning with us, Lord If there's someone here this morning that's not

You know every heart in here, Lord I just pray that You would save them this morning, Lord Lord, we love

You Bless this offering that we're about to take up We ask all these things in Your name and Jesus' name,

I pray Amen No scheme of man can pluck me from His hand

And that also applies to what we've been discussing Over the past handful of weeks

Is no scheme of the evil one can pluck me from His hand either No scheme of the spiritual forces that are at odds with us

And aiming their arrows at us can penetrate They can do no real harm

They may seem to block kingdom purpose for a season But as Joseph said, they may mean it for evil

But God means it for good, and He uses it Because of His great purpose, amen Well, go ahead and open your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter 6

Ephesians chapter 6, as we come into week 4 of our study on spiritual armor

This spiritual armor that equips us for this spiritual war that is laid before us

That the Apostle Paul is preparing us for As he gets ready to wrap this great letter that he wrote to the church in Ephesus He wraps it up There in Ephesians chapter 6, let's read the whole again

Verses 10 through 20, we want to make sure to get the context of all of it As we just look specifically at 15, but let's read the whole

Where Paul says, 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 the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness

Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Therefore, take up the whole armor of God That you may be able to 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 the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith 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 end, keep alert with all perseverance Making supplication for all the saints

And also for me That words may be given to me And opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel

For which I am an ambassador in chains That I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak

We usually stop and pray in this moment As we have just read God's perfect, holy, inspired word

But I want to speak to you personally here just for one second As we have delved into this particular area of scripture

And we are talking directly about the battle that we as Christians are in I've also given a warning,

I've also told you That's putting a target on your back It's putting a target on all of our backs

It's putting a target on the back of this church Because when truth gets proclaimed And when light gets shed into darkness

The enemy He presents a full frontal attack, doesn't he?

He does it every single time And I get to meet with many of you during the week

You know my family's circumstance during this time And I know your family's circumstances during this time

At least some of you I know the individual struggles that many of you are struggling with At this very moment

Over the past handful of weeks It seems like just a bombardment

A bombardment of what seems like physical attacks that are coming our way

But then when you really dive into it You begin to see, oh no, these are all spiritual in nature

This world is under the sway of the wicked one And he's using every means that he has

To push and to point towards us But then also there's a spiritual element

That many of you have shared with me I'm struggling, Pastor I'm struggling to prioritize the things that I'm supposed to prioritize

You know, you're basically coming to me like the Apostle Paul says I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things

I want to do Who's going to deliver me from this wretched flesh? And it's a battle and it's ongoing

And I want to give you an encouragement That stay the course, Christian Church, stay the course

Because this attack is not over yet It's coming more and more

Because we are proclaiming truth And we are seeking to truly equip the saints for the good work

I could stand up here and give you a sermon every week And Satan is going to send his forces elsewhere

He's not going to mess with you And I'm sorry I'm sorry that we as pastors are bringing you the truth

The whole counsel of God I'm sorry in one way but I'm not in the other Because this is what we need

But it means it's going to be a problem for you Because I've said it all the time

What is the only thing There's only one thing in this life that a

Christian is promised What is it? Suffering Suffering and conflict

It's the only thing you're promised If you think that Christianity is going to fix your problems

And everything is going to be happy -go -lucky Then you're not actually living the Christian life The Apostle Paul is writing this very letter

Chained to a Roman guard We will suffer

And here's the thing I also want to say thank you For how y 'all have come alongside me and my family

And I want to come alongside you And I know you want to come alongside each other During this time because We grieve with those that grieve

We celebrate and rejoice with those that rejoice We're a family And just like with the

Carters Y 'all coming in today, y 'all are official now You're family, you're stuck, right? It's like Hotel California, right?

You can't go nowhere No, you're in, you're just a family here, right? But what we want you to understand is

We're here for you And if we don't do this together The enemy is going to He's going to render us useless for kingdom purpose

You try and do this alone You are useless to kingdom purpose I promise you

And I just want that to be an encouragement We're together in this Thank you for being together in this

I love you And I want to see us all flourish and move forward I don't know what

God has in store For this particular body But all I can say is When you are undergoing so many different attacks

In so many different areas God's doing something God is doing something

Be encouraged, Saint On that Let's just bow our heads for a moment

I want you to intentionally pray Pray for the brother or sister that's next to you

You may not know what they're dealing with But I want you to pray for them right now

I want you to pray specifically that That God would give them the boldness

The clarity, the strength The faith to walk in whatever Whatever the enemy is throwing at them at the moment

Father, we bow before you now And we thank you For you are victorious

God, you've already You've already won

You've already defeated the evil one And he is seeking to wreak as much havoc as he can

Before you You cast him out Completely And even our own flesh

Our own flesh in this broken, sinful world It wars against you As we sang this morning

Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it We love, we so desperately fight the flesh

And we need your grace We need your mercy We need you to To work in and through us

And we hold on to your promises That you are going to see this work through For if it is up to us

If it is up to twelve, five And the people of this congregation We will fail We do not have

Any strength in and of ourselves We do not have any power in and of ourselves We do not have any faith in and of ourselves

All of it is from you And since it's from you, it is perfect Help us to rest in it

Help us to walk in it Help us to be bold Help us, Lord, as we put on that belt of truth

That we look to your objective truth And when we walk in that truth Subjectively in our lives

Lord, as we put on that breastplate of righteousness The righteousness that has been imputed to us

From Christ and his righteousness That is perfect That cannot be penetrated by the arrows

Of the evil one And the sword of the evil one, Lord That protects us Help us to put it on, though, and walk in righteousness

So that we may not be fruitless And today, as we discuss This idea of shoes

And of readiness Of the gospel of peace Father, give us wisdom Help us to have clarity,

Lord Guard my words May we see your truth We thank you in Christ's name

Amen, amen Guys, I found myself going down a rabbit hole this week You ever do that?

Where you get distracted by a topic or an idea And you just start chasing that And maybe that's just me,

ADHD, right? And then I have this hyper -focus And then I go down this rabbit trail

And I found myself this week Reading about how Proper, functional footwear

Will either make or break a military force I didn't realize this, right? I did not realize what a big deal

Footwear is For a military force Crazy, right? It'll either make or break it

Apparently, you can have all the armor in the world You can have all the weaponry possible

You can have all the manpower imaginable Yet without proper footwear Protecting the men's feet

It will be all for naught I didn't know this Apparently in Vietnam, this was a major issue

With feet problems, right? We had all the weaponry we needed We had issues with feet

So it's no wonder That the Apostle Paul Added this to the list of necessary armor

And his imagery For the Christian to put on In verse 15

And you know, there's no coincidence here He has purpose behind it As to the order in which

Paul has placed this one And all of them, specifically Because, remember

Two weeks ago, Pastor Jeremiah There at the beginning of verse 14 Talked about the belt of truth And that's where he started

That's where Paul starts in this imagery Is the belt of truth This is the truth that comes from God The effective truth about God And that is that truthfulness

That is now in us That we now can walk And live in that truth

And that we are to put that belt on It all starts with that truth Of course

We gain knowledge of him through that truth We gain the knowledge of our personal need

For him and of him Through that truth So it's no wonder that What Paul mentions next

Was the breastplate of Righteousness It's that righteousness of Christ As we talked about last week

You see, once that truth Once that truth showed us the Savior And it showed us our need of the

Savior We were given Then, it was imputed to us

His righteousness Through faith Started with truth

Pointed us to truth Awakened us to truth And then

In faith Gave us his righteousness And subsequently A righteous life

That is an outworking of his righteousness That is given to us One that is lived out

With that breastplate of righteousness Continually being put on Or really

I should say In the putting on Of yourself that it's on In a sense

And what does that righteousness The righteousness of Christ Produce?

Peace The righteousness of Christ Produces peace

First and foremost Peace with whom? Peace with God, right?

The righteousness of Christ That is given to you That is imparted to you By faith

That the finished work of Christ And his goodness And his perfection

Given to you Grant you peace As Paul said in Romans chapter 5 Therefore, since we have been justified

By faith Made righteous by faith We have peace with God Through our

Lord Jesus Christ We were at odds with God We were enemies of God And the second person of the

Godhead Had to come And represent us To redeem us, to purchase us

By blood ransom At a cost Because the wages of sin is death He had to give his life

To pay for us To purchase us from God And to God From the wrath of God And to peace with God Right?

First and foremost But it doesn't end there It's peace with God It's now peace with each other

We've been talking about that Over this study, haven't we? That's one of the big purposes

Of this book here This letter to the church in Ephesus He's writing to Gentiles Who feel like second hand citizens

That are not perfectly unified With the Jewish Christians Who think that they are The real chosen people of God And then you're kind of grafted in And you're kind of a

You're going to crush that Remember back in chapter 2 In verses 13 and 14 he says But now in Christ Jesus You, Gentile Who were once far off Have been brought near Brought near how?

By the blood of Christ For he himself is Our peace

He himself is the peace For the Gentile, you and I And he's the peace for the

Jewish person That has come to Christ in him And he's the peace Who has made us both one

And has broken down in his flesh The dividing wall of hostility You and I didn't have peace

With each other before You know, I've said it before I can't I love this analogy

We brought in three deacons A little over a year ago, I guess, guys

It was at the old building And we presented three men as deacons We've got

Adam over there We've got Brian, I saw you Brian up in the front

And I remember my daughter said afterwards She goes, it struck me That the church

The body of Christ is the only place Where those three men Are perfectly unified

Coming from completely different backgrounds Completely different lives altogether

And those three men stood hand in hand And continued to In perfect unity And camaraderie and brotherhood

The church is the only place For those three deacons, isn't it? Everywhere else You're divided

The only unity you have Is based on selfish unity What does the unity with that person

Bring me? How does it protect me? But in the body of Christ The wall of hostility is brought down We've been given peace

Peace with God And as a result Peace with each other through Christ Amen?

You see the pattern That Paul is following here, don't you? Starts with truth Goes to righteousness And now he begins to speak of the peace

That the gospel brings There's a natural progression Of what he's been laying out through this letter

And it's done so with imagery Imagery that gives Gives it teeth really

Into that call To the walk To the walk that we're called to In these truths

In these tangible ways That we can actually sink our teeth into To say, oh I get it

That truth Because these truths aren't just They're not just intellectual bits of information That you and I should know

They are glorious truths that we should live And often times When we read the first three chapters

Of Ephesians We see doctrine, didactic teaching Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine

And that's all great That's all well and good But if it only stays

As an intellectual ascent To the truths It's nothing It had a start there

But it can't stay there And so Paul gives us imagery That allows us in our frailty

To go, oh That's how I live that out That's how that truth applies to me

And don't just get saved And then go on in our lives With our heavenly insurance card

Which many Christians today do You see it all the time, right? You walk the aisle You say the prayer

You get dunked in the waters You become a member of the whatever church And then your life isn't changed

Nothing changes Maybe you say a few less cuss words Maybe you stop smoking

Or whatever that may be But your life isn't really changed There's no power involved You just have a heavenly insurance card

And now I'm good That's what

Paul is combating We're left here In the midst of a spiritual war, Christian This is a war

That we wake up every single day And we're right dead smack In the center of the battle

A war that we are equipped to fight You didn't realize that, did you? You didn't know you

If you are in Christ You're already equipped to fight it This is what we've been trying to tell you The past three weeks, haven't we?

This armor is already yours It already belongs to you It's already given to you Because it's not of you

You didn't create it You didn't make it If you did, you got the wrong armor on It is

That armor is given to us through the work of Christ Yet Here's the kicker

You and I must actively participate in this war So many times we don't want that You and I are in this war

Whether you like it or not I don't like it sometimes I don't want to be in this battle

I want things to go smooth I want to be comfortable I just want to go to work

And love my family And just be I don't want to fight

And so often My flesh gets to this point To where I say I say, you know what?

He who began a good work in me Will see it to completion the day of Christ Jesus What you gonna do,

God? I'm excited to watch you work Is that not the

Christian life some of the time? Don't you do it? Siri's under conviction

Talking back to me That's spiritual battle going on right there We so desperately just want to relax

But that's what Paul is telling us He's like, all that truth that I just gave you If you just sit in that Truth and just say, well

God chose me And God's gonna do what he wants to do He's already prepared the works beforehand And I'm just gonna sit back and watch him work

Then you're not even in the war You're not even participating You're sitting on a battlefield Pretending like there's not

Spears being thrown by your face But we're here

That's the whole point of this I want that to resonate with us This is the life that we are living

This is the life that we're called to So gird yourselves with truth, Saint Look to his truth

Rest in his truth Chase after his truth Get it in your brain So that, as Paul said

The renewal of your minds Because your mind is at battle with you The fleshly mind is warring against you

And being used by the evil one To distort you And to drive you away from truth Renew it with his truth

Look to his truth Because that righteous breastplate is on you

He can't get to your heart He can't Continually walk in it

Don't let him deceive you And make you think that you're not covered And as we're gonna see today Stand firm

Stand firm as he says there in verse 15 With shoes for your feet Having put on the readiness given

By the gospel of peace Now again,

Paul is obviously using symbolism With this armor Of course, we don't have holy

Nikes To get up and lace in the mornings That's not what Paul is calling us to This is not a physical reality

It's a spiritual These shoes, like the breastplate of righteousness And the belt of truth

Symbolize a spiritual reality And so I would like for us to see

Three things that these shoes symbolize And I'm gonna be honest this morning

I don't often do this But in my study I read a sermon By Alistair Begg On this very text

And his three bullet points were just so good I thought I'd be robbing you if I didn't use them

I tried to come up with better points And I couldn't So we're gonna use his points today But we're taking them a different direction thankfully

I didn't totally agree with him But I like his points Let's see here

I hope this is edifying for you Number one These shoes symbolize stability

Well that seems obvious doesn't it? Seems obvious that shoes symbolize stability

We have shoes for athletics We have tennis shoes We have basketball shoes

We have running shoes How important are running shoes for running? It's a big deal isn't it?

You want to run in my boots? That doesn't work We need stability for everything that we do

Just as we said with military There's a lot of discussion About the meaning of this particular verse

Believe it or not There's differing opinions as to What is Paul saying about these shoes

And the readiness into the gospel? Is this This is one position

Is this readiness to share the gospel? A lot of people take that position

Is this readiness to share the gospel? Hey he says shoes for your feet Having put on the readiness

Given by the gospel of peace Meaning is Paul speaking directly to you and I And our readiness

And preparedness to evangelize Seems like that could be a legitimate position right?

They'll utilize a cross reference like Romans 10 .15 Where Paul I think he quotes

Isaiah 52 here He says how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written how beautiful are the feet

Of those who preach the good news It's a legitimate position

Another position though is Is Paul speaking Of a firm foundation

To stand on So I'm going to repeat these two positions

Either a readiness and preparedness to evangelize Or a readiness and a preparedness

As a foundation to stand on Shoes for your feet

Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace I believe the answer is in the wording that Paul uses actually

We always try and go back to the original language To make sure that we get the context of the passage

The word that we have translated And I'm reading from the ESV right now is readiness

You see that word there readiness there Some of you your translations may say preparation

I think the New King James and the King James has preparation But this readiness or preparation

This word in the Greek is only used this one time in all of Scripture It's the only time

Now that being said it has a root word Just like with anything else there are words that are connected

And they kind of have slightly different meanings But they kind of come from each other There is a root word that is used many times in the

New Testament And that word that's used many times That is the root word of this word

Is in verb form Every once in a while we get English class in here don't we

Bear with me what's a verb? It's an action It's an action word

There's an action that must go on with it right For example if he had used that Greek word in this passage

Having put on the readiness To an action

To act on Given by the gospel of peace Then we could easily assume

That Paul is speaking of the act of going and sharing the gospel Everybody with me?

There's an action word the readiness I'm acting upon this is readiness This is preparation that I have to do

I have to act on or somebody has to act on And it's tied to the gospel of peace

However the problem with that is that's not the word that Paul uses The word that he uses

It's actually in the feminine noun form Even though it has a root connection to that other word

What's a noun? A person place or thing? This implies here

The condition of a person As prepared Readiness Preparation The Greek word that Paul uses is

The condition of a person As prepared It would be like me saying

Spencer is prepared to take notes today Or I could say

Spencer is preparing to take notes today You see the difference? Everybody with me?

So when he says this As shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel

This is speaking I believe of Stability A firm foundation

In the gospel of peace A firm foundation

In the gospel of peace is what is preparing us Just like If you think back to last week the breastplate of righteousness

Is the imputed righteousness of Christ Okay? Yet we are called remember

To walk in that righteousness By putting on that breastplate of righteousness You see the paradoxical nature of it?

It's already ours, it's the righteousness of Christ We gotta still put it on And walk in that righteousness

The gospel Is a firm foundation that gives you and I The stability that makes us ready

To weather whatever storm We must continually put on that readiness

Like combat boots for our feet Just like a soldier

In preparation to go out into the battle He's not going out there barefoot He's preparing to put those shoes on So he has the stability

And the capacity To then do the things that he must do It stabilizes him

So why? Why for us? Why is that? Why must we be stabilized For this battle?

Let's be honest You and I Our flesh is weak And the spirit may be willing

Flesh is weak We are prone to doubt I don't know about you but I'm prone to doubt

You ever have those moments where you wake up in the middle of the night And go is this all real? Like is all of this

Is the Bible real? Is all of it real? And then you go into panic and doubt And go well maybe it's real But maybe

I'm not really part of it Am I even one of his? Think about all the garbage I did yesterday

Or thought yesterday Think of the sin And my inability to live as I should

Or even my desire to not drive And live as I should Is it real?

We doubt constantly And the enemy is using that To just walk over to us And our big fancy armor of righteousness

Doubt leads us to fruitlessness And weakness And so Of course that's where the enemy attacks

Oh but when you and I remember That we We have those shoes of readiness

Shoes of readiness That are given by the gospel of peace When we remember that We are reminded that the gospel

That glorious gospel Has forever secured our peace with God That that gospel assures

And guarantees his favor toward us That's why

Paul specifies The gospel of peace Paul could have just said the gospel

But he wanted to remind you That this gospel brings peace This gospel

Is what has given you peace with him And peace in this life It produces a peace

That as Paul says surpasses all understanding In Philippians 4 -7 remember? He says in the peace of God Which surpasses all understanding

It will guard your hearts and minds In what? Christ Jesus That peace

That crushes all doubt A peace that you and I can't comprehend When we're in those moments of doubt

When we wake up and we think I'm not living for him Am I even one of his? Or is this all real?

Or am I just trying to make stuff up And play make believe? When you begin to feel those doubts

Coming over the attack of the enemy You can have that peace But you only have it

And you have those shoes of readiness That's been given to you You are stabilized in it

You just have to remember that This type of experiential peace

It produces in us a joyful Eagerness And this eagerness is essential

To this spiritual battle These shoes

They symbolize stability The stability that holds us firm

As we stand and we fight Because we need a firm foundation In the mud and the muck

Of this world The second thing

That these shoes symbolize Is then mobility Mobility And I said a moment ago

That many will come to The interpretation that this text is speaking of Our readiness

Our preparedness To go and share the gospel Well, that is a byproduct

I think of what Paul is saying That's not the direct purpose of it But there is most certainly

An element in this Because What are we called to do in this spiritual war?

Go Make disciples Train them Teach them to observe all that Christ commanded you

There's mobility that must take place As a matter of fact, turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12 with me Hebrews chapter 12

The writer of Hebrews has just gone through Chapter 11 If you have ever studied

Hebrews You know that chapter 11 Is the hall of Faith He lists off these

Wonderful, amazing saints Some that weren't so amazing like Samson But saints nonetheless He lists off these saints

And this is the hall of faith Men who had faith in God And he gets to chapter 12

And what does he say there in verse 20? He says, therefore Hey, all of these men

These great men of God Stood in faith They were saved by faith They were carried out by faith

They persevered through faith And he says, therefore Since we are surrounded

By so great a cloud of witnesses And when he writes this

That cloud Was much smaller than it is today We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses

Not only do we think of Abraham and David And the Old Testament saints But we think of Paul We think of Peter We also think of Luther We think of Augustine We think of Spurgeon We think of the saints before us

This great cloud of witnesses What an encouragement Let us also lay aside every weight

Hey, put the weights down Set aside all those weights Remember how we talked about Sometimes you put on your own breastplate of self -righteousness

And you're carrying a heavy burden An excess weight

And sin that clings so closely Self -righteousness The sin, the habits that we can't let go

All of the nastiness we cling to And he says, and let us

Look at it Look at that second part of verse 1 And let us run With endurance the race that is set before us

Now, Scripture gives us all types of imagery And all the imagery is pointing back To the same spiritual reality

It's a battle, it's a race It's a fight, whatever it may be This is all the same spiritual reality

He's just giving us anthropomorphic language So that we can get our brains Wrapped around the reality of it

And he uses a race in this analogy That this spiritual battle Just like a race

Is what we are called to engage in As we've talked about And in both analogies We are given the means to do so How do we run?

How do we fight with endurance? How do we stand firm? How do we have readiness?

Look at verse 2 there of Hebrews 12 Looking to Jesus Looking to Jesus Theology is complex, guys

But it's also simple Look to Jesus You want to run?

You want to set aside all those weights? You want to set aside those sins That you cling tightly to? Look to Jesus Why?

Why look to Jesus? Look at it, he says He's the founder and perfecter of our faith He's the one that has established

It's his righteousness It's perfect Look at it, it says Who? Jesus For the joy that was set before him

Endured the cross You want to endure a race In this life And the momentary afflictions

He endured the cross Despising the shame And is seated at the right hand

Of the throne of God Think back to our text

Given by The gospel of peace What Christ has accomplished

Look at verse 3 there of 12 Consider him Who endured

From sinners such hostility against himself He endured Far more than you and I He's the master

He endured far, far more He took on the sins of the world That's every elect, saved person

Or person that will be saved That he took on in a moment So that you

May not grow weary or faint hearted What?

You mean my power To not grow weary and faint hearted My power to put on the shoes of readiness

So that I can be mobilized And move forward in this battle To be moving forward in this race

It is all because of this So that I may not grow weary or faint hearted Why is that?

Because every step that I am moving And mobile And every foundation that I am standing

Stable on Is him And his power, his strength

He's done it, it's accomplished Just stand in it Seems simple enough, right?

Wish we could do it We can at times And we must

This is the gospel of peace Gives us these shoes To walk in his precepts

Because of him We are mobilized To evangelize

We are to be mobilized To do good works We are to be mobilized

To walk in righteousness As Paul had called us to do so Earlier on in Ephesians This is the race

This is the battle That is set before us And we're not looking to Christ We're not resting in the peace

Of that finished work That finished work That brings

It's as if we're fighting a battle In our flip -flops You ever tried to run in flip -flops?

That's what the Christian life feels like Sometimes, doesn't it? Makes Satan's job real easy

To trip us at that point We're not very stable And we're not very mobile We're not moving and we're not covering

A lot of ground, are we? That's how we try and live the life Because when you try

When you try and put on shoes of readiness That are your shoes Just like the breastplate

Just like the belt of truth If it's your truth or your self -righteousness If it's your shoes

You're not fighting no battles It's not working

You're not running a race Third and lastly These shoes symbolize

Adaptability These shoes symbolize adaptability

You know how I mentioned Over the past couple of weeks

Paul is undoubtedly influenced By this armor Of these

Roman guards As he's chained there And imprisoned there in Rome As he gives this spiritual illustration

He must be influenced by them And these shoes That this soldiers wore

Are actually If you look back in history These shoes are credited With much of Rome's military success

We think of just their roads We think of the power We think of the might Maybe we think of the strength of the men

We think of their helmets And their swords and their spears And all that stuff But when you look back at history

It's actually their shoes Weird, right? Josephus, the historian

Wrote that, well back then Historians look to Josephus But he wrote that Roman soldiers

Had thick Shoes thickly studded With sharp nails

That was uncommon for that day What did this mean? This meant that They could easily adapt

To any terrain They didn't have roads like we have They don't have nice fancy sidewalks

That you can ride your tricycle down Or walking on Cobblestone streets sometimes

Sometimes dirt Sometimes mud Sometimes a field Sometimes rocky soil Sometimes a mountainscape

They have to deal with All types of difficult terrain That they must be able to adapt to As a matter of fact

It gave them such a tactical advantage Over their enemies That they actually caught

Many of their enemies off guard So you can imagine You have scouts

You live in your area And Rome is coming to attack And you have scouts That go 10 miles out

And they watch And then they ride back real fast And say the army is coming

They're 10 miles out Here's the amount of time it takes To get on that path to us They didn't take into account

The Roman guard's shoes And so historians look back and say They were able to get down So much faster

That that army wasn't prepared Enough for the battle By the time they reached them

They were able to reach them In just a portion of the time That they had estimated

For them to reach them Pretty weird right? And so Paul has this type of thing in mind This also gave the

Roman guards More stability as they fought their enemy You can imagine going out into a field And maybe it's muddy

And these other men Are wearing sandals At best with leather bottoms And they're trying to swing

Spears and swords At these soldiers Who have spiked nails into the ground

And they've stood firm And they're able to just keep moving forward While the other is slipping And so this is the imagery

That Paul has As he gives us this idea Of shoes with an armor Paul's not talking about Shoes in this context

And we as Christians We as Christians Have a far greater military advantage

Far greater than Rome The shoes that we have In the gospel of peace

Are perfect And sufficient For every single need

In this spiritual war No matter the terrain No matter the circumstance

You may say well pastor You don't know my circumstances You don't know what happened to me When I was a child

You don't know what happened to me last week You don't know what my co -worker did You don't know what my spouse did to me

You don't know what my children are doing to me You don't know what my parents did to me You don't know my circumstances

You don't know the sickness that I'm dealing with You don't know pastor You don't know the hurt from that church member

You don't get it And I'm saying You have shoes that are sufficient for whatever.

They're adaptable, they're perfect, they're already yours. Just use them, stand in them.

You can stand firm, you can move forward and you can adapt to whatever circumstance that God has placed you in in this spiritual battle.

They stabilize us, they mobilize us and they adapt to the evil ones schemes that are thrown our way.

They're unmatched. You see, the enemy may be stronger than us and he is.

He may be smarter than us and he is. He may be far more cunning than us and he most certainly is.

But he is no match to the armor that the Savior has given us. The Savior has already defeated him, he knows it.

He knows he's already lost. He's just trying to wreak as much havoc as he can before the

Savior returns and does his victory parade and puts death under his foot and throws him into the pit for eternity.

This armor is stronger than him. The shoes for your feet. Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, it's all about the gospel.

All of it. It's all the gospel, it's given us everything and it's given us peace.

Not only righteousness, but peace. Saints, those shoes are yours.

Stand firm in them. Move forward in them and adapt accordingly in them.

Rest in the gospel of peace that has given you those shoes. Amen. Amen.

Let's prepare now to rest in Christ while seeing him, seeing the finished work that he has accomplished for us at the table as we do each week.

Pastor Keith will be over here and either myself or Pastor Jeremiah will be over here at this table.

For those of you that are guests, if you are in Christ today and you are in good standing with a evangelical church, then you're welcome to this table.

We have yet closed this table. It is open for you, but I would challenge you. If you are not in Christ or you are not living for the

Lord, you are not looking to Christ, you are not resting in Christ, you are not confessing your sins and you have something against a brother or sister or unconfessed sin in your life, please abstain.

This is a big deal. This wine and this bread is not truly the blood and body of Jesus.

But King Jesus is spiritually present with us in a very unique way at this table because he's present with us as children when we gather.

He's with us and do not lie to the Holy Spirit by partaking of these elements in an unworthy manner.

As I remind you, Paul said in 1 Corinthians, some have gotten sick and some have even died for doing so.

It's a big deal. So the way it works is we'll come around the outsides, come up to the table and get the wine and the bread and go back to your seats through the center.

You can partake alone, you can pray as a family, you can pray as a group, as individuals, you can partake of those elements and then we will come back together to sing the doxology.

And I think Pastor Keith has a few words to say before we go into Quintinia Feast, but let us pray that Christ would be honored in our worship at the table.

Dear Heavenly Father, we bow before you once again and we thank you. We thank you for the gospel of peace.

God, the Father, you loved us. You set your love upon us before you had even created any of this.

God, the Son, Jesus, you came to represent us, to purchase us by blood ransom.

You gave of your body and your blood to pay for us and give us your righteousness to buy us back to the

Father. And Holy Spirit, you now seal us for the day that we will walk in the outworking of that glorious inheritance.

There's a guarantee that that will happen. And you convict us now, you mold us more and more into the image of our great

Savior. We ask that as we partake of these elements that you search our hearts, that if we have unconfessed sin before you, that we'd lay it at the cross and come boldly, knowing that it is not our righteousness, it is not our goodness, it is not our works, it is not any means or any armor or any other thing other than your perfect righteousness that we get to partake and show this watching world that we are in you and you are in us.

We are one, we are together, we are unified. We are one, we are unified. Mold our hearts more and more through this sanctifying ordinance, in Christ's name, amen.