Battle Ready // Living with Readiness

We're going to be back in Ephesians 6 today and I want to open up with a question how many of you in the room like shoes?

Very theological questions to open up with.

How many in the room you say I don't just like shoes, I really like shoes.

Okay, bam, that's right.

That's right, I see y'all, I see you in the balcony, okay.

So so I have a friend and she really likes shoes and every time I see her she has like a new pair of shoes on and they're fancy and they're really cool.

And I was talking to her the other day and I said how many pairs of shoes do you have?

And she's with her husband.

Her husband just kind of looked at me and smiled and said you know what I mean.

And she goes well, what kind of shoes are you talking about?

Are we talking about boots, heels, casual shoes, workout shoes or flip flops?

I was like how many total pairs of shoes do you have?

She said, hmm, got a hundred pairs of shoes.

I was like wow.

I was like you love shoes.

I know a lot of people like shoes.

You guys know I really like shoes.

I like people like shoes.

And the reason why I bring that up is because today we're actually talking about shoes.

Well, kind of We've been in this series entitled Battle Ready and we've been talking about spiritual armor, and what we've been doing is we've been going really kind of line by line with Ephesians, chapter number six, and there's a verse that we've said about every single week about the importance of putting on spiritual armor, and it's this it's verse 13, ephesians 6.

It says that, for this reason, take up the full armor of God, seeing able to resist an evil day, having prepared everything to take your.

Let's catch up for a second.

Okay, so you guys are new, as you miss couple weeks or something.

Probably cool.

Glad you're here.

What are some of the pieces of armor we've talked about thus far over the last few weeks?

The breastplate of righteousness that's right.

That's right.

The belt of truth that's right.

A little shield of faith that's right.

I heard somebody say Helmin' of Salvation over here.

That's right, helmin' of Salvation.

And God has given us all these different pieces of armor for us to get victory in our spiritual lives.

Sometimes I wonder do we really believe that God's given us everything we need to get spiritual victory in our lives?

Do we actually believe this, that we have everything that we need.

It's kind of like this I don't know what you guys, but there's a website, there's an app that I'm on a little too much.

There's a shop there a little too much.

It's called something new.

Not many people have heard of it.

It's called Amazon Amazon, amazon, right, anybody here like me, you spend a little too much time on Amazon.

It's like my go-to.

I'm out of store and I see a price or something I'm like I'm going to Amazon that right now, and they have Amazon shoppers.

You guys know they have Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon Prime Day is itself an Amazon Prime Day.

It's a great day.

In fact, warning to you, or should I say warning to your bank accounts there's an Amazon Prime Day coming this week.

I know it's been exciting, so there's an Amazon Prime Day.

I think back in June, july, and I had been looking for a coffee table.

I wanted a coffee table, but I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg for a coffee table.

And something else about me is I'm like an Ascended Sky.

So I like the way a space feels Like.

I'm kind of into the like how does a space feel?

Some of you guys are judging me like I'm not sure what's that going to happen.

So I like the way a space feels.

So I knew the coffee table that I wanted, but I wasn't going to pay a super expensive amount of money for this coffee table.

But I wanted this coffee table so it would make my living room give the aesthetic feel that I wanted.

But then Amazon Prime Day came and I looked and found it.

It was 50% off and because I'm such a good steward, I bought it.

I bought it.

Yeah, it was great.

It came in two days later Two days what a country.

Came in two days later, brought in the living room, opened it up, put all the different pieces on the floor I had about six or seven pieces, had two bags of screws there.

And this is what I didn't do.

I didn't go in.

I definitely did the directions.

Of course not.

I didn't read the directions.

I also didn't just sit down on the couch and say I wish I had a coffee table.

I just had a coffee table that had the vibe that would match this rug that I have and this new stand-up lamp, this wall decor, and that would be really nice.

I don't have one.

What am I going to do?

I'm just going to sit here and watch Giant Space Wall and watch the Giant Blues again.

I didn't do that Because it was right in front of me.

All I had to do is take the six or seven pieces, put them together, put the screws on and voila, I have the coffee table.

The pieces are at my disposal and I wonder how many of us in our lives we live lives that are defeated spiritually and we don't think that we can get victory when the armor is right in front of us.

So that's why what we've been talking about the last few weeks is really important, because as we armor up, we can defeat the Anthony.

So today we're going to talk about the fifth piece of armor, we're going to talk about sandals.

And if you're ready for this, what do you say in the morning?

Here we go, verse number 16.

First one, verse 15, rather of talking about this fifth piece of armor, it says in your feet, sandaled with.

What is that word?

Right there, let's say it together.

What is that word?

Readiness, readiness for the gospel of peace.

And they say sandals, sandals as a piece of armor.

How could that be considered a piece of armor?

And honestly, guys, that's a really fair question if you're sitting here asking that.

But Roman soldiers, when they would wear their sandals, they weren't like the sandals that we think about.

These were sandals that actually had little spikes, little spikes at the bottom of the sandals.

And the reason why they would have those is to give them traction, so as they were maneuvering in battle and going around, they could put their foot in ground and they could pivot.

They wouldn't fall down.

Because imagine this If you have sandals on and you're in a battle and you don't have any traction and you fall down on your back, you're going to have an enemy right on you Game over the sandals that they wore.

They had little spikes at the bottom.

Also, it's kind of interesting I've learned about this recently, but in the South is that these sandals, they were kind of thicker on the bottom, because during this time period when people would go to war, what one enemy would do is they would put spikes that are about one to two inches.

They would put them in the ground, they would cover them with debris and then, when the opposing army would come marching in, they would see all this debris on the ground, leaves or whatever and they would just walk on these spikes.

Imagine how painful it would be the step on a spike.

Have you ever done this?

Have you ever been walking?

If you woke up in the middle of the night, had you got a bathroom or something and you stepped on like a little cart, toy or something like that on the ground and that your kid was playing around and you're just like, oh, this is horrible, right the aimful.

Can you imagine what it would be like for these guys to step on a spike?

So what they had to do is they had to have these sandals that gave them traction, that were tough, that were durable.

This is what they had to have.

Now, going back to this verse, it says our feet are to be sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.

Now, a lot of times I've heard this verse taught this way is that our feet need to be sandaled with the gospel of peace.

Sandal your feet with the gospel of peace.

That's what you need to do.

Then I was like studying the verse and I'm like that's actually not what the verse says.

What does it say?

It says we're going to be sandaled with readiness.

Let's have a little grammar class for a second.

Let's have a little grammar.

How many of you guys are like me and you don't like grammar at all.

You don't like grammar at all.

Okay, so you guys are going to love this part.

So let's look at this.

So, gospel of peace here, that is the object of the preposition.

Four is the preposition Now, if you have another translation, your translation might say from.

It might say because of so we have readiness because of the gospel of peace.

So our feet are sandaled with readiness because of the gospel of peace.

So if our feet are sandaled with readiness, this is what this means that we have strength, we have support, we have traction because of the gospel of peace.

Now you might be here and you might say how does this work?

I'm kind of confused.

So I'm going to have readiness, I'm going to have this strength and support because the gospel of peace Help me understand.

So when we are walking forward in life, we need to be ready for the things that we're going to experience in this life.

And what happens is when our feet are sandaled with readiness from the gospel of peace in Jesus Christ, then we will be ready for some of these things.

Now it says the gospel of peace, because the gospel, the death, the very resurrection of Jesus, it gives peace to us.

We can have peace, we can have home.

So because of this piece I have, I can live my life with ready.

Now there's.

There's three main areas that the gospel of peace gives us.

Maybe what is really important, the gospel is gonna give us peace with God.

Piece of God.

I want to see God first.

You know there's something in all of us the desires Peace with God.

That's just peace in our life.

In fact, somebody, maybe you came here because you just know, maybe like a little bit of peace, and there's something in you, there's something in you that's from God, that tells you that somehow God's a higher power, can give me, sometimes people, they they search online, they Google questions about the Bible because they know they love peace.

They know, like I want to have peace in my life.

But here's what you need to know about peace is you can only get peace From God when you have peace with God.

So you can only have peace from God when you have peace with God.

Now, this is really an important statement, especially if you're just checking things out when it comes to Christianity.

Scripture tells us that, apart from Jesus, we do not have peace with God.

No peace with God.

In fact it gives this really strong word.

The word is you're an enemy of God.

You're an Enemy of God, romans, chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

It says this for if, while we were Enemies, we were reconciled and we were brought together to God through the death of his son, his son is Jesus.

Our sin and our hard hearts have separated us from God.

They've separated us from God and Because of that sin, because of that hard heart that we have, we are separate from God forever in a place the scripture calls hell, apart from Jesus.

And the reason, the reason that we're separate from God, is because our sin has to be dealt with Like.

We all know internally that somehow we have sin and somehow that sin is we take care.

Even the Stonk apius of Frederick Nietzsche.

He wrote in the book death of God, talking about sin, talking about guilt, talking about shame.

He says that people inherit the context of guilt, sin and shame, but there's no place to find redemption for them without a God.

So Nietzsche said.

Nietzsche said this he says people are looking for forgiveness, they're looking for redemption, but if there's no God and he's wrestling through this in his mind as he's writing the book the death of God, but if there is no God, there's no place for us to find this redemption.

So these are our options, right?

Our options when it comes to our sin is we do we do one or three things?

Either we Minimize our sin and we justify our sin.

Maybe we say something like everybody else is doing it, like it's all good, right, like everybody else is sleeping around, everybody else is getting drunk, everybody else is filled in the blank of whatever sin.

We want to say to justify it.

Right.

So we, we can minimize or justify our sin.

Or, over here, we can do and this is a really common one, especially for, like, religious type people, good, moral people what they can do is they can say I'm gonna do enough good things over here and all my good things will weigh out my bad things over here.

Then I'm gonna go the same before God and God's gonna be like yeah, you did a couple bad things, but you're good because the good things always bad.

That's another option, right and rationally.

Rationally, if you don't look at scripture, separate yourself from scripture.

That kind of makes sense.

But this is what the scripture teaches and this is why Jesus has to come and die for us.

The scripture says that you can find true forgiveness by coming to Jesus Christ, by by realizing that, yes, your sin is real, yes, your sin is not good, but Jesus died for you, and when you come to him and you put your complete faith and trust in him, you give him your life, you have forgiveness of your sin.

This is why Romans, chapter 5, verse 1.

Romans 5:1

It says we have been justified.

We've been or justified.

If you're taking else, write this down.

The word justified means we're declared righteous.

We're declared righteous.

God, the Father, looks at you and declares you righteous.

You have peace with God.

How?

Through our Lord, jesus Christ.

So you're declared righteous by your Faith, by your faith, not by your work, by your faith in Christ alone.

If you're anything like me, I'm a visual person, so I kind of want to show a picture that maybe can put these things together here.

So on the left side, there you see people.

This is, this is all of us.

We're simple people, right, like if we took a test in the room.

We're like how many of you have never done anything wrong?

Like, like nobody's gonna be able to raise their hand.

And if you think that, if you think that you are a good person by because you're comparing yourself to somebody that's not as good.

Right, you do that sometimes God looks at us sinful God on the right.

God's a holy God.

That's why we're separated from God.

But Jesus, he came in, died for us.

He bridged the gap to God and when we put our faith in Christ we can have peace with God.

So now in Christ we're worthy.

Now in Christ we don't have to strive to get God's favor, somebody in the room.

You have put your faith in trust in Christ.

You are a follower of Jesus.

But honestly, you still live your life trying to get God's favor.

You still live your life thinking I just want God to love me.

I Think I just, I just I need forgiveness.

God's forgiven you.

In fact, in second Peter 1, it says this his divine power has given everything required for life and Godliness through knowledge of him who call us by his own glory.

So now we have everything in Christ.

We have more than enough hope, we have more than a belonging, we have more than enough strength, we have more than enough love.

And if you're Jesus following the room and you're looking for these things, can I say they're already available to you.

In and being having this readiness to face the world and face things begins with us having peace with God.

I have peace with God.

Let me ask you this morning Do you have peace with God?

Have you come to Jesus Christ by faith and said I need you, I'm putting my entire life in your hands, I'm turning to my sin, I'm trusting you to be my Savior?

That's how you have peace with God, and when we have peace with God, we can then have the peace of God.

Peace with God, peace of God this is what this means.

This means that we don't have to live our lives striving, trying to prove ourselves, trying to justify our existence, trying to manipulate situations, trying to get more and do more and have more, just so I can have peace.

We don't have to live our lives like that.

What we can do is we can say I have peace with God.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to put God first and let God figure all the rest of this stuff out.

I have to prove myself, I have to worry.

I think God's here and for some of us.

God wants to give us peace, but we have to make space for God to give us peace.

He wants to give us peace, but we have to make space for God to give us peace.

Sometimes we're so busy there's no space for peace.

I want to give you an example of this, of when I recently was very much left in peace.

A couple of weeks ago, pastor Cody and myself we went to the Grand Canyon.

It was amazing.

We had the Grand Canyon with a buddy that we'd had for a while and my flight left Sunday afternoon.

So my flight left out of Oakland Sunday afternoon and I knew it was going to kind of be a tight fit from service to getting to the airport and I had to run home to pack up a few things, get a few things ready.

Before I could go to the airport Something happened and I had to make a hospital visit too.

So it was kind of out of the way a little bit and I also kind of dragged my feet even the building on that Sunday, honestly, just because I like hanging out with you guys, maybe with you guys and talking with you guys.

And so I was like I know I should probably leave, but I want to go talk to this person.

I thought you know what I mean.

So now I was talking to some people.

So I finally left the building.

And as soon as I got in my car, immediately like my stress level was like shh, because I'm like I got to get to the airport, I got to get to the airport, I can't miss my flight, I can't miss my flight, I can't miss my flight.

So my stress level is high.

I run home, take care of my dog Ranger, I pack some things up, I grab some snacks, because I have my priorities right Grab some snacks.

I hit the road and I'm like okay, I'm going to go to the hospital.

To go to the hospital.

I was anticipating, I had things, thought that I'm like, okay, you have to get to the hospital this time, you can leave the hospital this time, you can get to the airport this time and you can make.

I was a little bit behind.

I had to go to the hospital a little past the time I planned.

So I had to get to the airport and I was like let's go, you got to get there and they come on, let's get to the airport.

And I was like stress, I'm going to get to the airport, you ready for this.

I get to the airport Twenty-one minutes before my flight gets off.

How many of you guys think I made the flight.

How many of you guys think I made the flight?

How many of you are like there's no way you made that flight, bro.

Well, half-flight, some of you are undecided.

So twenty-one minutes.

So I parked my car.

I didn't even drop off the car.

I didn't even drop off the car.

I parked my car in the overnight parking and then it was time to get a Sunday afternoon workout.

I sprinted I am sprinting to security.

I didn't even really have any time to change my clothes, so I was just similar like this I was not in workout-running clothes, so I'm looking like a moron in my back, that's like bouncing up and down, you know, and I'm like pushing old ladies over.

No, I didn't do that.

So I get to the security line and I'm like okay, I got this, I got this, I got this.

I'm praying Please, have there been nobody in security line?

Because if so, I'm going to have to like, ask somebody, like, thankfully, nobody's in security line.

Oh, I got this.

The storyline plays like everything okay.

I'm like, yeah, yeah, everything's okay.

I just got to get through this.

She was like when did your fight leave?

I was like it leaves in 16 minutes.

She was like oh, okay, and she has me go through and of course I go through the you know the thing where you stand in and they, and of course it beats and the dude's like all right, come over here, all right, he's like rubbing me and patting me in places.

He had no business rubbing me and patting me, all right.

I'm like is this even illegal, bro?

Like come on.

And I got through there and I got to the gate 13 minutes before my fight took off.

What was your horses?

The door was closed.

I started.

You know how they have the time right there on the little, on the little screen of when the fight leaves.

I'm like I'm looking for somebody.

Nobody's there.

Like you know, when you need a working, you can't find them, you know.

So I looked through the window.

That's my fight.

I was like what's happening?

You know that thing that you got the plane here and the thing that you walk over to get on the plane.

It was doing this right here, innocent bystander lady sitting there and her husband.

I was like, can you believe this?

I was like, look, what time the plane's supposed to leave.

I was like, look, poor lady.

She's like this guy's crazy.

I said, do you know what's going on?

She's like I was like.

I was like what are you saying?

I literally sprinted here.

I made it to the gate 13 minutes before the fight was supposed to leave.

I had been in my mind playing the game Like can I get to the plane departure on time?

I knew I could do this.

I was ready.

You know, I had won the game.

In my mind.

I was like I missed it.

Where's the worker at?

So I find the worker and I said so I have a question.

So my flight was scheduled to leave and this is how I said it.

My flight was scheduled to leave at this time and I made it to the gate 13 minutes before and my flight was already leaving.

Can you please explain this to me?

She said yes, I can.

She's very kind.

She said the door's closed 15 minutes before, sir.

She was like you're going to have to rebook your flight and I said okay.

I said how can I do that?

She said you got to go back to the very front of the airport and you have to go to security again.

You have to completely rebook your flight.

I said are you serious?

She was like yes.

So I went back there as I walked past the security lady, we made eye contact and she's like you know, I'm going to rebook my flight for four hours later, four hours later.

This is what I said at that point after I booked my flight.

I had been stressed, I had this angst, I had this hurry, I had this anxiety for like the last several hours.

I mean, I probably left the building at 130 at this point it's like five in the afternoon and this is what I said.

I said I'm just going to chill and just be.

I didn't really have the options anyways, right, I said I'm just going to be, I'm just going to be present in this moment.

I'm going to go to security and I'm just going to relax.

I'm just going to rest my anxious, weary, striving heart right now, because I'm not in control.

I did there's also a little football game and then I got my journal out.

I just want to be again.

I prayed a little bit, talk to God and you know that three hours or so I had so much peace in my life.

And this is why because I wasn't striving, I wasn't rushing, I wasn't in a hurry, I wasn't go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, like just here, I'm just present and that time I was like, if I don't make this to the Grand Canyon, it's okay.

I was like it's going to be fine and I had peace.

But this is why this is why and really I had no other choice but to do it.

That's why that had space for it and some of us, god wants to give us peace, but we have to make space for it.

And I wonder, in your life right now, are you so busy, maybe striving and maybe going and going, and going and going, and it's like.

It's like can I have?

I need something to give me peace.

God wants to give it to you.

You'll just make space for it.

And maybe what that looks like for some of us and this is the things I'm about to mention are very counter cultural, but maybe what that looks like for some of us is to take five minutes today and just sit inside.

Maybe what that looks like for some of us is on our morning break, is we take a 10 minute farewell, maybe around the complex.

Maybe what that looks like for some of us is we take a new version devotional and we take 10 minutes today and we read it.

Maybe what that looks like for some of us is we turn our cell phone off and we're present with the people right in front of us.

Maybe what that looks like for some of us is we re-evaluate our busy, scheduled, crammed lives and we say I just can't do this anymore.

Here's what I'm saying, guys, is that God wants to give you peace, but we have to make space for it.

And because we have peace with God, if you have peace with God, you can have the peace of God in your life if you make space for it.

And when we have the peace of God, we get that peace with God.

Now, this might be the most important part of this message for some of us.

Think about the gospel of peace.

The gospel of peace is one that we have been forgiven Forgiven.

We have peace with God.

So what that means is I can forgive others and have peace with them.

So you live in the same world that I live in.

Our world is very broken.

In our world, we're going to get disappointed, we're going to get hurt.

Sometimes it's little small things right, go out and somebody cuts you out from the freeway.

Sometimes it's always like.

Sometimes somebody treats you like a jerk and you're like I'm sorry, you're having a bad day.

You didn't have to protect that onto me, bro, right?

But sometimes what happens is it's really big stuff and it's really hard things in life.

Sometimes it's really hard to forgive and I want to empathize with you.

So you're in that place right now.

There's something that's really big, that maybe you have some.

Maybe you don't even realize that.

Maybe there's some bitterness, maybe there's some unforgiveness and in your heart, the reason why it's so hard for you to forgive is because you think that if you forgive, that you're minimizing the offense of what was done.

For some of us, what we think is that if we forgive, that means that we're trusting that person again, that forgiveness equals trust.

But forgiveness doesn't equal trust.

Forgiveness doesn't mean that we're minimizing the offense.

For some of us, our lack of forgiveness, maybe our bitterness, is a source of control that we have and we hold on to this and if we were to forgive and open up, we would make ourselves vulnerable again and we swore to ourselves we would never make ourselves vulnerable again Because we remember what happened last time.

So our bitterness is a place of control because we can hold on to this and we are holding on to it tightly.

But forgiveness minimizing forgiveness isn't trusting.

This is what forgiveness really is, if you look at the teachings of Jesus and Matthew and Satan.

Forgiveness is canceling the debt that somebody owes you.

Forgiveness is canceling the debt that somebody owes you so somebody did you wrong Small, big doesn't matter.

Somebody did you wrong and forgiveness is canceling that debt.

It doesn't diminish the offense that somebody did to you.

In fact, forgiveness doesn't just diminish the offense.

This is diminish the offense.

It just stops the offense from poisoning your hearts.

It's saying this I've been forgiven by God so I can forgive others.

And I know what I'm saying is really hard.

I know it is, I know it is.

I've been forgiven so I can forgive.

This is what Paul told us in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 32.

Ephesians 4:32

It says be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Forgiveness isn't just something that flows from you, it's something that is for you Right.

It doesn't just flow from you, but it's something that's for you.

Forgiveness doesn't mean that there's reconciliation.

Reconciliation is two people coming together.

That's not forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a party of one, reconciliation is a party of two.

And what forgiveness does is forgiveness releases that person, releases that prisoner that has been captive and then realizing that all along the way you have been the person that's been captive, it's letting you go Because, remember when Jesus was dying on the cross incident, dying for people that loved Him the people that loved Him were the people that were on that cross, with people that have just nailed Him to this cross, people that are standing around Him literally mocking Him.

He loves those people.

He's given everything to those people.

He's fed these people, he's come to earth for these people.

He's done it all.

And what does he say?

He doesn't say Father, give them a really hard life.

Father, give them financial setbacks.

Father, I know they really like their job.

They like their job.

Father, forgive them, forgive them, forgive them.

And he released them to death.

And in the world that we live in, guys, we're going to have to have this readiness to forgive, this readiness to extend peace, because in this world, we're going to get hurt.

And you want to question this one Are we armed with this readiness?

Do you have peace with God?

Is today the day in your life?

Maybe you don't have peace with God, maybe you're not going to follow Jesus.

Today is the day that you decide that you're going to put your faith and trust in Jesus' pressure to give Him a life?

Do you have peace with God?

Do you have the peace of God in your life?

Do you need to say I'm going to put some space in my life so I can experience peace, and do we need to extend forgiveness to somebody else?

Readiness, arm ourselves with readiness, because you've experienced the gospel of peace, thank you.