Message 6 - Tailor Made - The Shoes

Ephesians 6:15

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Okay, we're going to Ephesians 6. Uh, if you have your Bibles, your devices, uh, we'll go back to that passage as well. Uh, we're looking at this armor that uh uh uh God has given us. That Paul is talking, the Apostle Paul is talking about, writing about to the to the Christians in in Ephesus. Uh he's tell he's told us we need this because we have a very formidable enemy who's alive and well. Not only is Satan alive and well, he has demonic forces that are working with him, working with him against us. And and uh and they're against all humanity. They're not just against Christians. Uh they're against uh first, their first goal, their first mission. Satan's mission is to keep us from ever stepping into relationship with God. That's what Satan would love to have happen. But fortunately, uh uh hopefully everyone in this room came to the understanding that God loves you, that Jesus died on that cross in your place for your sin, my place for my sins, and you've accepted that gift of salvation and forgiveness, which God is offering to each one of us. And so when that happens, Satan loses the battle of keeping you out of relationship with God, but he doesn't give up. He he still tries to do whatever he can to uh sideline us, cause destruction, cause uh upsetting, anything he can do to make us to not enjoy the uh the relationship we have with God and the joy of that relationship. And so so Paul says we have this armor that God has given us for our protection. Uh and so we've been thinking and walking through that together. Uh, and this morning what I want to do is as we begin this, I want to do a little bit of a comparison uh for the purpose of I think clarifying some things. So keep your finger in Ephesians 6 and then go just a few pages to your left to the book of Galatians. Uh, Paul wrote to let to the Galatia Christians because I I want to kind of make a distinction between a couple of things. In chapter 5 of Galatians, if you look over to verse 16, uh you're gonna read a phrase there. Paul says that we should live by the Spirit. Uh now, when you invite Christ to be your Savior, when you come to that point where you understand Jesus died for me, uh he's offering me a gift. That means it's not about works, it's not about religion. It is actually a gift, just like any other gift. We either accept it or we reject it. But he's offering me a gift of forgiveness and adoption into God's family and eternal life, eternal life with him. But at the same time, when we make that decision to accept that gift, the Bible says that God's Spirit comes to live within us. And he's always there, always. Nevertheless, we have to make a decision because God, the Spirit, is living within us, but I got to decide on a daily basis whether I'm gonna let Him be in control or whether I'm gonna be in control. That's what live by the Spirit means. Live by the Spirit means, Paul's saying, encourage the Galatian Christians to allow God to be in control of their daily life. Uh the Spirit is there, but we have to decide whether he's gonna be in control. Sometimes it's been described as uh uh uh like I'm giving God the will. He's gonna drive the car of my life, whatever. And uh so that's a daily decision I make. Am I gonna allow him to be in control? Or am I gonna be in control? Now, if you jump down to verse 22, uh, which I have up on here, uh I got ahead of myself, you'll read here that when I allow the Holy Spirit to be in control, something happens. And so we read down there, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You've probably heard that list a lot of times, and even maybe quoted the list. But here's what I want us to note, and and I'll make the distinction in a moment. He says here that uh that this list is fruit, the natural fruit of a life that's allowing God to be in charge. And and uh so because and I hear sometimes I hear uh Christians, uh, probably said it myself on occasion, we'll say something like, boy, I really need to work on my patience. You know, uh Ashley probably will need that some days with three little ones. Uh and so we'll say, I just really need God to work on my patience, or I need to learn how to be more kind. Uh or or maybe I just I need I need the joy. I just need that joy to return. Uh so what Paul's saying here is no, that's not what we need. We need to allow God to be in control because if we do, if we give him the reins, this list is just the product. This is just the fruit. Uh this is the fruit of when God's in control of my life. When I've said to the Lord, you got the reins, and like I said, it's a daily decision, uh, sometimes hourly decision. Uh, but when I'm allowing him to be in charge of my life, peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, that's just fruit of it. It's just the it just happens automatically as the fruit. How do I tell when I'm not allowing God to be in control of my life? The list goes out the window. So I'm just I'm I'm very impatient. Well, what I know then is at that moment Paul's in control. I'm taking over the reins, I'm steering the car because if I if because that's when lack of patience shows up or a lack of joy shows up. Uh so that's the fruit. Now, why am I making this distinction? Go back to Ephesians 6. Because when we come, here's another list. Paul's giving another list out, uh, and he's writing it to the Ephesians Christians, and he's talking about this armor. But I want you to note when it comes to this list and this armor, uh, he says, to put this on. In other words, this isn't just a natural thing. Uh it's not just uh, you know, it's not just uh the fruit of God being in control. He's saying on a on a daily basis, we are going to need to remind ourselves of these pieces of armor that are available to us. Uh so so I can make uh so I need to put this on. I I had uh an elder in my church in Maryland, a church of Maryland, I served in Maryland, and he used to pray through this. He would pray through this on a regular basis, and just as a reminder of God, this is what you've given access to me, so that the enemy can't move in and do the damage that he wants to do. So he says, so now, so we're walking down through this list, this armor, and uh we want uh trying to understand what what does it each piece mean? And we've made it to the first two. We've talked about, first of all, the belt of truth, which we discovered and as we dug into it, meant to live with integrity, to be a person of integrity, that this actually holds all the other pieces in place. When I'm if I'm an if I'm a person of integrity, uh then uh it helps protect me. That makes a lot of sense. In fact, I talked about the fact that these are are pretty normal things. But so so I have this, if I need to be a person of integrity. And then we moved on to uh the next one, which was the breastplate of righteousness, and and we talked about that last week, and I told you that another way that that could have been translated was uh to was virtue. And where as whereas integrity is outward, what people see, how we live our life to the people around us, what they see in the public eye, and how important that is, really is important. Virtue is more about the inner life, what kind of things we're allowing into our lives, the king, the things we watch, the things we read, uh the things that we allow to have an appetite for. And and those are those things that that either make us uh uh strong in the area of our inner life and who we are in the inner person, or weak, uh susceptible, uh open us up to Satan's attack or help keep his attack away. And so he says this is another piece of the armor that we need to put on. And I and I told these are so they're so practical, but and uh this is just me. I'm not saying this is necessarily uh doctrinally, but I think it's I think I'm right. Uh it's interesting, I think these first two really have uh it doesn't matter whether you're a follower of God or not, when it comes to if putting integrity and virtue are are really good things to have. Uh and and I know, I know some people that they're not followers of God, but they're people of integrity. And and from what I can tell, they're they have a they're really inwardly they're they have virtue. Uh now I think probably the difference is is our motivation for why. Uh they're doing it maybe because they just want to be a good person. Uh whereas a believer, our motivation should be anyway, I want to do this because I want my God to be pleased with me. And so that but uh so I think those, but I think whether you're a follower of God or not, obviously being a person of integrity and having virtue in your life are are good things, are good things. Now, as we move into the the rest of this list of armor, I don't think it applies to people that don't have that relationship with God. I think it is about us who know God and have, as our Heavenly Father, and have a relationship with Him. Uh and so uh, and I mean I think you'll see why, maybe as we delve into the next piece of armor, which is, he says, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Now, obviously, as we've been talking through this, and we mentioned this a number of times, Paul's this whole uh uh armor, this whole analogy of what we're talking about reminds us that we're in the middle of a battle, that we do have an enemy, and and he is a strong adversary. He is out, we talked about, out to out to destroy us, out to take our joy away, out to make us insecure about our relationship with God. Whatever he can do to sideline us, he that's what he's trying to do. And remember, in this analogy, Paul uses one of the aspects, he talks about the wrestling. And we talked about back in those days, uh, in the time when Paul wrote this, when he with their wrestling matches, which were a pretty common thing, they loved to go to the wrestling matches, but they were based on kind of a one-point system. If your enemy could knock you off your feet and get you on the ground, then you lost a point. And they haven't had three rounds, and uh, and you could, depending on if you stayed on your feet or not, uh, depending on whether you won the battle or not. And and so Paul's using that analogy, and when he gets here, he's saying, now he says, I'm I you he says, you have shoes available to you that are gonna help you keep your feet. Uh so these are very important because once you understand, if and you put on these shoes, they're gonna keep make it impossible for Satan to knock you off your feet, rub your face in the dirt, whatever you, whatever way you want to look at this. So, so the question is all right then, what are we talking about? What are these shoes of the gospel of peace? Well, it's just simply this that when you as a believer accepted the good news, the gospel, accepted the fact that Jesus, in fact, died in your place for your sin, in my place for my sins, accepted that gift of forgiveness that doesn't just apply to now or to what I did yesterday, but even future, that my sins are forgiven. At that moment, we were we stepped into a relationship with God. In fact, he says he adopted us as his child. And so now we are his child. And this, and so Paul's saying, put on these shoes, put on this daily reminder of the fact that you are now at peace with God, and nothing can take that away. Uh so when Satan starts throwing up the accusations or saying, ah, not, yeah, you didn't, you're you're not really you are you should if you did that, you really think God loves you? He's saying, remind yourself, yeah. Satan, your your accusations are full of belonging. You're a liar, you're a deceiver. I specifically remember accepting the offer of forgiveness, and I'm at peace with God because of that. And you can't do anything about that. That is my secure footing. You remember the story of the uh uh uh prodigal son uh in in Luke 15. And it and if you remember, and this is one of the ways Satan attacks, but he uses that illustration, uh uh, and I'm gonna turn back over to it. So so you remember the background of the story. Here's uh this son, and then this father, he has two sons, and uh one of his sons uh decides he's not dying fast enough. That's actually what's going on there. He's basically saying, Dad, old man, you're not dying fast enough. I want my inheritance now. I mean, it was a you talk about a put down. Can you imagine one of your kids coming to you and saying, you've not been waiting around, and you're just not kicking the bucket fast enough. I've been waiting and I, uh I'd like my portion of the inheritance. That's what's going on here. And the father graciously gives it to the son. He turns over that inheritance. And you remember what happened. So the son goes off, goes off to a distant country, uh, just wait, gets a lot of friends for a while because he has all this money to play with. And so he has all these friends and they help him spend his money and just messing up his life, and then eventually he runs out of money, which means his friends disappear, and then it gets so bad that he he hires himself out. This is uh in the Jewish context. He hires himself out to a pig farmer, which no good Jewish boy would ever do that, but he's so desperate he does. And in fact, it gets worse than that because one day he's feeding the slop to the pigs, and he is so hungry that he looks at what the pigs are eating, and he thinks, I don't know, I might have to try it. Okay, it gets that bad. That's the that's the story, and you remember the story. Well, then at that moment, uh Luke records, and this is a story, a prayer parable that that Jesus told, uh, it says, at that very moment, uh the son uh comes to his system, his senses. He he thinks about the situation he's in, and he thinks, this is nuts. I I know, I know that I've destroyed my relationship with my father. I know I I really can't be his son anymore, obviously. I've I've ruined that. But but even my dad's hired hands are are better off than I am. And so it says, uh, Luke 15, 17 says, when he came to his senses, he said, How many of my fire fathers hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. You see here, you hear the what's going on in his heart, he's thinking, uh, obviously I can't still be his son. He's disowned me. How could he not, based on what I've done? How could he not? I so I obviously say I can't be his son, but maybe I can at least get hired on as one of his hired hands. And so he says, I'm gonna go back and ask if my dad will hire me. And you know what happens. He goes back, the scriptures say his dad sees him a long way off because he's been watching for him. He runs out to his son, and and the son has practiced the speech. Dad, uh, you know, I know I can't be calling you dad anymore. Obviously, I'm not your son, you just own me, but can I at least hire on as one of your hard hands? So he he has the speech practice, he starts to say it to his father, and you remember what happened. His father interrupts him and says, My son has returned. Kill the fatted calf, bring the rope, put the ring back on his finger. You see, that's not the way it works, and you know that. When you are in a parent-child relationship, they're always your child. Relationship, the fellowship might get tough once in a while, you know, but they're still our child. And so that father reminded that no, you're my son. You're not a hired hand, you're still my son. Yeah, it's a Bin Hardy, yeah, but you're my son. That's what's going on here. That's the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace, is for you and I to realize that we can never change that relationship. When you accepted Christ's offer of forgiveness, paid for by his death on the cross, when you accepted that, you were adopted as a child of God, and that never changes. I don't care what your feelings are telling you, how bad the week might be, uh, what this deceiver might be throwing up in your face, but that doesn't change. So put those shoes on because they're what keeps you on your feet. There are some times where it just, you know, kind of comes down to that, that reminder from the word of God. I know what the word says. I know you promised me. I don't feel like your child right now. I don't feel like I should be your child right now based on the things I've done, but that's not what it's about. You have promised me that nothing can change that relationship. You adopted me and your family, and we are at peace. And this relationship is not just a temporary, it's a forever relationship. And so Paul says it's very important for you and I to grab on, to put these shoes on, tie them tight, sleep in them, maybe. You know, I remember one time getting a new pair of boots when I was a kid, and I slept for a couple of nights in the boots. I just didn't want to take them off. Well, don't take these off. Uh always keep in mind that that when you accepted the good news, the gospel, and stepped into that relationship, nothing can take that away from you. Nothing can change that. We've been studying in our men's breakfast, the Bible says for we've been walking our way through the book of 1 John for a while. And 1 John, his the the letter when he wrote that letter, really the discussion is about this question because you know sometimes we don't feel like it. Sometimes we just feel we don't feel close to God. We don't, you know, or or we've done something and we kind of can do the question mark. Have I did it? Have I have I messed up? Have I broken that relationship? And and so John is saying, no. Again, he's he's saying this. He's saying, nothing can separate the relationship. Now he says, at times the fellowship's not doing so well because of decisions I've made or choices or things I've said, but it doesn't change the relationship. We are still his child. In fact, this uh couple uh last uh Saturday before last uh we came to this verse, and I love this verse. And uh so John write, uh so John wrote uh get to here how how great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. You see, and there's exclamation points there because there's exclamation points in the Greek. When you step into that relation, when you accept that offer of forgiveness, you and I are adopted into his family, and those shoes, we need to put them on because Satan will lie to us. He is gonna tell us someday, some weeks, uh man, that's you, you you fooled yourself. Uh don't believe it. Uh don't listen to it for a moment. Stay stay stay on your feet by reminding yourself, I am a child of God, and nothing ever can take that away. In fact, Paul writes in Romans uh chapter 8, and he walks through, remember this whole list, and he says, you know, the kind of things that we often tend to say, Well, I probably have messed up now too far because obviously God doesn't love me. And he says, Okay, uh, what proves that to us? Is it is it hardships? Uh is it famine? Uh is it lack of food? Uh is it sickness? All the kind of things that, you know, we tend to kind of say, Well, that's proof God doesn't love me, or why would I be going through that? Uh, and and he says, No, none of those things can separate you from the love of God once you've invited Jesus. Jesus to be your Savior. In fact, he ended up by saying, nothing in all creation. So because sometimes we'll say, Well, I can. No, you can't. You can't any more than even any more than one of your children can say, I'm no longer your child. They can claim it if they want to. But a DNA test will prove them wrong. Well, you and I now that we've invited Jesus to be our Savior, we have God's DNA. And that's never going to change. And that's the shoes of the gospel of peace that you and I to be put on. Need to put to keep on our feet and remember where we are. They will keep us standing. Even in the midst of insecure times, they will keep us standing. So put those shoes on. Don't listen to the lies of the enemy. He's going to try to throw things at you. He's going to try to knock you out off your feet, but keep reminding yourself, I don't care what you say, Satan, I'm a child of God. I am his son. I am his daughter. And nothing can take that away. Let's pray. Thanks, Father. It's amazing truth. Lord, I pray that every person in this room who has accepted your offer of forgiveness they grab on to this. They put those shoes on and they keep them on. That anytime they start doubting themselves or the enemy starts throwing reasons to doubt, that they grab back onto that truth. No, I'm I'm God's child. I have the shoes on, the gospel of peace. I'm at peace with God because I accepted his offer and nothing can change that. Nothing can take that away. I pray that maybe even this morning there are some sitting in this room that are having doubts. It's been a rough week. They're a little worried. Or maybe they've made decisions recently and that's caused them to question where they are with you. I pray that that this has reassured them, that they've snugged those shoes back on. I'm a child of God. I may have done not done everything right. I may need to talk to God about some things, some decisions I've made, some things I've said, I don't know, but whatever I need to do, that's fine. But I am God's child. I know that for a fact. And nothing and no one can take that away. Thank you, Lord, for that truth, that reminder this morning. Now, Lord, I just pray for uh this time that we're gonna have together, sharing a meal, and just that we will enjoy you and we'll enjoy our fellowship with each other. I pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

We're gonna stand, sing one last chorus together. Uh before we do, just a couple quick announcements. Don't forget the potluck right after we end here. We'll be setting the food up and starting pretty quickly here, and then two of our prayer warriors, Tom and Roxanne, will be up here at the end of the service as we close. If you want someone to pray with, pray over you, they'll be up here. So let's sing this together.