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I keep volunteering to be a part of this and I keep getting rejected.

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I see why now.

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If you have a Bible, Ephesians 6 is where we're going to be.

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So last week we finally got to the part of our series through Ephesians that describes

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why we titled this series, Battle Ready.

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All of us that are followers of Jesus have been enlisted into a spiritual battle against

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Satan.

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We are at war with him.

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When we discussed last week, he is a powerful enemy.

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One that we cannot defend on our own.

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The only way that we can defeat him is to make sure that we are prepared for the battle

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by being strengthened by God and by putting on his armor.

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Although one of the ways that we prepare for the battle is understanding our enemy.

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We discussed that last week.

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The Bible makes it clear that once we are engaged in the battle, we stand firm.

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Not by concentrating on what the enemy is doing around us.

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Not by concentrating on what the enemy is, how he is affecting us.

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But rather by concentrating on what we are doing.

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Although God makes his power and his armor available to us, we need to take the steps

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to actually put it on and use it properly.

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Let me make one general observation that must be the foundation of everything that we'll

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talk about.

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The armor is a symbolic description of Jesus Christ himself.

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Paul makes it even more clear in another one of his letters.

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In Romans chapter 13, he says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision

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for the flesh to gratify the desires.

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That command in that passage in Romans 13 is exactly the same command that is translated,

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put on in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11.

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When we are commanded to put on the armor of God.

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So I'm quite confident to suggest to you that the command to clothe ourselves with Jesus

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is actually a direct parallel to the command to put on the armor of God.

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Therefore, in describing the full armor of God, Paul is actually describing to us how

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to put on himself.

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So as we look at our passage this morning, I want us to see the different aspects of

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Jesus, different aspects of who he is, and then we're going to cover some of those aspects

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this morning.

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We're going to cover verses 14 through 15 this morning.

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I'm going to invite Delaney up to read.

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I heard she's a good reader, and so she's going to read our passage this morning.

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I invite you to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.

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Thank you for having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate

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of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel

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of peace.

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Hold on, I'm going to pray.

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Father, thank you for your word, and I pray that your word will seep into our hearts this

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morning.

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I pray God that you will just open our eyes to see your goodness and through how to prepare

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ourselves for this battle that we are in.

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Thank you for Delaney and how she's leading us this morning in worship and just by reading

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her word, pray bless her, but do not pray.

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So I'm so thankful.

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Maybe you are too.

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I'm so thankful sometimes that we don't use phrases that were once used to describe everyday

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acts.

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Our English translation here says that we are to fasten our belts.

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A more accurate wording from the original would be, would say, girding the loins.

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When I'm getting dressed in the morning, I don't tell Sina, I'll be right up.

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I just got to gird my loins.

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Maybe she would like that.

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I don't know.

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I'll keep you updated on that.

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I'll try that this week.

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But Paul's readers would have had a very clear picture of what he is trying to communicate

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in this passage.

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In his day, men normally would wear long flowing robes.

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Even the Roman soldiers would wear a long tunic.

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And when they got ready for some kind of vigorous action, they would take and tuck their robes

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or tuck their tunics into their belt so that they wouldn't get in the way or nothing would

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impede them.

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So the idea of girding the loins would have conveyed to Paul's readers the idea of preparing

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for battle by getting any impediments out of the way.

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This is what the belt does.

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In fact, the phrase girding the loins came to be used in the New Testament as a picture

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of preparedness.

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In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter writes that we should prepare our minds for action.

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It is the same phrasing that Paul uses.

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Gird up the loins of your minds.

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In Luke chapter 12, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to be prepared for his second

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coming.

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And he uses the same phrase, let your waist be girded and your lamps burning.

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I believe that Paul is very careful here to describe the armor in exactly the same order

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that a Roman soldier would put it on in the same order that we need to put it on.

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Unfortunately, our idea of a belt makes that harder for us to understand because usually

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our belt is one of the last pieces of clothing that we put on.

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But what Paul is describing here is actually more like a girdle.

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The belt of the Roman soldier was made out of this thick leather.

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It protected the abdomen, it protected the lower back and actually provided support for

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the lower back in order to help him stand as he carried all this heavy armor around.

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The belt also had these clips on it that were used to carry the sword and fasten the breast

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plate into position.

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The belt was not just an adornment.

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Some of you ladies, like Sina had a belt on the other day, I was like, what's the point

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of that thing?

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It's not holding up your pants.

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It's for decoration, right?

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But the belt with the Roman soldiers was an absolutely essential piece of equipment.

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It held everything else together.

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So it's actually not surprising at all that the first piece of armor that we are to put

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on in preparation for our battle with Satan is the belt of truth.

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As we saw last week, Satan is a liar.

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And his main weapon against us is deceit and schemes.

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The truth is the primary weapon that we use to stand firm against his lies and deceit is

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truth.

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But without truth, everything else falls apart.

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Everything else is almost useless.

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The breastplate of the Roman soldier was typically made of bronze or iron backed with leather.

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But some of the more affluent officers in the army wore a coat of chainmail.

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The leather backing would attach to the belt to keep it in place.

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That's why the belt was actually the first piece of armor the soldier would put on and

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why we need to begin with our belt of truth.

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Truth holds everything together.

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The breastplate covered the soldier's vital organs, including his heart, including his

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bowels and much the same way that many police officers wear a bulletproof vest to protect

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those vital organs today.

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The symbolism of the breastplate would have been very noteworthy to Paul's readers.

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The first vital area it protected was the heart.

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To Paul's readers, especially those who had a Jewish mindset, which many of them did,

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understood that the heart represented their thoughts or what we would commonly refer to

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as our mind.

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The breastplate protected the bowels, which represented the seat of one's emotions.

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We don't see that very well in many of our English translations, but both the Hebrew

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and the Greek words for deep compassion literally means bowels.

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Even today our emotions can give us a gut feel.

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You know what I'm talking about?

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Or we can have an ache in our stomach because of some set of emotions that we are feeling.

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We need the breastplate of righteousness because those are the two areas where we are most

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vulnerable in the attacks of Satan, our heart and our emotions.

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That's what the breastplate protects.

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Satan wants to cloud our minds and our thinking with false doctrine.

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He wants to cloud our minds with lies and deceit.

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He wants to manipulate our emotions and twist and pervert our affections.

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So Paul makes it clear that the way we defend ourselves against those attacks is to make

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sure that we have on the breastplate of righteousness at all times.

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So let's take just a few minutes to understand how exactly we do that.

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So the root word for righteousness is defined as straightness.

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Now this idea in our culture has lost a lot of its meaning.

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A few months ago I go to the lumber store to the lumber yard because I need to get some

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2x4s for a project that was commissioned to me by my wife for our garage.

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I needed 15 2x4s to complete the project.

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Now for those of you that have been to a lumber yard, do you think I walked into the lumber

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yard and grabbed the first 15 boards that I saw?

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No.

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I bet I went through 50 boards before I found enough to get the project done because most

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of them were warped.

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Most of them were not straight.

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But here's the thing.

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As I was going through the wood, I got my seventh one, maybe my eighth one that was straight,

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but then I began to compromise because I got tired of moving wood around.

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And so I would justify getting a crooked one because I could cut off the crooked part or

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it was good enough.

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For those of you that have bought wood, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

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As I was collecting my wood, my standards began to drop because I was frustrated with

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how much work it took to find the straight wood that I wanted.

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Do we not do that as a society?

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Our standards start to drop and we begin to accept things that are not righteous.

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Our culture even distinguishes different things in this way.

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I've been married to Sina for almost 18 years.

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I thought that would get a round of applause for me, but whatever.

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Probably more for Sina, yeah.

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But I've been married to Sina for almost 18 years.

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So because I'm not gay, I'm referred to as straight.

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Now when they call me straight, are they talking about how righteous I am?

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Probably not.

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But in a way, biblically they are because that's how God intended for us to be.

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When it comes to righteousness, the authoritative standard is God himself.

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Therefore biblical righteousness means to live a life that conforms to the holy character

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of God.

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I came across this definition of righteousness that I ran across this week.

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It says in short, the righteousness of God is all that God is.

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All that he commands.

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All that he demands.

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All that he approves and all that he provides through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the perfectly

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righteous one.

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We have to protect our vital organs.

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We have to protect our emotions.

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We have to protect our minds as it's anchored to our truth.

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Now when I was growing up, I had this thing for shoes.

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I didn't have to pay for them, so why not?

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Every time I got a new pair of basketball shoes, the only surface that those shoes were

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allowed to touch was the court.

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My older shoes that I used to use for basketball, I'd walk in from the parking lot or wherever

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I was and then when I got to the basketball court, I would change my shoes and put on

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my new basketball shoes.

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Then those old shoes that I used to walk through the parking lot eventually got demoted to

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like yard work.

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Nowadays, there are specialized shoes for everything.

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In my opinion, it's getting a little ridiculous.

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I read about a guy that has golf shoes, which is understandable.

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You got to have those certain spikes and things like that.

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I read that he has this set of shoes that he only wears on the greens.

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Now I don't know what kind of advantage that gives.

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He'd wear one pair of shoes as it's going through the fairway and then it gets to the

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green and changes his shoes for the greens.

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I don't know what advantage that is.

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Some of the golfers can help me out with that.

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I can put just as badly with shoes as I can barefoot.

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As Paul continues his description of the armor of God, it's not surprising that he now focuses

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on the shoes.

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These shoes are highly specialized shoes.

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The Roman soldiers wore these heavy leather shoes called caligay.

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These shoes were bound by thongs over the instep and around the ankles and the soles

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were thickly studded with hob nails which provided a way to reinforce the shoes and provided

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some traction so that they could be used as an enemy when you're trying to kick the enemy,

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like when you're going to pull out your Chuck Norris kicks, they could use those things.

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Those shoes were worn by the ordinary soldiers and they were so essential that those soldiers

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came to be known as a caligate.

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Germanicus, who you don't know, was the adopted son of the emperor Tiberius and one of Rome's

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most beloved generals.

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When he was among the soldiers, he began to put the caligate on his son and then his son

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was appropriately named Little Boots.

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So when the boy later became emperor, he was known not by his formal name but by his nickname

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Caligula.

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This is perhaps the most difficult of all the pieces to understand.

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This is the only piece of armor that Paul describes in this passage where he doesn't

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actually identify it directly.

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We have the belt of truth, we have the breastplate of righteousness, we have the shield of faith,

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the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit.

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But if you look at verse 15 carefully, you'll find that Paul doesn't call them the shoes

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of peace.

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In fact, if we take this phrase literally, we are actually to sandal our feet with readiness

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or preparation and not the shoes of readiness or the shoes of preparation.

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I've heard this passage taught so many times, I'm sure you have as well.

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But I want to potentially clear up some confusion on what the shoes of the gospel of peace are.

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This is not a passage to use when you're trying to defend that we should be ready at all times

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to share the gospel.

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I mean that's true, we should be ready to share, but this is not what this passage is

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talking about.

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It's not what Paul is referring to here.

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In this context, we find that Paul is writing in this section to believers who are engaged

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in spiritual warfare with Satan and his demons.

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There is absolutely nothing in this section to indicate that Paul is referring in any

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way to sharing the gospel with unbelievers.

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That certainly seems to be confirmed by the fact in the instruction to put on the armor

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begins in verse 14 with the command to stand, which is also consistent with the three other

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uses of that verb in verse 11 and 13.

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As I've tried to make clear from the very beginning of our study on spiritual warfare,

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our responsibility as believers is not to take new ground.

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It is to stand firm and to hold the ground that Jesus has already taken.

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The word translated readiness or preparedness, depending on what translation you have, is

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a word that is used both in classical Greek and the Greek version of the Old Testament

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to picture a firm foundation that would certainly be consistent with the main purpose of the

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shoes of the Roman soldier, which was to provide him with a sure-footed foundation as he engaged

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in battle so that he could stand his ground.

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For the follower of Jesus, which is most of us in this room, that firm foundation is described

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here by Paul as the gospel of peace.

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Now I don't know about you, but my initial reaction when I was going through this passage

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is the idea of peace here seems to be out of place when we're talking about war.

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How can one be at peace but at war at the same time?

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In order to answer that question, we need a proper understanding of what Paul means by

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the gospel of peace.

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When most of us think peace, we tend to view it as a dictionary definition of the absence

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of war, the absence of conflict.

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Therefore we have a hard time understanding how peace can be an essential piece of armor

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in the spiritual battle that we are engaged in.

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But the biblical concept of peace does not in any way contradict its use as spiritual

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armor.

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The concept of peace in both the Old and New Testaments is not merely the absence of external

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trials or tribulations, but in Hebrew the word is shalom.

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Shalom means completeness, means wholeness, it means to be at rest.

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The Greek word also incorporates those same concepts.

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It means to join together that which has been separated.

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That's this idea of biblical peace.

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In just a moment after we briefly look at the gospel, I want to come back and see how

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the gospel of peace joins back together what has been separated in our lives.

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But first we need to understand that we stand firm on the gospel and not for the gospel

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in this context.

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We stand on the gospel, meaning these preparedness is for us, it's not for us to go spread the

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gospel in this passage.

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The gospel is a Greek word that means good news.

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I think most of us know that.

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The Greeks as well as the Romans use that word to describe the proclamation of important

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events like the victory over enemies.

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When they got a new emperor they would send out the gospel.

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When it was the emperor's birthday they would send out the gospel.

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The New Testament writers appropriated that secular word and applied it to the best news

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that anyone could ever hear.

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That Jesus Christ has come to bring peace.

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That's the gospel message as we know it.

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That's why Paul encourages his readers to be ready for battle by making sure that they

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have a firm foundation on the gospel of peace.

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The gospel of peace is to operate in three different areas of our lives.

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The first one being it brings us peace with God.

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That's how this works as you saw earlier.

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The idea of peace requires the joining together of what has been separated.

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That's where this peace comes from.

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At the beginning of Ephesians we were there last year of chapter 2.

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Paul describes how we were separated from God at one time.

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We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

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We were his enemies.

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We were subject to his wrath.

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We had no peace with God.

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Jesus is the peace that brought both of those things together with him.

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Once again we find that putting on the armor is actually a matter of clothing ourselves

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with Jesus.

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In order to put on peace we put on the one who is peace, Jesus.

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When we place our faith in him he restores our relationship with God and he gives us

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peace with God.

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This is why Colossians chapter 1 tells us that God was pleased to make his fullness

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dwell in him so that he could reconcile all things to himself by making peace through

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his blood shed on the cross.

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The only way we could have peace with God is not by being a good person.

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It's not by being religious.

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It's because Jesus loved all of us enough to be the sacrifice for our sins.

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And because of that we can have the peace of God.

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I'm convinced that Satan loves to get us to worry about things that distracts us from

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the battle and causes us to put down the armor and then we are vulnerable to attack.

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So how do we deal with worry and appropriate the peace of God?

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We pray.

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We pray.

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And what does Paul say that we should pray about?

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Everything.

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We pray about everything.

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I found this to be a pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to applying this passage.

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If something is significant enough for me to worry about then it's significant enough

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for me to pray about it.

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Worried about your health?

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Pray about it.

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Worried about your finances?

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Pray about it.

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Worried about your kids and the pressure they're going to face as they go to school?

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Pray about it.

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Like you get the idea.

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If it's significant enough to take time out of my day to worry about, it's significant

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enough for me to take time out of my day to ask God to do something about it.

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I believe this is one of the greatest benefits of following Christ.

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While your world is potentially crumbling down around you, there is this sense that everything

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is going to be okay because we know the one that holds it all together.

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That's the peace of God.

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Jesus tells us not to be anxious.

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But think about our culture right now.

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How is Satan attacking us?

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Anxiety is up at an all time high.

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He tells us not to worry about tomorrow.

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But how many of us are worried about our future or our children's future?

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With God there is peace.

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I think of it like a parent-child relationship.

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I have very independent children, which is a good thing.

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But it also comes with its own set of issues because they don't ask for help.

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They just do things.

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And there are times that they come to me, come to us, and they're overwhelmed.

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They're stressed.

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They're crying.

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Life is really, really hard.

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There are times that they come to us and we can just kind of talk them down and help

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them see the big picture, help them kind of think through things logically.

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But there are other times that I have to take it a step further and I need to step in.

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And so I'll tell them at times, hey, I'll handle that for you.

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I'll take care of that for you.

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I will allow them to go to bed or relax and I will go handle whatever it is that's bothering

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them.

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Sometimes it's easy.

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I just need to run to the store and get something else.

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Sometimes I just need to fix something.

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Sometimes I need to have a conversation with somebody.

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I don't fix all their issues, but when it becomes overwhelming, I want them to say, hey,

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my dad's going to handle that.

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When they understand that they have a problem and they understand that their problem is

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now my problem, there is peace because they know that I have the abilities to take care

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of the problem that they don't.

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I can handle it for them.

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They trust that it will be fixed.

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We need to live with that mindset, that our God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things

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has far more abilities than we do.

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He can handle anything.

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He is already in tomorrow and we need to be reminded that He's going to handle any issues

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that come up because the enemy wants us stressed out.

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He wants us worried.

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He wants us paralyzed by situations, but the gospel of peace is a reminder that we can

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be at rest because God is in control.

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Finally, we can have peace with others.

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The gospel of peace gives us peace with others.

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The church is an amazing place because you have all these different personalities in

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this room.

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We have all these different interests, but somehow we can all get along together and

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we can all enjoy one another.

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What is funny about me living here now is that I used to work at a John Deere dealership

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in Texas.

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I was around a lot of farmers and I was around a lot of mechanics that worked on their tractors.

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I'm not exaggerating every single day.

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I would hear one of them complaining about the engineers that came up with how these

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things work because it made no sense to them.

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Here I am living in John Deere country with all you've engineers that create all these

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things.

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I'm sure that there is a constant battle between those who design things to work and those

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that actually have to work on these things when they're broken.

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But somehow when the gospel of peace does is it allows people who are very different

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to come together because it's the shed blood of Jesus that unites us all.

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We have school administrators and teachers worshiping together in this place.

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We have engineers and mechanics worshiping together in this place.

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We have really, really thoughtful people and those that can't remember what day it is worshiping

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together in this place.

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We have those that don't say two words out loud because there's others who will speak

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enough for everybody.

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Being together in this place.

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That's the beauty of the church.

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And it's all possible because of the gospel of peace.

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You and I, I can't say it enough, right?

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You and I are in a constant, constant, constant spiritual battle.

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And if we are anchored to the world and not to truth, we're more susceptible to attack.

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When we're not walking in righteousness, the way God designed us to be, our emotions can

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get the best of us, right?

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That's why the Bible is pretty clear that the heart is deceptive.

403
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Our emotions will lie to us when we're not anchored to truth, when we're not protecting

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00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:05,560
our mind, when we're not protecting our emotions, those things can get out of whack real quickly,

405
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can't they?

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And when we're not standing firm on the gospel.

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Not for everybody else, but for us.

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I don't know about you, but I have to preach the gospel to myself constantly.

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I have to remind myself that God gives me peace.

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He gives me peace with him.

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He gives me peace with others.

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He gives me just this overwhelming sense of peace so many times, but tomorrow I'm probably

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going to forget it and I have to be reminded.

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When life gets overwhelming, I have to remind myself the gospel, the gospel, the gospel.

415
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So I don't know how you walked in here this morning.

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I don't know where your anxiety levels are this morning.

417
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:03,280
I don't know where your finances are this morning, where your health is this morning.

418
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Maybe you have a wayward child.

419
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Maybe I don't know.

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But I want you to hear God say, I'll handle that for you.

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I'll handle that for you.

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Because his abilities far outweigh our own abilities and he will bring you peace.

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So I'm going to pray for us.

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We'll wrap this shindig up.

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But just be aware.

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Be aware.

427
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:53,960
You're going to be tempted to believe this room and sometime later today, you're going

428
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:59,160
to be tempted to believe a lie.

429
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:07,040
You're going to be tempted to react to some situation because somebody has offended you.

430
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:12,520
You're going to be tempted to spend the rest of the afternoon or this next week just worrying

431
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:19,000
about whatever situation that you are dealing with right now.

432
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And just remember that's how the enemy is going to attack you.

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He's going to constantly lie to you.

434
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He's going to constantly deceive you.

435
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:39,400
And so let's clothe ourselves with Jesus because he is the truth.

436
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:44,800
He is the definition of righteousness.

437
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He is the one that brings peace.

438
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Let's pray.

439
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:49,120
Father, I pray.

440
00:31:49,120 --> 00:32:03,320
I pray that as we just kind of prepare our minds and hearts to finish out this day, that

441
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,840
you will protect us.

442
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:12,480
You will protect us from the flaming arrows that are being thrown at us.

443
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:13,480
You will protect our minds.

444
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:21,920
You will protect our hearts, that you will protect every aspect of our spiritual walk

445
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with you.

446
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:30,400
God, I pray for the news of the gospel, the truth of the gospel to pierce our hearts

447
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:32,680
each and every day.

448
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I pray for salvation to come to this place.

449
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For anyone that is trying to do it on their own, God, I pray that you will whisper to

450
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them that you will handle it, that you can handle it.

451
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:58,200
Help us see you as a loving father that cares for us.

452
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So God, we're not taking ground here.

453
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We're just standing firm on your truth.

454
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God, as we worship, I pray that you will speak that truth to our hearts, that we will be

455
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able to stand firm on your gospel.

456
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That's in your name, you pray.

457
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Amen.

458
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,760
I believe one of the best ways, I've just said it a few minutes ago, one of the best

459
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ways that we can fight against the enemy is to pray about it, is to ask God to help us.

460
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:34,160
So I'm going to invite our prayer team to be available.

461
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,320
I'm going to invite our elders, if there's any in the room, to just kind of be available.

462
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If we can pray for you, if we can join in the battle with you, then I highly encourage

463
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:46,400
you to come and receive that ministry this morning.

464
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Amen.

465
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I'll be right down here if I can do anything for you.

466
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:51,400
Amen.

467
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:52,400
That's all you matter.

468
00:33:52,400 --> 00:34:11,880
The inside is filled with you.

469
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:18,800
I might die, but the heart is filled with you.

470
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That's in your name.

471
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:20,920
Amen.

472
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Lord bless you and keep you

473
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Make his face shine upon him, the great gracious

474
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The Lord turned his face toward you

475
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:08,920
And did you face

476
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:36,920
Amen, amen, amen

477
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:43,920
Lord bless you and keep you

478
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:50,920
Make his face shine upon him, the great gracious

479
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:57,920
The Lord turned his face toward you

480
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:03,920
And did you face

481
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:17,920
Amen, amen, amen

482
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:32,920
Amen, amen, amen

483
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:43,920
Amen, amen, amen

484
00:36:43,920 --> 00:37:05,920
Lord bless you and keep you

485
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:11,920
family and your children and their children and their children.

486
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:20,920
May His presence hold you for you and behind you and beside you all around you.

487
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:27,920
And within you, He's with you, He's with you in the morning,

488
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:35,920
In the evening, He's coming, He's growing, He's sweeping, He's rejoicing.

489
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:52,920
He is for you, He is for you, He is for you, He is for you.