all right do me a favor take out those sermon notes you got on the way in today if you are watching online or you're a digital person you can always open that app the sermon notes are available digitally for you guys to fill them out and you can email them to yourself we are in part six of a series we've been calling battle ready where we are helping you get equipped to win in this thing called spiritual warfare and i love how god works because he really set us up to this series during this moment and for some reason during this moment i've heard from so many people that feel like man aaron i don't know if it could have come at a more perfect time i'm in the midst of spiritual warfare and i hope you're finding victory and so if you have missed any of the previous five weeks i want you to know you can always find them on youtube which by the way if you're not subscribed to our youtube channel you should we got great content that comes out every week my leadership podcast is on there we got worship content that's on there we got sermons every week so if you ever miss a week and you're subscribed you'll get the stuff later so we're pumped about that all right we are in part six we're gonna start in ephesians chapter six paul is writing this to the church equipping them and he says it this way therefore put on the full armor of god that's the goal of the series that we're totally equipped so that when the day of evil comes and some of y'all are in the midst of it right now you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand then he says stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist that was two weeks ago that was the first piece of equipment we talked about the importance of wrapping your life in truth an absolute truth and then he says it like this with a breastplate of righteousness in place that was last sunday where i talk to you about the importance of having righteousness in your life and then it says it like this and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace the gospel of peace i want to kind of give you a background paul's writing this while he's in jail and while he's in jail there was probably a roman guard that is sitting there watching him and observing him and he's looking at this roman soldier and looking at his pieces of armor and he's kind of outlining going okay they need the belt okay they need the breastplate and then he gets to this third part and he talks about these things called these shoes and i'm going to write it you can write it down in your notes this way the title of today's message is the shoes of peace the shoes of peace a lot of you guys you walked in here today and you're filled with anxiety and you're filled with worry and you're filled with stress and i want you to know you're going to leave in a few minutes filled up with peace can i hear a good amen today church now i have like kind of a love-hate relationship with shoes because growing up my parents made it a point i think they were just a little bit too cheap to ever buy us um name brand shoes they wouldn't buy us name baron chu so i don't know if you were like us but um all my friends had the cool shoes they had nikes and adidas and all those things and while they would go to like foot locker and and you know all those places to get their shoes uh my mom would take us to pay less come on anybody pay less people in the veterans yeah yeah yeah we're able to do a lot more fun things we went to payless and so my brother and i we didn't know you know growing up that it was a big deal until you get in like high school and college and you're still wearing them and and and that was kind of my life but i remember when i would get a new pair of shoes i would uh you know we put them on and my brother and i just had this idea that shoes could do something for us that nothing else could do and so we put on these shoes and for some reason we thought we ran faster than we did before come on anybody have those moments in their life and and we would start jumping and go man these shoes they made you jump higher than before then i'll never forget i i the one pair of shoes i begged my parents for they never bought them for me and don't by the way if you want to give your gift pastor gift do not buy me these i will not wear them but i remember in high school seeing these things and where uh where it was a it was a dunk competition and this guy goes up to go and dunk but before he does he goes down to a shoe and you would think he's tying his shoelaces but he wasn't he was pumping up his shoes how many remember the reebok pumps right there and i remember a buddy of mine had one of these and i was like oh man that's like you know he's five five he thinks he can dunk now with these things on and it didn't work you know it wasn't the shoe that made it happen but but shoes you know you had this whole idea that man shoes are designed for different things you're going to be doing in life so i'm going to put some shoes up there and i want you to kind of respond with what your assignment would be or what you're going to do if you are wearing these shoes so the first one is this one where are you going yeah very good i know st pete they threw it out there they got it you're gonna go golf you're gonna go why because there's shoes that are designed for golfing and let's try these right here what are those next ones there we are yeah tap dancing y'all might not know this but i was a tap dancer for you no i wasn't i'm not a tap dancer that'd be fun all right what about these come on all right these these man shoot you're gonna go ride on a horse or or just drive in plant city whatever you want to do right there so that's funny right there line dancing with your friends you know you got some cowboy boots and and that's kind of your things and that would be your kind of your goal with those shoes and here's your goal with these next shoes would be to never date in your life that's how that's funny right there somebody's going to be wearing crocs today and go the one day i wore them to church they're cool they're cool all right so as paul's writing this he's looking at the roman soldier and he looks at his shoes and the roman soldier's shoes were very unique and actually i have a pair of actual roman soldier first century shoes these are the shoes that they would actually wear and i just want you to know like how big of a deal this is so i have traveled the world i've gone to italy multiple times to try to find stuff like this israel was there last year with the church before cove it all happened looking for these kind of things and i want you to know to get these kind of shoes you can't you can't get them all anywhere else other than um amazon i got them on amazon they're prime you can get them in two days so the easiest sermon prop ever so they're like does this guy ever preach i'm getting there i promise you so these are the actual roman shoes that they would wear and and it would take some time like there's a reason that they talk about this idea that like man you gotta you gotta get these shoes on they're gonna take some diligence and determination to strap them all up to bring them all up and in the bottom of these shoes they would basically drive nails into the bottom of it then cut them off obviously and there's a whole purpose and a whole everything about the shoe is crafted in such a way for warfare so let me give you the idea behind it because every piece of armor has a purpose and the purpose of the shoes for those who are in battle was this to provide stability and mobility for the soldier i want you to write that down stability and mobility for the soldier so we have to have both of them if we're going to win in this thing called spiritual warfare and so if you see the bottom of the shoes these kind of cleats would provide stability for the soldier when he's in battle so i want you to run it down because the stable soldier can stand firm when the enemy attacks a lot of the roman soldiers would be in hand-to-hand combat and there'd be nothing more you know destructive or even embarrassing than you know you go to fight and you slip in front of everybody but this would create a grip onto the floor to where you can stand your ground remember what ephesians tells us in our passage paul says put on that full armor of god so that you can what take your stand there's a stand that you're supposed to have against the devil schemes and then he says if you didn't get it already let me give it to you again therefore put on the full armor of god so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground there it is right there and after you've done everything guess what you're able to do stand and then after that guess what you're able to do stand firm then i think paul has a purpose for us to learn to stand and what i'm frustrated with is that when christians don't understand that when they're under this attack they don't have to be swayed like the world does you don't have to fall like the world does you don't have to be unstable like the world does it can come at you but you can stand firm because you got the shoes on i'm going to teach you a little bit that god wants you to stand in this thing first corinthians paul says it this way therefore my dear brothers and sisters stand firm let nothing move you don't let that job loss move you don't let that divorce move you don't let those those situations move you don't let your bank account move you don't let politics move you we have to stand on what we believe stand on what is right and i believe if we'll learn to stand we'll be able to withstand all that the enemy throws at us here's the second one is simply this is that you've got to be a mobile soldier so it's not just standing but it's also being able to move around because what is the purpose you ever gone to like you know england and you see this the the guards and they're just like and they got the big hats on and the whole thing and you just go and like try to make all the faces in front of them and i was like my whole job when i was there is just to make you know get them to smile yeah but i'm like sitting there going this is really cool but what if someone like actually tries to attack you know like these guys are like oh man i've stood for like 15 years like what am i doing and there's this whole idea that no you're not just called to stand you're also called at times to move there's actually territory god wants you to take there's actually progress god wants you to make that's why i love the mission of our church is that we exist to move people from where they are to where god wants them to be some of you guys you've been so afraid you've just been standing and god's saying it's your time to move don't take some territory go start a small group go to next step go to serve day move in this thing so you can be all that god's called you to be and here's why it's important because the mobile soldier can quickly move into battle and you need this in your life you need to be able to move quickly into the battle that god has for you when when there's an attack on your family you're not just standing back you're going no no no no no i've got the shoes on i can get into battle on behalf of my children i get into battle on the behalf of my family we can move i love this as jesus was challenging the disciples the master said to the servant he says listen you need to go out you're not called to just stay in you're called to go out into the roads in the country lanes and compel them to come in the church has been staying for far too long our goal is to go out i love what matthew says it's it's the great commission jesus says it this way therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit and teaching them everything i've commanded you and surely i will be with you always even to the end of the age there is a going that god wants us to go out so you gotta have your shoes on so here's the question for you today paul says you need your shoes on you need stability you need mobility and here's what is the tool that's going to give you both of them and he tells us this word that will give us the strength to do both of these things he says it like this in verse 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace here's the word we we talked about truth in one week we talked about righteousness and another week if you want to have stability and mobility in your life here's the word ready peace you need some peace now i've come to encourage some people today that they feel like all hell's breaking loose in their lives i'm here to say you know what there's peace available for the believer there's peace that can bring you stability and there's priest peace that can bring you mobility to move in some situations there's some things that have been chaotic that shouldn't be chaotic any longer because you're going to bring peace into those situations we have access to peace and here's what peace is write it down your notes peace is calm and tranquility of soul so it's it's listen we understand we already have peace in our spirit we learned about that last week but many times it's in your mind it's the anxiousness it's the worry and now you can have calm and tranquility of soul amid guess what really difficult circumstances and i want you to know this should define the believer right here this should define the believer you should be able to walk around no matter how chaotic things are and just be at peace i wrote it down your notes this way that peace should be the default of the believer that because of who we have because of the shoes we have on that our default in everything in life is peace it's not reacting it's not anger it's not it's not violent it's it's nowhere at peace people should look at people at radiant church and you're walking around town you're just always like like what is up with that church everybody with those orange bracelets they're just like are they smoking something like what is something like no we're not it's not our church i promise you like another place that's not us i promise you but what is it what is the difference the difference is that we have peace we have it we have peace in our life this is available for us i love how paul writes in the to the church in philippi he says and the peace of god it's not it's not what the world offers it's peace of god which transcends all understandings look what it'll do it'll guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus so you should be able to go through situations that the rest of the world is going through but you experience it different than the rest of the world is experiencing it because you have peace so we're going to talk about it how do we experience peace that brings us stability and peace that brings us mobility in our life the first piece write it down your notes this way is peace is what i have simply because jesus lives in me and i want you to get this because this is so important because so many people don't know why they're not stable and they're not stable it's because they let culture or they let situations guide their life and they don't understand you don't need to let that stuff guide your life because you're going to be an emotional roller coaster that's not what god's called you you have jesus in you and jesus in us brings us stability because we have peace no matter what happens to us now paul said it this way have your feet fitted with the peace the gospel of peace now this is important because if you're going to experience it you're like yeah jesus is with me then i have to let you understand that for jesus to be with you for you to experience peace then you need to have experienced the gospel now this is very uh might be something you learn in second grade but i'm going to remind us what it means to have the gospel in our life because the gospel is a gospel of peace the gospel that word means good news so i'm going to give you the abcs of the gospel you might not have ever heard this but some of you guys are going to have something to present to your friends and they go what is christianity all about here it is the abcs of the gospel simply this ready is that if we're going to experience the gospel we got to first of all admit we got to admit that we're a sinner we're sinners that are that are broken that are fallen that are separated from god we are not created at peace with god we're not we're alienated so we have to admit that because until we get that place of humility to where we can admit that we can't do it on our own we can't experience the gospel the second one is then we have to believe so now that we admit there's a problem we got to believe in what the solution is what is the solution the solution is that jesus is this the answer for our sin that we couldn't do it ourselves but he is not just a good teacher he's not just a good um good prophet he is our lord and he is our savior he is the sacrifice for our sins there was no other way yet jesus came and made a way can we give him some praise today for the fact that we believe in him this is where the bible says when we confess our met with our mouth and believe in our heart what is that we're confessing that he is we know who he is so now we we've made this decision to admit we now believe and now here's the seed now we come to him now we say you know what now i'm not going to do it my way i'm actually going to come to god this is where repentance is i was going my way now i'm going to come to god's way and this is important for us because the result of this is that we receive peace in our life where we were at war with god now we become friends with god because of the sacrifice of jesus on the cross isaiah tells us who jesus is he says for unto us a child will be born the government will rest on his shoulders and it says like this and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty god eternal father and guess what prince of peace so when you receive jesus you receive peace that passes all understanding in your life colossians says it this way let the peace of christ rule in your hearts since you're members of one body guess what you're called to now you're called to you're called to peace jesus tells his disciples this way peace i leave with you my peace i give you by the way god's peace is different than the world's peace the world's peace comes in a pill form comes in a drug form comes in some kind of medication and here's what it does it provides you with temporary relief but it's not what jesus comes to offer us he says peace i leave with you my peace i give you i did not give it to the world does so don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid i'm overwhelmed when i see how incredible this is is is activated in the life of a believer during the midst of turmoil because a lot of you guys you've been through some crisis i've dealt with it when you you know your husband passed away or your child got sick or you lost your job and i call or your location pastor someone calls you and for some reason as a believer we experience peace that the world doesn't ever experience i'm telling you there's a lot of reasons to follow jesus i mean eternity in heaven forgiveness of your sin one of the top ones guess what is that you can go through the trials that this world goes through but you can have peace internally when everything is crazy externally come on give god better praise than that today church we can experience this and i'm telling you when you're in the middle of those moments and you'll you'll have them in your life because where none of us are exempt from having problems in our life but in the midst of those chaos watch what happens when you lean on your faith and you see peace rise out from inside of you and you get to the other side and i've heard it because many of you guys go i don't know what would have been the case if jesus wouldn't have been with me i don't understand it but when i went to bed at night i had peace in my life why is that because guess what you had the prince of peace living inside of your life you don't have to have your peace based on anything else it's based on him so write it down your notes this way when my piece is based on my situations guess what you're going to have shoes that slip and fall all the time but when my piece is based on my savior guess what i can do now i can stand firm i'm no longer prone to fall i've got i've got some grip in my feet i've got some i but why because the peace i have is something that can stabilize me in any moment and i know a lot of you guys are going through some trials today we're going to pray for you in just a second because i'm believing that you're going to experience that peace of god that doesn't make any sense but you're going to walk out of here in just a second and go i just know god's taking care of it it's not because something externally happened that's different it's just internally we have god with us can i hear good amen here's the second one because not only is the piece that comes with those shoes bring you stability but it also brings you mobility and here's the second one peace is now what i make because jesus works through me now let me just let you understand this because let me when you're in the middle of crisis you should have peace internally but there's moments that you're not in the middle of crisis but there's crisis all around you and remember i said it's not just for your stability it's for your mobility so there's certain times that you have peace in your life but there's not peace in the world and here's now what we do we take our gospel shoes of peace and we now walk into battle and we bring the peace of god into situations that are chaotic i i think this is important for us to understand because when christians get involved in something things should get better not worse and what i get a little frustrated with is some of you guys i won't call you all out but you know who you are when you get involved it gets more chaotic you got drama after drama after drama after drama put on the gospel shoes of peace put on those shoes of peace let it walk into situations man social media should be better because radiance involved not worse not more drama not fighting your family they should have less tension because you're in the room because you bring peace into the room your your marriage it should be different you're not you're not responsible for them you bring peace because you've got the shoes on and as a soldier i not only have stability because of peace i have mobility to walk into every situation and bring peace into that situation if you ever been in my office because there's drama or issues in your life you know i've shared this verse with you one of my favorite in all the bible romans 12 8 if it is possible as far as it depends on you not them not the situation well they didn't apologize i don't care live at peace with everyone everyone walk in peace with every single person so paul writes this passage about having the shoes of peace he's writing it to a church that is much like radium it's a church of a lot of new believers that from all different kinds of backgrounds you have romans and you have the gentiles and you have these different people from different backgrounds they all hated each other they all believe different things but they're all sitting together now in this church and they're all hearing this same thing and going oh man we we now have to have peace with each other i love this about radiant because i know some of the like really strong opinions you guys have about things in politics and things you know and with different beliefs but yet you're sitting next to people that i'm like if they only knew you're sitting next to someone that's completely opposite into the spectrum on that paul that issue right there but i love it because paul wrote them early in ephesians 2 and he says for he himself talk about jesus he's our peace and you know what he does he takes two groups and he makes them one destroying that barrier the dividing wall of hostility and by the way that's our example that you should walk into every situation and you make the focus more less about the political issue less about the the controversy less about the problem and more about bringing peace into those situations so here's my last challenge are you ready jesus says it this way blessed are the peace makers for they will be called the children of god notice it didn't say the peacekeepers there's a war going on between two countries you know the peacekeepers come in and like hey please stop bombing each other you know that's the peacekeepers peacemakers are different peacemakers go beyond stop bombing each other to now how can we get along with each other there's a big difference between the two and your job it's not to simply be a peacekeeper it's to be a peace maker in your life so write it down because you won't find peace until you make peace so a lot of you guys you're waiting for somebody else to make the first move you're waiting for somebody else to act and your pastor is challenging you today it's no longer their move to make you've got the gospel shoes of peace on god has saved you he has transformed you he's given you peace with god now it's your moment to walk into battle and bring peace into every situation you're at it should get better because you're involved in it i love this let me give you this last hebrew word there's a hebrew word in the scriptures used over 200 times and you've probably heard it's the word shalom the word shalom means ultimate peace wholeness so what you do is in the jewish cultures you would walk into a home and the first thing you would say is shalom it's different than hello. shalom means this it means oh there's chaos here i'm here to bring peace to your chaos it's they took on the responsibility that anywhere they went it got better because they brought shalom wholeness into the situation so write it down in your notes ready since peace lives within me i can now and should now establish peace around me so i don't know what it is with your life some of you guys need the stability today you're going to receive that as we pray and just ask god to just reveal himself and you there's others of you guys man you know the situation that god's calling you to and if you're like me here's my go-to when it comes to conflict i avoid it i avoid so if you're mad at me and you call me i'm not gonna answer i'm sorry that's just what i do because i'm just like i get scared you know i'm just avoid it like i avoid it like a plague i just don't like awkward situations so we're dealing with one with my family for the last couple months where it's just been conflict and drama not between my purse my immediate family my extended family and it's just been a lot of drama so i kind of stayed out of it which is my go-to like hey let them fight they get all bloody and they'll figure it out and even in preparing for this god really convicted me said aaron you getting involved with this should make it better well that's not my you know they they can deal with their own issue no no no you bring peace into that situation so i did my homework i didn't just show up hey i'm here to bring shalom y'all are all a mess i am the answer i did my notes researched a little conflict resolution walked in humility i stepped into that situation i'm telling you i'm not i'm not spooky i'm not weird i sat down and you know one-on-one confronting right face to face when i did the peace of god was in the room there's somebody i'm telling you i believe the spirit of god gave me this message for somebody that needs to step into a situation maybe it's a family drama maybe it's a kid that's wandered away maybe it's some issue maybe you haven't talked to your parents in years and you're going there's just so much hurt there bring shalom into that situation get fitted with the gospel of peace where you think about the fact that god saved you he made you right with god and because of that i'm going to bring that same peace into no matter what situation we're in which by the way can i encourage you radiant it's what we're going to do as a church we're going to see lost and dying and broken situations all over the tampa bay area and we're not going to go well they can get it together they just need to come to our church no no our church goes out and we're going to serve and we're going to bring peace and we're going to bring hope and we're going to do our part because we are peace makers in jesus name so here's my question i'm gonna close it out with this is where is god sending me to bring his peace where is it where is he sitting what is this situation i don't want you to answer some of you guys you're going so dysfunctional maybe you're the solution to put those gospel shoes on to bring peace in the midst of that battle i want us to do this all over tampa bay i want you to stand your feet we're gonna have a moment where i'm just believing god is supernaturally going to impart peace and assignments stability and mobility you're going to get your shoes on today and you're going to go into battle and be all that god's called you to be here's what i want you to do you're you're in one of our services today and you sit there and go aaron honestly i'm dealing with some war some battle and i need peace internally right now i need to recognize and identify that god is with me and i need him to give me supernatural peace that passes all understanding here's what i want you to do if that's you i want you to lift both hands just like this right now i know there's hundreds of you guys that are needing that right now there's a second group and you know there's a group of people that god is calling you to there's a situation at work there's a situation in your marriage that you've been avoiding and god's saying no no you walk and bring peace into that situation if that's you i want you to also lift your hands just like this all right we're doing it to receive because i'm believing right now we're going to receive peace that passes all understanding that it's going to guard our hearts and our minds in christ jesus so why don't you close your eyes as you're there to proceed lord i pray for your people right now lord many of them are so overwhelmed with the battles around them are the struggles within them lord let them receive your peace right now peace tranquility a shalom over their soul first of all those who are in the midst of chaos would you bring order and peace into their life right now for those who are struggling bring resolve in their life right now let them walk out of church today with such assurance and such peace that you are for them now there's that second group lord they know the assignment you called them to you know the battle that they need to go into bring them the equipment necessary to walk into every situation with shoes that'll bring peace resolve conflict management restoration let situations get better because radiant church is involved in it in jesus name we pray come on give him some praise today and let's worship one more time come on sing it out [Music] [Applause] [Music] all creation sings worthy [Music] jesus [Music] jesus here's what i want us to do just whatever i close every head bow there's one more group and you've never experienced the gospel of peace even hearing the abcs earlier that's maybe the first time you've ever heard that the fact that there is peace available between you and god your sin no longer has to separate you but here's the steps you've got to admit that you're a sinner and mitch you can't do it on your own then you've got to believe that jesus is the answer he's a savior he's the solution you're looking for we gotta we gotta believe that that his death on the cross is the solution to your sins and then you gotta come to him this is the repentance factor i'm going to turn my life from doing it my way i'm going to do it god's way that's you today i'm going to give you a second right now the end of this service to commit your life to christ to come to him admit believe and then come that's you on the count of three i want you to throw that hand up wave it at me put it right back down we're gonna pray for you right there in your seat and i believe god's gonna forever change your life ready one two three come on throw that hand up thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you well dozens of people thank you in north tampa thank you thank you in brandon and st pete at the heights those online why don't we all pray this prayer out loud together let's say it say dear jesus today i make a decision to come to you thank you for dying for me forgive me of my sins my past my present and my future and for the rest of my life i'm gonna follow you be my lord and be my savior in jesus name we pray and everybody that believes and says come on can we celebrate live change for eternity oh come on let's give it up for them