The Armor of God: The Shoes of Peace

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, welcome to our worship service. It’s good to see you all here, and it’s good to be back with you. Thank you for all the cards and calls and prayers last week, and also over the past month. I very much appreciate every one of you. It’s good to be back here where I belong.

I have a few announcements to mention as we begin this morning.

The men’s group will meet tonight at 6:30.

Thank you for your kind offerings for Alma Hunt. We exceeded our goal this by quite a lot this year, and that money will be well-used.

This is also the last few days to collect for the food pantry at Calvary. You can leave those in Randal’s Sunday school room or in the office, or you can make your check out to Stuarts Draft Baptist and mark your envelope for the food pantry.

Don’t forget our meal next week, followed by our Q&A session. Don’t worry about making any food, that will be provided.

Thank you to everyone who came by yesterday to help pack a shoebox for Samaritan’s Purse. I think right now we have 89 shoeboxes ready to go. You’ll see some of those shoeboxes up here and in the windows, and it’s such a great thing to do for children all around the world.

If you’d like to pack a shoebox for a child, we have labels you can pick up and you can drop those boxes off here by November 15. If you have any questions about any of that, please see Della or Joanne.

Our church will also be providing a meal for the Love INC Loving Your Neighbor Classes on November 8. Amy Campbell is coordinating that, and would like some help. If you’re able, please give her a call. You’ll see her number there in the bulletin.

Jesyka, do you have anything this morning?

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer

O Lord, our God, you are worthy of all our praise. You are the God who never fails to keep his promises. We thank you that in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we see your love, justice, mercy, provision and victory. You are the God who lifts up those who are weighed down. You are the God who provides for your children. Our desire is to praise you as long as we live. Inhabit our praises as we gather together today. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Sermon

Peace. Couldn’t we all use a little more peace? We talk about things like happiness and prosperity and joy, but I think when we get right down to it, peace is what we want most. We want a sense of quiet to our lives.

The world feels like it’s moving at a thousand miles an hour. We’re bombarded by news and information all day every day, and honestly, none of that news feels good. Things seem like they’re getting worse and worse.

In fact, a lot of sociologists and other scientists are now saying that the 2020s are shaping up to be a lot like the 1960s in terms of social upheaval. I wasn’t alive in the 60s, but I’ve read about the 1960s, and I can tell you I don’t want none of that.

The media is already talking about the next pandemic, whatever it will be. The economy’s a wreck. Our government’s in shambles, our media is a mess, our healthcare and education systems are broken. We can’t seem to trust anyone other than the people who think exactly like we do.

There’s a war in Ukraine that might go nuclear at any minute. China is a threat. North Korea is a threat. Russia is a threat. There’s an election coming up, in case you haven’t heard, and everywhere you look there are people screaming that everything depends on this election. Everywhere there seems to be a threat to your peace.

So we’re all left feeling a little shaken. A little uneasy. That’s the entire point of spiritual warfare. That’s Satan’s goal.

He can’t take away your salvation. The devil knows exactly where you’re going right after your last breath, and he knows there’s not one thing he can do about that. The war between God and the devil over you has already been won on the cross, and it was sealed the moment you accept Christ as your savior.

But since the devil can’t do a thing about your next life, he’s going to do all he can to make sure you’re unhappy in this one. That means hiding the blessings that God has for you and leave you sad, scared, and nervous all the time. All those schemes Satan throws at you are meant to limit what you allow God to do and to make you miserable.

And the biggest blessing the devil’s going to go after in your life isn’t your hope. It’s not your love. It’s not even your faith. His biggest prize is your peace, because the devil knows that if he can steal your peace, your hope and faith and love are going to start crumbling on their own.

A quick search of the Bible shows that the word “peace” appears hundreds of times in both testaments. That’s how high of a value the Bible places on the role of peace in your life.

And peace isn’t just a comfort, it’s a weapon, because it’s a major characteristic of God. God is peace. And just as we need God to live happy, healthy, and effective spiritual lives, we need all the properties of God too — peace especially.

Peace is one of the most important weapons you have when it comes to spiritual warfare. The more peace you have, the stronger you’re going to be when things in your life start to get ugly.

And just like Paul uses the metaphor for a belt as truth in Ephesians 6, and a breastplate as righteousness, he also has a piece of armor that he compares to the peace you need to carry with you every day.

Turn with me again to Ephesians chapter 6. We’ll be reading verses 11-15:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

And this is God’s word.

Sounds a little boring, doesn’t it? “Shoes of peace”? A belt of truth sounds kind of tough, doesn’t it? Like a championship belt a boxer would wear into a ring. And a breastplate of righteousness sounds pretty nice too, because that always makes us think of those knights on horseback. But shoes? What difference do shoes make?

Well, a Roman soldier’s shoes were called caliga. They were sandals studded with nails on the bottoms. Think of the cleats that baseball and football players wear.

Because of those spikes, the soldiers could march over rough terrain. The enemy couldn’t hide in rough land, because those spikes on the bottoms of their shoes could allow the Roman army to advance over any kind of ground pretty easily.

Those shoes were also comfortable and breathable and allowed the soldiers to march a long way without their feet hurting. The Roman army covered huge distances expanding their empire, all because of their shoes.

And here’s an important thing to keep in mind. We’ve talked about the belt and the breastplate and how they keep you safe. They protect you when the enemy attacks. But the shoes of your spiritual armor, the peace that God gives you, is the first piece of your armor that’s both defensive and offensive.

It’s defensive in the sense that the spikes on the bottom of the shoes helped soldiers keep good traction as they fought.

But it’s offensive in the sense that — and I’m going to get a little graphic here, so excuse me — the soldiers could use those nails to stomp on an enemy who had been knocked to the ground.

That might make you wince a little, but then think about how much you’d like to put your boot into the face of a demon like fear or worry that’s been hounding you for years.

So when Paul talks about putting on your shoes, he means putting yourself in a position to stand firm. To dig in your heels. That way when the devil comes, he can’t knock you off your feet. You’ll be able to stand firm because those nails on the bottoms of your shoes have dug into the solid ground under you.

And that’s so important, digging into that solid ground, because it speaks right to what Paul means when he says in verse 15, “having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”

You always have to make sure you’re on solid ground with God. Not only does that build your peace, it helps make sure that you’re ready to deal with whatever comes your way.

Paul here’s talking in the same sense that Peter does in 1 Peter 3, when he says that we should honor Christ as holy by always being prepared to make a defense for the hope we have.

Always be prepared. Always be ready. That’s the purpose of your shoes of peace: it keeps you on guard. Putting them on keeps you alert and prepared for battle. Preparation is everything. Training is everything.

A soldier trains and trains and trains for battle so that when the real battle comes, his actions are automatic. Fear and worry don’t stop him from being effective, because he’s made himself ready. He’s studied the enemy’s strategy and he’s confident in his own strategy. His feet are firmly planted. He holds his ground.

That’s one of the major functions of those shoes of peace. It reminds you that you’re always in the devil’s crosshairs. He’s always prowling around you, so you have to make sure you’re dug into that solid ground. And that solid ground is a strong relationship with God that comes through prayer, through reading the Bible, and through being part of a loving church family.

If you do that, you’ll be able to stand firm and defend yourself against those flaming arrows that will absolutely come your way.

They’ll bounce right off your breastplate, because that breastplate is made up of the holy life you’re getting better and better at living through the Holy Spirit in you, and from the righteousness that Christ himself gave you when you trusted him with your life.

And that breastplate is held in place by a belt that keeps the truth of God’s words always ready to help you.

All of that works together to keep you safe from the devil’s attacks, but behind it all is peace.

And what’s the source of that peace? It’s knowing that your position in Christ is safe. That there’s is nothing that can snatch you from his hand, and nothing that will prevent him from moving heaven and earth to bless, protect, and comfort you.

It’s the peace that comes from knowing that through Christ you walk in a newness of life. All the old things are gone. God is doing a new thing in you, and will complete the good work he began.

And it’s the peace that comes from knowing that all of this does not depend on your own abilities, or goodness, or worth, but upon the worth of the Lord who died for you.

That’s the peace that God gives you to wear every day. It’s the last of the first pieces of armor that God says you always have to have on. You always need that peace, because that peace keeps you ready to fight.

But we have to talk a little about what that peace is. We need an accurate picture, because this peace that God gives us, this peace we desperately need, isn’t the sort of peace we usually think it is.

When we pray to God for peace, what do we really mean? What we’re usually really asking is for God to make our lives calmer. For him to take away all of our troubles. But that’s not the peace that God says he has for you.

The Greek word for “peace” is eirene. It means complete and whole. It means a rest for the soul that doesn’t grow or shrink according to anything that’s happening in your life, but always remains constant.

In other words, the peace of God isn’t meant to get rid of all your problems and make your life perfect. Instead it’s meant to keep you perfectly at ease in the middle of all life’s problems.

A person wearing the shoes of peace is someone who’s stable and calm and at rest on the inside. Whatever’s going on out here — what’s happening in your life and in your world — doesn’t matter at all. The peace that Paul is talking about is a quiet in here, in your heart. That’s what makes it so powerful. When you have godly peace, you’re at rest even when everything else is all wrong.

That doesn’t make much sense to us, does it? How can you possibly feel peace when every single thing in your life is blowing up? The Bible even says that the peace of God is so opposite to our natural way of responding to life’s trials that often we can’t even understand it.

But then this peace goes to work for you in spiritual warfare by guarding you from the devil’s schemes. It’s Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

That peace that goes far past anything you can even comprehend, is what guards you. When you receive that peace and start walking in it, it settles in as a guard over your heart and your mind. It’s so powerful that God tells us to let that peace control us. We’re taught to let that peace make the decisions and dictate the emotions that we face.

Listen to Colossians 3:15: “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

The word for “rule” that Paul uses means “to umpire,” like in a baseball game. In a baseball game, the umpire has the final say. He’s the boss. Allowing His peace to be the umpire in your life means letting go of everything and letting God call the shots. It means that if you give Him the control, if you let Him rule over every area of your life, only one thing can be the result — peace.

The heart you have that’s beating a hundred times a minute because you’re so stressed and so worried is going to be calmed. That mind you have that’s always swirling with one awful thought after another is going to be quieted. And you’ll have peace.

And because the peace that God gives is produced on the inside of you, nothing going on in your circumstances will shake it. Not matter what you’re going through, you can handle it. You might not like it, it might still be hard, but you can handle it.

That’s the kind of peace that Jesus wants you to have. John 16:33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

So how do you cover your feet with peace? Look back at Ephesians 6:15: “ ... and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.”

The secret to putting on your shoes is the gospel. The Greek word for “gospel” means “good news”. You’ll find that word a whole lot in the New Testament, but the Greeks rarely used it because it referred to news that was so good, it was too good to be true.

You mean to tell me that when Christ died on the cross, he died for my sins? Yes.

And you’re telling me that because he rose from the grave, I’ll be risen from the grave too? Yes.

And you’re telling me that because of that, not only is my future in heaven secure, but my entire life here is secure, because God will watch over me, Jesus will live in me, and the Holy Spirit will be constantly working in me to make me holy? Yes.

And that’s what made the gospel so special, because everything the gospel represents is so good that to the normal person it seems almost impossible to be true.

But it is true, and how can all of that not give you peace in whatever you’re facing right now? A peace that you can carry with you everywhere. No matter how many arrows the devil fires at you in this war, you can know that God has everything under control, and that His plans cannot be upset by anything or anyone.

And carrying that peace with you is important, because remember: the shoes you wear are for offense and defense. They’re for standing your ground, but also for moving. God expects you to go on the offensive too, and take that gospel you have and share it with others.

Sharing your faith is one of the best ways you have to make sure your feet are planted firm. You’re not just charging into Satan’s territory, you’re also digging your shoes into the truth deeper, which makes it harder for the devil to shake you.

That’s why the devil’s going to try anything and everything to get you to take those shoes off. Sure, he doesn’t like that belt of truth, because it’s the truth, and the devil is the father of lies. If you know the truth, he’s in trouble.

And he doesn’t want you wearing that breastplate of righteousness either. Knowing that your faith and Jesus’s death means that God looks at you and sees Christ instead of all your sins makes all those arrows bounce off you.

But if the devil steals your peace, then that belt comes off. If you’re anxious, if you’re worried, if you’re afraid, you’re going to forget the truth. You’ll be so focused on what’s happening in the moment that you won’t take the time to step back and see it from a distance. To remember what God said.

And if the devil steals your peace, then that breastplate comes off too. You start to panic — “I’ve sinned so badly, surely God’s not going to forgive me. I’ve sinned again, I’ll never get better. How much longer is God going to keep forgiving me until He just gets tired of it? How long until God says, ‘That one? That one’s just not worth it anymore’?”

You have to stand on that peace. You have to, because both the world and the devil are always going to be running up against you and your peace is what keeps you standing and keeps you firm. Jesus said that he’s sending us out as lambs among wolves, and there are wolves everywhere.

You’re not going to be able to fight them off with your own strength — there’s too many of them, and sometimes they’ll attack not one at a time, but in groups.

You’re not going to be able to fight them off with your own smarts, because guess what? None of us are as smart as we think we are.

And you can’t just run from them either. As much as we’d maybe like to just separate ourselves completely from the world, to just shut it all out and live in our own little bubbles of life, that’s not what God calls us to do. Those shoes are for staying firm but also for moving. If we don’t move, if we don’t get out into the community, then we’re not using our shoes right.

The only way — the only way — to get through life in victory is to always have God’s peace in you, that real peace that sticks even when everything’s going wrong. And the only way to experience that true peace is by submitting your mind, your will, and your emotions to God. Giving it all to Him, every day. Casting it all on Him, every day.

And that can be the hardest thing for you to do, because it goes back to what we talked about earlier — the peace of God is so opposite to your natural way of thinking. And what’s your natural way of thinking? It’s that the way to keep hold of the little peace you have is to do more. It’s to schedule more. It’s to try even harder to get control over your own life.

But that’s not the quickest way to peace. If anything, that’s the quickest way to lose every bit of peace you have, because guess what? This might hurt, but I’m going to tell you anyway because you need to hear it. You can’t run your life. You can’t.

You know that, don’t you? How long have you been trying to run your life? How long have you been trying to do things on your own, under your own power, with your own thinking, and having God as kind of a safety net who’s there to catch you when you fall? How’s that been working out for you?

Sometimes it seems like you’re actually doing quite well at running your life. But then the devil sets his sights on you. Then life bares its teeth. And all of a sudden, that peace you were relying on every day to get you through disappears in a puff of smoke because it was a false peace that was based on everything you were doing, instead of everything God is doing.

Just think about how many things throw off your peace of mind every day. Most of the time we can’t even get out our front doors with our peace of mind intact. We get up and get our coffee, turn on the TV for the morning news, and poof! — that peace of mind is gone.

We have to endure family troubles. Job insecurity. Grocery prices that are too high. Our retirements are dwindling away in the stock market. Traffic. People we work with. People at church. Sickness. Death. Just being tired. All of those are arrows getting shot at you, yes, but aimed at shattering your peace.

And the only way to endure any of it is to trade that false and shaky peace you have from trying to run your life your own way and instead turn every bit of it over to God.

Put Him in charge and just say, “Here, take it. Take all my worries, God. Take all those things I’m afraid of. Take all this mess my life has become and all of these bad things that are happening to me. Take it all, and help me to trust You with it.”

You trust God to save your soul? Wonderful. Why can’t you trust Him to save your day, too? You trust God to keep the planets moving and the seasons coming. Great! Wo why is it so hard for you to trust Him with keeping your life in order? You trust Him to provide for your next breath. Why can’t you trust Him to provide for your needs?

We think that the key to enjoying God’s peace is to focus on the big things that He does for us — the soul-saving, the heaven-taking, the judgment of good and evil — but it’s not. The key to enjoying God’s peace is to know that if He’s taking care of those big things for us, how much more will He take care of the little things for us too?

You have to believe that, and you have to trust it. God’s peace can’t be in your life if you don’t trust Him to provide it. Of course He’s going to provide it. He loves you, and He wants you to stop worrying and getting worked up over everything.

God’s peace can’t be in your life if you think all those promises in the Bible are meant for everyone but you. Of course they’re meant for you. They’re meant for you more than anyone else. So believe it.

Believe that, and God’s peace becomes your weapon. Because then when the devil tries to steal your peace and says, “If God really loved you, He wouldn’t have let that happen,” you can tell him right back, “That’s a lie, because God says all things work together for good for those who love him according to his purpose.”

When the devil tries to steal your peace and says, “Remember what you did that was so terrible?” You can say, “That’s a lie, because God says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive them and cleans us from all unrighteousness.”

When the devil tries to steal your peace and says, “You better worry about not having enough money. You better be stressed about your job. You better check the stock market again and see how much you’ve lost,” you can say, “No, because Christ is my peace, and Christ says do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on, because life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

That’s what God’s peace does for you. It keeps you from getting caught up in the swirling nature of a world that’s always screaming at you, always saying that everything is a matter of life and death, every every bad thing that happens to you is the worst thing possible, and that every decision you have to make is the most important one of your life.

When you have God’s peace, you can separate yourself from all of that and rest knowing that no matter what happens, He’s in control. He’s the one calling the shots. He knows exactly what’s coming your way, and how to keep you safe. He knows exactly what you need, and he will provide it even before you know you need it.

You’re safe. You’re secure. You have your shoes of peace on, and so you’re planted firmly in the truth. The devil can’t knock you backwards, and he can’t stop you from moving forward. Nothing can snatch you from God’s hand. Nothing can turn God away from you.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful? That’s the life Christ wants for you. Not because you’ve earned it, but because he loves you. That’s what you have available for you every moment of every day, and all it takes to get it is to take your eyes off of your own problems and worries and fears and hurts and put them on Christ alone. Trust him. Believe what he says.

Go to him in prayer and lay down all your troubles at the feet of the one who said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we come to you today asking that you fit us with the shoes of the Gospel of Peace. No matter how many arrows the enemy fires at us, remind us that your love and goodness is eternal and always present, and that nothing can set aside your magnificent plan. No matter how much the devil tries, he can’t thwart what you have planned for us, for our families, for this church, and for the world. Help us to recognize when a fellow brother or sister in Christ is in need of a reminder of your peace. Help them to come to our aid when we’ve forgotten about your power and providence over this world. Jesus, you are the Prince of Peace. You will set everything right at the end, and for the meantime I cry, “Lord, Jesus come.” And while we wait, Father, help us to be effective soldiers, and to spread your Gospel, the good news, to those who need to hear it. Amen.