and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace.and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace,And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 sermons cite this verse
… Next. Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Next. And above all, taking the shield of faith, which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. I love the boldness of that. Next verse. 17a. And take the helmet of salvation. Next. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That's your Bible. That's the word of God. next. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division and the soul of the spirit and of the joints and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Now watch this. This reality can only be done by ingesting the Bible, by taking on the Bible. And for the sake of time, I want to give you this one word that here applies where it says, take the sword of the spirit. It is the only offensive weapon we have. …
… and with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel, the good news of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you are able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains pray that I may declare it boldly as I should in the name of Jesus Amen archived audio our mobile app and much more that's LutheranHour.org in danger all the way. The thought shall never leave me. …
… established in the truth of the gospel our feet are covered with the preparation of the gospel of peace these boots that these soldiers would wear these were a Roman soldier analogy they had spikes in them so that they would position themselves in the ground and in opposition they couldn't be driven back because they were too stable in their footing there was no armor on their back because never does the believer turn and run because the believer is fighting from the victory of Christ towards an express victory in the earth we're not fighting for the defeat of the enemy he's already been defeated and then it talks about the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God what is the tool now of the enemy it's fiery dart I'd like to suggest to you that the target is the mind the target is thought processes now that are exalted or raised up against what God knows to be true what do we use to quench those fiery darts those suggestions of the enemy. …
… with a breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, which can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray, church, and pray, and pray, church, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind. Be alert, be on guard, be alert. Your spiritual enemy roars around like a lion seeking whom they may devour. When you're standing strong, be careful that you do not fall. Be alert, church, and always keep on praying for the Lord's people. Before the battle, you pray. After the breakthrough, you pray. When things are going well, you pray. When you think you might slip, you pray. Because prayer isn't preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle. We battle against, not against flesh and blood. …
… having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. above all, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I love and I want to center in on verse 16. Above all, above all, taking the shield of faith, the truth is it is essential for us to have faith in God. Faith is the currency that heaven trades in. If you get anything from God, you give God faith, and He, in return to your faith, saves you. And every other promise in the Scripture is unattainable without faith. The Scripture lets us know the importance of having the shield of faith as it is underlined above all. …
… And after you've done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth. buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And if that's not enough, pray. This is how we fight. and pray. How do you pray? Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. And with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Pray also for me that whenever I speak, now remember, Paul is in a jail when he's writing this. He has been arrested when he's writing this. He's in chains when he's writing this. Pray also for me that whenever I speak in the jail to the prisoners, to the guard, in this dark circumstance, that whenever I speak, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. …
… with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Paul is painting this picture of a soldier getting ready for battle because it's one thing to recognize that there is an enemy. It's another thing to realize that you have to get ready to fight back against the enemy. I think that one of the ways that the enemy attacks us is by diverting our attention. You think your enemy is your boss or your spouse or maybe your mother-in-law, not me. Some of us wake up in the morning. We're ready for a fight with the wrong enemy. Paul says our struggle is not against people. It's not against flesh and blood. It is against spiritual forces in a heavenly realm. And you've got to get ready. And here's how you do it. He says, you put on your armor. Now, when we get dressed for the day, at least when I get dressed for the day, the last thing I do is put my shoes on. But if you were putting on armor, like, you know, you're going to have a breastplate and a shield and a sword. Your hands are going to be tied up. So you got to put your shoes on first, right? And Paul says that our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Look at your neighbor and say, I'm ready. …
… Today is the final installment, finally, of this series on spiritual warfare. We've gone through Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 20, and we've been looking at these. weapons, this armor that Paul tells the church in Ephesus to have. We have put on, looked at each one of these weapons, each one of these, this armor. Finally, my brethren, verse 10. Verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole arm of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, verse 14, having girded your waist with truth. Somebody say truth, truth, truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. …
… Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, somebody say above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Amen. So we're on part seven today and we're going to talk about the sword of the spirit. Say that, the sword of the spirit. We've gone through all these different parts of armor. God's Bible tells us Paul's talking to the church in Ephesus and he's communicating to us how to engage in spiritual warfare. So we've learned that we're not fighting against flesh and blood. It's not another person that we're arguing with or fighting with. It is a spirit behind the person to do the things that they do. What we don't want to be is to be influenced by the enemy to make us behave in ways that are influenced by the devil. …
… having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation. That's where we are today. Somebody say, the helmet of salvation. Look at your neighbor and say, we need to put the helmet of salvation on. No, no, I'm sorry. You need to put the helmet of salvation on for your big head. Go ahead and tell them for your head, your big head. We want to put on the helmet of salvation. We talked about all of these various armor that Paul the apostle talks to the church in Ephesus about. And among them he says, take the helmet of salvation. Go ahead, put that picture up there real quick of what a helmet looks like. It's to protect the head. Somebody says, it's to protect your big old head. …
… and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, somebody say above all. Taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. I want to talk about the shield of faith. This is part five, the shield of faith. Say that with me. The shield of faith. All right, that's what I want to talk about today. Today's message is narrative. This is a narrative message. That means I'm not going to give you any points. You write down what the Lord say to you. I'm not going to have any defined points to give you. They're not going to come up on the screen for whatever the Holy Spirit says to you. Okay, somebody say this. The shield of faith. Now he tells us why this shield is important. He says because we're going to receive fiery darts from the wicked one. How many of you understand that there's a lot of battles and challenges that you have to go through in life and they're coming from the wicked one? …
I'm going to read verses 10 through 15. Ephesians 6, verse 10 through 16. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole arm of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole arm of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, verse 14, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, verse 15, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I want to talk about shoes today. This is spiritual warfare number four, part four. And I want to talk about shoes. Look at your shoes. This here is an armor bearer, Robert Littlejohn. …
… We saw that armor last time, loins girded with truth, truthfulness, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." So we have an amazing arsenal of protection as well as a weapon in the sword. This is a presentation of spiritual adequacy. There's nothing left out. There's nothing missing. What an exalted reality, an exalted identity and position. We lack absolutely nothing. Again, Colossians 2.10, you are complete in Him. But it is at this point precisely that arises a potentially destructive problem, and that would be spiritual overconfidence. I think Paul anticipates that. He has literally unloaded on us massive, massive store of realities that define our spiritual blessing. And he knows that if we are confident in those things, and perhaps self-confident, we're in danger of being overconfident. In 1 Corinthians 10, 12, you remember he said, "'Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.'" One might conclude by the time one arrives at Ephesians 6, 17, that we stand, we have everything we need. …
… Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." This is really Paul's wrap-up on this amazing letter to the Ephesians. After giving us so much information in the opening three chapters about salvation and so much already in chapters 4, 5, and 6 about sanctification, he comes to his final emphasis as he notes in verse 10 saying, finally, to draw our attention to the fact that there is a war and we are in that war by virtue of being a part of the kingdom of light. Because we belong to the Lord, we are at war with the devil and his schemes. …
… That you might be able to stand put on the girdle of truth the breastplate of righteousness Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace have the helmet of salvation the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God that cuts coming and going and he says after having done all when the dust settles he says stand look at your neighbor and tell him stand that that's what Paul does Paul takes the ethereal and revisit to what's real makes it practical he takes what is conceptual and he concretizes it by saying this is all right to know what you believe but you don't learn what you should believe so that you can impress people with what you know you know it so that you can live it the old folks say if you got good religion y'all ain't helping me you ought to show some sign in fact martin luther king says one of the problems of the church in his day was that they suffered from a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds and i i've got issues these days with the white evangelical church my issue is that you say you know the bible and you're steeped in what you call the doctrine but I can't tell by the way you treat people who are not like you I said it I meant it I'm here to represent it Paul says it's one thing to believe but it's another thing to behave in a way Jesus said why do you call me Lord but you …
… know the truth, stand in the truth, feet shiver with the preparation of the gospel of peace as we share the gospel. He says the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and above all, taking the shield of faith. And above all, taking the shield of faith. Now, so we know that we say, well, that's to protect us as we go about our life. But I want you to look at this in the 18th verse, what he says at the end of giving us all of this armor. Notice what he says. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. And with this in view, what in view? Being on the alert with all perseverance. The same word he uses in Colossians for devotion. Same Greek word. with all, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and to pray on my behalf. So do you know why he put that at the end? Here's the reason he did. Because when is Satan going to attack you the most viciously? But when you are doing the one thing he hates and despises and fears above everything else. Listen, Satan doesn't fear anything like a man or a woman devoted to prayer. …