Shoes of the Gospel of Peace

Well, for some of you, you're like, where's PJ? I'm John. I serve as the executive director here at Legacy Church, and today I get the opportunity to preach the Word of God to you, and some people enjoy that. Can we also give it up to those who are online? Thank you so much for tuning in, checking us out. Thank you so much for being here with us. If you're in the overflow room, thank you for being here with us. We haven't forgot about you. We love you. We thank you. But before we jump into it, let's remind each other who we are. Can we jump into Ephesians 4.1? You guys ready? Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Wow, you guys are good. You guys got this a lot faster than we did last year. You guys are doing good. Before you guys are seated, go ahead and give a couple of high fives, and then sit on down. We're going to jump right in. Thank you. All right, so for a couple of weeks, we've been in this Spiritual Warfare series. How many of you guys are enjoying it so far? Couple of you. A lot of you. That's good. I'm glad it's not wasted. Praise God. I'm going to go ahead and jump right on into Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 through 15.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 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 have done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as for shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. So if you guys have missed the past few weeks, we talked about the belt of truth. Right? You guys remember that? A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Justin talked about the belt of truth, and then we talked about the breastplate of righteousness, which guards our heart, guards our soul, guards our core. But then now we have the black air forces of peace, of the gospel of peace. But maybe you might be asking, like, why, like, why do we need armor? Why does Paul give us this amazing visual of the things that we need in spiritual warfare? And it says it right there in Ephesians chapter 6, it says, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. How many of you guys know that we are in evil days? It was true 2,000 years ago, it is true today. It is still evil days. Satan is always on the attack. You're either defending yourself and fighting against them, or honestly, you're on his side, and you surrender to him with every unrighteous action, thought, or decision that we make. There's no in between. There are no sidelines in the spiritual warfare. We're all in the fight.

We're all at war, right? You are in the fight. And now spiritual warfare, it's a very, very real thing. And I was struggling for a little bit to identify it, because honestly, for years, I tend to under-spiritualize some stuff, like I'm really logical, right? How many people in here are just like the logic, like, no, that can't be, maybe it's my decision-making, maybe it's, you know? And so for years, it was so hard for me to figure out, like, okay, what is spiritual? What is not? But then I started to think, like, I under-spiritualize everything. Things are a lot more spiritual than I give it credit for. Even this past week or two, while prepping for this message, I was struggling to really identify, like, what is the definition of spiritual warfare? Like, what is it really? And then Thursday happened. Throughout the last couple of weeks, Satan's kind of been tempting me and kind of been prodding me, trying to get me to react. And then on Thursday, my wife texted me and was like, hey, I need you home at this time, because I have to take a meeting and your daughter needs somebody to watch her. And I'm like, okay, cool, I can be there at that time. I'm committed. I will get there at that time. And if I say I'm on time, I'm on time. Now, I go out to my car, and when I get out to my car, I realize I'm blocked in, because there is a massive crane lifting a 8,000 pound AC unit to replace the AC in the overflow room. which praise God for AC, praise God for AC. But there is a massive crane blocking my car from pulling out. There's a crane here and there's a trailer here. It leaves me about maybe one or two inches on each side

to kind of wiggle out of, right? And so I was committed. I told my wife I'd be on time, I'm gonna be on time. So I told the guys that were working on it, I was like, hey, if you can just guide me out of here, I can make it work. So I'm backing out, my reverse camera doesn't work either, so I'm doing it the old school way, like, you know? And I'm backing out and I slowly get out and I made it. I'm clear, I'm good, right? I jump on maps and it says, you're still on time, you're gonna get there with a couple minutes of spare. I'm like, praise God, keeping my word. I get out to the road out here on Kyrene, it's backed up traffic from Kyrene to the freeway, right? I was like, I'm gonna make it, it doesn't matter. So I U-turn around the other way, take a different route, kind of cut a couple of people off a little sketchily, get down to the end, finally get to the freeway and it's just wide open, I'm ready to go. Still, the map says, you're still on the fastest route. I get onto the on-ramp, I'm going down, I end up running into traffic, but it's okay because maps is still telling me, I'm still on the fastest route. Then I'm in bumper to bumper traffic and I'm looking for a way out. I can't hop in the HOV lane because the cops are cracking down on that now. So I'm just go, stop, go, stop, go, stop.

And I get up behind this car, I stop, next thing I hear is screeching tires, I get rear-ended, pushed into the car in front of me. That was my reaction too. That's how calm I was, I was like, oh. I was holding the LaCroix and I got hit and it went everywhere, I was like, no, God, not the LaCroix. I ended up being stuck on the freeway for an hour. So I did not make it home, I was not on the fastest route. And to be honest, that's the second car I've gotten, I've gotten in two car accidents here. One in January, totaled my wife's car. Now I've hopefully not totaled this car. I drove it home, I was good. But very quickly, I found a way to give a definition to spiritual warfare. Because whether it was that, or it was family drama, whether it was something that upset me at work, maybe it was something that someone said, I very quickly started to realize what spiritual warfare is. And this is the best definition I could come up with. Spiritual warfare is the ongoing conflict believers face against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And that may seem kind of general, but to be honest, things are a little bit more spiritual than we give it credit for. Satan or the devil is a real spiritual enemy who works primarily through deception and fear to draw us away from wholehearted devotion to Christ.

It is fought not only by our own strength, but through Christ's finished work, the truth of Scripture, fasting, prayer, trusted community, and rightly ordered love that puts God first. Warfare is designed though to disrupt this peace that God has given us. But thankfully, Paul shows us our perfect defense against the warfare, and it is the gospel. The shoes for the readiness of the gospel of peace can be viewed as the first offensive weapon in the armor of God. So far, we have a breastplate, we have a belt, but now it's like, it's time to gain ground, right? It's time to take steps forward. And so it is our first offensive piece of armor that is given to us by the apostle Paul. Because sharing the gospel with others and bringing peace in a time of chaos and war takes back territory from the enemy. We're not just called to stand firm and play defense, we're called to gain ground, get on the offense, take ground from the devil. Now, why use footwear to represent readiness given by the gospel of peace? Quick history lesson, or maybe even a geography lesson for those who care, and if you don't, I'll be done soon, I promise. So Ephesus was the second largest populated city in the first century Roman empire, second to only Rome itself.

It was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, and so that at this time, Roman empire is taking more and more ground, more and more land due to their military dominance. And so the people of Ephesus would have been very familiar with seeing Roman soldiers in their armor. I don't know about you guys, I have not seen much USA armor in the present day in, you get what I'm saying? Like they would have seen them all the time in all the areas that they go because they are constantly taking ground. The footwear for the Roman soldiers. were called Kalaga or Kalagi. The footwear allowed them to be ready for the quickness and the agility that was needed to be able to gain ground and go forward and it was lightweight and also durable because while being comfortable and breathable for long distance travel it also had these blunt nails on the sole that allowed them to navigate different environments and these nails also made loud noises when they would march together as a legion through the streets. In other words, you could hear them coming and just the sound would strike fear in their enemies. It sounded like a thunderous roar coming through towns that they were going to conquer just as we are called to bring a sound that strikes fear in our enemies. The sound of joy and the sound of professing the love of Jesus Christ and the sound of confidence should strike fear in the enemy. Something as small as footwear made such a massive difference in the Roman Empire's ability to conquer Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and at this point Western Asia. But militaries didn't figure this out because around the world they were still wearing boots which allowed them to, sure they could stand firm and they could get to different areas but it slowed them down and what they understood, what the Romans understood is that the footwear that you choose should allow you to be ready to navigate different terrain that you will encounter during warfare. Just like the gospel of peace is needed in every single environment. So imagine this, has anybody ice skated before? I've never gone ice skating in my life

but imagine like Wayne Gretzky, like the the greatest hockey player of all time, the one that says like you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right? Imagine you were like, all right Wayne go out there play the best game of your life but you have to wear baseball cleats. No chance. Or throw him some basketball sneakers. There's no chance. He wouldn't have scored a single goal and he would have probably got hurt trying, right? But in other words your armor must match your assignment and some of us are putting our armor, we're putting on armor of therapy or armor of the opinions of the group chat or others advice to solve god-sized spiritual battles. Your armor must match your assignment. And the sneaker heads, you guys all know this, like footwear has the ability to make or break any fit that you put on, right? Right? A couple weeks ago I was preaching and I accidentally wore almost the identical outfit that Pastor Justin wore the week before but my problem was I wore a Nike sweater with Amazon pants and I had Adidas shoes, right? I didn't know I'd committed the cardinal sin of Adidas, you know? And I didn't think about it until I was about to come on stage and preach and Paul our drummer was like, bro. And I didn't even have to ask, like I just knew. I looked and he was like, don't ever do that again. And for those of you that know Paul, if you guys follow my Instagram, all you see is just sneaker posts, sneaker posts, sneaker posts. But when Paul, not that Paul, but Paul, when Paul tells us to put on the shoes of the gospel of peace, like what strengths or abilities do the shoes really give us? And that's what we're going to talk about today. I want you guys, if you're taking notes, write down this acronym B-A-R-S, bars, B-A-R-S, because there are four abilities that the shoes give us. And the first ability is to be bold. Write that down. Be bold. We must stand firm in our faith. We must be unshakable and know what we believe in. Know what we believe in. I saw a shirt last Sunday during worship. That was an amazing reminder during this series, but also just during the worship moment that we were in. And it said, God did not give me a war to win. He gave me a victory to enforce. Isn't that so good? I was standing back there and I'm worshiping and he's just sitting there strong, worshiping. And I read the shirt and I'm like, how many of us could benefit from that view of our lives that we have already won? Sure, we're in spiritual warfare. We are in a battle, but we already know the outcome. He did not give us a war to fight or to win. He gave us a victory to enforce. But the truth is you just have to put the armor on and realize that you are already his son. You are already his daughter. You are trying to earn victory, but you already have

victory. It's already here. You just have to identify as a winner. That's all you have to do. Now, in order to To stand firm in our faith, we must know, like, what beliefs are we truly defending? What is our faith? And what is the gospel? And I love the way it is stated in Romans chapter 1, verse 2 through 4. It says, God promised this good news long ago through prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The good news is about His Son in His earthly life. He was born into King David's family line, and He was shown to be the Son of God when He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, that's exactly what the gospel is. The gospel is just that. It is good news about what God has done through Jesus Christ to save us from sin and give us eternal life. Now, my goal today is to make this super practical. All right? I want to give you guys some actual tools to really equip you with how to defend your faith, with how to talk about the gospel and to give your testimony. And the first thing that I want to give you guys the equipment for, or the armor for, the gear for, is verbiage to explain your faith in short so that you can defend yourself clearly and invite others into the gospel. You guys ready? All right. Number one, we were made in God's image to know and to love Him. To know and to love Him. That's the first part of the gospel. We were made in God's image to know and love Him. Now, if you guys are wondering why spiritual warfare exists, it's because God—the devil hates God. We were made in God's image, and he cannot touch God. So what's the very next thing? Us. We were made in God's image to know and to love Him. Second part of that is, because of sin entering the world, we were all born with a sinful nature and have sinned against God, which brings death and separation from the holiness of God. That's the second truth of the gospel. But luckily, the third truth is Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God, came to earth, lived a perfect life and was crucified, died for our sins as a perfect sacrifice to cover all sins of humanity and restore our relationship with God. And He was resurrected three days later, confirming His sonship.

And then thanks to grace, because of this, we can receive salvation because we believe that Jesus did these things, and we can inherit the kingdom of God for eternity. So when anyone asks you, what do you believe? What is the gospel? Those four points are the gospel. You guys got that? You took notes? Awesome. Now, I'm trying to implant that same boldness, Now, I'm trying to implant that same boldness in my two-year-old daughter, which is difficult, right? My daughter already believes in the power of prayer and in miracles, but the way she kind of got there is a little questionable, slightly suspect. And I would love to have your feedback, but let me explain. So my daughter just turned two, two days ago. And we actually share a birthday, so fun fact, she turned two, I turned 31. Now, y'all clapping for me like I won't see 32, that's crazy. The reason why I talk about our age, though, is because she's two, y'all know two-year-olds. I'm 31, y'all know 31-year-olds. I don't know what I'm doing, she doesn't know what she's doing. And so what we're doing is we're just throwing stuff at the wall and see what works. She's just an experiment at this point, all right? First time I've done it, first time she's done it, we're going to figure this thing out. One thing we've committed to as a family is we're going to keep track of her screen time. So we're not giving her an iPad. When we're out to dinner, we're that iPad-less family where the kid's just being a terror. But it's like, hey, I'll take that over her just brain-rotten. So we've committed to her just not brain-rotting all day. So when she's at home and she wants to watch TV, she'll go and she'll grab the remote and she'll just turn it on. She's gotten that comfortable with it. And then sometimes we'll hide the remote, but she knows how to turn the TV on, so she'll walk up, she'll push the power button. She is so committed.

Now, when it's been a little bit of time, maybe she's watched a couple movies this week, maybe she's starting to act up a little bit, my wife and I do something bold. We unplug the TV. And so when we unplug the TV, she'll want to watch a movie. She'll come downstairs and she'll be like, oh, I want to watch TV. And she'll pick up the remote, she'll go to turn it on, and it doesn't work. And she goes, TV's broken. And we're like, yeah, TV's broken. But you know what, Ryan? Maybe you should pray and ask Jesus to fix it. So our daughter, she does this whole thing where she like bows her head, she puts her hands together and she like squeezes her eyes really tight. And she goes, Jesus, please fix it. Fix the TV. But the trick is, while she's praying and her eyes are closed, we plug the TV in. And then she runs over to the remote and she pushes the power button. And when it comes on, she goes, Jesus, fix the TV. Now, is that bad parenting? Is that bad? Raise your hand if you think it's bad. I want honesty. You think it's bad? Your hand went up too fast. If anybody asked, it was Taylor's idea. But to be honest, here's what I actually want for her. And it's the whole point of being bold. I don't want Ryan's faith to be built on a TV turning on

because TVs will break. Prayers get answered sometimes with a no. And one day, the things that she prays about won't be a movie. It'll be something that truly matters and it won't turn back on. And if her faith was built on outcomes, it'll break right along with it. I don't want her to believe in a God who just fixes electronics. I want her to know a God who's still good when the things that you want most don't get fixed at all. That's boldness, knowing what you truly believe. Knowing what you truly believe, regardless of circumstances, not because of what he does for you, but because of who he already is. That's the boldness that we need to carry out. Now, if you are still not 100% sure of what it means to follow Christ and what it means to know what the gospel is and be bold, and maybe you feel like you're in and out, we have our Essentials course that just started this past Tuesday. How many of you guys are in Essentials right now? Praise God, amen, amen. So Essentials is where you get to learn more about God, the Bible, how to read the Bible, how to pray, get in community, and it's a great place to take those first steps,

or even if you've been a seasoned saint for a long time, it's an amazing way for you to connect with community and just to really put verbiage to the things that you believe in. And so we have that on Tuesdays at 6.30 p.m. It is not too late to sign up. We're gonna have it again this upcoming Tuesday. It's a six-part course. Get signed up. You guys only missed one. You can still graduate, all right? Get signed up. Now, what I want you guys to visualize here is you can't put on someone else's armor, right? You must have this faith for yourself. Remember when David goes to fight Goliath and they put Saul's armor on him? You guys remember that? And it had the, it was gonna hinder him in battle because it was too big, it was too heavy. He wasn't able to like, you know, use his sling the way he wanted to because it didn't fit. So I grew up in the Bible Belt of Southern Virginia. How many of you guys are from the South? Yeah. So like being a Christian is like a culture fit, not like a decision for Christ, right? So people's faith was almost built more

due to the culture and their parents or their grandparents than it was a faith that they had themselves. So this actually spiritually stunted their growth because then when things got difficult, they didn't have anything real to fall back on. They didn't have their own armor that fit them that they could go into battle with. So they had a fake belief in the gospel and they believed in grandma, but they didn't believe in God. They went into battle with this counterfeit Timu armor, expecting it to really work for them. And it looked like the faith in the gospel, but it just wasn't real. Maybe they lifted their hands during worship or maybe they prayed before dinner, but it wasn't real. It was just religious. They lacked that relationship that it truly took to follow Christ, know what they believed and to be able to carry it to others and impart that belief with them. We must be bold and put our faith in our own hands and put on the real armor of God. Now, the second part the footwear gives us is the ability to be agile, be agile. We gotta be able to move, right? In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19 through 23 says, for though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them.

To the Jews, I became as a Jew to win more Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those that are under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them and its blessings. It may be uncomfortable, but you must be agile and prepare to move and position yourselves in order to share the gospel and bring peace. It may mean that you have to meet. people where they are and not where you hoped that they would be. It may mean going to some uncomfortable places and do some uncomfortable things to maybe put your pride aside, to really have those conversations and to guide people back to Jesus. One of the first things that you learn when playing sports or maybe you're playing an instrument or just doing almost about anything, you learn where to position yourself physically for success, right? So whether it's football or it's baseball or basketball,

you realize like how you need to stand. For example, one of the first things in baseball is where do you need to stand in the box? So when you're going up to bat, you need to at least know where to stand, right? And then we start to teach you how to stand. Like you gotta bend your knees, you gotta be athletic. And then you get on defense and you realize like, hey, you can't sit on your heels, you gotta be on your toes, you gotta be ready. But a lot of times we're on our spiritual heels when we go into battle. We're in the game, we're participating. You know, we aren't on the bench. Like I said, there are no sidelines. We are in the war, but we're in the wrong position to do anything with meaning. We may attend the worship nights or maybe we watch online or maybe we watch a sermon in person. Maybe we serve on a team. But when was the last time that you brought peace to someone's life by sharing the gospel? Are you able to move when you get the opportunity? Are you able to be agile and ready? Or are you caught on your heels when the ball is coming your way? When the opportunity arises, are you caught on your heels or are you ready? And are you agile? And this isn't just about standing firm

and holding your ground, but it's about gaining ground. Right? I told you this is the first offensive piece of armor. It's about gaining ground and spreading the gospel when the opportunity arises. So I think an important thing to learn is like, how do you share your testimony? And what even is a testimony? I'm gonna give you guys three really short things. Write this down. It's not in my notes. The first thing is you need to be able to explain like who you were before Jesus. So when you start the conversation, before Jesus, I was blank. Before Jesus, I was lost. Before Jesus, I was an addict. Before Jesus, I was a sinner. Before Jesus, blank. Then the next thing you gotta say, then Jesus, blank. Then Jesus saved me. Then Jesus sobered me. Then Jesus, blank. And then the third thing is since then, blank. Since then, I'm a new creation. Since then, I'm living for him. I'm serving. I'm leading a life that is worthy of my calling because I've been called by God.

Those are the three parts. Before Jesus, I was. Then Jesus, and since then, this is who I am. Does that help anybody? Awesome. And this is why it's important because in Isaiah 52, verse seven says, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bring good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. You must be able to go up the mountain to deliver the news. We must be agile, looking for ways to share the gospel, looking for ways to share the gospel. Now, the third thing in our B.A.R.S acronym is be ready. Be ready. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 says, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Be ready. Not only is armor to defend yourself, but it's to go on the offensive and combat the warfare in your life and others. Satan will attack with doubt and fear. You must know the gospel so you can share it and gain ground against the enemies, just like the Romans gained ground in the first century. One of the most sketchy, scary verses

that you read in the Bible is in Job when Satan comes to God and God knows where he's been, but he goes, where have you been? He goes, I've been on the earth going back and forth on it. Back and forth on it. It gives you that visual that Satan's always at work. Satan's always looking for a way to steal, kill and destroy. He was just going back and forth on it. And so that's why it's so important to be in community. That's why it's so important to reach the lost and pray with a stranger and live a life that exemplifies a Christ follower, because Satan's always at work. Why aren't we? Life groups in the church is so important and being in community and sharing your testimony and hearing others' testimonies builds faith in ourselves and builds faith with everyone involved. Being in a Bible study or an active group shows you to have boldness and readiness to share the gospel and your own story, which in turn helps you know. even more about yourself and about Jesus. And the more you know Jesus, allows you to get rid of the hesitancy to share about Him, right? The more confidence you have, the more ready that you are, allows you to be able to share your relationship with Him to others more often. Now, if an unbeliever is ready to receive the gospel,

do not hesitate. You might not have the perfect words. You don't have to be perfect. Only He's perfect. Just speak up, open your mouth and share the gospel, giving them living water so that they may never thirst again. You would be shocked at how many people you come across on a daily basis that has not been shared the gospel in a meaningful and understanding way. Some people truly just haven't heard and it is honestly our duty each and every day to do so. For instance, this past, I think it was about two weeks ago, last week, whatever, before all the spiritual warfare hit my life. We were on FaceTime with friends from Idaho. And for those that don't know, I played a couple of years of professional baseball in Idaho and we met some people there. They were host families to some other baseball players. And we've been walking the spiritual journey with them for a couple of years. And they're doing amazing things. They've been here at Legacy Church. They love you guys. They love this church. And I was talking to them and they're like, what are some exciting things that you've done recently? Cause your birthday's coming up and all this.

And I was like, I just went and saw the Odyssey with Pastor Justin. And they go, what's that? And I'm like, what do you mean, what's that? Everyone's talking about the Odyssey. Also, it's a 3000 year old story. Did you go to high school? Did you read the Odyssey? And then they were like, oh, okay, crazy. I should go to the movies and watch the Odyssey. I'm like, yes, you should. It's a masterpiece. But then I was like, if you need to know more about it, maybe just chat GBT it. And they go, what's that? And that's when I was like, if you haven't heard of these things, there is a huge chance that there are people out there that have never been explained the gospel. And that's not to diminish the gospel, but they haven't heard of these worldly things. What are the chances that they've heard of these spiritual things? They've been equipped with spiritual armor to take them to the next level. Be ready to share the peace that the Lord gives you. But maybe you're asking like, what is peace? And that's honestly what I was asking too. I was like, what is spiritual warfare? What is peace?

So I actually went on my Instagram account and I like posted like, what does peace mean to you? And I probably got 50 answers. No two were the same. One person was like, I just had a baby. So a good night of sleep would be peace for me. And then someone else was like a new car. Like it was just a bunch of random different things, but peace means so many different things to so many different people. And so this is what the Bible primarily focuses on are these three types of peace. Number one, peace with God. Through faith, the Bible teaches that believers have their relationship with God restored. We can have a direct relationship with him through his son, Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit guiding us. Peace with God. The second thing is inner peace and freedom from anxiety. The Bible offers comfort, assuring believers that God provides a quiet confidence and guards the mind regardless of external circumstances. We carry this peace with us through every single circumstance. Inner peace and freedom from anxiety. The third thing is peace with others, which I think this is very much overlooked. Scripture emphasizes actively cultivating harmony, reconciliation, and pursuing peace with relationships.

There should be a constant fight for peace and reconciliation, not only in the church, but outside of it. Whether it's in your home, whether it's in our relationships, or our careers, or in our life, we should always be fighting for peace with others. And I think we're in this culture right now that emphasizes holding people at arm's length, not letting them get too close, putting up boundaries, and where there's areas for that that make sense, we're called to be different. A lot of that's just worldly advice. We're called to build peaceful relationships and reconcile the loss, reconcile families, because that's where God really, truly does his best work, right? We're called to reconcile the people and reconcile families. Now that you're bold, now that you're agile, and now that you're ready, you must be stable. The last part of bars, S, be stable. Be bold and know what you believe, be agile and go into all the world, be ready to share the peace that you have, and then finally be stable when you may encounter enemies or trials. Be stable. And John 16, verse 33 says, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have

any trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world." I have overcome the world, praise God. We're called to carry a peace in a world that is comforted by chaos. We're called to carry a peace that is comforted by chaos in a world that is comforted by chaos. The peace of God should make us unshakable. It should make us unshakable when all the trials come, it should make us unshakable when our doubts come, when some of these spiritual warfare things happen, when you get re-earned it, rear-ended, in total, your second car of the year. But in all seriousness, the most amazing display of unshakable faith that I've seen, probably in my entire life, or at least seen firsthand, came almost a year ago. So I get a stream of just like frantic text messages from a guy that I had in my mentorship last year, and he's a young man, and it was around 11 p.m. on a Saturday night, and I get text after text after text, and I didn't see it until I woke up the next morning at 5 a.m. because we had 5.30 a.m. set up at the YMCA for church. And so at five, I opened up my phone, and I'm reading, and I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Everyone's like, hey, I'm praying for you, like all this stuff, and I finally get up to the core message,

and he says, my wife and I found our 18-month-old daughter unresponsive earlier today. And then toward the end of the stream of text messages, he said, we've gotten the horrifying news that she passed away in her sleep last night. Again, this is an 18-month-old girl. And so a group of us that is church staff, that is part of our prayer team, we decided that after church that day, we're gonna drive 40 minutes to their house, and just be with them during this hard time, right? And when we're driving down there, obviously it's 40 minutes, so we have time, and we're talking about like, hey, what may we come into contact with? What are we gonna see? How can we be praying for them? And so we're just trying to align our hearts with the heaviness of this moment. But what we're met with was a couple that was worshiping God and in constant prayer. They were still grieving. They were still feeling the weight of the tragedy, but standing firm on the gospel and professing peace over their home and one another. It was something, honestly, we were not prepared for. And over the following weeks, and even to this day, they still grieve. They still have moments of anger,

but they've committed to keeping their shoes on and walking out their peace every single day. That was the single greatest act of faith that I've seen. That was a single greatest sight of peace that I've ever seen. And now, this may be an extreme example, but what I want you to understand is that the peace and the power of God has no limits. Whether it's depression or job loss or insecurity or even death, be unshakable, because no matter what, the God of the Bible deliver us peace and our peace, despite our trials, is our greatest testimony. Our peace, despite our trials, is our greatest testimony. And Matthew chapter five, verse nine says, "'Blessed are the peacemakers, "'for they shall be called sons of God.'" Stay strong in your faith and be confident, even when you fall, that you're able to get back up, carry your cross, not only for yourself and your family, but for people that will gain a faith thanks to the way that you live your life. It's important to know where this peace comes from. But what does peace truly look like? Peace looks like rest during the storm. It looks like when someone is in a disagreement with you, you are more committed to eternity than getting in the last word. It looks like worshiping

when everything around you seems to be crumbling. It is being stable in your faith in Jesus Christ when the world is trying to tear you down. It looks like certainty in uncertain time. And Paul tells us this in Philippians chapter four, verse six through nine, do not be anxious about everything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Here's some questions that I want you to ask yourselves for the rest of the day. in these next couple of moments in the following week is, when was the last time that I shared the gospel or my testimony? When was the last time that I shared the gospel or my testimony? Second thing is, what areas of my life am I needing more peace? Whether it's your life, or maybe it's different areas in other people's lives,

where are you called to bring more peace? Hey, if you're still watching at this point, I believe that it's not an accident. I believe that if you're feeling something in your spirit, that is God trying to get your attention and invite you into a deeper relationship with him. And so if you're ready to take that step, I wanna walk you through what that looks like. It's simple, we're gonna say a prayer together, and it's just you acknowledging that you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and that you're willing to commit your life to following him and learning what it means to be a son or daughter of God. So repeat after me if you can. Jesus, here I am. I believe that you love me, that you died for me, and that you want a relationship with me. I acknowledge that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And I'm committing to learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If I mess up, I will not quit, because you've never quit on me. I invite your Holy Spirit to lead me and guide me in your truth from today on. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, we're proud of you. That's a huge decision, and we don't want you to feel like

you have to figure it all out on your own from this point. We have a value, a legacy that says we follow Jesus for ourselves, but not by ourselves. So I would invite you to text the number below, follow the instructions, and we're gonna send you resources so you can learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus and be on this journey of faith. Congratulations, your life will never be the same. Thank you for watching. Hope you enjoyed the online experience. Hey, if this message impacted you, make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a friend so we can continue to share the gospel. Hey, here at Legacy, prayer is our priority. If you have any prayer needs, you can send them to prayer at legacyaz.church. If you'd like to financially partner with Legacy, you can text any dollar amount to 84321. You can also download the Church Center app, visit our website at legacyaz.church, click on Ways to Give. You'll find links to support Legacy Church. You can find us on social media. Otherwise, go out and love, live, and be like Jesus. We'll see you next week.