Eastside Church Sermons
These are the sermons of Eastside Church in Madison, WI. We live in a broken world - everyone feels it. We believe we were made to have lasting peace with ourselves, each other, and God. Because of who Jesus is and what he has done, we don’t have to experience the hardships (or joys) of this life alone. We exist to be a church made up of people who love, live like, and speak of Jesus, locally and globally, as the Spirit leads.
Eastside Church Sermons
Shoes of the Gospel of Peace (Ephesians 6:10-13, 15) by Houston Tucker
Have you ever wondered why the command to "stand" is so pivotal in Ephesians 6:14-17? We break down how the armor of God—truth, righteousness, and the gospel of peace—empowers us to hold our ground against the devil's schemes. Drawing a parallel with a classic Star Wars scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin, we illustrate how standing firm is a position of strength, while vulnerability and bad decisions come from losing your footing. Our discussion uncovers the enemy's strategies to make us falter by exploiting our weaknesses, aiming to render us ineffective in our faith journey.
Imagine facing life's toughest terrains with confidence rather than fear. By equipping ourselves with the "shoes of the gospel of peace," we can navigate these challenges with a solid foundation. We delve into maintaining faith during hardships, emphasizing how Jesus' life, death, and resurrection provide the ultimate traction needed to stay firm. Whether you're witnessing the suffering of others or struggling yourself, turning to Jesus offers a solid ground of support and reassurance. Join us as we explore how faith in Jesus is the true source of guidance and solace in life's most challenging moments.
Guys, glad you're here. My name's Houston. I'm one of the pastors here at Eastside man. We've been in this series in Ephesians for the last since Easter. So however long that is, for the last since Easter we've been in Ephesians. And we've been in this series because we've been asking the question what is a follower of Jesus like? What do they do? What are Christians about? And we picked Ephesians to answer that question because Ephesians is one of the best examples in the Bible of that.
Speaker 1:Paul wrote this letter to Christians to tell them the basics of what it means to be a Christian and how to live the Christian life and what all that entails. And, just like Tim said at the end of the book, paul takes this kind of strange turn to talk about the armor of God and talk about spiritual warfare. For a lot of us that's difficult and that's strange and it feels maybe uncomfortable. But the thing that Paul wants us to see is that Christians are automatically, by default, a part of a war, of a spiritual war, a spiritual battle, and armor is an important part of this battle. And so Paul tells us to be ready for this war that's coming, by taking on the armor of God. We've talked about that.
Speaker 1:The armor of God is not some kitschy name for the things that Bible man wears. If that connects with anybody, it shouldn't. It's terrible, serious, but it doesn't matter. So and sorry, I'm sorry if that, if that hurts, but so like the armor of God, is not this like kitschy, like conceptual idea? The idea in scripture is that the armor of God is the thing that God himself gave us, and the picture is that every Christian, when you become a Christian, when you decide to follow Jesus, when he saves you, you automatically get this armor in the mail, so to speak. One pastor put it this way is that as soon as you become a Christian, you're commissioned and you receive your equipment in the mail. And so the Christian life, then, is not about trying to be good enough, it's not trying to make or manufacture these things, but the Christian life is learning how to use what God has given us already.
Speaker 1:Hence the armor of God that we need to learn to put it on, and that's key, and we're going to keep going back to this, but I just always manage really hope, like, no matter what I say today, that you'll hear. It's like your job is not to make the armor of God, your job is to put it on. It's yours. That's the challenge for us as Christians. And so each week we've gone through a different piece of the armor, we've talked about how we use it, what it does, and today we're talking about shoes, and everyone I've ever read talk about this passage or preach. This passage always comes with the same conclusion Shoes are a strange thing to put in a list of armor.
Speaker 1:But here we are. Paul has put it here, and what we're going to see is that Paul has included the shoes, because this is a very key part of our defense. In spiritual warfare Particularly, our shoes are the key to our footing in the battle, and this reminds me of T-ball, of all things. When I was a kid I think it must have been four or five. This reminds me of t-ball, of all things. When I was a kid I think it must have been four or five I honestly have no idea how old I played t-ball and I did not understand the game at all.
Speaker 1:I promise you that if you looked out at a t-ball field and there was a kid who was definitively lost, that was me. Like you could have picked me out from a distance, and what I remember is you hit, you know you got the tee and you hit the ball and then you run. I don't understand why I'm running. I don't understand why I'm running, I just know I hit and then I run. And then my experience was always that like I never knew when to stop, then right, and so you just keep going and you keep going around the bases until somebody tells you to stop and sometimes it was a coach, but often I remember it being the other, like the kids on the other team, and my experience with this is that they would tell me to stop by sticking their foot out to trip me, and I don't know if this was actually a strategy or if these kids were just being mean. At the time I thought like, oh, these kids are jerks. And then somehow I internalized that this is how you play t-ball, is that there's like the batting phase and then the tripping phase, and so I remember distinctly hitting the ball, getting to first base and telling the first base coach man, I can't wait until it's my turn to trip them and you can probably get from this. I was apparently a pretty vindictive kid. Maybe I still am, I don't know. But no, at four or five. The only thing I could wrap my head around this was that this was a part of the game was tripping. And look, this is silly, this is funny.
Speaker 1:But whether it is baseball or any other sport, whether it is war or whether it is like the metaphorical journey of life, the walking of life, being tripped is, at best a supremely disorienting experience and at worst, deadly. And so what Paul is telling us here in our passage is that our footing in the battle ahead of us, in this spiritual warfare, our footing, is key to our survival, because we need sure footing to stand. And so what we're going to see today is that the shoes of the gospel of peace are our defense, our tool to give us sure footing for the battle ahead. And so we're going to look at this in three parts. We're going to first say what is the threat, what does the enemy want to do? Then we're going to see what do the shoes do, how do they help us, and then, finally, we're going to see how we can use the shoes. So what's the threat, what do the shoes do, how do we use them?
Speaker 1:But first, will you pray with me, lord? I just thank you for this day, lord. I thank you for the ways that you have provided for us today. Thank you for the ways that you've showed up today. I thank you for this place that we can hang out and sing and worship you, and this place where we can sit under your word and God. I just pray that, as we approach your word right now, that you would open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to what you have for us, and I pray with the psalmist that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be glorifying to you, lord, our God and our Redeemer, in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:First thing I want to do is I want to look at the threat. So each week so far, we've reread this first section of Ephesians 6, the introduction to the spiritual warfare, and what we've done each time is we've focused on a different verse that really highlights the thing we're talking about today, and so what I want you to do is, as I reread this, verses 10 through 13, pay attention not so much to a specific verse, pay attention to how many times Paul tells us to stand or some variation of stand. So I'm going to read this verses 10 through 13. Of stand, so I'm going to read this verses six or sorry, verses 10 through 13. He says, 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 having done all to stand firm. So if you lost count, three times in these three verses or four verses, paul says stand, or some variation of stand. And in fact, if we went on to read verse 14, where the sentence that Paul introduces the armor, he will say again stand and put on the armor.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing that's really cool to me. This is a grammar thing, so buckle up In verse 14,. What you see is from verse 14 to verse 17,. There is only one proper verb in this section and it is the verb. This is the command to stand, and every other thing that Paul talks about putting on the breastplate of righteousness, girding your loins with truth. All these things are participles. Now, if you are not pumped about grammar, what does that mean? Well, first, I think it means that you are. Maybe you don't know the finer things in life, because grammar is very wonderful Beyond that, what it means is that the only true command in this passage is to stand, and everything else is modifying is connecting to that command to stand.
Speaker 1:So let me put it this way we could translate this passage a little differently. We could say because of the devil's schemes, stand Equipped with the truth, like a belt, equipped with righteousness like a breastplate, equipped with the gospel peace like shoes. Do you see what I'm saying? All of these things, all of the pieces of armor here, relate to standing. So why is that significant? I'll tell you. It's significant for many reasons, but I want to draw in on this.
Speaker 1:When we think about what spiritual warfare is, we think about what this battle in front of us is, we should see that standing is the thing that the devil doesn't want us to do. Put very simply, his offensive strategy is tripping, causing our feet to stumble. A common phrase in the Bible is our feet slipping, our feet to stumble, and we see this a lot in the Psalms, and the Psalms we see is two main dimensions to this that I want to draw on. One of the big themes in the Psalms is when your enemies are coming at you and they want to disrupt you and they want to disorient you and they want to knock you down and weaken you, they'll attack your feet and they'll attack you to cause your feet to slip and fundamentally, the idea is that they have put me in a position of weakness, they've put me in a position of vulnerability, and I think this makes sense, right? If you're on the battlefield, you're fighting. Whoever is standing, whoever is upright, has a great advantage over the person who's on the ground. Right, and look, we need no further evidence of this than Star Wars, episode three.
Speaker 1:Do you remember the scene? Obi-wan and Anakin are fighting and Obi-Wan says the classic line, the timeless line. He says give up Anakin, I have the high ground. And do you remember what Anakin says? He says give up Anakin, I have the high ground. And do you remember what Anakin says? He says you underestimate my power. It's so dramatic. And then Anakin tries to jump over him and Obi-Wan cuts his arm and legs off. So like definitively, if we need any other proof. The high point, the high ground is a position of power. So what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean in this? Besides, you know Star Wars and Jedi, fighting.
Speaker 1:It means, in a war, anything your enemy can do to knock you down, anything he can do to get you in a position of weakness, position of vulnerability, is a great strategic move, and our enemy is no exception. He wants to cause us to slip, let's say spiritually, meaning he wants to put us in compromising positions. He wants to put us in a position of weakness. He wants to get us to that place and we all know this that place where it feels like the only thing we can do is make bad decisions. He wants to get us into that place where it feels like the only thing we can do is the wrong thing. And that's really the second dimension to this.
Speaker 1:Causing your feet to slip image, see, that's the other part of this in the Psalms is to say that someone caused my feet to slip, is to say that I made a bad decision, that I sinned, that I went astray. And see, it comes from this image in the Bible of life and especially of like, following God as being this path, and if we think about obeying God, listening to God, as walking along this path, then anytime we don't, anytime we make a bad decision, anytime we sin, we are either walking away from the path or, in our case, we are slipping from the path. And we know that if we're thinking about paths, if we think about something like hiking or rock climbing, there are always parts of the path that are more treacherous than others, right, and there are always scenarios that can make the path even more difficult. Like you don't go rock climbing in the rain, right? I mean, I think psychopaths do, but people, normal people like us, don't go rock climbing in the rain. Why? Because when the way is slippery, when the way is treacherous, you fall much more easily. Why? Because staying on the path is hard. It's easy to slip, or to put this in terms of what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1:In life, when we get to these difficult parts of the path, when we get to these times where it is treacherous, when it's slippery, it is very hard to keep going on, to keep doing the right thing, to keep making good decisions. It's really hard to keep following God when the path is difficult at best. Right, and the challenge we have as Christians is that we don't just have to face these difficult parts of life. We have an enemy who wants to manufacture and take advantage of these difficult terrains. We have an enemy who wants to find us when we're in that difficult season, who wants to find us when we're our most fragile state, and he wants to push us and he wants us to slip. He wants us out of commission. In other words, our enemy wants to take advantage of our circumstances, take advantage of our own weaknesses, take advantage of this difficult life ahead of us to make us sin, make us feel disoriented. He wants us to be ineffective and, ultimately, he wants us to get off the path altogether and stop following the Lord. In other words, he wants our feet to slip, and so hence Paul saying over and over to stand, stand, stand. Why? Because he wants you to slip, so stand. And so the question is how? What can we use to help us stand?
Speaker 1:And this is where the shoes come into play, and so we talked about what the threat is. How do the shoes help us? In other words, what do the shoes do? And first let's look at the verse again. Let's see how Paul describes them. This is verse 15. This is verse 15. He says and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. So the shoes are the readiness of the gospel of peace. Well, great. What in the world does that mean? Well, first let's talk about what Paul means by readiness.
Speaker 1:It's helpful to understand shoes, specifically Roman shoes in the first century. This was very fun stuff for me, maybe not for you, but look, I've already said, if you don't enjoy grammar and Roman footwear, I don't know what I can do for you. Okay, no, what I found is that historians generally say that for over a hundred years in the Roman Empire, especially around the time of Paul, the Roman Empire issued one specific type of shoe to their soldiers and it was called the caligae Exciting right. And this shoe was very simple, very simple. There was essentially two parts to it. Okay, there was the sole, the base of the shoe, and the leather straps that tied it to your feet. It was a sandal, very, very simple sandal.
Speaker 1:But here's the deal. These were incredible shoes because the design of the sole was very special. So the sole was two layers of leather, and in this first layer of leather they would put hob nails so little tiny nails or little bits of metal, and they would poke through the sole and dig into the ground and then they would put another layer of leather on top and you would end up with this comfortable, durable sole like base of your shoe that had these nails sticking out of the bottom. And the point of the nails is two things. One, they offered protection, because these shoes were made with bits of metal and the double layer of leather they defended very well against random things in the road. And, in particular, one of the things that would be common in battle is that the enemy would kind of get to the battlefield early and throw all kinds of debris in the field and look, you don't need me to tell you, nothing is going to knock a soldier out of commission quicker than a nail in the foot right. And so these shoes, the hobnails and the leather design protected soldiers' feet very well from these types of attacks.
Speaker 1:And the other thing they did, which is very important, you can imagine, is they provided grip, they provided traction for the soldiers. I mean, you think about baseball cleats, it's the same concept, right? It's these spikes that come out of your shoe into the ground, so that when you're going through difficult terrain or when you're navigating difficult places, you have good grip for your. The base of the shoe offered protection, durability, grip. But what's interesting is that these were fundamentally sandals, and so the end result is that you have shoes that are actually very light and if you're thinking about, like the Mediterranean heat, you know having open-toe shoes is very nice for navigating these very hot, very long marches.
Speaker 1:And so the Roman Calliope was wonderful because it provided everything. It gave protection, it gave mobility you know you don't have this heavy shoe weighing you down for these long marches and it gave grip and, as you can imagine, this becomes an integral part of the soldier's armor. And that's because, by and large, they were essential for the soldier to be ready, ready for anything that came their way. You got to hike through a difficult mountain terrain. You've got good grips on your feet. You have a long march across the Mediterranean. You have a light, breathable shoe. Enemy has thrown nails and chunks of wood on the battlefield. You have protection. You see these shoes become the symbol for being ready to face whatever is coming, for being ready to face whatever is coming, and consequently, they become the symbol of readiness, preparedness, equipness, and here's what I think we can see why Paul would say to put on the shoes to be ready.
Speaker 1:But when I think about this idea of readiness, I tend to minimize the significance of this readiness Like I think about. I think we undersell it. Because when I think about ready, I think about my wife Kinsey asking me, when we're running late for something, are you ready yet? And she knows the answer is no. But, like when I think about readiness, for me it tends to mean I've got a shirt without a stain on it, I'm wearing pants and I've got shoes on my feet. You know, it's like the bare minimum of I can walk out the door.
Speaker 1:But when Paul talks about readiness, when the Bible talks about readiness, what we have to see is that the stakes are actually much, much higher and that really we need to be prepared for much more. And in the Gospels, you know, jesus tells people at multiple points to be ready, be ready, and most of the time he's talking about being ready for his return. But it's the same word, the same concept, and one of the clearest illustrations he gives for this is the parable of the wedding party, and in the story Jesus compares us his followers, like the wedding party. We're groomsmen, we're bridesmaids, we're a part of this thing, and we are waiting for the groom to show up. And the question is how are we going to wait for the groom to show up? We're not gonna be at home chilling and watching Netflix, right? We're not gonna be taking naps. We're not going to be at home chilling and watching Netflix, right? We're not going to be taking naps. We're going to be at the wedding venue, we will be dressed and we will be ready, because we know that as soon as the groom shows up, the wedding's on. And this is the kind of readiness that Paul is getting at Readiness not just to have the armor, not just to know where the armor is, but the readiness of being clothed and ready for battle at any time.
Speaker 1:We need to know that the battle is coming and that it's going to come when we least expect it. It's going to come when we're least prepared for it, and what we need very desperately is to be ready. Why? Because our enemy is coming and he's a dirty fighter. He's going to attack our feet, he's going to try to knock us down. And so what do the shoes of the gospel of peace. Do they help us? They help us be prepared for all of the different things that we will need to overcome as followers of Jesus. In other words, they give us sure footing for this battle ahead of us.
Speaker 1:See, because, again, this is like this armor. This piece of armor is our answer to the devil's strategy, to the devil's primary offensive strategy. He wants to trip us, he wants to catch us off guard, he wants to take advantage of these difficult situations because he wants us to sin, he wants us disoriented. He wants us disoriented, he wants us ineffective, he wants us out of the picture. So what's the answer to that? Be ready, be agile, stand.
Speaker 1:And I think the question is Do you feel ready? Do you feel agile? Do you feel ready to stand? Sometimes? Or maybe you feel like your feet have been knocked out from underneath you, maybe you feel like you don't know how to take that next step, maybe you feel like you're knocked down on the ground, and so the question is how do we put on these shoes?
Speaker 1:How do we put on the shoes of the gospel of peace? Here's the answer you put them on your feet. Here's what I mean by that. All of us, naturally, are standing on something. All of us naturally have to keep this image wrapped, something around our feet to give us traction, to give us protection, to help us keep going. And so I think the question is, if we think about how shoes are supposed to work, what gives you traction in life?
Speaker 1:When life is difficult, when making decisions is hard, when there are no clear answers and the best option feels very bad, what gives you traction, what helps you navigate these difficult terrain? And look, for each of us, the answer is different. For some of us it's our intellect, for some of us it's our money. For some of us it's our education. Maybe it's the respect that we get from others. But the question is, what are we using to keep going and navigate these difficult situations?
Speaker 1:And if we equip the gospel of peace, it's different, because with the gospel of peace, we're equipping ourselves with the knowledge that, because of what Jesus did on the cross, no matter how treacherous these roads get, no matter how alone we feel on these paths, no matter how lost we feel, we know definitively that we're not on this path alone. Because what did Jesus say? Jesus said I will be with you to the ends of the earth. And how does that change our perspective? To know that, in these difficult seasons of our life, that our Lord and Savior is walking with us. And you know, the psalmist described this as the Lord placing our feet on solid ground. He described this as the Lord lifting us up and finding steady footing for us, even when we can't find it for ourselves. And that is the kind of grip that we need in life. And we know that he won't abandon us on this path. How, how do we know he won't abandon us on this path? Because he chose this hard path for himself. He chose to walk towards death for us, knowing full well what was coming for him. He chose to take these treacherous paths with us. He's not going to abandon us.
Speaker 1:And, man, what gives us the mobility in life? When you're tired because you've been going for a long time and you're worn down, but you know that you still have a very long way to go, that you still have a very long way to go, how will we keep going? Because we need mobility. One pastor I listened to called this lightness of feet. To put it another way, we need to not be weighed down because there is a very long road ahead of us and we need to not be dragged down by the things that can so easily drag us down, things like our own sinfulness, things like our own brokenness, our failings in life, and they are heavy burdens that will, without fail, drag us down and catch us up. But we know, because of the gospel, that these things are no longer hanging on us, so to speak, because we know that, as Jesus went to be crucified, do you remember the scene? They laid the cross on him? Do you see this picture of? Is him walking this difficult path, physically, literally, carrying the weight of our failures and shortcomings.
Speaker 1:And so the question is how can we have mobility? It's because we know that he carries these things, not us. We don't have to. We can have the freedom that comes from his righteousness, from his acceptance of us, and what protects us from these underhanded attacks from the enemy? What keeps his jabs and traps from taking out our feet and immobilizing us? What I want us to do is to think about how he fights, think about the tools that he uses. What are the traps that he lays for us? It's our own sin, isn't it? Because? Doesn't he want to put us in positions where we make bad decisions, where we sin, where we do things that do not rightly show us as children of God. Why? Because he wants to leverage that against us. He wants to leverage that against us, and we know when we sin. You know the Paul said in Romans the wages of sin is death. What the enemy wants to do is he wants to leverage the consequences of your sin against you. He wants to knock you off this path by saying there's no point, there's no road ahead of you, there's nothing for you, because this is you, this is what you've done, and there's nothing. You're not a good person, you're not a child of God, you're an enemy.
Speaker 1:And what does the gospel tell us then? What does the gospel tell us? The gospel tells us that all the way back from the very, very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent and sinned, there's a scene where God is talking to them and he's telling them consequences. And he tells the serpent. In chapter three, he says one day a man will come and you will strike his heel, but he will crush your head. In other words, one day someone will come who, despite the enemy's best efforts, all he's going to do is attack his heel and he will crush the enemy's head. Do we understand this? The best defense we have against the devil's attacks is that we have a savior who came, who lived the perfect life and who took the attacks that we deserved, took the consequences that we deserved, took the death that was rightly coming to us on himself, and the enemy has no more power, he has no more weapons, he has no more bite, because Jesus has crushed his head, and that is the sole thing that can prepare us for this battle ahead. And so I just want to end with this.
Speaker 1:I've been trying to, in this series, wrap up with some like tangible things that we can do, some more practical things. I think this one is very moving to me. This idea of the readiness of the gospel is very moving to me. It's a very powerful idea, man. How do we take this from being a powerful idea that encourages us to something that we can actually take up, something we can use and something we can do? And I think the first thing we ought to do is to consider what we are wrapping our feet in instead. Here's what I mean by that. Like I said earlier, everyone is standing on something, everyone uses something to keep going. Everyone uses something to kind of defend themselves, everyone uses something to navigate difficult terrain of life, and I think our job as a Christian is to determine for ourselves what we are using to do that instead of the gospel. And I let me give this an example of my own life about this.
Speaker 1:I love.
Speaker 1:I love talking about these things. I love talking about kind of the like ideological, psychological like the implications of the gospel and how it plays out in our lives. And one of the things that I love is thinking through how our worldviews, how the ways that we approach life, how these things play out in our lives. And partially, I think that's because I think I'm good at it I don't know that I actually am, but I think that I'm good at it discerning these things. And I worked at Starbucks for five years and, man, anytime you work in an environment like that, you're coming across tons of people who have all kinds of different things again to use illustration wrapped around their feet. And when you're working with someone long enough, you will inevitably see how these things fail them, right, and it's all kinds of things. We do this with so many things, right, we do this like people do this with their sexuality. People do this with financial security. People do this with gender. People do this with hobby, like friends. There's no shortage of things that we can take to make us okay enough to keep going, but, without fail, what we see is, again, these just don't work. They don't last in the long run. And when you look at someone from the outside when you look at someone from the outside it is easier to see those things operating in their lives and you can see how these things play out.
Speaker 1:And I often find myself thinking something along the lines of wow, I'm so glad that I have a different foundation for my life. Wow, I'm so glad that I have a different foundation for my life. And I wonder if you hear it, because what that actually is is not me being thankful for God, it's me saying wow, I am so glad that I have it figured out. And maybe you don't want to hear your pastor say this I don't have it figured out. Definitively don't have it figured out. And look, my parents are visiting and I'm just praying that we don't hear an amen at this point. But I don't actually have it figured out. And here's how I know that.
Speaker 1:It's because when I get to these treacherous places in life suffering, when I come to times of suffering, the first thing that I'm challenged with is I lose my confidence in my ability to navigate this hardship. I lose my confidence that I do in fact know the way. And look. This is like even worse when I'm spending time with other people who are suffering. It hits me so hard because when I come across someone else who's experiencing great loss Because when I come across someone else who's experiencing great loss, so often I can get lost in my own weakness about it and I can have this problem that I have anxiety because I don't know what to say to this person. I don't know the right words to make it better. I don't know how to convince them that God is still good, that things are still okay.
Speaker 1:In other words, when I'm faced with this difficult terrain, especially in someone else's life, I immediately lose my footing, because I was standing on my ability to navigate life. I was standing on my confidence that I could do this. I was standing on me, and that doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work when I'm hanging out with my friend whose wife has just left him and taking their kids because I don't know what to say to him. And it doesn't work when I'm hanging out with another friend who says he knows Jesus but has just experienced the longest, deepest, darkest oppression that I've ever seen. I don't know what to do there. Why? Because I am trying to stand on my ability to navigate these things and I have no idea how to navigate those things and it's cliche to say, but it's true, jesus can. Jesus can navigate those things with those people. He knows how to help them take that next step.
Speaker 1:And really my problem is, like I said, I've equipped myself with my own ability, with my own ability to perceive the world and to make plans and so on. My own ability to perceive the world and to make plans and so on, rather than the truth that, despite spouses leaving, despite deep, dark depression, despite my own incompetence, that Jesus lived, that he died and that he rose from the grave, and that right lived, that he died and that he rose from the grave, and that right now I am fully loved and accepted and cherished by God and that one day I'll see him face to face and it'll be good, and one day all this stuff that has not made sense to me will make sense. That's what it means to put on the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace. Let's pray.