Shoes for your Soul

Sunday Sermon
February 22, 2009
Rhema Community Church

Sermonic Skeleton

Sermonic Scripture: ESV Ephesians 6:15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Sermonic Subject: Spiritual Warfare

Sermonic Theme: The Gospel of Peace

Sermonic Sentence: The gospel is our ready defense against the attacks of the devil. (God commands us to stand in the gospel not in our flesh.)

Sermonic Tension: Don't give the devil a foothold in your life. (Since I have peace with God there is no need for me to fear the devil.)

Sermonic Background: From the Anglo-Saxon god-spell, “God-story,” a translation of the Greek “good news.” The Gospel is the good news of the message of salvation offered by God to all who believe in His Son, Jesus, as Lord and Savior. The word also refers to the first four books of the NT because they recount the life and teachings of Jesus.

SOME FALLACIES IN THE PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL

A. The Fallacy That the Gospel Concerns Other Than Sin Primarily There can be no Good News for the person who does not sense that he needs Good News. And there can be no sense of need without some realization of sin. Of course, sin has many symptoms which can alert an individual to the basic problem, sin. Therefore, a Gospel presentation can focus on lack of joy or peace or the need to have help in solving problems, but those are symptoms of the sin which alienates from God. Nevertheless, one does not need to be saved in order to have joy or peace or the solution to problems. He needs to be saved in order to have sins forgiven. Lack of joy is not what bars people from heaven. Sin is. The Gospel believed solves the sin problem.

B. The Fallacy That There Are Different Gospels for Different Age-Groups There is not one Gospel for children, another for young people, yet another for adults, and another for unchurched people, while another for those with a church background. There is one Gospel. There may be different ways of explaining the Gospel to different groups, but unless the content is the same, those different ways may create different gospels. Different vocabulary may be indicated, but those different words must convey the same Gospel.

C. The Fallacy That the Truth Is in Other Than the Word of God Experience can confirm or deny truth, but it does not create infallible truth. Neither does archeology. Neither does fulfilled prophecy, for the prophecies of the Bible were true before they were ever fulfilled. Neither does apologetics. These approaches have their place, but only in the Word do we have absolute truth. Like the apostles we must preach the Word (Acts 13:5) and reason out of the Scriptures (17:2).

D. The Fallacy That Cleverness Will Convict If the convicting ministry of the Spirit is to set the truth of the Gospel before the unsaved person in such a light that he must acknowledge it as truth (whether he believes it or not), then this must be done by the Spirit, not by my cleverness. Of course, our presentation should be well prepared and well presented, but these in themselves do not guarantee that anyone will be convinced. God must do that.

E. The Fallacy That Charm Will Assure Results Insofar as we can exercise control, we should not be offensive as to dress, speech, or culture, but the moment we announce the Gospel we take on the offense of the Cross (Gal. 5:11). The message is a stumbling block; the messenger should not be. But even though he is not, this will not guarantee results. Charm does not convert people.

F. The Fallacy That Procedures Produce Conversions Procedures do produce results, but results are not always the same as conversions. Pressure can produce results; music can hypnotize; settings can intoxicate; and stories can move; but none of these necessarily bring conversions. A good test for any Gospel message is this: did the speaker give his listeners something to believe, not did he give them something to do.

Sermonic Cross Reference: ESV Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."

Sermon Structure:

I. These shoes educate us about our battle against the devil (and, as shoes for your feet)

A. We stand on the veracity of the Gospel
B. We stand with the veracity of the Gospel
C. We stand for the veracity of the Gospel

II. These shoes equip us for our battle against the devil (having put on the readiness,)

A. Spiritually we are ready
B. Mentally we are ready
C. Physically we are ready

III. These shoes emancipate us so that we can win our battle against the devil (given by the gospel of peace.)

A. We have peace with God
B. We have the peace of God
C. We have peace from God