Hold The Line | Week 3 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

amen and amen. This week I was, preparing for this trying to figure out how do we contextualize this because most most Bible translations when talking about the breastplate, they call it the breastplate of righteousness. The NLT,

is the translation I read from primarily on Sunday mornings, it does a good job contextualizing

it and it actually calls it the body armor of God's righteousness. Now, if you missed it last week, we looked at a picture of a Roman soldier realizing that Paul Paul's not using a random example here in the story. He's using this example because he's literally writing this letter while he's chained to a Roman guard that it looked like this, just less steroids than our AI version of him has but the armor would have been the same and Paul talks about this breastplate

that he's wearing, probably 50 to 60 pounds that he's wearing And so this week, I was like, okay, how do I contextualize this? And so I started to think about it. So I text our two security team leads that are amazing guys. Two guys that are both volunteers but they they basically work enough hours, they can be a full time staff member around here but both have amazing jobs and I quickly remembered just how differently they have been trained to see the world than I see it, right? These guys are guys that came up in military

and special forces, they've seen the worst of humanity, they are literally trained to look for threats that I don't even think about which is why they're amazing and we're thankful for them. Now again, could do this with every team on any given Sunday but I wanted to just for a second because oftentimes,

you don't ever get to see our security team but I promise you, they are all around this building every single Sunday making sure that while you are here and your kids are learning about Jesus in a kids' space that they are they are safe and this whole place is not something that somebody can come in and threaten us and so I just wanted to take a second if you would. Can we just put our hands together for all of our amazing security people?

Man, we love you. We thank you. We appreciate you but but I was reminded quickly like, okay, I'm trying to contextualize the breastplate of righteousness, I'm like, it's it's it's like body armor, right? So I text these to you guys out of the blue, no context. Just go, hey, do you guys have like like a

bodysuit of armor that I could wear this weekend? Can I do you have a bulletproof vest that I can borrow? And they're like, what? Like, what dumb stuff have you done that you've not told us about? Like, what what are you teaching on? And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I forget that you guys need your like, there's a threat that's happening. No. There's no threats. There's me in my office. I don't think I'm gonna be shot but I just wanna I wanna help people visualize what Paul is talking about. K? There's a reason why every time a police officer gets ready and puts on his uniform, there's a reason why when we send military personnel out, they wear one of these guys. K? This is this is it without the bulletproof actual like shields in it because it gets too heavy and it's it's too difficult for me to wear. But there's a reason that we give these to every police officer because we know the data tells us the f I the f e I just released a comprehensive study studying police officers that were shot in the line of duty. If a police officer is shot in their core

without a bulletproof vest on, it is essentially a death sentence. But if they're wearing this, the data says they have an eighty five percent chance that they will actually survive

the wound. Why is that? Because inside of our core is where all all the vital organs are and what Paul was telling us in the battle that you and I are in that is not physical but it is spiritual,

you've got to realize we need to be prepared for battle. Just like a Roman soldier would wear this massive breastplate that would come from his collarbone down to his waistline, but it also would cover his his shoulder blades down to his tailbone

because you gotta realize the enemy that we're fighting against is not always gonna square up to you. Sometimes he's gonna sneak up and try to stab you in the back. You've gotta be prepared.

You gotta be prepared for battle. Now again, this morning, we we are not in a physical battle, the bible says, but we are in a spiritual one. What what I think Paul was alluding to is what Proverbs chapter four verse 23 reminds us. It says, above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.

Much like a police officer, you've got to protect your vital organs. Friends, I'm telling you this morning, if we are going to survive in this life of faith, if we're gonna be victorious in the spiritual battle that we're in, the bible says just like a police officer has to protect their vital organs,

you and I do as well. What is the vital organ in the spiritual life? It is the heart that out of everything else, everything else flows.

See for a first century Jew, the heart was so much more than just a for us, it's a it's a symbol of like emotion and feelings, not not for them. This was like the totality of their being and the Bible implores us to not overlook protecting our heart because if that thing gets affected,

then I'm telling you everything else begins to fall apart. So what what is the body armor? What is the breastplate in the spiritual battle that we are in that Paul says you've got to make sure you're putting this on? He calls it righteousness.

How do you protect the most vital organ that you have in this life? He says you've got to walk with righteousness. You've got to put on righteousness. The the biblical definition, what we see, there's a couple different ways to kind of look at it but righteousness really is as simple as it's just it's right living.

It's you making a decision that what you're gonna do Monday through Friday lines up with what the word of God says. It's it's that you're meeting the standard which means that there is a standard, that's why we started with the belt of truth. The standard is not what what I think it is, it's what the word of God says that it is because truth is not subjective.

Truth is something that you can know, you can know through the person of Christ and it also means you're passing inspection. What the scriptures talk about is this idea

that if God were to to analyze our lives, there wouldn't be these glaring parts that are just like, hey, what's going on over here? You know, we've got some stuff that's going on because what what the scriptures are clearing is the standard.

The standard is is universally agreed upon. K? There's not a lot of debate. There's some weird churches on the fringes that will try to debate what the righteousness of God is and what morality today is supposed to be. My my submission to us this morning is that we are we are not not walking in righteousness because we don't know what it is. Now most of us are not walking in righteousness because I think of a couple other things but we've got to first start with going, hey, God does have a standard and if we're going to be prepared for and equipped for the spiritual battle that we're in, it means you've got to make a decision.

Are you gonna live how God says you're supposed to live? Are you gonna date how God says you're supposed to date? Are you gonna treat your spouse the way that the Bible says you're supposed to treat your spouse? Are you gonna treat your sexuality the way that the Bible says you're supposed to treat your sexuality? Are you gonna do with your money what the bible says you and I are supposed to do with our money because if not, maybe

we are we are engaging in a spiritual battle and our lives are exposed. There's something that I wish somebody had told me years ago

about following God and submitting to his ways that are higher than our ways because I think sometimes how how we kind of operate is we we have this idea that like man, life used to be amazing and I had so much fun and then I became a Christian, you know, and like,

it's all just downhill from there and God is up in heaven as like this ultimate cosmic

killjoy and like, we look back and it's like, oh man, college was so fun and we would do all these amazing things but now now I'm following Jesus, you know, and that's like, we think that signing up for a life of faith is like a a life of of like the death of all things fun and I just wanna tell you that that is a lie from the pit of hell, that that is actually not the case. The scriptures go so far to remind us first John chapter five that yes, loving God, it does mean keeping his commandments.

There is a level that you can't claim to love God and not do what he says to do but the reminder is that his commandments, they're not burdensome.

God's not up in heaven going, man, you better get it right and this is gonna suck but eventually eventually you get to heaven one day and you're like, alright, we'll just suffer through while we're here. No. No. No. What was the invitation of Jesus? His invitation was to take my yoke upon you because my my yoke is light

and my burden is easy. Friends, it is a joy to get to follow God. It is an honor to get to trust God with my money. It is a joy to submit the parts of my life that I don't always understand to the God in heaven who knows more than me. Following God is not a is not an ultimate cosmic killjoy.

No no, I would say the path of righteousness is actually the path that leads you to the things that you want most in this life. See, it's not that you can't have some some momentary

fun sinning and just living however you want. The problem is is that it it comes with a catch and those things, the lie that the enemy won't tell you as he's dangling the carrot of achievement in front of you or the relationship in front of you or the the next car or the next possession or the next thing, he won't tell you that it also can be the very thing that will enslave you if you're not careful.

But friends, there's a God in heaven who loves you, who's laid out a path that loves you so much he didn't just save your soul but he also has given us an instruction manual on how to live in this side of eternity and if you want to protect your heart and live the life of faith for more than five minutes,

you've got to learn to bring the parts of your life that are out of alignment back into alignment with the will of God in the the spirit of God. But here's also the tension. Here's the tension if you've been around church for any more than ten minutes. You've probably met some Christians that were pretty awful people.

Sometimes the meanest people that I meet are people who sit in church rows every single Sunday morning. I go, man, how have you so disconnected the person of God from the spirit of God that's supposed to be alive and active in you? And I think this is the tension with a message like righteousness

because for a lot of us what unintentionally happens is we learn through the customs of church, the environments that we grew up in, we know the language to say, we know the things to do, we know the appearance to put on and for us, righteousness is really nothing more than just an external facade.

It's an appearance that we have and we make sure when like the the you know, we're on the Instagram live or we're showing up to church on Sunday morning that we turn the church thing on and I just want to remind us this morning that you might be able to fool yourself,

you might be able to think that God doesn't see the things that are out of alignment with with him but though righteousness might be able to be faked for a moment, I'm telling you, God is not fooled.

We're not tricking God. The Bible says that he he sees all things and the invitation to live rightly before him is not an invitation to have no joy in this life. No, my encouragement is that the breastplate of righteousness that also protects our heart is the path that leads us to truly actually

living. Paul tells the church in Galatians, Galatians chapter five verse one that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. His reminder to us is that Jesus died so that you can be set free, so experience freedom. What God wants for you and I is freedom not not bondage

and he reminds us, he says, stand firm then and don't let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. What Paul is saying is that the temptation for all of us is is one of two paths that eventually lead us back to the slavery that we've been set free from. See, the first most obvious path back to slavery

is we run back to the vice that we once had victory over. Right? That's the one that we understand. I was an alcoholic before I met Jesus. Jesus set me free of that addiction. A couple years in we haven't learned new coping mechanisms, we go back to the very thing that we've been set free from and all of a sudden,

all of sudden we find ourselves back in chain to the thing that we've been set free from. But I think secondarily, the other thing that is just as dangerous, potentially more prevalent in the American church today is a slavery of the perception of righteousness. It's a slavery of pretending that everything is okay.

It's a slavery of putting on the facade and acting like we have it all together when the truth is is we know what's going on behind the scenes. See the invitation of faith is to be a person of integrity.

I I love the word integrity. The root word is it's integer. It's just it's one. The beauty of the invitation of faith through Jesus is is wholeness that you don't you no longer have to live these duplicitous lives where you you forget what you told these people and then you show up to these rooms and go, wait. Who who did I say that I was? No. No. No. You can be one

at soul level peace and rest if you learn to just put on the the righteousness of God, friends. You you can't fake it, but there is a path forward where you can begin to put it on that will protect you and guard your heart for the longevity of this of this life. Now again, you gotta realize,

the the inverse is just as true. If righteousness is the thing that guards you, you gotta realize the scriptures say that unrighteousness is is literally exposing you. Proverbs chapter 13 verse six says that righteousness guards the person of integrity but wickedness overthrows the sinner.

What the bible says is that what a lot of us are doing by continuing to allow things in our lives that should not be there, things that are out of order,

we have not allowed them to be brought back into alignment though the spirit of God has has been pushing on those things for a while. What we're doing is we're taking the protection that we're supposed to walk in and we're making a decision to willingly lay it down and we're engaging now in a spiritual warfare,

we're engaging in a spiritual battle and we're completely exposed. These oftentimes, we think of the sins of commission, right? The things that we we know we need to stop doing but oftentimes we ignore the sins of omission,

the things that that God has been nudging us to start doing for a while. You you gotta start to learn how to share your faith with people.

You you should get into a small group, you should join a crew, you've got to start trusting God with your resources. I'm telling you, those sins as we ignore them will take you out just as fast as the sins of as the sins of commission.

But what I want to I want you to hear today is that oftentimes the spiritual battles that we find ourselves in, when there's seasons of intense spiritual warfare and it just feels like man, the enemy's attacking everywhere,

I just again want to submit to us that you gotta realize the scriptures tell us that the enemy's invasion, it always starts with an invitation. That when we find ourselves under spiritual opposition, there's potentially

something in our life where we've opened a door and allowed him in. I know you're like, well, I I never asked him to come in. Yeah. Maybe not with your words but with what does that that thing that you're watching, those things that you're listening to, what you're doing on Friday nights that people don't know about. I'm telling you in the spiritual realm, in the supernatural,

those are open doors You're opening doors and allowing the enemy to come into your life and at some point, you've got to do something with those things.

I don't know if you've ever had those like fruit flies show up in your house, man. They're so obnoxious. Right? A couple years ago, we had them really bad in our last house and so we did what everybody does today. We're trying to solve a problem. You you post on Instagram, okay, what do I do about this, right? Well, people have said, hey, you gotta buy these little lights on on Amazon. You plug them in, they got this blue light, there's a little sticky trap behind them. You guys have some of these at your house, right? So we ordered these and they're they're amazing. Every morning we walk out, fruit flies all stuck to the back of these things but it didn't matter. It seemed like no matter how many we had out, there was more fruit flies the next day in the house and then eventually, I don't even remember exactly where it was or what it was but eventually we opened a drawer and there was like a piece of rotten fruit that we had to deal with, right? It didn't matter how many lights we put around the house as long as the fruit that was rotten was in my home,

I'm telling you the invitation for the fruit fly was there. Sometimes, we make following Jesus into something much deeper than it really is. We come to church hoping for two new tactics on how to how to win in spiritual warfare and I think the Bible just goes, man, you gotta you gotta deal with the

things in your life that are rotten. You gotta deal with the things that have been there for a while that are that are allowing the enemy into your heart so that you can begin to walk in freedom.

How do we? Again, I think the real question, how do we put on righteousness so that our our vital organs are protected? Well, the first thing you gotta realize, there's there's a bit of a problem that we have. The bible says in Romans chapter three verse 10 that no one is righteous, not even one.

See, the problem with putting on righteousness is you gotta start with the premise that on my own, on your own,

you're kinda host. We don't have the ability to do this ourselves. We're we're not strong enough, we're not good enough, we're not right enough that this idea of righteousness biblically is something that has to be embraced

not earned. This is also the freeing part of this whole thing is that Paul's invitation to the church in Ephesus, the spiritual warfare that we're in, the armor of God that we're putting on, he doesn't say put on your righteousness. No, he says put on the righteousness of God, the body armor of God's righteousness is what he says. Friends, you gotta realize that that righteousness is something that you receive,

that you don't earn it, you don't work for it. Just like salvation is a gift that you receive, so is the righteousness that will get you through this life. Second Corinthians chapter five says that God made him, talking about Jesus. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become

the righteousness of God. It's the greatest exchange in the history of the world. The God who was perfect became sin, why? So that he could take your and I's sin and we could, in exchange, get the righteousness of God.

Friends, how do you protect the vital organ of your heart so that you can make it in this life, so you can run your race well? You gotta realize that righteousness is something that you you earn. How do you earn it? By putting your faith in Jesus.

By coming back to the well that is the person of Jesus. See, think so often, because of westernized American church culture, we've we've believed that coming to Jesus is like something you do one time when you pray a prayer of repentance and is that moment powerful? Yes and amen. But it's not just a one time thing. It's a constant process of running back to the stream that is Jesus and getting his righteousness and putting it back on and bringing back to him the parts of our life that we're that we're not proud of, that we're still working on. It's a lifelong process of being both both justified

and also being made right. But I think the question, think my my question to all of us this morning that I felt like the holy spirit was nudging my heart with this week is for for you, not for somebody else, for you. As you as you look back over your faith journey, your time with Jesus,

it's not just have you attended church a lot, but do you see a moment in your life where you've gone through the regenerative process that the Bible talks about? See, bible doesn't say that you and I are like mistakers who occasionally get it wrong and just need to be helped to get it a little bit more right.

No. No. No. The bible says that you and I are fatally flawed, that we are we are sinners who are in desperate need of a savior and the invitation of faith is to an invitation to become a brand new creation.

The scriptures talk about being born again. You were born of the flesh but now you need to be born of the spirit. Here's the question. I think my question for you this morning genuinely is have you been born again?

Have you had the regeneration of your heart happen? As you look back and I know it's not like, man, I was a mess and then it became perfect but as I look back in my life, I can see the marker, the moment

where I I confess with my mouth that Jesus was Lord. I turned over the reins of my life to him and the regenerative process of the Holy Spirit began in my life. That is not something that your family of origin can do for you. You can't pick up faith because you were born into the right family. Faith is not something you get through osmosis.

Faith is something that is original and individual to every single person. So the question again is have you

have you been born again? How do we do it? The Bible says it's really simple. How do we get God's righteousness? There's kind of three like the ABCs of the gospel to kind of make it memorable for us. The first step in being born again is you've got to admit. What do you admit?

You admit that you're not just a mistake or who occasionally gets it wrong. You admit that you are a desperate sinner who is in need of a savior and then you gotta do the second thing which is the beat. You gotta believe.

You got to at some point, you have to at some point look at the person of Jesus and believe that he was more than just a good teacher. That he wasn't just somebody that had decent principles that he potentially

is the savior of the world. He's God in human form and once you begin to believe that, you gotta do the third thing to see which is confess.

It's not enough to have an intellectual pursuit towards the path of understanding who Jesus is. No, the bible says at some point you have to confess with your mouth, speak out loud that I am a sinner in need of grace, but I thank God that two thousand years ago, Jesus stepped into this world, he lived the life that I couldn't, he died the death that I deserve and I am declaring publicly

that he is my savior and he is my Lord. If you do those things, the bible says that is the beginning of the process of of being born again.

I also will tell you it's the same process that we go through as we go on this journey with God, whether you've been following for five minutes or fifty years, it is the continual process of putting back on the righteousness of God so that we are we are protecting our vital organs in this spiritual battle that we are in. So again, the question this morning when it comes to righteousness, what are the things, what are the areas of your life that are out of alignment that God has been showing you? Now we gotta get these things back into alignment, not because I'm mad at you, not not because I'm trying to get you in trouble, because I love you and you will never experience my peace

without living into these areas. Again, I told you we were gonna cover two pieces of the armor of God today and I think they really do. They go hand in hand. What happens is it's kind of a progression. Once we agree with what truth is, we have the belt of truth on, what becomes very clear to us is God's standard. That's his righteousness and we make a decision, k, the areas of my life that are out of alignment,

I'm gonna bring them back into alignment and I'm telling you, as you continually operate in God's righteousness, what will happen is you will start to operate in this thing that often eludes us as humans on this side of eternity, peace.

The third piece of the armor of God that we've got to look at today is what what Paul says are the shoes. Verse 15 he says, for shoes put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you'll be fully prepared. So again, I just wanna show you this is not a random illustration.

Paul is literally talking about what a Roman soldier would have worn. He says, as you walk in righteousness, what will begin to happen is you will have you will have peace and he's talking about the shoes that the Roman soldier would have worn. For me, I had to get on a flight, I went to Israel, I fought against a bunch of people to bring these home for you today.

I'm just kidding. I ordered them on Amazon and they were here the next day. It's amazing what you can get on Amazon today. My wife is constantly like, what did you order on Amazon? I'm like, it's it's a sermon illustration. Okay?

These are literal actual replica first century Roman soldier shoes. If you look at the bottom, what they would do is they would literally drive nails into them and cut them out because it was the way for the soldiers to have traction.

And what Paul was saying is, friends, the thing in this life that you need to have traction,

the things that can give you stability like the shoes we give a Roman soldier is this thing called peace. There's two things. Again, I'll go through this quickly. There's two things that the shoes would give the Roman soldier that Paul is saying peace

will give you and I in this battle. The shoes would give the soldier both stability and mobility.

As they were being opposed, these things would give them traction so that they could hold their ground but also as they went on the offensive, it was the thing that allowed them to be mobile and I'm telling you the peace of God that surpasses all understanding,

it does the exact same thing with us if you can if you can see it. Again, know the definition of peace. It's just it's calm and tranquility of soul amid really difficult situations.

What Paul was saying that is not disconnected from truth and righteousness is that as you walk according to God's standards, you'll begin to have peace that surpasses all understanding. Not when things are all all going well, but in the middle of the storm, you can have supernatural peace. I really genuinely believe.

If there's one thing that should define the believer more than anything else in this life, it is it is peace. Peace should be the default of a follower of Christ.

Peace should be the marker that the world looks at. When the scripture says that we're in this world but we're not of the world, that that we're in this life but we don't we don't operate like everybody else, I'm telling you one of the defining things that separates

followers of Jesus from non followers of Jesus is that in the middle

of everybody else running around feeling like, that the roof is falling down, we don't know what's gonna happen, everybody's freaking out. You and I, because we have the spirit of God in us, because we have the belt of truth wrapped around us, we have God's righteousness protecting us, we can have peace in the middle of what feels like unbearable

circumstances. Philippians chapter four says that when you experience, then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything that we can understand. Again, it's not it's not your peace, it's it's his peace, it will do the same thing, it will guard your heart and your mind as you live in Christ Jesus.

For some of us, the statement I'm gonna make is like a prophetic declaration over the war that's been raging in your in your mind. Peace is what I have because Jesus lives in me. I think the bible would be so audacious to say peace is is the thing that I have because Jesus lives in me

and that is something that sometimes we need to remind our mind of. We need to remind our soul of that I have access to supernatural peace. I wish I could stand here and tell you friends, you will never experience anxiety after you give your life to Jesus. This hasn't been my story,

but what I always have is I have a path back to peace because I realize it's not circumstantial,

it's not situational, I don't need my circumstances to change, I need to learn how to get back to this gift that I've been given. What Jesus says, John chapter 14 about this idea of peace, he says, I'm leaving you with a gift,

peace of mind and heart and the peace that I give you is a gift that the world can't give, so don't be troubled or afraid.

I think what the scriptures implore us to remember is friends, peace is not something that you can achieve in this life. Peace will never come after a raise or after a promotion or after the next vacation. You might be able to buy temporary moments of relief,

that you might find some temporary moments of satisfaction in a bottle or in a pill, but I'm telling you the soul level peace is something that only Jesus himself can give us. I wrote it down this way that when peace is based on my situation, talking about the shoes, what's gonna happen is I'm gonna slip and fall.

I'm not gonna have much traction. I might have it for a moment, but I'm telling you the next thing that's gonna happen is I'm gonna slip and fall, but here's the invitation of faith is that when peace is based on my savior, I can stand firm.

I can hold my ground regardless of what is happening around me. When everything would tempt me to freak out, no, no, I can hold my ground. Why? Because peace is what I have because Jesus lives in me.

But the Bible even goes further than that. For the Roman soldier, it wasn't they just weren't playing defense. These were also guys that were realizing, hey, we're we're part of the strongest army that has ever existed in the history of the world. They were one of the most powerful armies we've ever seen. They were constantly taking new ground much like I believe you and I as followers of Jesus friends in the spiritual battle that we're in, we're not just playing defense. We are also gonna go on the offensive and part of what we can go on the offensive with is with the peace that we carry. Peace is not just what I have, it's also what I make because Jesus works through me. I think what the scriptures tell us is that friends, you have the ability

to walk into any room and make things better.

And I think, again, Christians, when they get involved in something, they should make things better. When we get involved in relationships, they get better. When we get involved in businesses, they get better. When we get involved in HOA boards, which, God, who wants to do that? Right? They they should get

better because we carry with us the author of peace. We don't just step into a room as as thermometers reading the temperature of the room. No. We step in as the thermostat who have the ability to change the atmosphere,

not because of who we are but because of the the God of the universe that we carry with us. Romans chapter 12 says, to do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Jesus himself, Matthew chapter five said, blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God. I I love the picture

that as we live lives of righteousness, as we put on our shoes that Paul says it's it's peace. The thing that will provide you stability, the thing that will provide you mobility in this life is peace.

You gotta learn how to put it on which tells us it's not it's not default. You will not wake up and put on righteousness and peace. You gotta make a decision. You gotta make a decision. I'm engaging in the spiritual battle. I'm putting these things on because these things really actually

matter. Last couple points, I'll get you out of here. Says you I I put in here, you won't find peace until you make peace. This is the truest thing that I've ever seen. You and I can't just we can't just find peace until we make peace.

The bible says that we are born into this life in a position hostile to God, that we're actually enemies of God until we are reconciled back to the father through Jesus, then we get to become friends of God. But I'm telling you, finding peace on this side of eternity before we make peace with the God of the universe,

it will be fleeting at best. Any attempt to reconcile relationships that are fragile or broken in our life, any attempt to walk into situations that are filled with anxiety and try to bring peace to them without first having a heart that is at peace with God,

and I'm telling you, it is it is the very definition of putting the cart before the horse. But there is a way. There's a path for you and I to walk with peace, to walk in righteousness, to experience the fullness of life that Jesus died for us to have,

and it's by learning that God wants you to be at peace with him. What's incredible to me, if you read the New Testament, you'll see this this this word that you've heard before. It's a greeting that a Jew would use when they would encounter another Jew. When they would walk into a room, they would say shalom.

And shalom wasn't just like a a cordial way of saying hello. Shalom is like an encapsulation of all the things we've talked about this morning. And when a Jew who knew who they were would walk into a room, they would greet people saying shalom.

Shalom literally, it it means peace, but it's it's greater than that. It's an acknowledgment because of who God is and what he's done in our life that we are we've been made whole. And I don't just I don't just get to experience that wholeness.

I actually get to invite it into every space that I walk in. So they would walk into rooms and they would say shalom, which was a declaration that because I'm here, the presence of God is here with me. Friends, this morning, my my my offer to you is through the power and the resurrection of Jesus

is that you can have at the soul level shalom. You can have a peace that surpasses understanding.

How do you do it? You have to at some point be reconciled back to God. You have to make a decision that I'm I'm done just playing the church game and going through the motion. I'm gonna take the things in my life that are out of alignment. I'm gonna bring them back into alignment.

Why? Because the things that we want most in this life, man, I'm telling you, they are on the other side of doing the thing that you don't necessarily want to do. It's the paradox of faith. Jesus said if you'll lose your life,

if you will lose your life, then I'm telling you what's gonna happen, you will find the life that you're really actually looking for.

Here's my my challenge, my push, my nudge to you is what is it in your heart? What is it that's in your life that is out of alignment that you gotta bring back into alignment with the father? Have a moment of confession and go, God, you know. You've always seen it,

but I'm bringing it back to you asking for you to give me your righteousness again so I can walk in your peace. And if you're here today, amen, you've been you've been rampant with anxiety.

There's been this thing that's been plaguing you. When I get done praying, I'm gonna ask you to come down here and let our prayer team pray for you. We just believe in the power of laying hands on somebody and watching what God can do through the power of prayer. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father,

God, I thank you. Lord, I thank you so much that you love us enough to not keep us how we are. That God, you are not just content with us going through the motions. God, you love us enough to change the parts of us that are causing us anxiety, frustration, bitterness, resentment.

And god, what you wanna do is you wanna make the great exchange in our lives. You will take our our pain and our hardship, and you will instead replace it with with mercy and compassion and grace. And so father, today, would we learn some small way how to put on your righteousness? God, how to put on your peace,

A peace and a righteousness that this world could never offer, but it is something that is freely available through you, Jesus. It is in Jesus' name all God's people said, amen and amen.