SUNDAY (LIVE) - Jan 11, 2026 | Ephesians 6:14-18 - Gospel of Peace

So, I'm walking up there, and so I just marched up there and I said, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you. I didn't say that at all. No. I just knelt down, put my hand on him, and I prayed something like this. I said, Jesus, you know me. I'm not a demon caster. Pretty normal guy. I know I've got five loaves and two fish. That's it. But I also know you love this man. I also know that you have conquered the powers of darkness, that you've triumphed over them, Colossians two fifteen. That whatever is in this man, I don't know what it is, whatever it is, you're greater than it. [00:28:22] (47 seconds)  #PrayBoldlyBeVigilant

And I prayed that way just simply prayed like that way for probably two minutes. And then all of sudden, the guy stops riding around, sits up, looks at me, and then gets in his seat. And I don't know. I don't know what that was. I don't know. I maybe I don't have no idea. Maybe he was like, why is this white dude touching me? I'm sitting in my seat. I'm getting away from him. I don't know. Here's what I do know. You gotta be ready. Be sober, be vigilant, because we have a enemy that is a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. That's what I do know. [00:29:09] (44 seconds)  #DontSkipTheGospel

So what's the gospel? It literally means in the Greek, good news. It's news. It's an event. It's something that happened. That the central claim of Christianity is something happened objectively, truthfully happened. That's news. Right? News is not wise sayings. News is not tools for life. [00:32:00] (27 seconds)  #GospelIsGoodNews

So before the web, before the printing press, what would have happened in this time is if there was a major event, you would have a herald of the gospel. And they would run from town to town, and they would end up in a town, they get in that town, and they would literally yell out. They would herald. People would come out, and then they would declare the good news, the news. So, guy gets everybody together. What's he gonna say? A stitch in time saves nine. No. It's not wise saints. He would say, the battle was won. A new king has been crowned, and then he would run to the next village and herald an event that just took place. Good news. That's what they would do. [00:32:28] (44 seconds)  #HeraldTheGospel

Tell me how to parent better. Tell me how to have a better marriage. Tell me how to get over my addiction. Tell me how have peace with my in laws. Tell me how to love my neighbor. Like, we want to get to the tools without ever looking at the news, what's actually happened. And I've kinda thought like, why is that? What's happened? [00:33:34] (23 seconds)  #StayPluggedIntoGospel

So, growing up, I was very curious. I would take everything apart. Just curiosity. How does this thing work? I wanna know how this thing works. My sister loves to remind me how, we were given a used VCR. Remember a VCR? Video cassette recorders. The height of technology for me growing up. So, we got one and I took it apart. And my sister loves to say, yeah, and you never put it back together, which I'm like, do not ruin my childhood memories. I put that VCR back together. It never worked, but I did put it together. Right? So just curiosity, like, popular mechanics was the the magazine, but we've now become very pragmatic and practical. We we don't really care how things work. The popular magazines today are TMZ and Cosmo. How to have a flatter tummy in three steps. That's what we're about. Tools and gossip. That's what we're about nowadays. [00:34:02] (56 seconds)  #HumbleStartsMatter

So, I think that has crept into the church now. Just give me a pro tip. How to do this part of life better? That's fine. Right? You can use the tools for a while, but here's what I would say. Here's the problem behind that. The tools will work for a while, but there's a power. And you disconnect from that power, eventually, battery goes dead. Here's the power. It's Romans one sixteen. [00:35:23] (29 seconds)  #ToolsFailWithoutGospel

``is the power. The message of the gospel is the fuel for the life of the Christian. We don't unplug from it. We don't get away from it. It's not, oh, that theology. No. It's the theology that God the Son became Jesus Christ, lived the life that we should have lived, died the death that we deserve to give us his life. That message proclaimed over and over and over again is the fuel for the Christian life. And no one should be like, you you go to the gas station, you fill up your car, you're like, man, hope I never have to do this again. Okay. That means you don't go anywhere. No. You're like, this is part of the routine of driving a car. Part of the routine of being a Christian is coming back over and over and over again to the gospel, or the tools just stop working. That's what happens. They don't work because the power is the gospel. [00:36:29] (53 seconds)  #GospelIsFuel

Before you believed in Jesus, guess what you were? Guess what I was? I was God's enemy. That's literally what it means. There are only two kingdoms in this world. There's the kingdom of light, and there's the kingdom of darkness, and they are at war with each other. And if you're not in the kingdom of light, there's no middle ground, you're in the kingdom of darkness, and you are an enemy of God. I was an enemy of God. [00:37:44] (29 seconds)  #TwoKingdomsNoMiddleGround

You ever felt God's peace? I was raised in the church strayed for about six years. At 20, I rededicated my life to the Lord, and I cannot explain to you the peace I had when I submitted my life to Jesus. Like, it overwhelmed me. It was a peace that passed all understanding. I knew I'm not God's enemy anymore. God's not mad at me anymore. God's not coming to crush me anymore. It was a peace that passed all understanding, flooded my heart. Greatest feeling I've ever felt in my life. [00:38:59] (34 seconds)  #PeaceThatPassesUnderstanding

Jesus Christ came to say, you know what? You guys are all the same. You're sinners, and you all need a savior. That the ground is level right there. That's what Ephesians chapter two is saying. We're all level. We're all the same. We all need Jesus Christ. And what's supposed to happen when you realize that is we are to be made into an army of peacemakers. [00:41:08] (22 seconds)  #WeAllNeedASavior

And he said, Richard Branson says, one day I just sat and I printed out all the comments. It was pages and pages and pages and pages. And I sat down on my porch, I just started to read them. He said, here's what's amazing to me. He said, the atheists were so mean, so cruel. They went to ad hominem attacks, not on the basis of an argument, but personal attacks. And he goes, but every time pastor David Robertson was kind, peaceful, and nice. [00:43:17] (32 seconds)  #KindnessWinsOnline

So if you get nothing else from this message, get this. Jesus died for the people we hate, and Jesus loves the ones that we make our enemies. That's what the Bible says. It's a gospel of peace. [00:44:14] (18 seconds)  #GospelOfPeace

But it does something. It has a function. Shoes. What do shoes do? The ancients would never wear their shoes inside. You'd always take your shoes outside you came into a house because the roads they walked on were dirt and the vehicle exhaust was horse poop. So, you just didn't wear shoes inside. So, when you put shoes on, that meant something. It meant, I'm getting ready to move and to go somewhere. I'm traveling now. I'm moving. We have that even to this day. Some of us take our shoes off before we come in our house, or we'll kick back and take our shoes off. If we need to go somewhere, the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna put our shoes on. That's what's gonna happen. [00:44:32] (45 seconds)  #ChurchNotAPopTrend

How does Christianity move? How does Christianity grow? How does Christianity make disciples? I'm old enough now to see just some some cycles in the church. Or I think the church looked at the tools, and none of these tools are terrible, but unplugged from the gospel, they end up going dead. [00:45:17] (25 seconds)  #DontMimicTheWorld

But love has a way, and they found each other, and they got married. And now fifty years later, he goes to church here, has a phenomenal family, great marriage. They were just simply wrong. So radical shepherding, I get it. There's a part of it. You're like, that's good. But there was also a mistrust of the power of the gospel inside somebody's heart to transform them. That was what they fundamentally missed. And when you unplug from that, no tool is gonna work. [00:47:29] (27 seconds)  #CuriosityOverClickbait

And then, the early two thousands, it was like we reinvented the social gospel again. I know it didn't work in the nineteen hundreds, nineteen twenties. We're gonna try it again. We're better at it now. So, it you don't have to share the gospel, just be really nice to your neighbor. Pull in his garbage can, rake his leaves, mow his lawn. Your neighbor's like, this is awesome, man. I'll sit inside, watch football, and drink beer. Thank you. But, no one got saved. That was the problem with it. Because the gospel has to be heralded. It has to be proclaimed. [00:48:38] (32 seconds)  #LoveNeedsTheGospel

Here's what I think. I think the church goes. The shoes of the church is not any of those tools. That if people are gonna be interested in church, if the church is going to grow, the church is gonna make disciples, it is not gonna happen by mimicking the world, by be trying to be trendy, or popular, or inoffensive. [00:49:37] (29 seconds)  #GoodDeedsNeedTheGospel

We live in a world right now that is completely plastic. It's utterly phony. It's narcissistic. It's image obsessed. It's sex drenched. And, we're not gonna win by mimicking those things. All the church becomes is a cheap Timu knockoff. That's all we are. We'll never do it as good as the world. So, then you That's that's silly. You That's what happens. We look silly. We're a cheap Timu knockoff. [00:50:05] (26 seconds)  #PutOnTheShoes

You don't know what makes Christianity appealing? Jesus Christ. The gospel. That's what is. It rings right in the heart of humans. Jesus' life, that God the Son would lay everything down, lay down heaven, come, become a man, live the life that we should have lived, die the death that we deserve to give us his life, that's the most compelling message ever. [00:50:32] (30 seconds)  #JesusIsCompelling