Pleasant Hill Baptist Church of Quitman MS
Pastor Michael DePhillips
www.forministry.com/39355PHBC
Gospel in a shoe box
Ruth 4:7-10 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel. [8] Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe. [9] And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi. [10] Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.
One of the things that I had to learn early in my life as a police officer was to pay attention to the shoes that I chose to wear to work. At first I had chosen to buy a pair of shark skin trooper boots that I still wear on occasion but quickly realized that they didn’t really serve my purpose. I had been on the job for about two days for the criminal sheriff in New Orleans when we had to take out a combative prisoner in a maximum security part of the prison. This prisoner was a lifer who knew the ropes and when he realized we were coming to take him out physically, he began to scoop out water from the toilet in his cell onto the floor. His purpose was to put us at a disadvantage but hope springs eternal in the eyes of a rookie. Learned a hard lesson that day! A man wearing cowboy boots on a wet tile floor is at the mercy of gravity because the soles slip out from under you."
Not long after I went to work for the Hammond Police Department, I had the opportunity to go into the housing projects to help detain a mental patient that needed to be evaluated. This guy was so big he looked like he could whip a bear with a switch! Having learned my lesson some months earlier the hard way, when he poured water on his tile floor to put us at his mercy I was prepared. The day after the incident with the inmate in New Orleans I had bought a pair of jungle combat boots from the armory. I didn’t slip that day and nobody got hurt but the men who went into that apartment with me went to school on the law of gravity.
(1) Experience is a merciless teacher who teaches her lesson plan without regard to the circum-
stances or conditions of her students. Just as experience taught me a valuable lesson in a difficult situation, the decision remained my own to apply the lesson she taught.
I believe that we can look at the experiences of lost policeman and find valuable truth to apply to our personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Want to share with you today "The Gospel in a shoe box" and look at the five pieces of footwear that modern Christians are wearing. WHAT KIND OF SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? The Apostle Paul said that we were to have our feet shod in the gospel of peace but the place that he chose to tell us in Ephesians 6 is a lesson on spiritual warfare preparation for meeting a powerful enemy. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that want to destroy us with every beat of their wicked hearts. Believe in my heart that this message is a divine moment for God to speak to and rebuke those who are wearing anything other than the proper footwear.
FIRST PAIR OF SHOES IS A SNEAKER! We spend so much of our life thinking that we can hide from our responsibility but nothing is hidden from the eyes of God. God is omnipresent which means that he is everywhere! There is no place that we can go that God isn’t already there before we get there! The person who wears this shoe thinks that they can sneak their way around the true issues of sin in their life and wrongly believe that God must make some exceptions for the failures in their life. The Word of God teaches that we must be faithful to confess our sins according to 1 John 1:9 and then and only then will God forgive us of the sins he already knew about. YOU CAN’T TIPTOE AROUND SIN!
Yet the person wearing sneakers may also wrongly believe that they can get into heaven on a loophole and sneak their way into glory. Old joke about Fatty Arbuckle I believe that someone caught him reading the Bible one day and asked him if he had changed his mind about how he lived his life. He is said to have replied he was looking for loopholes! There may be loopholes in the man made laws that govern the nations of the world but there is no loophole in the perfect law of God! Jesus said that he was the one and only way to go to heaven so as much as heart may desire a sneaker into heaven, if you leave this earth without Jesus in your heart you can be sure that the penalty for your sin is hell.
John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
SECOND PAIR OF SHOES ARE RUNNING SHOES!
I’ve never liked a pair of running shoes in my life. I see Jim running sometimes around town and I think to myself that I’d rather take a beating than run anywhere but I can remember some times in my life that I was forced to run. During basic training they made us run around the campus of LSU every morning at 5:30 for a few miles then they liked to see how well a bunch of donut eating policemen could run the stairs of Tiger Stadium. Under those circumstances a pair of running shoes are worth their weight in gold because they cushion your feet and keep you from getting shin splints but running shoes aren’t too valuable in the kingdom of God. Jonah is the most famous person in the Bible for wearing running shoes! God told him what to do and where to go and immediately Jonah laced up his running shoes to head in the opposite direction of God’s will for his life.
In my life I’ve known some people like that in the church and I can tell you that there have been times I laced up my own set of running shoes in the kingdom of God. Whoever told us that living the Christian life would be easy and convenient lied to us and we’re foolish to believe it. I’ve seen people run from the CONVICTION OF GOD and reject the Lord Jesus Christ many times over the last few years as well as seen Christians run from the CALL OF GOD and refuse to follow Christ’s purpose for their life. DID YOU PUT ON YOUR RUNNING SHOES TODAY?
THIRD PAIR OF SHOES PEOPLE WEAR ARE FLIP FLOPS!
This type of Christian makes me sick in the very bottom of my stomach because they never miss many services and are all around us but they never make up their heart or keep their promises. You can always count on a flip flop Christian to cry at the altar and leave with snot dripping down their face or what’s left of it after they get it on the collar of my suit but they walk back to the pew no different than when they came in. "You can depend on me Brother Mike or you can count on me God to do everything you’ve told me" but before the days over they done flip flopped. You can’t put any confidence in what the flip flop Christian tells you because he’s usually so henpecked it’s up to his heifer anyway, now ain’t it? ARE YOU WEARING FLIP FLOPS TODAY?
THE FOURTH PAIR OF SHOES ARE BABY SHOES!
Paul told the Corinthians, who were believers by the way, in 3:1 that he couldn’t speak to them like spiritual brothers in Christ or mature believers but instead as carnal because they were still like babies in Christ having never been fed anything but milk. Babies usually don’t like to eat food at first but play with it and make a mess out of the whole nutritional process. Before you look down your noses at the Baby Shoes Christian, think about the whole picture. Did the person responsible for feeding them give up after they kept spitting out the food and just put the bottle back in their mouth because it was easier?
A. How healthy can a baby be if we never wean them off the bottle?
B. Give you a trivia question that I’ll answer one day for you, What is the difference
between MILK AND WINE?
Unfortunately, there are some Baby Shoes Christians that have been saved for thirty, forty, fifty years or longer and never taken the bottle out of their mouth. They’ve never threw away their noopy either! They always want to be petted and stroked and sung to sleep or they start crying for attention. They don’t want you to change their diaper either no matter how bad it smells! GROW UP! We have too many Baby Shoes Christians that won’t take the bottle or the pacifier out of their mouth long enough to do anything for God and when you confront them on their immaturity they start crying instead of letting themselves be cleaned and refreshed by the Spirit of conviction. We must do our part to help Christians break free from the playground to fight on the battleground because the enemy isn’t afraid of us anymore church. God help us to grow up! ARE YOU WEARING BABY SHOES TODAY? HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN ON YOUR FEET?
Last pair of shoes a Christian wears is combat boots just as Paul instructed us in Ephesians. No army in the world will win the war if they send their soldiers out barefoot. The combat footwear at the time Paul wrote the need for this spiritual armor was what we would call hob nobbed sole. Small spikes were driven through the soles to give the soldier the ability to be free from slipping down and falling, WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT WHEN YOU FIGHT WITH AN ARMY THAT SHOOTS IT’S WOUNDED!
Tell joke about man who was questioned about his injuries when he sought damages but had told them at the scene he was okay.
Are you wearing your combat boots today? These are the kind of people you can’t stomp on their toes because they have steel toes in their combat boots and the more you stomp the more they shout glory to God, I’m serving God with every beat of my heart so you can’t hurt me a bit preacher! We’re in a war beloved and God wants us to fill our requirements by following Him and standing on the battleground and he don’t have no time for belly aching and whining. He has a lost and dying world on his mind and time’s getting short
for this old world. God called us to witness and serve and follow Him! What kind of shoes are you wearing today?
Evaluate your relationship to God honestly then die to your wants and desires and self will by laying your life on the altar and giving everything you are, everything you ever hope to be for the kingdom of God. The Bible has a lot to say about shoes...
1. Every shoe has a MAKER, you were made in the image of God by the Creator
2. Every shoe has a PURPOSE, there is a place that God has chosen you to STAND
3. Every shoe has a tongue, eyes and a sole: just as you have a tongue to glorify God with and eyes to see His activity around you and a SOUL that needs salvation through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because you always have to take a shoe to the right person to repair it.
4. The hide was provided through a sacrifice!
