Teach us to have victory in him and then in verse 14, he begins
to lay out the tools that he gave us to be victorious through
him. And he says, stand there for
having fastened on the belt of truth.
So our Roman soldier, you can kind of see it here.
For the Roman soldier, the belt was an absolute necessity.
And if you look at this picture here or, or any other, you know,
pictures of, of Roman soldiers throughout antiquity and stuff,
the, the belt is rarely a, a focal point.
There's, there's generally nothing fancy about it, at least
not for like your, your, your basic grunt soldier, right?
Maybe for an officer or something.
There is. So there's usually nothing fancy
about it except during this brief period of time from about
60 AD until about 110 AD for this brief time in in history,
which happens to coincide with while Paul is in prison and, and
writing this letter, the Roman centurion began to wear a
decorative belt on his uniform. This, this wasn't really in
place previous to that. And then it, and then it went
away and wasn't there later on. So it's really an interesting
thing that this was militarily cultural at the time that that
Paul was writing this, which is perhaps why it's it's included
here. And so in our passage, Paul
begins with the belt. This is called the singulum
military. That's my attempt at, at, you
know, Latin or whatever that is. And it's a it's, it's a visible
mark of a 1st century Roman soldiers calling.
And it included the, these leather straps that you can you
see hanging down here in front that were covered with these
small metal discs, which kind of hungover the, the groin.
And, and as they walked, they Jingle, right?
They'd, they'd make noise. And, and so this, this piece
that they're wearing, that piece was referred to as the, the
apron. This piece served as an
identifier. These soldiers were so proud of
this identifier that they were actually authorized to wear this
when they were off duty as well, because this was a status
symbol. They wanted everybody to know
who they were and they and they made noise so they could, you
know, when they're around the corner, people know who who's
around the corner, right? So interestingly, Paul starts
off with this specific, otherwise unassuming piece of
equipment, but one that at this exact period in history served
beyond its practical purposes, both as a symbol and a symbol
and a signal to everyone around who they were and what their
authority was. And, and so even for us now for
for fashion purposes, we might put some effort into the belt as
a thing to look at. But historically, a belt has
been most centrally used to maintain the effectiveness of,
of other items of clothing, right?
Your, your belt might seem insignificant until you take it
off and your shirt, you know, comes untucked or, or your pants
fall down. And and, and for the soldier, if
without it, he would lose the place to Stow his equipment.
So other than this particular era of Roman, of the, the Roman
centurion, for the for a soldier, the belt is purely
about practicality. Most everything else on their
list of equipment that we go through is dependent in some way
on this foundation. Right?
The for example, the, the, the shield that the soldier carries
is it was, it was heavy. It was hard to hard to carry
for, you know, long distances and stuff.
And so it was designed to be carried and rested at times on
the belt. So they weren't, their arm
wasn't carrying it the whole time.
You know, as they as they March or whatever, the breastplate
would would attach to the belt to, to, to avoid having like a
vulnerable gap underneath where the, the thrust of a, of an
enemy spear or or sword could go under and, and, and kill them.
He would have his dagger attached to it.
And of course his, his sword or his gladius, which was his most
important weapon, needed to be ready in an in an instant firmly
in place where it belong. And, and in the belt of truth is
equally important to the rest of our armor.
So in the ESV it says having fastened the belt of truth.
But in the Greek, the word is perezinumi.
And it's, it's often translated as gird up, right?
We've, we've probably heard that, you know, before.
And to gird up means to, to take your long tunic, right?
The, the long shirt kind of thing that hangs around your
legs and to pull it up and to tie it tightly around your waist
to keep the excess fabric from hindering your, excuse me, your
movement and, and preventing you from a full range of motion.
You might kind of think like now, if you're wearing a, a
sweatshirt, you're getting ready to do some work and you, you
know, you push the sleeves up or something is the same kind of
thing to, to gird up our, our sleeves if we're, if we're
getting ready to do something. So we see this phrase gird up
several times. We see it in Jeremiah 1 where
God told Jeremiah to gird up your loins and go deliver a
message. In Job 38, God tells Job to
brace himself. And that's actually the same
phrase being used there to gird up his loins to face God's
questions and to give an answer in Proverbs 31.
You know, this passage that we often see discussed, you know,
in like women's ministry and stuff, it's sort of, you know,
the talking about this Proverbs 31 woman often in that in verse
17, it says she girds up her loins with strength for the
purpose of hard work, right? And so each of these references
is, is in preparation for something difficult, right going
and delivering a message for God, answering to God, doing,
doing the work of of, you know, running a home and and prepare
caring for a family. And so and first Peter, I don't
know if I have first Peter up here.
I I don't first Peter 113 says, therefore, preparing your minds
for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on
the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. And that preparing your minds
for action is is the same kind of phrase here meaning gird up
your mental loins. The way it's it's telling us
that the way to stand firm in the midst of difficulty and even
persecution or or hardship is by preparing for encountering those
things to to gird up right and, and, and being well equipped
with the knowledge of God's promises for us.
So in that passage in first Peter, he's given us the recipe
for successfully encountering and and persevering through
difficulty similarly to what we're seeing in Ephesians 6 from
Paul. And, and we shouldn't be
uncomfortable with this idea or or distance ourselves from this
concept either. In Isaiah 59, in Isaiah 59, in
in verse 15, it says, it says the Lord saw and displeased him
and it displeased him that there was no justice.
And then in in 17, in verse 17, it says this is talking about
God. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself
in zeal as a cloak. So even here we see the the, the
wrapping of the cloak, the girding up of the loins to
prepare for a fight, right? So we, we see this being this,
this terminology, this verbiage being used in reference to God
as well. So we know that the belt is what
holds everything else in place. It's what makes the other pieces
of armor most effective. So, so then how do we apply that
that concept here? Are we supposed to go out and
buy a war belt to put on for our sword and and that kind of
thing? No, because we, we saw in verse
12, he tells us that we're not fighting a war of flesh and
blood. We're we're, we're fighting the
devil, the flesh and the world. And, and in that, when we say
that the devil, the flesh and the world flesh, of course,
means our, our human nature, right.
So we're not, we're not putting on a this, we're not going to
get a war belt because we're actually going to be in a, in a,
in a fight. So it's it's fitting that the
belt of truth is the first piece of of the whole armor of God.
And that fact that it's the first one that is central to
everything else helps us to understand the application in
our lives. When we think about John 14 six.
Does anybody know John 14-6 by heart?
You probably do. I am the way, the truth and the
life. No one comes to the Father
except for me, right? The the way, the truth and the
life. So that's how we can understand
why the belt of truth is so important, right?
It's of utmost importance in the life of the Christian.
Without truth, the rest of the armor would be no use to us,
because we would not have the spirit of truth if we couldn't
trust Jesus and we couldn't put stock in anything that He says,
could we? If we couldn't trust Him, right?
Nothing that he says about salvation or about sin or
anything like that about love. None of that would be
trustworthy if, if, if he wasn't trustworthy.
John 15 verse 26 says, But when the helper comes, whom I will
send to you from the Father of the Spirit of truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
So it stands to reason that that we as Christians, as professing
Christians would, would proudly wear truth about us as well,
right? That's, that's that's what we're
claiming when we have the Holy Spirit.
That's what we're claiming is that we have access to the
spirit of truth. And so that's why this, this
belt as a, as the primary, the first thing that ties everything
together is so important for us. So like that, that Cingulum
military that I was talking about that that fancy Roman belt
was, was visible and, and an audible symbol of the Roman
centurion's identity or the Roman soldiers identity, you
know, in the, in the community and, and also his authority,
right, Because that's, that's a part of, that's part of why
they, it's because they wore it, because they're like, look at
what I've accomplished and look, you know, the power that I, that
I wield. So, so like that was physical
and and and audible. Jesus identity and authority was
the the physical manifestation of God on earth, right?
The perfect visible symbol and and witness of God and his
authority in the gospel, right? The story of Jesus is, is core
to what the Christian preaches and shares.
And so our identity is in Jesus and who he is.
In fact, that's what the entire church is is built on, right.
We've seen this passage in in Matthew 16 verses 15 to 18.
He said to them, but who do you say that I am?
Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered him, blessed
are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this
to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are
Peter. And on this rock I will build my
church in the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus, the Messiah, Son of the living God, is the foundation of
the church in Ephesians 2. It I don't have it up here, but
it tells us that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.
And so Jesus is telling, you know, his disciples these things
because he knows that the, the foundation and cornerstone is
where everything else originates from.
So of of course, people are, are going to desire to know this,
the, the, they want to know the basis for everything, right?
What is the truth? What is truth?
What is the, the purpose of life kind of thing, right?
People have been pondering that question, what is truth since
the beginning of time, right? Creed, the band Creed has a
song, what's this life for? Right?
Monty Python, the movie, right? The, the, what's it, what's it
called? The meaning of life, Monty
Python meaning of life, right? There's a million quotes and a
like like published positions out there from famous people,
you know, whether whether they know what they're talking about
or not. Not necessarily the case, but
humans are like, there's a there's a bunch.
And I was looking this up. Stephen Hawking, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Martin Luther King Junior, Charles Dickens.
I mean, there's a million bands that have sung songs on this or
poets that have have done this. The thought is behind that, the
statue, that famous statue, the thinker that that's one of the
things that he's he's pondering, you know, the truth of life.
And. And yeah, that was it.
Yeah. Just just like Dwight.
And and so this has been pondered forever, right?
This is, this is a common thing. And and we even see this, you
know, biblically in in John 18 when Jesus is in front of Pilate
and in verse down in verse 37, after they've had been having
this interaction, says then Pilate said to him, so you are a
king, Jesus answered, you say that I am a king for this
purpose. I was born and for this purpose,
I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and pilot
asked him what is truth right. Like again, here he is.
He's he's he's standing there face to face with with God.
And this is, you know, this is his his question all as well.
I think people have always asked this question or a, or a version
of this and this is the perpetual struggle of that the
that the church faces too, right?
We know that Jesus is the epitome of truth, but Scripture
also tells us that Satan is the father of lies.
Again, speaking to the the need for this belt of truth in our
lives, right? Second Corinthians 11 tells us
that Satan disguises himself as an Angel of light, right?
Meaning that he and, and his tactics don't necessarily look
like the opposite of Jesus, right?
That's what the whole concept of an Angel of light is.
I think, you know, the idea behind that is we sometimes
think the cartoon version of Satan, right?
With the horns and the, and the, the red tail and the pitchfork
and like what? The antithesis of Jesus.
He is the antithesis of Jesus. But that's not how he presents
himself, right? He presents himself as an Angel
of light and and so his attacks look like clarification of
something that's that's being misunderstood, right.
That's what we that's what we generally stamp on on these kind
of things as we is in our desire to have a better understanding,
we, we sometimes dangerously get influenced by this Angel of
light kind of concept, something that's that's not true.
That's why it's so important that the that the the actual
truth is what we we, we build our our defenses on our the rest
of our armor. Satan's first attack on mankind
was a lie and A and, and a success, a successful attempt to
get humans to think, however briefly maybe, that God was
incapable of total eternal truth.
Right, Lying as Satan's favorite weapon, trying to convince
people not to believe in not to believe God is Satan's favorite
tactic. So what he's going after is for
us to question that that the belt of truth he wants us to to
to not have not rely on the truth that God gives us.
In first Timothy 4 verse one through 2, it says now the
spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart
from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits
and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose
consciousness consciences are seared right.
So This is why I say that it's important for the church to
understand how important it's so crucial that we that we base
ourselves on truth that we get to that because there will be
like what this is saying, there will be, you know, a departing
from the faith in second Peter two one through 2, it says, but
false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will
be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies, even denying the master who who
bought them, bringing upon themselves with swift
destruction. And many will follow their
sensuality and because of them, the way of truth will be
blasphemed. And then similarly in Matthew
17, verse 15, it says beware of false prophets who come to you
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will recognize them by their fruits.
So see, these are the tactics. This is what we have to face.
This is what we should be on the on the lookout for is, is these
things that look like truth but are not right.
That's something we have to be, we have to be super careful of.
That's why Paul says in in verse 11 of our passage that you may
be able to, to stand against the schemes of the devil, right?
Second Corinthians 211 says we are not ignorant of Satan's, of
his devices, of Satan's devices and of his of his schemes.
This is his famous tactic. Satan lied and said that he was
being truthful in saying that God lied when he spoke the
truth. It's hard to understand what I
just said. It's kind of it's like a Figure
8 there. Satan lied and said that he was
being truthful in saying that God lied when he spoke the
truth, right. It's exactly flipped upside down
and that dynamic still continues today in in Romans one verse 24
and 25, it says therefore God gave them up in the lust of
their heart to impurity to the dishonouring of their bodies
among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than
the creator who has blessed forever.
Amen. Now, not coincidentally, this
passage right after right after verse 25 there.
It, it goes right into the sexual perversions of, of
homosexuality, not because it's the only example of an affront
to truth, but because it's, it's often been one of the most
obvious that we that we see in in culture and stuff.
Interestingly, in Romans 1 verses 24 and 26 up there, we
see an interesting phrase. What do we see in 24 and 26?
He gave them up, right? Yeah.
So in the in, in 24, it says therefore God gave them up.
And then in 26, for this reason, that's pretty much the same as
therefore God gave them up. So then what?
Then what after he, after he gave them them up?
What happens when we what happens when we exchange truth
for lies? What happened to them in verse
28 through 31? It kind of explains, it says,
and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done before.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil,
covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, mount maliciousness.
They are gossip slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
This moral inversion that happens here when we exchange
the truth for lies is something that we as Christians can never
do right. Here's what I mean in, in Isaiah
520, it says woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
This is a, this is a warning. This is a, this is a like a, an
exclamation point to Christians. We can't call evil good and call
good evil. We're not.
We can't invert those things, right?
So what is he goes on in the next couple verses with more of
these woe to those things, right?
Woe means grief, anguish, affliction, wretchedness,
calamity or trouble. This is why Paul is telling us
to to gird up our loins for a fight or, or, or to run away
also, right? That's also why you gird up the
the your loins just to to run away.
He tells us to fasten truth securely around us so that we
can stand against the schemes of the devil right, because Paul
loves us. That's why he's telling us this
he and and as we we learned in our study of Philippians how
much he loves his church. And of course we know that
Paul's simply the writer of Jesus words right.
Jesus loves us and doesn't want us to face what comes next in
Isaiah after this woe to to those right.
Here's what comes next there. Here's what it says.
It says. Therefore, as the tongue of fire
devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in flames, so
their root will be as rottenness and their blossom go up like
dust. For they have rejected the law
of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy
One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord
was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand
against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked and
their corpses were as refuse in the middle, in the midst of the
streets. For all that all his anger has
not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.
He will raise a signal for nations far away and whistle for
them from the ends of the earth. And behold, quickly, speedily,
they come. So I'm, I'm not going to read
all of that, but but like that doesn't sound good, right?
That's what that's the kind of thing that we're that that's
that's the woe, that's the what did that say?
It said that's the grief, that's the anguish, that's the
affliction, the wretchedness, the calamity that that we face
when we call evil good and when we call good evil, right.
When we put darkness for light and light for darkness.
So I know that was, was, was well, so because Christians, you
know, when we stand, when, when we accept Jesus, when we are
baptized and we stand and we, we throw our hand up and we say,
recognize me as a, as a Christian, right?
Count me amongst the, the, the the number right, because we've
accepted the truth of revelation and are are now indwelt by the
Holy Spirit, who, who is himself the truth like we saw in that
verse earlier, our our lives have truth as the basis right,
And so we should display the consistency of of the character.
That's that springs from that our belt of truth is a, is a
clinging symbol, right? Like those like that belt that
they wear when we walk around the corner.
People should know here comes this person's a Christian
because of the way that we, we, we carry ourselves, the way we
demonstrate things, what they hear from us.
The belt of truth is a is a symbol that we should also, you
know, put out there for for for people.
So here's my questions. I hoping we can chew on for a
minute. How with this in mind, with the
idea of truth, with the idea of the necessity of truth in our
lives and how Satan tries to distort that.
So here's one of the questions is, is how can we be better
witnesses for the truth in our lives?
Like what would that, what's the practical answer to this?
How can we in this room be better witnesses for the truth
in our lives? That's did you hear that letter?
Yes, be yes and are no be no. So there's a thing of honesty,
right? If I say yes, I'll be there.
I'll be there. If, if I say I'm willing to step
up and serve in this capacity, I need to be willing to step up
and serve in that capacity. If I, if I say hold me to this
standard, hold me to this standard, right.
Not just to each other, although that's an that's a very
important part, right? That's where our accountability
to each other comes from, but also to them out there.
What else? What else?
How else can we be better witnesses for the truth in our
lives? Yeah.
Be better disciples, bringing people in through evangelism.
And what's the other part of that?
Discipleship amongst the believers, right?
Evangelism to the outside world to bring them in, and then
discipleship to people within. That's what we're called to do,
right? And and that's, that's what the
truth is. That's what Jesus told us to do,
right? What else?
Yeah, The the fruit, right. There should be fruit of this.
People should see it, right? I mean, we know we've, we've all
heard, you know, in, in James, you know, faith without fruit is
dead. So what's what's that going to
look like then? Practically, Debbie.
Yeah. If God gave it to you, you
should be willing to give it out, right?
God was generous to us first. So the idea behind that, if I
can sum this up, is that we should look like Jesus, right?
That should be our witness. For truth is we ought to emulate
Jesus. We ought to carry ourselves in
that same way. Now, I know that sounds like it.
Well, that's an easy thing to say.
We should be like Jesus. Yeah, we should.
But we got to do that practically every single day.
We need to follow through when we say that we're going to do
something right. We need to do it.
We need to clean the backyard when we promise we will.
That's like, seriously, we need to have accountability for that
kind of stuff. Humility.
Yeah, There, there. There needs to be also a a
certain amount of like, willingness, sacrificial
willingness here, right. Like we've seen a lot of things
lately that might, you know, prompt us to, to, to, you know,
take a position of like the scariness, I guess, of standing
for our beliefs. We still need to do that.
That's what our witness is. We need, we're, we're not
undercover Roman centurions, right?
Like we want people to know who we are.
That's what we ought to do. We ought to be bold in that.
How about this? What are some specific areas
where Christians are dropping the ball in sharing or promoting
the truth? And I'm talking maybe as
individuals, maybe as a church, maybe as the universal church,
right? Where are some areas that you
guys think as you see stuff? Yeah, Liana, she said.
We're we try to be too agreeable to save someone's feelings.
Now, it's compassionate to try to save people's feelings,
right? Sometimes.
What was that? Stockholm Christian Syndrome?
I don't know if that's a thing yet or not, but it could be,
yeah. Yeah, we told our kids the same
thing. We said, what's the phrase?
You catch more, more flies with honey than you do vinegar,
right. Something like that.
Is that did I get it right? That's that same kind of
concept. And so the church does the same
sort of thing. Let's let's get it.
Just get him in the doors. Let's just get him in the doors
and and we'll tell him that Jesus loves them.
And, you know, we'll just hammer that home.
Jesus loves him. Jesus loves him.
Jesus loves him and he and and that's that's a that's a great
message, but that's not the whole message, right.
So we, what are we with that dynamic?
What are we missing? Yeah.
So Laurie said that there's not like she said that there's not
really enough apologetics that happen.
And whether it's training for in the church or, or whatever the
idea is. I'm I'm assuming you're saying
that like we aren't preparing ourselves or each other to
share, right? Yeah.
So there's now, now let's look at that.
Like sometimes apologetics is sort of, it's sort of kind of
viewed as like I'm going to argue with you, right.
And sometimes there is arguing that happened.
Sometimes, you know, we we hash things out on the battlefield of
ideas kind of thing, right? As iron sharpens iron, so one
man sharpens another. That's conflict, right?
Iron sharpening iron means conflict, not, you know,
dangerous conflict, damaging conflict, right, but honing.
So there's something that we need to do with that, but also
just standing for our beliefs and saying just being willing to
to share it. How many times I this is, I
guess, rhetorical unless you want to share something.
But how many times in our lives are we presented with like the
idea that that thought is not welcome here and we just go, Oh,
you know, I don't want to. I don't want to say anything
because I'll lose my job or I don't want to.
I don't want to say anything because I'll tick off HRI don't
want to. I don't want to say anything
because my friends will think less of me or, you know, I don't
want to get another argument with my friend on Facebook or
whatever it is. So what does that mean?
Does that mean you have an opportunity or you're not
allowed to? Because I'd say both.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, that's, yeah. OK.
That's an interesting thing. Prayerfully ask God for another
opportunity, right? I wouldn't discount that.
I would say, though, that we always have an opportunity to
stand and and and stand on our beliefs, right?
What if, what if we what if we get in trouble?
Is that the end of the should we?
Did we make a mistake if we got in trouble for for sharing our
position? No, we didn't make a mistake in
our flesh. We're going to go, oh man, I
just lost my job. Well, that but we're supposed to
we're going to be persecuted. Of course you're going to lose
your job for standing on your faith.
Of course your neighbors going to dislike you.
Of course you're family's going to tell you not to talk about
religion at the Thanksgiving table, but we can, we can use
discernment in that and find opportunities to to do it in an
appropriate way. We don't want to abdicate our
responsibility to do it, but we can look for opportunities to
maybe be more discerning and wiser about it.
But we can also pray for more opportunities.
And that's the fact, like, maybe you missed one and you know it,
and you're and you're kicking yourself because you didn't
speak up and stand on principle for something.
So ask for another opportunity. All right?
Look for more opportunities to to do that.
What are some other areas? Yes, go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah.
I there. I did.
I, I walked right past it. After I, I, I teed it up.
I walked right past it. Yeah.
We're missing sharing the wrath of God.
We're sharing, missing sharing the justice aspect of it.
And, and we've talked about this a lot.
I talked about this in a message last week or or two weeks ago or
whenever it was, I preached talking about how, you know, we,
we want to just sort of skip over the the wrathful part, but
that's a really important part, right?
It's, it's really, and I've said this a lot and we're about done,
But so if you have something you want to share, then do but, but
like, if we don't understand what we're being saved from,
then we don't look for a savior, right?
You got to know the danger you're facing in order to know
that you need to be delivered from it.
And so we we need to hear that because too many people, there's
a lot of you know, there's progressive Christianity has has
snuck into the church. Those verses that I was talking
about wolves in sheep's clothing.
We can have people in a stand up behind, you know, a pulpit like
this and they'll deliver a message that's that comes out of
the Bible. And yet they deliver some
version of it that it talks about love, love, love, love,
love and forgiveness and never talks about justice and wrath
and why you need forgiveness, right.
So why would your heart feel why, why would we be ever feel
convicted unless we know that there's something to be saved
from Anything else, any other areas, specific areas where
Christians are dropping the ball on sharing and promoting truth,
like in our own, in our individual lives?
Did you, did you have something? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Complicity is definitely the wide, comfortable path to go on.
It would be very easy for us to go.
Well, I'm not going to say anything because I'm just a
grunt here, but Dwight's a supervisor.
He'll say it. He, he won't get in trouble for
it. I'll, I'll let him.
I'm sure he's going to handle it.
And then next Sunday. Hey, did you say something about
that one? So and so?
Nope. Right, because complicity is
easy for us. Doing the right thing is the
difficult path. That's where we have to do the
work all the time. Right to, to mortify our sin,
right to move away from from that and, and to choose the path
of, of following God. The truth is, truth is tough.
And you know, maybe you guys are like me.
Maybe in much of your life, you think I am a, I'm a person of
principle. I tell the truth.
You know, I'm, I'm, I'm making good choices, except when I'm
not. But let's focus on this part
over here, right? I mean, that's, that's been my
story my whole life. Can get really easy to pat
myself on the back. But you got to have people who
are willing to speak truth to you.
And then you got to receive it, right.
And that's our job to do to the world too.
We need to be able to promote truth.
So there's a a reconciliation that comes about What where
else? Anything else that we're we're
we're dropping the ball. Yeah.
Fellowship in studying the Bible together.
Yeah. I mean, we got a there's,
there's a deliberateness in that.
The only way we're going to know the truth is to study the truth,
right? Like that's a, that's the simple
fact. It would be very easy.
If you don't read the Bible, then you could hear somebody
speak from a number of religious books and go, I don't know if
that's in the Bible or not. You know, like, because it's
got, you know, some weird name that sounds like a bit like a
name from the Bible. So when somebody's telling a
story, you're like, yeah, sure, that sounds, it might be a
bumper sticker slogan, right? But somebody can pass it off as
that. We need to know what God's word
says so we know what the truth is, so we can discern when when
we hear something that's not anything else.
What would be maybe a a good sort of first step in applying
this in our life, reading God's word, certainly low hanging
fruit. Thank you prayer again, low
hanging fruit. Those are the obvious.
These should be so obvious to us, but but yet they're not
always right. We can go right past and go I
I'm going to go find me an argument.
I'm going to go stand on truth. Well, let's start off with.
Reading the word, being diligent about that, being diligent about
our prayer life, right? Sharing this need with God.
Like God, I know I'm going to have this conversation later
today. Help me through this.
Give me the opportunity. Give me another opportunity.
Anything else? Any other easy first steps?
Yeah. Yeah, be ready to do it.
Like it's got to be a that's a that's a an attitude, right of
looking. You see it as an opportunity,
not as like a have to. We should have, we should seek
opportunities to share this. I mean, guys, the information
that truth is the most important thing in the world that that
person needs to have. It's the cure, like, you know,
it's the cure to the, the anti venom to the snake bite they're
they're struggling with. And we've got it.
We don't need to just hide it in our pocket.
We need to, we need to go and give it to that to people.
We need to share this stuff with people.
So we see it as an opportunity to do it with gentleness and
respect. Yeah, gentleness and respect can
still be bold. It can still be abrupt.
It's loving. Yeah.
I mean, we, we got to figure that out.
And I'll tell you an easy, not, not necessarily an easy way, but
but, you know, talk with each other, talk with your spouse and
say, you know, say, you know, I've had this opportunity with
with Bill. You know, when we go golfing on
Saturdays, he kind of talks about some of these situations
or whatever. And I don't really know how to
bring it up. Talk with your spouse and sort
of go, you know, and, and game plan it, figure out how to have
a conversation with him, how to, you know, how to look for
opportunities to do it. Talk with you, somebody that
you're discipling or that's discipling you.
Talk with them, talk with your small group and say, how in the
world are you guys, you know, effectively moving forward with,
with this, with, you know, with witnessing to people telling
them the truth without getting into a shouting match or
something. Anyway, lots of stuff for us to
think about. We'll, we'll, we'll dive back
into the breastplate of righteousness and, and what that
means in our life next week. But let me just pray for us real
quick and then we can go get coffee and mingle before
service. Thank you, God, for bringing
these folks here that we can study together, that we can
understand that you have given us a path to victory, that we're
not just supposed to, to, to sit here and, and just take it, but
you've given us an opportunity to defend ourselves with
Scripture and with your truth, with the truth.
Help us Lord, to see those opportunities in our life, to be
able to share that with people, to do it in a loving and
compassionate way, but also to to be able to speak truth and
and not be so singularly focused on what the repercussions are to
us, but be focused on the repercussions.
What that means in glorifying you and in sharing with the lost
person. So Lord, we love and thank you
and ask you to to be be blessed and to bless our services.
Coming up, say this in Jesus name, Amen.
OK. Thanks guys.