The Belt of Truth

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

If you're here this morning, you do not have a worship guide.

Would you raise your hand so we can make sure you do?

Over here in the corner, Miss Tina over here and the young lady here.

We need a couple right there.

Brother Harry.

Thank you for all that came for the car wash yesterday.

I did not make the car wash.

We came by.

I had an appointment and I said, Oh, I gotta go get wash my car.

Y'all might have seen my, I was in Susan's convertible.

And then I had to go home and wash it later myself.

That was dumb.

I know, I know.

But uh heard it was a great day.

How much did y'all earn, Ashley?

Woo! All right, go! Amen.

Amen.

Matt, I'll let you wash my car and I'll give my I'll give my donation.

Amen.

Amen.

No, I got other plans for Matt.

He's got to come help me.

Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Wow.

What a amen.

Amen, Erica.

I was feeling the same thing.

Thank you.

Amen.

Spirit led.

One thing about this church, it's spirit led.

We do what God tells us to do according to what the scriptures say us to do.

That was important on that part.

We believe that the word of God is not the word truth.

We believe the word of God is infallible.

We believe the word of God went through the fruit.

There's a difference between scripting with conviction and something with confidence.

When our words lack truth in our life lacks truthfulness.

We lack power then in our lives to defend our position.

No one can be victorious in spiritual warfare without, hey, possessing truth.

Now watch.

And truthfulness.

There's a difference.

You can know the truth and not act on the truth.

So the word of God, sanctify them through thy word.

Thy word is truth.

So not only must we know the truth, but we must activate the truth in our lives.

Amen.

Which means that is the truthfulness.

We know the truth, but the truthfulness is us living out that truth in our life.

Can I get an Amen?

So today we want to look at the belt of truth.

The previous message last week, and I know a lot of y'all were gone, and it's good to see a lot of you back.

But you got to go online and you got to watch that first message because we unmask who Satan really is and what his purpose was.

And what we concluded was that it is impossible for mere man or mere mortal to take on Satan without the power of the, hey, and the person of the Holy Spirit of God and win.

We do not have a chance, apart from the power of God in our lives, to withstand the onslaught of Satan.

There's no such thing as a level playing field with Satan.

He's too powerful.

But as you see in your outline, the introduction, I made a powerful statement.

I said, we are not helpless.

Say that with me.

We are not helpless.

Again, we are not helpless.

1 John 4.4 says, For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

With Christ living in us, Galatians 2.20 says, Hey, what?

We are crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

We have the power of Christ living in us, which means we are able to resist the devil.

And when we resist him in the power of Christ, guess what James 4, 7 says?

Can we get the verses up there?

Hey, Satan gets in those things too.

Can I tell you something?

He doesn't like the word of God.

But James 4, 7 says, if we submit ourselves to God, hey, and resist the devil, he will what?

Flee from us.

James 4, 7.

So resisting the devil in the power of Christ is what the apostle calls.

Now watch.

Resisting the devil in the power of Christ is what Paul calls.

Now look at it in Ephesians 6, verse, hey, and it's so powerful.

Verse 11 and 13, here's what he said.

When you and I are resisting Satan in the power of Christ, he said that we are to put on the whole armor, the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the hey, wows, that means tactics, it means tricks, it means methodology of the devil.

And then look at verse 13.

And this is why you must take up the full armor, all the armor, every piece of the armor of God, so that you may be able to what?

Resist, stand in the evil day.

Resist in the evil day.

And having prepared and having done all, I love the King James there, have done in all, stand in everything.

Take your stand.

And then verse 14, stand.

Wow.

In Paul's list of the parts of the armor of God, there are six pieces listed.

Five are for defensive purposes, and one is for offensive.

All are necessary.

Now watch.

Notice he said, put on the full armor, put on all the armor, put on every piece of the armor.

You can't choose and pick which pieces of armor you want to put on.

Every day you've got to put on the whole armor of God.

Because whatever piece of armor you decide not to put on, that's exactly where Satan's gonna attack.

Because he knows that you're not defended in that area.

Now, notice there's no piece of armor for the backside.

I like that.

There's no piece of armor for the backside.

And you know why?

Because that literally means there's no such thing as retreat.

In the, hey, in God's army, there's no retreat.

And it also means there's no desertion.

You can't just decide you're gonna quit.

You can't just decide you're gonna go AWOL.

You say, well, just watch me.

Yeah, you can decide and you can try, but God help you.

Because we're gonna see the hounds of heaven come right after you.

And you won't get very far.

He will hey, he'll, hey, hey, God will grab you so quick.

Oh, he won't let you get away with it.

The armor of God is nothing less than the person of Christ Himself.

That's what I love.

Now, watch this in Romans 13, 14.

There we go.

Thank you, Densome.

You got him up.

In Romans 13, 14.

Notice what he said.

Paul wrote to the church in Rome and he told them, now notice what he said, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Put him on.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we put on Christ, just as we would put on my coat today, just as I put it on this morning, here's what Paul's saying.

He's saying that we are clothing ourselves with Christ Himself.

We're putting on Christ's armor.

Woo! Paul wrote seven words right here.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those are seven words.

Now notice in Ephesians 6, where we are, verses 11 through 17, these seven verses, Paul wrote, these seven verses in Ephesians, which are in effect a commentary on the seven words in Romans 13, 14.

In other words, he gives us in verses 11 through 17 in Ephesians 6 how to put on Jesus Christ in our life.

Wow.

That's good.

That's real good.

Putting on Christ by faith daily is how we clothe ourselves with the armor of Christ.

With the armor of God.

Someone has said, God makes up the armor, but we take up the armor.

Is that not good?

You might want to write that down.

Someone has said, God makes up the armor, we take it on.

God has furnished the armor of God to us in the person of Christ, but it is our responsibility always to take it up and put it on every day.

Look at verse 11.

Put on.

Verse 11.

Verse 13, take up.

Or in the imperative mood.

Let me give you a little Greek lesson.

And in the imperative move in the Greek language means that in the imperative mood, excuse me, in the imperative mood, it means it's not a suggestion.

It means it's a command.

In other words, we don't have a choice.

We are to put on the armor of God.

But it makes sense.

Why would you want to get up in the morning and walk out of your house and say, here I am, Satan, just take me.

But that's exactly what we do if we don't spend time putting on the armor of God before we go out.

That's why you're usually not going to get me unless it's an extreme emergency early in the morning, because your pastor's putting on the armor.

Because I know when I start my visiting, when I walk out that door, I know I go do my exercise, then I visit the rest of the day.

I know Satan's going to attack me at every junction of my day.

He does.

He does.

Every, every day.

So, no one else, by the way.

Oh, and then, oh yes, and then in, hey, verse 11, the word, the two words put on is in the middle voice.

Let me tell you what that means.

The middle voice means I can't do it for Darren.

He's got to do it for himself.

I can't put on the armor for Paul.

He's got to do it for himself.

I can't put on the armor for Susan.

She's got to do it herself.

If I could put on the armor for all of you, I would do it.

But I can't.

I wish I could put on the armor of God for my family.

I would do it.

But I can't.

It's an individual action.

We have to take it up and put it on.

It is our personal duty.

It is our personal responsibility.

And also it is to be perpetual daily, all day long, every day.

As long as Satan maintains his warfare against God and God's purposes.

Remember what we said last week?

Satan's purpose is to what?

To steal, kill, and destroy, but it's his purpose to what?

Keep us from fulfilling the purpose of God in our life.

And secondly, it's his purpose to dethrone Christ, hey, from the ruling point of our life and put us in the driver's seat.

That's his purpose.

To dethrone God's purpose in our life, and then to, hey, dethrone God's leadership in our life.

That's his purpose.

And part of putting on the armor of God that we're going to see with the belt of truth today is allowing Christ's Lordship to guide and to direct us.

Which is so important.

So with that said, the first part of the armor of God is the belt of truth or the girdle of truth, some call it.

Number one, let's look at it.

The purpose of the belt.

The word gird up or the word gird is payrizon nume.

Pay rezon nume.

And here's what it means: it means to fasten a garment to the belt.

Literally.

Now for the Christian it means, that's, in fact, I'm going to explain that in a minute.

But for the Christian, it means to equip oneself with knowledge of the truth.

It means to equip oneself with the knowledge of God's word.

That's what it means.

Powerful word.

And Paul's first instructions, if you notice, in verse 14, look at it.

He says, Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth.

Now it might seem a little strange that the girdle or the belt is the first item of armor mentioned by Paul since it was not officially a piece of warfare armor.

Well, yes, it is.

And in one sense, it's not something like the shield of faith that you ward off the fiery darts or the blows of the enemy's swords.

It's not the sword that you fight back with and you actually attack with.

And here's why.

First of all, let me tell you what a girdle, the belt, the girdle, the belt, they call it a girdle, they call it a belt, was a part of the dress of all Romans, whether you were a soldier or not.

They all had this six-inch belt worn around the waist.

And it was made of either leather or linen.

Remember that.

Leather or linen.

And worn on the outside of the Roman's robe.

Some called them tunics, but it was kind of a robe you'd put on.

And basically, many of us have used robes.

You've been in a hotel or something, you put on a nice, comfortable robe after you've gotten out of a hot shower and you put your robe on and you take a belt and you tie it.

Very similar.

Except it's a lot wider, six inches wide.

Six inches wide.

And here's why.

Let me give you the reasons.

There's three.

One for advancement.

Letter A in your outline.

Advancement.

You and I have read Peter's admonition to his readers in 1 Peter 1.13, where he says, gird up the loins of your mind.

Remember that verse?

Gird them up.

Gird up the loins of your mind.

Then you have an idea of what Paul's talking about here.

The girdle worn outside the roads was a hey, place for the Romans to tuck in their tunics or their robes.

For example, if you're a soldier and you're getting ready to go to battle, you got to be able to move quickly.

You got to be able to move in different directions quickly.

Well, if that long robe and the robes would go down as long as your ankles, then you could easily get tangled up in that robe and what?

Fall.

And if you ever, hey, if you fail in the midst of a battle, it's over.

You're dead.

Hey, you can't do anything.

You get tangled up.

You're, you're, hey, you're defenseless.

So what they would do, they would take that robe and they would take it right here, the tunic, and pull it up, and then do it over.

The belt.

Where it would come up to about the thighs.

Kind of like shorts, about the level of shorts.

So they would be free from their knees down to move, to fight.

Very important.

For advancement.

They had to gird it up.

You can see the application of this in warfare.

Soldier wouldn't, and I wrote this, would need to be encumbered as he moved about the battlefield.

And the girdle serves as a place to tuck his robe up and out of the way.

Without the girdle, belt of soldier wouldn't, and I wrote this down, trip, fall, and become a casualty in battle very quickly.

Paul is telling us that truth is what fits us for battle.

That's what makes us ready.

I like what he says in Hebrews 12.1.

Go to Hebrews 12.1 after that one.

Denson.

He says, lay aside every weight.

I love this.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us.

So here's the application.

What we are doing with the Word of God is we're reading the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit's teaching us the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit's using the Word of God to tell us what we're doing wrong and what we're not, and what we need to be doing right.

It's convicting us of sins in our life.

So basically, what we're doing, we are throwing aside those sins that are tangling our feet, getting us encumbered so that we can't fulfill what God's called us to do.

That's why it's so important.

Powerful.

Powerful.

Secondly, not only does it help in the advancement of the soldier, but we see it also helps in the attack for the soldier.

The second purpose of the girdle was to support the soldiers.

The word is scabbard or another word, sheet.

And it was either a metal or leather.

I meant to bring, I had a knife and I forgot it.

That was in a leather sheet.

It's about this long, and it goes in.

But it's actually the metal or leather sheet was where the sword goes into that sheet to hold the sword to the Roman side.

So it was very important that he had a place to put his sword.

For the archer, it was very important that he had a place to put his, what do you call it?

Well, arrows, but there's a liver.

Yes.

Thank you.

Very important that he would have that attachment there so that he would be ready for battle.

No soldier would go into battle without his girdle.

Likewise, the truth, now watch this, is that fundamental element to which all else in the Christian life attaches.

In other words, everything that consists in our Christian life, hey, hey, is dependent on that belt of truth.

Now that's pretty powerful, folks.

Without that belt, we have no chance of advancing or attacking and winning the battle over Satan.

Can I get a know me?

Is that not good?

That's why this book, The Word of God, is so important.

I mean, it's powerfully important.

It's a must.

It's our belt, it's our our our whole foundation of who we are.

Which brings me to the third point.

The wards.

Know what else this belt was for?

The Roman soldier that was an unbelievable soldier.

In all the battles, when they won battles, you always have, you've seen, you've I I I I love the Roman fighting movies.

The the the um mag uh the 300.

The Spartans 300.

Oh, that's movie.

I just, that's it.

They, the Spartans, they never gave up.

And boy, they would they were the best of the best fighters.

But here's what I'm saying.

When these best fighters, these men that expressed their bravery and their ability in battle, would come back, they would have medals.

And they would, guess what the soldiers would do?

They would put their medals on their belt.

And display.

I mean, not everybody got, I mean, you had to you had to be a heck of a soldier to get a medal.

I mean, you had to take out a lot of enemy.

I mean, it wasn't, they just didn't give them out regularly.

And these were the best of the best.

These were the Navy SEALs.

These were the Green Berets.

These were the men that could take them.

I meant they were just furious and unfearful.

They were just unbelievable.

Well, guess what?

Now, when you had that badge, and they always placed them in the front.

And they were usually in the front.

They wanted to be in the front.

Because they couldn't wait.

They're ready to take them out.

They're gonna take them out.

And all you see now is these Navy SEALs coming.

And here you are waiting.

And you see all those medallions.

And you know what that medallion meant.

They're the killers.

I know that's a bad word, and I know some of you don't want me to.

But they're the meanest of the meanest.

They're the best of the best, is a better way of saying it.

In their craft, with their swords, with the archers.

Do you not think I would be a little scared?

Can you imagine?

When you and I have the word of, whoo, I'm about to have a running spell.

When we have the word of God in our hearts, and we hey, we have those medals, and what are those medals when we can stand here and quote the word of God, when we can hold the word of God, when we know the word of God, and we start marching towards Satan, he is trembling.

Because nothing can defeat him but the word of God, but the word of God will put him in flight every time.

So there's no reason to fear Satan, to be afraid of Satan.

If you've got the medallion that stands for the Word of God.

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

And if God be for you, say it with me, church, who can be against you?

So we see the awards there.

And what is the award of the word of God?

Oh, this is so good.

Here it is.

The book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written there, and then shall I make thy way prosperous?

Then shall you have good success.

Why?

Because of that medallion.

I'm a winning soldier, not a defeated soldier.

And God's promised me success.

Brings me to the second thing.

We see the purpose of the belt.

Now let's look at the power of the belt.

Well, this is good.

And let me just say, Satan fears nothing more than the word of God.

In fact, he that's about the only thing he does fear is the word of God.

That's why we study it.

That's why we have Iwanas.

That's why we have children's church.

I keep reiterating Iwanas, Iwanas, I want us.

I keep reiterating on Wednesday night for your teenagers calls you memorize scripture.

They hear the word, they're sharpening their, hey, their sword.

90 verses in Iwana.

Hey, and what's really amazing is they're doing by memory versus if they learned two and three and four weeks ago.

Amen.

All right, parents, listen to me.

There is no greater thing you can give your kids than the word of God.

You will hey, it's not a Princeton education, it's not an Alabama-Auburn education, it's the Word of God education.

It's the greatest thing you can give them.

Amen.

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

And if you are free, hey, and if the Son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed.

John 8, 31 and 36.

Woo! So look at the power of this belt.

In fact, John 15, 3, Jesus said, Now you're cleansed through the words that I've spoken unto you.

Wow.

His word is with power.

Luke 4, 32.

The B I B I I Lead, that's a book for me.

Why?

Let her be, it brightens my life.

Let her I it instructs my life.

Let her be, it builds my life.

Let her, L, it liberates my life from sin and Satan.

And let her, he, it's everlasting.

Before anything was, his word was, and after everything will be, his word still will be.

Amen.

You want a storybook ending?

Do it in the storybook way.

And the storybook way is the B-I-B-L-E.

The power.

Now look at two things under the power of the belt.

One, the truth of God.

Jesus said, I am the way, John 14, 6.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life.

When we are clothed with Christ, we're clothed with his truth.

Ha ha.

And how are we clothed with Christ?

Here it is.

First of all, by coming to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

Amen?

For by grace are you through faith.

For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourself.

It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

You gotta be saved before you even qualify to be a soldier.

But once you're saved, guess what?

You are a soldier.

Why do you think Paul said, thou endure hardness as a good what?

Soldier of Jesus Christ.

So we see this powerful truth.

And then secondly, first of all, hey, by knowing him by faith as Lord and Savior, then it's a matter of growing in the truth.

It's why you come to church.

That's why you come to Sunday school.

I'm so excited about our Bible study on Sunday mornings.

We want to grow that.

I know, hey, listen, you get, you go to work 7, 8 o'clock, and I know you would like to sleep a little bit.

I understand that.

I really do.

But you can be here by 8.45, no later than 9.

You can be here and get in that Bible study.

And then come to church where you know your pastor, whether it's me, Rick, or Sylvester, is gonna feed you the word of God.

Because it never returns void, but it accomplishes where God sends it.

Isaiah 55, 11.

Clear biblical truth is one of our key foundational verses.

Our core values.

Study, Paul said, to show thyself to prove unto God a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2.15.

And then, that is the awana verse.

Then it's a matter of growing in the truth of who he is, Jesus, as the truth to God incarnate.

We spend time in fellowship with him through prayer and we read and meditate upon his word.

I love, now this is directly for pastors.

And it's been one of my key verses in my ministry all my life.

Acts 6.4 says, we give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word of God.

That is my foremost, hey, purpose for you is for your pastor to be ready every Sunday morning.

Hey, I've prayed up, I've studied up, and I'm ready to preach up.

And I promise you, I will never step in this pulpit without the adequate of time in prayer and study of this book.

That's why I have a lot of other people to do a lot of other things.

Because my main thing, I can't, I can't build a building like Bob and Paul and some of you guys.

I can't run equipment like Darren did.

Darren, let me try one time and ran over the tree.

But but uh but my calling is to give myself to prayer and to study.

And then shepherding people, checking on people, praying for people, loving on people, making sure people that if they're hurting, how the how can we better care for them?

And thank you for helping me do that.

Do you realize a church of 300?

I could not do that by myself.

Rick and I could not do that.

It's impossible.

So thank you.

Thank you.

That's the body.

But that's what we're talking about.

I find it compelling that when Paul, the Apostle Paul, mentioned his prayers in Ephesians, now I don't have this up, but uh in Ephesians chapter 1, just go back a few chapters.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

In Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 15, listen to what Paul said.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

This is powerful.

Paul said, Oh, hey, hey, this is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the first step, and your love for all the saints, oh that's a true church, loving, like helping, helping uh Ashley and Matt and them family for their sons and their dog and everything and other people that we help.

We help our people.

That's why you want to be a part of a church.

And if a church doesn't help its people, then something's wrong with the church.

Amen?

We're a community church.

Somebody asked me, he said, Well, why don't y'all send your stuff over to my?

I said, No, we're a community.

Listen, we want to we want to be a blessing to our community.

We want to help our community.

That's why we have the Living Bread Ministry now on Tuesdays.

We want to bless this community.

While we're gonna build those soccer fields and the softball fields and the gym, because we can be a blessing to this community to bring hundreds of people in here to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's our ultimate purpose.

We're not just doing it for them to play.

They may think we're just doing it for them to have a good time playing ball, and I want them to keep thinking that because that's good.

Wise as serpents and harmless as doves, amen.

But they're gonna be getting the gospel.

You're gonna see hundreds of kids come to Christ.

Parents come to Christ through all these ministries.

I promise you.

I've seen it before.

It's gonna happen.

When Christ confronted, hey, when Christ was confronted by Satan in the wilderness, he responded.

He responded by speaking the truth.

You know where he quoted in Matthew 4 three times, Matthew 4, verses 4, 7, and 10.

Matthew 4:4

And he was quoting for Deuteronomy, get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thy stir.

Arming ourselves with truth, now listen, watch this.

This is important.

Arming ourselves with truth means a new commitment to Christian doctrine and knowledge of the Word of God.

Because look what Paul said.

Are you ready?

This is when, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for saints.

Now watch, verse 16, here it is.

I never stopped giving thanks for you as I remembered you in my prayers.

Now notice what he was praying for.

I pray, and this is what we should pray for our church.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so you may know what is the hope of his calling.

Hey, what are the glorious riches of his inheritance among the saints?

And what is the immeasurable?

I love that.

The immeasurable greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his vast strength.

In other words, immeasurable power can only be seen and understood and used in your life through the knowledge of the Word of God.

The less you know, the less you have.

And the less you're vulnerable for Satan's attacks.

The more you have, the more you know, the better you are, the more ready you are to take Satan on and win.

I don't like to lose.

I don't even like to lose at jacks.

And I don't like to play jacks.

Anything I play, in fact, I pulled a hamstring the other day playing pickleball.

And it's supposed to be an easy sport.

And it is for everybody but me.

Because bless God, they hit a little ball there, I'll dive after it.

And one lady said the other day to me, she said, Preacher, how old are you?

I said, Don't go there.

What she was trying to say, you don't have to dive after the balls.

We're not gonna, we're not here playing for a gold medal.

But see, it's in my nature.

I can't help it.

I'm that competitive.

That's why you don't want, that's why, yeah, anyway.

I I I really, that's just like telling me, used to when I would preach, preaching, they these churches would have two services, and then the first service, 8 o'clock or 8:30 service, they'd have 50 or 60 people.

That was the bunch that wanted to come and hurry up and get to church so they could leave and go play golf or go do whatever they wanted to do.

Hello, I'm just being honest.

And you know what they used to tell me?

They'd say, preacher, now we know how you preach.

We don't want you to preach like that in that early service.

Don't waste your energy.

Save some, they'd say.

Save it for the big crowd.

I can see me now when I get to heaven and stand before God, and God would look at me and say, Well, you sure save some.

Hello.

Do you understand?

Every time I step in this pulpit, Rick, every time you listen to me, you listen to me.

Sylvester, every time you step in this pulpit, one day you're gonna stand before God and give an account of how you preached and how you taught that time.

Now, I don't know about you, but I take that very serious.

And I'm gonna give you everything I got every time I preach.

That's why I'm only gonna preach one time.

Y'all want some more services?

Well, you preach them.

Amen.

Sorry.

I am a little smarter.

I used to, you fill it up three times.

In love of Jesus church, they would put 803 services.

Starting at 830, they had me preaching.

They'd take me in the back, put me in the lounge chair, and do this to me, and give me a donut and cup of coffee, send me back out again.

Wouldn't they, honey?

Is that not true?

Oh, they say, come on, preacher, here, come take it here.

You've already heard the music once.

You get here right here.

Just rest, rest.

Here's donuts, here's some coffee.

Get ready, because we're gonna cut you loose again.

Three times.

The third time I'm up there, I don't even remember what I said, when I said it, how I said it.

I'm just trying to, hey, finish.

Huh?

But yeah, that ended up being the best service because it didn't matter what I said.

I just, in fact, I forgot, I threw my notebook down, didn't eat it anymore.

I just preached.

I mean, I knew everything backwards and forwards.

It's coming in one way and going out the other.

But they didn't, there's sisters sitting there saying, Woo! Preach it, Dr.

Lovett, preach it.

That's like saying second to a bulldog.

And then one black sister would get up and she'd say, Whoa, Pastor, Dr.

Lovett, would you please say that again?

Our church needs to hear it again.

Man.

I walked out of there.

I told Susan, I said, just take me to the bed.

But what a what a joy.

I mean, that's how serious this is, folks.

Paul said they gotta grow.

And look at the second thing: the truth in us.

The truth in us.

Having established the fact that Christ is the truth, there's a second aspect of truth as part of our spiritual armor.

Now, watch this.

All right, get your pen ready.

This is good.

This is real good.

I thought of this after I turned him out on it.

Uh-oh.

Yeah.

All right.

Here's the key.

There is a second aspect of truth as part of our spiritual armor.

Not just that Christ is the truth, but the second part of that is we must, and you I've said this at the beginning in the introduction, we must appropriate that truth in our life.

Amen.

In other words, we must live out that truth.

Now, what's this?

There's two types of truth.

Are you ready?

There's objective truth.

And that objective truth is the truth delivered from God.

Now, watch.

That we must know.

It is the truth in this book.

The principles of God's book, the promises of God's book, the warnings of God's book that we must know.

We've got to know it.

Paul said that I might what?

Know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his image.

So objective truth is knowing the truth.

But then there's a second truth, and it's called subjective.

Objective truth is the truth delivered from God that we must know through his word.

But subjective truth is the way each of us live out that truth in our own lives.

Wow.

Subjective truth is how you and I live out that objective truth in our lives.

And if you don't have subjective truth, then you're not a real soldier.

You just are a soldier standing here with armor on.

But you can't do anything with it.

Because guess what?

You don't know how.

Because you haven't lived it out.

You know it, but you don't do it.

That's why James says, be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

What do you deceive yourselves of?

Hey, the power of God, the lordship of God, the blessings of God.

You have objective truth.

But not subjective.

It's not lived out through you.

Powerful.

Powerful.

The apostle Paul wrote.

Nevertheless, I live.

Yet not I.

But Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians.

220.

Listen to what John said.

3 John 3 and 4.

Here it is.

This is good.

He said, For I rejoice greatly when brethren, hey, greatly, when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you.

He says, Man, I hey, my comrades came and they saw the truth living in you.

Just as you walk in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Did you hear that?

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

One writer commented on this passage this way.

Listen to what he said.

Such a walk, a walking in the truth, implies, are you ready?

I wrote this, I put a star by this, I'm gonna read it every morning for the next month.

Such a walk implies a stern, stick, hey, strict dealing with sin and self.

Wow.

Allowing no conscious hypocrisy or insincerity, no compromise with known sin, no excuse or vindication for wrongdoing, no condoning sin, such as temper, irribility, worry, or depression on the grounds of physical causes or domestic circumstances.

It compels us to face things just as they are and call them by the right name.

Hey, he who is truth encompasses our whole being and making every part true, beginning with the inward character and ending with the outward conduct.

Say, God, let that be a reality in me.

And you know what that is?

It's what David says.

Search me, oh God, know my heart, try me, know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way and lead me in the way of everlasting.

Oh, it is.

It's Romans 12, 1 and 2.

It's Romans 12, 1 and 2.

The truth in us.

Okay.

Alright.

The last thing.

The weapon of the bell.

The weapon of the girl.

Finally, we must note that only, hey, spiritual weapons, or should I say, the only spiritual weapon, Paul list?

Hey.

The only spiritual offensive weapon is the sword of the spirit.

The word of God.

How appropriate to conclude by recognizing that the word of God cannot be, hey, wielded or used apart from truthfulness in the life of the warrior.

Wow.

In other words, you can't swing this sword if it's not real.

You can't swing that sword if you don't know how to use it.

And the only way you know how to use it is to know the word of God.

Think a minute, folks.

This could revolutionize your Christian life.

The only way to be victorious in battle against Satan is to be a swordsman.

And the only way to be a swordsman is to know the word of God.

And then when you know the word of God, you know the truth.

And I love what Hebrews 4 6 says.

Where Christ in John 14, 6 says, I am the truth.

But hey, here it is.

The thoughts and intents of the heart.

I love it.

He says, have a conscience cleansed by Christ, allowing the truth to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

In other words, we have got to allow the Holy Spirit to take the word of God and purify our hearts.

We gotta be real.

I didn't say perfect, but real.

We gotta be a source.

Can I say something?

When I was in college at Liberty University, I won the fencing gun death.

We had fencing and beating.

Have y'all ever seen little fencing?

Y'all do understand what fencing is, right?

It's really sword fighting.

With a real skinny sword.

With a little tail.

Back in my younger days, I was real quick.

We got right here.

I'm looking because I know where they're going.

I don't care where they're going because I'm gonna do this.

You're dead.

Or I'm gonna go.

You're dead.

It didn't matter which way they came.

They're gone.

Why?

Because I learned every day in the afternoon, Dr.

Horton and I would fit for about an hour.

Everybody else, they didn't care.

They just show up.

And I learned that the first move for most people is a defensive move.

So I learned real quick, the best move, if you're gonna win, you know they're gonna they're gonna try to block you is to fake a block and go straight in.

The best move we got against Satan is not waiting for him to attack us.

Ready?

I want you to say this.

You keep standing.

Watch this video.

Pastor Hagee.

I've always been told how average I can be.

Always been criticized about being average, but I want to tell you something.

I stand here before you, before all of these people, not listening to those words, but telling myself every single day to shoot for the stars, to be the best that I can be.

Good enough isn't good enough if it can be better, and better isn't good enough if it can be best.

That's when you hit rock bottom, remember this.

While you're struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow.

Person that gets up off the canvas, keeps growing.

That's the person that will continue to grow their influence.

This woman was the finest woman I'd ever seen in my life.

We're at this dance, and I find out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoke, California, and we were all dancing and we're we're just excited.

And I decide in the middle of dancing with her that I would ask her for a phone number.

The next day we walk to Basket and Robin's ice cream parlor.

My friends couldn't believe it.

This has been 40 years ago, and my friends still can't believe it.

We go on a second date, and a third date, and a fourth date.

We go together for a year, two years, three years, four years.

By now, Trina's a senior in college.

So now it's it's it's time to propose.

We get married, we have a few children, our lives are great.

One day, Trina finds a lump in her left breast.

Breast cancer.

Six years after that diagnosis, me and my two little boys walked up to mommy's casket.

And for two years my heart didn't beat.

If it wasn't for my faith in God, I wouldn't be standing here today.

If it wasn't for those two little boys, there'd have been no reason for which to go on.

I was completely lost.

That was Rock Bottom.

You know what sustained me?

The wisdom of a third-grade dropout.

We're at the casket in College Station, Texas.

I'd never seen my dad cry.

This time I saw my dad cry.

That was his daughter.

Trina was his daughter, not his daughter-in-law.

And I'm right behind my father, about to see her for the last time on this earth.

And my father shared three words with me that changed my life right there at the casket.

It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me.

He said, son, just stand.

Just stand.

You keep standing.

You keep standing.

No matter how rough the sea, you keep standing.

And I'm not talking about just water.

You keep standing.

No matter what you don't give up.

I learned that lesson from a third-grade dropout who was a cook at Cal Marathon.

He said, Boy, you keep standing.

No matter what.

You keep standing.

No matter what you don't give up.

No matter what you don't give up.

No matter what you don't give up.

No matter what you don't give up.

Listen to St.

Paul again.

He said we're hard-pressed on every side, but we're not pressed.

We're perplexed, but we're not in despair.

We've been persecuted, but we've not been forgotten.

We've been struck down, but we're not.

The Higgy translation reads it this way.

I throw the kitchen fight at me, and I'm still on my feet.

I'm fighting the good fight.

I'm still enduring.

I'm still standing.

I will not bring by the bind.

You are looking at the world.

So I ask the thousands of you who are here and the millions of you who are listening around the world.

Have you been knocked down the world from coming today?

Have you been knocked down by the divorce?

Have you been knocked down by the material of the building?

Have you been knocked down by the death from someone that you love building?

Have you been knocked down by the fighting that you've got to do?

Have you been knocked down by a building for the that you couldn't stop?

Get out! Have you been knocked down by a children's hydrogen that you drop your family out of the blue like lightning out of heaven?

The message from heaven is get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Never give up! Dust yourself out and get back in the race! Falling down does not make you a failure!

Staying down makes you a failure!