Belt Of Truth

Good morning. Good morning. Good to be with you this morning. Happy Resurrection Day.

Amen. As Pastor Rhangos said, we are going to be starting new series this morning. You're going to love this series. I'm telling you, you absolutely will.

That's no hype. That's just some wonderful truth. I know that you're going to be looking at over the next eight weeks. Dress for success.

We're going to start this morning reading out of Ephesians, chapter 6. If you have your Bible with you, you want to turn there. Well, of course, we will have it for you on the PowerPoint as well too. You want to read along with us.

Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 17. Says, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you may take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Amen. Now, Pastor Ryan said we're going to do an eight part series, and this eight part series is going to be on the armor of God. And if you're paying attention, close attention this morning, you might already have a quick question. You're saying, wait a minute.

Eight part series, I was just counting them as we went through them. There's only six here in this passage. That's correct, but there's two more actually in another passage because this Ephesians 6 passage doesn't have all of the eight that are given to us in Scripture. There's another passage in Scripture with two more, and wait till you get to those.

They may end up being your favorite out of all of the eight. So we've got eight part series. We're going to be looking at eight different pieces of the armor of God. And as we do this, let me just tell you up front, it's going to be a little different than what's normally done on the armor of God.

Because if you've been in church any length of time at all, you probably have heard a teaching or two or maybe a half dozen or more on the armor of God. It's pretty common no matter what the background, denomination or non-denominational background you may come from. It's pretty common to have teaching on the armor of God. Some of you grew up going to Sunday school, you probably had teaching, maybe multiple times again on the armor of God.

So you're saying, okay, I kind of know, and I kind of get it. Because when you teach on the armor of God, what's almost always, if not always done, is to really focus in on spiritual warfare. The armor of God make it all about spiritual warfare. And I think that's wrong.

Because I don't think that that's really what God's after here. It's just simply to make it all about spiritual warfare. Of course, it's about spiritual warfare. But we need to remember that really spiritual warfare is not an end.

It's not the ultimate goal. It's not the end. It's a means to an end. The man, spiritual warfare is not the end and of itself.

A successful victorious life is the end. A victorious life where you are able to conquer anything, overcome anything that the devil can throw at you. And anything that this fallen world can throw at you as well. So we want to be victorious over all those things.

We want to be successful in life. And so when we're dressed in the armor of God, we are dressing for success in this life. Amen. Right.

So we're going to start this series this morning looking at the first of the armor. And that one is the belt of truth. Now, if you're looking at the word of God, you're going to see this again and again. You'll see a lot of different lists for different things, spiritual gifts, you can look at all kinds of different things that are listed in the word of God.

Sometimes, sometimes there's a reason for that listing being what it is. Amen. There's an order to it. Sometimes there's a building one upon another.

You got this point and it builds to this one, builds to this one, builds to this one. Right. So there's an order that's really important. Other times the list is just a list.

It's just, you know, okay, you know, here's a list of the different things. And there's not really any rhyme or reason to it. They're just a list, right? And it's okay to understand that.

Important to understand that so that you don't say, well, this is the most important, you know, and this is the least important but it's like, wait, you know, faith, hope and love. Well, you know, the faith is the most important. Then, well, no, wait a minute. I mean, love is what lasts forever.

Amen. The greatest faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. So sometimes the list is not, you know, in an order. But I believe that on this one, though the rest of them, you can kind of kind of put in any order in my opinion.

But I believe the first one is the first one. And that is the belt of truth. The belt of truth, man. I believe that it's important and always best to start when you're teaching on the arm of God to start with the belt of truth.

And as we get into it this morning, I think you're going to see exactly why that's the case, all right? So two things, just two things that we're going to look at today regarding the belt of truth. Everybody say just two things, right? Just two things, right?

Just two things. And here's the first one. We need to understand what it is. We need to understand what the belt of truth is.

The belt of truth is the word of God, man. The belt of truth is the word of God. It's the written word of God, in other words, the battle. Now, some people very quickly have a push back on that and they say, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

I mean, I was paying close attention. And I remember what we just read in verse 17, this whole thing on the armor of God ended with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And so how can you say that the belt is the word of God? And this causes quite a bit of a dilemma for a lot of Bible students, is they're studying the word of God because they hit, they hit, and they go, well, the belt of truth, truth would be you would think it'd be the word of God.

But then wait a minute, that it says the sword of the spirit is the word of God. And so there's some confusion with that. And even some Bible scholars seem to be somewhat confused about that because you sometimes can say Bible scholars, you put them in quotes, you know, sometimes you read something, you go, that's a nutty, it's most untypical thing. I've ever read in this person who's considered a Bible scholar.

Okay. But there's some confusion on this one. And it actually is not confusing at all. It is a little bit, it can be when we just look at it in the translated English that we're looking at today.

But if you go back to the original language, it becomes much clearer. Because when it talks about the word of God, we're talking about the logos, that's the Greek word for the word of God, the written word of God, the logos, L-O-G-O-N, all right, is the transliterated version of that in the English from that Greek word, right, logos, the written word of God, the Bible. But what is used when it says the sword of the spirit, the word of God, when it says word there, it doesn't use the Greek word logos, it uses a different word, it uses the word Raima, right, different word for word. I mean, and Raima is different from logos, logos is the written word of God.

Raima is a quickened word given specifically by the Holy Spirit to a specific person in a specific situation. It's the quickened word of God. Sometimes it comes from the logos, sometimes the Holy Spirit will pull something from the word of God and quicken it to you in a situation that you're in and say, this is a word from God for you right now in this situation. Other times it's not actually directly from the word of God, it's going to be a quicken word where God just speaks something to you in a situation and says, I've got this or this is okay, this is going to happen.

It gives you reassurances, that is a Raima word of God, right? So we're going to get to that when as we work our way through these armor pieces of God that God gives to us when we get to the sword of the Spirit. And I'm telling you, you're going to really, really enjoy that when there's so much wonderful truth about the Raima word of God. But today we're looking at the belt of truth and that is the logos, the written word of God.

In other words, the Bible, man. And it is the belt of truth, the belt of truth, because the word of God is truth. It brings to you and I truth. Truth about what?

I'm glad you asked that question, man. Let's answer it. Truth first and foremost about God himself. Truth about God, who he is, amen, and who he is specifically to.

Truth about the Father. Truth about Father God. Jesus says he's Abba, Father, Daddy, Father. And so many people, even Christians, some that have been actively involved with church, attending church, maybe even serving in different leadership position church, they have a completely bad misunderstanding, a picture of who God is, a distorted picture of who he is.

And they just think, well, Jesus, he's so different from God. I mean, Jesus is sweet, Jesus is kind, he is loving, he is forgiving, he's so encouraging. But Father God, he's a little different. I mean, he's kind of that harsh guy.

You know, the guy out there in the heavens, watching over us just waiting for us to mess up, because he knows we will. And sure enough, we do something wrong and he's got the club there. Bam, you know, I knew you were going to mess up. There you go.

And a lot of us have that kind of concept of Father God. We do. And you know where we got it from? Earthly pictures.

Some of us in this room this morning, you had an incredible dad, an incredible father. And he was a great example for you. And so, man, praise God for those of you who have that. What an amazing, incredible blessing for those who have that.

Sadly, that is not the majority of people in the world today. Most have some real distorted pictures. Some very, very distorted, some somewhat. There's a whole spectrum on that.

But we take a lot of different concepts of Father God, and we've taken them from our natural father, and not just from him, but from also from different leaders, different authorities in our lives. Could be coaches, could be teachers, could be former pastors or leaders, a Sunday school teacher, so anybody who's been very influential in an authority figure in your life. And so, we take this hodgepodge, this collage of snapshots from all these different authority figures, primarily our dad, but other ones as well too. And we kind of take it and we put it into this kettle and we kind of stir it up and we end up with this strange brew.

And we take that and we cast it up on the God and we say, that's the way you are. How grossly unfair that is. If only Father God, if only he was like Jesus. Well, guess what?

He is. Jesus said it this way. When Philip comes, when one of his disciples comes to him, he says, and this is towards the end of his life and ministry. And so, Philip's been with him three and a half years roughly at this point in time.

And he comes up and he says, Jesus, he said, show us the Father. And if you really understand what's going on in that store, you can hear the heartbreak in Jesus' voice as he responds to him. He said, Philip, I mean, dude, what are you talking about? I mean, what?

I mean, you can't be serious. I've been here with you three and a half years. Don't you get it? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

He and I are exactly alike. In fact, that's what Hebrews tells us in chapter one verse two, that the Son is the exact representation of the Father. If you've seen Jesus, guess what? You've seen the Father.

They are very, very much alike. Amen. And God is somebody who loves you and cares for you. And come on.

And encourages you. Listen, Father God is the greatest fan that you will ever have in your life. You know that? He is your greatest fan.

When you don't believe in yourself, when nobody else around you believes in you, he still believes in you. Yeah? I remember many years ago, I was in Africa speaking at a conference there. And all those pastors from all around Kenya and different other nights, your Ghandipans and the Yitzhah, Zimbabwe, Zambia, there were thousands of people there, almost a little over 10,000 people there.

One of my sons was with me and he was sitting there next to me, Andrew. And we were in this conference. And one of my good friends there, Pastor George Gichana, who pastors at the church and Elderette, Kenya right at the Uyghannib order. I'm known for 20-something years.

And he was up speaking in that session. And I'm sitting there on the front row. And I'm sitting there on the front row. And I'm sitting there sitting there.

And over here, George Gichana is now going up to speak. And his wife, Euodia, biblical name there. I mean, Euodia. I had to look that one up.

I'm like, I've missed that one. She's sitting there next to where he was. He gets up. He goes up to speak.

And he's starting to speak. He's kind of introducing himself. And introducing what he's going to talk about. And I was just looking.

I looked down at her and I just was stunned. And I just leaned. I just watched her and watched her. And I leaned over.

And I tapped Andrew. And I said, Andrew. I said, lean out and look at Euodia. He's like, okay.

And so he leans out. And he goes, wow. He looks at me. He looks at her.

Wow. I'm like, yeah. I leaned over to her. I said, that's the way every single husband wishes their wife would look at them.

I mean, she was sitting there looking at him like, you're the man. You can just see it. And her friend, go get him. Oh, yeah.

This is going to be incredible. You're fixing it. Knock their socks off. I mean, you can just see it.

She's like, look at you. It was amazing. And Andrew, I mean, here's my teenage son. And he just weeled up with tears and said, oh, damn.

Oh, I see it. Now it took months later. I was at home. And I was there just reading and studying one morning.

And out of the blue, the Lord just interrupted me and spoke something to me. And he said, Miles, you remember that? And he took me back and it was just like playing a video clip. And I could see that moment when I was down there.

I was looking at her and looking at you. The way she was looking at her husband, and he said, understand something. He said, that's the way I look at you. That's the way I your dad look at you.

And not just when you're preaching, but all the time. When you're being a good husband, that's the way I look at you. When you're being a good father, when you're leading your children, when you're doing this, when you're doing everything that you do. And in fact, that's the way I look at you when you're not doing so good either.

That's the way I look at you when you wake up in the morning. That's the way I look at you all the time. Father God is an amazing dad. I mean, incredible dad.

So much so. It's so different from even the best concepts of Father that we have in this world, that it's really mind-bending to begin to get hold of. How much he loves you, how much he shears you on through each and every single day. He loves you.

He believes in you. He supports you. And you need to understand that's the dad you have. And the Word of God comes and opens that up to you and I as we get in the Word.

The truth about who Father God is. And it gives us truth about who Jesus Jesus went to the cross. Well, that's what we're celebrating today. He went to the cross.

He died on that cross for you and I. He took our sins, all of our sins, not some of them. I mean, all of them. He said, thank you very much.

I'll take that. I'll take your, I'll take your, and I'll just take everybody and I'll take it all on myself. And I'll take all of the punishment that you deserve. I'll take it.

And we go, thank you, Jesus, for that. I mean, I mean, I mean, thank you that you did that. But it doesn't stop there. I mean, the Word of God again unpacks this thing for us in great detail and gives us this amazing understanding of what he did.

He not only took our sins upon himself, our punishment that we deserve, but he turns around and he gives us his righteousness and exchange. He doesn't just take the bad from us. He gives us the good that's in him so that we've become the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Oh my, what an incredible, wonderful exchange that he gives to us. Amen. And the Word of God again unpacks that and so many other wonderful truths about what Jesus is and what he's done for us. And it does the same for the Holy Spirit as well.

It's the belt of truth. It's truth about Father God. Truth about Jesus. Truth about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one that empowers you and not. Come on, he gives us power to live our life victoriously here. Come on, Acts 1 8. But what, you receive power dynamite, dunamite, dunamite, for dynamite, dynamite power inside of yourself.

What? When the Holy Spirit comes on you, speaking very specifically there about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Or to put it in Jesus' Word from John when he comes there to the temple. He says, out of you shall flow rivers of living water.

Wow, what are they talking about? He goes on the very next verse. This he spoke concerning the Holy Spirit. Oh yeah.

See, that's what's going to happen. You and I are going to be filled with power. We are enabled to live this life victoriously because of the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the encourager.

He's there to encourage, encourage, encourage. The Holy Spirit is the reminder. He reminds us of these wonderful truths from God's Word over and over again. When we're in a different situation, he'll remind us of those things that are written in the Word of God.

And we need to build a rich relationship with the Holy Spirit. Every Christian should do that. What an honor, what a privilege and how incredibly important it is for everyone of us to do that. We need to get in the Word of God and see the truth about who God is.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But it doesn't stop there. The Word of God is the Belcher truth and it be just truth about who you and I are. Oh yeah.

It gives us truth about who you and I are before we come to Christ. If you're not yet born again, it tells you who you are. You are lost and you are undone. Amen.

All of sin, Romans 3, 23, all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. To every one of us are in a bad spot. I remember before I got saved, before somebody gave me a Bible and I started reading it. I just always had this idea.

It's like the scales of heaven. I hope I did enough good. I'll set the bad idea. You get there to the gates of heaven when I die and they're going to put everything on the scale.

I hope it tilts my way. That was my understanding. A lot of people have that kind of understanding. No, no, no, no.

That's not it at all. All of that sin, all of fallen short of the glory of God. If you have made, if you committed one sin, then you are imperfect. You are unclean and you cannot come into God's presence.

Yes, one sin and you're whole life. That's what the Word of God teaches. One sin that makes you imperfect, unclean and therefore you cannot come into the presence of holy, perfect, pure God. You can't.

The only hope that you and I have is the blood of Jesus and you may be which we shed at the cross for you and I accepting him as Lord and Savior of our life. So that's who we are without Christ. But then we come and we get saved. We give our life to Christ.

We get born again. Once we're born again, the Bible doesn't stop telling. Oh, well, good. Now you saw that problem.

Now it says, oh, let me tell you who you are now. Let me tell you are now in Christ. You are the beloved of God. You are the apple of his eye.

Oh, I'm telling you, he can't stop thinking about you. Not that he tries, but he even let me try. He just can't stop thinking about you. You are everything to him.

You are the beloved son. You are the beloved daughter. And you are righteous. Sorta.

No, fully and completely. Amen. Oh man, come on. If you confess your sins, he is what?

Faith will injustice forgive you of those sins and it cleans you from some unrighteousness. No, no, no. All unrighteousness. And if you don't have any unrighteousness, if all means all and it does, then that means what?

You're righteous completely. It's the gift of righteousness. Romans 5 tells us, right? It's a gift.

Man, and a lot of times if you walked into most churches on a Sunday morning and said, okay, before you even do anything else. I mean, hey, good morning. Glad you're here this morning. Let me just have a quick question.

Raise your hand if you're righteous. And you have all these people out there kind of going, oh, let me say, how did I do this week? I mean, oh, I made a really ugly comment to somebody in the car on the way here today. Oh, you know, I got it.

Now, I got it. Now, I got everything to do. It's a gift of righteousness. His righteousness given to us.

We're righteous. Amen. We're clean. We're pure.

2 Corinthians 5, 21. He made him a new no sin to be sent on our behalf and Jesus so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, my. Years ago, I used to do a lot of prison ministry.

Loved it, but I just, you know, I would still be doing it if I just kind of got to do my own thing. But God just said, no, that was a season time and I need you to focus over here. So I did that for a number of years. I loved it.

And I used to go into Darrington. Some of you may be familiar with that, if you're familiar with the TDC system here in Texas, Texas Department of Corrections and the different prisons. Darrington is in rosherin, down towards Alvin and that area towards the coastline. And back in that day, it was the rock and D.

The rock and D was the worst of the worst of the words. Maxim security and it's where it was the worst. All understood. You talked to people who were in prison system, they all day back in those days.

Darrington was the worst of the work. People who were in like Harris County or Tarrant County or whatever, you know, different counties that they're waiting to see where they, you know, they're, you know, they're convicted. They're there waiting to get assigned to a prison. Some of these hard and criminal criminals I talked to, we've done horrific things.

I mean, and they're there in prison and they get word that they're sent to Darrington. And they said, man, I just remember sitting myself crying when they come out and go into Darrington. You know, 30 something people, 38, I think is what the number they used to give people a year killed in there. And all the people in there said, oh, that's probably half the real number, though they say or accident or whatever they're not.

You know, and it was a rough place, rough up like. And we would go in there, they would call out 42 prisoners for us for about three and a half, almost four days that we would get them. And they isolated from the rest of the prison population. We just get to spend time with them and teach all through the day, worship everything.

And I remember one of the times, it's all amazing things happened there. I mean, really got moving very powerful. And one of the times I had this guy and his heart was just so soft, he could just see me being on the teaching and I thought, man, this guy is there. He just needs to give his life to Christ.

So I just kind of pulled him aside. And I said, come over here with me. And we walked off to the side and I was standing there talking with him. And he's just weeping.

And I said, I said, are you ready to give your life to Jesus? You know, you see the reality of what he's done for you. He said, I do. I do.

And he said, but I can't. There's just no way. And I said, what do you mean you can't? He said, you don't know what I've done.

I said, what do you mean? He said, you don't know what I've done. I'm thinking, man, no telling. And my first inclination was, what have you done?

I'm curious mind. And I just about didn't know. He just said, no, it doesn't matter. I'm like, yeah, you're right.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter. He said, no, you don't understand.

You don't know. And for inquiring mind, I'll just tell you what it ended up being about later. It's not the people that he shot and killed. It was that he robbed the church one time.

And he said, I'll never forgive me for that. That's what he did. That's what he believed. And so, here's this awful person.

He's there. And he's saying these things. He's like, man, I just, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He said, it does not matter.

And he's like, no, no, no, you don't understand. There's no way God could forgive me for that. And all of a sudden it came to me like a lightning bolt. And I said, look at me.

He looked up at me. His tears, saying that. And it's a big old guy. I mean, his arms were a big run in my thigh.

And I mean, they were boy. And I said, look at me. I said, let me tell you something. You're the most arrogant person I've ever met in my life.

Well, he didn't like that. I mean, real quick, his face changed. He said, what'd you say to me? And I said, oh, you heard me.

You're the most arrogant, self-centered, full of yourself person I've ever met in my life. And I mean, he bristled up and he said, what'd you say? What are you saying that to me for? And I thought, man, I hope this is you, Lord, because otherwise he's not me like a toothpick.

I think, man. No, no. I just said, because you think that you can etch something in stone that God himself can erase. You think that you can put a stain in your garment that the blood of Jesus can't wash out.

You've got a big opinion in yourself. And he sat there and looked at me and I thought, oh, this could go either way. Come on, Jesus, show up. And all of a sudden, I mean, he stared at probably 20, 30 seconds.

They felt like three minutes. And he stared at me. And all of a sudden, they just weeled up with tears. And he just clapped on the floor and just saw it and just began to pray and give his life to Christ.

And he just, having to pray through that. He ends up getting baptized in the Holy Spirit. He'd bury, let all these other different guys through the years to Christ in prison. God, a prison doing really, really well-serving actively in church.

Amazing man of God. But see, that's a problem. So many times you think, oh, well, I've done this and you just don't know how many times it doesn't matter, man. It's a gift of righteousness that's given for you as a born-again believer.

Man, see, when you were born again, you were born again for success. Oh, hear me this morning. When you were born again, you were born again for success. You were born again to win.

I mean, that's the truth. I mean, you were born again to win. And so the Belcher's truth is about understanding who God is, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The Belcher's truth gives us truth about who we are.

I mean, be see, before we come to Christ, it makes it clear to us to the place that we're in. And then after we come to Christ, it makes clear to us the place that we're now in because of him. But there's more, man. It also gives us truth about life, about this life that you and I live here on planet earth.

See, the Word of God is full of so, so many practical truths that will help you and I live successfully in this life. Now, I mean, people all the time who say, oh, Pastor Miles, I mean, the Word of God is this antiquated deal with these antiquated ideas and, you know, it has no relevancy to my life and whatever. Well, I know one thing from your statement, I want, I know one thing for sure. You've not read it.

Because the Word of God is full, chock full and overflowing of practical truth about every aspect of life. Through the years, I've had so many people, man, I want to marriage like yours. I mean, how do I get a marriage like yours? It's real simple.

I simply went, got into the Word of God, found all the scriptures I could about marriage and began to line my life up with the way God says that why I should do marriage. And so, Sally and I's marriage is built on the Word of God. That's why it's the way it is. I did the same thing as far as my business is at home.

I mean, okay, what does the Bible say about how you should run a business, how you should treat me, why should you respond to people in business situation, how you should manage people. I'm going to do it the way the Bible says to do it. My family, my family, the same way. I'm going to do it the same way.

How do I discipline my children? How do I raise them? I'm going to get into the Word of God and just follow the prescription that the Word of God gives. All every single aspect of my life.

I've just tried to line them up with God's work, practical truths that are there and say, this is how you do this. Listen, once you're born again, you are wired for success in life. You get that. Once you're born again, you are wired for success.

But you need a roadmap in order to realize that potential that's in you, man. And that's what the Word of God is. The belt of truth is, man. Psalm 119 verse 105 says, your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

It's a roadmap that you and I walk. Now that God has rewired us for success, we need that roadmap. And that's the roadmap for us to walk in so that we find success in this life, victory in this life. All right.

So that's the first thing. We need to understand what the Word of God is. I told you two things. So here's the second one.

The second thing that we're going to get this morning, we need to understand how important it is. We need to understand what it is, the belt of truth. And then we need to understand how important it is. How important the belt of truth is to each and every single one of us.

Now, if I took you today and we went out to a cemetery and we walked through that cemetery and we looked at all the different markers and monuments and tombstones that are there, we could walk through the whole of it, spend an hour or two there kind of walking around and then we walk out and say, okay, tell me what you saw that was the most important thing that you saw on all those tombstones that you saw today. And I think if we went around the room and we did that with everybody, we'd had all kinds of different answers here today. I mean, all the name or the little epitaph, beloved son or beloved father or whatever. Maybe a short poem or a line out of something that somebody has on there or the date that they were born, the date that they died or maybe it's the angels that are carved into the stone or whatever, okay?

Almost nobody. In fact, I would guess that not a single person here would actually pick the most important thing on every single one of those tombstones. It's none of the things I just said. It's actually the dash in between the day that they were born and the day that they died.

I mean, what kind of life did you live? I mean, that's the most important thing. It is the same if I showed you a picture, I won't put you through that this morning, but if I put it on a suit and tie and I put a picture myself up there and then you look at that for a little while and just say, okay, tell me what jumps out at you. What's the most important thing that you see?

What really stands out to you? I mean, some people, oh, the tie. Oh, I like the suit. I mean, I like the shirt that you're wearing with the stripe editor or what.

I mean, all the different. I doubt a single person in here would say the belt. You just wouldn't even notice it, all right? Most likely.

And that's the way we are. But let me tell you, that's not the way God is about it. And God is using the example of the Roman soldier. And it's the same with the Roman soldier.

If you looked at the Roman soldier, it's highly doubtful that any of it's we looked at a picture of this Roman soldier all suited out in his armor. Nobody take man. Look at that belt. We'd be like, wow, look at that helmet.

That's awesome. That looks cool. I mean, wow, look at that shield. Man, that looks heavy.

That looks powerful. I mean, how thick is that? Oh, I wish he'd take his sword out of the scabbard. I'd love to take a look at that sword.

I mean, we'd be looking at all the different things. And we'd say, oh, yeah, he's got a belt. Yeah. All right.

But listen, when it comes to the Word of God, amen, and comes to the truth about spiritual armor, that is not the position the Holy Spirit takes. When he lifts the armor of God, he starts with the belt of truth and gets this sense. Everything else, all those other pieces of armament, all hinge on the belt of truth. They all hinge on the Word of God, every single one of them.

The sword of the Spirit. Yes, absolutely. Where do you find the sword of the Spirit? Oh, it's in its scabbard.

And where's that scabbard? Hanging on the belt. Man, where'd I put that sword? I don't know.

It's right here. I mean, it's on the belt. Man, if you don't get into the Word of God, then guess what? You're not going to get those Rama words.

I mean, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of the word of the word, those Rama words, those quickened words for you, specific words in a specific situation. It's highly unlikely you're going to get many of any of those, because most of the time they're drawn straight out of the word. But even when they're not people, I just want to work from God. I've never really said anything to be past your mouth.

I want God to speak a word to me. And it's like, listen, here's the deal. Are you in the Word of God, the Logos, the written Word of God? Are you in there?

Are you reading that regularly, taking that in your life? Well, no. Okay. Can I just ask you a question?

I'm not talking to me to be offensive or anything. Can I ask you a fair question? Well, sure. If you don't value the words that God's already given to you, why should he give you another?

I want to work for him. I want to rhyme a word from God. I mean, you don't value the word that he's already given to you. And we need to get in the Word of God.

And the more we're in the Word of God, guess what? The more you'll get those rhyme, a quickened word from the Spirit of God. Amen? About the breastplate of righteousness.

Well, the breastplate of a Roman soldier was tied to his belt. I don't realize that, but if you do a deep study on this, and there's a lot of different ones out there, you'll see that at the bottom of that breastplate, it's tied to the belt. Because otherwise, when he's fighting, when he's moving, that thing is flapping around. And that's not going to enable him to be successful in battle.

Amen? So if you lay aside, listen to me this morning. If you lay aside the belt of truth, stop reading the Word of God, then guess what's going to happen? You're going to begin to lose that sense of righteousness and peace that is yours in Christ.

How about the shield of faith? Well, Roman soldier's shield was very, very heavy. Amen? Without a belt to rest that on meant that shield of faith became heavy.

It made him weary. It made him tired. Amen? Trying to hold up that faith.

A lot of Christians that sang clap, just trying to hold up the belt of truth. They said that Roman soldiers belt had a clip on it, and there was a clip on the back of the shield, and they clip it on there. So they hold it when they were marching, but they didn't have to carry it. They'd march on it.

Anyway, to help hold it up. Amen? So that they could walk in faith. Amen?

Come on. Stand in faith. Amen? Do you need to be in the Word of God so that you can walk in faith and stand in faith, that shield of faith?

Amen? So you see, the belt of truth held it all together. All of them. Amen?

Without it, that Roman soldier had no confidence in the midst of battle. With it, he was assured that all his equipment would stay in place, and he could move quickly and be successful. Amen? Make sense?

Here's a simple example of where if I had Stefan come up here and stand up here next to me. Most of you in here, you know Stefan, if you don't know him, I mean you can take one look at him after the service and you say, man, that guy looks pretty fit. Yeah. Very.

I mean, part of his job, part of his work is well too. But man, he's standing up here next to me and be like, man, Miles, would you take that guy on? No, I'm not that dumb. All right?

Okay. But he's standing here. He would be like a born-again believer, and I'd be like the enemy, right? The devil trying to attack him, and I might try to get in there and mess with him, but it's like, oh, this isn't going to last long.

But what if we change the picture just a little bit? Stefan, go back for a minute in the back and thank those blue jeans off and put another pair of blue jeans on that we have back for you. Now those were 42, that's 42, right? And for some of us that might still fit pretty well, but not for him.

All right. And so he would come out and he'd be, okay, now let's fight. Well, I'm not going to win. I probably still not going to, but I've messed with him.

Yeah. And some of us, come on, I get some punches, and some of us, we're getting messed with because we don't have to belt on tight in our life. And man, that makes sense. You absolutely cannot fully function as a believer in the way that you're supposed to without the word of God having an active and central role in your life.

This is true individually and it's also true corporately. You can find church after church. I don't know why people don't pay attention. You need to know history.

All right, because if you don't know it, then it has this way of repeating itself, doesn't it? And it's the same history in church history. If we don't listen and learn from those even recent examples, more modern examples as well as older ones, you can look at so many churches that try to build a church on just worship, right? And for a time period, you can get a flourish.

Oh, because people just like to come and worship and great worship and I just like to come in. But over time, you know, it ends up being ends up being 10 miles wide and one inch deep, right? And usually it has a bad ending in sore forward, all right? Because the word of God should be central.

Men should be central. Look at this passage. 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3, verses 15 through 17. Paul is writing to his young protege Timothy, says from childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the very servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Thoroughly equipped. Did you get that? Thoroughly equipped.

The Greek word there, exartidzo means fully supply, completely outfit. Amen? Outfitted. Fully supplied, completely outfitted.

That's what the word of God does for you and I, man. Oh, we get that, man. Come on, how many of you this morning recognize that living in this life, in this fallen world, it's not a walk in the park, is it? It's not.

It's more like a climb in Mount Everest than it is a walk in the park. Amen? And you and I, we need to make that climb. If you're climbing Everest, you're not about to make that climb unless what you are, fully supplied.

Amen, completely outfitted. And we need to be completely what? Outfitted, fully supplied to be successful in this world that you and I are living in. Not the one that God designed, the one humankind messed up the fallen world that we're in.

Amen? And so what you end up running to, you end up having even some Christians, they're asking the Lord different questions. You're like, well, you know, why is my life a mess right now? How come I'm not victorious in this area of my life?

And on and on and on, and I think sometimes the Lord wants to answer their question by asking a question. Where is that belt that I gave you? Yeah, where is that thing, by the way? Okay.

Right. That's why you're not experiencing success in your life. Man, that's why you're experiencing so much of a mess and lacking victory in different areas of your life. Oh, no Pastor Miles, that's why I come to church on Sunday.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Teaching and preaching on Sunday morning is an addition to, man, a confirmation of that truth that you are putting in your life from your own study of the Bible yourself. Amen. Exactly.

It's meant to pull the belt tighter. All right. The belt that's already on you, it's meant to pull it tighter around you. Let's close with this one last verse and we're done.

Colossians 3, Colossians chapter 3 verse 16. It says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Oh, I like that. Now, first of all, before we get anything else here, look at that and understand this, that is a command from the Word of God.

It's not a suggestion. It's not just a good idea. That is a command from God. Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.

If you are not doing that, then you are disobedient. You need to, what, confess that and repent of that, change what you're doing. Amen. When you look at this word, dwell, that is the Greek word in okay.

Oh, and it means to take up residence, to make one feel at home. To take up residence, let the word of Christ take up residence to make one feel at home. That's what it's saying there. And this word richly dwell, bluesy means extreme extravagance, luxurious living.

That's literally what that word, that Greek word means. And so one Bible scholar took this and just kind of took straight out of these rich Greek words that are here and gave us a translation of Colossians 3, 16. I'm going to put that out there for you. Let's read this one together.

How powerful, how beautiful this is. Let the word of Christ take up residence in your life. Oh, just pause right there for a minute. Let the word of Christ take up residence in your life and come to feel completely at home in you.

Isn't that good? And come to feel completely at home in you. Give it the warmest, most extravagant and luxurious reception possible. Amen.

The warmest, most extravagant and luxurious reception possible. That is the belt of truth. Amen. The first piece of the armor of God this design to help you and out be successful in this life.

Successful in what area, in every single area of your in my life. Amen. Would you stand with me this morning?