Peter continued our series on the Armour of God.
You can view Peter's slides, in PDF format, here.
Truth is not relative
Not shades of grey
World would say it is
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Ephesians 6:14 ESV
What do belts do?
Hold up our trousers, which reduces the embarrassment of our trousers falling down.
Truth stops us being embarrassed.
You can't fight a battle with your trousers round your ankles!
Protect our backs by helping take the strain and distribute the load.
Belts hold your sword. Without your sword you cannot do battle.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Ephesians 6:14 NKJV
God's feeling about lies.
Cannot stand firm without the truth.
If we are swayed by every new doctrine, or the lies that society tells us, we will never be able to stand tall for God.
What does this say to us corporately?
Truthful with one another. Honesty
Got each others backs.
God didn't put us in community for no reason!
It's God's truth, not ours
We have the truth, and we mustn't keep it in jars of clay.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 ESV
Its importnat to be honesty about mental health.
Pray with honesty
God is big enough to hear you tell it how it is!
Not whitewashing when issues arise
Move on. There's nothing to see here
How do you know what the truth is if you are not immersing yourself in it?
Read word
Worship
Meet together, we sharpen one another
The devil wants to distract us from the truth, from our mission.
He will lie to us to achieve that.
How do we stop ourselves being distracted and lied to?
Holding on to the truth together.
Holding one another to account.
This is our job, to hold on to truth together, so at the end of the day we can stand…..
Questions
Which aspect of truth struck you most on Sunday?
What bit of corporate truth do you think we need to work on?
How do you feel about breaking your jar and letting the truth out?