Spiritual Warfare - Part 2: The Belt of Truth

0:00 This is the FBCG Live podcast with Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr. Today's message is titled Spiritual Warfare Part 2 The Belt of Truth. We're in a battle between what's truth and what's a lie and many have accepted lies as truth. Wherever you're joining us from, we pray this message encourages and empowers you in your daily walk with God. Today is part two of spiritual warfare that I started last week talking about spiritual warfare and shared with you last week that our fight is not against people. Your challenge is not with somebody, so stop cussing people out. Stop physically engaging, arguing, fussing, fighting with people. Our battle is not with people.

1:00 Ephesians chapter 6, matter of fact, turn your Bibles there for just a moment. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning of verse 10, it says this. Finally, my brother, and be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Put on the whole arm of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles or the tricks of the devil. For we do not wrestle, verse 12, against flesh and blood, but against, and here are the four entities I talked about last week. Here are the four entities that our battle is with. And you got to understand this, this is what we covered last week. against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Those are the four entities. We covered those four last week, that each one represents some element of spiritual warfare. And that's who we're battling against. That's who we're fighting against. And then it says in verse number 13, therefore take up the whole arm of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. I love that context. Again, I highlighted this last week that we are to stand, withstand, and then stand. Stand, withstand, stand. Which means basically to get your ground, set your, where you're going to be, what you're going to believe, what you're going to do. Stand and don't be altered. Don't allow anybody to distract you, pull you away. Find out what it is you believe and stand on it. Thank all five of y'all. I appreciate that very much. Verse 14 says, stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. And so in part two today, I want to talk about this first spiritual armor that we're to put on, which is, I call it the belt of truth.

3:00 Somebody look at your neighbor and say, put your belt on. And you know, these young guys today. I didn't even have to tell y'all what I was going to say. Right? Y'all know what I'm going to say. They got their pants drooping, hanging off their butt. And somehow somebody told them this was attractive.

3:29 It's not. It's not attractive for your pants to be hanging halfway down your behind. But it's the style, they say. if the truth be told, some of y'all are this way spiritually.

3:57 It's good, my style. It's good, my goodness. It's good, my goodness. It's good, my goodness. It's good, my goodness. Your pants is hanging off your behind. I lost 30 pounds. Right?

4:18 So when I got up this morning to get dressed, I put this suit on. Hadn't worn this suit in a while. And I discovered that the pants were too big. You know, I could put two of me inside these pants. But thank God I got a belt. Somebody say I got a belt. Y'all can't even tell that the pants are too big. But once I put the belt on, they held up. And I look pretty good, if I must say so myself.

4:51 Come on and give me some love. Show me some love. You look smooth, Pastor. You look smooth. You can't even tell that the pants are too big. And in the spirit realm, God wants us to put on a spiritual belt. To hold, to hold. Matter of fact, when the Roman soldiers put their armor on, they had a belt. That's what this term, gird your loins, means. It means tighten your belt. As a matter of fact, all of the other armor, most, not all of them, but most of the other armor that is mentioned in Ephesians 6 attaches to the belt. so you need the belt to have the other to have the sword and to have all of the breastplate of righteousness and all of some of these other armor pieces needs the belt to be attached to and so I want to talk to you today about what this belt means. As a matter of fact it's called the belt of truth.

5:54 Gird your loins he says with truth. And what we have a problem with today is that people are not believing truth. People are deceived by lies. We live in a culture where lies are the order of the day. It's what people embrace. People are governing their lives. They are governing their lives by lies. They are doing and believing and embracing lies. Look at your neighbor and say, stop believing a lie. Yeah, and the lie that you believe is often determined by what news channel you watch.

6:41 Yeah, which news channel you watch would determine what you believe, how you vote, how you govern your lives, what decisions you make. and my assignment today, my job, my responsibility is to challenge you, to tell you today that the reality is God wants us to embrace truth. and the Bible has a lot to say about truth as a matter of fact Jesus said here's what Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life said no one can come into the Father but not me Jesus said I'm truth he declares truth by the way let me tell you this there are absolute truths there's some absolute truths I know people think that everything may not be true but Jesus said there are some truths that are unchanging. There are some things that are true and they remain true regardless of the culture.

7:40 Regardless of who's in the office. See, it don't matter who's the president. Here's the truth I know. Regardless, don't clap yet. Wait till I finish. Then clap real loud when I say this. Regardless of who's the president, doesn't matter because God will still be God. he's still a way maker he's still a burden bearer he's still a miracle worker he will always and he will remain God he's always going to be God so Jesus brought truth the devil in fact is the father of lies some of you have been tricked by listening to the lies of the devil you have listened to his lies what I want to do is give you just walk through some truth. When you talk about, when the Bible talks about girding your loins with truth or when I talk about putting on the belt of truth, it centers around seven truths that I've been preaching for 35 years at this church, seven truths.

8:43 And I want to go again and highlight it again because some of y'all ain't been here for 35 years. Some of y'all been here for 35 years, but you still ain't got the seven truths yet. Amen. So I want to talk about those seven truths real quick. Here's number one. And I'm going to talk about the lies that the devil wants you to embrace and wants you to believe. Here's the first one. It's self-acceptance. Somebody say self-acceptance. Yeah, self-acceptance. What that means is that we learn to accept the way God made us. embrace the things that are part of our life of how God created us and where God brought us and took us from. Somebody say self-acceptance.

9:33 The problem is the devil wants you to believe a lie and his lie is there's something wrong with the way you're made. The devil wants you to believe that you were born a male, but you were supposed to be a female. That's what the devil wants you to believe. And the reality is when you accept that, what you're saying is that God made a mistake. You are challenging the integrity of the sovereignty of the God that we serve. We serve a God that don't make no mistakes. I wish I had a praying crowd with me here today. He makes no errors. He makes no mistakes. And yet, somehow or another, people have embraced the lie and think that there's something wrong with that. We somehow or another, down along the line, think there's something wrong with where we were born, who our parents were, who our siblings are, what community we were raised in, all of this stuff.

10:37 Our capacity, our intellectual capacity, all of these things, the devil wants you to think there's something wrong with you. But I am persuaded and convinced, I am convicted that God knew exactly what he was doing when he made me. And I've learned to accept myself. I've learned to accept not only myself, but my environment. I've learned to accept my, thank the Lord for my parents. And I've learned to accept God for the community where I was raised. I've learned to accept and thank God for my siblings. Even though they get on my nerves sometimes, they are my siblings. Come on, somebody, say amen. Amen. because everything around me, everything about my life and about my journey and about where I am, God placed me where he placed me because he had an assignment for my life. He didn't make me Anthony Evans. I can't sing like you. If I could, I would never preach. I'd be up here supposed to be preaching, supposed to be declaring, and I'd go into, And it would be a jacked up situation.

11:56 And there wouldn't be anybody here if I was singing. Amen. Because that's not what he created me. That's not how he created me. He created me to preach the gospel, to teach the word. And by the way, I'm not anointed when I sing. But when I go to teaching and preaching, I'm anointed. Come on, some of y'all are not clapping. Get with it. Get with the program.

12:28 Somebody look at your neighbor and say, learn to accept yourself for the way God manages. Number two, there's seven of them. I'm going to hit them real quick. I only got 15 minutes. Authority. Somebody say, be under authority. Authority. Yeah, we're all called to be under somebody's authority. I know there's a culture today that wants to be their own boss. Can't nobody tell them anything. Can't nobody do anything for you, tell you anything. But everybody ought to be under somebody's authority. Can't nobody tell you to sit down? You out of control. . you're out of control everybody should be under somebody's authority that's the scripture teaches us with clarity with clarity we are we are to be under authority but that's what the lie the lie is you don't have to submit to anybody nobody can tell you anything be your own boss you don't have to obey anybody you don't have to do what your boss tells you what your parents tell you what the government tells you, with the laws of the land. You don't have to listen to the laws of the land. You don't have to listen to your pastor. He's a great pastor. You don't have to listen to your pastor. You don't have to listen to the word. Can't nobody tell you anything. You are out of control. Look at your neighbor and say, you need to be under authority.

13:52 Tell them on the other side. Lean to the person on the other side and say, when you don't listen to nobody, if you don't listen to your boss, if you don't listen to your parents, if you're not submitted to anybody, if you don't follow the laws of the land, if you're not submitted to the authority of the church you belong to, you're out of control. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank all 15 of y'all for supporting me in this very profound truth. Here's number three. Character.

14:27 The God shapes our character, but here's more importantly what character means. Here's what this means. You are responsible. You are responsible for your decisions. Now, what some people want to do is say, I'm like this or I got a problem with the way I am because of what somebody else did. God never holds you responsible to be controlled by other people's choices or decisions.

15:00 You have to answer for your own choices. And let me be clear because y'all are not going to stand before God one day and say the pastor didn't tell us. I'm telling you right now that one day you will have to stand before God and give an account for every decision that you made, every action that you took everything that you did you're going to have to answer to God one day at judgment seat. Amen pastor. Y'all see y'all it's tension in the room you see you feel the tension they got quiet they ain't saying nothing and I can tell when I'm hitting somebody when I'm getting when I'm smoking and I'm right on it people start putting their head down they start looking around but guess what you have an opportunity to bring correction to what you have done your choices. God God is a God of another chance. I wish I had an amen right here. You might have messed up a thousand times.

15:54 You may have gone down the road and made all kind of errors and all kind of mistakes, but thanks be to God, we serve a God that will give you another chance to get it straight. Somebody ought to thank God. You done made mistakes, went down the wrong path, did the wrong thing, but thanks be to God, He will give you another chance. Can I get an amen right there from anybody? That's what I think. I thank the Lord that your character might have been jacked up and you might have been messed up, but he's a God that gives you another chance. Here's number four. I call that chain. Somebody say chains. It means freedom. Here's what this means. Here's what this fourth point is, is that we serve a God who has the power and the ability to break every chain in your life. the lie is here's the lie the lie is that you can't get free you're going to be an alcoholic all your life you're going to be a drug addict all your life you're going to have a problem all your life but the truth is that we serve a God that has the power to break chains We serve a God that I don't care what your addiction is or what it may have been or where you have come from or what your story might be.

17:13 Here's the good news. I don't care what you did, how recently you did it, how frequently you did it, where you did it, who you did it with, how often you did it, how long you've been doing it. It doesn't matter. We serve a God that has the power to break every chain in your life. You can be free. you can be free you can be free tell your neighbor you can be free look at the other side say I don't care how long you've been doing it you can be free tell them tell them you don't care how nasty you are you can be free it doesn't matter how long how often it doesn't matter I'm just I'm trying to proclaim today you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free God makes us free I give God to praise because I believe there's some people in here right now that can look back over your life some things that you used to be in bondage to that you thought you would not get free from but thanks be to God he got you out of it he freed you out of it you not the same that you used to be you've been free I have built this church on teaching these seven principles right here.

18:31 Yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming for it. I'm coming. I'm coming. Yeah, I'm coming. I'm trying to get people to understand these seven principles that are non-changing, non-negotiables. Amen. And we're on number four right now. And the power of number four is you can be free. You don't have to stay in bondage. You don't have to stay addicted. So whatever your addiction is, you can be free. Here's number five.

18:59 Ownership. the principle is everything belongs to God I know you don't want to hear this but you don't own nothing I knew the amens were going to get a little bit lower on that one because you think it's yours but the reality is you don't own anything everything belongs to God and people get upset when they think that people have messed with their stuff when the truth of the matter is it ain't yours in the first place. You were bought with a price, paid for by the blood of Jesus. He, Jesus owns everything. Look at your neighbor's side. I know you hate to hear it, but you don't own nothing.

19:45 Look at him on the other side. You don't own anything. You think you have a right. You think you have ownership, but you don't own nothing. It all belongs to God. He is the, the earth is the Lord, Psalm 24 says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. The sooner you learn that it belongs to God, the sooner you can be free from the bondage of today. Ain't your house.

20:21 I know that's not good English, but it's good preaching. Ain't your house. Ain't your car. Some of y'all worship your cars. Yeah, you worship your cars when it ain't your car in the first place. It's God's. I ain't been all out of shape because somebody scratched my car. Y'all see people park their car way out in the parking lot, way out there. They might as well bow down and worship their car. I'm sorry, my car, my God is not a car. Come on, holler back at it, brother. By the way, some of y'all's car payment is more than the money you get at God. Woo!

21:15 It's tension, tension in the room, Anthony. It's tension in the room. It's tension, it's tension, it's tension. Who you worshiping? Who is your God? Ownership. Everything belongs to the Lord. It's his. The sooner you give it to God, the less stress you're going to have about it. The devil tells you that you own, it's yours, but it's not. Here's number six.

21:44 Suffering. there's a cuss word if I ever heard one people flock to the healing conferences and healing services but ain't nobody going to the suffering conference when the reality is we all are going to have periods and times and seasons of suffering and the sooner you come to grips with recognizing that it's a part of life that you're going to have to suffer sometimes the sooner you get through to understand that the sooner you can get through whatever it is you have to go through. It's a part of the journey. God uses suffering to help shape us to be better people than we are. I wish I had an amen right there. I wish I could get some people. You can always tell when somebody has been through something because they know how to treat other people when they've been suffering. They know how to love other people.

22:40 They know how to care for other people. When you done been through some hell, when you done been through some stuff, when you done cried some tears, when you done had some difficult days, it matures you. It brings you to a level of seasonedness. Woo! Can I get an amen right there? Some of y'all nasty because you ain't been through nothing yet. When you done been through something, you know how to not be so nasty to people. Woo! I am preaching today, whether y'all know it or not.

23:22 But the devil, here's what the devil tells you. You don't have to suffer. The devil tells you you ain't got to go through nothing. Matter of fact, here's what the devil says. The Lord wants you happy. That's why some of y'all walk out of marriage after marriage after marriage because you have brought the lie that this person that you're married to can't make you happy. So if you want to go to the next person,

23:51 how many people you have to wear out before you realize people can't make you happy? I'm telling you, I'm preaching up in here today, whether y'all admit it or not. Yeah.

24:13 Suffering is a part of life. It ain't got nothing to do with the person. So you can either learn what God wants you to learn while you're in your present season or keep on wearing people out. I feel tension over in this section right here.

24:36 Do y'all hear what I'm saying to you today? Suffering is a part of life. And the sooner you come to grips with, here's what the scripture says. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Can I read this? Let me just read. Let me read 1 Peter 5.10 to y'all. Was that the verse they put up there? Let me read it to you. But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. That's powerful right there. After you've gone through some stuff, after you've cried some tears, after you've been through some difficult days, after you've been through some challenges, God will perfect you.

25:29 That means bring you to a level of maturity, establish you, strengthen you, settle you. Some of y'all ain't been settled yet. Some of y'all haven't been established yet because you ain't gone through nothing. Every time the fire gets heated up, you jump out the fire. Every time you start going through some suffering, you jump out the situation. Stick in it. Stay in there and let God do what he wants to do in you and through you.

25:57 I'm preaching. I am preaching up in here. I'm preaching. I'm trying to help you look at your neighbor say he trying to help you I'm trying to help you.

26:18 Suffering is a part of life. Grin and bear it. Learn what it is. God wants to learn. Here's my man right here. This is Minister Chris Richardson. He's suffering. He's so sad. He normally sit down front, but he's sitting way out here in the back today. He's so sad. He don't want me to talk about his suffering, but he's a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. laughing He didn't wear his steel of colors today. And when Marlon Humphrey took that interception, whoo! Did y'all see him running and holding them all back?

27:05 Woo! Thank you, Jesus. Praise his name. after you suffered a while. Okay, I got to hurry up. Here's number seven. I got to finish. It's 11 o'clock. Success. Here's number seven is success. the devil wants you to think you can't succeed. That's his lie. You can't win. Or that you don't need God to succeed. That's what the devil wants you to think. You don't need God's help to succeed. And you can't succeed. When the promises of God is when we do the right things, he will help us win.

27:55 You can win. Tell your neighbor, you can succeed. you can concede in marriage you can concede in your business you can concede in life you can succeed raising your children you can concede on your job you can succeed you can blessed be the man this is Psalm 1 blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way or the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. Somebody holler out and say day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither.

28:48 And whatever he does shall prosper. I wish I had an amen. Whatever he does, wherever he goes, whatever he touches, whatever he begins, wherever path he takes, whatever he does shall cross. That devil wants you to think something different. But I got great news. You can win. Go ahead. Tell that person sitting next to you. You can win. You can pass that class. You can win that race. You can build that business. You can win. Y'all got those seven? What's number one? Number two Number three Number four Number five Number six Number seven Now here's how I try to teach people to easily remember this Is the word success The first S is self-acceptance The U is under authority The first C is character The second C is change.

30:03 The next letter in success is the letter E, even though I told you it's ownership. But the way I put it in success is that everything belongs to God. Go ahead, Pastor. Everything belongs to God. Are y'all with me? Are y'all flowing with me? The next S in success stands for suffering, and the last S stands for success.