What is Truth?

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow, amen. Not just me, with my church family.

God has blessed 12 .5 tremendously here by his grace. People ask all the time, like, what are y 'all doing?

How did you accomplish X? And Pastor Nathan and I, Pastor Keith, we only get to say what we have observed

God doing in the life of his people. If you would, please turn with me this morning in your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse 10.

I want us to continue to unpack and learn what it means to equip ourselves with the whole armor of God in the midst of spiritual warfare.

And my prayer this morning is that we would have a better understanding that this spiritual battle that we are all in is about truth.

And so when I think about truth, I think about the most important question we could all ask, actually was uttered by Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus.

Pontius Pilate said, so you are a king? And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king. For this purpose,

I was born. And for this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

And everyone who hears the truth listens to my voice. And Pontius said, what is truth?

And what is ironic is that he was staring at truth in the face, saying what is truth as though it cannot be known.

And so truth only comes from God, amen. And so that scene between Pontius Pilate and Jesus is a picture of spiritual warfare, how the kingdom of darkness wants to deceive you into thinking truth cannot be known.

So let's examine our primary passage this morning, Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse 10.

Finally, Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

Paul reminds us, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And Paul says, also for me that the words may be given to me to open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

I'm an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as they ought to speak. Let's pray this morning.

Heavenly Father, you are so gracious in allowing us to revere your name on high this

Lord's day. God, I pray that as we unpack the deep truths of your word,

God, that our hearts and our minds would be renewed with the truth that is able to set us free, the truth that we can have salvation in Jesus Christ.

God, please equip us to be able to leave here to continue to fight the enemy in this evil day, knowing that he cannot contend with the truth.

Lord, we love you. Please give us wisdom this morning to behold the mystery of the gospel. Pray this in your name,

Jesus. Amen. And so something that's important as we begin to go back into our main passage,

I want us to review the context. All of Ephesians has been pointing us to the person and finished work of Jesus Christ, that he is creating in himself a one new man, the church.

We are the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are saints and members of a household. When we hear that word household, this means that we are a family.

Ephesians has been showing us that the mystery of Christ has been hidden from all ages, how God is reconciling

Jew and Gentile together by faith alone in Christ alone. I wanna take your attention just for a moment back to Ephesians chapter three, starting in verse nine.

As we talk about a mystery, a plan that has been revealed, this is the plan of redemption that God has been orchestrating from before the foundation of the world.

Back in Ephesians three, nine, Paul says, the plan of the mystery hidden for the ages in God who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was all according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Notice he says that through the church. I meet a lot of people that say, yeah,

I try to go to church when my schedule allows for it, you know? And I'm scratching my head thinking, that is such a low view of church.

I've heard some people say, well, if we would just all do our part, then the church just really isn't necessary.

I look back at verse 10. So through the church, the manifold wisdom of God, this beautiful tapestry is put on display.

Why is that? Because all of history is his story of redemption. All of history is a beautiful tapestry woven together, pointing us to the person of Christ, showing us how he is reconciling

Jew and Gentile by faith alone in Christ alone. Now, our text there also said that it might be made known to the rulers and authorities, okay, in the heavenly places.

I wanna submit to you, this is a reference to Satan and his demonic hosts, the kingdom of darkness.

Notice the church is being put on display to the heavenly beings, right? How Jesus Christ is crushing, continually to crush the archenemy of God.

And that's because Jesus disarmed the strongman Satan and has put him to an open shame, how?

By continually plundering the strongman's goods, regenerating hearts, saving souls, and transferring them from death to life.

All of this continues in this present evil age. We live in a spiritual battle happening all around us.

And even though Christ's resurrection delivered the crushing blow to Satan, demonstrating his ultimate power and authority,

Satan is relentlessly continuing to attack the church, scheming to creep inside unnoticed, setting up strongholds to divide from within.

Yes, Jesus Christ has won the war and we are victorious by faith in him, but Satan is a sore loser.

Jesus has cut off the head of the serpent. His body is still twisting and flopping around, trying to wreak havoc any way he can.

And so as the saints, we must daily prepare ourselves for battle. So if you wanna look back with me in Ephesians 6, starting at verse 13,

Paul says, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And so before we delve deeper into looking at putting on the whole armor of God, I wanna discuss the backdrop that we might be able to withstand in the evil day.

What day is this referring to? Is this referring to the last day of history that scripture says the great and dreadful day when our

Lord returns? No, that will be a glorious day for the saints when our Lord returns to judge all of the world in righteousness, consummating his eternal kingdom that cannot fail.

I wanna submit to you that every day since the fall of Adam, since he sinned, every day has been cursed by sin and evil.

And the arch enemy of God, Satan, has been prowling around, working in the sons of disobedience.

Ephesians chapter five, Paul instructs Christians, look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time for all of the days are evil.

We talk a lot about how God is redeeming the time. We live in a present evil age, an age of darkness, but how is

God redeeming the time? Through the saints. We are walking as wise. We are trying to renew our hearts and mind daily by trying to honor the

Lord with our life. All of the days in this present age are plagued with darkness. All the days are perishing.

And please listen, saint. Paul is exhorting Christians here that all the days of our lives, we are to stand strong against Satan and his schemes.

And so when we talk about Satan, perhaps many of us have a distorted view of who the devil is.

He's not a little green guy or red guy with horns sitting on your shoulder trying to whisper evil thoughts into your ear, right?

That's kind of the world's idea of Satan, just an expression for when you have evil thoughts. Scripture is very clear that this is a fallen angelic being who was cast from his high position in heaven due to his sin of pride.

Now, he seeks to constantly oppose the will of God and thwart him with all of his endeavors.

Scripture tells us in Revelation 12 verse nine that he is the great dragon of old who was thrown down, an ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

So he's the deceiver, right? What does that look like? What are his schemes so we can be equipped to make war against him?

If you would, please turn with me briefly in your copy of God's word to John chapter eight.

I want us to see another example where Jesus is encountering spiritual warfare and he gives us a perfect example of how we are to stand firm against Satan and his lies.

So in John chapter eight, starting in verse 44, a little bit of the context here is the Pharisees are saying, well,

Abraham is our father. And since Abraham is our father, we are the children of God.

And so Jesus kind of plays on their words. Oh, you think Abraham is your father? Let me tell you who your father really is.

John 8, 44, Jesus says, you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks, he speaks out of his own character and he is a liar and the father of lies.

Verse 45, Jesus says, but because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin?

If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God, hears the words of God.

The reason why you do not hear them is because you are not of God, okay? Satan is many things.

He is a fallen angel, a murderer. He is evil and the father of lies.

And so verse 45, Jesus says, because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. This is one of the central things that I want us to meditate on this morning.

The spiritual battle that we are all in is over truth. Satan hates the truth.

His primary means of spiritual attack is distort the truth and he uses those moments of temptation in your life to, in a sense, tell you how you cannot trust in the promises of God and he wants you to doubt the truth.

Remember what Pontius Pilate said? What is truth, right? The secular world divorced from looking to God and what he has revealed to us says, truth cannot really be known.

So what do you do? Live life how you want, right? That is a distortion of what God wants us to do.

We know that we are called to live for his glory. And so Jesus points out another truth.

There are two kinds of people in this world. Look with me at verse 47. Whoever is of God, hears the words of God.

The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. You are either a child of God or you are a child of the devil.

If you're a child of God, then you receive the truth and love it. If you're a child of Satan, then you oppose the truth and hate it.

The devil has been laboring to distort the truth from the very beginning and all of his feeble efforts to thwart

God were only setting the stage to be crushed by Jesus Christ. The apostle

John also says in 1 John chapter three, the reason that the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

By this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother.

John also says, I write to you little children, children of God, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.

The spiritual battle that we are in is over truth. We contend for the truth that the chief end of man is to glorify

God and to enjoy him forever. We know that the truth is salvation is only found in Jesus Christ alone and by faith alone in his name.

Day after day, we endure the brokenness of this world dominated by the power of the evil one.

The Lord will sustain us in this battle, amen. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow.

So if you would, please turn back with me to verse 13. Because as we're gonna see is we are able now to be on guard and to stand firm because we are looking to the warrior king,

Jesus Christ. Paul says again in verse 13, take up, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm.

So this stand firm, Paul is not saying look inward and try really, really hard to overcome the evil one.

He does talk about standing firm a lot, commissioning the Christian. He says elsewhere, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong.

Something that he's bringing out though by standing firm is not looking to yourself but as a lifelong pursuit to give

God glory. This applies to all the saints. And in my conversations with many people,

I hear many stories about how, oh, well back in the days of college, I used to share the gospel a whole lot.

Let me tell you years ago how I was able to engage in really good discipleship.

But my question is, what does that person's life look like today? This issue is not about what a believer has done, but how he continues to stand firm because in this present evil age, the battle of spiritual warfare is not over.

So yes, we are to stand firm. This is a lifelong pursuit. And you may say, Jeremiah, I don't think

I can stand each and every day. I don't think I have enough strength. And I would say, you're right.

That's the whole point. You do not have the strength in and of yourself because you will fail. Paul told us back in verse 10 in our main passage, finally, be strong, not in yourself, but in the

Lord and in the strength of his might. Dear Saint, our strength is not looking to ourselves, trying really, really hard to overcome sin and Satan because our strength comes from the

Lord. Earlier in Ephesians chapter three, I wanna draw your focus. We may have it on the screen.

Paul tells us about this strength and our power that comes from the Lord and his spirit. Paul says in chapter three, verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant to you and be strengthened with the power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

That makes sense. It's a heart of faith, loving Christ, walking with him daily.

We get our strength from the Lord by resting in him. Do you see kind of the paradox? How do you get your strength?

How do you stand firm? By resting, by resting in his finished work.

And so in our main passage, Paul mentions taking up the whole armor of God. This is the second time that he mentions this because back in verse 11, he says, put on the whole armor of God.

The life of a believer is not just waking up some mornings and saying, well, I better put on my armor today, right?

Oh, well, you know, I was going about my day and I just forgot to be equipped with the helmet of salvation.

It doesn't work like that. All right, it's not waking up and saying, man, I just don't feel really good. I'm gonna stay home and I don't really have to put on the armor of God.

That's not the imagery that Paul is communicating. This armor is once for all. We permanently are equipped with every spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly places.

So since it's not a matter of just waking up and remembering to put on the body armor, what's the point?

Why is he commissioning Christians to put on? Really, we need our hearts and our minds renewed.

We need to remember what Christ has already done for us. He mentions this back in Ephesians chapter four, exhorting the saints.

He says, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

And here's the key principle, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Put on, similar language, right?

Put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. The armor's already there.

We already have the new man's clothes on. So what do we need? To be reminded of those truths.

We must continually have our hearts and minds renewed and transformed by the truth.

And so with this, all Christians are called to be thinking theologians, always setting our hearts and our minds on the things above, not the things of this earth, right?

The things below are our own resources and our own strength. That will be a massive temptation to look to our own resources, looking to ourselves, trying really, really hard to fight the devil in our own mind.

You know what? He is counting on us to do that. He will be tempting you to fight in this battle with your own efforts.

And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, he says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

I want you to see that we are not to look inward to our flesh, looking to our own resources to contend with the enemy, right?

That's what Adam and Eve did in the garden, and they failed. No, our weapons come from above.

We war against the kingdom of darkness with truth. That's why Paul goes on to say in verse five, 2

Corinthians chapter 10, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey

Christ. I want you to see that this spiritual war that we are in is over truth.

You notice our weapons come from above, meaning that when we hear somebody opposing the knowledge of God, we meet him with love, but we point them back to Christ and his word.

And so some people say, well, that seems like that's a hard thing to do. You better believe it is hard, right?

Even Jesus confronted the Pharisees and said, the intense words, you are of your father, the devil.

You may say, I would never say that. I understand your heart, but evil doctrine will ruin souls, right?

Bad company corrupts good morals. And so we must stand on truth. We take every thought captive because truth matters.

Our inner being must be looking to Jesus who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. That means your heart must be captivated by the beauty of all that he has accomplished on your behalf.

Sometimes we sing the song, my name is graven in his hands, right? The finished work of Jesus is personal.

What he did at Calvary wasn't just potentially for you pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps and making the right decision.

That was a very personal atonement. He was dying specifically for those that the father intends to save perfectly.

And so allow your heart, your mind to be renewed with these truths. Paul says in Colossians 2, so that our hearts may be encouraged, being knitted together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is

Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Paul says,

I say this to you that no one may deceive you with persuasive and enticing arguments.

I don't know about you, but I need encouragement every day. Where do we get encouragement? From the word of God, looking to Christ.

And I don't know about you, but I want certainty in my life. I wanna know what the truth is.

And so Paul says, oh, if you want assurance, if you want certainty, all that is found in Jesus Christ.

All the riches of full assurance of understanding, the knowledge of God is in Christ.

So when I was a younger man, a handful of years ago in college, I found really quickly, especially at ASU, you're gonna have a lot of rivaling philosophies in life that are gonna question you on what is the truth.

Going to cast doubt and ultimately point you to other places. I also love apologetics and praying for opportunities to contend for the faith.

And I hear a lot of wild ideas that are floating out there. And I just wanna tell you, they all pale in comparison to the beauty of Jesus Christ.

All of these other worldly philosophies cannot give you certainty. That means they cannot give you the truth.

And so Paul is saying, have your hearts and your minds girded up, equipped, always looking to our

Lord. Let's look back at our main text starting in verse 14. Paul says, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth.

This is the first of six pieces of armor that we're doing kind of a little mini series on.

And so Paul would have wrote the book of Ephesians in a Roman cell, constantly looking at Roman soldiers.

And so what's beautiful about this is that he's using this as analogy to give us truth.

And yet that is all inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so there's a number of really good verses that can be translated this way in verse 14.

By fastening the belt of truth around your waist, having girded your loins with the truth or with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.

And so he is talking about warriors that are ready for battle. And the idea is that the first thing a soldier must do in order to be ready to fight is that he must secure his tunic.

And so during this ancient time, a tunic is like a long robe that kind of just hangs free.

And usually you would wear a robe when you're sitting down or relaxing. But at the drop of a hat and you're ready for war, you have to secure your tunic.

You have to bring it up to your waist and secure it. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense because if your robe was just kind of flailing about, it would cause you to trip and fall.

You can't carry heavy armor. And it may cause a fellow soldier to trip and fall. This is fantastic imagery for the

Christian to be prepared for action, ready to fight with the spiritual forces of evil.

The apostle Peter puts it this way, therefore preparing your minds for action, be sober -minded, be watchful because your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

So what is the first thing that a Christian must have secure ready for battle? Well, he says, having fastened on the belt of truth.

So everything boils down to truth. In the Greek, this is aletheia. And there's two really good definitions

I wanna share with you, but context determines how we understand the definition for truth.

So number one, aletheia, truth could mean objective reality or how God has revealed himself to man.

Or the definition, depending on the context, could be a person living out integrity of character in harmony with divine truth.

And so as we're seeing here with the armor pieces of God, the whole armor, we are commissioned, we are given a command to stand firm.

So I think this means that Paul is charging Christian soldiers to gird yourselves with the attitude of truthfulness, right?

We look to objective truth that's found in Christ and we live out our lives truthfully. That is our marching orders.

This is the reoccurring theme throughout Ephesians. Look to Christ, live for his glory. Look to Christ, live for his glory.

Ephesians chapter four, I kinda see this theme being played out. We preached on this a number of months ago.

Paul says, you learned Christ and were taught in him the truth, objective truth, aletheia, which is in Jesus, right?

That's objective. And then he says, therefore put away falsehoods. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.

And don't forget, this is in the midst of spiritual warfare. He says, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Look to Christ, live for his glory. Ephesians chapter five, starting in verse eight, he says this, instructing the

Christian, walk as children of the light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good, right, and aletheia, or true.

And then here's the key principle. We live our lives trying to discern what is pleasing to the

Lord. You kinda see the theme? Now in Ephesians six, be strong in the strength of the Lord and be strong in his might.

Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth. So another interesting note about a soldier's belt is yes, you had to have the belt with your robe fastened tight, ready for battle, but the belt also would have held a sword.

And so this once again is unmistakable imagery that Paul is utilizing for the saints because the belt of truth, look with me at verse 17, would be holding the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

We are to live out the fruit of what is good, right, and true, constantly carrying the sword of the spirit.

What did Jesus say? Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

That is because the word of God is living and active and sharper than any earthly human weapon.

And Jesus perfectly wielded the sword of the spirit, didn't he? When he was being tempted by every turn by the devil, our

Lord perfectly modeled how to stand firm against the devil and his schemes. Jesus knew the truth.

He quoted scripture and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Jesus said in John's gospel, if you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Remember, the spiritual battle is over truth. And so even though the apostle

Paul would have had the imagery of Roman soldiers all around him, I want you to remember, Paul is a

Hebrew of Hebrews. He is a Jew specialized in the Hebrew scriptures. And so even though he had the imagery of Roman soldiers, he would have also had the knowledge of the

Old Testament that depicted the coming Messiah as a coming warrior king.

The Psalms said this, who is the king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

The prophet Isaiah says this, this should sound very familiar in Ephesians chapter six. Righteousness shall be the belt of Messiah's waist and the faithfulness, the belt of his loins.

He put on the breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation on his head. The Messiah says,

I am who speaks, here I am. How beautiful are the mountains and the feet of him who bring good news.

You know who Paul had in mind? He had in mind Jesus Christ as the true warrior, the true conquering king.

And so once again, Paul is not urging believers to live better lives, trying really hard to become more like Jesus.

And so maybe we'll be victorious in battle. No, Paul's message here is about standing confidently in Christ's triumph.

That has already taken place at Calvary, right? Jesus is the valiant warrior. He went toe to toe with the evil one in all of his temptations in the wilderness.

Satan bruised Jesus's heel at the crucifixion, but Christ countered with a crushing blow to the enemy at his resurrection.

He has triumphed over the devil, over sin and death. Jesus Christ has accomplished it all, amen.

And so we as Christians, our minds need to be renewed with the truth. Day by day, preparing our minds for action, living each day to honor the king of glory, to stand firm, therefore having fastened on the belt of truth.

So as we begin to close this morning, I want to return to asking all of us about the fundamental truth in life.

What is truth? How you answer that question will be the reference point in which your entire life will reflect.

And so many of y 'all know Jeremiah Nortier, especially the youth. I ask them this question all the time. What is truth? And I get so many mind -boggling answers, and yet it makes perfect sense.

I've talked to many people. What do you think the truth is? And the most common answer I get is, I don't know. Or I'm not really sure how to answer that,

Jeremiah. Or Jeremiah, you're just getting all into that deep philosophy kind of stuff. I don't really tend to worry myself with that.

And as I reflect on these conversations, I'm reminded, you know what? Their life reflects that answer.

Going about the motions of life with no direction. Or I'll get this answer.

But Jeremiah, I just use common sense. I wake up, I work really hard to provide for my family.

I love them the best that I can, and I try to have a little fun now and again. There's no harm in that. And then my question is, is that all common sense is?

Who gets to define common sense when I have a different idea of how I should live my life?

Don't tell me what you feel like is a good idea when someone else can come along and tell me what they feel is a different way.

I hear this in a different way. Well, I just let the Spirit lead, Jeremiah. And I'm like, yeah, but the

Holy Spirit should lead you back to his word, right? So don't tell me what you feel like is good.

Give me the truth. Tell me how I can know how to live my life because I wanna ask this question.

What is going to be the anchor of my soul when I experience hurts, pains, evil, suffering, and I see death happening all around me?

What do I do with my guilty conscience for all the wrong that I've done? Listen, common sense cannot give you the truth to the real questions in life.

So what is truth? Truth is a divine person. Truth is what

God has revealed to us about reality and what it truly is. Only the God of truth knows all things and can give us answers of truth.

You know what I'm gonna say next. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the

Father except through me. Look to him, saint. Look to him and his word.

Because as believers, we have tasted and seen that the Lord is so good. Sometimes though, we like to wander around in this spiritual warfare, don't we?

We become a rogue soldier, a lone soldier that's no longer standing with the army of saints, no longer gathering together with the body of Christ, not pursuing opportunities of fellowship with other believers.

That is the individual that Satan is looking to sift like wheat. That is the person that will be tossed to and fro by the craftiness and deceitful schemes of the enemy.

I don't wanna guilt you, but I want you to understand we need one another. We need one another on the

Lord's Day gathering, pointing us back to King Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And so as we're talking about having our heart and mind renewed, this is something that we get to participate in every

Lord's Day here at 12 .5 is we get to come to the Lord's table, right? This is another way of declaring truth, seeing what all

Christ has done, what he is continuing to do in our life, and we get but just a taste of the marriage supper of the

Lamb. This is not cold and ritualistic, this is God's visible truth, uniting us together in sweet fellowship.

And I do wanna say this is not just a mere representation, where we just take a little bit of the grape juice, eat a little bread, all right,

I did my thing, check the box. No, this is a time that Jesus prescribed that will assure your hearts that God's promises are true.

And this can't be just a mere representation because there's actually a warning attached to coming to the

Lord's table in an unworthy manner. Scripture tells us that if you partake in unworthy manner, some people have been sick as a result of it, and some have even died.

I just want to implore you to think about this. You should not come to the table if you are not a baptized

Christian seeking to be held accountable in church membership, or if you see this as a time to be cold and ritualistic, or if you have a spirit of bitterness towards another brother or sister.

If there's unrepentant sin in your heart, please refrain from coming to the table.

But I don't want you to only hear me say that. If that is you, I want to encourage you, come seek out myself,

Pastor Keith, Pastor Nathan. We would love to come alongside you and help make these things right. So if you are a baptized believer resting in Christ alone, by faith alone, then here in a moment,

I wanna encourage you, come please freely partake in the Lord's supper. So how we do this here at 12 .5?

If this half, here in a moment after we get done praying, we'll stand up and come around to the Lord's table and come back to your seat.

And maybe the back corner can come to this side and then this half come to this side. Sound good? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. God, we thank you for your mercies that are new every morning.

And God, what a beautiful truth that because you live, because you are a resurrected conquering king that subdued the strong man,

Satan, in this evil, perishing world, God, we can face tomorrow. God, I pray that this morning that we would be challenged in a very deep way to answer the question, what is truth?

And do I believe it? Does my life reflect that? God, I pray that your spirit would move. God, your spirit would convict us of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come, and that you would compel us to find our rest in you,