COG Moose Jaw

The Belt of Truth is the first piece of armor listed in Ephesians 6:10-14. It begins with the admonition from the Apostle Paul to ​“​be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mighty power.”​ This is the key to understanding the armor of God. All the pieces of the armor belong to God and come from Him. Also, all are gifts to God’s people. All are designed to help us “stand against the schemes of the devil.” ​The Belt of Truth is the first listed because, without truth, we are lost and the schemes of the devil will surely overpower us.

Surrounding us is a spiritual war (angels vs. demons, good vs. evil, light vs. darkness). But amazingly, most believers live as if this conflict were not even happening, as if the “battle of the ages” (Eph 6:12) was just a fantasy or sci-fi story. Yet not one of us is immune to the consequences of spiritual warfare. Although this battle is fought mostly in the invisible realm, its effects are certainly visual in the physical realm. In this message, you will learn the ABC’s of the battle.

Sometimes, as believers, we develop habits of sin. We tell ourselves all kinds of lies about how we aren’t addicted or we don’t have a real big problem. We try to cover up our sin, hoping it eventually goes away. To win the battle against the habit of sin, we need to know who we are in Christ. To break the power of the enemy over our lives, we need to know the Truth (Jesus) and that knowledge of Truth is the doorway to freedom.

The Bubonic Plague began in China in about 1334; from there it spread throughout the world. Sixty million people died. But there is a greater epidemic; a plague far worse that has come to the human race. According to a 2018 census the earth’s population is 7.63 billion people. The epidemic of sin and death has affected every one of them and those yet to be born. As far as God is concerned, there are only two kinds of people in the world. You’re either in Jesus or you’re in Adam. Being in Adam is the default position. All that you need to do is to be born, and you are born in Adam, and immediately you’re under condemnation. We had no choice in that but we do have a choice as to whether or not we are going to stay in Adam or whether we are going to have a new leader–and king. And that is King Jesus.

Statistics Canada reported that suicide remains the second leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 34. Jesus came to deliver us from hopelessness. Regardless of our circumstances, as Christians, we have hope because God is for us. We have access to His presence and peace. In His presence is fullness of joy, and what the enemy meant for evil, God is going to bring good out of it.

Sometimes false faith looks much like “saving faith” outwardly. You look at the two and it’s difficult to tell the difference. That’s the way faith is. There is only one faith that saves — faith in Jesus Christ and all other faith might look outwardly to be the same but they lead to eternal death. This message will look at two characteristics of saving faith found in Romans 4.

One of the most amazing strategies for handling guilt today is: Some of the things we all used to think were vices are now being promoted as virtues. Today, things like greed (marrying for money), infidelity (Life is short, have an affair) and narcissism (looking out for number 1) are promoted as virtues to be sought after in our new enlightened way of thinking. So for many, they attempt to solve their guilt problem by turning vices into virtues. For some, substance abuse becomes their coping mechanism. While others keep themselves and their minds busy with all kinds of activities which enables them to suppress their feelings of guilt.

The purpose of the Apostle Paul giving this discourse on the condition of the human heart is to help us understand how amazing God’s grace really is. “Amazing grace; how sweet the sound that saved a nice, kind person like me?” No, a “wretch” like me! I want this message about sin and our sinful condition to be hope-giving and life-producing. There’s something deeply satisfying about someone who knows you at your worst (flaws and all) and still says, “I love you, and I know a way that you can be set right with God and right with others.”

This is why we all need to be saved. We’ve fallen short of God’s glory. We need to hear this today because we think of sin as an offense against man, not God. Evil is when man is hurt, not when God is dishonored. Evil is when I am abused, not when God is dishonored. Evil is when I am threatened, not when God is dishonored. We need to hear the Apostle Paul’s unrelenting witness in Romans to the God-centered understanding of sin and righteousness. Sin is an offense against God. As believers, when we sin, we not only defile ourselves and others, but we also dishonor God.

In Romans, chapter one, the Apostle Paul focuses on the heart of the unbeliever and lists about 22 different sins. But in chapter two, Paul focuses his attention on the hearts of the religious people, the Jewish people of his day. He looks at the tendency for the religious (even Christians) to clearly see the sins of others while not being willing to acknowledge and deal with their own sins.