And right now we're in a series that we just started last Sunday called Standing Ground. And it's based off a scripture we have in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12, we'll start there. We've been in Ephesians, by the way, for like a year. And this is the last part. So you guys have been really patient and good. But hopefully we've kept it entertaining. We've broken it up. It's really, it's really incredible stuff. This series, about the last chapter or last part of the last chapter of Ephesians, it's called Standing Ground because here's what it says: a final word. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. So that's what we're talking about. You know, the devil and demons, the fluffy stuff, the stuff that everyone's like, yay, let's talk about that. I joked last week that, you know, if I could plan it in my own way of thinking, I would not start a series right after Easter, which is a time that a lot of people kind of come, check something out, come back. I'd be like, hey, we're talking about demons next. Come, come back. We're gonna talk about that stuff. We're not weird, I promise. We're not weird, superstitious people. We're just gonna talk about the devil and demons and all that kind of stuff. But this is just where we're at. This is where we're at in the scripture. And so what Paul is saying here is that there is a spiritual world. The author Paul says there's a spiritual world, and in that spiritual world, there there's good, but there's also great evil. And that evil is coming against you. If you read the stuff in the Ephesians that precedes this, which by the way would only take you like 20, 30 minutes, Paul has gone on at length about the fact that Jesus has won the battle, that Jesus is victorious. And let's just be honest, it's fun to root for the winning team. Like some of you guys root for teams that always win. You know, like you root for the team that almost always wins, and your bad season is still better than everyone else's like best season ever. And some people, and there's probably a few of you in the room, and I do intend to convict you if this is you, um, some of you you root for all of the teams that are good in just each different sport. So, like when it's the NFL, you're like, I'm a Patriots fan, college, I'm more of an Alabama fan, you know, um, I really root for the Golden State Warriors in basketball, and like you just pick whatever team wins. You're just you're one of those people. And you shouldn't be one of those people, except for the fact that it's really fun to be one of those people, right? Because it's fun to watch your team win. It's fun to root for the winning team. The reality is we are Jesus followers and Jesus has won. He is victorious. He defeated the power of sin on the cross, he defeated the power of death when he rose from the grave. It's fun to be on the winning team. Come on, he won. You should celebrate that. He's victorious, always. He's victorious, but but Paul still ends this celebration of Jesus' victory in Ephesians with a warning. He says, even though Jesus is one, and even though he's fundamentally changed your relationship with God, now you can know God. It's not about your own effort, your own ability to follow rules. Now it's about the righteousness that God has put on you through Jesus. He's changed your relationship with God. He's one there, he's changed your ability to live life. We can live totally different lives as Jesus followers than we could without him, because we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. Scripture says the very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you. So you can live life differently because of Jesus. There's so much victory available for us as Jesus followers, but he still finishes with a warning because he says, in light of all that, you need to be alert. Because there is someone, there is a force that seeks to take some of that ground back. So stand your ground. We see similar warnings in scripture, like 1 Peter 5.8. Stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. So last Sunday we began discussing these scriptures, and what we're talking about, if you want to put a term to it, is spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare. And really all we got to last week was a simple question. Do you actually believe this is true? And you all are saying yes, and you're in church and you're supposed to, that's great. But like, do we actually believe this is true to the extent that scripture does? Because let's be honest, if if there's not any such thing as a spiritual world, and if there's not, you know, evil spirits and demons, Satan, whatever word you want to use, if that's not real, or if it's greatly exaggerated, then there's no reason for alarm. There's no reason to be alert, there's no reason to put on spiritual armor like it said to, if there is no spiritual warfare. So if this isn't true, we shouldn't even be talking about it. And I think we really have to ask that question individually. Do I actually believe this? And maybe do I allow what I what I believe about this to shape the way I live my life? So last week we kind of looked at this visually. We had some diagrams. I don't usually use diagrams, that was new. Um we'll put a few of those up on the screen to kind of go through this. A lot of people see the world this way: they see spiritual and physical, and they believe that both exist. Some people don't believe in the spiritual at all, they believe everything's just physical. But the vast majority of people on the planet believe there is some type of spiritual something. They might use a different word, a world, a realm, reality, whatever it is. There's something spiritual, but but they're very, very separate, and you're not going to experience the spiritual until maybe you die. And so if you believe that, then you would see the physical as the real world, and the spiritual is like something less than real. Now, many of us, many believers, would say, no, no, I do believe in the spiritual and the physical, but I believe there's some overlap. So we might see it this way. There's a little bit of overlap. Every once in a while, the spiritual overlaps with and intersects with the physical, and and when that happens, things happen that don't make sense. And sometimes it's really good. Like we might believe in a miracle. Something happens and it's a miracle. That should not have happened. There is no rational explanation for that. But God showed up, God did something, the spiritual and the physical overlapped, and something amazing happened. And sometimes we see in that overlap something really dark. We see evil in the world, and we go, you know what, that's more than just a person who was raised improperly. There's something darker behind that, and we see some overlap. I'm sure many of us in the room have experienced some overlap. I got permission from a friend of mine to share this story. I got a good friend who runs a really successful company. And a few years ago, he and his business partner decided to take the success that they were having and use it for something really important. And they prayed and they thought and they decided they wanted to get involved with the awareness and the fighting against human trafficking. You know, that's a huge part of our world that no one likes to really think about. We'd all just rather pretend like it doesn't happen, but it's a massive epidemic. Human trafficking and slave, like the slave sex trafficking world, it's real. And so they they found an organization called OUR, and this is an organization that goes and liberates people in that situation. It's an incredible organization, look them up. And they they met with them and they decided what they wanted to do was executive produce and pay for a documentary that would follow this organization around and follow them around on one of their operations in a really dangerous place and actually, you know, show the world what happens and what this is like. And this was a huge undertaking for them and a big financial commitment, but they signed on the dotted line, and the day, the day that they committed to do this, the day they they signed the contract, they were hit with two lawsuits that day. They'd never been sued as a company before. If you work for a big company, you know that people just sue big companies. Never in their history had they been sued before. They run their company well, and they got word later that day of a third that was in the works. And they're like, what is going on? Why? What just happened? Oh, we decided to take a stand against something very, very evil. And that day, for the very first time in the multi-year history of our company, we're hit with all this resistance. There's an overlap. But the question becomes, how how big is the overlap? Because what if it's more like this? What if it's what if it's greater? What if the spiritual and the physical overlap more than we might imagine? What if it's not just every once in a while, but but very, very often? If this is what it's actually like, then then what is the real world? Both. What if it's even more than that? I can't tell you the percentage. I don't know. Jesus never drew a diagram. He didn't give us those. But I can say that if you read the stories of Jesus and you listen to his teachings and you believe him, and if you if you look at the teachings in the Bible as a whole and you put any stock in that, there is tremendous, tremendous overlap between the spiritual and the physical, more than we would estimate. That it's it's near constant in the stories of Scripture. And we looked at that last week. I encourage you to listen to the message if you weren't here. But if you believe that this is true, if you believe that there's overlap, and maybe you're like, I'd have it a little bit that way or a little bit this way, whatever, if you believe there's overlap, and that there's even the chance, the chance that one day you might encounter some spiritual resistance, some pushback on the ground that God has won for you, then Paul here in Ephesians is saying, you better be ready. Be equipped, be alert, and put on some armor so that you can stand your ground. And that's the good news in all of this is that we don't have to be afraid. We're on the winning team. And God has not left us exposed. God has given us armor, he's given us equipment. The solution for spiritual warfare is spiritual armor, and it's a metaphor that Paul's using. And we see this in verses 13 through 17. He says, Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. And then after the battle, you'll be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you'll be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So that's our armor. And what we're gonna do for the next few weeks is go through that piece by piece. And he begins by talking about a belt, which is not epic at all. Like it's a poor place to start if you're trying to like wow people. Like, let's get some armor on, let's talk about some armor. I want you to picture armor. When I said armor, you're probably picturing like shields and helmets and like the breastplate, like the whole suit of things. You probably did not picture a belt. Because we don't see a belt as armor. So I kind of wish he would have started with something cooler than a belt. But that's where he starts. It's funny, we we don't see belts as armor, we see belts as accessories. That's where you buy belts in a store. You go to the accessories aisle, which means this isn't actually necessary, but if you want it, it adds a little something. You know? Like I'm I'm wearing a belt this morning. And if if if those of you who are belt wearers are proud, go ahead and raise your hand. How many of us put on a belt this morning when we came? Okay. How many of us really need the belt? Like we could lose it right now and be some of you really need the belt. You're wearing pants that are just way too big, or the style is that good. I I could I could take this belt off and it's fine. Everything's fine. It's not necessary at all. And I doubt even those of you who have said, like, yeah, I really need this belt, I doubt when you put your belt on this morning, you were like, now I'm ready. You know? I got my belt on and I'm ready for anything that comes at me because I got on this belt. Like none of you were thinking that. Because we don't see a belt as a piece of armor, we see a belt as an extra, as an add-on. But Paul begins, he begins his description of God's armor with a belt. And that's because he was very familiar with the armor of a Roman soldier. He spent a good portion of his adult life in jail. He spent a good portion of his last days chained to a Roman soldier. So Paul would have been very familiar with Roman armor. And when it comes to Roman armor, the belt was absolutely crucial. Completely crucial because the belt held everything together. Your sword would have been attached to your belt. So if you didn't have your belt on, no sword. If you didn't have a belt on, your armor would fall off. Your armor would completely get out of place. So, like the breastplate that covered the most vital organs in the body, the belt is what kept it where it was supposed to be. The belt is what it all tied everything together, everything connected to the belt. And if you didn't have that belt on, you'd be fighting in a battle and your armor would sway and it would get out of place. And now all of a sudden, that breastplate, it's not protecting those vital organs anymore. You're exposed. Everything, everything was held together by the belt. The belt was designed to hold things up, keep things in place. And that's a perfect metaphor. Because what does Paul use a belt to describe? It's truth, right? Verse 14, he says, stand your ground putting on the belt of truth. See, the truth does exactly what a Roman belt is supposed to do. The truth holds up. The truth holds up. In fact, I don't I just want to make sure you guys are awake and engaged and alive. That's important. So, like, I'm gonna say the truth, finish that statement, because I want us to get this. The truth, what that sounded horrible. You guys sound like a you sounded like a cult just now. It was like lifeless and holds up. No, don't do that. That's weird. The truth, what? Yeah, now you're excited. Now we're playing the prices right. That's what that felt like. I like it. Okay. The truth holds up. That's what the truth does. But but here's the interesting thing. We live in a culture that just doesn't care about the truth very much at all. Our culture is like running as far away from any notion of truth, like as fast as possible. That's what's happening right now in our culture. And it's kind of interesting to watch. It's funny because we're so careless with the truth as a culture that we don't even we don't even expect to be told the truth anymore. We don't. I'll give you a perfect example. It's McDonald's. Now, first of all, if you work at McDonald's, do not be offended. If you own a McDonald's, don't be offended. If you own all of the McDonald's, don't be offended. By the way, if you go here and you own all of the McDonald's, I know that you're not giving, okay? But like. But if you're listening to this and you're you're the McDonald's person, don't be offended. We have all done our part to keep you in business. We've all done our part to keep McDonald's going strong. I mean, I've eaten McDonald's a few times this week, and I'm proud of that. It's fine, it's good. I'll be honest, sometimes I'm intending to go to Chick-fil-A, but there's a longer line, and there's McDonald's right next to my Chick-fil-A, and I'm like, ah, I'll just go there, right? So you're my second choice, but you're, it's, that's good. So don't be offended if you're a McDonald's person. But McDonald's lies. Like all restaurants lie. This is what I'm talking about. You walk into a McDonald's, we've all had this experience, and you see a picture of a piece of food, like an item on their menu, you see maybe this quarter pounder with cheese. And and I I, by the way, I just want you to know, I told the first gathering people at this moment, I said, pray for the second service. Because when I show giant pictures of food and it's noon, it's kind of torture. So I'm sorry. But y'all stay strong. Um now we we've all seen this and maybe ordered that, but how many of us know that what they hand us is not that? It doesn't look like that at all, and we don't even expect it to. We don't care. We go, ooh, I want that. They hand us something that's like kind of like that, and we just go, all right, that's close enough. Like, can you imagine? Can you imagine, guys? Keep this up for a second. Can you imagine? If if you ordered that and they give you what they actually give you, and you walked back up to the counter and said, Hey, I have a problem. And they're looking at you like what? You're like, well, I ordered that, and this is what they gave me. They would look at you like you're crazy. They'd be like, I don't know what the problem is. You're like, well, clearly, look at this. This is not does not look anything like that. And they would look at you like, why would you expect it to? What could possibly possess you to believe that what we we give you would look anything like what we said it would look like? You're crazy for even expecting that, right? We would be viewed as the crazy ones, but but we are so careless with the truth and so comfortable with being careless with the truth that as a culture we're like, eh, close enough. It's fine. That's why we don't really like it, it's not shocking when a politician lies. I always love the news when they're like politician caught in a lie. We're like, we expected them to. Who expects politicians to tell the truth anymore? We reward them for lying. Like, why would we expect them to tell the truth? We live in a culture that is careless with the truth. Okay, guys, take that down for the benefit of everyone here. McDonald's sales are gonna skyrocket today in this near area. We're careless with the truth. We we we expect to be lied to and we're kind of comfortable with it. It's just it's just the way of the world. Not only do we expect to be lied to, not only are we careless with the truth, but as a culture, we're we're living in a time where people are just denying that truth even exists, which is hysterical to watch. Sad, but but it's hysterical. Like one of my favorite statements, and I've said this before, I just love it, is there's no absolute truth. There is no absolute truth. You've heard that said. And what I love about that statement is that if it's true, it's false. Because it's an absolute statement. So if there is no absolute truth, then there is absolute truth. It's just that that absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. And so if the statement is true, it is also by nature false, and that's a paradox. That doesn't make sense. So I love it when people say that. Because it disproves the whole notion. There's no absolute truth. We live in a time right now where people believe that truth is personal and indiscernible. So if I believe something about myself or something about the world, and no evidence supports it, in fact, if there's a lot of evidence that supports the exact opposite, I'm still expecting everyone to just believe me. It's my truth. It's my truth. Wasn't that long ago that when sailors would sail on the ocean, they would rely on the North Star for guidance, because from our point of view, it's the only star that stays in a fixed position as the Earth rotates. It's like right above our axis from our perspective. So we can look at it, it stays in place, the rest of the stars throughout the night, they're moving like crazy. Can you imagine if you were a captain on a ship years and years ago, and one of your crew members came to you and said, Hey, tonight, could we follow my North Star? You'd be like, Excuse me, we're following the North Star. Like, yeah, I know, but that one's my North Star. That's my truth, you know? And so I think it'd be better if we just went with that, because that one's my favorite, and that's the one I want to follow. You'd look at them and say, We'll die. Because there's only one North Star. But our culture right now, that's what it does. Our culture's like, everyone, just pick your own North Star and follow that, and it'll be fine. It'll be fine. And if you actually try to question someone and say, Hey, I feel like we're saying this, but all the evidence points elsewhere, people are like, that's offensive that you would even challenge this perspective. And sometimes you feel like you're taking crazy pills looking at the world. But our culture doesn't value truth. But I'm a Jesus follower, and Jesus is obsessed with truth. I don't know if you have a phrase that you say over and over again and it drives the people around you crazy. If Jesus had one of those, it would have been I tell you the truth. 78 times in the stories of Jesus, he says the phrase, I tell you the truth. I tell you the truth. Jesus talked about the truth constantly. He's got some classic examples. For example, John 8 32, even if you you're not familiar with Jesus, you've probably heard this statement. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That's Jesus. He said that. And John chat, you can clap for that. I love Jesus. John 17. Jesus is praying right before he goes to the cross, and he prays for us, his followers. He says, make them holy by your truth. He's talking to God the Father, make them holy by your truth, teach them your word, which is truth. And it doesn't seem like he's talking about something flimsy. He's talking about real truth, not personal, indiscernible truth, but real truth that can stand up to scrutiny. See, here's the reality, or the truth. Real truth is not afraid of scrutiny. Real truth is not afraid of being challenged. Real truth is not afraid of being tested because it knows that it will stand up. It will hold up because the truth holds up. And what we need in our lives is a truth so dependable, so strong, that we can build our lives on it. What we don't need is for each of us to just pick our truth and choose what we want to be true, what we wish would be true. That's not gonna do anything for us. That's not gonna get us there, that's gonna leave us exposed. We need a truth that is so steady, that is so right, that we can build our lives on it. And Jesus tells us that he has that truth and that he is that truth. Matthew chapter 7. Jesus is very bold. He says, Anyone who listens to my teaching and fought and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish. Like a person who builds a house on sand, and when the rains come and the floods and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. Jesus says, My teaching is truth you can build your life on. But he goes a step further. John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. So Jesus claims to teach the truth, and he claims to be the truth. And the question is, has that held up? Because we're 2,000 years later, we don't have to wonder. Like, I wonder if this Jesus guy is gonna stick, you know? Like it's been 2,000 years. And here's the the amazing thing about Jesus whether you believe he's God or not, he is the most influential human being who has ever lived. You won't hear Jesus talked about in a history class in schools because they're not allowed to talk about him. But if you were just to ask, hey, who's the one person in history that has most affected the course of human thinking and life? Who's the one person that has most shaped history? The answer is clearly Jesus. It's not even close. Dude's been on the Time of Time Magazine, the cover of Time Magazine 24 times. And he lived 2,000 years ago. Who else from 2,000 years ago keeps landing on the front cover of magazines? The world's obsessed with Jesus, even if it's obsessed with discrediting Jesus. I can turn on my television and find a channel that's trying to like expose something about Jesus. I'm like, you guys are way late to the game. People have been trying to discredit Jesus from the start. From the first time he opened up his mouth, there was resistance saying, Don't listen to him, don't listen to him. And guys, it hasn't worked. Get a new strategy. Because Jesus, he holds up. I was talking to a young man the other day, like a guy in his early 20s. I'm old enough now that that's young. Isn't that cool? I used to be that guy. And he was talking to me and he said, I just want to be a person of influence. And we weren't in church, it had totally no connection at all to that. We were just talking, and he said, I just really want to be a person of influence. And I was asking him about his life, and I said, Well, I'm gonna give you a recommendation. If you want to be a person of influence, I would study the life of the most influential person who's ever lived. His name's Jesus. No one has ever influenced people the way that he did. He didn't need money to do it, he didn't need earthly power to do it, and and he promised people that if they followed him, they would die. And people still did. Like that's influence, right? No one has ever influenced the world like Jesus. He holds up. And so I told this young man, if you want to be a person of influence, I would spend time with him. I'd become very familiar with him. Jesus, he holds up. When I was in college, we were assigned a book by a guy named John Stuart Mill. And if you don't know who he is, don't worry, he's dead. He won't be offended. Um it's just true, he died a couple hundred years ago. You don't even have to be the Statute of Limitations of grief is over. He's just a dead guy. And uh, but he was very influential in the history of our world, of our of our nation specifically. A lot of our government policies, a lot of our economic policies, the way that America works were heavily, heavily shaped and influenced by the philosophy of John Stuart Mill. And that's why we had to read about him in college. And he was an atheist. Didn't believe in the divine, didn't believe in the supernatural, didn't believe in God. But but there's this amazing quote, and I've brought it up a few times over the years. I love it, I'll never forget it. There's this amazing quote, and I love this, by the way, because my college professors uh loved to like dog on Jesus, but then they were telling us, read this guy's book. Like, read John Stuart Mill, but Jesus, blah, and then I read this quote by John Stuart Mill about Jesus. He said, about the life and sayings of Jesus, there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight, which must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his inspiration, in the very first rank of those men of sublime genius. This is an atheist talking about Jesus. Because he's undeniable, he holds up. There's a reason that every major world religion has a need to include Jesus somehow. It'd be a lot more convenient if they could just say, Don't listen to that guy. He's nuts, he's crazy. Ignore him. But in Hinduism, Jesus is divine. In Buddhism, he's an anointed one, he's or an enlightened one, is the words that they would use. In Islam, he's a prophet. It's like they just he's something undeniable about Jesus. He's the truth, he holds up, and you can build your life on him. You can build your life on his word. In John 17, he describes his teachings as the truth. He describes scripture, the word of God, as truth. And the reality is, scripture, it holds up. There has never been a document as heavily attacked as the Bible. It has been burned and it has been banned by entire nations. Why ban something that has no power? Like, no one's ever banned me from their country because I'm not, I'm like, what am I gonna do? You know, like we're fine if you're here. But there's nations that say, arrest anyone who crosses this border with a Bible in their hand. Why? Because it's powerful, because it's true, and it holds up and it's held up for centuries, centuries of extreme scrutiny. Like I said, the truth is not afraid of scrutiny, it welcomes it. Like I love scripture, and I love science. One of my favorite things about science is that it keeps proving the Bible to be true. There's this idea that like science is against the Bible, it could not be further from the truth. The scientific community might sometimes be opposed to faith in general, but science does this amazing job of proving scripture true. Let me give you a few examples. I hope this strengthens your faith. It has for mine. Isaiah 40, 22, this was written 3,000 years ago. God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him. He spreads out the heavens like a curtain, makes his tent from them. This is so awesome on many levels. I watched a talk really recently from a uh, again, an atheist who is a uh world-renowned quantum physicist, which I don't even know what that is. Um, like I know those words, but put them together, I'm like, I don't know what that guy does. He's just smart. Um and he was talking about space. And he was he was giving an interview with someone. He said, Imagine space like a sheet. It's like a because space has no dimension, outer space, or at least not like we would perceive it. It's like he said, picture it like a sheet that's just sort of like stretched out and everything's on it. And I was like, that's interesting. He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. And then it says, God sits above the circle of the earth. And that Hebrew word means sphere. And everyone alive at that time would have laughed at that statement and said, We know that the earth is flat, and if you go too far, you fall off. The earth is a circle. It wouldn't be another 2,000 years before the world would prove that the earth is round. And it wouldn't be for centuries after this was written that Greek mathematicians would first theorize that the earth was round based on what they could perceive and calculate. Centuries before all of that, when these Greeks were like, hey, we have a novel idea, the earth is round, and people were like, blasphemy. And then a thousand years later, when it was proven, the earth is round. It's like, yeah, our book said that 3,000 years ago. How about this one? I love this one. Job 26, 7. This was probably written before Isaiah. We don't know the exact date of Job, but many believe it was the first document written as far as when it was first with the first manuscript we have. Job 26, 7, God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. When this was written 3,000, 3,500 years ago, everyone would have laughed. How what are you saying? The earth is suspended on nothing. That doesn't even make sense. That doesn't even make sense. There were ancient cultures who believed that the earth sat on turtles, and that made more sense to people than the earth is just floating around. You'd be like, You say like the earth is just like hanging around, there's nothing under it at all? Yeah, that's crazy. That's insane. It wasn't until the 1650s that science proved that the earth is floating in space. And they're like, Eureka, we've discovered something amazing. The earth is floating in space. And it's like, yeah, our book says that in Job, and it's like the oldest book we have. This is one of my absolute favorites. You're glad for that. Genesis 1.1. Genesis 1.1. You know this verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the first chapter of Genesis, it's a poem. And so poems can be literal, they can be figurative, they can be taken a bunch of different ways, and that's fine, but it's very clear from Genesis 1 that there was a beginning. That God started things. He's the initiator of everything. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But even as recently as the 1940s, any person in the scientific community would have said, you're nuts. That's crazy. Because in the 1940s, the number one scientific theory of the origin of the universe was something called steady state theory, which states that there never was a beginning, that the universe has just always existed. And then a man named Edwin Hubble, he he was a big fan of telescopes, he uh he observed that space seemed to be expanding, kind of like an explosion at an ever-increasing rate, and that that expansion seemed to be originating from a single spot, a moment. And all the scientists in the world hated that idea. They're like, that's ridiculous. That goes against everything we believe. We believe that everything has always existed. Even Einstein wrote about steady state theory, and then eventually, when he had a chance to observe what Hubble was observing and tried to disprove it, like many other scientists, he said, I I I cave. I now see the necessity of a beginning. And so that led to something that's known today as the Big Bang Theory. Big Bang Theory is actually very new. 1940s, that's when it really took hold. And scientists abandoned steady state theory, which said there never was a beginning, and they started saying, Okay, in the beginning, something caused the heavens and the earth. And we're like, we know. Those are the very first words in our book. It's the first words, right? Scripture holds up, it holds up, and so you can you can build your life on it because it holds up, it stands up. And here's where this gets really crucial. It's one thing to know that scripture has cool scientific facts. It was not written as a science book. Some people will try to like pick it apart like that. Like, yeah, you know, some people say, oh, in in the story, for example, of of Joshua, it says that the sun stood still, and we're like, oh, we know that the sun doesn't move. Well, yeah, we still call it sunrise and sunset, okay? It's called language. The Bible wasn't written as a science book, but then all throughout it, in times in history where it doesn't make sense that it's scientifically accurate, it's there. That's great, that's nice to know, but what about our own lives? What about when it speaks to us as individuals? See, I I love Jesus, not just because I believe he's God, because he did miracles that I wasn't there to see, but because Jesus has a way to speak into my soul like only the person who created me could. And so we live in a world that believes in truths. Like, you gotta follow your heart. And if we believe that, like, we're in deep trouble. But if you know the truth, if you know the word which which holds up, you would know that in Jeremiah 17 it says that the human heart is deceitful and wicked above all things. So when someone tells me, like, I gotta follow my heart, I'm like, oh, what but what's the track record on your heart, by the way? Like, if your heart had a batting average, what would it be? It better be low. I'm not judging you, but it doesn't seem like life is working out at this point, and you've just been following your heart, and I don't know why you would do that. What if you followed Jesus instead? Our culture would say, hey, if you want to be happy, you just gotta be yourself. And Jesus would say, if you want to be happy, you need to deny yourself. I was watching this movie recently, and this is not a spoiler, it was the Avengers movie. So if you haven't seen it yet, hurry up if you're going to, because it's gonna get like anyone see that movie? See, this is what's awesome. When you're a pastor and you you reference something in pop culture, people are like, I don't know if I'm supposed to see movies, or uh, I don't know if it's good, I don't know if I liked it. Like, can I say that? Like, so everyone's like, oh, this is this a test? Am I gonna get ousted from the church? You're fine. That was a really good movie. Um, there's this one line in the movie, and I'm I'm realizing that I'm getting to a certain age, like I'm getting older. I'm I'm gonna be 40 fairly soon. I hit 36 this year, so I'm I'm now I'm no longer even like early 30s. And you know when you get older that things bother you in ways they didn't used to, you know? And so I'm having that happen to me, and I'm realizing, oh no, I'm becoming like an old, I gotta, this is just this is happening, it's happening. I'm gonna start getting bothered by like weeds and yards soon. I'm gonna be like, oh, they gotta, they gotta use fertilizer, they gotta get out there. You gotta crabgrass, you know, that's gonna do that. That's what's next. But there was this line in this movie, and it was quoted like it was some deep thought. And this character looks at another character who who this person's story arc throughout all these movies has been uh his name's Thor. He's a a god of thunder, and it's he's a ridiculous character, but they make it work. Um he's awesome, he is. Uh a lot of people have told me that I physically am shaped like Thor, but no, I'm just joking. Just joking. I know a few guys here who are, though, and I always look at some of you guys, you know, I'll come up to you and I'll be like, hey, if you have any tips at the gym, just let me know, I'll come, I'll help you out because they're really big dudes. And so Thor's his whole character arc in the movies has been that he he is worthy, he is called, but he just doesn't want to take that step and actually be who he's supposed to be. He doesn't, he's fighting the responsibility, he's fighting the calling. He's worthy, but he's just like, ah, I don't know if I want to take the mantle, so to speak. And so in this movie, the advice that's given to him is wisdom, is stop trying to be who you're supposed to be and just be who you are. And I heard that and I was like, nah, be who you're supposed to be. Because what if who you're supposed to be is better than who you are? See, Jesus, he calls me to be who I'm supposed to be, who I'm meant to be. And through Jesus, we have a destiny. We have a calling on our lives to be more than just who we are today. Through Jesus, you can become the person you were created to be. But our culture, it lies. It tells us things that sound good, it sounds nice, it sounds sweet, but it holds no water because it's not truth. It doesn't hold up. And here's why this is important. Here's why this matters. And we'll we'll wrap up. We have an enemy. We have an enemy, and and our enemy has strategies. And you want to know what his chief strategy is? He's got a couple fear and lies. Satan is a very good, very good liar. In fact, Jesus said this of Satan in John 8, 44. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he's a liar and the father of lies. Satan is a liar. And our world's full of lies. Our culture's full of them, and they're presented as if they're beautiful, sweet. The best lies always are. Our enemy, he's a liar. And in this battle that we fight, this battle that Satan is fighting with us as Jesus followers to reclaim what Jesus has given to us, what he's won for us, as we stand our ground, the reason we start with the belt of truth is that we live in a world of lies. And in a battle, in a battle, there is nothing more powerful than misinformation. Misinformation is as powerful as any weapon a military can possess. One of my favorite stories from history is this story called The Ghost Arming. In fact, they're making a movie about this that's going to come out in the next few years. But up until the 1990s, this was completely classified, and no one had any idea that this ever happened. But in the midst of World War II, we were preparing our invasion of Normandy, which was the breaking point in the war. Had that battle not gone the way it went, the world would be a very different place. We were coming in to take Europe back from the Nazi forces. But see, Hitler was obsessed with a general named Patton, one of our great generals in American history. Colorful dude, but effective at what he did. And Patton had been fighting Mussolini in Italy and was successful. And after he was successful, Hitler just assumed, well, they're gonna send Patton after me. And we knew that. We knew that Hitler had kind of a fixation on Patton. And so what we did was we took Patton and we put Patton, or at least put out the information that Patton was up in like the Norway-Sweden area, and that that led Hitler to believe we were gonna attack from there. And then we created this super top secret group of people. The military uh grabbed the best and brightest from Hollywood and they created this thing that they called the Ghost Army. And again, this was completely classified until the 90s. I'm gonna show you some footage of the ghost army real quick. This is really, really cool. Very, very short clip. One of my favorite things ever. What it was was an entire battalion of fake tanks, trucks, and for weeks and weeks the Ghost Army marched across that portion of Europe and purposefully allowed German spy planes to capture footage of their march. And from that vantage point, I mean, even up close, you gotta like give them credit, they did a good job. I didn't know they could make stuff like that in the 1940s. But but especially from the vantage point of those planes, they believed there was a massive, massive force that was amassing. That's what a massive force does, it amasses, whatever. Um, there was a massive force, and it was gathering, and it was gonna breach Europe from the north. And we purposefully allowed chatter to get out, and and the Germans, and Hitler believed that's where the invasion was gonna happen. But it was all just hot air, like literally inflatable tanks, balloons. So when we attacked Normandy, Hitler thought that was the diversion. He thought that was that was the fake out. And so he purposefully did not send reinforcements to Normandy because he kept them all stationed where he had them, thinking that that was where the attack was. So he was guarding his nation against balloons while we were attacking it over here. And because of that delay in sending reinforcements, by the time they realized what was going on and they sent it was too late, and we were there and we were victorious. And it's all because we were really good liars. See, misinformation is as powerful as any weapon, and we have an enemy who is a master, a master of misinformation. Jesus credits him. Say he's a really good liar, he's the father of lies. And so if you're gonna fight this enemy, you need to know the truth. You need to know the truth, you need to know the word of God. I will do my best every Sunday to accurately teach scripture. But you have access to the word of God every day of your lives. We have it on our phones, we have it in book form. You can you can access God's word constantly at any moment in time. So take advantage of that. Know what it says, know the truth. There are more resources right now at our disposal to understand the word of God than there have ever been before. We we link to a lot of them on our mobile app, by the way. The Bible Project is one I would highly recommend. Search the Bible Project Online. They make these amazing videos that break scripture down and can take a whole book that you can open up an ancient book of the Bible, some prophet who lived 3,000 years ago and watch a video from the Bible Project, they'll say, This is what this guy's talking about, this is where he's coming from, and it's like, oh, I get it. It's just it's at our disposal, but are we gonna take advantage of it? Are we actually gonna open it up and read it and take it in and know it? Because it's the truth, but if you don't know the truth, how do you recognize the lie? You gotta know the truth. It's the belt, it holds everything up. The truth may hold up, but do you hold on to the truth? That's the question. Do you cling to the truth? What happens when the truth comes up against your opinion? What happens when the truth comes up against your desire? Which do you choose? The truth or what you want? What happens whenever I have an opinion about the world and I open up scripture and I read something and I'm like, oh no, I disagree with God? Who's right? Probably me. That's what a lot of people do, and so they end up having this faith where they've kind of picked and chosen the parts of scripture they like, and then they've taken things from the world that they like and they've brought it all together and they've they've created a cocktail of Jesus and culture, and they're hoping that's gonna get them through. It's not. There's no reason to water down Jesus. Because he's the truth, he holds up. But you've got to hold on to him, you've got to hold on to truth. You've got to know it, you've got to live it. Put that belt on because everything else depends on that. We're gonna finish with two people who are going all in with Jesus and getting baptized, which is really awesome. That's our ending moment today. And what they're doing right now is something that every single one of us has the choice to do at any point in time, is they are committing their lives to Jesus Christ, the truth, the way, the truth, and the life. And what they're saying is that from this moment on, their life is going to be defined by Him, by who He is, what He says. You know, Jesus said in John 8, 32, we read this once already, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And he's not just talking about information there, he's talking about himself because he is the truth. And if you want to have a life that's equipped, that's ready to stand ground, that's ready to push back when your enemy pushes against you. You gotta know the truth, you gotta know Jesus. Give your life to him. Put your faith in him. That's something you do, it's between you and him. It's a moment in your heart where you cross a line of faith, but then the next step is to get baptized, to go all in with Jesus and proclaim to the whole world, I follow him. And that's what these people are doing. So we're gonna celebrate this moment with them because they're giving everything to the truth. And I encourage you as you go about your week to be committed to the truth, to hold on to it as tightly as he holds on to you. So let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for all you've done for us. You are the truth, and what you say is true, and what you say holds up, Lord. Your word, it holds up, it has stood the test of time. And so, Jesus, we're we're coming to you, asking that you would fill us with a desire to know the truth, that we would hold on to it when we find it, that we would cling to it, that we would depend on it, that we would treat it like that belt that everything is connected to, that holds everything up, Lord. Help us hold on to truth because the truth holds up. I pray, Lord, if there's one person in this room that doesn't know you, or that maybe in their minds or their hearts they've they've walked away from you, that you remind them that you're right here, that you're always a moment away, that you're with us always, and that we can give our lives to you and trust what you'll do with our lives because you're the truth. So bless these people who are going on with Jesus. Help us come around them and support them as a as a as a church, as a family. Help us, Lord, be there for them. Use us for that. We love you, and it's in your name we pray. Amen.