Message Overview: This message is a call to stop pretending and start living in the truth. God is not interested in who you pretend to be, He wants the real you. Real freedom begins when you take off the mask, put on the belt of truth, and root your identity not in your image, but in who Jesus says you are.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians can be broken up into 3 sections: Wealth, Walk, & Warfare

· He begins by teaching us the wealth and identity we have in Christ and then he teaches us how to walk it out in our daily lives. Then Paul talks about the spiritual reality of life: we are at war. AW Tozer said the Christian life isn’t a playground, it’s a battleground, and this is exactly what Paul wants us to understand. We are in a war, but it’s not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil. Because of this, Paul wants us to know how to be ready and tells us how to dress for battle. 

The word truth comes from the Greek word: alētheia, and it literally means “reality as it truly is”

· When Paul says to put on the belt of truth is means that you need to be your honest, real, authentic self before God and before people. This doesn’t just mean that you tell the truth, but it means that you are the same person no matter where you go. The opposite of living in truth is living as a hypocrite. Hypocrite in the Greek literally means “to speak from beneath” and it referred to actors on a stage playing a role. Many Christians struggle with wearing different masks but Paul says, we need to put on the belt of truth and live consistently 

Roman soldiers held around 70-80 pounds of armor around their body for 12-15 hours a day

· The most important part of their armor was the belt because it held everything together and stabilized it. The breastplate was secured into the belt and it held their sword. Roman soldiers wore long tunics under their armor and before a battle they would tuck the tunic into their belt so that they were ready to fight. The belt was the first piece you put on because without it nothing would stay in place, and the same thing is true in our spiritual lives: if your life isn’t rooted in reality, everything becomes unstable. 

Acts 5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

· Background: This is a beautiful and powerful time for the early church, everyone is unified and people are coming to faith in Jesus by the thousands. Ananias and Sapphira think, we should sell our property and give the money to the church, they wanted to be known for being generous givers. They didn’t have a giving problem, they had a pride problem. They wanted to look holy more than they wanted to live holy. They cared more about their reputation than they cared about their reality. “Kept back” in the Greek means to embezzle or misappropriate. It wasn’t a financial decision as much as it was a spiritual deception. They wanted the image of being generous without actually being generous. 

V3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

· Peter said, wasn’t the money at your disposal? You didn’t have to give it all to the church, but you can’t lie to God about this. This problem exists in our culture today. We try so hard to project an image that we are impressive and put together. God doesn’t call you to be impressive, He calls you to be authentic, just be real, be honest. Peter’s not trying to shame Ananias, but he’s trying to get to the root of his sin. Putting on the belt of truth means living in the reality of who you are and who God is. Not hiding. Not performing, Just being honest. God can work with honesty. But He won’t bless hypocrisy

In John 8:32 Jesus says “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”

· That’s what real freedom looks like, it’s not that you can do whatever you want, but it’s when the weight of your sin and shame is gone. You can finally stop performing, stop pretending, and be who God created you to be. Real freedom is when your identity is no longer tied to your past, your failures, or what other people say about you, but now you’re rooted in Jesus because of what He has done for you on the cross. You are no longer bound by sin but you are empowered by grace. If today you don’t know that freedom, this is your invitation, look to Jesus today!