The Armor of God // The Belt of Truth // Pastor Josh Evans

See you. Amen. If it is well with your soul, can you say Amen? And listen, I hope it is. If it's not, it certainly can be before you leave this place today.

And I tell you, there's nothing like singing. It is well with my soul, regardless of what you have going on in your life, regardless of the week that you had, regardless of the baggage that you walked in here carrying this morning. Listen, it is well with our soul.

It can be. And I'm grateful for that. Well, listen, if you have your Bible, go to Ephesians chapter number six. Today, Ephesians chapter number six. We are beginning. You chose a great day to join us today because we are kicking off a brand new series today called The Armor of God. And so we are going to be in this series over the next few weeks. Last Sunday, we concluded our series entitled Disciple.

Be one, make one. And I tell you, as a preacher, as a pastor, that was one of the series that I just enjoyed preaching through as much as anything because we saw so much fruit from that and so many decisions that were made as a result of that. And I want you to know today that if you are still in here, even though we're starting a new series and you feel like you could really use some help in your spiritual life on your journey with Jesus, we have some people that we can connect you with and we would love to get you plugged into that and we would love to disciple you. And then if you're in here today and you're like, hey, you are ready to take the step and disciple somebody else, we also would love to connect with you and know who you are. And let's keep some of that fire going with discipleship because that's the mission of what we are called to do as a ministry and we are here to assist you in whatever way that we certainly can.

But today, like I said, it's always good to be here on the first day of a brand new series because we'll do some background and kind of where we are going over the next several weeks. But by way of introduction, I wanted to say this because this is really what the Apostle Paul is saying here at the end. This is the very end of the book of Ephesians and final instructions are important, aren't they?

Final instructions are important. When I was studying this and I was looking at him, the Apostle Paul writing, and this is kind of the last thing that he wanted the Church of Ephesus to say, I was thinking about how final instructions are important. Several years ago, I got invited to sit on an ordination council for a young man who was called to be in ministry. None of you would know him except for Daniel would know him, DJ Patrick, and I was sitting on his ordination council and I got invited to be a part of that.

DJ had sat in some of my college classes and so I knew him really well and I was honored to be a part of this. So I remember the pastor at his church emailed me and all the other people that were going to sit on his ordination council and they were also ordaining another guy from their church as well on the same day. So there was like 12 pastors who were coming to be a part of this ordination council. If you're not familiar with what that is, it's basically a time where we ordain a person for ministry.

So there's a time of questioning, there's a time of asking questions about beliefs and doctrine and theology and all of this kind of thing. And so the day came, it was on a Sunday and they were having a Sunday evening service where they were going to do this and we had to show up an hour and a half early to be a part of this question and answer time with the two candidates who were going to be ordained. And so that morning, this church was about an hour from where I lived and I was curious because I wanted to dress appropriately for this and I wanted to kind of know what style they would want you to dress in because I'd read the emails and things like that and I didn't see anything specifically about that because some people might be more casual and some want suit and tie kind of thing. Well, I looked at their church and it was a little bit more contemporary of a church and so on Sunday, a lot of the people wore up on stage like in their praise team, they had jeans and like collared shirts on. So I was kind of like, okay, okay, so I know what to wear.

That's what I'll go with. I'll kind of stick with that and that's what I will do because that's kind of the style of their church. And so that afternoon, I'm heading over, I tell my family, hey, I'm going to this ordination thing.

I'll be gone for the remainder of the evening. So I drive and his church was near the beaches and so I drove all the way out there and I get there and there was somebody who kind of showed us where we were going to be with all these other pastors and I was honored to be a part of it. And I walk into this room and there's, like I said, about 12 pastors, the church's pastoral staff was there and then you had the two guys being ordained and I walk in there with jeans, a untucked shirt, okay, and I walk in there and I noticed something very, very quickly, that every single person in there was in a suit and tie. And I looked and I was like, oh my goodness, you know, and I was like, I have missed something, okay, I have messed up. Have you ever shown up somewhere and you're dressed totally different than everybody else? That's such a terrible feeling.

And I was like an hour away from my house so there was no fixing it at this point. It was just kind of like, hey, you're just going to have to own this. I can't go up to him and say, hey, I'm embarrassed, I'm not going to sit on your ordination council.

And so I was like, hey, I just have to own this. And so I walk in there and I go up to him and I'm like, hey, DJ, man, I'm honored to be a part of this. Hey, there's kind of an elephant in the room that I just want to ask you specifically, okay, did I miss something? Because I'm dressed way different than everybody else in this room. And he said, yes, on the email that my pastor sent all of you, the very last thing after he had a signature, he had a PS thing that said, hey, this is a formal suit and tie event.

And I'm like many people, I skimmed the email, I catch the things that really mattered to me. And I felt so out of place. It was so bad that it was a fairly large church. And so they had what was happening up on stage. If you've ever been in a venue like this, what was happening up on stage was on these two big screens behind us, right? And so what he had us do was he said, hey, the ordination council for the whole service, you guys are going to sit up on stage.

And so I was like, okay, cool. So I went up there with all these older pastors and I go up there and I'm thinking, okay, I've watched that screen. I'm going to sit as far to the right or left as possible.

And hopefully I'm not going to be on there. And so I walk up there and all these pastors take the outside seats. And there I was in the center, up on the screen for all to see everybody in suits for the whole night. And there I was dressed so casual.

Some of my friends, I don't call them friends anymore, made fun of me. And they said, that's what it feels like to be a youth guy. You know, they're like senior pastor, senior pastor, senior pastor, youth guy in the center, not knowing what I'm doing.

But listen, I say that as a joke to say final instructions are important. And you got to realize that here in Ephesians chapter six, the apostle Paul has been writing in these previous chapters, he's been writing this church at Ephesus and he's been writing all about the gospel, all about the gospel. In fact, you can see the gospel at work work throughout the entire book. And you can see that the gospel is now what he was telling them is their new identity in Christ. So the entire book of Ephesians is about the gospel and living out who we are in, in Jesus Christ. And as he comes to his final challenge, this final moment here, if you would have him challenging the church at Ephesus about the gospel, he comes to this armor of God that you and I know it so well.

And he says this, if you look in verse number 10 of Ephesians chapter six, he says, finally, so you understand he's coming to the end of this letter. He says, Hey, finally, in other words, what I've said all up to this point, all of the writing about the gospel that we have talked about here, finally, because of that brothers, Christians, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his, of his might. And I want to point out one thing about that is he says be strong in the Lord and be strong in the power of his might, as he begins to talk about this, this battle that we are in, it's, it's something worth noting that he says the only way that we can show up and fight in the battle is by finding our strength in the Lord and in the power of his might. In other words, it's not your strength that's going to get you through the battle.

It's not my strength that is going to show up and fight the battle. It's the person that is living inside of me, the Holy Spirit that is there, the presence of God that will fight for you in the battle. He goes on verse 11 and he begins this conversation about the armor. Put on the whole armor of God that ye, by the way, it is of God.

It's his strength working in you. The gospel that saved you is also the gospel that is going to be lived out inside of your life. The armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, of the devil. Now I'm going to get real with you here in a moment is as Paul is concluding the book of Ephesians and he's giving his final thoughts for them about, about life and living out the gospel. He's been talking to Christians and as he tells them, hey, you got to live out your new identity.

Jesus has saved your life and now it's time for you to live it out. He begins to talk about a battle that we are in. Now we don't like to hear about this a whole lot, but he actually brings up the devil. He gives us a warning about the devil.

Now, when I was, I was studying this, I was thinking about this. We're kind of scared in church to talk about the devil, aren't we? We're kind of scared about, I mean, some of you are like, man, where are we going? Are we going to be some, one of those weird churches that, you know, talk about this kind of demonic type thing? But I think it's something worth talking about for a few moments here today is he begins to warn about the devil. Now our culture has kind of warped what we think about the devil and demonic oppression in our world. In other words, I've seen enough scary movies in my day and age to know that our culture and society, they depict demonic stuff and the devil as, you know, this feeling that's going to make you float above a bed or they're going to make your eyes go in the back of your head or all of this weird, some of you are like, man, we are becoming a weird church.

All right, just buckle up, all right? But listen, we kind of think and our culture describes the devil in all of these different ways and here the apostle Paul, he gets real for a moment with the church at Ephesus and he says, and he says, listen, as you're living out your identity, there's going to come these attacks, this strategy from this demonic side of what we are fighting that is going to attack you. And we struggle knowing what to talk about when it comes to the devil because we're a little scared about it because of what culture has said about the devil. I want you to know that culture is wrong in the way they depict the devil, okay?

That's not what we're talking about here today because, in fact, you can see this mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14. It says this, Paul, he calls Satan, he calls Satan an angel of light. He calls him an angel of light. It's much different than kind of what you've seen in a movie or what you've seen or heard come Halloween time about about the devil and demonic oppression. No, here the scripture actually calls this enemy that we are facing an angel of light.

Here's what that really means. It means that the devil, our enemy, is going to disguise himself in whatever form that he has to disguise himself to get you off target. It means that the devil, the enemy that we are fighting, is going to disguise himself in whatever form that he needs to in order to try and deceive you, in order to try and deceive you. That's why, in the book of 1 Peter, Peter writes, he says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, adversary, here he is, the devil is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour.

Listen, the devil, when we talk about this, is not going to be dressed up like you see him in the movie. In fact, what he is doing is much different than that. He is actually disguising himself with things that you are drawn to and things that I am drawn to and he's trying to disguise himself as an angel of light to try and deceive you. That's what he's trying to do.

Aren't you thankful you came to church this morning, okay? And listen, I know that this isn't something we get excited about, but I think it's worth noting that that's what he is doing. So you say, how does he disguise himself? The devil, our enemy, here's how he's disguising himself. He's going to disguise himself through things that you are drawn to and he's going to take on a form to try and get you to be deceived. So here's some things that he might try to do in your life. He might disguise himself through whatever you are called to do for your career.

You say, how would that happen? He might be a part of you making that decision for your life. He might be a part of making a decision, parents, of things that you enter your kids into, good things.

And now you enter them into those things and now they take the place of God in your family and in their life and then when they grow up they don't care about God and it's because the decision that you made back when they were real little about entering them into certain things and now they don't care a thing about God, it's because you put those things before God when they were young. You say, what is that? You see what's happening is the devil, the enemy, is trying to disguise himself in all of these things that we are into to try and get us off the target of living out our purpose and living for him. Another way he can disguise us, he can disguise himself through media, right?

We all consume media all the time, whether that be a computer, an iPad, or a phone, you know, or a smart whatever you're using. Guess what? The enemy is disguising himself and taking on this form in his life to try and throw you off and deceive you. That's what he's trying to do and I want you to understand this because this is what the Apostle Paul is saying. He's saying, listen, we're in a battle. This is war. This is war.

When you sign up to trust Jesus with your life and you trust in him for your salvation, what happens is now you are in this battle. You are in war and here's why. It's because the devil, our enemy, is after your destruction. He's after your destruction. He wants to destroy your life.

He gets joy by destroying your life, by deceiving you, by destroying your family. And so Paul says we are in a battle, a fierce battle. In fact, you're in a fight right now. You're in a fight right now and the danger that we have is not realizing that we're in a fight. I love what C.S.

Lewis wrote. He said this, when it comes to the demonic, we usually fall into two different eras. Either we take them too seriously or we don't take them seriously enough. So that's probably where a lot of you are at today when it comes to the demonic oppression in our world. You're probably thinking, okay, you don't ever think about it and you don't even realize you're in a battle. You wake up every day and you don't put on the armor and you're oblivious to the battle that is your life and the battle that is happening within you and that's a mistake.

But then there's some of us, and I think it's kind of humorous, we take them too seriously in all of life, right? You pull into the parking lot and you have to park a mile away and you think that's the enemy trying to attack you, right? And we give him credit for everything.

It's like, man, the prices at McDonald's went up. Man, that enemy's trying to, he's getting us, right? And you're taking him way too seriously and you're giving him credit for everything. But then there's a group of us in here who we never talk about the demonic oppression and we never talk about warfare and we never talk about the Bible that we're in. In fact, we're oblivious to it and we don't show up realizing that we are in a battle.

We are in a battle. I think of war stories that I think about and I always go to the, well, on June 6th, 1944, remember we call it D-Day, and as all of these troops on like 7,000 ships, they're going there to the beaches of France, right? And as they're going there, there's like thousands and thousands of troops on these things. And as they're going, here's what they're not thinking. They're not thinking, man, I'm going to hang out on the beaches there in Europe for a couple of days. No, you know what they're saying? They're thinking about the battle that they are in. They're not just surprised by it. They're actually focused on the battle. And here's what I want you to know, church.

I want you to get this. And like I said, we're not going to be a weird church about this, but we're going to be very honest and direct. Here's what the apostle Paul wants you to know is you are in a battle. You're in a battle. You're in a battle. You're in a battle for your family.

You're in a battle for your kids. You're in a battle with an enemy, a real enemy who is out to destroy you. The devil is out for your destruction. So here in verses 13 and 14, he gives us the battle plan. He gives us a battle plan of how do we combat the enemy?

How do we combat the enemy? He goes on in verse 12. We'll read verse 12. It says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, because of that, take unto you the whole armor of God.

Why? So that you can stand or withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And he says, verse 14, and this is the first one we're going to look at in the armor. He says, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, with truth. So we're going to look at the belt of truth this morning. And let me say this, what you believe as truth and the grid that you use to determine what is truth will affect every area of your life.

Every area of your life. Let me say that again. What you believe is truth and the grid by which you determine what is true in your life, it will affect everything else in your life. You see the enemy, the devil that Paul is warning us about here, he is trying to destroy us. And the way that he is trying to destroy us is he is actually trying to destroy and get us to doubt the word of God. He's trying to deceive you to doubt the word of God. If you look back, we're not going to take the time to look there, but back in Genesis from the very beginning, after the creation of the world, after the creation of man, the very first thing that the enemy, he disguised himself as a serpent. He comes up to Eve and then to Adam and he deceives both of them. And you say, what was that fight during that day?

Here's what it was. It was the word of God. He goes to them and he tries to deceive them by saying things like, did God really mean what he said?

Or, hey, is God really going to do what he said? And what he's trying to do is he's trying to get us to doubt God's word. He wants you to to doubt God's word.

He wants you to start looking at culture and looking at relevance and starting to look at things around you to try to determine what is true about your life and about him and about all of our lives. And what he wants us to do is to get us off track so that we are not getting the truth that we believe about life from the word of God. He wants us to doubt God's character. He wants us to doubt what God says about certain things.

He wants us to doubt all of these things so that he could destroy your life. That's why the Apostle Paul says the first thing we got to do is we got to take up the belt of truth. We got to find our truth in something that never changes. In a book that is given to us that is the very word of God that was without error, infallible, given to us and he says this is the truth that God has left us with. This is how we get truth as followers of Jesus. And so the enemy is trying to get us to doubt but the second thing and this is super practical for you in here today is he wants us to neglect. Not only does he want us to doubt God's word, he wants us to neglect God's word. For some of you the enemy, here's how he's trying to attack you in the wilds that he is using to try to go after you. He's just trying to get you focused on everything else so you neglect what God wants you to do.

Right? That's what he's trying to do. He wants us to be distracted with things like you know activities.

So we are so busy as a society so that we have no time around the word of God. That's what that's what he's trying to do. So he's going to disguise himself through kids sports and recitals and dance and all of these things and there's nothing wrong. My kids they play sports and stuff so I'm not against all that.

In fact I'm for it and I love the outreach that we can do as a result of that. But I'll tell you this when we become so focused in those areas that we neglect the truth of God's word in our families then the devil has disguised himself and he is it winning the war that is in your life. That's exactly what this is all about. So he wants us to doubt God's word but he wants us to neglect it. Some of you say oh that's not where I'm neglecting but here's where you're neglecting is Netflix or whatever.

There's a thousand streaming devices out there right? We got to be members of all of them right? So we become members of all this stuff and we have so much time where we're consuming things and what the enemy has done is he has disguised himself in these ways with a it might not even be a bad show it might be a good show and you're watching it and what he's done is you're spending more time here than you are in the word of God and what happens is is we're neglecting God's word and I'll tell you this when we neglect God's word the enemy is winning the war in your life. So Paul is telling us we gotta we gotta fight. We gotta fight.

We gotta show up to battle and not allow the enemy to get a foothold into our life and the first way he's gonna do this is he's gonna attack. What you believe about truth. Listen we cannot get truth from media.

We cannot get truth. In fact half the stuff you look listen don't believe everything you see on Facebook. Like don't not everything is true on there.

I know for some of you this you're like really like listen it's not it's not true. Not everything you see in front of you is true and I realize in 2023 it is difficult for us to determine what is true about certain things. I'm with you on that but I'll tell you this is that that is why with us when we are showing up to war and we're showing up to battle we got to put on this belt of truth so that our truth is founded upon something that does not change and I'll tell you this every single politician both sides of the fence are going to say whatever they need you to say true or untrue to try to get you to vote for them okay. So I don't want you to look at a politician and just think oh man they they believe a couple things like me so everything that they say is true. No listen you might like them and there is nothing wrong with that and I'm never going to come in between your decision to who you vote for but I'll tell you this we cannot look at politicians and government and media and Facebook and Netflix and everything you see on Twitter and all this kind of stuff and say that those things are true. The only thing we can say without a shadow of a doubt that is true is found in the 66 books of the Bible that God has left us and what he's telling us to do is when we are showing up to fight for our families and to fight for our families and to fight for our children and to fight for those things we are fighting a real enemy we're not fighting democrats or republicans that's not the fight here's what the fight is the fight is against a real enemy who is trying to deceive you so that he could destroy your family and Paul says the way that we fight the way that we show up and fight every single day we got to put the belt of truth into our life you got to put it on every single day every single day and by the way some of you don't spend time in the word of God at any time other than when you come to church and if that's you let me tell you this you're not putting on the belt of truth every day you're putting it on twice a week and if you're only putting it on twice a week the enemy the enemy has a foothold into your life and he's trying to deceive you listen i'm just telling you this that i because i love you okay i really mean that as your pastor i do not want you to be deceived i do not want you to be deceived i want you to show up realizing that there is a battle at stake so you say how do we put on the belt of truth like what does that even mean when he says this and by the way we're calling it belt of truth i know the king james says loins gird about with truth i like belt of truth a little bit better because that's what it is right the belt of truth is the belt that goes around you that keeps everything up in other words right you ever lost weight before and uh and and when you lose weight you haven't got new clothes or whatever i did this several years ago i lost some weight and i lost like 35 pounds and when i did that i hadn't bought all my new new clothes yet and so if i didn't have a belt on it was going to be really bad for myself and for everybody around me okay and let me just say this that that's what this is so when he says the belt of truth it's the it's the thing that you put into your life that everything else stays together on so just like your belt you put it around so that your pants stay up and so everything else stays into place that's exactly what the belt of truth is it's a belt around the truth of scripture that keeps everything else together and keeps everything else in its place so you say how do we do that just a couple things and and i'll try to run through this uh kind of fast for you because i know we got some things we got to do at the end of this earth first your stability should be in the truth of scripture your stability should be in the truth of scripture in ephesians chapter 3 i love just a couple pages back what the apostle paul said he says this in verse 17 he says that that christ now remember in john chapter 1 jesus came and he dwelt among us and john chapter 1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was made flesh and the word dwelt among us and so when it says jesus you can think the word of god if you would and so when it says that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love listen whatever you need to do when you put on the belt of truth here's what it's going to do in your life it is going to stabilize you by rooting you and grounding you in something that does not change in other words the word rooted it means to be firm it carries on this idea of a tree that has deep and strong roots that hold everything together and that's what the word of god is supposed to be in your life the word of of god should be what roots you and grounds you the word grounded used in ephesians uh chapter 3 it actually means settled in fact you can see this in first peter chapter 5 when he says that the god of heaven is actually going to establish you strengthen you and settle you it's the same word the same greek word that we find here in ephesians chapter 3 the word grounded so when we talk about being rooted and grounded the word of god is the only thing that can bring stability in your life you see it can't be found in all the things of this world you can't find stability in circumstances you can't find stability in what you put your kids into you can't even find stability in what you view as happiness for your life you see we're looking for stability in all these different areas and i'll tell you this and pastor fletcher and his family can testify to this even this week the only thing that can stabilize us regardless of what happens in our life is the truth of the word of god and so what i want you to understand is the first thing you got to do because everything else is held together by the belt of truth is you have to every single day show up and spend time in the word of god for some of you practically that means you got to get up earlier if you're half asleep every time you know about 8 30 9 o'clock and you haven't spent time in the word then the best thing for you to do is set your clock a little bit sooner so that you could spend time in god's word every single day or if you're a student in here maybe it's in between classes but all i'm telling you this is the enemy is going to win the war in your life if you're not stabilizing yourself in the truth of scripture the second thing your sanctification should be in the truth of scripture in john chapter 17 verse 17 the scripture says in fact jesus says sanctify them through thy truth thy word is true the word sanctify means to be set apart or to be made holy in other words the only way that we become holy as he is holy is through the word of god it's the only way you want to be like god get in the word you want to know god get in the word you want your kids to grow up and be like and live for god get them in the word you want your grandkids to grow up and love god with all of their heart surround them with the word you see the word is what sanctifies us and sets us apart and helps us to become like jesus christ in all areas of life you show me someone who looks like jesus and i'll show you someone who is showing up every single day putting on the belt of truth in their life the third thing your satisfaction should be in the truth of scripture our sanctification should be in the truth of scripture our stability should be in the truth of scripture but then our satisfaction should be in scripture well i want you to know if i'm learning anything in my relationship with the lord it's this is that the treasure is jesus himself is jesus himself is jesus himself you see jesus is not just a means to an end jesus is the end it's it's our life and so what i want you to understand about your life is is jesus is the only one who satisfies the word of god is the only thing that can bring the lasting security and satisfaction that your soul wants in your life it's nothing else in fact psalm chapter 107 verse number nine says for he satisfied the longing soul psalm 16 11 and you're talking about the lord in his presence that's where you find fullness of joy john chapter 6 jesus was writing to or saying this to his disciples he said if you come to him you'll never have to thirst or hunger again you say i say that all for you to understand that jesus and the word of god is the only thing that can provide satisfaction for your soul if you're hurting in here today the word of god is what can provide comfort for your soul if you're in pain here today the word of god can provide a healing for your soul if you're in here and you're just you're broken the word of god can put the pieces of your fragmented life back together you see the word of god is the only thing that can satisfy you if you're searching in here today stop searching and find everything that your soul is looking for in a relationship with jesus and through his word you see that's where satisfaction comes from it's not found in anything else it's only found in him you see a relationship with jesus and this is where we we go wrong and a lot of preachers you might see on on tv and stuff like that they get it wrong when they say that that a relationship with jesus is about getting something listen a relationship with jesus christ is not about what you get it's about who you get and the relationship with him that reconciles you to the father that's what satisfies you that's why when you go through an unbelievable tragedy that's why you can come out with a smile on your face you say how in the world how can we have mourning in the midst of pain jesus how can we have joy in the midst of sorrow jesus how can we have peace in the midst of a world of brokenness jesus you see jesus is the only thing that can stabilize you so when the apostle paul says put on the belt of truth my question to you is are you showing up every day with the belt of truth in your life the word should determine what is truth in your life the word should determine what your purpose in life is the word should determine how you believe about certain things the word the word should determine how you treat people the word should determine how you forgive people regardless listen regardless of what they've done let's just say you don't realize what they've done pastor guess what it pales in comparison to what you've done to jesus so you might as well allow the forgiveness that he's given you to be on display and how you forgive other people listen that is what we are supposed to do the word should determine be the truth and the gauge by how generous you are with your time with your talent with your with your treasure so i ask you this are you putting on the belt of truth do you have a time around the word of god in your personal life with your family parents make it a point listen we offer we could offer a thousand things but we offer what we do we have classes for these kids in the mornings we have junior church we have wednesday night we have opportunity for them to grow and be saturated around the word of god and let me just say this they're avenues for you so that you can surround them and as you're fighting for them as you show up to the battle that we are in it is opportunities for you to once again every day because it's tough it's tough this warfare that we're in the enemy strong and he's disguising himself in a bunch of different ways and it's hard to see his deception and so the best thing for you to do is every single day put on that belt of truth every single morning make that the point some of you that's where you need to start today you're going to spend time in word of god outside of this place tomorrow morning set your alarm do whatever it takes to gird yourself and put up the belt of truth the only way to escape the deception deception of the devil is to let the word shape your thinking the only way the only way to escape his deception is to let the word shape how you view life how you view yourself how you view your children and how you view god so put on the belt of truth can we pray together the belt of truth can we pray together in fact we're not gonna belabor this but let's let's all stand i think there's some families in here i really believe this i feel this i believe that there's families in here who have neglected the word of god in your home and i want you to know this families i'm with you i'm with you so i don't want you to feel bad if that's you and you say man pastor's really talking to me don't get nervous hey listen all i ask you to do is today why don't you make a commitment maybe you and your husband or or you and your your wife your spouse if you got your kids on the road what a powerful thing that would be to come forward and to just say hey hey today kids we're going to make a decision as a family we're going to start reading the word of god together we're going to start putting on the belt of truth every single day together uh nobody's looking around heads bowed hearts lifted in prayer if you're in here today and you say pastor that's where i'm at today my family and and listen my hand's going to be raised with you because i want you to know i've neglected it with my kids and i'm a pastor so you're okay all right listen if you're in here today and you say pastor that's where i'm at today we've kind of neglected the word in our family and i'm going to make a commitment today that that's not going to be the case anymore could you slip up your hand high enough for me to see it i see it thank you i see that hand thank you i see hands everywhere that is awesome listen i see it and i'm there i'm with you i want to include you in this closing prayer and what i want you to do is when we pray the altar is open there's something significant about an altar i want you to just make a decision hey maybe come pray down front and say god this is it i'm going to find a devotional book i'm going to wake up earlier i'm going to gather the kids and turn off the smart devices and i'm going to spend a few moments together as a family girding herself putting the belt of truth on into our life and that's what we're going to do father bless this invitation time be with your people give them the courage to make decisions for you that are life-changing for it's in your name we pray amen if god spoke to you maybe you raised your hand come at this time the altar is open for you to do business with god you so so