I'm going to be out of Ephesians 6 if you want to turn there, but it is good to be here at the singles conference. I've been married almost 20 years. I've been single more than that. I can tell you marriage is better. Singleness is hard.

It's very hard. It's very hard. And singles have unique challenges, unique temptations that married people have but don't have to the full extent that you have. And I can't Imagine being single today compared to when I was single. The things, I can see a lot of them on your tables, those little things that you hold in your hands have made singleness very hard and very trying.

And I would encourage you, if that is a temptation, throw that thing into the bottom of the sea. Don't lose your soul over the luxury of having a smartphone. I'm very worried, I've kind of been thinking through the singing and looking at you guys, I don't know, many of you know some of you, but don't know many of you, and I'm looking at your ages, and some of you are older than 20, some of you are younger than 20, and I understand that you're at the age that you're going to transition to adults and you already are in that transition and some of you are adults, but it's a most trying time because you don't know if really if your theology and your doctrine and your beliefs or your beliefs are just your parents' beliefs. You don't really know that until you start disagreeing with your parents. And it's OK to disagree with your parents because it means you're thinking for yourself, but it can be dangerous to disagree with your parents as well.

Especially if your parents have taught you the truth and you begin to go against the truth. And I've seen it over and over of good kids with good parents when they get to college or they get married or they begin to think for themselves and either the theology becomes rooted into their very beings and they believe it for themselves and it's real or they start the slippery slope of deconstructing what they thought was true until they have nothing left of what they were taught and I don't want any of you to face that. I understand and know and you should understand and know that Satan just desires to destroy you but he doesn't want to kill you. He wants to keep you alive so you can do his work. He needs workers.

And because of your upbringing, I'm assuming most of you have been raised in godly homes in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and you have an understanding of basic theology, and some of you probably have better theology than most pastors across this land. And if that be the case, you could be a great weapon in Satan's army. You could do worse damage to the kingdom of God than children of unbelievers because of what you know and because of the great damage you can do because of your upbringing. So you could be huge advantage to Satan. So don't think Satan doesn't have his eye on you.

If you have Ephesians 6 open, find verse 10. We're going to say that we're wrestling or warring or fighting, not with flesh and blood. This is not your siblings. This is not the fighting against loneliness. You think loneliness is your biggest temptation?

Feeling forgotten, feeling left out, feeling overlooked, feeling like the world is passing you by. These types of feelings that single people have, That's not your real battle. Temptation, yes. But you don't battle with not having a spouse. You don't battle with flesh and blood.

But we're battling with Satan himself. It says, Foul be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Don't forget that you're fighting. You're at a war and you can't get out of it.

You've been dropped off, you've been parachuted into the enemy territory and you can't say, hey, I want to go home. I don't want to fight. I want to be on vacation. I just don't want this trial. Don't want this temptation.

I just want to relax. No, you can't do that. You're in a war. And either you fight or you die. Either you fight or you're going to be conquered.

And therefore you're going to need the armor of the Lord. Not your own armor, not your own strength, not your own power. You need supernatural power. You need supernatural help. You have to stand.

You have to be strong. But you have to be strong in the power of his might. And God has equipped you with armor, with pieces to equip you for battle that is necessary. Verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand firm. And what I want to talk to you tonight is the first piece of the armor that you need.

Not all of the armor pieces, faith, and the righteousness of Christ, and prayer, all these things you need, all are essential. But the first piece he tells you to put on, and I think it's appropriate that you put this piece on first because you can't have the other pieces unless you have this. You can't have faith in the righteousness of Christ and prayer and truth without the belt of truth. Verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand firm. Verse 14, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.

So I have two points. Why you need the belt of truth, then we'll look how do you put it on? How do I get up in the morning and get the belt around me? So why do you need it? Why do you need this belt and how to put the belt on?

Let's pray. Dear God, I look at these singles and these people here, and I pray that your hand will be upon them, that they would see the gravity of the importance of this great belt that you have given us, that they would endeavor to put it on, that they would not leave without it, they would fight the great fight, War with Satan himself to resist the evil one He may flee from them They could be victorious and be overcomers This we pray in your son's name, amen. So why do you need this belt of truth? Why do you need it? One, because this is where the battle's located.

You know, if you're watching a war, there's a front line, there's the battle line. And then behind the line, in other places, there's not much battle going on there. Where's the war at? Where's the battle line at? Where is the fight at?

It's where the truth is located. It's where truth is. It's not over there or over there or behind you or way in front of you anywhere where there's no truth there's no battle there Satan's not fighting his own people he's not fighting those who are believing lies He's not fighting the philosophers of this world. He's not fighting the great intellectuals of this world. He's not fighting them.

In fact, they are under his dominion. They're taking orders from Satan. Satan's fighting those who have the truth, those who believe the truth. Wherever the truth is located, which is principally in the local churches, that's where Satan is seeking to destroy. He hates the truth.

So this is where the battle is located. But secondly you need this because Satan's main weapon, his main weapon against you and against the church is lies, counterfeit truth, false teachings, false prophecies, heresies. Remember in the garden, what did Satan say to Adam and Eve? He came and approached the woman and said, did God really say? He got the woman to question God.

He didn't come out with a real clear lie, but merely to question God. Satan is crafty. And the first thing he will do is get you to question something, to throw a little doubt to the word of God, a doubt on this doctrine or that doctrine. Is this really true? This is how Satan tempted Jesus.

He tempted him with lies. And we're confronted with lies every day. You see lies more than you see truth, Especially if you work outside of the home. Especially if you have a device in your hand or you turn on the television. There's lies literally everywhere.

And without discernment we don't know if it's true or false. In fact, that's the problem of our culture today. You look at what the government is saying, you don't even know if you can believe government anymore. You can't believe the news. You can't believe this resource.

You can't even believe the people we used to trust. You can't even believe Republicans. Fox News. Can you? Where is the truth located?

You begin to question everything. Because lies are surrounding us. It's the most dangerous weapon in the world. It's not physical weapons of mass destruction. It's not tanks.

It's not missiles. It's not chemical weapons. It's not even a cashless society controlled by artificial intelligence. That's not the greatest thing to fear. You see, lies have destroyed homes, marriages.

It was a lie that brought the whole human race to its knees. Falsehood brings eternal and everlasting destruction And every sin, every sin is rooted in a lie. Every time you're tempted, you're tempted with a lie. Think about the temptations you have, loneliness and despair and hopelessness and feeling miserable and depression. All these things are to look at this or to do that or to get angry or be disgruntled with someone.

All these things you battle, have something at the base of them all. A lie. Something is not true. Every sin is rooted in lies. To get men to sin, Satan must get you to believe something is not true.

Ever besetting sin can be traced to some form of false belief. When you're tempted with something, it's something that shines, it sparkles, it's a lie. You can't be happy without it. You need that. I gotta have that.

I can't be happy if I don't buy this or don't buy that or so many people don't like my post. Or if I don't get attention, or if someone overlooked me, I have to be miserable. It's lies. It's not true. And you entertain those lies.

That's why it's tempting. Sometimes you begin to believe those lies. And once you begin to believe it, that's when you fall. That's when you succumb to Satan's temptations. The most dangerous thing within the family and within the church is false teaching.

Over and over the Bible warns against false teaching. Hebrews 13 on do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. Galatians 1 six. I'm amazed that you are so quickly just dishearing him who called you. By the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

2 Timothy 2 four For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their own ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Colossians 2.8, See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Ephesians 4-14, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. 1 Timothy 4.1, but the Spirit tells us that in the latter time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Over and over and over, the Bible is warning the church about false teachings.

You say, well, that doesn't happen. Yes, it does. Our church just got through excommunicating someone for false teaching and then infiltrating the young Christians and new Christians and visitors. Like Alexander the coppersmith, this man did great harm in our church. Taking people to his home and whispering this lie and that lie.

Subtle deceptions. Things that was mixed with truth and lies, and led some astray. One of the greatest dangers is falling away from the truth. The Bible tells us, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. We must stand firm on the word of God and not let it slip.

Some of you have been grounded and rooted in good theology, but now you're going to be facing the temptation. Is that right or is that wrong? Some of you might begin to slip. You may find a little crack in your parents thinking. You thought they were all knowing at one time, then you begin to question them on this verse or on that topic.

And maybe they are wrong a little bit here and there. And you begin to disagree with them and Satan comes in and says, what else are they wrong on? And off you go, questioning everything that you thought you knew until you don't believe anything that you once claimed to believe. Churches are full of lies. How do I know that?

Because according to one survey, 30% of evangelicals do not believe that Jesus was God. Satan is coming after you. He wants to shift you. He's tempting you. He's tempting you with lies.

Now the third reason you need to have this belt Because the battle takes place in your mind. Homeschooling can't protect you from this battle. Throwing the TV away will not protect you from this battle. This battle is with you. You can't isolate yourself so far that you don't have to fight.

Because the battle ultimately is not outside of you. Now it can be tempted and outside things can influence you. Yes, yes. We want to protect our little ones from the onslaught of these lies from without. But it's in the mind that the battle must be won.

You see, objective truth cannot be defeated. Our subjective perspective of truth, however, is where the battle is located. You know, two plus two equal four will always be true. You can't destroy it. Jesus is God and salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.

That will always be true. Satan can't undermine that truth. So he can't. So what he tries to do, get you to not believe it. That's what Satan can win a battle here and there, not by destroying truth, but destroying your confidence and belief in the truth.

You see, Satan wages war in our heads. Satan will accuse you. He's the accuser of the brethren. He will tempt you. He will distract you with anxiety and despair and depression.

And some of you who are fighting that, loneliness, deep-seated loneliness. I'm not making light of depression and anxiety. When I was single, I fought depression and anxiety. Really not so much anxiety, but depression and loneliness every day. I hated being single.

I would think about Adam, God looking down at Adam when he was sinless and God would say to this man who's sinless, it's not good for him to be alone. I would throw that back up to God, you know it's not good for man to be alone. We're not designed to be alone. It's hard, it's difficult. But I get so focused on that.

And Satan will use that to distract you. Get you where you think that you can't be happy. All the while there is Jesus Christ all the while he's in your bedroom saying here I am all the while he's near you. If you just look he's there to comfort you He's there to satisfy you. He's there to fill you with joy.

Unspeakable. He's there to give you glory and life. He's there. But you got all this distraction of your misery and your pain and Satan keeps that in your head, keeps that you thinking and you're believing a lie that you can't be happy when Jesus says, here I am. Fourthly, You need this belt because it's the key to victory.

It says, then therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. You have to stand against the schemes of this lion that's walking around, prowling around, seeking to devour you, destroy you. He's throwing out lies, breathing out lies. How are you going to stand, not retreat, but stand and resist the evil one that he begins to flee you. You have to know the truth.

I'm not very good with my hands. I want to say that I am. I was a fairly good athlete when I was in high school, but for some reason, can't fix many things. My wife always holds that over me because I have a good friend, one of my best friends, his name is Elvis, by the way, he's Romanian. No joke, his name is Elvis and he's one of my best friends.

He lives down the hill from where I live. And my wife is always going, do we need to call Elvis? Because he can fix anything. I was like, no, we don't need to call Elvis. I can take care of this.

And before it's all over, we're calling Elvis, and he's coming and fixing what I broke. And one time, our deep freeze went out. And I was panicked because we had someone donated a lot of beef. They slaughtered a cow and gave us some beef. It was full of good meat.

I was like, we've got to save this. I'm pulling it out and we're putting it in the refrigerator. We're like, okay, we can live without the microwave pizzas. Let's get that out. Let's get the meat in.

And we're sweating to make sure that we save the meat. And she goes, well, you need to call Elvis. No, you don't fix this. You just buy a new deep freeze. No, let's call Elvis.

He comes up, and he looks at it. I mean, it's not running. What are you going to do? Look at this thing? It goes to the plug-in.

And I don't know if you know this, but you may need to know this one day. A plug-ins, there's a little button between the two outlets it's a trigger thing he went over there and looked at it and pushed it and it started running again I was like you know it wasn't I was stupid, I was ignorant. The Bible says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Some of you are getting destroyed out there. You have the answers.

You got the answer key to the test, But you're not passing the test. So I don't know how to answer this one. Well, it's because you don't have the truth. You don't know how to combat the lies because you don't have knowledge and you're just being destroyed for lack of knowledge. You see, truth is the belt that holds all the pieces of the armor together.

The breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All these things are held together by the truth. And in one sense, the truth is rooted in every one of these things. How do you have faith if you don't have the truth? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

How do you have the gospel without truth? How do you have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, without truth? So you see, truth is the key to the battle. Truth is the object of our faith. Truth is the root of the Christian life.

We've been born again by the truth. We are sanctified by the truth. You see, truth is our main protection and our main weapon. Paul put it this way in Second Corinthians 10, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and even lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

So you're going to take every thought captive, you're going to be able to defeat every lie that comes your way, not because you're strong and powerful, not because you got good grades, not because you have all these good deeds or go to church, it's you're gonna be able to take captive these lies and push them out of your head so that you can live a righteous holy life before God because you're gonna have the truth that says that's not true. Get behind me Satan. Okay, we need this. We need the truth. Amen?

Now, how do we put it on? How do we get it around a waste? Simple. Know it. Believe it.

Obey it. There's no other way. It's not rocket science. Know the truth. Believe it.

Obey it. You need to ask yourself this question while you're still young. Is God real? Is God real? Now ask yourself that.

Is he real? I know he's real to my parents, you may say. He's real to my grandma. But is he real to you? Is he real?

I mean, this is real. Sorry, man. That's real. This is real. I'm real.

But is God real? Is he real to you? Now if you believe that, if you believe God is real, and you believe that this is indeed his word, is this the word of God? Is that real? Is this really the word of the living God?

If you believe that, it changes everything. It's not one among other truths. It's not just a good book. No, it changes your life. And some of us, we believe he's real, but we don't know for sure he's real.

We're going back and forth in our brains. Do we really believe this? Because the thought of God is competing with All these other thoughts. It's battling with Amazon and Facebook and all the stuff on the internet. It's battling all these other competing desires and thoughts.

Thus it gets pushed aside. It doesn't really dictate and control our lives. But once God is real, once you know the truth and you actually believe it, you can't help but obey it. If there is a heaven, if there's a hell, if the church is what he's commanded us to go to and to dedicate ourselves to as we've heard, if these things are true, then it changes our lives to know that this is true. Lies can't compete with it.

You can Say someone comes up to you say, hey, two plus two is seven. I promise you it's seven. I've worked out the math. And you can be going, I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me.

And then someone comes to you said, no, let me retell you what you already know. Two plus two is four. You can't get around it. Jesus is the living God. And to know it sets you free to know it changes your life.

It fixes your problems. It takes care of your anxiety. It takes care of your depression, your loneliness. It takes care of your addictions. And because you're still struggling with this or that, The problem is you don't know if you really believe the truth or not.

Who are you going to serve? It's time for us to put away our idols and serve the living God. These idols are not true. They're not eternal. There's no happiness built in them.

How do you fight it? Simple. You take the lies and you battle the lie with the truth. Identify, hey, that's a lie. I'm not for sure if that's true or not.

Well, this I do know is true and you combat all the temptations that come your way with the Word of God. You don't go to a psychiatrist who will tell you to blame your parents and simply take some medicine. You hide the Word of God in your heart so that you might not sin against God. You need to become your own preacher. Women, you can preach to yourself.

In fact, we must be always preaching to ourselves. Satan's always tempting you or using a friend to cast a little doubt, so you have to constantly preach to yourself. Resist Satan. Here are some common lies that Satan tells us. For you who are single, Here's a lie you may want to believe.

I can't be happy single. It's a lie. It's a lie. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's the truth.

There is fullness of joy in the presence of God. That's true. Don't believe the lie that if you're going to be happy, you've got to look somewhere else than Jesus Christ. Don't allow that to occupy your thoughts and your minds. Now it is good to find a spouse.

I would encourage you all to do some mingling afterwards. But if you leave this place as single as you came, You know, when I was your age I had, or when I was single, always wanted a, like, what are my option lists? And I know you have that too. And it might not be a big list, but even if there's not a name on that list, just put the name Jesus Christ. Pursue Him.

Here's another lie you might want to believe. God doesn't listen to my prayers. That's Satan telling you that. God has abandoned me. He doesn't hear me.

Ever believe that one? You know, I know your prayers are not very strong. That's true. And I know you don't have a lot of faith. That's also true.

And I know you feel like your prayers don't go past the ceilings sometimes. I know that's your feelings. Your feelings do say stuff like that. But to say because of those things that God doesn't hear your prayers is a lie. Isaiah 41 10 tells us, Fear not for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. He promises us over and over in scriptures. I don't know, maybe you could do this, count this, and email me with the numbers, but in Joshua it's over and over and over. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

You may believe the lie that the future is uncertain, which leads to fear and anxiety. You may worry about how you're going to pay this bill or make it through college or you may worry about the political climate and the direction of the world and say I don't know if I want to have kids and the way that things are going and you may worry about the future. You may think the world is out of control. You may think, hey, I need to get a bunker full of supplies because you're fearful. Get off the grid if you would.

No, you don't need to believe lies. How about this in replace of the lie? Philippians 4.19, my God will supply every need of yours. Now, we got to believe, Is that true or false? Is that hypothetical or is that a reality?

My God will supply most of your needs. No, every need. Don't be like the Gentiles that worry about what you're gonna wear, what you're gonna eat. That's what they worry about. No, your heavenly Father knows you need these things.

I'm gonna keep you supplied. I'm gonna keep you provided for. I'll take care of you like I take care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. I'll take care of that. Now you just seek first the kingdom of God.

That's what you worry about. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Believe the word of God. It sure helps the battle within your mind of anxiety and fear. Here's another lie you might want to believe.

My suffering is a sign of God's abandonment. You're going through various trials or troubles and it's one after another and you begin to think, well, God doesn't love me or God's forgotten me or overlooking me. But remember the truth that says he does not afflict willingly. Our 1 Peter 1.6, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved with various trials. One of my friends who passed away last year, a year ago, was a missionary to Turkey, passed away from cancer.

He would tell me over and over that this was his favorite verse because here he is, he's dying, he believes in the sovereignty of God and he's dying, he says, I wouldn't be going through this if it wasn't needed. If need be. This is not God forsaking you, this is God loving you. God has your life finely tuned and He knows exactly what you need. He knows when you need to get married and when you don't need to get married, and when you need to meet your spouse, and all those details, and every other thing that you worry about, he has it mapped out.

He says, I know exactly what you need in your life, and you can trust Him. Here's another lie you might believe. No one likes me. I'm not likable. You know, You have the problem of when you're in a room, you see someone whispering, and you're thinking, they're talking about me, I bet.

I'm gonna be honest with you, if you have those thoughts, that's classic narcissism where you're the center of the universe and everybody's talking about you, you know, they're not gonna be talking about me. And it's not like they're talking good about me, you know, we're always assuming the worst. They're gossiping about me and I saw the way they look, right? And you take that with what they said to you last week, then you pit that together with another thought about five weeks ago and how they avoided you in the lunch line and you've got this whole network of lies built up of how they don't like you. That's the devil lying to you.

And you're not obeying the truth. This is what the Bible says to do. Love thinks the best. So when someone's over there talking, don't think they're gossiping. That's not thinking the best.

That's not loving them. You love them by saying, Is it time to go? That's Scott's way of saying you're done. Or the Lord's way of saying you're done. Real quickly, Death is something you must dread.

But the truth is John 11 26, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. In all reality, If you believe the Word of God, you have nothing to fear. If you fear God, you can be perfectly happy with exactly the way your life is currently situated. Nothing has to change for you to be satisfied in Christ Jesus. So in conclusion, every false promise of Satan, every lie of Satan must be countered and corrected by the Word of God, by the truth.

Know your Bibles. Know good theology. There's nothing worse than filtering temptations, suffering, anxiety, and fear through bad theology. So fasten on the belt of truth. This is the only way to stand in the evil day.

Thank you.