no one can serve two masters think about that you could never serve the Lord and serve or love money at the same time you could never live for Earthly pleasure and Heaven you could never have God in your heart and also love this world at the same time after all the Bible says friendship with the world is enmity with God now I'm going to give you three key markers to watch out for in your life These are meant to be guideposts that help you identify the enemy and keep your life in line with God the
first sign that should alert you to take action is if you find that there is compromise in your life this is how the devil Creeps in he wants you to compromise the Bible tells us that God hates lying lips but the devil will try and get you to compromise he'll tell you that a white lie isn't his bad but you see what he's doing here is that he's blurring moral lines you begin to compromise when church leaders or leaders in general Fall From Grace the fall doesn't happen overnight it's gradual it's subtle it happens because
you compromise here and you compromise there you think you're committing a small sin or a good sin but there is no such thing there's no compromise with God when it comes to sin CS Lewis said the safest Road to Hell is the gradual one the gentle slope soft underf fooot without sudden turnings without Milestones without signposts so this is an important point do not get comfortable with [Music] compromise now another sign to be weary of is pride a proud heart is a sure sign of the Devil's presence that's why the Bible says God resists the
proud but gives grace to the humble the most difficult test of a person's character is not failure it's when they've had success success opens the door to arrogance success opens the door to Pride success opens the door to self-reliance and this is because it's pretty easy to be humble when you're failing you're more motivated to pray when you're in pain you're much more willing to seek God if you're in the middle of difficult and humbling circumstances but it's just far too easy to take all the credit when things go well it's easy to become comfortable
when everything is good it's easier to forget to pray to forget to read God's word when you're in a season of blessing oh isn't this how the devil Creeps in a proud heart doesn't seek the Lord because that person feels as though they have enough resources enough skill enough talent and money to go through life on their own so don't allow your heart to be filled with arrogance and pride because that is fertile ground for the Devil the third sign that the devil is creeping in is more of a silent killer and this is discouragement
discouragement is a tool from the devil and he uses it to choke a believer's faith in the Lord you see the Bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is your strength the Bible says may the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope in Romans 15:13 in Romans 14:17 the Bible says for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and finally
John 15:1 says these things I have spoken to you my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full so you see it's God's desire that we are filled with joy but it's the devil's desire that we are discouraged however when you see discouragement and depression creeping into your life fight it fight it with the word of God fight it with the word of Truth fight it by meditating in the word of the Lord in summary we should be diligent to the schemes of the devil never give the devil the opportunity to
enter your heart this is why it's vital that we always keep our heads buried in the word of God because the word of God will challenge you on a regular basis the word of God will pierce through any pride in your heart it will lift you up and out from a pit of depression and it will keep you on the straight and narrow road where you do not compromise with sin there was a pastor who we will call Tom that pastored a church in the suburbs of Chicago he was a man who seemed to have
a passionate relationship with Jesus one day he was counseling a member of his church who was addicted to pornography Tom had never watched pornography however after one of the counseling sessions Pastor Tom had a desire pop up out of nowhere to watch pornography he fought it off for a few weeks finally one day he gave in he thought to himself what would be the problem with watching it once after that he was hooked after a few months pornography was no longer enough he started going to strip club in Chicago so he would not get caught
by his congregation eventually he had an affair that led to another affair and to a string of Affairs eventually he confessed all of this to his wife and then the church he lost his wife job and family now how could something like this all stem from watching One pornographic video According To Jesus in Matthew 6: 22-23 the eyes are the window to our soul the Bible says the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole
body will be full of Darkness if then the light in you is Darkness How great is the darkness what we see physic will have a significant impact on our souls instead of looking and filling our bodies with Darkness we need to turn our eyes to Jesus but how do we do this the first thing we need to do is to turn our eyes away from sexual images fulfilling sexual desire is prevalent in today's culture everywhere you look men and women have been sexualized whether you're at the store at a sporting event EV or watching TV
the culture is trying to sexualize everyone this is because sexualization usually sells if we want to avoid sexual images we have to be intentional on not being drawn in job says in job 31:1 I have made a covenant with my eyes how then could i gaze at a virgin job was so serious about not giving in to sexual sin that he made a covenant with his eyes to not even look at a virgin this virgin may not have been sexualized in his culture yet he does not want to look and then fall into the Trap
of Desire so instead of looking he just turned his eyes away if we constantly look at sexual images our soul will be full of Darkness the next thing we must turn our eyes away from is worldly distractions it can be easy to think that life is about accumulating many possessions however the truth is that all of those things will fade away everything you own will either end up in the trash or in a garage sale while our possessions are good things from God they are not more valuable than God and should not be treated as
so Psalm 119:37 says turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me me Life in your ways the distractions of this world in the form of possessions are worthless they will all Fade Away however in the ways of God we find True Life worldly distractions are not always material but can also be mental many people are distracted by power they think that if I just achieve a certain amount of power I will have made it their whole life centers around gaining power they climb up corporate ladders and give all their time to work
yet in the end they end up with no genuine relationships on their deathbed it is good to desire success yet Desiring success at the cost of following God's ways leads to nothing but emptiness lastly we need to turn our eyes Away From Evil Pride we can often find false hope in thinking that we have it all together we may say things about ourselves such as we are good gifted and skilled it is good to think that way however instead of pointing to God we are lifting ourselves up our talents and skills were given to us
by God and we should point back to him with them Proverbs 21:4 says hotty eyes and a proud heart and evil actions are all sin when we fill our eyes with our own greatness we have a proud heart and are sinning let's say you're helping with a friend's wedding your job is to hire a photographer you read reviews on many different photographers and hire the one who is best for the job the photographer comes to the wedding and introduces herself as the wedding starts you see them taking photos however instead of facing the camera at
the bride groom and guests the photographer has the lens facing it themselves you may think that this technique is weird but you trust this photographer due to their great reviews a few weeks later you get all of the pictures there are little to no photos of the bride groom and guests however every image is a selfie of the photographer they have misused the gift or privilege of being a photographer and made themselves the center of the wedding this is what evil Pride does it enables people to use the gift that God has given them to
point back at themselves instead we need to turn away from Evil pride and point to the one who has given us the gift so we know what to turn from but what should we turn to look at what should we fill our souls with as the old hymn says we turn our eyes to Jesus Hebrews 12:2 says looking to Jesus the founder and perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the Throne of God Jesus is the
one we put our hope in as our eyes want to wander as we look at the life death and resurrection of Jesus we fill ourselves up with the light and turn away from the darkness let us all turn our eyes from Evil and look at the founder and perfector of our faith there must come a time when you as a Believer must decide I will stand strong and follow the word of God regardless of what I will have to give up and who I will have to let go of there comes a time when you
have to decide I will stand and do The Godly thing I will forgive even when it's hard to do even when I've been hurt there will come a time when you will have to decide to stand in faith even when you can't see a way out of the situation that you're in now today you may be under attack in some area of your life you have tried everything to resolve it but nothing is working nothing is changing dear friend this is the time you ought to take a stand and believe believe in the power of
the blood of Jesus it will break you out of that bondage believe in the the power that's in the blood of Jesus Christ it can set you free it can give you Victory and it can loose you from any evil hold it's time to take a stand with the word of God against the forces of evil stand firm stand in confidence stand in righteousness Psalm 56:3 says when I am afraid I put my trust in you in God whose word I Praise In God I trust I shall not be afraid what can flesh do to
me we need to be men and women who put their trust in the Lord and mind you you will only ever be able to stand firm when your trust is secured in the Lord so if you feel stuck if you feel under attack remember that the Bible says in Psalm 31 verse 24 be strong and Let Your Heart Take courage all you who wait for the Lord be strong Saints and stand in faith as you do this the Lord is sure to rescue you and so as children of God I believe I believe that it
it's time to stand stand up and lift High his Royal Banner you are an ambassador of the most high stand up to the lies of the enemy stand up with the truth of the Gospel stand up with the strength of the Holy Spirit stand up in God's strength and I encourage you as you stand in faith pray and ask the Lord to be with you as you stand if I can be honest and speak from the heart I haven't always been saved I haven't always been the good strong Christian that some may have thought me
to be I can admit the struggling that I love my neighbors as I love myself not all the time because it's hard it's hard to turn the other cheek it's hard to be a peacemaker when there are people who test you it's hard to love all your neighbors because quite simply not everyone is a nice person not everyone is easy to love and you know what else is hard living a life focused on Christ in a world that offers so many glittery distractions but here's what I want you to know have I found it difficult
to live right yes have I struggled with finding the discipline to pray on a daily basis yes has there been a day that went by when I didn't open my bible of course but here's what I found as I reflected on my walk with God I realized that the reason for my struggles the thing that has caused me to have such a tough time is the fact that I've been so Reliant On My Own Strength I've tried to do things on my own but by myself of course I would find it hard to be at
peace with all men especially when they do me wrong but if I pray for grace if I allow the Holy Spirit to operate freely within me I have the strength to let things go I'm not not going to be bothered by the petty things not everything done to me is worth me getting upset about by myself it's hard to live a life focused on Christ in a world that offers so many glittery distractions but if I pray for strength if I admit my shortcomings then his grace is sufficient for me God's power is made perfect
in my weakness by myself I just have too many limitations I have emotions that mislead me I have feelings that tempt me I have thoughts that cloud my judgment this is why you shouldn't try and rely on your own power and might because we all will fall short eventually if we try and do things on our own so you may be in a position where like me you're struggling to do the work work of God to live righteously to live a life pleasing to God well I like to tell you to start calling on the
strength of God because on your own you'll never be able to win this battle against the devil you need the power the wonderwork and power that's in the blood of Jesus you need the power from the holy spirit because the Bible says but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes up upon on you Jesus said that because he knew he knew that we would find it difficult to face life with our own strength we're limited in our wisdom in our knowledge so we need the power and might that comes when we receive the
Holy Ghost hear me when I say that we can and we should live by the power that's in the name of Jesus now the Bible says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 9 therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name and so what that means for us is that when it's hard when it's difficult and we feel weak that is when we should call on the power that's in the name of Jesus the name above every other name
