YOU CAN’T WALK WITH JESUS IF YOU ARE HOLDING HANDS WITH SATAN
Pastor Jennifer Mears – October 3, 2007
TEXT: Colossians 2:6
I want to remind you that Satan seeks to devour you…
But, remember that Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost…
Colossians 2:6 (AMP)
As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him. We are to build our life with the Lord upon the very same terms that we began that life…not the life that we left behind!
WE ARE TO BUILD ON THE TRUTH…PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT BUILDING OURSLEVES UP ON OUR MOST HOLY FAITH!
Satan is a liar! He will trick you into believing him! We gotta be on guard at all times…
I many times wondered how people I have known over the years have fallen from God’s Grace…fallen away from him…how they could turn away and turn their back on all that they KNOW of The Word and from their relationship with him…it can happen so easily…none of us are exempt from that…look at your neighbor and say “it could happen to you…”
Remember that little song you may have learned in Sunday School or VBS when you were a child…
“oh be careful little eyes what you see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see….
Be careful what you see…
-the second glance is what will tie your hands (bind you) ---the king of darkness pulls the strings!
IE: Lot’s Wife (Genesis 19:26)
• “…she looked back from behind him and turned into a pillar of salt…”
• She looked from behind him…her covering
o Same as when we look from behind Jesus…step out of the covering…we are open target for disaster
The little song also talks about how we are to be careful of our hands in what you do or touch, or feet where you walk, or lips what you speak…
It only takes a moment for us to
Most of the time it is not an instant falling away…
…sometimes it is a slow fade!
• It is when black and white (right and wrong) turns to gray…COMPROMISE!
• We begin to straddle the fence…or keep jumping from one side to the other over and over…then we become complacent and numb to it and we form habits out of our sin and think it is ok or become immune to the conviction of our sin
• then our senses begin to dull…our focus and vision gets fuzzy and the devil works to keep us laid back and comfortable ---so we will not hear that still small voice telling us “hey, wait a minute…that is not good for you” or “wait! Stop! That goes againt God’s Word…you know the scripture…remember…”
Then our thoughts begin to invade us…
• Choices are then made…the distance from your thoughts and feelings to your hands and actions is not as far as you might think….we can step over into the enemies trap ---blink and you will miss it and you will ask “hey how did I get here----how did this happen? I did not even see this coming…NOW WHAT!”
A price will be paid for those actions and reactions to those thoughts and choices…
Romans 6:23
For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Sin will take you further than you want to go; keep you longer than you want to stay; and cost you more than you want to pay.
1 Corinthians 6:20 (AMP)
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.
1 Corinthians 7:23
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ].
People never crumble in one day…it is a slow fade
You may be asking now or may have been there before where you asked, “how did I slide so far back down…to the end of my rope again…” or “how did the person I was rise back up in me again” or “how did I forget my past sin so much that I repeated it and did not even see it happening until it was too late for me to not commit that sin”…
This is the enemy’s tool…
• To slowly lead you off God’s Course (God’s Will, God’s Plan and Destiny for your life)
• and he will slowly (and if you let him…he will surely) alter the course of your life that God has for you!
Satan works through and gets up in our business----our emotions, thoughts.
• Feelings, attitude, standards…
• and when we begin to listen to his lies and begin to entertain that junk that he is telling us and showing us….we begin to think that and we begin to give satan control…
• and then after he feeds us a few seeds of thought and emotion…we run with it.
Then you begin to enter into God’s Presence less and less…
• you feed that thing that is trying to consume you instead of being consumed with things of God…
• You slowly begin to pray less and begin to gossip
• and watch others faults more…
• read the Bible less and begin looking at things that are not pleasing to God…
• watch Christian TV less and possibly begin entertaining bad thoughts and watching shows that are feeding your soul poison instead of life...
• Listen to less praise and worship and more secular music that gets your mind racing back to your past and that old man begins to rise back up…
We gotta be careful of what devices and tools of the world that we partake of…
We are in the world but not to be of the world!
now I do believe in balance…but overall our priority with our time should be God---after all we should be about God’s Timing and Spending God’s Time Wisely…with things of Him!
II Samuel 11:1 (AMP)
1IN THE spring, when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab with his servants and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites [country] and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
Then later we read on down and see that David then (because he is still in Jerusalem he sees and begins to desire Bathsheba)
• One of the reasons that David fell into sin with Bathsheba was because he was not where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there…
•
SIN WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER THAN YOU WANT TO GO!
We could use numerous examples from Scripture to illustrate this point:
A. Let’s consider David.
• HE WAS truly one of the great men of all time.
• In fact, God declared him so.
• He was a great man, wise man, a strong man, a godly man and for the most part a pure man.
• But sin deceived David and it was also destructive and deadly.
• You remember the sad story of David and Bathsheba.
On one occasion, when David’s army was out fighting battles for him and the country, David, the king was loafing at home. We’re told that he arose from his bed and walked around the roof of the King’s house. As he looked around he saw Bathsheba, who was bathing. The Bible tells us that David sent for Bathsheba. He was told that she was married to one of David’s soldiers, Uriah, but despite that, David sent for her and committed adultery with her.
I am reasonable sure that when David first looked from his roof top and saw Bathsheba that evening, he never planned to commit adultery with her, but he didn’t stop to realize that sin will take you further than you want to go. And instead of immediatley turning away, he kept looking…
and before that night was over, this godly man and king would sin in a way he never thought he would.
It is always true -- sin will take you further than you want to go.
Are we listening to God as we are walking with Him?
• Following His Guidance is SO important!
o It will keep us out of danger
o Keep us from temptation
o Keep us from evil
o Keep us out of trouble
o Keep us from making a situation worse than it has to be if we would do things GOD’S WAY!
o We need to understand how important it is to follow God!
o To stay where we are supposed to be, go where we are supposed to go…
o And do what we are supposed to do
SIN WILL KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU WANT TO STAY!
David commits adultery.
• Bathsheba gets pregnant.
• Then David tries by trickery to have her husband brought from the battle field to spend some time with his wife to make it appear the baby was Uriah’s.
o You recall that Uriah refused to go home while his fellow soldiers were dying on the battlefield.
o David then had Uriah put in the front battle line were he is killed.
He was then compelled to admit the child by Bathsheba was his and finally married Bathsheba.
David probably meant for his affair with Bathsheba to be a "one-night stand." No doubt he meant to have his "fun" & forget about it, after all he was king. He didn’t Understand that sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.
Had David known his adultery would lead him to murder one of his most loyal soldiers
• and that his sin would be exposed
• and he would have to marry the Bathsheba
• and that their child would die because of the punishment of their sin…he would have never have invited that woman into his house.
• That night when he saw Bathsheba on the roof was just one act, but you see sin gets its claws in you and ends up keeping you longer than you want to stay.
Even though Satan is releasing an attack of weariness and is telling lies to us====KNOW THAT JESUS CAME TO GIVE US A WAY OUT!
• He came to give us victory over the attacks of satan
• (I John 3:8 tells us that He came to “undo” (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works of the devil and what he has done
• Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil!
Even though satan will TRY to attack and knock down those of us who have received Jesus-----REMEMBER – “greater is he who lives in US than he who is in the world” – the ruler of this world is satan…
You will never have a great testimony until you have overcome a great test!
• Tests come to destroy us
• But thank God, we can turn those same tests into an experience of God’s Grace, favor, and power
• We can walk out of EVERY test with a testimony of greatness of God who is in our lives!
• We gotta stand firm…
When you stand…
• Stand still and listen for the voice of The Lord…
• But be sure to look at where you are standing…
• You might be in a standing position but on the wrong ground
• You might not be standing but you might be sinking…
• Build on THE ROCK not the sand…sinking sand
We gotta be on guard at ALL times
Deuteronomy 4:9 (AMP)
Only take heed, and guard your life diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your [mind and] heart all the days of your life. Teach them to your children and your children’s children—
Proverbs 21:23(AMP)
He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles.
Proverbs 22:5(AMP)
Thorns and snares are in the way of the obstinate and willful; he who guards himself will be far from them.
Proverbs 16:17 (AMP)
The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; he who guards his way preserves his life.
Ask God to …
Psalm 17:8 (AMP)
Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
And we gotta lay our life down…our will…lay it down on the altar…DAILY
• Don’t lose your focus
• Don’t lose your follow through as you get up from the altar and head toward the door
• We gotta hold on to HIS UNCHANGING hand…and don’t let go!
• Walk with HIM…and stay on His heels!
• Do what Jesus has shown us to be right…by HIS example…by God’s Word and through our experiences with Him
• Say over and over…”not OUR will be done BUT YOUR WILL BE DONE, LORD”
• Stop trying so hard to stop trying so hard and just let Him be who He is…and let Him be who He is in YOU
Sin will take you further than you want to go!
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay!
Sin will cost you more that you want to pay!
Hold on to the hand of Jesus…and don’t let go…
Stay in HIS PRESENCE…
• There is salvation
• There is mercy
• There is grace
• There is deliverance
• There is healing
• Stay in The Anointing
• Stay in HIS PRESENCE!
Psalm 100:2 (AMP)
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!
Ecclesiastes 8:12 (AMP)
Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days [seemingly] are prolonged [in his wickedness], yet surely I know that it will be well with those who [reverently] fear God, who revere and worship Him, realizing His continual presence.
Psalm 23:6 (AMP)
Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.
I just want to stay in His Presence…never leave
