Ephesians 4:27 Neither give place to the devil .
If a Christian harbors sin in his life, he is giving the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in his life. The Devil will use this opportunity to invade and take over other areas of his life. The devil is like a cat we had when I was a little boy. We first, let him stay on the back poach, then in the den, and finally he was sleeping on the bed. The word "place" means an opportunity or a foothold or a beachhead. Let us look at some ways in this Scripture that Paul says that may give the devil a
foothold in our lives.
I-PAUL SAYS THAT WE ARE TO PUT AWAY SENSELESS LYING:
Ephesians 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
1-Since the devil himself is a liar, it is no surprise that lying opens for him an opportunity to work in our lives.
2-When you believe the truth, the Holy Spirit can work in your life, but when you lie, you allow the devil to work in your life.
3-What is a lie? It is anything less than the truth. It is either truth or it is a falsehood.
4-Famous American Fibs: The check is in the mail. I’ll start my diet tomorrow. We service what we sell. Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back. Money cheerfully refunded. One size fits all. This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in. Your luggage isn’t lost; it’s only misplaced. Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file. This hurts me more than it hurts you. I just need five minutes of your time. Your table will be ready in a few minutes. Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit. Let’s have lunch sometime. It’s not the money; it’s the principle. 1
5-The book The Day Americans Told the Truth says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses
6-Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."
7-Kim Duk-Soo was found by North Korean soldiers in their cellar on November 20, 1950. He and his father, a Presbyterian pastor for 42 years, were taken to prison and told they would be executed in the morning. His father told him they could not tell a lie to save their lives. That evening, a captain approached Kim. "Are you a Christian?" For a fleeting moment, life for a lie seemed the only logical way to go. But the young boy remembered his father's instruction. "I am a Christian," Kim said. The captain drew closer, and whispered, "I am a Christian too. I used to be a Sunday school teacher before the war. You must escape tonight. I will help you." Kim fled that night, having to leave his father under heavy guard awaiting his eventual death. Kim made it to an American base and played the organ for the chapel. If he had lied, what would have happened to him? 2
8-Lying is always wrong.
II-PAUL SAYS THAT WE ARE TO PUT AWAY SINFUL WRATH:
Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
1-Remember, this is one of the devil traits according to Revelation 12:12.
2-The devil wants us to be like him and have angry in our hearts. He knows if we do, we are causing our fellowship to broken with God.
3-We see angry and wrath displayed in all areas of our society.
4-In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well. 3
5-Someone has said, "He who goes to bed with angry in their heart has the devil for a bedfellow.
6-Abilene, Kansas: October 1900. It was Halloween night, and ten-year-old Dwight Eisenhower was so angry his face turned crimson. His older brothers were allowed to go trick-or-treating, but he had to stay home. "You're too young to go out," his father, David, told him. Young Ike burst into tears, ran into the yard and began punching the trunk of an apple tree. He later recalled: "My dad suddenly had me by the collar and I was getting a tanning." Then he sent Ike to bed. The boy's mother, Ida, came into his room with a word of advice from the Bible: "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." (Proverbs 16:32, NIV) When he was 76, Ike wrote: "I have always looked back on that conversation as one of the most valuable moments of my life." 4
III-PAUL SAYS THAT WE ARE TO PUT AWAY STEALING:
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with [his] hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
1-The devil is also a thief according to John 10:10. In Mark 5, he had striped the man who lived among the tombs of his sanity, his liberty, his home, his joy, his service, his health, and would have robbed him of his life if Jesus hadn’t not come into his life.
2-People who steal are inviting the devil to get a foothold in their life.
3-A farmer had been pestered by a carload of people who delighted in climbing an orchard fence and eating his apples without asking permission. One day, as he walked up to them, one of them smiled sheepishly and said, "We hope you don’t mind that we took a few of your apples." "No, not at all," said the farmer, "and I hope you don’t mind that I took some of the air out of your tires. Paul says, "Let him who stole steal no longer."
4-Stealing is a common problem in American life. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association on employee theft in the workplace presented a breakdown of 8 billion dollars in losses. Only 10% was due to clerical errors. Of the rest 30% was due to shoplifting but a whopping 60% was due to employee theft! Something is wrong! 5
5-After the Los Angeles riots, Steve Futterman of CBC radio broadcast an interview he had with one of the riot's many looters. The man had been one of many people who had looted a record store. When asked what he had stolen, the man replied, "Gospel tapes. I love Jesus."
6-Some Christians steal from God also, in their tithes and offerings.
7-I heard about a man who always brought his tithes by the Church office after he got paid on Friday afternoon. The secretary asked him, why didn’t he wait until Sunday? He replied, "I am afraid, I might die before Sunday and I sure wouldn’t want God’s tithe money in my pocket. " We should have his attitude in our giving unto God.
IV-PAUL SAYS THAT WE ARE TO PUT AWAY SHAMEFUL SPEECH:
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
1-Paul says, "Let no corrupt work proceed out of your mouth." "Corrupt" comes from sapros and was used to describe rotten fruit, vegetable and spoiled food. A "corrupt word" is something that pollutes. It would include off-color jokes, profanity, dirty stories, vulgarity, coarse jesting, lying, slandering, gossiping etc…6
2-If the devil can get us to think about sin, and then talk about sin, he will have an easier time tempting us to sin.
3-When we talk freely about dirty things, it takes the edge off our convictions. We get accustomed to it, and soon the barriers are down.
4-William Temple said, "The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child's home."
5- A minister was making a wooden trellis to support a climbing vine. As he was pounding away, he noticed that a little boy was watching him. The youngster didn't say a word, so the preacher kept on working, thinking the lad would leave. But he didn't. Pleased at the thought that his work was being admired, the pastor finally said, "Well, son, trying to pick up some pointers on gardening?" "No," he replied. "I'm just waiting to hear what a preacher says when he hits his thumb with a hammer." 7
V-PAUL SAYS WE ARE TO PUT AWAY SPITE:
Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
1-The Christian who has unforgiveness in their heart is giving the devil one of his strongest footholds in their life.
2-Perhaps you've seen the Vietnam War picture of Kim Phuc, a 9-year-old girl running naked in terror from her village, hoping to escape the horror of napalm that was burning her skin. The day was June 8, 1972. The pilot of the South Vietnamese plane was carrying out orders to bomb enemy troop positions in the village of Trang Bang. Twenty-four years later, Kim Phuc was invited to Washington in 1996 to speak at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and to place a wreath of flowers to honor the US troops who had given their lives during the war. Kim had said previously that if she could talk to the pilot who dropped the napalm on her, she would forgive him. The person who introduced Kim stated, "An innocent victim of war, she holds no anger at the United States. She feels no anger at the government of Vietnam. She feels no anger at the man who dropped the napalm on her." How could she forgive those who were responsible for causing her so much pain, for scarring her for life? Kim had become a Christian. She understood forgiveness--how to give it and how to receive it (Col. 3:13). She had been forgiven by Jesus for her own sin, and she was allowing the cycle of forgiveness to continue. How about us? 8
3-An ingenious teenager, tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He told her, "Now you can hear your stories anytime you want. Isn't that great?" She looked at the machine for a moment and then replied, "No. It hasn't got a lap." The truth is, we all need a lap. We all need the closeness of a tender loving relationship. We all need to know we are loved, accepted and forgiven. Sadly, while we need love, acceptance and forgiveness, often we find it hard to forgive. We find it hard because our hearts have become hard. 9
VI-PAUL SAYS WE ARE TO PUT AWAY SLANDER:
book of Ephesians 4:31b-and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
1-Proverbs 25:18 says, slander can hurt a person close up like a club, or from a distance like an arrow.
2-Satan is a slanderer and accuser of the believer, and when a person slanders the saints instead of encouraging them, or praying for them, he is working for the devil. He surely is not working for God.
3-A teacher asked a student, "what animal has the most deadly bite?" He answered, "the human being who is a backbiter."
4-We often makes jokes about it, like the girl who said to a friend, " I never make it habit to say anything about anyone unless it is good, And, boy, is this good!" However it is not laughing matter to God. 10
5-Robert Cook, President of King's College once related a true story from the early years of his ministry. Evidently at that time he had been receiving some rather pointed criticism. In fact, it had become of such great concern to him that he sought the counsel of a friend, the beloved Bible expositor and pastor, Harry A. Ironside. Pouring out his heart, Bob Cook asked what he should do about the denunciations being made against him. He wanted to know how to handle them. Ironside gave the following wise counsel: "Bob, if the criticism about you is true, mend your ways! If it isn't, forget about it!" 11
6-Back in verse 25, Paul says, we are to put off these sinful things. We should copy the example of the Ephesians who burned their magic books thus not giving the devil a foothold in their life. Conclusion-Paul says these sins and any other sins not mentioned if not put away can grieve the Holy Spirit.(v-30) They sadden or hurt the Spirit of God. Satan wants to get a foothold in our lives thus we ought to repent our sins and not hurt or shame our Lord.
1-Bits & Pieces
2-David Holwick
3-Coy M. Wylie
4-David Holwick
5-Coy M. Wylie
6-Coy M. Wylie
7-Bible Illustrator
8-Our Daily Bread
9-David Hoke
10-Brian Harbour
11-Bible Illustrator
