Walking The Straight & Narrow

Disclaimer:

Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Pastor James May

WALKING THE STRAIGHT & NARROW WAY

Psalms 51:9-12, "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."

This was the cry of David to God after he had fallen into sin with Bath Sheba. David fully understood that all it took is one failure, one sin, to loose the peace, victory and salvation of God. Only one sin that we have not repented of will bring the full consequences of eternal death upon our souls.

David, a man after God’s own heart, had found himself in a place where he should not have been. Israel was at war and it was the duty of the King to be in the field with his army, defending the freedom of Israel. But David was in his comfortable palace. He was letting other men do his job for him while he did nothing.

It has often been said, “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop!” I know that this isn’t scripture but it is so true that I sometimes wonder why God left it out.

Whenever we find ourselves at the place where we refuse to pray, to study, to read the Bible, or to do the things that God’s will requires us to do to defend our faith, that’s when the devil can begin to enter our heart, our mind and destroy our victory and cause us to lose out with God.

When we spend our time in places where we know that Jesus would not go with us. When we are doing things that we would not want other people to know about. When we are saying things that we should not say, using words that grieve the Spirit of God and cause Him to flee from our presence, WE ARE ON DANGEROUS GROUND.

Sadly, too many people who claim to know Jesus really don’t know Him at all. They don’t give Him place in their lives. They don’t seek out a relationship with Him. They really don’t care for the things of God like the Bible, the Church, prayer or anything except their own pleasure.

Luke 6:46, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

Those are Jesus’ own words to those who were being hypocritical around Him. They wanted to “have their cake and eat it too”. They loved to profess their religion but they refused to live their religion.

There is another saying that goes like this, “What you are doing speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.”

People who are “Born Again” must act and live like they are born again. The things that we do and the things we say will reveal our true nature and the condition of our heart will quickly express itself to the plain view of everyone around.

“You can fool some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time – and most importantly, YOU CAN NEVER FOOL GOD AT ANY TIME”

Luke 6:45, says, “…for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."

That simply means that if sin is in your heart, it will come out. If the curse is in you, it’s coming out! If stealing is in you, you will steal! If lying is in you, you will lie! If a rebellious nature is in you, you will show your colors sooner or later.” We may get by with fooling our selves and maybe even fooling other people for a while but the time will come when our true heart will be known because God looks upon the heart.