Dr. John Goetsch - "The Devil Knows You"

disappointed he'll be a blessing to you today so dr gets we're glad you're here why don't you come and preach us the word of god and we're looking forward to everything god has laid in your heart today amen thank you pastor and what a joy to be here today at heritage baptist church i'm so grateful for this church and uh thankful for each one that is a part of this ministry and i hope that you're praying for pastor fong and for the leadership here in your staff these are challenging days to lead a church and uh i trust that you're praying for him on a daily basis asking the lord to give wisdom and direction as we go through these interesting times in 2020 and as we move into the new year i know that god wants to be glorified through his church and i'm glad that the bible promises that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it and we have some wonderful promises to put our faith and trust in and i'm so thankful to be a part of this ministry we pray for you often we think of you regularly and just ask the lord to continue to keep his hand right here on this place and asking you to have a great impact and those of you that are listening and watching today i trust that you'll continue to be a strong part of what god is doing here take your bible if you will there and turn to luke chapter 22 luke chapter 22. today we're going to look at the life of peter if you'd like to stand as we look at god's word i'm glad that god gives us a number of biographies in the bible of some of the people that lived during the time the bible was written and one of those is peter the bible tells us that whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope and i'm glad god shows us both the good and the bad of these people because we can learn from failure as much as we can success can't we and as we look at peter we see both we see some success in his life we see some failure and we have these records in order to encourage us so here's an instance in peter's life in luke 22 and let's read beginning with verse 31 and the lord said simon simon behold satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat but i've prayed for you for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthened thy brethren and he said unto him lord i'm ready to go with thee both into prison and to death and he the lord said i tell thee peter the shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me you can be seated did you know that the devil knows you better than you know yourself sometimes we think well i know myself pretty well i i know what i like i know what i dislike i know the kind of friends i want to have i know the food i want to eat i know the clothes i want to wear i know what's on my bucket list the things i want to accomplish in my life i know myself pretty well but you know the devil he watches our life and he knows us pretty well himself and paul reminds us in second corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11 lest satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices the devil has some devices that he's wanting to use against us in our walk for the lord jesus christ peter said be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour word devourer there means to make to disappear now the devil doesn't want to make you invisible physically but he wants to make your testimony for christ disappear the devil would like nothing better than for heritage baptist church and all of its members to have absolutely no influence on san leandro he'd like to make your testimony disappear he'd like to remove the gospel he'd like to remove the light that god has placed here through this church he'd like to make it disappear so the devil is going to attack in a number of ways our lives you know there are some nfl football games that are going on today and you know what those coaches have been doing all week you know what the players have been doing all week they've not only been out on a practice field running plays and playing defense they've been in some film rooms you know what they do in those film rooms they're studying the other team those offensive coordinators they're studying that defense that they're going to go up against this afternoon and they're seeing what their tendencies are they're seeing what kind of defenses they play in certain down and distance why because they want to be able to attack those areas that they consider to be weak those defensive coordinators they're studying the offense seeing what they do on first down or third down and long or third down and short or what their tendencies are to run or to pass why because they want to form a plan or a strategy against those teams the devil is studying us he's studying our strengths he's studying our weaknesses because his goal is to make us to disappear do you know where your vulnerabilities are do you know where he may attack you this week are you aware of those uh areas of your life that may be easy prey for satan to come into your life you know peter if we would have met him we would have considered him to be a pretty strong man a pretty strong individual he was a self-made businessman when we first met him a fisherman he was maybe a rough and tumble kind of a guy a guy that could kind of take the bull by the horns as we say make things happen perhaps a type a personality a leader type somebody that was successful somebody that uh uh had a good grip on life we would say he was confident he was uh perhaps arrogant in even some ways he had some experience but peter struggled at times with his own vulnerabilities he struggled at times with those weak areas of his life as uh christians sometimes we think well you know i really don't have a whole lot of weaknesses you know i have the lord i've been saved and i go to church and i read my bible and and i i'm pretty strong i mean i'm pretty resilient i mean yeah there's some tough times but but i usually bounce back i usually get through it but remember pride goeth before destruction and the holy spirit before fall say well yeah but i i know myself well enough to know how to kind of pull myself up by my bootstraps and if i get a little discouraged or i get a little down i i'll be okay but remember the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things who can know it we say well yeah but i i have the power of god and and i have the holy spirit within me and and and al you know when the trouble comes or the difficulty thomas comes i'll be able to rely on my past experience you know samson was a man that had the spirit of god upon him even before he was born samson was given a nazarite vow samson was given a lot by god he was a man that god intended to use to deliver the nation of israel from the philistine attack but samson got kind of loose with that vow that god had placed upon his life he wasn't supposed to touch anything dead and yet we find him digging into the carcass of a dead lion and taking some honey when he was hungry from the honey that was in the carcass of that lion that was dead samson lives kind of a party life he was not to take of the vine he was not to drink any alcoholic kind of beverage and yet samson is living this loose frivolous life and he's he's messing around with the wrong kind of people the philistines and getting involved with some women and one day samson finds himself in the lap of a lady named delilah a philistine his hair is shorn while he's asleep another one of those vows and as he awakens to his locks of hair on the floor delilah announces the philistines be upon the samson the philistines be upon thee the bible says samson arose and shook himself and he said i will go out as at other times before samson thought i got this i know i've been playing loose and i i've been kind of forsaking some things but i'm okay and he shook himself thinking i can go out and and win this battle on my own but the bible goes on to say he whisked not that the lord had departed from him you know we can get to the place where we think i'll be okay i'll be fine i'll make it through but we better identify the weaknesses the vulnerabilities in our life because just like peter satan is planning his strategy to attack those weaknesses now the devil uses things that have worked before he doesn't get away from his game plan very easily and we find four very common tactics of satan in the life of peter and i don't know about you but when we get to the end of the message today i think you'll realize that the devil uses those same tricks those same devices against each one of us because they work he often accomplishes his task through these tactics so notice some common tactics of satan in the life of peter first of all we see that the devil will heighten our fears are you afraid of anything well all of us if we were honest have some fears if we were transparent we would say yeah there are some things that i'm not particularly crazy about i i would have a fear or phobia about i don't like snakes i had a bad experience when i was a small boy on the farm with a snake and i i just from that point on if there's a snake anywhere near me i'm going the other direction people say that's not a poisonous sink brother gash and i'm thinking i'm not hanging around long enough to find out if it is or isn't poisonous i want out i was visiting a man in his home recently who had these pet snakes in these cages and i i couldn't get out of there fast enough i i just don't like to be around snakes they just bother me i have a fear of snakes and besides god called the devil a serpent so i'm i think i'm on holy ground on that one but but you might fear something else maybe snakes is not an issue for you maybe maybe it's the fear of heights or or maybe the fear of darkness or you don't like closed in spaces the number one fear in the world is public speaking in fact death ranks number three so some people would rather die than get up and speak in front of a crowd so fears we all have them and the devil loves to pray on those fears and often times in our life the devil uses our fear when it's time to maybe serve the lord or take that next step of obedience in our life there are many people that are afraid if they get saved that maybe family members will reject them or resist them christians are afraid to take a stand for christ because someone might laugh or there may be some persecution that would come their way you know peter i think had a fear of being accepted peter feared the peer pressure around him we see it time after time in his life peter was worried about what people thought about him i remember that time in matthew chapter 16 where jesus looked at peter and he said get thee behind me satan thou art an offense unto me thou savers not the things that be of god but those that be of men it was peter one of the twelve one of the disciples and jesus said peter step back you're an offense you're you're loving the praise of men more than the praise of god you've got your eyes on what people think about you rather than what i think about you and we see it again in peter's life later on as he stood around a fire warming his hands there as jesus had now been betrayed and had been taken off for trial and here's peter standing in that courtyard warming his hands and and somebody looked at peter and they said hey weren't you with him and peter said i don't know what you're talking about and pretty soon someone else spoke up and they said i saw you you're one of his disciples peter said no i don't know the man and finally a little girl said i i know you are your speech betrayeth you and peter began to curse he began to swear he said i do not know the man. what was happening here the devil was praying on peter's weakness he was preying on that area of his life that he feared that fear of acceptance in the book of acts the early disciples the early apostles they believed that the gospel was only to be preached to the jews and so they were preaching the gospel to jews and and the jews were being saved by faith and then in acts chapter 10 god gives peter a vision you might remember it a sheet comes down out of heaven and in this sheet there are all these animals and peter identifies them and he says oh those are clean and those are unclean now we can eat those but we can't eat those and god said no peter don't call anything unclean and through that vision god showed peter that the gospel was to go to the whole world not just the jews but to the gentiles as well aren't you glad about that i'm glad that god designed the gospel to come to all of us he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance if you're not saved today you're a candidate for salvation because god loves the world he wants everybody to be saved and so peter understands and he begins to preach to the gentiles and the gentiles are getting saved they're trusting christ by faith just as the jews had done and one night after the service peter is fellowshipping with some gentile believers they're having a meal and they're enjoying some fellowship and peter's probably trying to mentor them a little bit and all of a sudden into the room walked some jews and peter immediately gets up from the table with the gentiles he goes over and he sits with the jews because he was afraid of what the jews would think of him sitting with the uncircumcised in galatians chapter 2 and verse 11 paul writes when peter was come to antioch i was stood him to the face because he was to be blamed paul said peter you knew of all people you were the one that was given the vision you were the one that first got the message from god that the gospel was going to was to go to those gentiles but peter you got afraid of what people would think of you you see peter was vulnerable in this area of peer pressure he was vulnerable he had a fear of what people thought about him and the devil preyed on that fear listen ladies and gentlemen we've got to surrender our fears to the lord we all have them we've got some fears about the times that we're in we've got some fears about what's coming next we've got some fears about politics and we've got fears about the pandemic and we've got fears about all these things we've got to surrender that to the lord why because god has not given us the spirit of fear but a power and of love and of a sound mind first john 4 18 says there's no fear in love because perfect love casteth out fear there's only one perfect love that's god he's the perfect love and when you have god in your life when you have christ as your savior you have something that can cast out that fear i love isaiah 41 and verse 10 god says fear not i am with thee be not dismayed i am thy god i'll strengthen thee i'll help thee i'll uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness we dare not allow the devil to heighten our fears but notice secondly the devil will highlight our faults now we all know we don't have to have anybody prove to us that we're sinners we know we have faults we know we have sin in our life peter i think if he had a fault if he had one of those besetting sins we might talk about peter was impestious peter would sometimes act before he would think peter would sometimes speak before he would think about what he was about to say he was one of those people that opened his mouth and inserted his foot if you know what i mean peter would step before he looked both ways he was one of those people that was always ready to respond and ready to act but he was impestious we see him in the passage before us today saying i'll never deny you i'll go to death but i'll never deny you jesus said today peter you're going to deny me he was quick to defend himself he had that sword out in the garden of eden cutting off melk this is here he was he was impestious do you recognize your faults is it easy for you to identify sin in your life if we're not careful we we can we can be a christian for a while and and convince ourselves that we're doing pretty good you know it's hard for us to remember the last time we made a mistake it's hard to remember the last time we really disobeyed god we get to the point if we're not careful or we start overlooking our sin we start overlooking those faults in our life remember what john says in first john 1 and verse 8 if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves the truth is not in us now if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us we all have things in our life that creep in that god calls sin we can be like that church of laodicea that overlooks that sin they said we're rich we're increased with goods we have need of nothing jesus said because thou sayest that i know that you're wretched you're miserable you're poor you're blind you're naked i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire and white raiment that thou mayest be clean anoint thine eyes with eyes have that thou mayest see as many as i love i rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore repent behold i stand at the door and knock here was a church that thought we got it all together we're a perfect church we we we have arrived god said no you got problems you've got sin and you don't even realize that i mean i'm not even there i'm standing outside the door of your heart outside the door of your church trying to get into the very thing i possess oh how we need to be careful we can become like that pharisee in the story that jesus told where he said two men went up into the temple to pray the one was a pharisee and he stood and prayed thus with himself noticed the wording there he prayed thus with himself i thank the o god that i'm not like other men are extortioners adulterers or even as this publican i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess the publican jesus said standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven but smote upon his breast saying god be merciful to me a sinner jesus said i tell you that man went down to his house justified rather than the other for he that exalteth himself should be a based but he that humbleth himself should be exalted we dare not get to the place where like the pharisee we think well i'm glad i'm saved i'm glad i'm not like these corrupt people in our country today i'm glad we're not like the sinners out there be careful because the devil will highlight your faults we've got to get good at dealing with sin in our life we've got to get good at confessing our sin and aren't you glad when we sin there's a there's a solution if we confess he's able to forgive in fact he delights in mercy a young preacher years ago was invited to preach at a conference with dr john r rice dr rice was a amazing evangelist and preached for many decades already by this time and had seen thousands of people come to christ in his revivals all over the country he was the editor of the sword of the lord newspaper a paper they had started back in the 1930s and had written many books and dr rice was highly esteemed in the christian world and here was this young preacher who got invited to to preach with him and he was he was going into that meeting kind of uh uh uh you know a little bit afraid and wondering how's this going to be to preach with such a great man of god and he got to the meeting and his fears only got greater when the pastor said now i've arranged for the two of you to stay in a hotel in the same room we don't have a lot of money so we put in the same room couple of beds in the room and and uh and this young preacher thought oh my now i know not only have to share a platform with him i got to share a hotel room with him and it scared him and he was really nervous about it and he got back to the room after the service and the young preacher said now dr rice i don't want to disturb you i want you to have complete rain here and what you need to get done this week and he said what time do you like to get up in the morning and dr i said well i'd normally get up at five o'clock and the young preacher said oh i'd be great he said that's about the time i usually get up he said what do you like to do first thing in the morning dr i said well i like to quickly get dressed and and have my time with god i like to read the bible for a while and spend some time in prayer and just have my quiet time with the lord and the young preacher said dr rice that's perfect he said i i like to get up and and and get some exercise i like to go outdoors and take a walk a brisk walk and talk to the lord while i walk and just meditate on the lord and so that'll work out perfect he said we'll get up at five and and you can have the room to yourself and i'll go outdoors and it'll be perfect so they rested and the next morning the alarm went off and they both got up and quietly dressed and the young preacher made his way out he was gone for about an hour and a half just getting some good exercise and time with the lord and he came back to the room hoping that dr rice had finished his time as well and he took the key and opened the door and most hotel rooms when you walk in the door there's a restroom to the right or to the left it's always kind of that way and he pushed the door back and the bathroom door just to the right was open and the light was on and dr rice was in the restroom and he was hunched over the commode and he was quickly tearing up a piece of paper and flushing it down the toilet and the young preacher was kind of taken back by this scene and he he said dr ice what are you doing and dr rice kind of sheepishly turned around and kind of red-faced and tears in his eyes he said oh i was confessing my sins and i always make a list of them every morning so that i don't miss any when i ask for god to forgive me then i always destroy the list so that nobody else finds out how wicked i am you know maybe that was the secret to god using dr rice the way he did he kept a short account of sin he made sure that he didn't miss any faults in his life that we're grieving to god perhaps we would do well to take a look at our life in light of god's word and realize where those sins are in our life that the devil is going to go into prod and poke at throughout this coming week the devil will heighten our fears he will highlight our faults but notice thirdly he will harass your faith did you know the bible is read by the devil do you know the devil knows scripture the devil knew when jesus was quoting the bible to him in matthew chapter 4 and he had to back away the devil knows the bible and the devil knows that god has instructed you and i as a believer to walk by faith not by sight the devil knows that hebrews 11 6 says that without faith it's impossible for us as a christian to please him the devil knows that so the devil is going to try to harass our faith now i believe peter had some pretty amazing faith i mean just think about it for a minute when peter first met the lord he was a fisherman and uh he's fishing there in the sea of galilee a businessman basically making his living as a fisherman he's married he has a wife and perhaps a family and all of a sudden this jesus person walks into his life and says follow me and i'll make you a fisher of men and the bible records that peter left all and followed jesus he walked away from that boat he walked away from his business he walked away from his normal routine and schedule and family and now for three years he's been following the lord now i'm sure there was time when peter was able to go home and and and spend an evening with his wife i'm sure there were times when when he interacted with with his his life before he followed the lord he ministered in that same general area as he lived and so there were it wasn't like he was gone from his wife for three years but it took a lot of faith for peter to answer that call of god in his life and to follow him that took a lot of faith i believe peter was a man of great faith it's no more better it's there's nowhere where it's exhibited more than in an instance where jesus told the disciples to get in a boat and go to the other side of the sea of galilee jesus went up into a mountain to pray and the disciples get on that boat and they started across that sea of tiberias and as was often the case a storm came up those storms are common still today on that sea of galilee and they come up very quickly and they can be quite violent and this storm was particularly violent now those men many of them had made their life on that sea of galilee they had spent many days and nights out there on that body of water and they knew about these storms no doubt they had equipped the boat in such a way that it could handle these kinds of situations but that night it was hopeless i mean the winds were blowing the sea was crashing against the boat and the rain was pelting down and these disciples are afraid for their life and suddenly out on the water there's a figure and the disciples aren't sure what this is they're not sure if they're seeing a spirit or what and john perceives that it's the lord and peter says lord if it be thou bid me that i come unto thee on the water and the lord said come and peter steps out of the boat and walks on the water now i don't know about you that took a lot of faith and remember there's a storm going on i used to do a little water skiing back in my day and i like to go water skiing early in the morning when the water was absolutely still the more like glass it looked the better i liked it i didn't like choppy water i didn't want other boats on the on the lake i want to be the only one out there that's the way i like to ski remember these waves are crashing against the bolt the wind is howling the rain is in peter's face but peter by faith believing this is the lord he steps out on that water and walks on top the water i don't know of anybody else that's ever done this i don't know anybody that's even tried it i haven't i think you'd think i was pretty foolish if i said i'm gonna walk off this platform back to that sound booth on air here i go say brother guys please you're not going to make it that would take a great deal of faith and we don't know how many steps peter took remember the lord is so far away they don't know who it is at first the flannel glass lesson when i was a kid showed peter taking only two steps i think he might have taken a few more than that he took several steps on that water by faith but all of a sudden he got his eyes off the lord didn't he he saw the wind boisterous in the wind crashing and and peter begins to sink and he cries out lord save me and peter reached jesus reached forth his hand and caught him and said o ye of little faith what little faith peter had just exhibited great faith greater faith than anybody i know and jesus said oh you have little faith now the lord makes that statement three times in the gospels oh you have little faith and if you'll study it out i don't think in any of those cases was the lord referring to the amount of faith he was referring to the duration of faith the disciples said lord increase our faith you ever said oh lord i need more faith lord i need more faith it took a lot of faith for you to get saved it takes a lot of faith to live the christian life it's not that we need more faith it's we need enduring faith we need faith to keep on keeping on you see peter had great amount of faith to step out of that boat but his faith did not endure you remember what jesus said to him here in our text peter i've prayed for thee that thy faith fail not you see jesus knew that there was coming a test in peter's life there was going to come a time in his life where in his great faith he was going to take his eyes off of the lord and trust himself ladies and gentlemen we're living in those days right now you're here because of great faith you've trusted christ as your savior you've come into heritage baptist church listen this is a ministry of faith understand there was nothing here on this piece of ground a couple of decades ago this was a vacant lot this ministry is here today because of the faith of heritage baptist church great faith i mean there are not too many people in this country that would want to come to oakland california and try to build a church your pastor the deacon's here the staff the the the congregation you folks have demonstrated great faith you know what god is saying today don't let your faith fail be careful because the devil's going to harass your faith he's going to bring pandemics he's going to bring politicians we don't agree with he's going to bring some personal struggles maybe some health challenges maybe a financial pressure he's going to bring some things into our life that are going to harass our faith he knows that we've got to have faith to please god and so he's going to try to destroy that faith in our life to continue on that's why god says thou keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusteth in thee that's why god says trust in the name of the lord and stay upon your god if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small these are days of adversity these are some days with some challenge these are some days where the the defensive coordinator the devil is trying to attack us get us to fumble the ball to throw an interception to turn the ball over and lose the game but god says keep your faith ask god to elongate your faith when you pray lord increase my faith help him ask him to help you to have faith all the way to the end by the way peter was martyred for the lord history records by jerome in fox's book of martyrs jerome states when peter was led to the place of execution he requested that he be crucified upside down for he said i am not worthy to be crucified in the same manner and form as my lord so jerome the historian states they crucified peter upside down his head being downward his feet upward on the cross somewhere along the line peter's faith found a place where it endured it faltered here and there in his life but there was a time when peter said lord help my faith to continue and we're in those days today where we need to ask god to give us an elongated faith that whatever comes down the pike whatever attacks us in our day we will keep the faith because satan will heighten our fears he'll highlight our faults he'll harass our faith but notice finally he will try to hinder our focus in john chapter 21 and verse 3 toward the end of the life of the lord jesus christ here on this earth his time here was drawn to a close he would soon ascend back to heaven to be at the right hand of his father we see a a time and instance in peter's life where he says to his fellow disciples i go fishing now when peter said that he wasn't referring to taking a a day off or getting a little recreation in when peter said i'm going fishing he was saying i'm going back to the old life i'm no longer going to follow the lord i'm going to go back to what i was doing before he called me and the other disciples they said we also go with thee and they went out they got in a boat they went out and they fished all night and the bible says they caught nothing jesus said without me you can do nothing and so as the morning began to break they heard a voice from the shore that voice said children have you any meat in other words did you catch anything and they answered no and the voice said cast the net on the right side and ye shall find i suppose peter with the others were kind of rolling their eyes like who is this guy what does he know we've been out here all night there's nothing to catch out here tonight but nevertheless perhaps to prove him wrong they threw the net into the water on the right side of the boat and as the net hit the water immediately it was filled with fish 153 and john again the perceptive one he says it's the lord and peter gerdes fishers coat about him for he was naked he cast himself into the water and when he was come to the shore and the disciples with the boat bringing the fish they found jesus with a fire already going and some fish on the fire and he said come and dine they sit down and they enjoy breakfast the bible says in verse 15 so when they had dined jesus saith unto simon peter simon son of jonas loveth thou me more than these he saith to him yay lord now notice that i love thee he sailed and feed my lands he said to them a second time simon son of jonas loveth thou me he said unto him yay lord i notice that i love thee he said and feed my sheep he said unto him a third time simon son of jonas lovest thou me peter was grieved because he said to him a third time loveth on me he said lord that knows all things i don't know notice that i love thee he says him feed my sheep now the bible is a written document you have to read the bible you can't watch the bible it's not a movie it's not a video it's a book you have to read it but as you read the bible you have to have a video going in your head or you won't totally understand it and this is one of those cases because jesus said peter do you love me more than these now when he said that he must have been pointing to something do you love me more than these well what are these the book doesn't reveal it so you've got to have a little video going here what's jesus pointing to and he says do you love me more than these well i don't know what's in your video but as i watch this story as i read it i believe jesus is pointing to the fish on the fire and when jesus pointed those fish and said do you love me more than these he wasn't asking peter peter do you like me better than fried fish he was saying peter do you love me more than what this world has to offer you because peter i got a great plan for your life there's a day called pentecost coming up and i need a preacher and i've decided i'm going to use you to preach that day 3000 are going to get saved and baptized and added to the church of jerusalem that's in my plan but i got to know something first do you love me more than these you love me more than this world because i can't use you if you don't what are the these in your life where's your focus you know it's easy to get our focus on ourselves it's easy to focus on the things of this life the material things that satisfy through this life it's easy to focus on the things that are non-eternal and satan gets a lot of traction through distraction satan loves to move our eyes off the goal he loves to move our eyes off of christ and jesus said no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god jesus didn't say no man having put his hand in the plow and going back he said no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god we're not fit we're not ready to go forward in our life if our focus is not on jesus christ all the devil wants to do is distract you he wants to get your focus off of christ he wants you to focus on the news he wants you to focus on the condition of the culture he wants you to focus on the election he wants you to focus on all these things because when he can get you to look off of the lord he's got you when the woman saw that the tree was good for food when aiken saw a babylonish garment a wedge of gold some shekels of silver when samson saw a woman of timnath when david saw a woman washing we know the rest of the story all it took was a lack of focus because your eye affects your heart you ever been driving with someone and they're driving and you said oh look at that and they went yo wow their hands followed their eyes all of a sudden you're going off the road and if the devil can get you to look anywhere but christ during these days you're going to find yourself in a spiritual ditch you're going to find yourself perhaps in a horrible accident spiritually that's why paul said set your affection on things above not on the things of the earth i don't know you i don't know about you but i'm tempted to look at what's going on here i'm tempted to look at all this confusion and all this chaos and all of this division and all of the destruction and all of the disease and god says hey look here look here give me your eyes looking under jesus the author and finisher of our faith he begins our faith he's going to finish our faith and he wants our eyes on him for all of our journey that's why your pastor is saying keep your eyes on the lord church keep your eyes on christ keep trusting him these are some difficult times but let's keep trusting the lord william george patton general george patton was the leader of our armed forces our allied forces in world war ii general patton it is said kept two books on his nightstand and he read out of both of them every night the first book was the bible george patton would read from the bible every day i don't know if george patton was a christian i have read some things about his life i have visited his grave there in luxembourg i don't know if he was saved or not there are some things in his life that make me think maybe he was there are some other things in his life that i think i don't think he was i don't know but he read from the bible every day and people asked him why do you read from the bible he said because the bible bible's a book of wisdom and i need wisdom well he was right about that the other book that he read from every day was entitled rumble's rules of war well who was rummel rummel was the general of adolf hitler's army he had written a book on the strategies of war now why would general patton read from that book every day because he wanted to know how the enemy was going to operate he wanted to know how the enemy was thinking ladies and gentlemen it's very important that we read from god's word every day but we dare not close our eyes to the tactics of satan do you have some fears today are they surrendered to the lord because god's not given us a spirit of fear do you easily see where sin is in your life or has it been a while since you've confessed sin the devil's gonna he's gonna highlight your faults he's gonna let your family and your neighbors and those who are trying to reach for christ see him if we don't deal with him is he harassing your faith has your faith been wearing a little thin just really been wondering is it worth it all is it really going to pay off to stay faithful to the lord is he harassing your faith oh let us not be weary in well-doing we shall reap if we faint not how about our focus but it's easy to think about everything else that's going on and lose our focus from the one who saved us the one who has called us to serve him and the one who's coming again for us may we be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the lord and savior jesus christ we have an enemy can't see him but he knows you he knows me he's standing at our right hand ready to resist us and how we need to be aware of his tactics let's bow to pray as your head is bowed there at home or here as we bow our heads would you allow the spirit of god to look into your life for a moment the devil's looking at your life he's kind of surveying your christian life right now just like a defensive coordinator would survey some film about a team they're playing today he's watching he's noticing and i wonder are we aware of those areas where we're weak or we're not shoring up is god revealed a fear today friend maybe you're listening to my voice and you you have a fear of death you have a fear of eternity you're not sure where you're going to spend eternity oh listen god can solve that fear today he's provided his son the lord jesus christ to die for your sins to be buried and rise again the third day so that you could have eternal life that fear could be settled today you can know that you're on your way to heaven christian do you have some fears about the future some fears about your family or finances or a relationship or the problems we see around us has god put his finger on some areas that need to be confessed to sin has your faith been shaky kind of wobbly are we focused oh the devil he knows our weaknesses maybe today we make decisions to stay faithful to the lord jesus christ lord bless this moment of closing in this service may your will be done may you be glorified and may we be the people that have victory to our lord jesus christ may souls be saved today may christians be encouraged and strengthened today for the glory of jesus christ we ask it in jesus name let's stand together and music is plain if god is speaking to your heart today right there where you are you can bow before the lord [Music] do business with god if you're without christ as savior he'd like to save you today if you'll tell god that you're a sinner [Music] that you know that jesus christ died for you and your sins and if you will put your faith and trust in jesus christ today the bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved you can trust him as savior right now you can contact the church just message the church right now and we'll have someone get to you with a message of the gospel you can know before you pillow your head tonight you're on your way to heaven christian there's hope in our lord jesus christ let's set our affection on him may god help us to know our enemy but to know that greater is he that's in you and he that's in this world

Channel: Heritage Baptist Church

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Id: V4-gfrkRNgk

Length: 52min 13sec (3133 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020