Non-compromising Life

That's great to have you with us today Now, I want to have all you people that are in the dark to come over into the light Come on, come on. I don't want to do this to you, but I need you to come over here Come on, it's okay We don't bite over here We love Jesus over here And so come on over here and just you'll be a lot warmer when you get in with other people It's a little chilly tonight, but if you all gathered together, it'd be a lot warmer So it's so good to have you Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're coming Yes, they keep coming from all over the country

See, isn't it so nice? And you'll be able to see the baptisms better because we have baptisms tonight And so you'll be able to see the pretty faces of those going down to the water coming back up out of the water again And you can see their hairdos all messed up, all that kind of good stuff So that'll be tonight But it's so good to have you Thank you for coming Yes Ah, look, I got the Morrisons up here But that's just amazing All right Yeah, see? Isn't that nice? All right Let's pray together Father, thank you for tonight Thank you for a chance to be in your word

You are truly a great God and worthy of praise Our prayer, Lord, is that you'd open the hearts and minds of all of us, that we might see and behold the beauty of the Lord Help us, Lord, and our families to rely upon you, to trust in you, to believe in you, to know that what your word says is all that matters And yet, Lord, we need to follow through on what it says And so we ask that, Lord, you give us the grace and the strength to do so for the glory of your name In Jesus' name we pray Amen We are looking at the foundations that fortify the family And foundation number one deals with all

Foundation number two deals with Reliance Foundation number three deals with com, and foundation number four deals with defiance Okay, you with me so far? Foundation number one, a forgiving spirit, deals with alliance, where I align my will with God's will That I align my ways with God's ways That I align my heart with God's heart That I am so in tune with God because our God is good and ready to forgive, I in turn want to be ready to forgive So therefore, a forgiving spirit is foundation number one Because without that, I live a bitter life. I live a vengeful life

And no family can be built on bitterness, anger, vengeance, and retaliation So it begins with the forgiving spirit That's why it deals with Alliance Number two was overarching prayer It is that which encompasses and overshadows everything It's woven in between every as of our home life And therefore, that signifies reliance That is, I am reliant upon God for everything If the Lord is going to build the house, and they who build it labor in vain. I must trust in the Lord with all my heart. I must not lean on my own understanding In all my ways acknowledging him so that he'll direct my paths

But that begins with relying upon him Well, the only way I can truly rely upon the living God is if I live a life on my knees in my closet in prayer, praying for the salvation of my Family, praying for the growth of my family, committing everything that our family does to the direction of the Lord so that I'm not doing things in my own strength, but totally rely up the Lord for everything So, a forgiving spirit is all about alliance An overarching prayer is that which deals with reliance But understanding mind deals with compliance

That is, I am compliant with everything that God says in His Word simply because I now have the mind of Christ The Bible tells me that because I have the mind of Christ in me, Christ dwells in me, I can begin to understand the things that he wants me to understand that I might live for the glory and honor of his name And I need to have that kind of understanding mind so that my home, as Proverbs 24: and 4 says, is now fortified It is now established Because without that

Home being established on God's word, which comes and gives me an understanding mind, then I will live in my own understanding My paths will not be smooth, and all kinds of difficulty and turmoil will come to my family Foundation number four simply is defiance Say, what am I def about? This found number four is a non life. A non life. I want to make sure that in my life There is nothing that will cause me to ab my moral standards My doctrinal standards, my belief for any kind of personal gain The one thing that will put cracks in the foundation of your home is a compromising life

If there's one thing that will begin to bring the house down to rubble, it's those within the home that compromise their moral standards That compromise on doctrinal issues That compromise on the truth You do that, and you'll see crack after crack after crack And the more cracks you get, the easier the house comes tumbling down You cannot compromise And so this becomes the lesson for every one of us to understand Because to some degree, we tend to lean toward comp We don't want to say it's that, but we tend to do that in our own personal lives and in our family lives

It needs to be very, very careful And if I'm going to have a home built on the foundation of a non-compromising life, it begins with me as a father With you as a father, with you as a leader of your home All you have to do is go through the scriptures and begin to realize that Adam Very beginning, compromised on what God said He followed his wife and lost paradise You move from Adam to Abraham, and Abraham compromised the truth about his wife Sarah Almost lost her life, but lost his testimony to a pagan king and to a pagan community He moved from Abraham to Esau, and for a meal he compromised

And therefore, he lost his birthright You move to Saul And King Saul compromised on God's divine word and God's divine plan He spared some of the choicest animals and even spared King Agag He lost his kingdom You move to Aaron, and Aaron compromised With the people of Israel We allowed them to influence him to build the golden calf and lost the opportunity to be a part of the promised land Think of Samson, who compromised his devotion as a Nazarite He had taken a Nazarite vow to God And because he compromised that vow, you begin to see him lose his strength, his eyes, and his life

You move from Samson to King David, who compromised God's standard, committed adultery, murdered Uri, and lost his infant son, and never did the sword depart From his home Moved to Solomon, David's son, who compromised his convictions on marriage and money And married foreign wives, accumulated tons of money, which the kings were not supposed to do, especially when it comes to accumulating Horses, and he lost the United Kingdom Think of Ahab, King Ahab, he compromised when he married Jezebel Well, There, he lost his own throne and his life Think of Peter

He compromised his convictions about the Christ, denied the Christ Lost his joy Think of Ananias and Sapphira They lied about how much they sold their property for to Peter, and both of them Lost their lives in the church See, compromise is devastating It devastates everybody The unfortunate thing is, is that Satan gets us to believe that a little compromise is okay. A little compromise on little issues is okay You just can't compromise on the big issues Well, the reason compromise is so bad is because it begins by compromising on just little things

For instance, we say, as Christians, that we believe in the authority of the Bible We believe in God's Holy Word But we'll compromise on where we go to church, and we'll go to a church where the Word of God is not held in high esteem So that we can please our children and please our young people, so that they're happy in church We say that we believe and hold to the truth of God's Holy Word And that we are people who believe in the truth, for Jesus is the truth And yet, we will compromise that truth. to keep a relationship with someone we say we love because we value the relationship

More than we value the truth of God's Holy Word People say they are Convicted about honesty until a little bit of dishonesty will gain them more money And they'll be dishonest so that they can have a bigger paycheck or more money at the end Of the month Some people say they are convicted about their purity, their morality, their holiness But when their lustful passions are kindled, then they can easily compromise their standards on purity because they want to fulfill their own selfish desires

There are people who say they believe in the purity of the church, yet they go to churches that never practice church discipline Makes you wonder whether or not they truly believe in the purity church or they even care about the purity of the church You see, it's imperative that we as people Match what we say with what we do That everything about our lips is equal To our life Everything about our words is equal with our walk Turn to me in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4, a very familiar verse

Paul says these words, verse number 1, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner Worthy of the call with which you have been called Now we know the Bible says that our calling is a high calling It is a holy calling and it is a heavenly calling So, if we've been called by God, it's because it's come from above It's high and holy and heavenly And yet, Paul says that we are to walk worthy of that calling It's the word axiom, which means of equal weight That is, everything about our walk must be equal to the words we say There must be congruence

With our lips and our lives There must not be a separation between the two They both must be Equal in terms of their nature So Paul says we need to walk worthy of that Why? Because when you walk worthy of your calling, Hebrews 11 says, The world is not worthy of you Hebrews 11 says it this way Hebrews 11, verse number 3. I 'm sorry, 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment as he speaks about People in the hall of faith They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins. being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mount and caves and holes in all the ground, and all these having gained approval through their faith. did not receive what was promised because God was going to do something great for them But the world wasn't worthy of them Why wasn't the world worthy of them? Because they walked worthy of their calling They lived the life they say they believed

Listen, your family and mine is only going to be as strong as those of us who live exactly what we say we believe If we don't do that, we have compromised what we say we believe And there, cracks in the foundation begin to develop, and all of a sudden, our family becomes very, very weak because there is no stability And if there is no stability, there is no security We must live a non kind of life No duplicity, no hypocrisy, no apostasy, all credibility All belie, all integrity That's the way we need to live our lives

That's why, when we do, the world is not worthy of us because the world doesn't work that way They don't live that way They live doing what they want to do to consume it upon their own fleshly desires But as Christians, we are unwilling to compromise For person gain We are unwilling to abandon what we say we believe about the Bible for my own personal lustful desires We are unwilling to compromise our stand on truth to To obtain a relationship because we want to maintain that which is pure and holy, and God's word is true, and it's pure, and it's holy

So the question comes for us: is that the kind of life that we live? If this is the foundation that is defiant against everything else the world has to offer And is defiant against falling into sin, then we want to live a non-compromising life Remember Daniel? Daniel chapter 1, verse number 8 The Bible says this about the man He purposed in his heart that he would not defile him with a portion of the king's food. nor with the wine which he drank Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not def him

There is probably no clearer biblical illustration of a man of non-compromising faith than Daniel and, of course, his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Those were men who, under pressure Who, under the pressure of the threat of their lives, would not bow the knee to a pagan king And I wonder how many people today would be able to be strong in that sense In fact, if you got your Bible, turn to Daniel chapter 3 Daniel chapter 3 is a story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedne in the fiery furnace

This is one of our The prophecies of Christmas that we do every year during the month of December because it talks about the Jewish people in Babylonian captivity And God's promise to His people to bring them out and to fulfill His promise to them by giving them a seed that would be the Christ, the Messiah of Israel And so we know a lot about Shadrach, Meshach and Abedneg because we read about them in Sunday school and we have stories about him in Sunday school We used to have when I was growing up The flannel graph We don't have flannel graphs today

We're way beyond that in terms of technology We can just pull up our i, draw a picture, and show it to everybody But those days, we had flannel graphs, and we had these little Cut out figures, you know, and you used to stick them on the flan graph Remember those days? Way back with Good News Bible Clubs and back when Christianity was real back in those days, you know? And so we had these flannel graphs, and they would stick

Stick each little person, and they would stick up the fire, they would stick up the furnace, and they would stick up the king, and we'd be mesmerized by these little figures they would put up on the phot You know, and then, you know Jesus never used fl He didn't have to and never did He told parables, but the stories about Shad, Meshach, and Abednego, and they were commanded to bow down to the image of the king, the golden image of the king And they weren't going to do that They just refused to do that And they could have very easily said, you know, it's really not that big a deal

We can bow down on the outside, but remain standing on the inside How about that? That's a good way Not too big a compromise, just a little compromise We can just bow down to the image, but everybody will know our hearts Because our hearts are standing up We're standing up on our hearts on the inside Or we can rationalize it this way, you know, maybe we should just join in with everybody else and bow down because after all, we're the servant of the people

And because we're the servants of the people, and we want to represent the people to the king, it will allow us to have a kind standing with the king Could have rationalized it that way They could have rationalized it in all kinds of ways But when you live a non-compromising life, you never seek to rationalize anything Because everything for you that you need to know is in the Word of God And so they refused to bow The horn would sound, the flute would sound, the leer, the trig the psalter, the bagpipe, all kinds of music would be sung and heard But yet these would not bow down

It says in verse 15, if you do not worship, You will immediately be cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire And what God is there who can deliver you out of my hands? This is what you're going to do You're going do it my way You don't do it my way, it's going be hot for you You're in big trouble So in verse 16, Shadra, Meshach, and Abedne replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar We do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter If it be so Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire And He will deliver us out of your hand, O king

But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O King That we are not going to serve you, your gods, or worship the golden image that you have set up What a great testimony! Nebuchadnezzar says, This is what's going to happen You don't bow down to my image, you're going into the furnace You're going to be burned alive. I'm going to smell your flesh all over this land, and there's no way of getting out of it And they said, Oh, King, we hear you But we're not doing that There's no way You know why? Because we serve the real true God You don't

And because we serve the real true God, our God says, You shall have no other graven image before you You should not bow down to it, you should not worship it By the way, that's the book of Exodus, O King, chapter 20, verse number 4 We will not do that You see, they had courage. strength, resiliency, and the courage that they had, because all conviction, listen, is rooted in courage And that courage is based On the authority of God in your life Their conviction was rooted In cou, and that courage is based on the authority of God in their life

You see, they really actually believe what the Bible said They knew what the Bible said, and they were going to align themselves with what the Bible says So, therefore, they were defiant against anything that would come across or be contradictory to the Word of God They under what it meant to flee idolatry, as Paul would later go on to say years later Flee idolatry Flee Immorality Flee those things Run from them You shall have no other gods before me And they were so convicted about that, the fact that their God was the one true God Their courage would never be diminished

Because true conviction is rooted in courage, and that courage is based on the ability of God Not only did they have courage, they had confidence They had confidence because conviction is reinforced In confidence, and that confidence is based on the ability of God Did you get that? If courage is based on the authority of God, confidence is based on the ability of God Okay Our God is able to deliver us We don't doubt the power of God We don't doubt the mind of God We don't doubt the omniscience of God We don't doubt the sovereignty of God

That we're here because God is sovereign We're in exile because God is sovereign And we're standing before you today because God is sovereign And because he is, oh king, sorry, it ain't gonna happen No way are we bowing down to your graven image You see, wouldn't you want your young person to be like that in their high school? Wouldn't you want your young person to be like that in their college? Wouldn't you want to do that in your workplace? Oh boss, I am not going to compromise my integrity for what you want me to do That just ain't going to happen And they would say, Well, then you're fired

Okay Then you just say, You have no authority over me unless it's been granted to you from above He's still going to say, you're fired Okay, I guess it's been granted to you from above then But the fact of the matter is, you've got to have the courage and the confidence That's what conviction is rooted in, it's rooted in courage Okay? And that courage is based on the authority of God, and that conviction is reinforced In confidence, and that confidence is based on the ability of God to do whatever He wants to do because power belongs to God And He is in complete control of everything

And these men, Shadra, Meshach, and Abedneg, that's the way they lived their lives They had real, true conviction You see that? That's what we need to have We need to be men and women of conviction Well, to do that, we must have courage that's based on the authority of God and confidence based on the ability of God And the third thing that signified these men's conviction is simply this: they had a commitment They had a commitment that was based on the sovereignty of God You see, conviction is rooted in courage Reinforced in confidence and revealed in commitment

And that commitment is based on the sovereignty of Almighty God That God Himself is sovereign and rules over all, because this is what They say But even if he does not, if our God chooses not to deliver us, because our God is able to do that Our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ever ask or thank But even if he chooses not to do it that way, our God, our God, is still Still, let it be known that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up What commitment! What determination? God is sovereign

We know it's appointed that a man wants to die If today is the day that's the divine appointment that I die, so be it So, therefore, we understand that God is sovereign And everything about what we're committed to is based on his sovereignty And therefore, that commitment now is revealed for the king to see And that king was incensed He was so angry, he made the fire so much hotter than it ever could possibly be And I don know how you make a fire hotter than it is, but that's what they did, threw him in there And guess what? The men who threw them in, they were burned alive No problem

Not even ashes on them None at all Because one like. A person, the angel of the Lord, would walk amidst them in the fire And maybe they were able, as they stood before the king To go back to the book of Isaiah and remember what God said, when they walk through the fire, they shall not be burned, neither shall the fl kind upon them Maybe they remembered the words of the Lord You see, to live a non-compromising life, you can't afford to forget what God says Because once you remember what he says, it just keeps you going on and going strong And that was Shadrach Meshach At a Bend

Now, that's all introduction to what I want to tell you If I am going to live a non-compromising life, if I'm going to live a life that doesn't compromise my morality, my authority My family, my spirituality, anything at all about me, I must live a life of integrity. I must walk worthy of my calling There must be Equality between my life and my lips Okay? If that's going to happen, what do I need to do? Number one You need to install Christ as your chief priority You need to install Christ as your chief priority We mean install him as my priority

You need to set him in the highest place in your life For most of us, God's an afterthought When my family's crumbling around me, I'm yelling and screaming Yelling and screaming, scream, I guess that's a good word That should be a word Let's write that one down and send it to Webster for me That's a good word Scream Okay? Whenever we're doing that, we're not really thinking about the Lord You know, He's far from our mind because we haven't installed Him as the chief priority of our lives For most of us, God's an after He's an afterthought in our conversations He's an afterthought at work

He's an afterthought at school He's an afterthought in my relationships He's even an afterthought on Sunday How many of you missed church on Sunday because God was an act of thought for you this past week? Don't answer out loud But see, sometimes God's an act of thought on Sundays And so we have to ask ourselves, is God the first thought of my mind or the last thought of my mind? That's very important Paul said it this way: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gained For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gained Paul would install Christ as the highest priority of his life

Because I'm going to live for Christ When I die, it will be gain But for me to live is Christ. I'm going to honor the Christ That's why the psalmist would say in Psalm 97, verse number 9: For you are the Lord Most high over all the ear, and you are extolled above all gods Psalm says, I extol you, I install you, I place you, I put you in the highest of all places Because he is the God who is Seated down at the right hand of God the Father and elevated to the highest place of all by His Father But we need to recognize that about our God and submit to His authority

And if you don't install him as the highest place in your life, guess what? Somebody else will be in that highest place Or something else will be in that highest place And you will compromise your stand for the Lord You must install them as your chief priority

Ever did a study of that little phrase in Scripture called the one thing in Scripture? Remember in Mark chapter 10, when the rich young ruler came to Christ, asked him what must he do to inherit eternal life? What must he do to be saved? And Christ told him to keep the commandments, the bottom ones: love your neighbor, you know, do good to those who hurt you, don't Commit adultery, don't murder Oh, I've done all that, he said Then he says, Go and sell all you have and give to the poor And he went away sad

And so the question comes: does that mean I have to sell everything to give to the poor in order to be saved? No That's not the point The point is that there was someone else in the highest place There was another God And the God was money and possessions See? And so it says, precious de, one thing you lack Go and sell all you have to the poor The one thing he lacked was that he did not adore the King of Kings He adored what he had He adored his possessions, his money He prized them He treasured them But he did not adore the King of Kings So, one thing you lack, what's that? Adoration

In Luke chapter 10 The story of Mary and Martha You know the story well Martha was in the kitchen She was doing all kinds of things behind the scenes, trying to get a meal prepared But Mary, she was sitting at the feet of Jesus Martha got perturbed And so she came and complained to Jesus And Jesus said to Martha, Oh, Martha, Martha, Martha You're busy about so many things, but one thing is needful One thing And Mary has chosen that one thing What's that one thing? To sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he has to say The one thing that she has chosen is und attention for me

The one thing that the rich young ruler lacked was unparalleled adoration to the king Just one thing And then you go over to John chapter 9 You had the man who was born blind Christ heals him Right? And he keeps being asked by the Pharisees, who did this, who did this He wasn't able to understand it until he came face to face with Christ He said, one thing One thing I know Once I was blind, but now I see You install Christ as the chief priority of your life There is an un Paralleled adoration, an undivided attention, and an un affirmation of his character

And then you go over to the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3 One thing I do, he says Just one thing Everything was about knowing Christ He had one ambition He had an un ambition When you install Christ as the highest priority in your life, you have an un ambition There's one thing I do. I forget what was in the past and I press on toward the high calling of Christ Jesus, my Lord, to honor and glorify His name Because for me to live as Christ and to die is gain Wow Wow Can you believe that? All you people, please I ask your forgiveness Oh, wow Wow

One thing I do: turn off my phone and put it away Okay, anyway All right So, anyway, the Apostle Paul He paves the way for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain And when you install Christ as the highest priority, there is an unparalleled adoration For his name, an undivided attention to his name, an unashamed affirmation of his name, an uninhibited ambition toward his name, and an undiminished anticipation One thing I ask, one thing I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27, verse number 4

Five times the Bible says one thing because all five of them are the same thing It's all just one thing It's installing Christ as the highest priority in your life If you are going to be a man or woman of conviction, it only happens because Christ Is uppermost in your thinking and your life He is no longer an afterthought He is a forethought He is before everything You install Christ as the highest priority Number two, you nurture your own spirituality. I need to nurture your own spirituality Bible says in Psalm 46, verse number 10, these words, be still and know that I am God

We need to nurture our own spirituality We need to be in our own quiet place We need to be involved in the disciplines of prayer and the reading of scripture and the discipline of song One of the neglected disciplines in the privacy of our closets is to be able to sing unto the Lord a new song and to praise Him for who He is But the bottom line is that we need to begin to nurture our own spirituality. I would like to think that you're here tonight because at the core of your being, you truly want to nurture this Spiritual aspect of your life

The reason you're here is because you want to walk with the Lord You want to talk with the Lord You want to learn about what the Lord has to say So you're nurturing that inner man You're nurturing the soul of a man because you're being fed the truth of God's word and you want to You want to take all in that you can But for us to be able to nurture our own spirituality is cr

When you got up this morning, what did you do first? Have you installed Christ as the chief priority so that you can nurture your own spirituality? You can spend time in the Word of God, on your knees, communing with God, setting the tone for the rest of the day, so you can make sure that you're ready to face whatever is coming your way Because the inner man has been developed and grown, because in the bottom of your heart you truly want to be conformed to the image of the Christ

We have a series called Intimacy with the Master, another series called Alone with the Almighty, both dealing with the cultivation of the inner man If you've never listened to those, I would encourage you to do so because they deal with how it is you are to nurture your own spirituality If I'm going to be a man or woman of integrity, if I'm going to be a man or a woman of deep conviction, I must install Christ as the chief priority. I must nurture my own spirituality And thirdly, I must

Turn away from all iniquity, all impurity, all id, all immorality. I must turn away from that. I can't do that if Christ isn't in the highest place in my heart. I can't do that if I'm not nurturing the inner man that I might grow spiritually. I'm not going to turn away. I won't have the tools to turn. I won't have the desire Desire to turn If I'm ever going to develop the desire to turn away from immorality and idolatry, if I'm ever going to be like Joseph, who was able to run away from The influence of a sinful woman How was he able to do that? It's because he was a man of God

He was a man of character He is a man who valued his relationship with the living God If that wasn't the case, then when the temptation came, he wouldn't be able to withstand the onslaught of the sexual temptation, but he was able to do that Simply because he nurtured his own spiritual man, that he might grow in his walk with the Lord So it must be with us We must turn away from all iniquity Paul would say in 1 Thessalonians 5: ab from all All iniquity The Bible says in James 4, verse number 7, to resist the devil and he will flee

The Bible says that Job Job in chapter 1 was a God-fearing man, a God-fearing man Who turned away from evil What characterized Job was that he was blameless He was God-fearing, and he turned away from ev The blameless man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his children after him, the book of Proverbs tells us Oh, his family was blessed because they had a godly father who prayed for his family, who spent time with his family And mod to them how it is they were to live their lives And here was a man of great conviction who was able to say, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him

He would not compromise his integrity He would not compromise his testimony in the community He would not compromise anything because he was committed to his God And so he would turn away from all ini If I 'm going to be a man or woman of conviction, I must install Christ as my chief priority, nurture my own spirituality, turn away from all iniquity, and fourthly, enter into account Enter into accountability If I'm serious about saying no to sin, if I'm serious about living a pure life, then I want to be held accountable by someone who's close to me, who knows me better than myself

If it's a husband, your wife is your best accountability partner If it's a wife, your husband is your best accountability partner because they know you best They know what goes on in the secrecy of your home They know you You can fool everybody in church You can fool the preacher. I don't know what's going on in your house But you can't fool your wife Can't fool your husband, but you need to enter into accountability so that you are able to say, This is what I did today Accountability is a good thing

One day we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, right? That we might receive that which is done in our body, whether it good or whether it be bad Accountability is built into the Christian life Accountability is built into the Christian faith Accountability is built into the church of Jesus Christ It's bu Built into what we believe because we're all accountable to the highest king there is And yet, he's given us a fellowship of believers around us that we can pray with and pray for, and people who will Look out for our own spiritual welfare

That's why in Ecclesiastes 4 it says that the two are better than one Why? Because if one falls down alone, who's there to pick him up? Right? In Galatians 6, it speaks about those who are spiritual, able to restore those who are not as spiritual And they can come alongside them and lift them up, hold them up, and bear them to help them through the difficulties of life Enter into accountability Number five, guard against the enemy Guard against the enemy We know you're to guard your heart Proverbs 4:2, we're talking about that on Sunday mornings You need to guard against the enemy

In my book, God's Hope for Your Home, you have a whole chapter on how to guard your heart and home Against the enemy, because Satan goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour And so many times we are not on guard, we are soldiers for Christ Soldiers Engage in battle And the battle we have is not with one another, but with the principalities and forces of darkness that wage war against our soul So, therefore, we must always guard against the enemy The Bible says that if we resist Satan, he will flee Next

If we're going to be men and women of integrity, when you install Christ as your chief priority, nurture your own spirituality, turn away from all iniquity, enter into accountability, guard against the enemy, you're ready to respect your ministry Respect your ministry Do you respect your ministry enough to not compromise? What is your ministry? Listen carefully Your ministry is the sphere of influence that God has called you to live out your spiritual existence Wherever that may be The sphere of influence where God has called you to live out your spiritual existence, that is your ministry

We're just not talking about a church ministry We're talking about a family ministry Your family You live out your spiritual existence within the sphere of influence of your family You go to work That's the place where God has called you to live out your spiritual existence in that sphere of influence And maybe it's in the southeast corner of some small little building, but that's your sphere of influence And that's exactly where you live out your spiritual existence Because that's the ministry that God's entrusted to you

Do you respect your ministry enough to never compromise in that ministry? God has gifted you God has called you God wants to use you for His purposes, for His glory And will you do that so that the ministry that He's entrusted to you? Is without blemish There's nothing there that someone can go back in and look at You need to be men and women of integrity Next, you need to identify with the godly Don't identify with the ungodly Identify with the godly Psalm 1:1 to 6 talks about, and you know it well, not to

To sit in the seat of the scornful, not to hang around with all those people that are ungodly people What? But your delight is in the law of the Lord, and you're to be associated with godly people Listen, if you want to act godly, be with the godly You want to act holy, be with the holy people Be with people that are more spiritual than you are, that have a deeper walk with God than you do

Walk with people who love the Lord. I mean, the best counsel in all the world are elderly people who have gone through the grind of life and have come out the other side shining because they've been purified by the hand of God Help you through the process Identify with the godly people When you do that, you begin to understand what it takes to be a godly man. NYX, treasure your family Treasure your family The psalm said these words in In Psalm 128, How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways

When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house Your children like olive plants surround your table Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord And then over in Psalm 1 It says, How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments His descendants will be mighty on the earth The generation of the upright will be blessed Wealth and riches are in their house Do you treasure your family? It begins with treasuring your wife, treasuring your bride

You can't really truly treasure your children Until you first of all treasured your children's m You treasure her? Does she feel of extreme value because you are uncond committed to her? You treasure your family Be a man of integrity Install Christ as the chief priority Nurture your own spirituality Turn away from all iniquity Enter into accountability Guard against the enemy Respect your ministry Identify with the godly Treasure your family Yearn For eternity Yearn for eternity Those who love the Lord want to be with the Lord

That's why Paul said: for me to live as Christ and die as what? Gain because he yearned for eternity He would go on to Philippians:, talking about how we eagerly anticipate, eagerly await the coming of the Messiah Because we so desperately want to be with Him Why is heaven a game? Because that's the place that God's prepared for you Right? I go away, I prepare a place for you If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you into myself, that where I am, there you may be also There is a place actually prepared specifically for you in glory

We yearn for eternity because there's a place there just for me And not only is there a place there for me, there is The fact that God, according to Romans chapter 2, verse number 29, is going to praise my name Think about that He's going to praise your name Because he will say one day, Well done, thou good and faithful servant Oh, my friends, we got to be men and women of conviction And the only way we can be men and women of conviction is to be men and women who walk in our integrity. A non-compromising life My prayer for you and for me is that we would live each day

As Christ, with Christ as our chief priority Because everything hinges on that And once we do, we can begin to say, This day, O King, whatever you had before me, I will only do what my God says I can do and should do Because my God will deliver me And if he chooses not to, doesn't make a difference. I'm still not going follow the way of the world. I'm going to follow my king Let me pray with you Lord, thank you for today The opportunity you give us is being your word Truly, Lord, you are great and greatly to be praised

May we be men and women who truly honor you, men and women of conviction who live non kinds of lives for the glory of your precious kingdom We pray in Jesus' name Am.