 Yeah, so before the break, we kind of started looking at the tactics which the enemy uses. He no longer has legal authority. So now he has to try and use illegal methods to cause us to stray away from God. So we saw that one of the main tactics that he uses, one of the main mind games that he uses is in the area of temptation. He tries to find out which area we are weak in and he tries to tempt us in that particular area. And then in the same way, we also looked at how he tries to bring accusations against us because through those accusations, his hope is that we will no longer feel confident in God's presence and we'll go away from God and hide somewhere so that the deep connection which we have with the Lord will be kind of broken. So the aim of accusations is to make us feel very far away from God. So that's the idea. And so we saw that Jesus, in spite of knowing that we are imperfect people, he has given us this new status as his friends. And so even when we fail in some way, even when we are not able to live up to God's standards, we must remember that God is willing to forgive and he is willing to restore us. And so he continues to see us as his friends. He does not see us as worthless and someone that he's not interested in, no, he's very much interested in us to the extent that he has made us his friends. One very good example that we can look at is the way Jesus treated Peter, in spite of Peter's failures. So if someone could read out Matthew chapter 16 verse 19, Matthew 16, 19. Matthew chapter 16 verse 19, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you find on earth will be found in heaven and whatever you lose on earth when they lose in heaven. Okay, so this is Matthew 16 verse 19. Just a few verses after this, maybe verse 23, 24, I'm not particularly sure. It's where Jesus tells, you know, Peter, you're going to betray me. And Peter says, no, no way, Lord, I'll never do that. But the Jesus says, no, you will betray me. So to someone who is going to betray him, this is what Jesus says about him. He says, you know what, I will be giving you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you, Peter, whatever you bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven. And whatever you, you know, you, Peter, whatever you, Peter lose on this earth, it will be lost in heaven. Because over here, that word, you, I will give you. It is second person, single earth. It's talking specifically to one single person. And the person that Jesus is speaking to over here is Peter. So Peter, so Jesus fully knowing what Peter is going to be doing in the near future, even though Jesus knows that, this is what Jesus personally says to Peter specifically. He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Because Jesus is aware that Peter will repent of his sin. Peter will be ashamed of what he has done. And God has already decided that he will restore Peter back and Peter will not just simply be restored. He will walk in authority in such authority where he is able to bind and lose things in the spiritual realm. That is the authority that we have in Christ. Because over here in Matthew 1619, Jesus says this specifically to Peter. But then in Matthew 1818, he says the same thing to all believers. So let's also look at Matthew 1818. Matthew 1818, truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven. Over here, the you which is used over here, whatever you bind on earth, this is second person plural. So over here, Jesus is not just saying this to one person. He's in fact saying it to multiple people. So it applies to all believers. So this is the status that we have in God. So even though Satan may come and accuses and say, Oh, because you are not a perfect person, you have no value in God's eyes. No, you are so valuable that God has placed in your hands the keys of the kingdom. You can deal with this principalities and powers in the name of Jesus. You can bind and lose things in the name of Jesus and Jesus will back you up. What is your status? You are a friend of God. So even though you are imperfect, it doesn't change the facts about your status and who you are in Christ. So we need to understand this. And so we use the word of our testimony and declare these truths to Satan and say, No, I refuse to believe your lie that I have no value or worth in God's eyes. In the same way when Satan comes and accuses and says, You know, you failed in all of these things. This is the way that you sinned against God. This is the way you betrayed him. And so we can again take the scripture and say in the same way that when Peter repented, God forgave him and placed in his hands the keys of the kingdom in the same way. Because I have repented of those sins. God has forgiven me. I stand forgiven. And now in my hands, God has placed the keys of the kingdom. And so in Jesus' name, I can bind your work, Satan. You know, you can literally hit back with the authority that you have in Jesus Christ. Rather than being, you know, feeling crushed and ashamed and, you know, slinking away, feeling defeated. You can actually hit him back with scripture and say, Because of the authority given in my name, I can bind your works against me in Jesus' name and cancel them because what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross, that work of the cross will prevail. So when Satan attacks as an accuser, we can overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, which basically represents the finished work of the cross. And we can overcome by the word of our testimony by declaring what God has done for us and the status that we now have, you know, in the name of Jesus. So the mind games that Satan plays with us, he tries to tempt us in an area of weakness. When we are vulnerable at some point of time, he attacks. He also tries to accuse us so that, you know, we will feel very ashamed and go far away from God. He also tries to deceive us. He brings in half truths. Partially what he is saying is true, but it's not completely true. So using these half truths, he tries to deceive us. And this is what Second Corinthians 11-3 says. If someone could read out for us, Second Corinthians 11-3. Second Corinthians chapter 11 was three, but I fear that some of us haven't deceived you by his talking, so your mind may be touched on the simplicity that is in his presence. Yeah. So in the version which she read out, which Jefina read out, it says that he will be led away. You know, he says, I'm worried that you will be led away from the simplicity, you know, of your faith in Christ. In NIV, it says, you know, that he is worried that they would be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. So that simplicity over there, it's talking about, you know, a very simple, pure, completely, you know, trusting, childlike faith and devotion to Christ. If Jesus says something, you just believe and say, okay, Lord, you're saying that, I believe it. No, a very simple, dedicated, pure faith that we have in Christ. So what does Satan do? He tries to draw us away from that faith by putting doubts in our mind, which is what he did in the case of Eve. So Eve says to him very confidently, no, no, no, if we eat that fruit, we will die. It's a very dangerous thing. And then what does Satan say? He says in Genesis chapter three, verse four. Yeah, maybe we can actually read that. Genesis three versus four to six, if someone could read out. Genesis three, four to six. Genesis chapter three, verse four to six. Then the serpent said to the women, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that was pleasant to the eyes and tree decided to make one voice. She took off its fruit and ate it. She also gave to her husband with her and him. So over here, the doubt which Satan puts in their minds is that, no, no, no, you will not die, God is lying. Why is God lying? Because he doesn't want you to be like him. It says you will be like God if you eat it. So the doubt which was put in Adam and Eve's mind is that, oh, if God is not giving us the best, he's holding out, he's not giving us what is best. In a way, he's deceived us. So he's said to us that we are made in this image and we are like him and all of that he said. But actually it looks like he's not really revealed his knowledge to us. And so the woman, she looks at the fruit and she thinks it is desirable for gaining wisdom. So now she begins to believe Satan's lie that if she eats that fruit, she will somehow gain access to some level of wisdom which will make her as wise as God. The point is, in God she already had all the wisdom she would ever require for every situation in her life. God had not deprived her in any way. She had been created to be the ruler, to rule over the earth. She and her husband would be ruling over the earth. So whatever wisdom they required to name the animals, to be able to rule over those animals, all of that wisdom had already been given. They had not been deprived of anything. But now she thinks, oh God is holding back something. It's not really given us the best. So if I eat this, then maybe I will get that thing. So they are misled and led away from the sincere and pure simple devotion which they earlier had towards God. And so Satan tries to use the same tactic with us. He tries to tell us that God is not giving us the best. If we were to sin, if we were to compromise, then we will be able to get something that God is refusing to give. So in our wisdom, in our God given scriptural wisdom we should say, if God is at the moment depriving me of something, is depriving me of it by his wisdom because it's good for me. It is safe for me not to have this thing right now. So we choose to just humbly wait upon God to give us whatever it is that we are desiring. Rather than sinning, rather than bending the rules and going against God and getting that thing forcefully, we instead must choose to just trust him, continue having that simplicity of devotion. You just simply continue to trust him and say, in God's timing he will give me what is required. So we choose not to resort to sin, to get illegally what God has not given us. So we do not fall into that particular tactic. So which is what we saw even in Romans 16, 17 to 20 where it talks about be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. Over there, if you were to go to Romans 16, maybe you could read out verse 18, Romans 16, 18. Romans 16, 18. For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus, our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people. So these people are naive. Innocent is a positive word, naive is a negative word. Innocent, you are choosing to keep yourself away from things which are not good. So that's a good innocence. Naivety on the other hand is like a little foolish. You better be wise about certain things but in your foolishness you have not chosen to educate yourself regarding those things. So in a way, being naive is a negative thing. So these people are being foolish. They have not bothered to build themselves up in the scripture. They have not bothered to really find out what is there in the pages of their Bible. And so now when these false teachers are coming and giving them all kinds of false doctrines, so easily, so naively, so foolishly, they are being led the way in the wrong direction. If they had bothered to educate themselves in the scriptures, they would not have fallen so easily. So over here, the advice that is given in Romans 16, 17 to 20, Paul says, you should be wise about what is good and you should be innocent about what is evil. If you have that kind of an attitude, then God himself will crush Satan under your feet. So when Satan comes to us with half truths, it sounds kind of truthful, but there is deception in what he is saying. So rather than listening to what he is saying, we choose to stand on the 100% word of God. Rather than the half truth which he is giving, which is just 50% true, we choose to stand on scripture which is 100% true and we say, no, what you are saying is only half true. And so I will not be led away. I will not be deceived. I will just continue to just in all simplicity, continue to believe what scripture is saying. What you are saying may sound more logical, but I will choose to be wise in a godly way and rather believe what the scripture is saying rather than the logical reasoning which you are trying to offer. So we continue to maintain that simplicity of devotion like little children. You tell the little child, at 12 o'clock I will give you juice. The child just believes. The child doesn't think, oh, will she really give me the juice? Oh, maybe she will have other work to do and she'll go away. The child doesn't think that. The child just believes. Children are innocent. They just place this beautiful trust in what we say. And here God says, I have that same kind of simplicity of devotion. If I'm saying something in my scripture, accept it. Believe it. Don't believe in Satan who will come to you with half truths and try to indicate that the scripture is not really that correct. Don't give in to that kind of a deception. So be wise about what is good and be innocent about the evil which he's trying to put into your head. And if you are careful in this manner, the promise is that God himself will crush Satan under your feet. So we choose to continue to hold on to what the scripture is saying. Maybe another important scripture that we can look at in this particular context would be Act 17, 11 to 12. Act 17, 11 to 12. Act 17, 11 and 12. Now the billion, billion Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Now the gospel was being shared to different people groups. So when the gospel was being shared to these people, you know, these Jews who are in Berea, they went back to the scriptures every day. So they would probably go to the synagogue and look at the scrolls which are over there just to make sure whether what Paul is saying is really correct or not. They didn't just simply blindly accept what he was saying. They went over there. In those days, they didn't have any personal copies of the scriptures in their homes. So they must have taken the effort to actually go over there to the synagogue, sit over there, open the scrolls, find out whether what this man is saying is really true or not. Is Jesus Christ really full-filling all of those Old Testament scriptures? What exactly are those Old Testament scriptures saying about Christ? So they began to open the scriptures and started to see what are the scriptures saying about the Messiah. And then they began to realize, oh my goodness, everything that the Old Testament is saying about the Messiah, we are seeing those realities in the life of Jesus. So this must be true. So maybe Jesus really truly is the Messiah. So they examined the scriptures and they held on to the truth. We will be led away by Satan's half-truths if we are not educating ourselves in the scriptures. We have whether we are Bible college students or whether we are just people in the secular field. Every Christian has, nobody has an excuse. We all need to know what is written in the pages of the Bible. If we are not very clear about the truths which are written down over there, we will be misled by Satan because he will speak a half-truth. He will speak the half which you know and then the other half he will tell some word of deception and because you only have half knowledge, you will give into what he is saying. You will doubt what your Lord and Saviour has written in the scriptures. So it is so important for us to be very, very aware of what is there in the scriptures to learn and meditate on the word of God and know what is actually written regarding every matter in the Bible. So we looked at we looked at the mind games which Satan chooses. We will also now look at another way that Satan attacks us which is in the form of violations and intrusions. So if we could read out 1 Peter 5 verse 8 1 Peter 5 8 1 Peter 5 8, be alert and sober mind your enemy the devil travels around like a roaring line looking for someone to devour. The word which we in English are translating as devil the Greek word actually literally means enemy adversary opponent someone who is against us someone who is opposing us someone who wants to harm us so that word in English which we use devil the Greek word actually means adversary or opponent or an enemy so this opponent this enemy he is always prowling around to see in what way he can you know finish us off literally devour us and finish us off that is what he is looking for and John 10 10 which we are very familiar with it talks about how the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy on the other hand Jesus came that we may have life and not just any kind of life but to have it in the full so the opponent the enemy the devil his main hope is that he can in some way steal and kill and destroy what God has in store for us so when the devil comes to us as our adversary the weapon that we choose to use against him is the weapon of the name of Jesus the authority that there is in the name of Jesus we use that to cancel the works of Satan because Jesus Christ has done something he has won the ultimate victory on the cross so we claim that victory and we make it ours by using the name of Jesus so in Jesus name we cancel the works of Satan and we claim the works of the cross that's basically you know in how we use the name of Jesus as a weapon if we can look at first John 3 8 first John 3 8 the one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work so the son of God appeared to destroy the devil's work and on the cross he actually finished destroying the devil's work and we saw that in the earlier scripture where he talks about how after having destroyed the devil's work he took away the power which these powers and authorities legal authority they had he took it away from them so he has finished destroying the devil's works now because of what Jesus Christ has done we can now use the authority that is there in his name Luke 10 17 if someone could read out Luke 10 17 Luke 10 17 the 72 returned with joy and said Lord even the demons submit to us in your name so why are the demons submitting to mere human beings because these mere human beings are using the name of Jesus and the authority that is contained in that name so this Jesus he came to destroy the devil's work so Jesus has finished destroying the devil's work so when we take the name of Jesus we are literally taking all that he has finished on the cross and we are saying you know what this is what Jesus did for us so now because of the cross Satan whatever tactic and scheme you're trying to use that is actually I can actually cancel it out and I can declare Jesus work on the cross you know about what you are doing so we cancel the works of the evil one and we claim the works of the cross so we cancel out one and we in its place we impose by faith what God has done for us okay so this is an act of faith that we are doing and when we are doing it knowledgeably not just because someone told us you should use the name of Jesus but we actually understand what we are doing we can have extremely great authority because when we look at Satan working in our home you know bringing about some kind of strife or division you see I recognize what you are doing Satan you have violated and intruded you know into our home and now you're trying to use this tactic to destroy our family but you know what it's a greater work that was done on the cross so in Jesus name I cancel out what you are trying to do and in Jesus name I claim what Christ did for us because he has defeated all of your works so what you are trying to do in our home shall not prevail rather I'm going to get down on my knees and I'm going to ask from the Lord to restore the relationships in our home I'm going to ask wait upon the Lord and ask him to bring his peace into our lives I'm going to wait upon the Lord and ask him to bring about transformation in our family members so that we can become more like Christ so I'm going to claim in prayer all that Christ has done on the cross for us and that is why boldly right now in Jesus name I cancel your work Satan what you are trying to do will not prevail rather what God has done on the cross will prevail because me and my family we are going to claim this in Jesus name and he will grant it to us so whatever tactic and scheme Satan tries to use against us and our families by violating by intruding into our lives we can always cancel out those works of the devil in the name of Jesus because of what Jesus has finished doing for us and so we can declare and say the greater work of the cross that will prevail in this situation not the tactics of Satan not the work of Satan that will be cancelled out rather what Jesus has done that finished work is what will prevail the superior work of Christ that is what will prevail in this situation we declare it allowed in faith and then we pray it till we see it happening so you know we don't give up after a little bit of prayer we pray through we hold on until we see that actual manifestation of that finished work you know in our situation in our lives why because we know that this is the fact this is the truth this is what Jesus has finished doing for us so we can in Jesus name come against the works of the evil one and cancel them because like it says in Luke 10 17 the demons will have to submit to the name of Jesus they do not have a choice because you know legally now Jesus has won the victory for us and legally the demons no longer have any power they have been stripped of their power is what we saw in Colossians so these are all the spiritual facts that we use to fight our battle a third manner in which Satan can attempt to gain control over us is through the doors which we open up by mistake you know we do something sinful by doing that sinful thing we open a door for him to come into our lives and gain a foothold so we should always be alert very careful on a daily basis we need to examine ourselves and ask have I done something today you know which is sinful have I in some way gone out of the covering you know I am no longer under the covering of Jesus protection I have gone out and done something sinful have I exposed myself to danger in some way have I given Satan a foothold so we will just look at maybe a couple of scripture passages you know which talk about how we may end up you know exposing ourselves to the danger which Satan brings and what we need to do to overcome in those circumstances now of course you know open doors can be opened up in all kinds of ways there are so many things that a person can do to end up exposing themselves to the harm of Satan but you know we can we'll just look at a couple of scriptures you know regarding this so the first we are looking at two passages which are almost identical which are almost saying the very same thing and both the passages try to bring out one or two main points you know which is why we are kind of focusing on these particular passages so to begin with we will look at James chapter 4 versus 4 to 10 James chapter 4 versus 4 to 10 and maybe we need to understand the background of this right so okay fine if someone could read out James chapter 4 versus 4, 5 okay James chapter 4 versus 4 to 7 if you could please read out James 4 4 to 7 James chapter 4 versus 4 to 7 you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity with against God therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God or do you think scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us but he gives us more grace that is why scripture says God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you alright so now let's look at another passage anyone then we will compare this other passage is first Peter 5 and maybe fine we will look at first Peter 5 versus 5 to 8 first Peter 5 first Peter chapter 5 was 5 to 8 likewise you younger people submit yourself to your hinders yes all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humanity for God versus the proud that gives grace to the humble they both humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you and give them casting all your care upon him for he cares for you you are noble, intelligent because you are universally the devil walks a bird like a rolling lion seeking home, he named him yeah and then it goes on to say in verse 9 resist him standing firm in the faith so there are a lot of similarities between these two passages in James chapter 4 it is talking about the danger of having friendship with the world because if you start getting friendly with the world, if you start doing the things which the world is doing then it says you automatically become an enemy of God one way that you are opening the door to Satan is if you are foolish enough to start befriending the world you start doing what the world is doing when you do that automatically you become an enemy of God and you expose yourself to the danger of Satan coming in and harming you so James 4 the focus is on don't be part of the world don't make friendship with the world don't love the things which the world loves and over here in first Peter 5 the emphasis is on submission to spiritual authority the setup over here is of a church it is a church setup that is being discussed over here and believers are told to submit to the authority of the elders who have been appointed and so over here it says you need to humble yourself and learn to submit to elders so in both the passages this is the same point which is made in James chapter 4 verse 6 it says don't make friendship with the world why should you be careful to stay away from the world because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble in the same way over here in first Peter 5 verse 5 why should you submit to authority why because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble so in both places how do you stay under God's protection you choose to humble yourself and do what scripture is telling you to do in one case it is of course avoiding the friendship with the world in the other case it is submitting to authority in both cases you are choosing to humble yourself and place yourself under what God is telling you to do when you do that the door is not opened to Satan you are able to stay safe and the same thing is again repeated in both the passages in James chapter 4 verse 7 it says submit yourselves then to God in the first Peter passage it says in the first Peter 5 verse 6 humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand so submit to him humble yourself under him why is this word humble why is God favors the humble why is the term being used because it is going to be difficult you see your mind is going to be saying no I don't want to do this I don't want to you know God's standards are too difficult to follow he is not being very logical about this why is he expecting me to have to humble myself in this way I don't feel like doing it so everything in us is rebelling against this idea in spite of what we are feeling we choose to humble ourselves and place ourselves like it says in first Peter 5 under God's mighty hand we say okay Lord this is not agreeing with me but I will choose to humble myself and place myself under your covering why because it says in our first Peter 5 verse 6 that he may lift you up in due time you know when you are humbling yourself under God's mighty hand it may feel like a very painful thing to do but that mighty hand is going to lift you up when the time comes so it is a temporary thing for a temporary period you know God says this temptation is coming to you you want to be friend the world you want to make friendship with the world in this particular thing but don't just humble yourself under my mighty hand and it may feel like a very painful thing that you are doing in the same way God may be saying you have to submit to spiritual authority you may not feel like it but humble yourself under my mighty hand and do this because when you do that that same mighty hand which you feel like as if it is very heavy right now that same mighty hand will lift you up out of that situation once God has finished doing whatever work he wants to do in your heart so he will lift you up so with this attitude of submission in both the passages it says resist the devil in James chapter 4 it says in verse 7 it says submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you and in the first beat of 5 passage it says that in verse 8 it says resist him standing firm in the faith so what are we learning from these two passages when you choose to humble yourself and do what God is telling you to do rather than being proud and rebellious and saying this doesn't feel right I don't feel like doing this rather than responding in that manner when we humble ourselves and place ourselves under God then it says that we will be able to resist the devil there will be no open doors there will be no foothold he will not be able to gain a foothold when we act in rebellion and bitterness towards God and say look he is treating me look at the way things are going in my life the minute we do that Satan gains a foothold in our life it's like an open door so it is so careful to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand no matter what that mighty hand of God is doing to us if we just choose to humble ourselves and obey what he is saying and choose to continue trusting him then the mighty hand will lift us up when the right time comes which is why it says in the 1 Peter 5 passage cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you and then it says in 1 Peter 5 verse 10 after you have suffered a little while he himself will restore you and make you strong firm and steadfast so the danger of open doors Satan tries to gain some kind of foothold in your life either because you are disobeying something or because you are not agreeing with what God is saying and you want to do your own thing so he will try to use these methods of trying to gain some kind of foothold in your life and if we choose not to give in if we choose to stay humble and trust God that way we will be able to resist the devil and the devil will have no choice he will actually have to flee from us that is the assurance that we are given and after God has finished doing whatever work he wants to do in us it says he himself will lift us up he will restore us he will make us strong and firm and steadfast so this is the assurance that we can have in the Lord coming to the next point of the devil it says be vigilant and give the enemy no opportunity this is similar to what we already looked at but then we will look at some other scriptures some additional scriptures about not giving the enemy any opportunity the the main scripture which comes to mind is the way Cain responded and this is what God says to Cain before he falls into sin Genesis chapter 4 verse 6 to 7 Genesis 4 6 to 7 Genesis chapter 4 verse 6 to 7 so the Lord said to Cain why are you going to be and why has your countenance fall if you do well will you not be accepted and if you do not do well sin lies at the door and a desire is for you you should rule over it okay so the sin is always crouching at the door it always wants to get an opportunity to overpower us but we choose not to listen to it we choose not to give in to it we choose to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand and so in by doing that by humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand we choose to rule over this sin so this is what the Lord says to Cain he says if you do what is right will you not be accepted so you know I'm trying to correct you regarding some particular matter over here so if you just accept what I am saying and if you humble yourself and you know submit to what I am saying then you will be able to rule over the sin which is crouching at your door on the other hand if you don't humble yourself and accept what I am saying there's great danger that sin which is crouching at the door it's going to come inside and it's going to overpower you so the key to you know ruling over sin the key to ruling and having authority over Satan is to accept what Jesus is saying and humbling ourselves under his mighty hand so in that way we don't give the enemy any opportunity to overpower us you know John 1430 this is what Jesus says if someone could read out John 1430 John chapter 14 verse 13 and whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the father may be glorified in the scripture I may have got the reference wrong but you might have read out the wrong scripture John 14 13 30 okay okay okay John 14 verse 30 I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me he has nothing in me he has no hold over me you know NIV gives a more clear interpretation of that Satan has no hold over me Jesus says that because Jesus never sinned Jesus never gave in to any temptation so Satan could not get a foothold at all so the enemy had no opportunity to destroy his life in any way so Jesus says I am going to go to the cross you know and over there on the cross I will be you know so many destructive things are going to happen but the thing is the truth is Satan has absolutely no hold over me and that can be the same thing even for us you see if we are humbling ourselves under God's hand in the same way Jesus Christ humbled himself under God's hand you know Jesus had not done anything sinful and yet he chose to humble himself under the mighty hand of God and went through that whole crucifixion process because he did that you know he could come out victorious sin could not gain any hold over him in the same way we took and rule over sin and we can defeat Satan how by you know being that obedient by humbling ourselves and trusting in our God and doing whatever he is telling when we do that then sin can have no hold over us the prince of this world can have no hold over us he will not be able to bring harm into our lives he will not be able to steal kill and destroy and we will be able to walk in victory so just for us to be alert you know Satan of course attacks from a whole number of different directions but you know just to keep some particular scriptures in mind about how the enemy you know just some examples of how the enemy tries to gain a good hold the first scripture that we see is Ephesians 4 26 to 27 if someone could read out Ephesians 4 26 to 27 Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 verse 27 be angry and do not sin do not let the son go down on your land and give place to the devil so one way in which Satan can gain a foot hold is when we deal with our anger in the wrong manner we all get angry and sometimes we are justified in getting angry because we are getting angry about something wrong that is being done so we are justified in being angry but are we expressing that anger in a godly manner in a right way or are we expressing it in a wrong way so when we are angry if we allow that to grow into a grudge if we don't allow if you don't clear the air you know and discuss things with the other person if we don't you know go half way and meet that person half way you know say I'm willing to change this this from my side you know so we should be willing to you know humble ourselves and do whatever we can from our side to maintain the peace if they are not doing all of this if we don't resolve that issue and it continues to grow in our heart then satan can gain a foot hold so how we deal with the anger the sooner we attempt to maintain peace with that other person the sooner we are willing to forgive the other person the sooner we are willing to make adjustments the less the danger of satan gaining a foot hold another important scripture to keep in mind would be 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 1 Corinthians 6 20 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 you were bought at a price therefore honor God with your bodies when we are not honoring God with our bodies that really gives satan a chance to you know take control of us so when it says honoring God with our bodies you know what are we watching with our eyes satan can easily gain a foot hold in our lives if we are entertaining the wrong things with our eyes you know our ears are we listening to people who are saying all the wrong things gossipy things things which are pulling down people are we listening to the wrong kind of music which dishonors God's values so how are we using our bodies you know if we are not using our bodies very carefully in a way that will honor God that gives satan a foot hold so that's a very very important thing to keep in mind another very useful scripture would be James 3 16 James 3 16 James 3 16 for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder and every every practice ambition it's good to be ambitious I mean there's nothing wrong in being ambitious if you remember David when he goes to you know defeat Goliath he says you know how can this person speak against God you know so he is very very angry for God you know he says this foolish giant is speaking bad things about God and he speaking bad things about the people of God so someone should go and defy him so over there his main interest is that God's name should be glorified so he goes to fight against Goliath with the right attitude but he's also an ambitious young man so he says you know if I defeat Goliath what's going to be given to me what reward is going to come to me so there's no harm in being ambitious but how are we exercising that ambition you know are we allowing jealousy and greed to creep into our lives are we trying to you know getting overly competitive and trying to pull down others now if our ambition is being expressed in all the wrong manners it gives Satan a very very strong foothold so you know it is so important it is good to be ambitious but how are we you know working towards those ambitions are we using godly methods to reach those goals or are we using you know early methods to reach those goals because that can give Satan a foothold okay so these are some things that we look at to make sure that the enemy does not get any opportunity to harm us in any way so we'll have to stop over here because you know we are out of time but we'll look at a few more things that can help us in overcoming the devil so there's just a few more points and then we will you know kind of get into the final chapter alright so we will do all of that in next class let's just close with a very brief word of prayer thank you so much your lord for the lessons that we could learn today regarding overcoming the world and overcoming the devil we pray a lot that you would bring back these important points to our mind if you could bring back all the scriptures to our mind whenever we need them because the Lord ultimately it is through the word of God and the Holy Spirit that we are sanctified and set apart so whenever our Lord we are facing temptation whenever we are facing a trial you O Lord bring the right scripture to our mind and you O Lord help us by your power to humble ourselves and submit and obey so that in your perfect time you can lift us up O Lord and Satan will be crushed O Lord thank you O Lord that you will do all this for us even as we completely depend upon you thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you so much for you know listening right up to the end and yeah we will meet again next class thank you