The Demon At Your Door

 

This message will be in three parts. Part one and two this morning, and part three tomorrow evening, which will be an enhancement and further in-depth study of today.

 

 

So,for the next few minutes, I want to encourage you to listen very attentively to me. I’m about to discuss something that will affect your very quality of life. I will hope to show you from the word of God an extremely critical point that many of us have overlooked and our lack of knowledge regarding it has adversely affected our lives. I will I hope to show you from the word of God an extremely critical point that many of us have overlooked and our lack of knowledge regarding it, has adversely affected our lives. I want you to experience your best life, and the only way you can do that, is with the favor of God. So please listen to me. It won’t take long and it can mean a better and more healthy life for you now, and in the world to come. So, let’s start.

 

What Is the Greatest Commandment we are to remember?

 

Matt 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.” 

 

What is the second commandment?

 

Matt 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 

 

The first commandment is in regard to your love of God.  The second is in regard to your love of your fellow man, and here it says as you do yourself.  Jesus says that the whole Bible is written regarding these two things. And if you do these two things you have fulfilled the whole law.

 

He supported this also when he said Mt 7:12 (ESV) — 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 

This tells us, we need to be careful how we treat one another, because as we do to them, it will be done unto us, because whatever we sow we will reap. Galatians 6:7. 

 

And then, he tells us to pray with this in mind regarding our neighbor. Mt 6:12 (ESV) — 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

 

Loving your neighbor is so important that he tells us as we forgive others, he will forgive us. Meaning the way we treat others; is the way he will treat us. If we don’t forgive others what they have done to us, he will not forgive us for what we have done to him. Therefore, think about it, he is in a sense, really telling us, if we love others we truly are loving ourselves. For how we love them, will be the way we will receive love from him. What we sow we shall reap!

 

Listen to me, all of us who consider ourselves saved and born again, loving God is not enough! Christ teaches us we must also love and forgive one another even when they have sinned against us! This proves we are indeed children of God.

 

Think about this with me. It is easy for us to love God, because most of us believe God is good to us. But it is another thing to love others, especially those that are mistreating us the way God loves us? Don’t you agree? Yet, the word says we are to love one another even while they are still sinning against us. See it here:

Mt 5:43–45 (ESV) — 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 

 

By this, Christ is saying all people, are our neighbors, even our enemies. Why?

45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 

 

Now look and see how God loves everyone:

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 

God is fair to everyone. Even those that are evil. He gives them just as much opportunity as those who are righteous. 

 

When we love and treat people fairly, even the ones who are against us, we prove ourselves to be children of God. 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

Think about this, when you can treat that evil, low down, slanderous, mean, undeserving, immoral, sinful person; The one that doesn’t like you, the one that mistreats you, the one you just can’t stand, the difficult one, who says bad stuff about you; the same way you treat your best friend, you are more like God ! 

 

We are more like God, conforming to his image when we truly learn to love other human beings even when they are our enemies. 

 

Look also at what he tells us to do in regard to those who are our enemies… Do you see it? We are to pray for them!  Matt 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

 

In summary, this clearly means we are to pray for those we regard as our enemies. We are to pray for those who persecute us; we are to pray for those who do us harm. We are to pray for those troublemakers in our lives. We are to pray for them and talk about them to God not to our neighbor or our friend. We are to pray for them! 

 

What does God say? Pray for those who persecute you!

 

Why does he tell us to pray for them? Because he is the only one that can protect us from them!

 

In this life we will have trouble. Trouble is most certainly experienced when we have enemies, yet we are to respond to them in love, we are to bless them, we are to do good for them, and then, trust that God will fight our battles for us. And while we do good to them, we are to pray to God! Perhaps we should be praying, Lord help me deal with this crazy person ‘cause I can’t do it by myself! Isn’t that what Jesus did in the garden? Did he want to do the right thing about us? His human nature said no, so he prayed for God to give him strength! Are there people you know you need to pray for?

 

Now, if we are to love our enemies, how much so, we are to love those we call our brothers and sisters in Christ! What is his commandment to us?

Jn 13:34 (ESV) — 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 

 

And how has he loved us?

Ro 5:8 (ESV) — 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Ro 5:10 (ESV) — 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 

See the Commandments are echoed loudly!

 

We get a revelation from this in that we see God loved us, while we were still sinning against him. He loved and he was willing to sacrifice his reputation for our benefit.

 

We are to do the same thing. Php 2:4–7 (ESV) — 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 

 

I want you to meditate upon that thought for a moment; God loved us while we were still sinning against him though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, He let go of his position, even though he was God and in the right all along, to show his love for us.

 

That is not like us. When we are hurt by somebody, we want them to pay! We want them to recognize our suffering. We don’t want to forgive them. We talk about them. We complain about them. We justify our anger against them. We resent them. We try to get others to see our righteousness and their guilt. The bottom line is we do everything but pray for them and love them as Christ loves them.

 

If he tells us we are to love one another, as he loved us, then we have a great dilemma before us and many of us have stumble over it, and that, my brothers and sisters is to our detriment.

 

Again, stay with me just a few more moments for part two. I want to remind you of a story and show you a very important point out of Scripture!!

 

Ge 4:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 

 

 

Here, in Genesis 4, we see the story of a relationship of brother to brother and sin committed against a brother.

In Genesis 3 we see the story of the relationship of man to God and sin against God.. 

 

You see here the two major commandments. 1) of how we are to love God above all things in the world. And 2) how we are to love our brother. The two greatest commandments are stated in the beginning. Genesis 3 how man is to relate to God giving honor to him and Genesis 4 how man is to relate to other man giving honor to his brother.

 

Part II

 

Let us look at the result of not doing as God says. I want you to pay close attention because we will learn something that the ignorance of this very thing has meant devastation in the lives of so many people. Again, please pay close attention. Your quality of life is directly related to your understanding of this principle.

Ge 4:6–7 (ESV) — 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 

 

I want you to see that Cain is angry with his brother and his brother has done nothing to him. How many of you have people that are against you; that may be angry with you; that don’t treat you right, and you have no explanation as to why they are treating the way they do. Abel did not do anything to Cain, but Cain is angry with him.

 

I want you to notice very importantly what God says next. Why has your face fallen?

This reveals that our attitude towards our brother or sister affects the quality of our life. Specifically, it affects the quality of our health! God asked Cain, Why has your face fallen? The Hebrew gives us an understanding that change was depressed over what was going on and his internal depression affected his health.

 

This is also proven in numbers the 12 chapter. We will not review it today but I put it in your memory that Miriam and Aaron talked about Moses because he married a black woman and God punished them for talking behind Moses back and he made Miriam leprous. Her ill will towards her brother affected her health.

 

We see here that Cain’s attitude towards his brother caused his appearance to decay. Let us remember that what God establishes in the beginning cannot be changed. He told us to love one another and the consequences of not doing that will affect your health!

 

Another quick example, and I will need to read this one to you.

1 Sa 18:6–11 (ESV) — 6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. 7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 And Saul eyed David from that day on. 

 

10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. 

 

Please pay attention! Why should you suffered needlessly? God is encouraging you to love your neighbor and love as he has loved you for your own sake! God is trying to save you from the demon at your door!

 

Let us read again, Ge 4:6–7 (ESV) — 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 

 

7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? In other words, if you just do what is right according to God, God will fight your battles! Love your brother in spite of your attitude, in spite of what they have done, in spite of how evil they are, put your trust in the Lord, and God will take care of you. You will be accepted by him and no one can lay a hand on you!

 

God goes on to say to Cain, And if you do not do well, in other words, if you do not do the right thing,(if you ignore what I’m trying to tell you, sin is crouching at the door. A demon is at your front door. A demon is ready to pounce upon you, like a wild animal and devour your very life and tear you to shreds in the process.

 

God is warning Cain about the destructive power of sin. He is telling him if he will submit to what God is saying, and let him be his master, the demon cannot destroy him. Without God as our master, we will be slaves to the door demon!

 

Please know, Satan will send people in your life so that they will trouble you and you will ignore the commandment from God to love one another as he has loved you and then the door demon will destroy you.

 

If you do not do the right thing about your brother, sin, which comes from demons, is crouching at your door and it desires to do you ways you don’t want to be done! You must remember, if you will not forgive your brother for what they had done to you, and you keep talking about what they have done, Satan will keep accusing you before God!

 

Sin will take full possession of you if you do not overcome it. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 

God is telling us that he will not force us to love anyone we don’t want to love. But if we don’t love, we opened the door for sin to take over our hearts and begin to demolish our joy, our happiness, our peace, our entitlement to all our blessings from God. If we do not love like she says and forgive like he says that demon has a right to do with us is he chooses because we have given him the authority to do so.

 

God says, if you do right, you will be accepted. In other words, you will be blessed! But if you do not do what is right you will not be happy because the demon will begin to tear at you day by day until your health is diminished.

 

That demon will wrestle with you and overcome you and dominate you. That demon has the authority because you have given him the authority in that you have done wrong in your attitude towards your brother it shall be done unto you!

Mt 5:22 (ESV) — 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 

 

God is serious about others having the right relationship with our brothers and sisters!

 

God says, but you must rule over it. Meaning you must defeat it by taking your case to God and not taking your case out on your brother! You must pray for your brother, not correct your brother! We have no authority over anyone else! But God does!

 

If we do not do the right thing, the demon at our door will have his way with us. The demon will rule over us and bring great harm to us in this life!

 

We can praise God that although Cain was angry and depressed he could have turned it around if he had had the right conversation with God. Sin is at the door of many of our lives. It does not, for demon unless we allow it.

 

Brethren, I plead with you do not let that demon have its way with you. The door demon must not live! We must not allow the door demon to consume us; to devour us!

 

Do not allow your door demon to have its way! If you are not careful, that he will rule over you and there will be nothing left for you to do except suffer the consequences of disobeying God when he said to love one another as he has loved us.

 

So what are we to do when people abuse us, misuse us, mistreat us, talk about us, condemn us?

 

James tells us we are to take our grievances to God; not our fellow man. We are not to talk about one another. He says Jas 4:7 (ESV) — 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Otherwise, if we do not correct our thoughts regarding our brother or sister by taking them to God, Jas 1:14–15 (ESV) — 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 

We will be consumed with anxiety, and the effects of stress on our bodies will take its toll.

 

That brother sister is not worth the destruction of your life when God desires to bless you! Don’t let Satan bring people in your life that vex you and cause you to speak ill of them.

Pr 6:16–19 (ESV) — 16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. 

 

Le 19:16–17 (ESV) — 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 

 

 

1 Pe 5:6–8 (ESV) — 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

 

Don’t let the door demon get you!