OPENING STATEMENT: In Bible times, walls were built to protect the city and gates were built within the walls to allow people in or to keep others out.  Our lives are built like that with walls and gates!

• Along the city walls of our lives are gates (Eyes, Ears, Heart). By our choices and decisions we either allow things in or keep things out.
• We have been given control over the gates. a freedom of choice

How do we protect what we don’t understand. How do we defend against an enemy we do not understand?

YOUR EYES AND EARS

 ²² “YOUR EYE IS LIKE A LAMP THAT PROVIDES LIGHT FOR YOUR BODY. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. ²³ But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. (Matthew 6:22-23 NLT)

“FAITH COMES BY HEARING, and HEARING by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17 NKJ)

• Your eyes and ears are gates designed by the Master to allow light and sound to your body to illuminate your soul, refresh your mind and nourish your spirit.
• If the eyes and the ears are gates, front door to your souls, can you imagine for a moment if those gates are unguarded?

 STAY ALERT! WATCH OUT FOR YOUR GREAT ENEMY, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 NLT)

• The enemy is roaming in search of a way into your city, your life
• 2 Cor 2:11 tells us to be familiar with his evil schemes so that he does not outsmart us

STATEMENT: The enemy is not going after your eyes or your ears. He is going after your heart!

GUARD YOUR HEART above all else,  for it DETERMINES THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE. (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)

• It sets the course for your life: What goes in there affects everything in your life: MARRIAGE, FAMILY, RELATIONSHIPS, COMMITMENT, PASSION, CHRISTIAN WALK
• Even your identity is determined within the gates of your heart. As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7)
• No wonder the enemy wants to control it!
• Watch your first line of defense, your ears, your eyes
• Watch what comes in: ideas, behaviors, thoughts

1. GUARD YOUR DOCTRINES

• Doctrines are teachings, information, knowledge, data, news
• Jesus told His disciples to guard what they hear: “BE ON YOUR GUARD against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6)
• The yeast is legalism, rules and regulations
• If you allow LEGALISM in, you’ll become JUDGMENTAL and a JERK;
• If you allow GOD’S GRACE in you’ll become LOVING, KIND, AND MERCIFUL

STATEMENT: Here’s a promise from God when you guard your doctrines: YOU WILL NOT BE SWAYED BY FAKE NEWS. RATHER YOU WILL GROUNDED IN FAITH.

SO BE ON GUARD; then you will NOT BE CARRIED AWAY BY THE ERRORS of these wicked people and lose your own SECURE FOOTING. ¹⁸ Rather, you MUST GROW IN THE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:17-18 NLT)

2. GUARD YOUR DESIRES

“Beware! GUARD against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” (Luke 12:15 NLT)

• Greed is wanting more and more and never satisfied. If not guarded, greed will find a home
• THE HOME FOR YOUR DESIRES IS YOUR HEART. Are your desires well guarded?

STATEMENT: Here’s a promise from God when you guard your desires: Your desires will line up with his and he will give you the desires of your heart

Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”

• your gates, eyes, ears, and heart, don’t have to be unguarded. I want you to catch this picture. You are not guarding your gates alone. Standing right there with you, in you, around you is the Holy Spirit. in your hands is a flaming sword, the word of god.
• standing in front of you and also behind you is Jesus, our king

You will not leave in a hurry, running for your lives. For the LORD WILL GO AHEAD OF YOU; yes, the GOD OF ISRAEL WILL PROTECT YOU FROM BEHIND. (Isaiah 52:12 NKJ)

• He is AHEAD OF YOU and he is also your REAR GUARD!

CONCLUSION

• What is the Holy Spirit saying to you personally through this message?
• Is there an unguarded area in your life that you need God to intervene and help you in?