A servant of God or of Satan

1. A servant of God or of Satan Whose servant are you?

2. Shades of Gray • Many people see world as shades of gray • Some people are OK some good and some are worse. • There are many truths. • Evil people can have good intentions?

3. Which religion is right? • Many people are confused as to where to go or are quick to assert they can do anything they want and it’s OK. • One example, article by Brian Gallagher: • “Most importantly, there is no way that you can make a logical case that your belief system is "more right" than anybody else's.” • Acts 26:24-26

4. His conclusion... • “If you try to find the core principles that guide most religions, you will find that they all share many similarities, and there is room in the world for all of them.” • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

5. Are all religions the same? • Do the Catholics teach immersion baptism unto salvation? • Do Calvinists teach that a Christian can fall away? • Does the Islamic religion teach that Jesus was the son of God? • Does the Jewish faith teach the new covenant? • Does Hinduism teach that men are appointed once to die and then judgment? • Do Mormons teach marriage between one man and one woman?

6. The Answer • No to all the questions. • Does Mr. Gallagher’s statement add up? • Many religions and many beliefs.

7. Bible makes it simple • Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6.one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. • We serve God and only one God, the God of the bible.

8. All people should have same beliefs? • Philippians 3:16-17 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. 17. Brethren join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

10. So who do you serve? • Philippians 3: 18-19 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19. whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame-- who set their mind on earthly things.

11. If you don’t serve God then who? • Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. • Mammon- n. Riches; wealth; or the god of riches. • So do you serve yourself and your desires?

12. If you don’t serve God you serve Satan. • John 8:44-47 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

13. John 8:46-47 46. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47. He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.

14. Be honest with yourself • Acts 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?” • Whose servant was he being? • Do you lie for worldly gain?

15. Who is being served? • Genesis 22: 10-12 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

16. Genesis 22:12 12. And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” • Who was Abraham serving? • Do we serve God with the same spirit?

17. Whose servant are you? • Romans 6:6-7 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7. For he who has died has been freed from sin. • As Christians we should no longer serve sin and Satan.

18. Do no let sin reign Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. • We know what lusts our body desires for even though we are Christians we still have a mortal body.

19. Romans 6:13 • And no not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

20. Are you an instrument of God? Romans 6:16-18 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

21. Romans 6:18 18. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. • Do you understand what being free from the slavery of sin means for the Christian? • Do you find joy in that knowledge? • Do you want to tell others?

22. Romans 6:21-23 21. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

23. Are you a Christian? • Have you decided to obey God instead of Satan and resolve to live as his servant instead of a slave to unrighteousness? • Do you understand what the Bible says about salvation? • Or are you a Christian that needs the prayers of the Church because you haven’t been living as a servant of God?