RESOLVE

Daniel 1: 1-21

Daniel and his three friends found themselves in a bad situation, which is enough of an excuse for many of us to cop an attitude and binge in sin.

* Their country was ravaged,
* Their people were killed
* Their freedom was taken from them
* And now their identity was being taken away from them. 

All these young men who were brought into captivity were subject to intense training in order to prepare them for service in the Kings Service.

One way was in their diet.
* They were to eat from the kings table and drink from his winery.
* Nothing wrong with that you would say
* But to a strict Jewish boy it is.
* Acts 15:29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols

So Daniel and his friends RESOLVED not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.

We need some Daniels in our society, who will stand up, full of integrity and resolve not to defile themselves.

How do we defile ourselves?

By not guarding our spiritual gates.

* A lot of problems we have with sin and temptation, as well as spiritual backsliding and lukewarm spirituality is due to not guarding our spiritual gates.
* There are three main gates to the soul; our eyes, ears, and mouth.

We are going to look at how to guard each one of these gates.

Eye Gate:  The Eye Gate involves the things that we look at.

Ps 101:3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.

Think of the movies and television, how much of what we watch is exactly what Jesus died for?
* He died to set us free from Adultery, murder, rebellion, violence.
* And what are we entertaining ourselves with?

* The scripture says not to look at any vile thing, in other words, we are not to look upon the sinfulness of men.
* When evil comes before our eyes, do we absorb it as quickly as we can, or do we immediately close our eyes so the sin does not enter our heart?
* It is like a scary movie, once you see it, it never leaves your mind.

It has now been scientifically established that pornography prompts sexual abuse.

It is so important that we pray for the Lord to guard our hearts and for us to make a conscious choice not to look upon things that we should not.

Matthew 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness.

Ear Gate

What we listen to is as important as what we see; in order that we may keep our soul/heart pure.

Lets look at some things that we should avoid letting pass through our ear gate.

Music
Have you paid much attention to the music your kids listen to? Or do you just leave them alone and attribute their taste to teenage trends?

In the past 4 decades, lyrics have become increasingly explicit particularly with reference to Drugs, sex, sexual violence etc.

Foul language and cursing is not good.

What we listen to, also will spill from our mouths. This is why if a person is around continuous foul language, he eventually will start picking up words and begin to speak the same things that the ear gate takes in to the heart.  (Children repeat what they hear)

We need to stand up to those who have foul mouths. 
* If their language is offensive - say something.
* Some do not even realize they are offending others.
* Only you can guard Your ear gates

Mouth Gate

The mouth is a special gate in which not only what goes in to it can defile or hurt the soul.

* It obvious that drug and alcohol abuse are things that hurt the soul;
* it affects our will, mind, and emotions.
* However, what comes out of the mouth gate is often far more dangerous.

Just as Daniel and his 3 friends RESOLVED to keep themselves from being defiled by their world, God wants us to RESOLVE to keep from being defiled by our world.

Let me give you a visual of what we just talked about.

This glass represents our life.
Choc Milk = Sexual immorality
White milk = violence, anger, rage, murder, unforgiveness
Tea = language, cursing, yelling, belittling, attitude
Water = purity

When we do not guard our gates, this is what our soul and spirit looks like. No wonder we are struggling to live Godly lives.

Guarding Your Gates
Now that we know how important these gates are to guard let’s look at how to better guard them.

1. Realize that we first need a new heart,
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to identify those areas in your life that is open to defamation. 
3. Pray to the Lord to give you the power to shut these gates. 
4. Meditate on God’s Word, (purity in purity)