Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the necessity of prayer to avoid falling into temptation, highlighting our dependence on God's grace and power to live righteously. He warns against the dangers of spiritual laziness and self-reliance, urging believers to remain vigilant and prepared in their spiritual lives. The sermon draws on Jesus' teachings in Matthew 26, where He instructs His disciples to pray and stay alert, illustrating the importance of being spiritually awake in a world filled with snares. Beach Jr. encourages the congregation to seek God's guidance and discipline to grow in holiness and righteousness, reminding them that true maturity comes from a deep reliance on God rather than self-sufficiency.

We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you for your presence, Lord. We want to acknowledge, Lord, that we are utterly dependent upon you and your working and your grace and your mercy and your power that you give to believers, Lord, power that enables them to fulfill the moral obligations of the law, to live and do what is right in your eyes. Lord, that's why you give us power, not for ourselves, but for the living of a godly, righteous life, escaping by nature our selfishness, escaping by nature, Lord, our tendency and proclivity toward vanity and pride and greed and covetousness and wanting to be seen of men, wanting to be heard by men, by nature, Lord, wanting to be in control, wanting to, in actuality, Lord, be our own God, be our own boss. Lord, we need the power that comes from heaven that delivers us from these things and enables us to be clay vessels through whom the radiant glory of the blessed Son of God is ever increasingly being seen and demonstrated in our lives, in our world. Oh, God, how we fall short of this high calling. And yet, Lord, we must address it because it's why we're here. We're not here to build barns and bigger barns. We're not here, Lord, to make a name for ourself. We're not here to be empowered to get more and more and more for ourselves. Lord, we're here so that we can participate in the highest honor known to earth, and that is fellowship with the Son of the living God. And so, Lord, we pray that you'll give us ears to hear your word today. You'll wash us and cleanse us. Take from us, Lord, any spirit, any attitude that has tried to seduce us. And take us from the simplicity of Christ and having eternity in view. Take us, Lord. Deliver, I pray, Lord. The word of God will deliver us from deceiving spirits, from lying spirits, from molesting spirits that come to us as angels of light, as messengers of righteousness. But the net effect on our life from these spirits, from these attitudes is that we slowly become distant from a heart passion for you. Lord, please, let us today have an encounter with the Holy Spirit through the word of God today. And Lord, be mindful, the one speaking today is the most needy here. So have multiplied grace on me today. Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I remember that many years ago one of the criteria that was used in order to grade employees in the department that I worked at was whether they came prepared or not. And sometimes the supervisor would walk down the hallway with his little sheet, and he'd look at you, and he'd actually say, where's your pen? I don't have it. Unprepared. Sometimes people would forget certain items. I wonder if Jesus would walk in our midst this morning. Actually, maybe if He started this morning when we woke up. Would He give us prepared or unprepared? Pam's back there shaking her head no. Are you prepared this morning? You know, being prepared is a part of the Gospel. It's a part of the teachings of Jesus. It's a part of the teachings of the Apostles. Being prepared. Carl, you're in business for yourself. You're a welder, is that correct? It would be quite foolish to go to a job and get there and say, oh, I forgot my welder. What if you got into your van and went to your job? You'd be unprepared. How about some of you businessmen? You know that if you're going to go visit a client and you have to talk to them about a house, or Norman has to talk to them about the program that he's going to be installing in their school. I know many times Norman has had to burn the midnight oil to be prepared for a client that he has to talk to. And he'll do what is necessary so he doesn't make a fool of himself. That's the last thing he wants to do. Can you imagine calling Chick up and saying, Chick, I blew it. What do you mean? Well, I blew it. How? I wasn't prepared. I couldn't answer any of their questions. The problem was, last night when I knew I should have been preparing, you know what I did? What did he do? What was that, Brian? Do you get the point, beloved? And somehow we sometimes feel that our preparedness only refers to our practical life, but then somehow when we come to the Lord, it's like free grace and God will cover our base for us. We don't really have to prepare because the Lord's in control. We get this kind of irresponsible flippant attitude. And you know what? Listen carefully. That's just what the devil's waiting for. Unguarded, unguarded. Uh-huh. Right. Right. Wow. That's right. That's right. That's that's that's that's the idea right there. And so what we're going to look at now is from the word of God. We're going to ask the Lord to help us to see our need to be prepared. OK, so I encourage you to take out your notes if you do take notes or if you don't, just pay close attention. And as we like to say all the time, listen to the voice of God's spirit and the word of God. OK, because amazingly, God does speak through donkeys. He speaks through ignoble vessels such as myself, imperfect vessels, clay vessels, vessels that are very weak and very faulty, vessels that. Don't always do what is right, but he speaks through us because we've placed our faith in the perfect one, and it's his righteousness that we trust in. OK, Matthew chapter 26. Now, you remember last week as you're turning to Matthew 26, we went over the whole we laid a foundation. We're going to try and lay more of a foundation this week. We laid the foundation essentially that's found in Hebrews chapter 12 that God is our father if we're truly one of his children. And as our father, he disciplines us. How many children are in here and you enjoy the discipline of your parents? Now, I know my children do, and they're probably very different from all the other children in here. They actually regularly come to me, especially Sarah, and she says, Daddy, please discipline me today. I love it. You know, I'm only teasing, and she's going to scold me for doing this after church. But nevertheless, we know the Scripture actually says in Hebrews chapter 12, Bill, that no discipline at the present moment is joyous but what? Grievous, sorrowful. It's not joyous. It's grievous and sorrowful. It can be painful. But nevertheless, the Scripture says it works. It produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who are exercised by it. So you see what God has in view here? Discipline works righteousness. What does that mean? That's not simply a standing before God. That's not our judicial standing, our position, although certainly that's true. If we are trusting in the blood of Christ, God views us as justified, as righteous. But God's after something deeper than that. Not just a standing of righteousness, but a life of righteousness. Not just he that believeth in Christ is justified from all things. The Scripture does teach that. But he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he, the Lord Jesus, is righteous. And so the moment God brings us into His wonderful family through drawing us by the Holy Spirit and we cry out to Him for mercy and repent of our sins and acknowledge that we are deserving of hell, we're deserving of punishment, but Jesus paid our price and we come into the family of God and we realize our sins are all forgiven because of the free gift. The moment that happens, our Father begins to deal with us in stages. The first stage is babyhood stage. And that's a wonderful stage, isn't it? I mean, we have a lot of babies here and it's so fun to watch them and, you know, they're so lovely and precious and as they grow, you focus your attention, you do a little disciplining, but your focus is not so much on disciplining the baby as loving the baby and even giving the baby whatever, whatever the baby wants as long as it's not going to downright kill him. I mean, you might even go a little extreme because you love them and what you want to do, Brian, is you want the baby to understand that you love them. They're young. They don't quite understand. They know you're daddy, so you demonstrate that you love them by giving them things, making them happy. You discipline them a little bit, but not too much because they're not really capable to bear it. But do they stay there? No, we continue to grow. And as we continue to grow, our father begins to deal with us not as babies, but as sons. Hebrews chapter 12. Now, we're going to go to 26. Matthew, just hold steady. All of a sudden, the writer of Hebrews is now talking to the Hebrew Christians and addressing them not as we little babies. He's saying, you have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as unto sons. So see, God has something in view now. When God decides, and it's the Father's wisdom who makes this decision. When the Father looks down and says, it's time for you to grow up. His measures of discipline in our life begin to change. And at first, we say, what in the world happened? Colette and I have often talked about this, not so much recently as we did a number of years ago, when we began to mark, when we began to take note of the significant differences in God's discipline in our lives. When we were first saved versus when He started to demand that we grow up and put off childish ways. And we learned that this discipline is a sign that God has accepted us, not rejected us. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and He scourges. That means to punish all those who He accepts. And we learned that the purpose of discipline is not to hurt us. It's not to discourage us. It is to correct us so that we become partakers of God's holiness. Now, the holiness of God is... The word holy means to be set apart. The word holy comes from a word that means to set something apart for the exclusive use of a particular purpose. And so therefore, God's end, God's view in our lives is to make us holy. That is, to discipline us and chasten us and spank us sufficiently so as to produce two effects. Number one, we see the shame and sorrow that comes when we follow our own way, our own will, living for self, doing things with only me in view, arranging my life and plans with only me in view. What's best for me? Isn't that typical of a child? They view their whole world based on one object. How's it going to affect me? And when it looks good, they smile. But when it starts to look like it's not going to be to their advantage, they get upset. They get depressed. They could throw temper tantrums, whatever. So God has this in view when He says it's time to grow up. He wants us to see the shame and sorrow that comes when we go our own way. Because our own way, listen carefully, is wicked. Get this in your mind. It's wicked. Your way is wicked. God loves you, but He hates your wickedness. Please understand this. God is never against you. He loves you. He dies for you. His scars in His hands remind you. They remind Him of you. But He's against our wickedness. He's against every inclination and passion and movement within our bosom that if we act upon it, we will be following our own way and not His way. He's against that, Timothy. He's against it. And so here's what He says. You are helpless to correct yourself. You're helpless. Just like when we deal with our children. Don't you realize when they're little if you don't teach them and correct them and implement some form of discipline, they're just helpless. You look at them and go, my God, if I don't do something, they're just going to go down the path of destruction. We're no different. The snare of adulthood is we think somehow we know better. We're just as foolish and gullible and naive as little children and are in need of a Father in Heaven to tell us the way just like our children are in need of us. And when we think we're getting so smart and so high and so mighty and so competent and so whatever, where we can start doing things on our own, we have fallen into self-deception. Let me tell you something. I know about a man who was without sin. His name was Jesus. But yet even in his sinless state, he never presumed to know anything without the help of his God. And so therefore, spiritual maturity will never produce a sense of I know. It will produce a sense of I don't know. Judge yourselves. Some people think the closer they get to God, somehow they know. Somehow they don't need to be as careful as when they were young and immature. But brothers and sisters, the Word of God teaches us the exact opposite. There was a man. His name was Jesus. He said, I can do nothing except my Father show me, except my Father lead me. I judge nothing, he said. Could he have judged? Yes, he could have. Would his judgment have been correct? Yes, it would have been. He was perfect. But he said, I judge nothing. So therefore, if we have the mind of Christ, what does that mean? That's the attitude that's in us. The mind of Christ. Let me tell you, we knew a lady many, many, many years ago, over 25 years ago, who thought she walked in such maturity. We were just young Christians where she'd say, I have the mind of Christ. I don't need to pray. I don't need to pray. The Bible says I have the mind of Christ. Remember? No names, please. It's not necessary. I have the mind of Christ. What I think is God. If you need to always pray and say, oh, God, help me. Oh, God, lead me. You're immature. So she'd say, you're immature. One day you'll grow up. What is the characteristic of having the mind of Christ? Well, study Jesus. I can do nothing. That's it, Robert. Dependence. A meek, quiet, humble, utter dependence upon another, not oneself. So there's a seducing spirit that comes into our lives sometimes, into Christianity. And it claims to be the way to maturity. But if you follow a person around long enough that's under the power of this spirit, you'll see that their maturity is characterized by a growing independence rather than a growing sense of I need God. So be careful, brothers and sisters. Be careful. Spiritual maturity is characterized by a growing sense of, oh, my God, I can trust in nothing or no one but my God. That's enough right there to just bring us down to our knees, isn't it? So God has in view in Hebrews chapter 12 and to awaken us to the fact that he loves us and there's a time in our lives when he wants to deal with us as sons and daughters. And brothers and sisters, be assured by the Word of God. When God decides in His heavenly infinite wisdom that it's time for you to grow up spiritually, you're going to find a lot of changes taking place in your life and you're going to be prone to wonder, what did I do wrong? You did nothing wrong. God is honoring you and blessing you with a form of child training to help you grow up. Now, always remember, don't ever connect growing up with anything else because scripturally you can't find it. A lot of people have a lot of weird ideas about spiritual maturity. Some people think spiritual maturity is freedom. I have freedom now. I'm no longer bound by anything. Well, that's partly true. But then they think maturity is the absence of all law, the absence of all restraint. I can do anything. When I was young, I used to struggle. But now I can do anything. That's not maturity. That's deception. Always remember, spiritual maturity is the power working in you by the discipline of God to fulfill the moral righteousness of God, the moral righteousness of the law. Spiritual maturity is the power to do what is right in every situation, every time. That's spiritual maturity. It is freedom from selfishness. That means every bit of extra that God places in our hands is for someone else, not for self. I tell you, that's the moral righteousness of God. Every bit. Amen. Pedro said he's afraid to make a decision without Him. Well, I pray that Pedro will never grow out of that and that all of us would experience the same holy fear. Did Christ fear? Yes, He did. The Bible says, though He were a son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and He was heard by God the Father in that He feared. He walked in a reverential fear before His God. So all God's discipline in our life, listen here, teenagers and teeny boppers, 21-year-olds. They're my kids. I can say it. I love them. I wouldn't trade them for all the money in the world. Not all the money in the world. And Daddy speaks this out of experience, let me tell you, because all the discipline that God has brought in my life is for one end, to teach me to stay away from Phil and embrace Christ. All the discipline in your life and my life is intended to produce in your soul an ever-growing capacity to stay away from self. That's why Jesus said deny yourself or that part in us that's in it for only itself. That part of us. That whole principle of sin that permeates every fiber of our being. That's the part that the soul must divorce itself from. The principle of sin. That's in every part of us. Every part of our being. That's why our bodies are still dying. Because sin is still present. But Jesus wants to teach us the secret of escaping the power of sin by abiding in Him. So every discipline of God is to teach your soul and my soul to shun my own way and wickedness and to embrace holiness, which is Christ, and righteousness and doing what is right. That brings us to Matthew 26. Verse 36. Then Jesus went with them, His disciples, to a place called Gethsemane. And He told His disciples, sit down here while I go over yonder and pray. And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to show grief and distress of mind and was deeply depressed. Then He said to them, my soul is very sad and deeply grieved so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and keep awake and keep watch with me. Now stop right here. Stay here. Keep awake and keep watch with me. Jesus is asking His earthly companions to please keep praying and keep watch with me and stay alert. Okay. And going a little further, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, not what I desire, but as You will and You desire. Verse 40. And He came to Phil and found him sleeping. Oh, it says His disciples say, sleeping, unalert, unguarded, unalert, unguarded. And He said to Peter, What? Are you so unable, utterly unable to stay awake and keep watch with Me for just one hour? Now watch. All of you must keep aware. Give strict attention. Be cautious and active and watch and pray that you may not come into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing. The Spirit. But the flesh is weak. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, the second time, He went out and prayed. Verse 43. And again, He came and found them sleeping for their eyes were weighed down with sleep. And so, leaving again the third time, verse 45, He returned. Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? That was the beginning of the passion. That's true. Jesus asked His disciples to pray and they fell asleep three times. Why did the early church pray so much? Acts 3, 1. Acts 5, 4. Acts 12, 5. Acts 16, 13. Many other places. Why did they pray so much? Because, it wasn't because they were under a law where they felt obligated. It was the rules. And if you didn't keep the rules, you couldn't be a Christian. No, it's not that at all. They prayed a lot because they were aware a lot of their desperate need to escape the snare of falling into temptation. Jesus Himself said, Pray that you enter not into temptation. Pray so that you don't enter into temptation. Pray. Watch. Be on guard. This is a cruel and evil world, Jesus is saying. There are many snares that are out to trap you. And Jesus is saying, if you don't pray, if you don't watch, if you're not alert, you will fall prey to the snares. What kind of temptations, what kind of snares will we fall into if we fail to pray? Oh my, there's many of them. But you know what? We can go through the Bible and we can come up with a list of over 35. But we're not going to go through that list today. 35 specific snares and temptations that we can fall into. But you know what? Not only are there snares that we can fall into, but there are particular snares that Jesus talked about that would be present in the last days. And that's what we're living. Particular snares that are absolutely applicable to you and I who live in the last days. Listen carefully to this statement. If you are not praying, you have already been entrapped by one of Satan's snares. If you are not praying, you have already been entrapped by one of Satan's snares. And we can conclude that based on Jesus' statement. Pray and enter not into temptation. So Jesus is saying if you pray and depend upon Me, then you can escape the temptations. I just want to mention, I'm not going to go into detail because the text... We want to deal with the text of our message this morning in a moment. But I want to just give you three or four examples of the snares that you and I can fall into if we fall prey to an unguarded position. We become lazy spiritually. Self-confident, cocky. Caught up with the cares of this world. Caught up with laboring and working for that which, what? Perishes. We can be unguarded. We can become careless. Write these references down if you like. Luke 12, verses 13-21 is the story about the man whose barns could not hold the abundance that his ground was producing. And so he said to himself, what will I do? And he tore down his barns and built bigger barns. And then he said to his soul, soul, soul, rejoice, eat, drink, be merry. And God called that man a fool. Listen, not because he prospered. Not because his ground was plentiful, Norman. But because he built barns for himself. Himself! Himself! Is it wrong for your ground to prosper if you diligently work? Certainly not. If you deceitfully work, it is. But if you honestly, diligently work and your ground prospers, it's not wrong. But if you have in view a bigger barn for you, you become a fool. And brothers and sisters, Satan has baited many Christians with this snare. It's not for you. Luke 12, 13-21, the first snare storing up for self. Prosperity is not for self. Gratification. Prosperity is for the good of those who are in need. Paul said, work so that two things can happen. This is the New Testament teaching on work and prosperity. It's real simple. I don't know why there's thousands of books being written about it. It's real simple. Work and make an honest living. Now he didn't say make your God your work. And he didn't say work with a deceitful heart so you can get ahead. He's talking about honest, wholesome work. Whatever that might be. Two things. Number one, so that you might have what you need. And number two, if you happen to have a ground or a job that yields more than you need, Paul said, so that you can have what you need and you can what? Share with those who don't have what they need. Now, that doesn't mean you take care of irresponsible people who are able to work but won't because they want free handouts. If you really love those kind of people, you won't give them what they need. You'll give them a good spanking and tell them to get up and work. But there are, and it's in God's wisdom, some who are in genuine need even though they are trying. And that's how God tempered the body. Some prosper. Some lack. So that those who lack realize they need God to help them and those who prosper realize it's not for them. And that's how the Spirit of Christ is manifested. So one of the snares... What's our time today, Norman? Do we have an event? There's no events? Okay. Snare number two. Why are we supposed to pray? Why are we supposed to be close to the Lord? Because in yourself and in myself we're not going to work this out. We don't have the power to keep the balance. By nature, we will work for self. But the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey Him. Number two. Luke 12, 22-34. This is Jesus' discourse where He says, therefore, take no thought. Take no thought. Take no thought. Take no thought. And He says it five times. This is teaching us that not only is there a snare to store up for ourself when our ground prospers, but the second snare is over-concern for one's own welfare. Over-concern. It doesn't mean that you don't think intelligently about the affairs of your life. It doesn't mean that you don't think intelligently and plan and think ahead. But the word anxious there means to be filled with anxiety, to make it an obsession, a preoccupation. Listen, to the point where you are neglecting what really matters. And what did Jesus say really matters? Sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His Word. That speaks of communion. There's a place for work. But if work makes me neglect what really matters, what really matters, I have become ensnared. If work makes me neglect what really matters, I have become ensnared by one of the last-day snares that Jesus warned us can get ahold of us. Number three, Luke 14, verses 7-14. This is talking about people who go to wedding feasts and they seek out the place of prominence. And when they have dinners, they invite people over their house who they know can reward them and give them honor. The third snare, if we're not careful and prayerful, is that we will fall into the snare of exalting ourselves and get an inflated idea about ourselves. We'll get too important in our own eyes. Way too important in our own eyes. An inflated self-ego. This is a disease that is in the human soul, and God must discipline us. He that exalts himself will be abased. Always wanting to put ourselves forward. Always wanting to be the one who's the center of attention, the one in control. Our relationships with one another have impure motives. I befriend you because of what I can get out of it. Jesus said that shouldn't be in the kingdom of God. That shouldn't be motivating our heart. We shouldn't look at our brothers and sisters with that in view. And unless we pray, and unless we seek the Lord, and unless we're full of the Holy Ghost, that's a snare that will grab ahold of us. Luke 16, verses 19-21. This speaks of giving self all of its excessive desires. All its desires and wants. Do you know that unless you put a limit on self, it's going to keep demanding more and more? Did you know that? The grass is always greener on the other side for self. That's why by the wisdom of God and by the Word of God, every single person here, every single family here has to determine what is necessary. Because self does need what is necessary. But when it goes beyond necessary, self will keep asking for more. And you need to say no to self. Or else self will just lead you into a path of destruction. Turn your Bibles, if you would please, to Luke 21. Luke 21, verses 34-36. This is actually the text that we want to walk through. What we just mentioned was the groundwork. Luke 21, verses 34-36. Listen carefully. Please, listen carefully. But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard. These are the words of Jesus. Lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed and weighed down with the giddiness, the lightheartedness, and headache and nausea of self-indulgence. The heart being weighed down with the worries and pleasures and cares pertaining to the busyness of this life. And lest that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose, for it will come upon all who live upon the face of the entire earth. Verse 36, Therefore I say to you... Jesus is saying, Therefore I say to you, you who follow Me, keep awake. Keep awake. Remember the disciples? Three times Jesus came and what were they doing? Sleeping. Keep awake. And watch at all times. Be discreet, attentive, and ready. Praying that you may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man. There you go, brothers and sisters. The words of Jesus. Watch. We must take heed. Wars. Verses 9 and 10 of Luke 21. You don't have to turn there. Wars and conflicts of nations. Verse 8 of 21. Deception. This is what's going to be happening in the very last days. Natural disasters, earthquakes, famines. Verse 11. Persecution of believers. Astronomical and heavenly phenomena occurring in the heavens. Distress of nations. Disturbances in the ocean. Hearts of men failing them for fear and anxiety of the trouble that's coming upon the world. Only now can we hear of something going on 7,000, 8,000 miles away while it's happening. Only now can there be an ability for the whole world to be concerned about one particular event. The industrial and technological explosion that has been occurring over the past century and a half is a sure sign that things are wrapping up. The word to take heed means to give attention, to focus one's mind, to guard, to beware, to take care. It means to be ever alert. Note the believer is to take heed to himself. We are to be alert regarding what's going on inside. Lord, help me to see what's in my heart. Help me to understand my motives. Help me not fall prey to storing up for self, for being concerned for my own welfare, for exalting myself, too much love for myself. Giving self its excessive desires. Help me, Lord, not to fall prey to such a snare. The heart is not to be overcharged, heavy, weighed down, burdened, indulged with. Three particular things Jesus mentioned. Surfeiting, drunkenness, and the cares of this life. Very quickly, and then we're going to bring it to a close. Pray. Take heed. Be aware. Be alert, brothers and sisters. Because the snares that will come upon the whole world are right here talked about by Jesus. And if we're not careful, we will fall prey to them. Number one, surfeiting. The word means to be lighthearted, silly, frivolous, giddy. It's a medical term referred to drunken nausea or headache as the result of too much wine. The wine of this world, the pleasures of this world. Jesus said, don't let your heart be filled with these things. Don't get giddy. Don't get lighthearted. Don't put down your guard. Don't be like the foolish man that says, everything's so well, I'm just going to eat, drink, and be merry. Beware of these movements and attitudes that take place at parties and social gatherings. Luncheons and dinners, there's a place for them. Restaurants and food and people and music. It's okay, but be careful! It can put you to sleep. It can give you a false sense of what really matters. Clubs and business trips. I remember I knew someone years ago who feared business trips. Because when he went on a business trip, there was no restraint. No accountability. And he was always enticed on business trips. In an area where he knew no one knew him. To give heed to the suggestive desires. I've known many people who've told me about this. Number two, drunkenness. The word comes from the word meaning wine. It means to be drunk with wine or any other strong drink. Jesus said don't get drunk with strong drink. It indulges the lust. It creates an appetite for flesh. It loosens a person's moral restraint. It dulls the mind. It burdens the heart. It deadens feelings for spouse and loved ones. If you engage and practice immodesty and consumption of wine, it can lead you astray. It can give you that giddy, flippant, hard attitude. And it harms the body. And thirdly, the cares of this life. Jesus said don't be overcharged with the cares of this life. It means to indulge in one's cravings for more and more of the things of this world. Man too often gives his attention and focuses his mind upon more and more and more. He desires far more than what he really needs. Too much food. Too much delicacies. Too much clothes. Too elaborate in our desire for houses and furniture, property, cars, vehicles, free time, recreation, money, wealth, recognition, esteem. We can go wild with these things if we don't recognize the need to place restraint on our desires in accordance with the truth of God's Word. So in closing, the believer is to take heed to guard himself against these things. The believer can focus upon things and possessions of the world so much that he is caught unaware, snared and trapped, and become unguarded and suffer spiritual loss. Let's bow our hearts. Forgive me for sort of giving a lot in a little time, but I pray the Holy Spirit will be pleased to take what needs to be applied to our hearts. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your discipline in our lives. Thank you for your mercy and thank you, Lord, for calling us to maturity. I pray, Lord, that the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts today and deliver us from the snares that we have just learned about from the words of Jesus. Help us to encourage one another and speak often into each other's lives the truth of your Word. We commit our lives and our families into your hands. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Nobody fall prey to guilt or condemnation. If God's Word convicted you, come to Him, acknowledge that you are imperfect and that you are falling short and lay hold of the grace that's available to repentant sinners and He'll help you. Amen. God bless us and keep us in His Word.