INTRODUCTION:  A little boy stood outside and yelled loudly from the back door, “Mom, Hey MOM!”  His mother replied, “Stop yelling across the house.  If you want to talk to me walk in here where I am.”  The little boy tried again but to no avail.  Finally he came inside and walked across the living room and stood directly in front of his Mom who was sitting on the sofa.  He said in a calm voice, “Mom, where is the garden hose?  I stepped in dog poop.” 

There are some things that you just don’t want to bring into your house.  Dog poop is probably one of those things.  So are demons.  Two weeks ago I began a message entitled “How to Demon-proof Your Life.” Our starting point was a scripture in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12:43-45 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

We pointed out three ways to demon-proof your life, which is to realize the reality of demons, acknowledge the antagonism of demons and align with the vanquisher of demons.  We align with the vanquisher of demons by aligning ourselves with Jesus in salvation.  That is the starting point.  Once we enter into Jesus Christ by baptism, and the Holy Spirit enters into us at baptism, we have everything we need to take our stand against the devil and his demons. 

However, just because we have everything we need to take our stand against the devil and his demons, doesn’t necessarily mean that we use everything we have.  Through deception, sin and apathy, Christians can surrender control of their lives to the influence of demons, Satan can gain what the Bible calls a “foothold”, and ultimately a Christian can lose their salvation. 

II Peter 2:20 “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.”

Today I want to teach you three ways that you can demon-proof your Christian life.