Protect What Has Been Given : Bishop Tony Samuels

It’s so important that we put a high value on the things of God in our lives. When you value something, you will protect it at all costs. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, …but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. The treasure is in us. A lot of times, we focus more on outward material treasure, but the real treasure is the treasure that God has placed on the inside of us. As a matter of fact, your inward treasure will affect what treasure you receive on the outside. Proverbs 4:23 says, Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. The flow of your life is coming from within you. Jesus said that out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. 

From the beginning, the enemy has been trying to steal…from the Garden of Eden all the way to John 10:10: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Here is the challenge: the thief does not come into your life looking like a thief. He will use your own attitudes and your own desires to steal what God is doing in your life. He uses life’s problems to distract you while he robs you blind.  

Matthew 13:24-28 says, Then Jesus taught them another parable: “Heaven’s kingdom can be compared to a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and ran away. When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, the weeds also appeared. So the farmer’s hired hands came to him and said, ‘Sir, wasn’t that good seed that you sowed in the field? Where did all these weeds come from?’ “He answered, ‘This has to be the work of an enemy!’ Amazing…they put the work in to receive the harvest, but while they slept, the enemy was also working, trying to cancel out their good work, their good seeds, by planting bad seeds. We have to be careful of the things in our lives that are canceling out the good things we are doing. Sometimes we allow this, and we don’t even realize it. Notice, the enemy came while they slept.  

I leave you with Song of Solomon 2:15: You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship. For they raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I’ve planted within you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together. It’s time to remove the things that take away from what God is doing in our lives…and He will help us.  

At the Lighthouse, we don’t just want you to have a church experience; we want you to have a total life experience with the Lord. What we experience in church must be protected when we leave church, because that experience will take you to another experience…and so on, as we go from faith to faith and Glory to Glory. 

Remember, protect what has been given.