Be Watchful

This program contains portions from the following episodes:

"Decent People with a Dying Witness"

"Catch the Creeps"

"How to A-B-I-D-E in Christ"

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Dannah Gresh: Sin doesn’t always come into our lives with blinking lights and colorfully printed signs. Mary Kassians wants us to watch out for the sly sins. 

Mary Kassian: The thing is, sin doesn’t advance by leaps, it advances by creeps—just a teeny tiny, little bit at a time. That’s how we get into trouble, when we make a habit of being inattentive and not watching for creeps. So to be a strong woman, we need to watch for those creeps.

Dannah: What does it look like to be watchful? To be on our guard against sin? Today we’re talking about some practical ways to do that. 

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Where I live the leaves have long blown off the trees. And our winters . . . well, they can bring monochrome colors, can’t they? So it might be a little of a stretch for you, but I want us to imagine we’re walking through a beautiful botanical garden together. Maybe Longwood Gardens—a favorite of mine in Pennsylvania! Mmmm, let’s walk down this path. We’ll come to the rose garden. Did you even know there were so many varieties and colors? Oh, look at that. Can you smell that? That’s what they try to bottle, but never quite can!

I always leave here with so much ambition! But the fact is: we get to enjoy the beauty of a garden because of the work of its gardener. In this case, I’m pretty sure it's gardeners! Think about what’s going on behind the scenes of this peaceful setting. Think about how meticulous that gardening team has to be in taking care of all the rose bushes—trimming them daily so we don’t see a single dead bloom, making sure each one is watered properly, not to mention pulling up all those troublesome weeds.

Picture your own—admittedly more modest—garden, but it's filled with blooming flowers and new growth. Maybe one day you notice a weed or two sprouting up. Soon after, you notice a few more of these pesky weeds. Wait . . . when did these get here? Before you know it, the weeds start to take over your entire garden. How did this happen?

Our lives are a lot like this. Those weeds? They’re like the sin that gradually sneaks in if we’re not careful. Luke 21:34 cautions us: “Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly.” 

So, what does it look like to be on our guard? How can we be watchful to keep sin from sneaking in and taking root in our lives?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth taught a series through the letters to the churches of Revelation. Here she is in one of those letters—in Revelation chapter 3—talking about the importance of being on alert.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: As I was preparing for this series, I found myself on my knees crying out for wisdom, for understanding . . . where does that come from? The Spirit of God. I cry out to Him, as I did this morning, for anointing, for the anointing of His Spirit, for fresh oil. I say, "Lord, I need You." These words will be just words unless You take them and You come alive and You wing them into the hearts of people and bring them into repentance and faith and to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So we are going to see that the Spirit of God was desperately needed in the church in Sardis, as He is in the church and our lives today.

Now as you read the letter to the church in Sardis, you notice that there’s no indication of there being any external opposition or persecution. Now certainly that was going on because they lived in the Roman Empire, and there was persecution going on across the Empire.

But it’s interesting to me that it’s not referenced in this letter. Further, there is no heresy or false teaching named as there is in some of the other letters. And there’s no rebuke given for worldliness or for corrupt, unholy living as there is in some of the other letters.

You see, the problem in Sardis was even more basic than those issues because this is a church that was fundamentally spiritually dead. There was no life there, or very little. The little bit of life there was was about to die out. The people in that church were dead; the church was dead.

As a result there’s nothing in that church that apparently bothered or stirred up Satan. So why would he need to bring about persecution? There was nothing to persecute. And when there is no persecution, when there is no opposition, when there is no adversity—it’s even true in our lives—it’s easy to get lulled to sleep, to become comfortable, content, complacent.

This was a church that was spiritually flabby. They were not well conditioned because they hadn’t experienced hardship, and they hadn’t experienced hardship because they were dead. And yet, curiously, here’s a church that apparently thought everything was fine.

If that doesn’t describe so many of our churches in this country today, I don’t know what does.

A respectable group of people who are considered by the unsaved around us as neither dangerous nor desirable. They don’t want what we have. They’re not impressed with what we have, and they’re not bothered by what we have.

Now increasingly that is changing as battle lines are drawn between truth and error. But for the most part, most of us are not bothering Satan’s kingdom. Most of our churches are not bothering the powers of darkness.

You read the gospels and you see that wherever Jesus went, hell shattered at His feet. Demons were confronted. And I don’t mean just with exorcisms, but the power of darkness, the kingdom of Satan was confronted wherever Jesus went.

Should it not be true that if Jesus is Lord and present in His Church in our lives today that there would be this confrontation between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of Satan?

Now the fact that Satan wasn’t bothered or exorcised about that church, the fact that they were neither dangerous nor desirable, decent people with a dying witness and a decaying ministry, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything going on there.

In fact, Jesus said, “I know your works.” This church had works, and they had a lot of activity that impressed others. We’re going to see that they had a reputation for being alive. But inwardly they were dead. They looked alive, but life was the thing they most needed.

Now before we look at the rest of this letter I want to take us back to a passage in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 37. In the first fourteen verses of this passage, Ezekiel 37, we see this progression of moving from death to life.

As I read through this passage notice that we have here a valley that was full of very many dry bones. When you see dry bones, human bones, do you think of life or do you think of death? The death comes to life.

And the word live you’ll see in this passage six times. Twice you’ll see the phrase, “Raised up from your graves.” The emphasis is death is moving to life. There’s resurrection power here.

• Now what makes the difference?
• What takes them from death to life in this passage?
• What takes anybody from death to life?
• What takes a church from death to life?

Well ten times in these first fourteen verses, depending on your translation, you will see the words spirit, breath, or wind. And in the Hebrew language those are all translating one word. It’s the word ruach. Spirit, breath, wind all translate this one word. It’s the Spirit of God, the breath of God, the wind of the Spirit of God that brings life out of death.

The Spirit of God gives life. He raised Christ from the dead. He alone can bring dead bones to life and dead churches. There is no human effort. There are no human programs, no human ingenuity that can solve the problems of this lifeless church in Sardis or of our lifeless churches today.

The Spirit of God must breathe life into those who are dead. We can do nothing apart from Him. We are dependent upon Him. As we cannot live physically without breathing oxygen, breath, wind, spirit, so we cannot live spiritually, individually, or as churches without the breath of the Spirit of God.

Dannah: What a good reminder from Nancy. When we lose the sense of how much we are in need of a Savior, isn’t it so easy to become numb and complacent in our faith?

What if you and I started every day by asking God to make us aware of our need for Him? I actually did that this morning. I just opened my eyes and said, “Jesus, I need you! I cannot do this day without you.” I think that simple shift in thinking will help us be more alert to the ways sin tries to sneak into our lives. And in the process, we’ll become stronger women of faith. 

Have you ever thought about watchfulness as a characteristic of being a strong woman? In fact, my friend Mary Kassian wrote a book called The Right Kind of Strong. In it, Mary takes us to 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 6 and 7. Nancy and I sat down to hear what Mary had gleaned as she studied those verses. She says there are a lot of women who might think they’re strong, (especially according to our culture’s standards), but in reality they’re weak. 

Mary: They are less than what they could be because of their habits. And the first habit that we see in this passage is that they tolerated creeps. They let these false teachers creep into their households. The term is really interesting, “creep.” Because to creep doesn’t mean that they just opened the door and said, “Hey, come on in.” It means that these ideas from these false teachers came in just a little bit at a time—just ever so slightly, just moved in a little bit, a little bit more, and a little bit more.

Nancy: Because these false teachers creep into the houses of these weak women and these women don’t even realize (and men too sometimes), what’s happening. Like if some robber, thief, or someone who wants to do harm to your family just barged in, broke the door down, came in yelling and screaming, you’d resist.

Mary: Yes.

Nancy: You’d say, “Get out of here!” You’d call the police. You’d take action. But this here is like a subtle intrusion.

Dannah: So subtle.

Mary: You don’t even know what’s happening, and that’s why you tolerate it. I think that so many women are in the habit of letting things creep into their lives—ungodly influences, not just people, false teachers, but also things like ungodly habits or ungodly attitudes or ungodly moral stances or ungodly ideas. There are all sorts of creeps that women allow to come into their lives and into their hearts.

Nancy: So the first good habit that we need to develop is to be on the lookout for these creeps.

Mary: That’s right, to catch these creeps.

Nancy: To catch the creeps.

Dannah: You know, as I was introduced to this whole idea through you, Mary, I feel like I saw something in my life that was creeping into my spirit, into my mind, into my theology, and into my habits that really convicted me. That is this, you talk about time creeps. And time creeps can be what?

Mary: Time creeps can be just wasting time on things that are unproductive. We all need time to rest, but I think that particularly in this day and age with social media and . . .

Nancy: Wait, stop right there.

Dannah: That’s right where you got me, because how much time do you think that the average woman spends on social media?

Mary: Well, there was a study done that actually said that by the time you reach the end of your life, you will have spent a minimum of seven years solid on social media.

Nancy: I think that “minimum” is the word there. They actually have this thing on our phones now that I think every week it pops up how many hours a day you’ve spent on this. The first time that that popped up on mine, I went, “No way! That can’t be right!”

Mary: That can’t be right.

Nancy: That can’t be right! Now, I’m doing a lot of extra things like studying. Sometimes I’m reading Scripture, but a lot of times I’m letting time just get stolen from me.

Dannah: Is that helping you to be able to see how much time you’re spending on it? Does it make you more aware?

Nancy: Well, I have to do something about it.

Dannah: Yes.

Nancy: It’s making me more aware, but then I have to do something about it. I have to say, “Okay, there are some good uses for it. There are some good things I’m doing with my time on there that are productive and helpful and edifying. But that’s not the whole.” There are things that are maybe just recreational that keep your mind sharp.

Dannah: Words with Friends

Nancy: Yes, my time’s down on Words with Friends these days. But then there’s just like this endless scrolling and seeing what everyone else is doing. Maybe that’s not bad in and of itself sinful, but is it allowing attitudes to creep into my thinking like comparison or what is beautiful.

Dannah: Or just let’s talk about how snarky social media can be, let’s go there. This is a really big issue I think, and that’s how creeps are. They seem insignificant ,but I was thinking the other day. Ten years ago I got so much more done in a week, why was that? Well, ten years ago I didn’t have a phone in my hand. I didn’t have a smartphone dumbing me down.

Really, Mary, I just have to say that reading this chapter was a game changer in my life. I realized that I’d been saying, “Lord, why am I less productive? Can you show me why I’m less productive? Am I just getting older? Is my brain slowing down? Is my body slowing down?” 

Through this chapter I realized that, it’s how I manage my time. It’s how when I go to bed and when I rise in the morning, it’s how I use this phone in my hand. In just the few short weeks that I’ve been obeying the Lord and giving Him that time and being aware of the creeps, my productivity is back!

Mary: Yes.

Dannah: It’s so much fun! It’s joyful! It feels great! So put your phone down, go to bed, get up early, it’s those simple things, right?

Mary: When I talk to women and they’ve gotten themselves into big messes, maybe they had an affair or done something else, gotten into a relationship that is unhealthy, they’ve never gotten there in one big leap. It’s always been incremental. It’s always been a little bit at a time. 

And they end up going, “How did I get here?” Well the thing is, sin doesn’t advance by leaps, it advances by creeps—just a teeny tiny, little bit at a time. That’s how we get into trouble, when we make a habit of being inattentive and not watching for creeps. So to be a strong woman, we need to watch for those creeps.

Nancy: And just again, we mentioned one of them, the way our time can get stolen from us. But what are some of the other types of creeps? They can be people.

Mary: They can be people coming into our lives that are negative influences, that pull us away from the Word of God. It can be ideas, ideological creeps, moral creeps where we our standards start getting changed a little bit. I think of this often. I was convicted of this once in terms of, Am I tolerating watching something on TV now that I wouldn’t have watched five years ago? Or wouldn’t have watched ten years ago? 

It’s something that I am tolerating but that really is not the direction that God wants me to go toward in terms of what I’m thinking about or in keeping my mind clean and pure.

Nancy: I think that it can be attitudes too.

Mary: Yes, it can be attitudes.

Nancy: It can be things that we start to mull over in our minds, unforgiveness or resentment. Boy, you let that get a little bit of a root.

Dannah: Don’t you think that's a big attitude problem that we have now? Negativity.

Mary: Negativity and criticism. Having a critical spirit toward others. That’s what often times comes up in social media

Nancy: All of a sudden you see a marriage that is on the rocks, it’s falling apart. Well, it wasn’t falling apart when they were at the altar, so what happened? Attitudes crept in that weren’t valuing the other, weren’t respecting the other, and weren’t speaking well of the other

Mary: Yes.

Nancy: We often talk in this ministry about the 30-day husband encouragement challenge. It’s not that in and of itself that it’s like a miraculous salvation to your marriage. But what it does is kind of arrest the creeps.

Mary: That’s exactly what it does.

Dannah: It brings to mind something that I did with Bob. Ok, I love my man so much.

Nancy: Yes you do.

Dannah: I have a big crush on him, but he leaves his socks in the middle of the living room floor . . . and he has our entire marriage. We’ve had conversations about it. Years ago I just decided that I’m going to pick them up, but you know what? Every time I did it, I rolled my eyes. Nobody saw me. I didn’t make a sound. I didn’t complain to Bob. I stopped talking about his socks. I stopped complaining verbally to him. But my eyeballs and my heart were still complaining. And it was dramatically impacting how I was impacting with him. Non verbals.

Your attitude matters inside your heart—how you roll your eyes, how you look at someone. It matters and changes the way you think and feel about them.

Mary: And a strong woman needs to recognize that. It’s a habit that’s a small habit, something we do all the time, and that’s to stay alert to the creeps and shut them down when we see them. And bring what is happening to the Word of God and accept His corrective.

Dannah: So Mary, could we just look up 1 Peter 5:8–9 because it gives us some ideas, some clues on how to curtail the creeps.

Nancy: I like that “curtail the creeps.” Reign them in, get rid of them, identify them, and this passage really talks about that

Mary: It saws “be sober minded, be watchful for your advisory he devil prowls like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” That image right there, “prowling around,” you know lions don’t go in for the kill right away. They take their time. They are very patient. They circle and circle.”

Nancy: And this is the uber creep here.

Mary: That’s right. Satan himself is looking for someone to devour.

Nancy: But we’re supposed to watch out for him.

Mary: Yes, watch out for him. You have to remain alert. Here it says, “resist him.” So first it says that we need to watch for him, so remain alert, remain on guard, watch for creeps. Know that Satan is the one who comes in a little bit at a time and just breaks down your defenses, pushes against your morals, pushes against your ideas. It’s how he influenced Eve in the Garden.

Nancy: Exactly.

Mary: It wasn’t an all out open attack. It was just very subtle, very gradual, very incremental. So first we watch for him. Resist him firm in your faith. I think that we have just some really clear instructions here. First of all, it says to be sober minded, in other words, take this seriously. I think that a lot of women don’t take the threat of creeps seriously. “Well it’s just a casual conversation. I’m just text messaging the guy.” “It’s just a lunch that we’re having together; it’s no big deal.”

Dannah: “It’s just TV,” or “It’s just one bad word in this show.”

Mary: “Everybody’s watching this.”

Dannah: “Everybody says it.”

Mary: “What’s the big deal?” “I’m strong enough to handle it.”

Nancy: “I’m just relaxing” with the endless scrolling through social media. What could be wrong with that?

Mary: Exactly, what could be wrong with that? There’s nothing wrong with this, nothing bad with this, and really it’s not a big deal; it’s a little deal. But you have to be sober minded and take those little things seriously. Sober minded means to be serious about something, and I think that it means being serious about the way that Satan creeps into your life. Serious about his strategy, because his prime strategy is to advance slowly. He’s got a lot so time; he’s patient.

Nancy: But he intends to take you out.

Mary: He intends to keep you down and to take you out. And he’s relentless. He just comes at you all the time.

Nancy: Then we look back on our lives that have fallen apart, and it’s a wreck, and we’re overwhelmed and depressed, and relationships are falling apart. We’re thinking, How did this happen? Well, we weren’t sober minded about the intrusion of these creeps into our lives.

Mary: Yes, we weren’t sober minded; we didn’t take it seriously. Then it says “be watchful.” One of the words that is really interesting back in our passage in 2 Timothy is that they crept into households. I think that as women we need to be watchful not only for ourselves but for the things that are creeping into our homes. 

We need to resist. The next word in this passage says “resist him.” We need to resist what’s going on. We need to resist the advances of that creep. Maybe we need to put in some Internet filters. Sometimes we need to say, “No, this is a TV program that is not going to be in my home. This is a video game that I’m not going to allow my children to interact with.”

Nancy: And the creeps that we don’t resist, we’re ultimately going to get run over by.

Mary: That’s right.

Dannah: Yes.

Nancy: They’re going to control us, or the people that we love.

Mary: Because they’ll keep advancing, because that’s the nature of creeps. And the thing with creeps is that they cause ungodliness. There’s a whole list in 2 Timothy chapter 3 of ungodliness in the last times. Creeps pull us to be less focused on God, more focused on ourselves. Our ideas begin to change; our hearts begin to change; our attitudes begin to change. The creep ultimately wants to pull us away from the Lord.

Dannah: What “creeps” are trying to invade your life? Mary Kassian challenged us to be more aware of the sinful thoughts or habits that make their way into our lives if we’re not careful. 

Today we've talked about being alert, being watchful for the ways Satan tries to creep into your life. And as we just heard, there are a lot of helpful, practical ways we can be on our guard. But ultimately, being watchful comes as a result of keeping our focus on Christ. Here’s Gretchen Saffles, talking about this concept of abiding in Christ that comes from John chapter 15. 

Gretchen Saffles: The very first words that Jesus says are, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” Jesus was very intentional with every word that He spoke, and He specifically says, “I am the true vine.”

When Jesus said this to His disciples who were listening to Him, they would have understood the significance. Jesus was referring back to Isaiah chapter 5 where the prophet Isaiah was describing Israel as a vineyard.

And this vineyard God had planted with choice vines, expecting it to yield grapes, but it only yielded wild grapes. Ultimately, Israel chose not to abide in the True Vine. Jesus comes and He says that, “I am the True Vine—not Israel, not any other thing in this world. I am the One who will provide you with sufficiency and with all that you need in this life.”

And in order to receive the benefits of the True Vine, we have to remain attached to Him. There are so many false vines in this world that are vying for our attention, that are saying, “If you just attach to me—if you just have more money in your bank account—then you’re going to live a flourishing life.”

But for that person who gets more money in their bank account, they know very quickly that it’s not enough! They just want more and more. Maybe it’s more followers or a better job or better (fill-in-the-blank).

Dannah: More power, more success. 

Gretchen: Yes! And then you get that “more,” and there’s a next step and a next step.

Dannah: Never enough . . .

Gretchen: There’s always the want for “more!” But in Christ, He is enough! And you know what’s really cool about this? Numbers are limitless. I feel like we often idolize numbers. Maybe it’s your weight or your bank account or a following. They are limitless! We think that that “more” could satisfy us, and it never does, because ultimately they’re pointing to God, who is limitless. 

He is the One who satisfies. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the One who owns all. He is the Maker of the world. And He is ultimately the True Vine that brings us joy!

Dannah: Amen! That’s a great reminder from Gretchen Saffles. It’s such an important truth I never get tired of hearing, and I hope the same is true for you too.

When we find our complete satisfaction in Jesus, the True Vine, everything else fades in comparison. 

Let’s go back to that picture of a garden we talked about at the beginning of today’s episode. With what attitude are you tending the garden of your life? Are you watchful? As soon as a weed, or a “creep” as we talked about earlier, starts to take root, will you let it grow? Or will you notice it and get rid of it? How does abiding in Christ change the way you care for your garden—your life?

I hope this truth we heard today takes root in your heart as it has in mine. Our hope here at Revive Our Hearts is to bring truth to you and to women all over the world. Which means, we’re working on being able to share the hope of Christ in different languages. And you can be part of that in a special way, coming up next week!

Friday was a day of shopping for some; we all know Black Friday and some of the incredible sales. I’m not a big fan of crowds, so I tend to go a quieter route on Black Friday. My family and I hit the tree farm to cut down a big one! But–anyway—are you familiar with Giving Tuesday? Giving Tuesday is the biggest celebration of generosity. It’s a great way to give back to your community in many ways, but one is financially. 

It’s a day we set aside to be generous. I love that. We’re excited to celebrate with a campaign to spread our resources worldwide. 

This Tuesday, you can help women hear truth from God’s Word in their own language. GivingTuesday donations will provide audio resources, like what you’re listening to right now for women in French, Portuguese, and Spanish-speaking countries. 

So when you hear Giving Tuesday in a couple of days, think Revive Our Hearts. Okay? Giving Tuesday—Revive Our Hearts. Let’s cement it into your brain, Giving Tuesday—Revive Our Hearts. More details about our Giving Tuesday project will be available on our website on Tuesday. You can make your donation there, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. It’s called "Be Watchful." You can also give by calling us at 1-800-569-5959. 

Talking about Giving Tuesday has me thinking about the presents needing to be bought and wrapped, the cookies to bake, and all there is to do for the Christmas season, but how do we prepare our hearts to make room for Jesus? Not only during Christmas, but in any busy season of life, especially in an age when social media is constantly vying for our attention. We’re going to talk about that next weekend.

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team: Phil Krause, Blake Bratton, Rebekah Krause, Justin Converse, Michelle Hill, Micayla Brickner, and for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh.

Revive Our Hearts is calling women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

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