-Transcript-
00:26 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:32 Welcome to the cafe. Great to be back here today. I hope you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week.
00:36 Hopefully you got yourself some coffee or tea with you. I wish I did right now, but I’ve already had my morning coffee and I don’t want to get jittery. So I’m stuck with a healthy glass of water.
00:46 I love water, but I’d rather that water be coffee. Anyways, it’s just good to be here today. I’m so glad y’all are here.
00:54 We’re in a second week of a two-week series, we’ll call it, on The Overcoming Life. I promise we’re going to wrap it up this week, Lord willing. And we are talking about the overcoming life because we love the Lord and we face obstacles in this life.
01:12 Oh, how we face obstacles in this life. I was reading in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon was writing about young people having joy in their life. And there’s always this scripture that just makes me chuckle about, you know, love God, serve God while you’re young.
01:32 And then it says, before you get older and there’s no joy in your days or something like that, there’s no peace in your days. And as a parent of young children and a teenager, and as a husband and as a business owner, as one called in the ministry and on and on and on, I could tell you life is hard. You know that, I don’t have to tell you that.
01:49 You know, life is hard. There’s challenges in life. There’s hardships in life.
01:55 And yet in the Bible, we’re called to be overcomers of this world. And by that, I mean, overcomers of this life. 1 John 5:4, 1 John 5:4, for whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world.
02:10 And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. So those that are born of God, those that are born again, they are to overcome the world. They have overcome the world by our faith.
02:24 We have victory over this world. The battle, what is the battle? You know, I’ve gone through this, this is actually the sixth episode we’ve talked about the overcoming life. But I’ve gone through this, but in case you haven’t been listening, it’s okay.
02:37 The battle is facing Satan and his temptations. The battleground is this world, the little G God of this world is the devil. 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that.
02:50 And the devil’s tool, the devil’s weaponry against the believer is the temptations. He’s the tempter. He’s the tempter of this world.
02:58 And it’s a battle between Spirit, capital S Spirit, the Holy Spirit living within you if you’ve been born again, and the flesh. So the battleground is this world. Our adversary is the devil.
03:08 It’s not man. Amen. It’s the devil and his fallen angels and the artillery he uses against us, the weapons he’s firing at us, temptations, money, security, sexual desires, food, drink, and drugs, power, pride, fame, and status, which would be vanity.
03:26 These are typically the weapons, the darts, the fiery darts that are thrown at you and me. These are the temptations that we face. And the common denominator here is things that bring forth quick gratification in this world.
03:40 We’re always looking for a quick way out, aren’t we? This world is built around quick. You have a question? Why go to the library? Just open your phone, you know, open the browser on your phone and Google it and you’ll know the answer, right? Allegedly. You want to watch a movie? Don’t go to the movie theater.
04:00 Just click a button on the smart TV and stream that thing, right? You want food? Well, why do you have to go cook? Just go drive through the drive-thru, right?
04:10 You know, the world tells us it’s okay if you have a desire physically that you don’t have to wait for marriage. The world tells us that that’s okay. On and on and on.
04:20 But we know it’s not okay and we know the tempter wants to get us off track. And we’ve talked about this here in past episodes that what the devil wants to do is not bring you some kind of temporary joy, even though the Bible says there’s pleasure in sin for a season, right?
04:34 But the Bible also says the wages of sin is death. And the devil doesn’t want to bring you joy.
04:38 The devil wants to use you and discard of you like everyone else, amen? The devil simply wants to get you off track from the things and ways of God. The devil simply wants to get you far off from God. The devil simply wants to go up there and accuse you in front of God.
04:52 The devil’s a liar. He’s the father of lies and anything that he presents in front of you that looks good is rotten to the core, amen. You know, it’s like an apple and the outside is looking good and then inside that apple there’s the worm and it’s not good, amen.
05:03 And there’s so much in there. Thinking of Solomon, mentioning Solomon, there’s in the Proverbs, he writes about the woman, the strange woman that’s enticing people, the harlot enticing people, saying that she’s paid her, you know, her, her,
05:22 her sacrifices and her dues and that she’s put perfume on and that the good man of the house is far away and she’s giving all this reasoning that it’s going to be a good idea to go off with a strange woman and then death ensues.
05:32 It’s a trap. It’s a snare. And that’s what the devil wants.
05:36 1 John 2:16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world. And so we see that what we’re dealing with is of the world. It’s not of God.
05:44 God cannot tempt. James 1:12-16 tells us that God cannot tempt. Specifically, James 1: 13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt he any man.
06:01 That’s very clear. God doesn’t tempt. So who’s the tempter? The devil.
06:07 What does he tempt with? Those desires that would bring quick gratification. The same thing of you could work and you know you work a job and you know you could save up and eventually you could buy that car you want, but instead there’s some money and you know it’s on the table and no one will know and you steal that money and you buy the car that way, right? Well, that’s theft, amen.
06:25 So one is a sin and one is a good moral trait, working hard for what you earn. And that is the crux of what the devil’s doing.
06:33 He’s trying to get you to steal instead of living godly and moral and trusting God for every need. And there’s so many examples I could give, but for time’s sake, we just need to understand the context here. The devil wants to get you off track because if he gets you off track, you’re no good to God.
06:50 Your ministry goes astray. Your testimony is ruined. Your rewards in heaven are gone and peace and joy in your life are gone.
06:56 All of these things are scriptural in Proverbs 11: 30, Acts 24:16, Revelation 3: 21, Philippians4:6-7, backs up all that I’ve said, amen.
07:07 So don’t take my word for it. Take the Bible’s word for it. The devil wants to get you off track in so many ways.
07:13 And yet we know that God is able. God is able. And so what do we do? We don’t fear, amen. We don’t fear the devil.
07:21 We don’t fear his temptations. 1 John 4:18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because feareth torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love. Don’t be afraid of this battle, but trust in God that he is in control throughout it.
07:35 Now this is hard to understand. God is in full control, even though he cannot tempt. So if he’s not the tempter and he’s in full control, what’s happening? Well, he’s allowing the tempter to tempt you.
07:46 Why? I don’t know. He allowed Jesus to be tempted too. So what we can see is that the Bible tells us there’s no temptation that’s not common to man and that God will give us a way out.
07:57 So maybe just thinking out loud here, God allows us to be tempted as a test to our faith to see if we truly believe that he is who he says he is, and that he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
08:09 And as we face these temptations and trials, we see, number one, we’re humbled by them, right? We deal with humility. We get rid of that pride that is abomination to God.
08:25 We become more dependent upon God as we face these temptations and trials, and we watch as God delivers us from these temptations and trials, and we give God the glory.
08:29 The Bible says that the righteous will face many afflictions and God deliver them out of them all. Now, many people want to say everyone faces afflictions and God delivers them out of them all.
08:46 But the Bible says the righteous face many afflictions. Now, everyone does face many afflictions, but it’s the righteous that God will deliver out of them all. And so the idea is not that we’re under the law.
08:52 It’s not that we have to live a certain way to be saved, but that we live a certain way so that we can watch God show up and show out. Romans 8:28, that’s a perfect example of what God’s doing. And I’ll just read it here.
09:05 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. So all things work together for good to them who that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. Not to them that are living in sin, not to them that are living wickedly.
09:26 If you are living openly and outwardly in sin, not all things are working for your good because you’re not showing the Lord you love him and you’re not called according to his purpose. You’re living for yourself and you’re living for the little g god of this world. And that is why the devil’s trying so hard to get you off track.
09:39 Amen. It’s that simple. It’s not that complicated.
09:43 The devil wants to tempt you out of your walk with God. And God is telling you by his strength, by the working of the Holy Spirit, you can and will endure and overcome this world. So we should not have fear.
09:52 1 John 4:18 says there’s no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. So God’s perfect love should cast away our fears. We should not be afraid of this battle.
10:01 We should trust God that he’s in control of it. There’s no reason to think God won’t protect us from the enemy if we’re in fellowship with him. And I say that because if we’re not in fellowship with him, maybe he’ll allow the enemy to get us so we can come back to be in fellowship with him.
10:15 Or if we’re no good to him and we’re a believer, he might just take us home. Our suffering has a purpose and meaning, which is growing in patience, faith and knowledge of him. And so having no fear is part of overcoming.
10:34 It’s part of the overcoming life. And we have no fear because we realize that God is good, that we are born of God and not of this world when we are born again. And the battle is fought with God’s help.
10:41 I’m not advocating that we overcome by our own strength, but we overcome by God’s strength. But that can’t happen if we’re biblically ignorant, if we’re biblically illiterate, if we are not spending any time in God’s word, if we have no prayer warrior about us, if we don’t have a prayer closet, if we’re not spending time with God, if we’re not walking with God, if we’re skipping church to go do the things of the world, if we’re spending more time with the world than we are with God, how can we expect God to show up and show out in our life, right?
11:07 You want him to be near, then you have to draw near to him. The Bible says to cleanse your hands, ye sinners, draw nigh to God and he’ll draw nigh to you.
11:16 Notice the preface to that, cleansing the hands of the sinners. What is that? Repentance, going to God and asking for forgiveness, identifying the sin is what it is, it’s an abomination to God and that you are offended by it now and you don’t want to do it either and giving it to God.
11:29 And the Bible tells us that he’s faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
11:37 The battleground is this world. It’s just this world. Are we tempted in heaven? No.
11:43 Why? Because there’s no sin in heaven. If you are saved, if you’re born again, if you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then there’s no sin in heaven. There’s no darkness in heaven.
11:53 The devil can’t trick you into snares in heaven. You are a blood bought believer for an eternity. So the battleground is just here in this world and the weapon is simply these temptations and the more you stay strong for God and in God’s word, the stronger you’re going to be against these temptations.
12:12 You’ve heard preachers say this before, I’m sure I’ve heard many preachers say, you know, the spirit or the flesh inside of you, which one is more powerful, the one you feed more.
12:24 And I agree with that. So for feeding the flesh with carnal movies and worldly movies and worldly music and worldly friends and worldly appetites, that our flesh is going to be overcoming us and we’re going to fall into all kinds of these temptations.
12:33 But if we were living for God and feeding, feeding the spirit, not grieving the spirit, but enriching that spirit, spending time in his word, praying, seeking the Lord, serving God, loving God, not being perfect.
12:46 He knows our form, not being perfect, but just spending time with God saying, you know what, Lord, I’m going to carve out that time in the morning to just spend with you and read your word and pray and meditate on it. In the evening, I’m going to do the same.
12:57 At lunchtime, I’m going to do the same. Your Bible says that I should raise my kids in your ways. I’m going to raise my kids in your ways.
13:04 You know, the more that we work to, the more that we work to get close to God, the more that good works will come about us. Does that make sense? If we are working to get close to God, then those good works will just be a byproduct of us being close to God. And you say, well, brother Clark, we don’t have to have works about us.
13:20 Well, to be saved, it’s simply by faith, but you have to believe. And if you believe, then you’re going to want to do something for God. The Bible says that faith without works is dead.
13:30 Think about it. If you said you believe that there’s a flood and you stood still and got covered by water, your actions are speaking louder than what your words were saying, correct?
13:40 If you say, I believe there’s a flood and you run like all daylight and you grab that life raft, then clearly you believe there’s a flood. And so if you believe Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, clearly you’re going to be in the church house.
13:50 Clearly, you’re going to be praising God. Clearly you’re going to be living the overcoming life, brother. It’s not easy.
13:56 Sister, it is hard. You’ll be going through this, that, and the other. The devil will throw twice as many snares at you to say, oh, you think you can live the overcoming life?
14:04 But by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you have overcome if you’ve been saved and you will overcome if you simply trust him.
14:11 Don’t have fear. Don’t let the devil scare you. The Bible tells us that he’s not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
14:18 Trust God today that he’ll deliver you from every affliction as you seek him and as you live for him. Tune in next time as we talk more about the overcoming life. Thank you so much.
14:28 Take care. God bless and amen.