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00:29 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:34 I’m Pastor Clark Covington. I’m here today to talk to you, really to wrap up. This is our seventh episode total, seven, the number of completions.
00:43 So just as the Lord would work it out, to wrap up discussing the overcoming life. So hopefully you’re doing good today. You’ve got your Bible with you and we’re going to dive in and look at the overcoming life.
00:53 And even though we’ve taken seven 15 minute episodes to look at this topic, we probably could take 70 or 700 or 7,000 episodes to look at the overcoming life because isn’t that what God does through the believer as he or she trusts in him and seeks him? Isn’t that what God does?
01:10 He brings us out of many diverse problems and afflictions and trials, and he does it in the most miraculous way. And yes, things don’t always work as we would have them to work because his ways are higher than our ways.
01:25 I saw a verse that was hard to tackle in the book of Ecclesiastes the other day and I looked up a commentary and I try not to look up too many commentaries these days because I don’t want to have a bias.
01:38 So unless it’s something factual or something I just don’t understand, I try to just compare scripture with scripture to see if I can get it on my own. But this one I looked up a commentary on this verse and it was about the unexpected nature of God and I didn’t quite understand it.
01:54 And the commentary commentarian, I guess you’d call that individual, and I don’t remember which one it was, but said this to the extent of, God keeps us on our toes so that when we think that something good could happen, it may not, or when we think that something bad would happen, it may not.
02:20 So that because we don’t know what tomorrow holds, we have to depend on him more. And that was a very kind of bad paraphrase of what the commentary was saying, but it is so true.
02:25 And so we live the overcoming life, not knowing what tomorrow holds and not knowing what will come our way, whether it’s prosperity or poverty, but either way, understanding that we have a God that is more than able to get us through it, get us through all of these trials.
02:41 Because think about it, some of the worst trials we can have is if we had prosperity, you win the lottery, you’re going to have some new friends, you’re going to have some new problems. You say, Brother Clark, I wouldn’t have problems if I won the lottery. Oh, I promise you, you would.
02:51 I grew up in an affluent suburb outside of New York City, and individuals had more problems than I’ve ever seen. And those problems were very peculiar and very difficult, and some of them were relegated to only having this kind of problem if you had money.
03:05 Because look, if you’re poor, if you have nothing, then what can people take from you? But if you’re wealthy, people are stealing or this, that, or the other, and there’s proverbs on that too.
03:15 But let’s stay on the message. The point is, whether in prosperity or poverty, whether we’re going through a hard time here or a hard time there, whatever we’re facing in life, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, will help us to endure and to overcome in this world.
03:30 And we’ve spoken about over the last course of these past six episodes, now here on the seventh, we’ve talked about all the details of the battle.
03:39 So the battles taking place in this world, the battles between Christians, those that have been born again, those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, those that realize they have a sin debt that they can’t pay, and that Christ died on the cross for them, this substitutionary death, and they put their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in his death, burial, and resurrection, they’re saved, right?
03:58 Because some people will say, well, I’m a Christian, and they have no idea what that means, and that’s a whole other topic. So understanding that we’re saved, believing on Christ, then what do we do? We are now born again, and now we are enlisted in this fight, okay?
04:13 We are now part of God’s army, we are God’s child, and we are fighting this fight, whether we want to or not, between the Spirit, capital S Spirit, and the flesh. And what the devil wants to do is tempt you.
04:27 And so the battle is in this world, the little g God of this world is the devil, God is sovereign over the devil, but the devil has got control of this world through what happened all the way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden fruit, and that then opened up the world, and sin and death entered the picture, and the devil took control, and so now we’ve got God, we’re born again, we’re not of this world, but we’re living in this world, and that sounds confusing, but that is a spiritual truth, we’re not of this world, we’re pilgrims passing through, our home is in heaven, we have a heavenly estate.
04:56 If you’ve been saved, it’s already been done, amen? Christ already died for your sins, you accepted Christ, you’ve already been saved, your name has already been written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life, these things are already in place. The Bible tells us that Christ is up there, going to prepare a mansion for us, he’s already at it, amen.
05:12 He may be done with yours, he may be done with mine, it’s already been done, our place in heaven is secure for an eternity, so what we’re living here is temporary.
05:22 And Paul writes about shedding the mortal for the immortal, right? Getting that resurrected body, getting rid of all of these conditions, I’ve got conditions, I pulled some kind of muscle, I don’t know what I pulled, but it hurts here, there, and everywhere.
05:36 And I did it at the gym, which is not fair, because when you go to the gym, that’s supposed to be good. And I knew it too, I’d been going to the gym for a month or two, I said, man, I haven’t pulled a muscle yet, and then there we go.
05:46 Look, I’m not going to have that pulled muscle in heaven, I’m not going to have these allergies in heaven, I’m not going to have these aches in heaven, I’m not going to have these problems all on and on, and I’m sure mine are not even as bad as yours, but you won’t have those problems in heaven, friend, you’ll be perfect in heaven, I’ll be perfect in heaven.
06:02 What does that mean for earth? That means that it’s temporal, it’s temporary, it’s momentary, it’s momentary. We are in this life for what the Bible calls a vapor, it’s just a little while, it’s like the grass grows up and then is cut and gone, right? That is this life.
06:17 But while we’re in this life, we are in a battle with the tempter, and what does the tempter want to do? Get you off track. He wants to get you off track. How does he do that? He’s very clever, he’s very subtle.
06:30 What did the tempter do to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? He said, eat of this fruit, God surely won’t kill you, you won’t die, you’ll know everything, it’ll be better.
06:40 He was enticing their lust for knowledge and power and whatever else, and that’s what he’s doing today. He hasn’t changed, friend, this isn’t complicated.
06:51 Think about the things that entice you, it’s not a long list. It probably starts with money, everybody’s trying to get a buck, everyone’s trying to make a buck and earn a buck, or somebody wants a buck for free, whatever it is, money. You fill up your tank of gas, you go to the grocery, you say, man, I need some more money.
07:12 Well, what’s the devil going to do? He’s going to give you maybe a way to get money that’s not ethical, and if he could just get you to do that, then you’re getting far off from God.
07:14 You’re not living, you’re not overcoming, you’re not resisting this temptation. So it could be money and putting your security in money and kind of creating an idol out of money.
07:23 It could be sexual desire, whether it be fornication, that’s sex before marriage, whether it be adultery, that’s sex outside of marriage, whether it be homosexuality.
07:30 And that is not God’s design for man and woman. I’m sorry to say that, I know that’s not politically correct, but that’s the Bible truth, amen? God designed marriage between one man and one woman, amen. And the devil wants to pervert the daylights out of that.
07:44 Food, drink, and drugs, that’s gluttony, drunkenness, doing drugs, not being of a sober mind, these are all very awful things. And the Bible refers to drugs, it talks about pharmacopoeia, it talks about mirth, there’s references to drugs in the Bible, and these are all bad, okay.
08:02 And if the devil could just get you numbed up and get you away from God and get you on these drugs, then he’ll more likely be able to steer you away from God. Maybe you’re lusting and enticed by power or having some kind of pride about you, fame, status, vanity.
08:17 All the common denominator here is very simple. The common denominator here is quick gratification. You want to know if you’re being tested by the devil? Are you seeking quick gratification, a quick resolution?
08:30 Are you seeking some kind of pop of happiness, of supposed joy, right? The Bible says there’s pleasure in sin for a season.
08:39 The Bible also says the wages of sin is death. So we see here the devil’s tempting with something that looks desirable but will dispose of you, will not mind if you are killed and ridiculed and far off from God. He would love that.
08:52 If he could, he would kill you, but he can’t, amen? You’ve been bought by the precious blood of Jesus, so all he can do is entice you. And then he wants to go and accuse you before the Father. That’s what he does.
09:02 He’s called the great accuser. He came just to kill, steal, and destroy, amen. He’s the father of all lies. 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.
09:16 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, it’s not of the Father, it’s of the world. These things are not of God, amen. And God’s not asking us to endure these things forever.
09:31 And God tells us in his word that we haven’t been tempted with anything that we can’t withstand, that God hasn’t given us a way out of, that isn’t common to man.
09:37 We’re not tempted in ways that other men aren’t tempted. Jesus Christ himself was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. And if you read that scripture, who brought Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted? He was led by the Spirit, capital S, Holy Spirit.
09:49 You can read about it in Matthew 4. Why would the Holy Spirit, which being the second, well, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, so the third part in the Holy Trinity, why would the Holy Trinity, God, the triune God, the three-in-one God, lead the Son, the second part of the Trinity, out into the wilderness to be tempted?
10:09 Why would he do that? Well, he would do that to help us understand what to do. And what does Jesus do in the wilderness? He quotes scripture three times back to the devil. He doesn’t give in.
10:17 He’s tempted to eat. That’s food. He’s tempted for the angels to bring him down from the temple.
10:21 That’s pride, fame, and status. He’s tempted to be king over all the kingdoms. That’s power.
10:26 He’s tempted of these temporal things. And Jesus Christ is now our ascended Lord. He’s King of kings and Lord of lords.
10:34 So by resisting that temptation, he overcame the devil. He gave us a way and a path forward. And he helps us understand that if we too resist the temptations of the devil, and we too seek the Lord, in this scripture in Matthew 4, right after the devil leaves, the angels came and ministered to him.
10:49 As we too seek the Lord, then we will overcome these temptations of this world, and we will be rewarded in heaven. And that’s really what we’re focusing on here for the next little bit, next few minutes, is the rewards in heaven. The rewards in heaven.
11:04 When you overcome, you get a reward. Jesus overcame. He got a reward.
11:14 Again, he is King of kings and Lord of lords. He’ll be worshiped for all eternity. He is sovereign.
11:18 He is worthy of all our praise for everything that he’s done for us. Most importantly, Calvary’s cross, Revelation 3:21, to him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne.We will sit with Jesus in his throne.
11:28 Jesus overcame, and we have him as our example. Talk about a reward. We are going to rule and reign with Christ.
11:38 This is for the overcomer. To him that overcometh is Revelation 321. That’s the overcomer.
11:44 What are we overcoming? The temptations of this world, the sinful things of this world. Revelation 3:5, he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment or clothing, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. So Jesus Christ will confess our name.
12:03 We won’t be blotted out of the book of life. We’ll be there forever. Our reward is promised.
12:07 There’s a lot of rewards in Revelation 2 and 3 for the overcomer, and I got this list from gotquestions.org, one of my favorite websites to reference. Eat from the tree of life. We get to eat from the tree of life.
12:19 That’s Revelation 2: 7. We are unharmed by the second death. That’s Revelation 2:11. We get to eat from hidden manna and be given a new name.
12:27 That’s Revelation 2:17. We have authority over the nations, ruling and reigning there. That’s Revelation 2:26.
12:33 We’re clothed in white garments. That’s Revelation 3, 5. We are made a permanent pillar in the house of God. That’s Revelation 3:12.
12:42 And again, we will sit on the throne with Jesus. Revelation 3:21.That’s all biblical rewards for the overcomer.
12:50 Luke 1:37, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. You can overcome in this world. You may be discouraged, friend.
12:59 Don’t be discouraged. You can overcome in this world. But to overcome, it takes awareness.
13:03 We can’t be biblically ignorant and expect to overcome. We have to understand what the Bible’s saying. Think about it.
13:09 If you were tempted and you didn’t know you were being tempted, it’s much harder to resist that temptation than when you know you’re being tempted, amen.
13:16 But let’s look at the bigger issue here. The bigger issue is not what we can do. It’s what God can do through us.
13:22 So we need to have the Holy Spirit not grieved, which means we can’t be living in sin. We shouldn’t grieve the Holy Spirit. We need to be repentant before God.
13:31 We need to be spending time with God. And as we spend time with God, we are enriching that Holy Spirit. And then we will have discernment over these temptations because we’ll understand what the devil’s trying to do.
13:46 And we’ll be praying. And by the working of the Holy Spirit, he’ll keep us from those temptations. It is a spiritual battle and it is real.
13:52 Talk to your pastor about temptation and tell me it’s not real. It’s very real. And we must turn to God every day, multiple times a day in repentance of any sin we have in our life, of just prayer and fellowship with him, praise of him, in learning of him through Bible reading, Bible study, going to church, being in the ministry, serving him.
14:12 And as we do these things, he will fully equip us. And I’m standing on the word of God here. He’ll fully equip us to overcome temptation, to be an overcomer and to receive those great rewards as written in the book of Revelation.
14:26 I thank you so much for listening today. Tune in next time. Take care.
14:30 God bless and amen.