-Transcript-
00:40 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:48 Welcome to the cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Today we are focusing on the overcoming life and this is going to be a multi-part series on the overcoming life.
00:59 Have you ever heard a Christian refer to themselves or other Christians as a overcomer? Have you ever been told if you believe in the Lord you’ll be the overcomer or an overcomer?
01:14 What exactly does that mean? You know there’s been a few moments lately in my Christian walk where I have seen a glimpse of this overcoming life. The first would be we were showing a video especially to our young people who are caught up in this school system that’s promoting what’s a grave sin in the eyes of the Lord and that’s homosexuality.
01:39 And American Family Association made a DVD they made a movie called In His Image which is a fantastic movie and it helps people understand what’s really going on and it interviews people that have dealt with this issue both in the fact that they were had tried to transition into a different gender and then transition back and all these other things they try to deal with this issue.
02:03 And many preachers as well giving commentary on what’s going on and a lot of Bible verses and it’s great to help us get context of what’s really happening in this world in a biblical sense.
02:17 So that’s a free plug for In His Image which is not sponsoring this episode. I think you can find it online if you search up In His Image or on YouTube I think they have it there.
02:26 But look at American Family Association great piece of work they did there and at the end of that movie they have this imagery this scene of a young lady climbing up some rocks climbing up a mountain and it’s like she’s overcoming these obstacles that were in her way.
02:43 Pilgrim’s Progress they’re obviously an incredible book and there’s a scene there in the book which we watched our young kids watched as an animated picture. And in Pilgrim’s Progress he’s got all these burdens on his back and he’s climbing up these steps and he’s able to give kind of release these burdens as he goes off into heaven to be with the Lord.
03:07 And this both of these kind of scenes or sets of images they’re what they are they’re pictures of overcoming of being an overcomer. And I listened to an audio book by D.L. Moody called The Overcoming Life which dealt with a lot of biblical principles on this and all of this together.
03:25 I just kept saying to myself Lord please I guess I’m saying it to myself and maybe I’m praying it to God I was definitely praying to God please allow me to preach on the overcoming life.
03:36 And so about 10, 12, 14 days ago Lord kind of gave me the green light to tackle this topic and boy do I have a message for you this could be a longer KJV Cafe episodes or more because there’s so much to it and I thank my congregation for being so diligent as I preached it this past weekend and I thank you for tuning in today and I pray that you’ll tune in each and every time KJV Cafe is on for the next week or two at least to dial in on this message because you won’t want to miss it.
04:11 So let’s dive in right and it’s kind of a long intro but let’s dive in right there to what it means to be an overcomer what it means to live this overcoming life what it actually means to be climbing up that mountain and ascending that mountain or however you want to say it shedding your burdens and going into heaven what this all means
04:25 let’s start here with our text verse 1 John 5:4 ,1 John 5:4 for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory thatovercometh the world even our faith
04:39 and so we see here whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and there’s a lot more verses in the Bible about overcoming and we have to look at what are we overcoming isn’t that a great place to start
04:53 if we’re overcoming something what is it that we’re overcoming so let’s set the scene there is a battle that we need to overcome and that battle is raging each and every day
05:05 and it’s an obstacle and where the battle is taking place it’s taking a place in this world and the battleground here is marred with enemies from the devil who is called the little g-god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4 for the devil when I we went through this with our congregation when did the devil get control of the world in the Garden of Eden when they he beguiled Adam and Eve to sin they ate of the forbidden fruit they sinned and from that point on they’re expelled from the garden sin and death enter the picture and now we have the battle taking place
05:40 so the battleground is this world the one we’re fighting against is the devil these principalities not people the tempter of this world so what is the war against I mean we talk about overcoming well what are we overcoming the war is against the temptations of this world it is the spirit or the Holy Spirit first the flesh and the things of the flesh it is the old man the old Adam verse the new man or the new Adam or the last Adam in Christ
06:07 and we see here that this is a battle that’s taking place every single day and it’s taking place among Christians because if in fact you’re not born again well what are you doing if you’re not born again you need to be born again to get saved
06:22 and once you’re saved then you become a Christian then you become one of God’s own and then this conflict really starts to take place because those that are not born again they are what they’re dead to sin so they’re living spiritually dead
06:33 they’re living in bondage to sin they may not understand that right now but clearly they are and when we’re born again we’re born to new life and old things are to pass away
06:46 and all things are to become new but sometimes they don’t pass away and sometimes all things don’t become new and that old man comes back out and the temptations of this world get the best of us and that’s why in the in his image movie from American Family Association it really dealt with this narrative of overcoming because there’s a temptation when it comes to homosexuality
07:05 when people say I have a desire that that just been in me well I don’t doubt that they have a desire that’s in them I have a desire that’s in me right we all have desires we all have lusts we all have things we really crave for in the flesh
07:19 and the idea of overcoming is sacrificing that gratification for the greater good which is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and our reward in heaven and it’s as simple as that you know when we look at what are we tempted by it’s typically one of a few categories
07:39 now this may not be all the categories but these are some of the major categories that tempt us in this world as we battle money insecurity money not is not inherently bad amen there are rich people in the Bible that serve the Lord and there was also many poor people that did so money is not always bad but the love of money is evil
07:58 so money and security the idea that money becomes your God and you bow down to money because you believe money is going to promise you to do all the things that God can do the only difference is money is a dumb idol money cannot do those things Proverbs talks about how riches come and they grow wings and fly away
08:15 and that’s a great way to put it amen if you’re a preacher you’re in the ministry then hey you know what I’m talking about you’re like what money we don’t have any money hey I get it amen
08:23 money security people put their faith in money or they’re tempted by money to do things for money and we can go on and on about what that means yes you could use an example of like oh I’m running to the casino to try to make a bunch of money that wasn’t mine right
08:40 and and you’re not earning that money you’re just gambling it away and there’s no that’s a whole other message on why gambling is not good and not godly amen but it’s not gambling necessarily alone
08:52 but it could just simply be taking a job the Lord wants you to take it could be taking a shift at work on a Sunday when you should be going to church or spending time with your family after church
09:00 it could be worrying about money all the time when God never intended for you to do it it could be materialism and coveting the things that others have and getting yoked up into the things of this world
09:11 and being upset about it and which communicates to God that you’re not satisfied with where he puts you or what he has you doing or what he’s blessed you with being ungrateful
09:27 you know our teenager when he was I think in eighth grade or he had a phone he had the old phone the old iPhone and everyone had the new one and he kept complaining about I looked at him I said excuse me you should be thanking me for having a phone amen
09:36 oh they have all the new ones well you have a phone do you not would you not like that phone okay you don’t like that phone maybe we don’t need a phone it’s funny to me it wasn’t funny to him and since then he saved his pennies and upgraded his his technology
09:51 but hey look the the point is people will covet money will become an idol these things will tempt you to do things that are not godly sexual desires I already spoke about that with homosexuality another one be fornication sexual relations outside of marriage
10:07 so many young people today are shacking up and they think it’s okay they think it’s culturally acceptable it’s not okay in God’s eyes how much scripture is there about fornication you know the Bible says that when you commit fornication all these other sins are against another
10:22 but when you commit fornication you’re actually sinning against your own flesh your own body it’s a very serious thing so sexual desire is like fornication which the world tries to tell us is okay when it’s not homosexuality or adultery
10:35 and and we see that even in the church it’s so sad we see adultery and that is is really really a reprehensible sin amen and it’s not right with God and it’s not okay even if all the TV shows in the world or all the movies or all the apps say it’s okay it’s not amen
10:51 so we’re tempted by sexual desires we’re even tempted by food amen and this one hits close to home you know we’re tempted by the buffet line right we’re tempted to eat one preacher was up there preaching about gluttony the other day at the camp meeting at the revival meeting and he said uh have you ever eaten until you’ve grown up and I was thinking whoa man
11:12 I mean I’ve eaten till I felt sick before and so look that’s a temptation is it not to eat more than we should and let’s take this a step further how about drinking more than we should how about doing drugs and again looking for these worldly gratifications
11:25 these temptations we face in the world power would be another temptation oh how intoxicating it can be to be in power and many desire to be in power many that are in power become corrupt
11:39 and there’s a lot of especially in the Proverbs a lot of scripture about not taking a gift amen and about how it’s not good to be corrupt amen it’s better to be poor than to be corrupt
11:50 and yet there’s corruption reigning throughout many powerful offices here today around the world and then finally pride or fame or status which is like vanity many desire to have their name lifted up
11:59 many want to have a claim many don’t want to give God the glory many are ashamed to mention the name of Christ and want all the glory for themselves and so all of this is what we are dealing with in this world
12:13 the common denominator here is things in this life that bring forth quick at gratification in this world you know none of these things carry on to heaven do they none of them do none of these things carry on to heaven or hell
12:25 for that matter but they’re here on earth and they’re all so valued here on earth and people crave after these things and if you’re dealing with a temptation today that the devil is put before you typically it’s gonna fall into one of these buckets money sexual desire food drink and drugs power or pride fame and status vanity
12:44 typically it’s gonna fall into that and I’ve got a biblical example coming up on the next episode how we look at how the devil tempted Jesus three times in the wilderness and what he did tempt Jesus and how Jesus responded and how it helps us to understand how we should respond
12:58 but just here to wrap up the very first message in this series of being an overcomer understand that the more knowledge you have on this situation from the Bible the better you will be off to tackle it doesn’t that make sense I mean if you were to go through a maze wouldn’t you want to have some information about that maze before you entered in the maze if you were to go for a long road trip wouldn’t you like to have directions before you take that trip why on earth do we leave our Bible on the corner of the bookshelf or in the car and we don’t look at it we leave it at the church pew all week we don’t look at it and then we get upset when we get tempted by the devil we don’t know what to do
13:29 we need to get into God’s Word study his word to show ourselves approved unto God rightly dividing the word of truth being not ashamed of it amen and we need to stand on God’s Word
13:43 and stand firm in the face of temptation and be that overcomer by the working of the Holy Spirit in us so that we can show the world that we are different that we are peculiar
13:53 that we won’t eat of the king’s meat we won’t do what all these other people are doing because we are of God and our treasure is not in this world but in heaven
13:59 so please please please tune in next time check out KJV cafe comm or facebook.com forward slash KJV cafe for more episodes
14:11 but tune in next time as we dive into this message the series of messages I thank you so much for listening take care God bless and amen