.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

OVERCOMING ME

by Sam Bowles, Associate Pastor, 10/15/08 p.m.

            James 4: 7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  Simply resisting doesn’t get the devil to flee.  We MUST submit to God first. 

            First thing in the morning we should let Jesus come into our heart and mind and soul before our thoughts turn to the things of the day, because overcoming can be difficult. 

            In Colossians 2:6 speaks to saved people and it says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

            Recently I saw the exposed root system of a tree as it intertwined with other trees’ roots.  Our roots should be intertwined like that in Jesus, not entangled with the things of this world.

            If I am rooted deep in Jesus, the wind may blow, but I will not break off.  I am rooted and built up in Him by prayer, fasting, and getting in the Word of God daily. 

            A dry season makes a tree suffer, but as long as a tree stands, rain will come.  Remain upright and established in the faith as you have been taught!  If you stumble, don’t stay defeated.

            We should abound with thanksgiving.  What holds our hands down?  Is the weight so heavy that we cannot praise the Lord?  Some say, “I don’t want to be a hypocrite, because I don’t feel like raising my hands.”  I’ve heard that and done that.  I repented. 

            Colossians 2:8 says, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”  John 10:10 says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. . . .”  The enemy will spoil you and give you a fleshly joy that is so entertaining you think it is too good not to be God. 

            People have come up with other ways to “believe” that make it easier.  I was brought up in the “once saved always saved” doctrine.  That takes the pressure off your daily living, because you just live however you want.  They say, “No man can snatch you from the hands of God.”  I was spoiled to that. 

            We like being spoiled.  I could live however I wanted and not worry about consequences!  It was a doctrine developed by man that made it easier to get to heaven.  I didn’t have to pray or read my Bible every day.  HOWEVER, when I read the Bible, I found out I had been taught after the “. . . tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” 

            Speaking of Christ, Colossians 2:12 says, “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

            If it is buried, it ought to be dead, not still alive.  You are supposed to be buried WITH Christ.  Being buried with Jesus Christ identifies you with Him.  It is impossible to be identified with Jesus and the world at the same time.  You have to bury the sins of your past, by allowing the blood of Jesus to wash them away. 

            I buried a dead dog one time.  I buried it deep, but another dog went and dug it up!  Dead stuff stinks, and so do our sins!  Anything just covered by us can be UNcovered, and the devil will scratch and dig and find our sin.  After Jesus has washed us clean in His blood, we need the baptism of the Holy Ghost of Acts, Chapter 2.  It was seen as flames setting on the heads of the disciples.     

            As I studied this I cried, “Lord, do you see your Son in me, or do you see my sins and the things I’ve refused to get rid of in my life?”  Does He see me trying to draw nigh to Him, or am I trying to skip the cleansing and burial part, finding an easier way?  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man. . . .”

            Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

            What can rock your world?  What moves you?  One man recently killed himself and all of his family because of the falling stock market!  His affection was set on the wrong thing, and now he is in hell. 

            When you are thankful, and you praise God when you are frustrated, worldly things won’t affect you.  Your affection is on God, He will move for you, and frustration will leave. 

            What drives you nuts?  What keeps you from receiving the blessing of God?  What keeps you from crucifying the flesh?  Your affection is set on the wrong thing.  You have to change it.  If anything can move you, it had better be the things of God! 

            The Word of God tells me that everything I can see will someday be destroyed by fire (see 2 Peter 3:10).   Look around!  If I can’t overcome ME now, how am I going to handle what is coming?  What if tomorrow I try to buy food or gas and my money is no good?  If you are not an overcomer for Jesus, you will bow the knee to the man of sin who is coming. 

            Colossians 3:3 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  If you have not been crucified and buried with Christ, you are not hid with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:5 says to, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:” 

            The devil is looking for an opening in our lives, whether it is in the mind, the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the working of the hands, or elsewhere.  If we are hid in Christ, he can look, but he won’t find! 

            Read Ephesians, Chapter 6, about the armor God has for us.  When we put it on, the devil has to retreat, because God is in charge. 

     I have to overcome ME.  You have to overcome YOU.  Colossians told us to kill out sin in ourselves.  Then it told how we used to walk in disobedience, but we are renewed in Christ!  Verse 11 says,

“. . . Christ is all. . . .”

            Sometimes God shows us things about ourselves that are hard to believe.  If we don’t listen to Him, He will use people to show us.

            We have to overcome!  I must overcome ME!