Overcome Not Blend 1 John 5:2-5 1 John 2:15-17 James 4:4-6 Genesis 14:21-24 James 1:27 Romans 12:2 Matthew 24:9-14 John 16:33 10.05.20

 

OVERCOME NOT BLEND

BREAD

² This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³ This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  1 John 5:2-5 (NIV)

 

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)

 

⁴ You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  James 4:4-6 (NIV)

 

²¹ The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath ²³ that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ ²⁴ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me--to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share.”  Genesis 14:21-24 (NIV)

 

²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27 (NIV)

 

² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Romans 12:2 (NIV)

 

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”    Matthew 24:9-14 (NIV)

 

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

 

“Is not God also willing to give us victory as the saints from the past who by faith trampled the world’s pomp and glory, subdued temptations, stopped the mouths of lionlike lusts as did Abraham, Moses and other worthies?  Does not the same blood and spirit run in the veins of all believers?  Will they be victorious but I only a slave to corruption?  O my soul, prove yourself like these holy men by your victory over the world.  Go and touch Christ by faith that virtue may flow from Him to your soul and quench the fiery darts of temptation.”  William Gurnall

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this, and could not contradict him, but they sneered at him.  Let us consider this as their sin, and the fruit of their covetousness, which was their primary sin.  Many who make a great profession of religion and abound in the exercise of devotion, are yet ruined by the love of the world.  These covetous Pharisees could not bear to have that touched, which was their Delilah, their darling lust; for this they derided him, they turned up their noses at him, or blew their noses on him.  It is an expression of the utmost scorn and disdain imaginable.  They laughed at him for going so contrary to the opinion and way of the world.  It is common for those to make a joke of the word of God who are resolved that they will not be ruled by it.”  Matthew Henry

 

“Confidence in the natural world is self-reliance; in the spiritual world it is God-reliance.”  Oswald Chambers

“Nothing in this created world has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts.”  John Piper

“Faith remembers to Whom it belongs.  God is our supreme Lord.  Faith realizes that all of the world’s pomp cannot satisfy.  The world will beget a thousand cares and fears, but cannot quiet any of them.”  William Gurnall   

“What is ‘good’?  Just as Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is Truth?’ while all the while looking straight at Truth Incarnate, we as humans often misconstrue ‘What is good?’ and end up missing out on God’s best by ‘kicking against the goads’ and not walking in His ways.  We so often buy into what the world believes as good.  Do we believe it’s all about more – More clothes in the closet?  More comforts in the den?  More money in the bank?  More health in the body?  More buildings, marquees, publications or whatever’s  bearing our names?  More children in the home?  And on and on and on it goes.  ‘Good’ is not merely ‘wants.  ‘Good’ can be as varied as the people who populate this dusty earth.  Simply put, ‘good’ is always God’s best for a life.  The Maker of all humankind has a plan for each life and our best is always to walk in it – be it ever so hard.  His will is revealed in a myriad of ways from His Word, from the Holy Spirit’s promptings Who indwells every true believer in Christ, from prayer and petition with thanksgiving, from fellow sojourners – why God can even use a donkey or a great big fish!  And believe me, you always want to be in the center of His will as it is good and pleasing and perfect.  Don’t fight against God’s best because it is hard.  Allow Him to conform you to the image of Christ.  We are the ultimate losers if we don’t.  It is the life of true blessedness.”  BHY

“Oh that I may be roused out of my slumber, and be watchful and ready against the coming of my Bridegroom...Even the wise virgins fell asleep.  Let this be a warning to me, O Lord.  Set thou a guard before my eyes, ears, and other faculties, lest the world again should enter through these avenues of the heart; if the spark be not speedily extinguished, it will soon break out into a flame:  thus sin is of a progressive nature, and its venom spreads very quickly and very wide, unless it be stopped and opposed in time.  Watch, therefore, over this unsteady heart of mine, O Thou Keeper of Israel; that as soon as it begins to wander from Thee, I may be alarmed to flee from sin as from a serpent.  Give me grace to look upon every hour as my last; so that being ever wisely upon my guard I may meet Thee with joy when my time is run out, whenever it shall please Thee to call me hence.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

“The world appears very little to a soul that contemplates the greatness of God.”  Brother Lawrence

“This world and that to come are two enemies.  We cannot therefore be friends to both.”  Clement of Rome

“If you want to make an impact for Christ, you cannot blend with the world.”  BHY

“Do not let the false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.”  Clare of Assisi

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”    C.S. Lewis

HEART SAVOR

• ·         Our faith in Jesus is the victory that overcomes the world.
• ·         Jesus has overcome the world.
• ·         I am not to be conformed to the pattern of this world rather daily transformed by the Word of God.