Turn with me to the book of Genesis
and Chapter 4.
Genesis, Chapter 4.
Obviously we encourage you to bring your Bible
and to follow as we go through the
Scriptures, and this morning we will be turning
up, looking up quite a few Scriptures.
We have just finished last week the study
as we've gone through the Bible one book
at a time, one book per week, which
took us quite a while.
And so we've begun a new series in
the adult Bible class on the book of
Revelation, and obviously I'm not going to keep
track of that in the Sunday morning.
So Sunday morning meeting we will be simply
ministering those things that the Lord lays on
my heart, and it may not necessarily be,
it may be a shorter series, but there
is no connection, so we're breaking the connection
between the adult Bible class and Sunday morning
from here on until the Lord directs us
otherwise.
I may come back to Genesis, Chapter 4
next week, I'm not sure, but I just
had on my heart to share with you
from Genesis, Chapter 4, and it's the story
of Cain and Abel, and we're going to
read from verse 1 through 15.
Genesis, Chapter 4, verses 1 through 15.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she
conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have
acquired a man from the Lord.
Then she bore again, this time his brother
Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in the process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought an offering of
the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Abel also brought of the firstborn of his
flock, and of their fat.
And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,
but he did not respect Cain and his
offering.
And Cain was very angry, and his countenance
fell.
So the Lord said to Cain, why are
you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?
If you do well, will you not be
accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin
lies at the door, and its desire is
for you, but you should rule over it.
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and
it came to pass, when they were in
the field, that Cain rose up against Abel
his brother and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, where is
Abel your brother?
And he said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood cries out
to me from the ground.
So now you are cursed from the earth,
which has opened its mouth to receive your
brother's blood from your hand.
When you till the ground, it shall no
longer yield its strength to you.
A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be
on the earth.
And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment
is greater than I can bear.
Surely you have driven me out this day
from the face of the ground.
I shall be hidden from your face.
I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond
on the earth, and it will happen that
anyone who finds me will kill me.
And the Lord said to him, therefore, whoever
kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him
sevenfold.
And the Lord set a mark on Cain
that anyone finding him should kill him.
And I want to speak with you from
verse seven.
If you do well, will you not be
accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin
lies at the door and its desire is
for you, but you should rule over it.
And I'm going to focus on that last
part of the verse.
Sin lies at the door and its desire
is for you, but you should rule over
it.
Now you see the picture.
Cain's sacrifice was not accepted because it was
something that he had produced with the works
of the labors of his hand because he
was a tiller of the ground and so
he had labored and produced this crop and
God rejected that offering.
God accepted Abel's offering because it contained blood
and because it was not the labor of
his hands.
The sheep just multiplied and he just offered
that which God had given to him.
And so a very important spiritual principle.
We touched on that last week in a
different context.
And so Cain looks at this and I
don't know how Cain knew or how Abel
knew that God had accepted the one sacrifice
and the other.
There is a tradition and I want you
to just understand that this is not in
the Bible and I don't think that there
is any basis for truth.
But somehow many Christians believe that the way
they knew was that the smoke of the
one sacrifice went straight up to God and
the smoke of the other one went at
an angle.
And when you look at children's Bibles with
pictures in them, you'll see that picture.
You'll see the smoke of the one going
straight up and the other one not going
straight to God.
Now there is nothing that tells us that
that is the way it was.
We don't know.
It just doesn't tell us.
But what we do know is that God
accepted the one sacrifice and he didn't accept
the other.
Now Cain obviously was very angry and it
says his countenance fell.
In other words, he had a long face.
He was unhappy that God had accepted his
brother's sacrifice and not his.
And so he is now at a very
critical time in his life.
He is at a point where he could
do the wrong thing.
Remember that his father had already sinned.
And so sin was a potential.
Sin was a thing that could happen.
And so God says these things to him.
He says, if you do well, will I
not accept you?
In other words, I have no prejudice, God
says.
I'm not prejudiced against you, Cain.
And I have no favorites and Abel is
not my favorite.
If you do the right thing, I will
accept you.
And many Christians feel that God somehow is
against them.
Many people feel that God somehow has chosen
to bless others and not to bless them.
That God somehow picks and chooses who he
wants to bless.
But in fact, God has no favorites.
And over and over the scripture tells us
that he is not a respecter of persons.
God is not interested in whether you are
educated or not educated.
He is not interested in whether you are
of this race group or that ethnic group.
He is not interested in any of those
things.
God does not have any prejudices.
God does not have any favorites.
His blessing is simply based on the fact
that he wants to bless all, that he
wants to save all.
But it depends on you to respond.
And so both of these boys had an
opportunity to offer a sacrifice that God would
find acceptable.
But the one offered the right sacrifice and
the other didn't.
And God simply says to Cain, if you
do well, won't I accept you also?
And so, you know, you say, well, you
know, how come God doesn't bless me?
How come, you know, these things in my...
God can bless you.
You just need to respond to him.
It's as simple as that.
Now, it's not for us to choose, but
it's for us to respond.
And when God speaks to us, we simply
need to respond and say, Lord, I want
your blessing.
Now, he then explains the thing that was
about to happen.
And these words are prophetic.
Because he says, sin is lying at your
door.
Its desire is for you, but you've got
to rule over it.
In other words, sin, and when he uses
that word, is lying at the door.
In other words, it's like an animal, a
lion or a bear or a wolf, lying
outside the door, waiting for you to put
your head out of the door.
And it's going to grab you.
It wants you, he says.
Sin wants you.
And obviously, sin wants you in order to
control you.
But he says, you have to rule over
it.
And I just want to look at those
three little things this morning.
And really, the message is not complicated.
It's simple.
But yet it's an important message that we
often don't understand.
Let's go to the book of James, and
chapter 1.
So now we're going right through to the
end of the Bible.
And just before Revelation, James chapter 1.
And I want you to see the process
that leads to sin.
And God was warning Cain, and he was
saying, Now, very soon you're going to face
this temptation.
The temptation to do the wrong thing.
And sin is going to want you to
do the wrong thing.
Sin is going to want you to kill
your brother.
But you need to decide what you're going
to do about it.
You see, the problem is that there are
too many Christians who feel that they have
no choices.
That I'm made with these desires.
Whatever those desires may be.
Whether it is for drugs, or whether it
is for alcohol, or whether it is for
illicit sex, or whatever it is.
We feel that we have these desires, and
these desires control us.
And we are simply a product of the
sin and the environment in which we find
ourselves.
Now, this is what he is saying.
First of all, he says, sin is there,
and it is a reality.
For us to say that it is not
out there, or that it is not within
us, and that sin is not looking to
control and dominate us, is to be naive
and foolish, and we will certainly be caught
by it.
And so, if you go to a game
reserve in South Africa, we have huge game
reserves.
One of them is bigger than the whole
country of France.
And there are very clear warnings.
You're never to step outside of your car.
You have to stay in the car all
the time.
But every now and then, it comes up
on the news, somebody was killed by a
lion in the game park.
What happened?
They stepped out of the car.
Now, they think, well, you know, it's just
a big pussy cat.
You know, it's just standing there looking all
tired and lazy.
And that's the problem, is that we don't
understand sin is lying at the door.
It's right there.
It's waiting for an opportunity.
And yeah, it looks so innocent.
It just looks so nice.
But in fact, it's waiting to have us,
to control us.
And here's the process.
James gives it to us in James chapter
1 and verse 13.
Let no one say when he is tempted,
I'm tempted by God.
Because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor
does he himself tempt anyone.
So don't blame God.
And I think that Cain was blaming God
in a sense.
He was saying, God, if I kill my
brother, it's your fault.
Because you chose him over me.
No, God is not the cause of sin.
God does not tempt us.
God does not lead us into sin.
And he does not bring us into a
position where we sin.
But here is what happens, verse 14.
Each one is tempted when he is drawn
away by his own desires and enticed.
By his own desires and enticed.
So don't blame God.
In fact, don't even blame the devil.
Because where is the sin?
In fact, the sin is right inside of
us.
One of the fundamentals of our faith is
that we are born in sin.
That we have inherited from Adam a sinful
nature.
Which by nature wants to do the wrong
thing.
And so, we have this problem because we
say, well, I was born this way.
I have an alcoholic gene.
Or my DNA makes me predisposed to addictions.
Or I have a homosexual gene.
I was born like this.
No, he says that we are tempted when
we are drawn away by our own desires.
And so, every one of us has the
potential for sin.
And if you think that that's not a
reality, you've never faced the reality of your
life.
There's not one of us who doesn't have
issues.
There's not one of us who don't have
problems that we have to face up to.
And so, to blame our parents.
Or to blame Adam.
Or to blame society.
Or to blame God.
Or even to blame the devil.
And I agree, the devil is to blame
for a lot of stuff.
No, he says, we are tempted when we
are drawn away by our own desires and
enticed.
And then, when desire has conceived, it gives
birth to sin.
And sin, when it is full grown, brings
forth death.
So, there's the process.
Desire.
But the desire needs to conceive.
Look at the language.
It needs to conceive.
Now, how does something conceive?
Can an egg on its own conceive?
No, it needs to be fertilized.
Then it conceives.
And every one of us has desire for
the wrong things.
We desire power.
We desire money.
We desire sex.
We desire pleasure.
We desire all sorts of stuff.
But if you leave it alone, it's not
going to do very much.
But if you fertilize it, in other words,
you make it grow.
You feed it.
You give it the right kind of environment.
It's going to produce something.
And what is it going to produce?
It's going to produce sin.
Desire in itself is not sin.
Temptation in itself is not sin.
But when I feed it, it results in
sin.
When I fertilize it with what it needs
to become something in my life, it becomes
sin.
And what does sin lead to?
It leads to death.
In Romans 7, verse 8, Paul speaks about
sin-taking opportunity.
Sin-taking opportunity.
Now, I know we're speaking as though sin
is a person.
We know sin is not a person.
But we understand it better when we speak
in terms that we can relate to.
And sin just needs an opportunity.
It just needs an opportunity in our lives.
If you don't give it an opportunity, it
won't cause damage.
But give it an opportunity, and it's going
to grow.
At our house, when we moved into the
house, at the porch in the front, there
was a small shrub growing out of the
concrete.
Right in the crack of the concrete, there
was a shrub, and we had to poison
it to kill it.
How did that shrub come to grow in
the concrete?
Well, it got an opportunity.
The seed got a little gap.
There was a crack in the concrete, in
the cement, and the seed got into that
crack.
I don't know how, but it got an
opportunity, and it began to grow.
And when we give sin a chance or
an opportunity in our lives, it will grow.
And it will produce death.
And so, he says, sin lies at the
door.
So, what do I need to do?
I should not give it a chance.
I must not give it an opportunity.
That's the first thing I need to do.
Unfortunately, too many times you say, well, you
know, I'll just step outside of the motor
car, and I'll just pet this, just rub
the mane of this lion.
You know, I can handle it.
I can run when it begins to look
aggressive.
And we play with sin.
We allow things into our hearts and into
our minds and into our thinking.
And we say, I can handle it.
We don't understand what we're playing with.
What should Cain have done?
Let's get back to the example that we're
dealing with.
What should Cain have done?
He should have sorted out his attitude before
he faced his brother.
But the moment he met his brother out
there in the field, and there was nobody
around, and he had fed the anger.
You see, obviously he didn't have the New
Testament.
What does the New Testament say he should
have done?
He should not have allowed the sun to
set on his wrath.
Now, if he had done that, the next
time he saw his brother, there would not
have been an issue.
There would not have been a temptation.
But he was feeding and fueling his anger.
And the same way we feed and fuel
the sin in our lives, the evil thoughts,
and then when the opportunity is there and
there's nobody around, we do what we shouldn't
be doing.
So, sin is at the door.
And what it wants to do is its
desire is for you.
It wants you.
Sin wants you.
Sin wants to control you.
Sin wants to dominate you.
Sin wants to be your master.
Sin has no desire to help you, to
bless you, to encourage you, to strengthen you.
Sin has only one agenda, and that is
to control us.
And Peter, while you're in the book of
James, Peter is close by, a couple of
pages further on, 2 Peter chapter 2 and
verse 19.
2 Peter chapter 2 verse 19.
He's speaking about false teachers, but you'll find
a principle that applies to sin also.
Verse 19.
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are
slaves of corruption, for by whom a person
is overcome, by him also he is brought
into bondage.
Now, that's not...
Remember in Sunday school we said that there
are levels of interpretation.
The first thing that he is speaking about
here is false teachers.
But you can see a certain principle which
applies to sin also.
And what does it do?
It promises liberty to begin with.
Wasn't that what Satan said to Eve?
If you just eat the tree, you'll be
just like God.
It makes promises.
Oh, you'll be so wise.
You'll be so happy.
You'll have such a fun time.
All these promises.
But then what happens?
They themselves are slaves of corruption, because by
whom a person is overcome, by him also
he is brought into bondage.
And so instead of sin offering liberty, what
it actually does is it brings enslavement and
bondage.
And that's exactly what we see happening in
the time in which we're living.
In my generation, we had the hippies, and
the time of free love, and of liberty,
and of no rules.
And now what we're seeing is the results
of that whole mindset.
And in fact, we have a society today
as a result of that mindset of saying
that we'll be free, which is enslaved to
licentiousness, to immorality, to all of the stuff
of this world.
It doesn't bring freedom.
Sin doesn't.
It makes all the promises.
But in fact, what it's going to do
is it's going to bring you into bondage.
By whom a person is overcome, by him
also he is brought into bondage.
Sin wants to control us.
Sin is never happy.
And again, I'm just speaking of it in
personal terms.
Sin is never happy just to be there
in your life.
You know, just to occupy some little space,
somewhere like an ornament.
We all have ornaments in our houses.
What do they do?
Nothing, they collect dust.
But they're just there.
Sin is not happy just to be there
in your life.
It wants to have control.
It wants to overcome you.
It wants to control you.
It wants to dominate you.
It wants to be your master.
Never be fooled into believing that you can
just have sin like an ornament.
It can just be there in the corner
of my life and it's never going to
become anything more than that.
It's looking for an opportunity.
Its desire is for you.
It wants to control you.
But what does he say?
What is God's advice to Cain?
You shall or must rule over it.
You must rule over it.
Now, that's the good news.
I've just given you the bad news.
The bad news is sin is real.
Sin wants you.
And sin wants to control and dominate you.
But the good news is you must rule
over it.
Now remember, when God tells us to do
something, it is a possibility.
It is something that can be done.
God does not tell us to do things
that are impossible.
That would make God unjust and unfair and
unrighteous.
And God is not that way.
And so when God tells us to do
things, those things are doable.
They are things that are possible for us
to do.
And it must have been possible.
I understand we're speaking about the Old Testament,
we're speaking before the cross, before the resurrection,
before Jesus, and all of those things.
But the fact that God says to Cain
that you should rule over it meant that
it was possible for Cain, within the limited
means that he had, to actually overcome this
problem.
But what did he do?
He chose not to.
He chose to allow sin to control him
and to dominate him.
And so, here's the message.
As Christians, our responsibility is to rule over
sin.
You see, I'm concerned that there are so
many Christians, never mind unbelievers, there are so
many Christians who are saying that's just the
way I am.
I was born with a temper.
I was born with these desires.
I have this gene.
I have this in my DNA.
No, you must overcome it.
You must rule over it.
Don't allow your evil, carnal, fleshly human nature
to rule over you.
Don't allow your habits to control you.
Don't allow your desires to control you.
You need to rule over it.
Now, God was speaking to a man, as
I said, in the Old Testament, before Jesus,
before the cross.
And He said, Sin is lying at the
door, the desire is for you, but you
should rule over it.
Now, if that was true for Cain, that
Cain could rule over the sin in his
life, that he could have the victory.
If that was true for Cain, how much
more is that not true for us in
the New Testament?
And so, if Cain had no excuse when
he killed his brother, then we have no
excuse.
We have even less excuse to say, Sin
made me do it.
My carnal nature made me do it.
No, we can have the victory.
And we go right forward to the New
Testament, and remember in Matthew 1, verse 21,
the angel speaks to the parents of Jesus
and says, You will call His name Jesus.
Why?
What does it mean?
Because He will save His people from their
sins.
You will call Him Jesus because He will
save His people from their sins.
And we've spoken about this before, but let
me remind you.
He does not say, You will call Him
Jesus because He will save His people from
hell.
That's what we mean when we say, I'm
saved today.
What do we mean?
You're saved.
I'm saved from hell.
I'm saved from the judgment of God.
But His name shall be Jesus, not because
He will save you from hell, but because
He will save His people from their sins.
And when He says save them from their
sins, it means save them out of their
sins.
That's what Jesus came to do.
He came to set us free from the
bondage of sin and of death.
And yes, hell is part of the deal,
but hell is simply a consequence of the
real issue.
Yes, He does save us from hell, but
not take us out of hell, but deal
with the problem.
The problem is sin.
And so He will save His people from
their sins.
That's the wonderful thing that Jesus came to
do, was to deal with the issue of
sin.
And so when we as Christians are constantly
find ourselves under the control and the domination
of sin, and sin overcoming us, instead of
we overcoming sin, we're denying what Jesus came
to do.
Jesus came to set us free.
Jesus came to deliver us.
Not from the Romans or from some political
system, but to deliver us from the domination
and the power of sin.
And Paul writes in Romans 6, verse 14,
and he says, Sin shall not have dominion
over you.
Now, go back to what God said to
Cain.
Sin lies at this door.
Its desire is for you.
It wants to control you.
But Paul says, Sin will not rule over
us.
So what are we going to do?
Are we going to allow sin to control
us?
Are you going to continue to allow those
thoughts, that habit, that lifestyle, to control you?
Or are you going to have control over
it?
Now, folks, I don't want you to think
that I'm thinking or I'm saying that this
is easy.
We're talking about a war here.
The terms that God uses in speaking to
Cain are terms of war.
Its desire is for you.
It wants to have you.
It wants to consume you.
But you must rule over it.
And the word rule is the word that
is used when a conqueror conquers another country
and with force and with vigor and with
rigor controls that country and keeps it in
subjection to himself.
Those are the words he's using.
Our control over sin does not come by
mediation or by a peace talk process.
Let's sit down and let's come to some
kind of compromise and let's find some kind
of agreement here.
The language that he is using is the
language of domination.
And the only way we can deal with
sin is by dominating it, by putting it
under and by bringing it into subjection.
And so sin shall not have dominion over
you.
In 1 John chapter 4, and I'm not
sure where you are in the Bible now,
but if you were in Peter, then 1
John chapter 4.
And in fact, John uses this term a
number of times in his epistles.
And let's just go back one step.
Let's go to 1 John chapter 1.
Verse 13.
He says, I write to you fathers because
you have known Him who is from the
beginning.
I write to you young men because you
have overcome the wicked one.
And now in chapter 4, in verse 4,
he says, You are of God little children
and have overcome them because He who is
in you is greater than he who is
in the world.
That is something that Cain did not have.
And yet it is no excuse.
Cain has to get control.
And yet we are in that far better
position because we have someone in us, and
I'm speaking to Christians, we have someone in
us who is greater than the devil, who
is greater than the sin, who is greater
than the temptation, and who empowers us, and
who has come with a specific purpose and
that is to set us free from sin.
And so now it's two against one, and
again I'm speaking in personal terms.
Maybe for Cain it was one on one,
him and the sin.
But you know what, for you and me,
we have an advantage because it's not just
you against that issue that you're struggling with,
but it's you and Jesus against that issue.
And we may say, well, you know, I'm
weak, and I think that this thing is
bigger than me.
To speak American, it's got me beat.
This thing is more than I can handle.
Well, first of all, I don't believe that
it is more than you can handle.
That's what Cain said, I just had to
do it.
God said, no, you have to rule over
it.
So firstly, we are, I believe we can
overcome it.
And yet we understand that these issues are
so deep seated and so rooted in our
lives and into our thinking and so much
part of us that it is almost impossible.
But you see, we leave out of the
equation the fact that we have someone in
us who is far greater than any issue
that you are facing.
Greater is he that is in us than
he who is against us.
Greater is he that is in us than
the temptation, than the power of the sin,
than the bondage.
Now, I also know that there are many
Christians who are looking for an easy answer.
And I need to just address this on
a sidebar.
Some kind of just hoping that, you know,
if somebody will just pray for me and
deliver me.
And I understand and I believe that there
are times that God does instantly deliver people
of whatever it was that they were bound
by.
But I also understand that this is not
the way it is for everybody.
And in fact, the majority of us have
to struggle with these things.
And we may even find that we have
this instant, wonderful, miraculous deliverance in one area
in our lives and yet there are other
areas in which we don't get it.
The fact is that there is not one
of us here this morning who does not
have to wage this war.
We have to fight this battle.
And John says that if we say that
we are without sin, we make God a
liar.
And the truth is not in us.
So if you've been sitting here this morning
and you're saying, well, preacher, you know, this
is not for me.
Well, you just made God a liar.
Because we all have a problem with sin.
And the word I use is a problem.
It's a problem.
And the only way we can deal with
it is to fight it.
But we're not fighting it alone.
Because we have one in us who is
greater than that sin.
And we have He who is in us
has overcome the sin.
And remember, He was tempted, the scripture says
in Hebrews, in every point like as we
are, yet without sin.
So Jesus was able to overcome.
And maybe you weren't there when we dealt
with this, I think, on a Sunday evening.
But, you know, there is...
Many of us think, well, you know, Jesus
could not have been tempted to the same
degree that I am tempted.
You know, it was easy for Him, you
know, He just said, it is written and
the devil left Him.
But that wasn't the full extent of His
temptation in the wilderness.
He was again tempted, remember it says, the
devil left Him to come again at another
more opportune time.
And that more opportune time was in the
garden of Gethsemane.
And in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wrestles
with the issue of sin.
Now the sin that He was wrestling with
in Gethsemane wasn't alcohol or materialism or...
It was simply doing the will of God.
And you boil down any kind of sin,
it all comes down to this one issue.
Doing or not doing the will of God.
That's all it is.
That's what sin is.
And Jesus wrestled with such an issue that
eventually the blood vessels on His forehead burst.
But He didn't give in.
He didn't give in.
He overcame.
And that's why the writer to Hebrews says
that you have not yet resisted to blood
in striving against sin.
Because we just give in so easily.
Sometimes the thought pops into our head and
instantly we just do it.
There isn't even a struggle.
We just capitulate.
But Jesus overcame.
And He is in us.
And then John writes in the book of
Revelation to these seven churches which we're going
to be studying in the next few weeks
again.
And to every one of those seven churches
He says to Him who overcomes.
And He makes a promise.
I will give you a name.
I will give you a crown.
I will do this, I will do that.
To Him who overcomes.
We need to be overcomers.
Now, we use that term and people say,
well, you know, I want to be an
overcomer.
I want to overcome the devil.
I want to overcome the world.
You need to begin to overcome the issues
in your own heart and your own mind.
That's where the battle begins.
How are you going to overcome the devil
if you can't even overcome the sin in
your life?
I'm amazed by these Christians who want to
fight spiritual war and go do battle in
the heavenlies and fight the devil and fight
these demons when they haven't even dealt with
the sin in their own lives.
If you can't win the small battles, how
are you going to win the war?
We can overcome.
He has come to empower us.
He's come to break the power of sin.
He's come to set us free.
He's come to give us a new ability
and place within us a new heart and
a new desire.
We can overcome.
Don't allow the devil and sin to win
the war on the propaganda front.
Many wars and a part of warfare today
or has been for a long time has
been the psychological part of the war.
And in the Second World War, I think
that this was raised to new heights when
both forces, the Allied forces and the German
forces had radio stations, they had printing presses
that were spewing out all the propaganda, you're
losing the war, we're winning.
And many times those, that propaganda has a
profound effect on the morale and the ability
of the opposing force to fight the battle
and to win or to lose.
It's just part of warfare today.
I suppose it's always been.
And you know, part of the spiritual war
that we fight within our own hearts and
our own minds is a propaganda war.
And unfortunately, many of us believe the propaganda
of the devil and the propaganda of sin
that tells us that we can't win, that
we can't get the victory, that we're losers.
Don't believe the devil's propaganda.
Don't believe sin's lies.
Believe the Word of God when it says
that we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us.
That greater is He that is in us
than He that is against us or He
that is in the world.
That Jesus came to set us free.
That He has broken the power of the
devil.
That He's broken the power of sin within
our lives.
Don't lose the war even before you've begun
to fight it because you believe the lies
of the enemy.
Believe the Word of God.
We can win.
And I don't care how long that thing
has controlled you.
I don't care how long it's been an
issue in your life.
It may have been 10 years, 20 years,
30 years, 50 years.
You can win.
You can overcome it.
You can be more than a conqueror.
And you can stand before Him on that
day with those who have overcome to Him
who overcomes.
Sin is lying at your door and its
desire is for you.
But you must rule over it.
Father, we pray that you'd help us to
translate this from the realm of theory to
the realm of reality in our lives.
Forgive us, Lord, for giving in so easily.
Forgive us, Lord, for living lives of defeat.
And forgive us, Lord, for believing that we
can't win even before we've even begun the
battle.
Help us, Lord, to believe Your Word and
to believe that we can have the victory.
That we can be more than conquerors.
That we should control and dominate sin within
our lives.
And yes, Lord, we will never be perfect
until Jesus comes.
But in the meantime, Lord, we want to
be winning the battles so that ultimately we
can win the war.
And so, Lord, give us victory.
Help us to believe Your Word.
Help us, Lord, not to capitulate and to
give in to sin.
But help us, Lord, to bring it under
subjection and to bring it under control and
to bring every thought into the captivity, to
the obedience of the Word and of Christ.
Help us in these things, we pray in
Jesus' name.
And Father, as we come to Your table,
we pray that we'd come not feeling condemned,
but Lord, if You've spoken to us this
morning, help us, Lord, to just make right
with You right now, to confess our sin
and to receive the forgiveness that You offer
to us.
Lord, to make a resolution that we will
go from here and sin no more.
Lord, we pray that as we come to
Your table, we may come not looking and
not recognizing so much the failure on our
part, but that we may recognize the victory
that Jesus gained at that cross of Calvary,
that we might overcome, even as He has
overcome and sat down at the right hand
of the Majesty on high.
And so, Lord, for those who believe us
now and choose not to be with us
at this occasion, we pray that You'd go
with them, keep them and protect them.
We ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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