The Enemy of the Soul: The Overcoming Life

well hello everybody and welcome once again to cac's wednesday night study i'm so excited that you're here thank you so much for joining with us here at cornerstone to look into the word of the lord draw closer to him and become what he wants us to be um thrilled that you're here get your bible out your notepad we're going to look into the word of the lord one more time in this series of the enemy of the soul and we're going to finish that one this evening so pray as we get started lord jesus we love you thank you for grace and goodness and mercy and love for the opportunity to have your word and your joy and peace and our hearts and our lives thank you for that for our relationship every day we can grow with you and mature i love you lord bless our time together in this study give us wisdom knowledge and understanding help us lord to know more about you and to become what you want us to be in jesus name i pray for all of us tonight amen all right as i just mentioned we have been talking about the enemy of the soul a few weeks ago we started this series with the first enemy that we discussed was the flesh that's your desire and your flesh your carnality the things that you do and want to do and so forth the constant battle between the flesh side and the spiritual side okay then we following week we moved on to the uh enemy of the soul that's the world it's the place where you live it's where i live it's in those things around us and how the opposition and things come against us in the world in the present culture in which we live and the way to overcome that and so forth so that we're not destroyed in the midst of the generation which we live the last week we were talking about the enemy of the soul being the devil himself satan buffeting pushing trying to shove you aside uh lying to us cheating to us and and everything that what happened in our happens in our world in our lives daily um so we understand those principles of of the flesh the world and the satan himself so to conclude this series tonight i want to talk about how that the saint how that the believer those that are following and hungry for the things that god how that you and i can be strong enough to overcome those three things that are trying to destroy us all right now there are several things that govern our lives that govern how we live and so forth i want to begin tonight with this lesson john chapter 10 verse number 10 tells us simply this uh the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy this is read letters in your king james version i am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly okay god wants us to to live a full life all right even with our flesh problems the world problems and devil trying to do the daily living you and i have what we have opportunity to live is an abundant full life okay that's only going to come in jesus christ through him now the enemy is trying to destroy us he's doing things the world is against us if you will satan of course is trying to get our flesh to respond but the lord jesus wants us to have life abundant that comes through a relationship with him knowing that we base our relationship on the word of god we base our relationship on our experiences in in being children of god through prayer time through spending time with others through submitting to the authority in the word and in those in our lives knowing that our life can become full and we can smile we can have joy in this present world we can understand god's plan and purpose for us um if it if it had not been here's here's one thing that that i wanted to make the foundation of tonight's lesson the word of god is what gives us what we need to live an overcoming life okay if we did not have the word of god listen to me carefully we wouldn't know god we wouldn't know if calvary was available to us we wouldn't be personal witnesses to what god can do what the holy ghost can do in our lives uh if we didn't have the word of god leaving and guiding us daily we wouldn't know anything about salvation and the future that we can have in eternal life with him we must as christians allow the word of god to be first and most powerful in our lives the word of god the word of god does exactly what it's supposed to do let's go look at uh one of the letters written to timothy 2 timothy 3 verse number 16 is where i want to read notice what it says for all scriptures given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness 17 that the man of god may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works there are there are four things that the word of god is going to do for us daily it gives us the doctrine teachings fundamental foundational teachings what we build upon it also gives us reproof kind of helps keep us in line helps lead us give us some principles uh gives us some some characteristics that we can develop as christians and that we can grow and mature okay also for correction there are times because we do who walk and live in our flesh we do have day-to-day living sometimes the spirit side gets weak and the flesh side gets stronger the word of god the bible will correct us and it'll give us the correction that we need it also gives us according to the letter here it gives us instruction in righteousness how to be righteous how to live a right life in our present world the word of god was written that we can believe it was written so that we can be admonished and encouraged it was written so that we could have eternal life abundantly in jesus christ so now when there are there are other things the the word of god is very important for a christian to live that overcoming life to be able to defeat the enemy of the soul second i want to talk about the ministry the ministry uh god has given ministry god has given his word his purpose his spoken word written word uh explained word to ministry preachers and teachers and those who are influencing and helping us to live and to grow and develop like we should the ministry gives us the ability to know god in our present world hear this there are some books that are written for the current situation if you're studying technology there's a book written on how a computer works that through time is going to fluctuate it's going to change and the computer is going to become very advanced and if you took a class 25 years ago it's going to be very outdated we get that but the bible's not that way ministry is given to all generations for what they need for their particular time when you read the word of god talking about the first one there are examples given there i can give you very quickly one is the walls of jericho and joshua and his people personally i have never had an entire city that i had to walk around and watch the physical walls walk down as i followed the word of god but it's given to us as an example of 2021 we can believe have faith follow god submit all of those things so that word of god through the ministry can help us to grow and to have faith in the things and then the things that god wants to do in our lives okay now it's spoken about in ephesians five full ministry apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers um now of course there's a a lot of ministries there's 30 plus ministries that are spoken of in the new testament this is called the five-fold meaning it connects itself they all fold one another into one another and they are there for a purpose number one they're there for the perfecting of the saints okay ephesians 4 12 tells us this therefore the work of the ministry and they're for the edifying of the body of christ now the purpose in this five-fold ministry is to help you and i every day to live a life abundant and full in jesus christ the enemy of the soul is trying to take us out we get that but i'm telling you tonight that if we'll let number one the word of god take preeminence and all first place in our lives and then ministry understand that it's for helping the church now there are responsibilities that the church has to ministry in ministry two to the the apostle the prophet the preacher the teacher the evangelist there are responsibilities that the church has to the ministry number one is you remember those who have rule that's in hebrews you esteem them highly in love first thessalonians you obey them in hebrews 13. you count them worthy you don't muzzle them first timothy you receive what they said and understand and let the scripture work through that that's the responsibility that the church has to ministry now flip it over the ministry's responsibility to the church okay they feed the flock they reprove and rebuke and all along suffering trying to help the church members to grow and to move forward they preach the word they make themselves available they are given the words of god to help direct the church body they teach and exhort believers the man and the message are both measured by the word of god the the church needs ministry and the ministry needs church without it that there's nothing to to give us what we need to overcome the working of the enemy okay now we talked about the word of god we talked about the ministry now i want to talk to you about the holy ghost the spirit of god that can live in every single person every single person can have the holy ghost that is the powerful tool that god gives humanity to help us learn how to restrain from fleshly things and how to set up boundaries and barriers and how to keep ourselves clean and pure before all the things of the world trying to destroy us all right the holy ghost is that spiritual guide every single day to lead us to guide us to give us what we need now there are a couple of things that the holy ghost listen carefully a couple things the holy ghost will do for saints and for ministers or for any human that's full of the spirit of god number one is it'll give you convictions listen carefully it'll give you convictions there are universal convictions things that people of god simply submit to and believe okay they are if you will god's minimums let's call them and he gives it to us for an example and and we get this and we teach it to our children in the ten commandments okay this is what's required abcdef don't kill don't steal don't destroy keep the sabbath day don't commit so okay those things are there to give us convictions to where we set up limits and boundaries within ourselves so that the enemy of the soul doesn't come in and destroy us that's called a universal conviction it's church-wide okay then there's what's called personal convictions that again the whole the holy ghost is establishing these things in us and the personal convictions we talk about are the things that you as an individual have decided would be a stumbling block to you or a stumbling block to someone else that's what you have decided that if you do not remove that it is going to affect you spiritually or if you haven't set that limit or that boundary or that uh understanding then you're gonna you're gonna cause yourself to stumble and fall universal convictions the word of god gives us those okay they're laws the rules are things we do personal convictions is what as a saint of god as an individual that you can establish that will help you to not become an offense to others and not become an offense to yourself okay another area we talked about the word ministry in the holy ghost i want to talk about now our brethren those that are around us okay hebrews 12 and 14 tells us to follow peace with all men meaning as as we become part of the church we become connected to the body of christ we must follow peace we must look for peaceful things okay god's word leads us the holy ghost is in us giving us what we need every day the ministry is there to encourage us but we also need one another as iron sharpens iron the body of the christ we have to care for one another that's how we learn compassion it's how we learn empathy it's how we learn how to to deal with our problems and then others problems and how they deal with it can help us in dealing with ours is that okay um knowing that the the culture the background where you're from where you've come from where you're going uh your plans uh you can connect with the family of god and in doing so you can become stronger you can become more capable to do what god is calling you to do you may have for example in your life a call of god to to to be a a minister of music or sunday school teacher or whatever these talents that god's given you you can take that whatever god has placed and you can learn grow and develop that as others are connected to you in your life you'll learn how to do something so you can help someone else for an example when they ask you a question hey why does the bible say this or what do you why do you do what you do this way or tell me about your family time i'm trying to help my family time and in doing so you're growing and expanding okay we need that we need the accountability quite honestly we need the responsibility we need to be able to feel like we are taking what god is doing in us and we're giving it and sharing it with others i often refer to this at the church that we're not buckets to simply hold we're a conduit pipe god moves and flows through us out into other people into other families and other things in our world so with our time talent and treasure that we all have we have to learn how to become good stewards of that right and in doing so the family of god the brethren that's what helps us to grow and to be what god wants us to be now we spent the last several weeks talking about the enemies of the soul okay uh the flesh wars uh the the world where we live um the devil himself and what he's trying to do against the voice and the commands and the things of god to be overcoming christians overcoming the things that's trying to stop and destroy is trying to hurt the world trying to hurt our families and friends we have to live life abundant okay not worrying not fretting not wondering questioning but what we need to do is understand that we have been given everything we need to be victorious in this life i want to come okay now the problem with growing and learning and maturing is sometimes it's uncomfortable yeah if i may sometimes the pruning hurts sometimes the um the rebuke or the or the correction is not comfortable and sometimes we can even in ourselves justify actions and attitudes and forget the whole fact that it's basically the enemy trying to destroy you by confusing your or getting things out of whack in your life okay i want to encourage every single one of us tonight in this study i want to encourage you to get into the word find out why the scripture is there what the bible says about how to live a victorious life over the enemy of a soul spend time in in the good stuff spend time learning how the positive move of the spirit can actually change everything about your life spend time understand praying about it ask others about it gain encouragement through the bible through each other and let the holy ghost power work in your life now i'll close tonight with in this lesson with simply this as a christian there are many things that that you learn and you do i want to i want to ask you please do do a self evaluation on on who you are and what's going on in your life and then pray about those things if you're if you've got everything together and you're perfectly fine and the world is just a better roses and everything's understand that that there that there will come times when the challenges and obstacles in life will be thrown in your path you need to understand that the enemy of the soul does not want you to succeed the enemy of the soul does not want you to make heaven your eternity okay so you have to determine within yourself lord let me know help me to realize what i need to do and how i need to do it or i'll pray together tonight to close out this series in the name of jesus lord we love you and thank you for our time together thank you for the word it is powerful it is sharp it does its job it cuts it divides it helps it heals it it does its job in our lives every day i thank you lord for the word i thank you for the holy ghost power that works in our lives i thank you for the ministry that leads and guides us i thank you for the church body lord and the brethren that can help encourage and develop and grow us lord i pray for each family each individual that has gathered tonight one that's been through this series thank you i pray lord you would continue to work in their lives continue lord to do the miraculous in them i know god that you have everything in control and you're very very aware lord of where we are and what we need i plead your blood over each one give us the victory daily and we'll walk up right before you in the name of jesus we pray amen