We Are Called to Overcome

I'd like to begin today by quoting James 1, verse 12, if you want to turn to James 1, 12. If you're here today, or you are listening on the webcast, then I believe that God's Spirit is working with you in your life to show you that something is wrong in the world. Something's wrong in the world because something's wrong with you and with me and with every person that draws breath today. Something's missing. Something is lost. Something has been compromised and perverted from its true purpose. And the path to restoration begins with one man, Jesus Christ, who lived and died so that what was missing can be discovered, what was lost can be found, and what was compromised can be made right. Let's look at James 1, verse 12.

The new international version translates this. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. And so this isn't just about enduring some temptation. This is about persevering under duress, dealing with trials. And once that is proved, that person will receive the crown of life. You see, you and I cannot fix the world. There's nothing we can do. We can watch the news all we want. We can participate in activities. We can do our best to help in our communities. And all that's fine. There's nothing wrong with those things in balance. But we can't fix the world. We can only fix ourselves. And really then, only through the working of the Holy Spirit within us, after we've accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and God's calling.

And so in that sense, we're not really fixing, because that's really not the right term. We're not really fixing ourselves. We're allowing God's Spirit to change us as we deal and persevere under trials and confront our human nature. God's word says in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, I won't turn there. I think we know the Scripture well, but you can mark it, that the state in the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And Jeremiah 17, verse 9, again, I think we know that. I'll just reference it here. You can write it down. It says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. These two verses should inform us and should explain to us why the world is so messed up, because Satan is devouring and our human nature is destroying.

But even in the church, we sometimes think that we can go it alone. We don't need to pray or study or fast about key decisions. We're smart enough. Now, I know academically we'd never say that, right? We would never say that. No, I don't need to fast. I don't need to pray. No, I got this one. God, I got this one. We'd never academically say that, because that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

But in actual fact, we behave that way. And oftentimes we behave that way without even being conscious of the fact that we're behaving that way. Look over in Galatians 6, verse 7.

I think this one is an important one to turn to. We don't want to lose track of this one. Galatians 6, verse 7 says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Wow! This is pretty powerful. So what's going to come after that? For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. See, it doesn't matter that we might have academic understanding of the Scriptures. If behaviorally we're doing something that's contrary to God's law, we're making decisions on our own, we're going to reap what we sow.

And no amount of God's mercy is necessarily going to stop that unless God is indeed merciful. And he may choose to let us learn a lesson, and we will reap what we sow. God is not immune to cause and consequences, cause and effect. This is a powerful Scripture. If you have a margin, cause and effect next to it there. Cause and effect is there, just as it is for us, as it is for all mankind. But with perseverance, with overcoming, comes blessings. Blessings, of course, with persecutions, certainly, and challenges, but blessings nonetheless. Mark 10, verse 30, again you can mark that down, says we will receive a hundredfold in this life and in the life to come, eternal life.

So, we can have on the one hand prayer, study, and fasting, overcoming, and focus. Conscious decision-making, which is actually changing our behaviors, which leads to blessings. Or we can have our own way of doing things, unconsciously, lack of purpose, just going through life making decisions on our own. And that can lead to the cause and consequences in Galatians 6, verse 7. A happy marriage, a loving relationship with our children and parents, financial stability, victory over addictions, a life without fear or frustration.

Kind of sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want that? But it is true. God is willing and able to give us that as we focus on His Word and follow His instructions. And I believe this to be true with every fiber of my being, because it's what I read in Scripture. It's what I've seen in people's lives. And it's what I've experienced personally. That when we are faithful in truly understanding God's will for our lives, and we take the time, and we take the pain up front to change, we're blessed.

God is faithful, and He gives us an instruction book on how to overcome. Because if it was so easy, of course, everybody would do it. So how do we do it? How do we overcome? And how do we persevere under trial? How do we receive these blessings? Look over in Revelation 12, verse 11. Revelation 12, verse 11, I think gives us a powerful instruction as to how.

How to overcome. Revelation 12, verse 11, and we understand from the context of this verse, Revelation 12 is referring to end times, a prophecy of events leading up to the return of Jesus Christ, and the defeat of our great adversary, Satan the Devil. And in the midst of this discussion, Christ reveals to John something interesting about the disciples of Jesus Christ. John, writing under inspiration, says in Revelation 12, verse 11, And they overcame him, that is Satan, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. He gives two reasons for how they overcame Satan, and one characteristic of those people. And remember, Satan the Devil is the source of so much negativism, so much difficulty in the world. We know from Ephesians 2, verse 2, that he is the prince of the power of the air. He's broadcasting to us, and we're not immune to that. We know from 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, that he's the god, small g, the god of this world. That's why this world is so messed up, because he's broadcasting these messages. People are in negotiations, and he's broadcasting. No, you don't want to make peace. No, no, that's not something you want to do. He's being condescending to you. He's trying to get to you. Yeah, he thinks you're stupid. You show him. He's broadcasting all these things, and then it causes all of these difficulties.

Two characteristics, excuse me, two reasons, and one characteristic. Three items here that are very interesting to review. If we were interviewing for a job, and we wanted that job, and there were skills and experience requirements that were necessary to get the job, well, we'd measure ourselves against those qualifications, wouldn't we? We'd say, well, let's see, do I have a degree in that? I don't have that many years of experience. They're probably looking for a little bit more experience. We'd measure ourselves against that, so we could get the job, or know whether we have a chance of getting the job. Well, I think that here are three important requirements to getting a job that we want, and that job is to be able to overcome Satan, to be able to overcome that negativism, being able to overcome the influence of Satan in our lives. Today, I'd like to discuss these three elements and see how we measure up. The blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they love not their life, even to the death.

We are called to overcome. That's the title of this message, called to overcome. We can overcome, and God desires to rejoice with us as we make progress.

Now, as we go through these three elements, I want to set the stage with a few questions that you should consider as we're going through this. First question, have you made a list of the things that you need to overcome? Ah, it's in my head. Yes, we know, it's all on our head. Have you made a list? Have you gotten feedback on your list from anyone that's close to you, someone you trust? There's kind of some issues I'm trying to work on. What do you think about that? That's scary. Are you causing someone else grief because of the items on your list?

Have you considered apologizing or asking for advice on how to overcome those items on your list? With our calling, we have a unique opportunity to overcome those things which are bogging us down and are robbing us of the life that God has intended for us. Now, I know that sounds like one of those health-wealth kinds of things robbing us of the life intended. Well, the fact is, God does want to give us a wonderful life. He does want to help us achieve our goals. We just have to be willing to listen. This is what we mean by our magazine and TV program, titled Beyond Today.

It's about thinking about what we do today and the impact it will have beyond today.

When I was growing up in the church, there was something that I remember very, very well from the teachings of the church that really stuck with me. It was in our youth magazine, it was in sermons, and it was at summer camp. It was about having fun. Because, you know, when you're a teenager, having fun is kind of like what it's all about.

I think having fun is still kind of what it's all about, but, you know, fun.

And, in fact, I'd argue that it's still important. So what I learned about fun is that fun is only fun. Stay with me here. Fun is only fun if it's still fun the next day. Fun is only fun if it's still fun the next day. Over-drinking does not feel good the next day. That's not fun. Saying things and doing things that you regret the next day is not fun. That's no fun at all. That's really bad. So fun that is not fun the next day is not really fun. That's just stupid.

So I think the same thing applies to adults as well. Doing things that lead to relational difficulties and impair our ability to be successful in our jobs, that cause pain of some sort in the future, is not fun. So let's try to avoid that. Let's try and do things that are not going to cause pain tomorrow. So in that sense, it's better to have a little pain today to confront something that's important. Let's call that good pain. Let's have a little good pain confronting the things that are important for us today to avoid the bad pain of the consequences of tomorrow of not confronting it. That's beyond today. With God's Holy Spirit and a true understanding of the truth of God, we can live like no one else.

So let's start with the first point in Revelation 12, verse 11. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb. Let's go to Revelation 5, verse 9 and 10. Revelation 5, verse 9 and 10. This is a song that I cannot wait to hear. A song that we will, God willing, all hear as Christ returns. They sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll, to open its seals, for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood.

Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. We've been redeemed with His blood, and not just that, but we've been called to be kings and priests. We've been called to have a great responsibility as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's a sacrifice. It's the blood of the Lamb. It's a sacrifice. Somebody died so that you could live, so that I could live, and not just I could live, but I could be a king. I could be a priest. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, it says that we are the weak of the world. Well, if you take 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26 to Revelation 5, verse 9 and 10, we go from the weak of the world to kings and priests, so there's a transformation process. Isn't there? Let me share an example of people who would be considered the weak of the world, putting to shame the wise. We talk a lot about that in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. This is from the Wall Street Journal on October 8, 2015. It reported on the defeat of the Harvard debate team.

Well, that's not a big deal, right? So the Harvard debate team lost. Well, what made this news is that the Harvard debate team did not lose to Yale or Stanford. That wouldn't be news. What was news was that they lost to a team of convicted felons at the Eastern New York maximum security prison.

These were people who had been convicted of violent crimes. And the prisoners who achieved that win had previously defeated the West Point Academy. In fact, West Point was so upset they sent another team back, and West Team beat them the second time. The prison team is part of a prison college educational program of the Bard College of New York, known as the Bard Prison Initiative. The program has a current enrollment of 300, has over 450 alumni, this was as of 2015, and offers over 70 academic courses leading to a college degree. Now, this story is remarkable on so many levels. One of the things that I found particularly interesting was that the prison inmates had no access to the Internet. So their research had to be done old school. They had to find books. They had to order books. The books had to arrive, often it would take one to two weeks. They had to read the books. And then based upon that, they had to find the quotations and find their facts and prepare for their debate. Obviously, that's pretty hard in the day of the Internet, because now if you want to factor a quote, you can just type it in Google and you can get it. They couldn't do that. They couldn't use, because of prison policies, the Internet for research.

Now, what's also interesting is that this is just an example of the kind of commitment that these prisoners who are involved in the Bard Prison Initiative have. You see, because of the recidivism rate, that is the rate at which people who are released from prison go back into prison, in the general prison population, is around 60%. It's pretty bad. We spend billions, hundreds of billions of dollars on our prisons, and it's primarily because people who go to prison, who get released, end up going back to prison. But the recidivism rate among graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative is 4%.

See, these people have decided that they wanted to make a change in their lives, and they were willing to do what it took to get out of that situation. They were offered a chance, and I think it's a great example of how when people truly want to change, and are committed to change, and have the right coaching and mentoring and opportunity, they can. Now, the difference, as I've shared before, is this is a physical example, right?

This is like, okay, I've got books, and I've studied those, and I became proficient in debating, and I beat Harvard. That's a physical thing, and that's amazing. But our battle is spiritual. We know that from Ephesians 6, verse 12. Again, I'll just reference that. Our battle is spiritual. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against spiritual forces. Let's turn to Colossians 3, verse 1. Let's talk about this battle, and again, the blood of the Lamb, and how that matters to us.

Colossians 3, verses 1 to 7, we'll read. It says, So you see, Christ died, His blood was spilled, and then He was resurrected. And in other parts, it talks about how we die with Christ, and then we are raised with Christ.

If we do this, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. This is our response. This is our response to the blood of Christ. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. You see, we are able to overcome because of Christ's death, and our response to that, and the glory that will come from that. And that's motivation. If you're in prison, there's one story of a man who was convicted at 16. He's 42 years old today. He's been in prison since he was 16. He's part of the BART Prison Initiative, and he wants to get out of prison, and he wants to stay out of prison.

You see, when we're in prison and we want to get out of prison, and we're committed to that, we'll do what it takes. And that's the motivation here. The motivation is that we're going to be glorified with God. We're going to be part of God's family. It says, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.

The world is messed up, and the world is going to pay the price for that. In which you also once walked when you lived in them. But now you must also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. These are all spiritual things we're talking about.

These are very specific steps described here. When it says, seek, in verse 1, that's an action. That's work. Seek. If you're going to seek a job, what are you going to do? You're going to write a resume? You're going to go on an interview? You're going to do research on the company? You're going to figure out where your deficiencies are? Maybe you're going to take a class? Maybe you're going to work for free someplace to get some experience? You're going to do what it takes to get that job, because you're seeking a job.

Here it says, seek those things which are above. Spiritual overcoming work is no different. Have you prepared a resume of your thoughts and actions that must be put away? This is a list. This is what Paul is saying. He's giving a list to the collagians, and he's saying, put these things away, but you need to make your own list.

Because maybe this list doesn't apply to you. Maybe some things do, some things don't. What's your own list? Are you making a resume of the list? And then we have to take the list to God, and we have to invoke the blood of Christ, and say, God, forgive me. I know that I can be reconciled to you through the death of your son. Please reconcile me to you, and allow me to overcome these things that are in my life.

To put these things away, to put to death this old man, as the Scripture says. And please give me the strength to overcome. And through this process, we ask forgiveness, we ask for strength, and we ask for guidance.

Okay. That's a good first step. But then we have to take physical steps. We have to take physical steps as needed to follow through on changing our behavior. We need to seek professional help, if professional help is needed. If we broke our arm, we would go to the doctor, and the doctor would help set our arm. We wouldn't say, ah, you know, I can do that. Oh, that hurts him. No, we go to the doctor. So why is it different with some of these other issues that we face?

Why is it different? Why do we think that maybe spending too much money, or eating too much, or drinking too much, or having married problems, or becoming constantly angry would be different? Maybe we need a little help.

So let's not confuse the fact that there is spiritual work through Christ's sacrifice, with the fact that there is physical work to get counseling from the ministry. It's a good place to start. To get counseling from a professional who's trained in that area. Now you might say, well, that person does not have God's Spirit. Well, that's true. But you do. And so you'll evaluate what that person says, and you'll talk to the ministry, and you'll say, you know, this person told me this, but that didn't seem to make sense. You're right, that doesn't make sense. It seems like you should get another counselor. Right? We're not afraid, because they don't have God's Holy Spirit, to go, because in fact there are some basic physical things that we do, and we can learn from people who are physically trained in these areas. We must get on our knees to start this process, but then we have to get on our feet to finish it. We have to actually go get some help.

Look in verse 9. Do not lie to one another. Colossians 3 verse 9. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds. And we can lie to one another. How are you doing? I'm fine. No, we're not. We're not. We can lie to one another. And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. You see, we're striving to become Jesus Christ. Become like him. Become in his image. So it starts with his blood, and it ends with his image, and there's a whole set of things in between that we have to do.

Again, these are spiritual issues we're talking about. They have physical manifestations. I use an example of spending too much money. Is that a spiritual issue? Well, if we're constantly buying things to make up for a hole in our hearts, yeah, there's probably a spiritual issue there. That's just that spending too much money is just a physical manifestation of something else that's going on in our hearts and our minds that we're trying to make up for.

God has promised in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, that he will not tempt us beyond what we're able to withstand or endure. So we have to believe God and take him at his word and keep working and keep struggling and keep sinking. Look over in Romans 6, verse 3.

These things are not easy. These things are hard. There's pain. There's discomfort.

But there's progress, and progress can be encouraging. Romans 6, verse 3.

The Father, even so, we also shall walk in newness of life, newness of life, physically and spiritually. Our daily routine will be different. The regularity of our prayer, our study, when we get up in the morning, how much we sleep, how much we exercise, how much we connect emotionally with others. The things we read, the things we think about, the things we talk about. Everything is different.

If everything is not different from the way it was before you were baptized, something's not right, because everything's going to be different. It's a newness of life. I think we've talked about this before. Being in the church 40 years does not say, I've been overcoming for 40 years. I might be repeating the same year 40 times. Yep, that was a year. Oh, I'm going to repeat that year. I'm going to repeat that year. No, we have to have a newness of life, a true change. And it's not random. It's conscious. It's purposeful. We write it down. We analyze it. We get feedback. We examine it from all sorts of different angles and sides, so that it can be expunged, so it can be removed. That's the blood of Christ. That's what allows us to start this whole process. It is what allows us to evaluate the advice we get from professionals, from the ministry. It allows us to move forward and make progress. Let's go to the second part. Let's go back to Revelation 11. Revelation 12, verse 11. This next part is really interesting.

This next part, I think, is something that the Church of God can grow in. Revelation 11, verse 11 says, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Word of their testimony? What is that? Word of their testimony? The word testimony here is the Greek word, mortoea, M-A-R-T-U-R-I-A. M-A-R-T-U-R-I-A. It means testimony, as in giving evidence in a court, being a witness to an event.

It's formal. When you talk, you can say things like, Well, you know, I'm very happy today that I had the opportunity to participate and do this sort of thing. Well, that's just talking. But a testimony is where you're responding to something. You're giving some sort of evidence or witness to something that you saw. It's used in Luke 22, verse 71, in regard to the Pharisees prosecuting Jesus. They were looking for testimony. Look over in John 1, verse 19. We'll see a usage of this word, testimony.

John 1, verse 19.

Now, this is the testimony, that same word, of John. Okay, so this is what's written down here. Now we're going to see what it is. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? See, this was a formal inquiry. It's something more formal. It's something more specific. And he confessed, ah, that's an interesting word. We'll come back to that word. And did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Right? And so there's a line of questioning. And so his response is a testimony. It's providing evidence or response to a specific formal inquiry.

One of the best examples of providing a testimony that I've seen in the Church of God is a tradition over the years of sharing how we came into the knowledge of the truth. At the night to be much observed. I don't know if you've done that. If you haven't, I would encourage you to do it. I see some nods. It's a very encouraging time to sit around a table and share your story of how you came to understand God's truth. You're giving a testimony. You're saying, let me explain to you how God called me. And this was this miracle. And then I understood this. And then I was hard-headed. And I refused. And then I realized. And you're recounting a set of facts. You're giving a witness, which again is a witness or evidence or testimony. You're giving evidence of how you came to be where you are today. That is a positive thing. And I think we could do more. And we'll talk about that. This past Wednesday evening, Maurice and I were invited to the screening. It was in Menlo Park. It was a small independent theater. And they were screening the West Coast premiere of a documentary film titled, Human. Anybody heard of the movie Human? Have you seen it? It's a long film. It's two hours and twenty minutes. And it shares the individual testimonies of people interviewed from around the world as they express their feelings and thoughts on the great questions of life. What is happiness? What is love? What does life mean? Again, this is coming from a secular standpoint. The director of the film was there. I saw the film on Air France, Flying to France. It's already been released in Europe. But it hasn't yet been released here in the United States, at least broadly. The director and the assistant director were there. They shared that they interviewed over two thousand people for this film. This is the kind of film you're either going to love or hate.

What they do is create what they call a black box. That is, they put a black curtain behind the person and they completely separate the person from their context. So if you're interviewing a villager in Mongolia, you don't see the hut. You don't see the things around them. You just see them in front of a black curtain. So whether they're from Ireland or Madagascar or from Mongolia, they're just a person in front of a black sheet. The only thing that you might get is that in a few cases, some of them have flies crawling on their head. You get a sense that they're in an environment where there are a lot of flies. Other than that, you really don't have a sense of their context. The first pass of the film the director explained after the interview two thousand people, they cut it all down and the film was ten hours long. They realized they could never show a film that would be ten hours long. So they cut it down some more. Down to two hours. You would think that two hours of just listening to somebody speak to the camera, answering a question like that would be pretty boring. But it's very compelling. Like I said, you don't have to like the film. I'm not recommending it to you per se. But it was very compelling because for me, after listening to dozens of people share their human experience and their native language, and the film we saw here has subtitles in English. So when they speak in English, it's still subtitled in English because some of the English you hear is kind of hard to even understand. You realize we're all created in God's image and we all have so much in common in terms of what we desire out of life. That is a testimony. And the director shared that as they went around the world and they interviewed these people, these people said they didn't think they had anything interesting to share.

And yet, it is very interesting what they share. And I think, too, in God's church, we sometimes don't realize we have something interesting to share. We think, oh, we have nothing interesting to share. But indeed we do. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 23.

Hebrews 10 and in verse 23. It said, There's that word confession again. It's, Verse 25.

See, there's an interaction. There's a fellowship. We come to church to hear God's word spoken, but you could be on the webcast. You could watch a video. Now, God says here, He inspires this writing, We're to come to church. We're to assemble. It's a holy convocation, it says in Leviticus 23. We're to assemble. And why are we to assemble? We're to assemble here to exhort one another, to consider one another, and stir up good works among one another, to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. We may not realize that we have much to share, but we need to share. We need to strengthen one another with our stories. We need our fellowship to be strong, not superficial, not about our cars, or our houses, or physical things. We need our conversations and our actions at church, during the week, and during the holy days to be about these spiritual things. We need to encourage one another. These are precious times through the hard work of expressing our feelings. That's hard for men. We don't tend to want to express our feelings. Appropriately, of course. Receiving feedback, honest, constructive feedback. It's time to share our stories for the purpose of encouraging one another to continue to be strong in the faith. It says they overcame Him by the word of their testimony.

Let's go to 1 Timothy 6, verse 12.

1 Timothy 6, verse 12.

So it might be a Sabbath morning, we're tired. I don't feel like going to church today. That's exactly when you need to go to church, is when you don't feel like going to church. Why? Because this is the place to be encouraged. What does it say here? It says, fight the good fight of faith. That's what we need to be told. We need to be told. Tim, fight the good fight of faith. Hang in there. God will see you through this. Hang in there. Lay hold on eternal life. Don't worry about all those physical things. Yeah, I know you probably screwed up at work. Yeah, your boss is mad at you. Yeah, maybe you lost your job. You know what? You're going to learn from that. You're going to get up. You're going to go out there. You're going to get another job. Because you learned something from that, right? Or maybe you didn't. Maybe you're trying to get another job without learning the lessons from the previous job. You need to get that feedback. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. He's speaking to Timothy here. This is interesting. He confessed. That is, he shared. He opened up the good confession. This is an interesting play on words, right? Because the good confession is our faith. So he spoke of his faith. You can say, I spoke of my faith. Or you can say, I confessed the good confession. We confessed. We spoke. We shared. We opened up.

You know, I've shared many stories with you and sermons about how God has worked in my life. That's a testimony. That's a sharing. That's an opening up.

How he's answered my prayers. How he saved my life. How he's changed my life. You have those stories, too. Don't hold back in sharing those stories.

You know, years ago, when Maurice and I first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I met a man in San Jose named Richard Allen. And Richard helped me a lot. He helped repair my car. I remember my car sitting in his lawn down in Salinas. Got the bumper out and fixing things. And he came over to my house many times and helped me repair things. Richard was an amazing individual. And as I would spend time with him, he would tell me stories about his life.

He was the son of a sharecropper. And he had a big family. And they would travel from farm to farm. Picking cotton. It was tough work. And he told me his dad was Irish and Indian. These were bad combinations. And again, I'm just quoting them, right? He said, the Irish temper and the Indian proclivity for alcohol, and it just didn't work. And I would say, Richard, have you told these stories to your kids? Oh, no. I don't want to tell these stories to my kids. The past is the past. I just leave that behind. I said, no, Richard, these stories, these are important stories.

This is how you came to be who you are. These are important life lessons. You've got to... No, no, no. I don't want to share that. Well, you know, Richard died of a heart attack in 2009, and he didn't want to have any memorial, which, by the way, I don't recommend, because the memorial is for the living. And so we all went down to his home in Salinas, and we're all there in his little house in Salinas. And I was talking to his son, and he said, here, I want to show you something. So his son went to the room, and he pulled out, and there was this stack of papers, it was all kind of crumpled up and so forth, and he said, my dad started writing his life story.

He said, I found this. I never knew he was doing this. He found that after his dad had died. And he was already reading, and he was just gobbling it up. And I was so encouraged that he had at least taken the time to write some of those things down, to transmit that to his son.

His son's not in the church. But nonetheless, his son learned and was encouraged by that. Take the time. My wife's mom, my mother-in-law, she wrote her life story. It's not about writing a big autobiography and glorifying yourself. It's not about that. It's about sharing those experiences so that your family can learn from it. If you think you can't overcome something in your life, I guarantee you there's someone in the church who has already overcome something similar. We're not alone in this. A rocky marriage. Well, there's lots of couples who could be sharing how they have managed to work through their rocky marriages.

Addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography. There are people who have faced and conquered these issues. Depression. Loss of a loved one. Loss of a job due to the Sabbath. How they've been blessed because they've faithfully tithed. Or how they haven't been blessed because they weren't tithing. They can share that story, too. How they thought they knew it all. And then God humbled them. How they thought they knew nothing until God showed them they had something to give. There is a wealth of experience in this congregation and in congregations around the world of the Church of God. And we need to be willing to listen and share and learn.

Look over in James 5, verse 16. James 5, verse 16. We go there with anointing, but James uses this as a springboard to share an important truth. He says in verse 16, Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. Because that's what we're looking for sometimes. We're looking for healing. And he uses that because earlier in this context here is of asking for the elders to come and anoint you when you're struggling with some health issues.

He uses that to talk about confessing. Of course, confessing has to be done appropriately. It has to be done with the right spirit and also with someone safe. You have to have somebody that you trust that you can do that. Look over in Titus 2, verse 1. Titus 2, verse 1. It says here, as his instruction to Titus, Paul says, But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men should be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience.

Why? Well, so that they set a good example, so that they can share that experience with others. He expands on it here in verse 3. I don't think he's just calling out the women. He says, He says, He's saying, The older individuals, the older men, must exhort the young, and the older women must exhort the younger women.

This is mentoring. We need mentoring in the church. We need role models. We need examples. And that comes with building relationships, and that comes with dialogue, and that comes with opening up. That comes with asking questions and sharing stories. That's the word of the testimony.

And through that, overcoming takes place. Likewise, verse 6, In all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. And then it goes on. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.

We need to build relationships one to another by listening and sharing. If we see someone new here at services, we need to make sure that we take the time to find out why they're here, what their background is, what they're looking for. Let's strive to be a congregation that welcomes the hurt, the doubt, and the anxiety that people may bring. The church is not a place to put on a facade and say, we're fine. It's a place to put on love and be willing to say, we're not fine.

Finally, let's go back to the third characteristic. Let's go back to Revelation 12, verse 11.

And they overcame him, it says here, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Two vital characteristics that we've explored. And then it says, and they did not love their lives to the death. They did not love their lives to the death. Just turn over a few more passages to Revelation 20, verse 4.

And read what it says here. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness. That's that same word, by the way, testimony. It's the same Greek word that we read earlier. For their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, Who had not worshipped the beast or his image, And had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the mark of the saints. This is the ultimate test of our commitment.

And it sends chills down my spine to think about that. I pray, and we should all pray, for protection for God's people. God's people in Africa truly face life and death challenges. Some of our ministers literally take their lives in their hands, Traveling to some of the places that they travel in Africa. This is a characteristic of an overcomer. Yet we live in a society of non-commitment. Our society is about non-commitment. Well, I want to keep my options open. I don't know if I want to get married at this time. There's a lot of things to discover and see. I don't know about any particular church. There's a lot of things to learn out. It's a wishy-washy society. Revelation 20, verse 4, is not wishy-washy. It's commitment. It's commitment to truth. And this lack of commitment in our society can rub off on the church. It can rub off on us. God is looking for commitment. He's looking for discipline and commitment and focus and faithfulness. Attending church regularly, tithing, seeking counsel, how to understand God's laws and His way of life, commitment to address our issues. He's looking for commitment. With commitment will come blessing. He wants to bless us. Look over in Revelation 6, verse 9. Revelation 6, verse 9.

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held. There it is again, that testimony. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? They were looking for God to intervene. We must be ready to stand up for what we believe and tell people what our beliefs are in a nonjudgmental and humble way. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to stand up even to the death? Dr. Ward talked about that in a recent letter. Look over in John 12, verse 25.

You know, it's in the Bible. It's unpleasant to discuss. It's nothing that anybody would want to think about. One of the interviews in that movie, Human, was with an older Jewish woman who was saved when her mother handed her as a newborn babe to an SS officer in Germany. And that SS officer took that baby back to his parents' house, and his parents raised that child as their own, as a good Catholic baby. And she says, who would know what they would do in that situation? Would they really risk their lives to save a baby or to save somebody they wouldn't know? Who can answer that question now? Because, obviously, that German officer took his life in his hands, and he took his parents' life in his hands, and he took his brothers' and sisters' lives in his hands by doing that, by hiding a Jewish baby. Are we ready to do that? John 12, verse 25, says, He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my father will honor. Our focus must be on those things which are above and not on this life. And that doesn't mean that we can't have nice things. That doesn't mean that we can't be successful and so forth, and just always be focusing on the next life. God's church needs strong families with stable jobs who can support those who haven't been as fortunate. And if our hearts are interested in these things, then we can fulfill the teaching that's listed here. Look over in 1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2. Because when we talk about loving our life, we're not necessarily talking about, well, I love the fact I took a breath. I love the fact I can see. Well, it's the result of those things, right? So 1 John 2, verse 15 really gets to the heart of that when it says here, 1 John 2, verse 15.

Our focus has to be on service. Our focus has to be, and our minds have to move away from our own lives and what we can get and what we can gain. We heard about the way of give and the way of get. We live in the world of get, and we need to be in the world of give. We need to support that kind of world. They love not their lives even to the death. Are we ready to put away whatever is really important to us physically for what's really important to God spiritually? We're called to overcome, and God has given us a very powerful instruction in Revelation 12 about how we can overcome. By the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and those that did not love their lives even to the death. In conclusion, I want to go back to Galatians 6. I read Galatians 6, but there's a couple verses I didn't read that I think conclude this nicely. Galatians 6 and verse 7, we read about cause and consequences. Building on that thought, we'll read verse 6 again. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. I think we understand that we are subject to that. But now notice verse 8. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. You see, if we just go along in our lives making decisions without purpose, without prayer, without study, without counseling, without confession, without the focus on what we can get, we're going to reap corruption. What does that mean? Well, we're going to die. And not only that, but we're going to live a life that's probably a quality of life that we'd prefer we didn't have. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. That's what we're talking about today. We're talking about reaping to the spirit and achieving everlasting life. And it says, and let us not grow weary while doing good. Let's not grow weary in this process. For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. If we do not lose heart. Let's not lose heart. We've been in God's church for many years. We may have been facing these issues for many years. But that doesn't mean that we've really been confronting them in the way we should. Let's look at these things fresh. Let's not lose heart. Let's reap from the spirit and let's reap that spiritual reward. We may not be prison inmates, but with Christ's sacrifice and us doing our part, we can free ourselves from sin and its impact. But it's going to take hard, systematic work. And the rewards are great, much greater than winning some debate in competition. We are promised blessings now and eternal life in the kingdom of God. We can do this. Let's get to work.