Victorious Living

Victorious and
Holy Living
Defeating Carnal Christianity
VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING
Victorious and Holy Living

Copyright 2002-2005 by Glenridge Church International
Revision: 28 January, 2005
Mastering Date: 28 January, 2005
This document may be duplicated whole, or in part, in any
form (written, visual, electronic or audio) without express
written permission, providing it is not used for commercial
purposes.
Printed by Glenridge Church International
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Set in Book Antiqua (print) or Arial (screen).
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984
by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
Zondervan Publishing House. Scripture taken from either the
North American edition or the British edition of the NIV Bible.
Scripture marked ASV taken from the AMERICAN
STANDARD VERSION, 1901.
Scripture marked The Message taken from THE MESSAGE.
Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
2002. Used with permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture marked TNIV taken from the HOLY BIBLE,
TODAYS NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright
2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Introduction
This book is an edited transcript of sermons by
Rory Dyer during 2002. The title of the series of
sermons was Carnal Christianity, also called
Victorious and Holy Living. Headings have been
added primarily for the purpose of the table of
contents. You may want to skip over them while
reading.
Carnal means fleshly. Carnal Christianity is where

the flesh runs parallel to our Christianity. When
there is something wrong with peoples lives, the
world addresses living conditions. When we look
at Scripture, however, we see that Paul in his
epistles went and addressed the thinking. Part of
the mandate of the leaders is to set an example of
some form of successful Christian life. If we
understand Jesus properly, we will lead a
victorious life.
So, the thing that we are addressing is the
flesh: carnal Christianity, that which operates
contrary to the Spirit of God. Its not just issues of
sexuality, its also when husbands dont treat their
wives properly. They worship God, they lift their
hands and they clap and they dance but they dont
lay down their lives for their wives. That is also
carnal Christianity. Also, too, when children dont
obey their parents. I want to address some of the
ways believers live, but not just with rules; not as a
legalist, as a man of grace. What I want to do is
show you your position in Christ so that the things
that you do as a Christian will be successful and

victorious.
Contents
1: Introduction _________________________10
A Quick Overview _________________________10
1.
2.
3.
The Work of Christ ________________________ 11

How We Think ____________________________ 11
How We Live _____________________________ 12
Our Lifestyle______________________________12
1.
2.
Our Position Enables Us to Live Right _________ 12

Salvation Brings a Visible Life Change _________ 13
Our Position in Christ ______________________13

1.
2.
We Have Privileges ________________________ 14

We are Sons _____________________________ 14
How to Live Victoriously ____________________15

1.
2.
3.
Know God and His Word____________________ 15

Know God and His Power ___________________ 15
Know God and His Position for You ___________ 16
Conclusion _______________________________17
2: The Nature and Power of the Gospel _____18

Purposeful Christian Living _________________18
1.
2.
3.
4.
We Must First be Saved ____________________

We Must be Committed to Scripture ___________
We Must Live in Grace _____________________
We Must Advance the Gospel to All Nations ____
21
21
22
23
The Nature of the Gospel ___________________23

1.
2.
3.
The Gospel is Powerful Enough to Save All _____ 24

The Gospel is Visible in Our Lives as Love______ 24
The Gospel Must Be Learned for Preaching _____ 25
The Changes Brought by the Gospel__________26

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
We are Heavenly Minded ___________________

We Have Citizenship in Heaven ______________
We Get Strength from Knowing the Word_______
We Know and Live Out the Will of God_________
We Live to Please God Not Self ______________
We Enjoy Freedom Purchased for Us__________
We Live Fruitful and Obedient Lives ___________
We Live by Gods Power that is Available_______
26
27
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29
30
30
31
Summary ________________________________31
3: Treasures in the Revealed Christ ________34

Knowing Jesus _________________________34
1.
2.
3.
Makes Us Stand Without Blemish_____________ 34

Brings Wisdom and Knowledge ______________ 35
Puts Roots in Place ________________________ 35
Philosophies of Today _____________________36

1.
2.
3.
4.
Hedonism _______________________________
Legalism ________________________________
Mysticism________________________________
Asceticism _______________________________
36
37
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39
Jesus Revealed in the Book of John __________39

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
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12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
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18.
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20.
21.
The Son of God (John 1)____________________

The Son of Man (John 2)____________________
The Divine Teacher (John 3)_________________
The Soul Winner (John 4) ___________________
The Great Physician (John 5) ________________
The Bread of Life (John 6)___________________
The Water of Life (John 7) __________________
The Defender of the Weak (John 8) ___________
The Light of the World (John 9)_______________
The Good Shepherd (John 10) _____________
The Prince of Life (John 11)________________
The King (John 12)_______________________
The Servant (John 12) ____________________
The Consoler (John 14) ___________________
The Vine (John 15)_______________________
The Giver of the Holy Spirit (John 16) ________
The Great Intercessor (John 17) ____________
The Model Sufferer (John 18) ______________
The Uplifted Saviour (John 19)______________
The Conqueror of Death (John 20) __________
The Restorer (John 21) ___________________
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4: Our Position: Gods Sons ______________55

We Respond in Maturity to Christs Cross _____55
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
We Seek First the Kingdom _________________

We Intercede on Behalf of Others_____________
We Know We are Holy in His Sight ____________
We Embrace the Whole Gospel ______________
We Grow and Mature in Christ _______________
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What the Cross Means for Us________________61

1.
2.
We are Redeemed ________________________ 61

We are Justified __________________________ 62
3.
We are Reconciled ________________________ 63
Son or Survivor? __________________________64

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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9.
10.
11.
12.
Asking versus Begging _____________________

Secure versus Proving Self __________________
Responding versus Reacting (Four Animals) ____
Vulnerable versus Defensive_________________
Receiving versus Working for Approval ________
Trusting in the Father versus Trusting in Self ____
Reconciled versus Estranged ________________
Healed and Whole versus Gangs and Groups ___
Gods Loving Eye versus Nervous Fear ________
Father Focused versus Busy _______________
Home versus Office ______________________
Table versus Rubbish Bin _________________
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Conclusion _______________________________70
5: Holy Living __________________________71

The Possibility of Holy Living________________71
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
We Have Power Over All Enemies ____________

We Have a Firm Footing ____________________
We Have a Position in Christ_________________
We Have Gods Freedom ___________________
We Have the Spirit to Lead Us _______________
We Have a Change of Heart and Mind _________
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The Source of Our Power ___________________81

1.
2.
3.
We are Seated with Christ___________________ 81

We Have the Power of Christ ________________ 81
We See Jesus Interceding __________________ 82
Why the Old has Gone _____________________83

1.
2.
We are Dead to Sin ________________________ 83

We are Dead to Old Philosophies _____________ 84
Why the New has Come ____________________85

1.
2.
3.
4.
We are Holy Because God is Holy ____________

We are Designed to be Holy _________________
We Desire Righteousness, Peace and Joy______
We are Offered Rewards____________________
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90
6: Put to Death the Sinful Nature ________92

Identifying the Sinful Nature _________________94
1.
2.
3.
Distorted Sexuality ________________________ 96

Witchcraft _______________________________ 96
Division _________________________________ 96
4.
Indulgence in Self, Drunkenness or Orgies______ 97
Dealing with the Sinful Nature _______________98

1.
2.
3.
4.
The Sinful Nature Crucified __________________ 99

Feelings Not Leading Our Faith ______________ 99
Avoiding Sin ____________________________ 101
Attacking Sin ____________________________ 102
Power Over the Sinful Nature _______________103

1.
2.
3.
Conviction from the Holy Spirit ______________ 103

Conviction from the Word of God ____________ 103
Knowing Whats Permissible or Beneficial _____ 104
Conclusion ______________________________106
7: Roots Determine Routes ______________109

Introduction _____________________________109
1.
2.
3.
4.
Our Roots Determine Routes and Fruits _______

We are Holy, Chosen and Dearly Loved _______
We Remove Our Old Roots_________________
We Find New Roots in the Cross ____________
109
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114
Roots for Our Routes _____________________116

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Falsehood versus Truth____________________

Anger versus Do Not Sin___________________
Stealing versus Usefulness _________________
Unwholesome Talk versus Helpful Talk _______
Bitterness and Rage versus Kindness ________
Immorality versus the Kingdom of God ________
Darkness versus Light_____________________
Unwise versus Wise ______________________
Foolishness versus the Lords Will ___________
Wine versus Spirit ______________________
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129
Conclusion ______________________________131
8: Victory Over the Devils Schemes ______132

Victorious Christian Living _________________132
1.
2.
Be Strong in the Lord _____________________ 134

Draw Near to God for His Power_____________ 136
The Devils Schemes ______________________137

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Exploit Insecurities with Lies ________________

Kill, Rob and Destroy with Flattery ___________
Oppose Gods Word with Doubt _____________
Doubt Gods Goodness with Impatience _______
Hinder Gods Work with Enemies ____________
Distort or Prevent the Gospel with Persuasion __
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7. Kill Righteousness with Persistence __________

8. Bring Fear with Thoughts of Death ___________
9. Stop Responses to God with Blindness _______
10.
Remove Understanding with Theft __________
11.
Seduce with Avoidance of Suffering ________
12.
Hoodwink with Religious Pretence __________
13.
Trick with Misused Scripture ______________
14.
Deceive with Imitation Signs and Wonders ___
15.
Mislead with Alternatives _________________
16.
Demoralise with Persecution ______________
17.
Undermine with Sickness _________________
18.
Bring Dissension with Poor Doctrine ________
19.
Allure with Poor Sexuality_________________
20.
Destroy Relationships with Unforgiveness ____
21.
Torment with Pride and Bitterness __________
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The Armour of God _______________________151

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Belt of Truth _________________________

The Breastplate of Righteousness ___________
The Shoes of Peace ______________________
The Shield of Faith _______________________
The Helmet of Salvation ___________________
The Sword of the Spirit ____________________
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9: Controlling Debt and Spending ________156

Financial Freedom in Revelation from God____156
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Dangers of Debt ______________________

The Consequences of Debt_________________
Getting Out of Debt _______________________
Controlling Spending ______________________
Avoiding New Debt _______________________
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167
10: Victory Over Sexual Immorality _______173

Pictures from Proverbs ____________________176
1.
2.
3.
Sewer versus Stream _____________________ 177

Uncontrolled Fire versus Camp Fire __________ 177
Animal versus Human _____________________ 178
Summary _______________________________179
10
1: Introduction
A Quick Overview
Two of the types of statements in the New
Testament are imperative and indicative.
Imperative is about what we do. Indicative is
about stating the thing as a fact, not as a wish. It
gives an indication of where we stand while
imperative is what we do.
The heading of the NIVs Colossians 3 is
Rules for Holy Living. Now, I could give you a
checklist, imperatives (what you have to do). I
could just list. You would become burdened with
guilt and shame and you wouldnt know what to
do. You would say that you could never ever live
up to those standards. Thats why we cant start
in Colossians 3, we need to start in Colossians 1.
We are going to look at how we can please
God and why we should please Godand it is
impossible in the flesh to please God. That is why
he gives us his Holy Spirit, so that we may please
him.
Colossians 3 speaks about the sins of passion
and the sins of pride. I could tell you that if you
are bordering on any of those sins then you are in
big troubleor I can help you and give you the
tools that you need to get through them to live a
victorious life. My task is to help equip you to
break the power of the flesh. There is a word in
the Greek called sarx (flesh) and over this time we
are going to kill sarx and put to death sarxthe
earthly nature and sinful nature. We are going to
learn how to overcome sin and how to put it to
death by the Spirit of God. If God wants us to do

something then he has to empower us to do it.
We are going to learn how he does that.
1. The Work of Christ
Colossians chapter 1 is about Jesus. There is a
wonderful scripture in verse 27 of this chapter.
To them God has chosen to make known
among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory.
Colossians 1:27
When Christ died, he did not just die for
forgiveness of our sins, he died to buy our bodies.
He purchased our bodies so that the Spirit of God
could come and live inside us. Christ in us, the
hope of glory. In the Old Testament, God dwelt in
a tabernacle and then in a temple. Now he dwells
inside us, our bodies. He bought our bodies.
Thats why we say, Put to death whatever
belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality
and lust , because our bodies do not belong to
us, they belongs to Jesus. He bought it with a
price. We looked at that in the series, The Power
of Christs Cross. We see that the price that
Christ paid on the cross was so that you and I
might be set free.
2. How We Think
Chapter 2 is about the cults and how we
overcome earthly wisdom. Eat, drink and be
merry, for tomorrow you die, says the world. But
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12
Christ says, Come and die so that you will know

how to live. That is the challenge, that is the
offence of the Christian way. And that is the key
to a successful Christian life.
3. How We Live
Chapter 3 is about how God expects us to live.
Verse 5 through to verse 11 is about our passions.
Verses 12 to 14 are about our personal life.
Verses 15 to 17 are about our spiritual life.
Verses 18 to 21 are about our domestic life.
Our Lifestyle
1. Our Position Enables Us to Live Right
How can an uneducated man go to his wife who
has a degree and say, Wife, submit to me
because the Bible says so!? In this modern era,
with worldly philosophies that have crept into the
Church, people say that its impossible for a
woman of greater intelligence to submit to a
man. It is impossible if you dont understand
Colossians 1 and 2. Ephesians 5, about wives
submitting to their husbands, is impossible for a
wife if she doesnt understand Ephesians 1, 2 and
3. In the same way, it is impossible to live a
sexually pure lifeone cant just take all the
desire that is beating inside and suppress itbut
if we understand our position in Christ and we
understand the power that Christ has given us, we
can put it down and put it to death and we can
start to live victoriously: in our sexual life, our
personal life, our spiritual life and our domestic
life; and that includes the children.
2. Salvation Brings a Visible Life Change

If you are born again and in the life of a church
and your parents are not believers then they must
know, through your lifestyle and through the way
that you serve them, that you are serving Christ
properly. Its not good when parents phone the
pastor and say, My child is a part of the church
and this is his or her behaviour . You can
serve at church, but when you go home you must
serve there as well. Show your parents what it
means to be in submission. If you want to serve
Christ then serve your parents. You can read it in
the Book. Carnal Christianity is when we jump
around and shout and give our tithes but our
parents have no clue of Christ because our
lifestyle has not changed.
Next it speaks about your business life.
Slaves obey your masters. If I phoned your boss
and asked him about you, what would he say?
The Bible is a book for life: my task as one of the
elders of a church is to train each member for life
because we all have to take the glory of Christ out
there.
Our Position in Christ

In chapter 4 and verse 2 it speaks about our
secular life, about how we deal with the outsiders.
You may argue that they are all impossible, which
they would be if you did not understand
Colossians 1 and 2. We need to study those two
chapters. We cannot preach the practices of
Christianity until we know the position of
Christianity. So, we will examine our position in
Christ and, once that is laid, I am going to address
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14
the things the Bible says need to be put in place

so that carnal Christianity can be knocked out of
the Church. Not through legalism but through
grace. Indicative is our position and imperative is
what we must do.
1. We Have Privileges
In Ephesians 1:1-23, Paul tells us our position in
Christ and the privileges that come with salvation.
We have every spiritual blessing in Christ
Jesus.
He predestined us to be adopted as his sons.
We know the mystery of his will: he has
lavished us with wisdom and understanding.
We are included in Christ.
2. We are Sons
He predestined us to be adopted as his sons: you
are not a slave, you are not a survivor, you are his
son! We have all the privileges, rights and power
that a son has. He gave us grace and redeemed
us through his blood. We survey the cross and
understand the sacrifice made: we have been
redeemed, we have been bought back from the
life of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. When that
indicative statement grabs hold of us then our
position in Christ is secure under his blood. From
there we can understand when God starts to tell
us how we must live. We realise that it is not just
a set of rules but something that has been done
through his purchasing of our bodies and our
sexuality and our emotional situation in Jesus
name.
How to Live Victoriously

1. Know God and His Word
Paul prays three prayers. He starts to write a
prayer from verse 15. In Pauls books, he gives
us a knowledge of God and then he tells us how to
please him: theology and doctrine!
Theology means a study of God. Before I
give you a list of how God wants you to live, I want
you to study God and know God. How? By his
Spirit. He gave us the Spirit of wisdom so that we
could know him better. Why must we live a holy
life? Because God is holy. Thats a simple
reasonone of many. The more we get to know
someone, the more we can please him or her.
The same goes for God. The more we get to
know God, the more we can please him. Not
because we have to but because we want to.
Doctrine means a group of teachings on what
the Bible says on a certain subject. So, the
doctrine of sin is what the Bible says about sin.
All of us should be theologically and doctrinally
sound. We should all know God, study God and
study the word of God so that we know what the
Bible has to say about life issues. We must not be
lazy and leave it up to the preacher.
2. Know God and His Power
The next prayer is from verse 18, and three things
may be highlighted.
The hope to which he has called us.
The riches of our glorious inheritance.
His incomparable great power.
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Paul tells us how to live to please God: about

wives submitting to their husbands, children
obeying their parents and about getting your
sexuality in order. But, before I tell you about that,
I want you to understand his incomparable great
powerotherwise it would be like driving a car
without oil in the engine. Many Christians do not
understand the incomparable great power that
Christ has given us to live successful Christian
lives. If we do not live in the power of God then
we will not live successful Christian lives.
Understand your position so that you can live
successfully in these practices. That includes
workers and bosses. I may not understand what
kind of boss you have but the Scriptures do, and it
gives you provision to deal with it. Paul goes on to
speak about three types of power.
The power seen in Jesus (Ephesians 1:19-23).
The power that changes a Christians life.
Ephesians 2:1-10 tells us we start off dead and
smelly and end up as a poem. We are Gods
poem or masterpiecethat is the power of God.
When we look in the mirror we have to be
convinced that we are Gods workmanship, his
masterpiece. We shouldnt be persuaded
otherwise by the worlds philosophies.
The power of the Church and the power that
establishes the Church.
3. Know God and His Position for You
The third prayer is in Colossians 3:14-21. It
speaks of walking a worthy life. Ephesians 6:1012 tells us that we need to walk. Colossians 3
tells us how we must outwork this Christian life,

and then he tells us to stand.
So, this is what happens: we were dead in our
transgressions; we have now been raised to life
and are seated in Christ Jesusthis is our
position, we have to understand our position in
order to live a successful Christian lifewe are
seated with Christ Jesus, were not in an area
where we cant get our lives under control; he
wants us to walk out our Christian lives; and he
wants us to stand under pressure against the
devices of the devil.
Conclusion
Paul is saying, On my knees I am praying that
you will somehow grasp how high and how wide
and how deep and strong and long is the love of
Christ, and the incomparable great power that you
need in order to do this successfully as a
husband, as a single, as an employee. Later I am
going to introduce the subject called the devil and
you need to learn how to stand so that when he
bumps you, you wont fall. The Lord will give us
all the power we need to walk and to stand.
We have to take our churches to another level
of being consumed in the presence, the face and
the works of Jesus Christ; where we dont get
bored, and its not dependent on how we feel as to
whether we worship him or not, but dependent on
his worthiness and that alone. That is the reason
why we go to church meetings: because he is
worthy to receive our worship, and we go to give
him thanks and praise for what he has done for
us. We can never get bored with that.
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2: The Nature and Power of the Gospel

Purposeful Christian Living
Colossians 1 is about the hope of the gospel.
There are four things that I will highlight from this
first chapter.
I, Paul, have been sent on special
assignment by Christ as part of Gods master
plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I
greet the Christians and stalwart followers of
Christ who live in Colosse. May everything
good from God our Father be yours!
Our prayers for you are always spilling
over into thanksgivings.
We cant quit
thanking God our Father and Jesus our
Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on
your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the
love you continuously extend to all Christians.
The lines of purpose in your lives never grow
slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in
heaven, kept taut by hope. The Message is
as true among you today as when you first
heard it. It doesnt diminish or weaken over
time.
Its the same all over the world. The
Message bears fruit and gets larger and
stronger, just as it has in you. From the very
first day you heard and recognized the truth
of what God is doing, youve been hungry for
more. Its as vigorous in you now as when
you learned it from our friend and close
associate Epaphras.
He is one reliable
worker for Christ! I could always depend on

him.
Hes the one who told us how
thoroughly love had been worked into your
lives by the Spirit. Be assured that from the
first day we heard of you, we havent stopped
praying for you, asking God to give you wise
minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so
acquire a thorough understanding of the ways
in which God works.
We pray that youll live well for the
Master, making him proud of you as you work
hard in his orchard. As you learn more and
more how God works, you will learn how to do
your work. We pray that youll have the
strength to stick it out over the long haulnot
the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the
glory-strength God gives. It is strength that
endures the unendurable and spills over into
joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong
enough to take part in everything bright and
beautiful that he has for us. God rescued us
from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons.
Hes set us up in the kingdom of the Son he
loves so much, the Son who got us out of the
pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were
doomed to keep repeating.
We look at this Son and see the God
who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and
see Gods original purpose in everything
created.
For everything, absolutely
everything, above and below, visible and
invisible, rank after rank after rank of
angelseverything got started in him and
finds its purpose in him. He was there before
any of it came into existence and holds it all
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together right up to this moment. And when it

comes to the church, he organizes and holds
it together, like a head does a body. He was
supreme in the beginning andleading the
resurrection paradehe is supreme in the
end. From beginning to end hes there,
towering far above everything, everyone. So
spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of
God finds its proper place in him without
crowding. Not only that, but all the broken
and dislocated pieces of the universe
people and things, animals and atomsget
properly fixed and fit together in vibrant
harmonies, all because of his death, his blood
that poured down from the Cross.
You yourselves are a case study of what
he does. At one time you all had your backs
turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of
him, giving him trouble every chance you got.
But now, by giving himself completely at the
Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought
you over to Gods side and put your lives
together, whole and holy in his presence.
You dont walk away from a gift like that! You
stay grounded and steady in that bond of
trust, constantly tuned in to the Message,
careful not to be distracted or diverted. There
is no other Messagejust this one. Every
creature under heaven gets this same
Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this
Message.
I want you to know how glad I am that its
me sitting here in this jail and not you.
Theres a lot of suffering to be entered into in
this worldthe kind of suffering Christ takes
on. I welcome the chance to take my share in

the churchs part of that suffering.
When I became a servant in this church,
I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift,
Gods way of helping me serve you, laying out
the whole truth. This mystery has been kept
in the dark for a long time, but now its out in
the open. God wanted everyone, not just
Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret
inside and out, regardless of their
background, regardless of their religious
standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just
this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look
forward to sharing in Gods glory. Its that
simple.
That is the substance of our
Message. We preach Christ, warning people
not to add to the Message. We teach in a
spirit of profound common sense so that we
can bring each person to maturity. To be
mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no
less. Thats what Im working so hard at day
after day, year after year, doing my best with
the energy God so generously gives me.
Colossians 1, The Message
1. We Must First be Saved
Verses 3 to 8 tell us there is only one way to get
saved and thats through Jesus Christ. So, before
we deal with submission or sexuality we need to
come to Jesus Christ.
2. We Must be Committed to Scripture
There were false teachers coming into the church
at Colosse, and Paul states very clearly the word
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of truth. We believe in the Bible plus nothing and

the Bible minus nothing, we will do only what the
Scriptures tell us to do, nothing more and nothing
less. If you see your leaders who are committed
to this doing something that is not in the Scriptures
then you have every right to challenge them. If
they will not change then you must leave. The
Bible says that if your leaders preach the truth
then you need to submit to that truth. The Bible is
the word of truth.
3. We Must Live in Grace
We are saved by grace: there is only one way that
you can get saved, and its not by offering the
fruits of your labour but by believing in Jesus
Christ, the grace and all its truth. A theme or motif
seen in Scripture is that of the garden and coffin.
Genesis starts in a garden and ends in a coffin.
The same applies to Exodus. God wanted us to
live in a garden like Adam did. Only grace gets us
back into the garden, not works. Man will have to
toil for his food and crops but God killed an animal
so that he could cover Adam and Eve. So, the
first time after sin, man is covered by sacrifice. In
the same way Jesus died for us to cover our sin,
shame and nakedness.
Straight after that, Cain brings some fruit as
an offering to the Lord but the Lord is displeased
with it. Its an abomination to him because you
cannot offer anything that will appease God
because you cannot get saved by works. But Abel
kills a lamb and God is happy about that. We
need to understand grace and its truth so that you
dont think the parts about sexuality, marriage and
your boss are legalistic later on.
4. We Must Advance the Gospel to All

Nations
This message is for the whole world: in Acts 1
Jesus says to his disciples, You must be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to
the ends of the earth. In John 2, 3 and 4 it says
that Jesus started in Jerusalem and walked
throughout Judea and he went to Samaria. This
gospel is for the whole world. Our task is not just
to understand this gospel so that we can live a
sexually pure life and work properly for our
bosses. Our task is to understand this gospel so
that we can take it out there.
The Nature of the Gospel

I find it amazing that a weeping prostitute can get
one touch from Jesus and be forgiven easily. And
what about the story of the prodigal son? But
thats the hope of the gospel. If you have walked
away from God, the hope of the gospel is that you
can turn around and walk back, and he will be
waiting for you. The hope of the gospel is that
there will be incredible reconciliation. Thats what
we need to preach. The hope of the gospel is that
when Jesus touches the leper he is cleansed.
Leprosy in the Old Testament is a picture of sin:
one touch from Jesus and you are made holy. It
does not matter what you have done, where you
have done it or how often you have done it. Thats
the hope of the gospel.
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1. The Gospel is Powerful Enough to Save All

We have been given the privilege of preaching the
gospel. The word of God is living and active,
sharper then any two-edged sword, piercing even
to soul and spirit. Its like a fire, like a hammer
that breaks rocks to pieces. The hope of the
gospel is this: when you preach it, it will even take
hard hearts and break them to pieces. You may
say, Thats impossible because you dont
understand my father or mother or . But right in
the churches are some of the hardest hearts
ever: others have said that such people would
never get saved and they were saved. The hope
of the gospel is that if it gets preached then even
the hardest of hearts can get saved.
But
somehow many people seem to have lost the
power of the gospel, somehow many are too
scared to preach it, somehow many are too
comfortable to preach it. But at this time, as we
understand the full implication of what it means to
be seated with Christ in heavenly places, with the
full incomparable power of God available to us, we
need to be preaching the gospel. Not out of
legalism but out of a deep desire so that we can
do nothing else but preach. People need to get
saved. Daily, people are going to hell. Often we
Christians sit around like a fat, lazy church. This
truth can turn the world upside down if we only
understand the power of the gospel.
2. The Gospel is Visible in Our Lives as Love
Love is public. There is a scripture about Joseph
of Arimathea who served Jesus secretly, but there
is no Secret Service in the Kingdom. You cannot
serve Jesus secretly. So, if you have one life on

Sunday and a different life in the world then you
have not understood the love of Christ and the
hope of the gospel.
Love is the fruit of hope. Because of the hope that
we have in the future, we love.
Love is the fruit of the gospel. The gospel touches
us and love comes out of us.
Love is the fruit of the Spirit.
3. The Gospel Must Be Learned for Preaching
We need to learn the gospel. We need to go and
study the word of God. In churches across the
world there are men and women who want to
come and listen to the preacher and have him
feed themand they never want to feed
themselves. And that is why we are not living
successful Christian lives. God, by his Spirit, can
change you: you dont have to have a degree,
Jesus takes out your heart of stone and puts in a
heart of flesh and he writes his law on your heart.
If you are a born-again believer and believe in
Jesus Christ then this word is written on your
heart. When you read it, the Spirit of God will help
you to understand it. This is a gift from our
Father. Its not just a whole lot of laws. My prayer
is that you will ask God to show you all this, and
open up this gift for your life. So, you can wake up
in the morning (with all your meetings, all your
despair, all your confrontations and all the things
you are going to face) and you can let God
minister his Message to you so that you can go
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out there budding and flourishing as the Word

touches your heart.
Love gets given to us through the gospel, love
gets given to us through the Spirit. The Bible says
that when Jesus was baptised, a dove came from
heaven. Have you ever seen a dove land on a
person that is moving? No, it does not happen.
They land on people who are still. In order for
some of us to understand this thing, we need to be
quiet. Be still, stop rushing and let the Spirit of
God come and fill you. Then, on your knees, you
say, Spirit of God, show me, please.
If as a wife you dont know how to submit to
your husband or, husband, you do not know how
to lay down your life for your wife, then get on your
knees with Ephesians 5, get on your knees with
Colossians 4, and say, Spirit of God, according to
your Word I need to love my wife, and the Bible
says that one of the fruits of love comes from the
Spirit of God through the gospel of God. Please,
show me.
Its a challenge for us. We need to grow up in
our faith. Some of the cults out there know their
books backwards. How much more do we need to
read the promises and warnings of Scripture!
The Changes Brought by the Gospel

1. We are Heavenly Minded
If the above things come through love then we
need to set our hearts on the hope of those things
that come from heaven. We need, as people who
live on earth, to set our hope in heaven. Much of
the Church is not heavenly minded, it is worldly
minded. Such people may have a heavenly

perspective but they are worldly minded. We need
to set our thought patterns on heaven where our
hope isotherwise all our time is taken up by
some new attraction. Then we dont understand
why we cant live a successful Christian life! The
Bible says that if we want to live successfully then
we must put our thoughts in heaven. Ask the
Father what he thinks about it!
2. We Have Citizenship in Heaven
Philippians 4 tells us how we should stand firm. In
Philippians 3 there are some of the reasons we
stand firm, and one of them is that we put our
citizenship in heaven. We are no longer citizens
of this earth. We are not subject to the laws of this
earth. When we start to understand that thing,
then, when the Bible talks about sexuality in
Colossians 3, we realise that we can actually fight
the carnal struggles we face because were not
subject to the laws of this earthwe are subject to
the laws of heaven. The Bible says that Jesus
has broken the power of sin in our lives. He has
taken us from the dominion of darkness and he
has put us into the place of light: and from that
place we fight what the world tries to place upon
us. Otherwise we follow the herd: whatever they
do, we do with them.
Give yourself to the word of God.
Allow the Spirit of God to fill you, empower you
and quicken you.
Keep placing your thoughts in heavenly places
so that you will know the hope to which he has
called you.
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3. We Get Strength from Knowing the Word

The Bible says that you cant be unequally yoked.
You cant live by two different standards, the
standard of the world and the standard of heaven.
Allow your thoughts to go into heavenly places.
Read the Scriptures.
Many have a Father
Christmas idea of God: God could not have done
that , should not have done that , would not
have done that . If I was God then I would not
have done that . Go and read what God does
in the Scriptures so that you can stand strong.
4. We Know and Live Out the Will of God
For this reason, since the day we heard about
you, we have not stopped praying for you and
asking God to fill you with the knowledge of
his will through all spiritual wisdom and
understanding. And we pray this in order that
you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may
please him in every way: bearing fruit in every
good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power according
to his glorious might so that you may have
great endurance and patience, and joyfully
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified
you to share in the inheritance of the saints in
the kingdom of light.
Colossians 1:9-11
Paul prays three things in verses 9 to 11. He asks
God to fill us with the knowledge of his will through
all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I trust that
God will reveal his will for your life. I want you to
have the revelation that spiritual wisdom and

understanding comes from the Bible.
Now, there are a number of general callings
of God in the Scriptures: Ive called you to have
fellowship with my Son, Ive called you to be holy,
Ive called you to peace, Ive called you to hope,
Ive called you to freedom. When we start to see
those things, we start to understand the more
specific call of God upon our lives, the will of God
for our lives, and the power with which it is
possible to achieve these things.
The word fill was used to describe a boat
that was going to go on a voyage, it is to be fully
equipped and controlled by.
Thats why
Ephesians 5:18 says, Be filled with the Spirit of
God. Be controlled by the Spirit of God. Our
Scriptures are saying that we must be controlled
by the knowledge of Gods will.
5. We Live to Please God Not Self
We must please God. That word please means
to prefer his will to our own. Thats the wrestle of
the Christian faith. It should never be a real
wrestle because the day we give our lives to
Jesus, we die. We are dead to self and we rise for
Jesus Christ. Sometimes the conversion that
Christians are preaching is, Come to Christ and
then we can kind of work the thing through. But
that process is not biblical. We cant keep going
back to Egypt through the Red Sea because we
will drown. He wont open it that way round.
Study the gospelwe dont want to water it down.
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6. We Enjoy Freedom Purchased for Us

When the Lamb was slain, it broke all generational
curses. It is impossible for them to stand up
against the blood of the Lamb because the blood
of the Lamb sets us free. Pharaoh had no more
hold on Gods people once the Lamb was slain.
So, you cannot live with a what my father and
mother did to me attitude. What Jesus has done
for you has broken the power of that thing. When
you see the Scriptures and understand, you will
start to live in freedom right from the beginningif
it is true faith and not just a feeling. Our feelings
can deceive us but by faith we can start to live
free.
7. We Live Fruitful and Obedient Lives
Paul also prays that we would have practical
obedience, that we would not only know his ways
but we would start to outwork them, bearing fruit.
How do we become fruit trees? Knowing Gods
will, understanding it and starting to work out his
will. Its not just so-called spiritual things, every
good work we do should be a fruit for God.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the
gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that
bears no fruit, while every branch that does
bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even
more fruitful. You are already clean because
of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in
me, and I will remain in you. No branch can
bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
in me.
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John 15:1-4
The call of Colossians is for you and I, through the
word of God and by the Spirit of God, to root
ourselves in the character of God so that we can
start to produce the fruit of God. Not with a
preacher preaching to you Sunday after Sunday,
or a home-group leader teaching you week after
week, but with you firmly and personally planted in
the character of God so that he can show you
through his Word, which is a gift to you, how to
live.
8. We Live by Gods Power that is Available
The next prayer is for the power that is available to
us. Its not by human power. The same power
that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us.
I hope you all understand thatif you dont then
go and take that scripture and get on your knees
and ask the Spirit of God to reveal it to you. We
dont want to raise up a weak Church that does
not understand that there is power available.
Summary
For he has rescued us from the dominion of
darkness and brought us into the kingdom of
the Son he loves, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13-14
In verses 13 to 14 we see these things:
he rescued us;
he brought us out;
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he redeemed us; and

he has forgiven our sins.
From this base, this position in God, we tackle
marriage, employer/employee relationships, and
father/son relationships. It is one of the most
difficult things in the world being a father. We
dont know how selfish we are until we become a
father or mother. God tells fathers to never
embitter their children. How is that possible?
Understand that you are seated at my right hand
and every single bit of power is available to you;
and not only that but I have rescued you, brought
you out, forgiven your sins and redeemed you. If
you believe in Christ then you have been rescued
from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of
light. He has broken the bonds of Satan over our
lives.
Brought out used to describe a deportation
from one country to another. We get reminded of
the price at which he bought us.
Redeemed means to be bought from a slave
market, to release a prisoner with the payment of
a ransom. And that ransom for us was Calvary,
Jesus Christ on the cross. You can only get
redeemed one way: believe in what he did on the
cross. Nothing we do can make God happy
except believing in the work he did on the cross to
redeem us. We were in a slave market of sin,
Jesus came and paid the price and set us free.
That is our positionthe forgiveness of sins.
Take a second to look back on your past and
know that not one of those sins will count against
you, if you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord
and saviour. Understand where you stand in
Christ. You cannot work for your salvation. It is a

free gift from God. With that gift comes freedom
from guilty consciences and freedom from
condemnation. As believers, if any sin that you
committed in the past is bothering you then you
have not understood this incredible truth: what it
means to be forgiven. And that forgiveness is the
hope of the gospel.
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3: Treasures in the Revealed Christ

Knowing Jesus
1. Makes Us Stand Without Blemish
I want you to know how much I am struggling
for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all
who have not met me personally.
My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in
heart and united in love, so that they may
have
the
full
riches
of
complete
understanding, in order that they may know
the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom
are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.
I tell you this so that no one may deceive
you by fine-sounding arguments. For though
I am absent from you in body, I am present
with you in spirit and delight to see how
orderly you are and how firm your faith in
Christ is. So then, just as you received Christ
Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted
and built up in him, strengthened in the faith
as you were taught, and overflowing with
thankfulness.
Colossians 2:1-7
We are without blemish and free from accusation.
That means that when we understand Christ
properly and when we stand in the presence of
God, despite the atrocities of some of our past, we
stand without blemish. The Bible says there is no
difference whether you have sinned once or
thousands of times in this matter. Once we come

to Christ, we are without sin, without blemish and
without accusation. That means no one can
condemn you or judge you.
2. Brings Wisdom and Knowledge
What is the mystery of God? Christ is the mystery
of God. The mystery is not hidden. The mystery
is available if we study it: all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. We need to take it verse
by verse and study it so that we can understand.
When we start to learn of Jesus and see Jesus,
and start to learn his words, the Scriptures, its like
a treasure box being opened to us and all these
things start becoming available to us. That is what
the Scripture is saying. And yet some men and
women dont ever get into the word of God and
they never live an enriched life, full of the
treasures and wisdom that God has available to
them.
3. Puts Roots in Place
What do we know about the Colossian Church?
Colossians 1:6 says they understood Gods grace
in all its truth: that you cant earn your salvation
its a free gift. They deeply loved Jesus and were
passionate about him but they didnt have a root
system in place.
They didnt have the full
understanding, and because of that there were
certain deceptions and philosophies that were
coming in against this church.
So, what we see Paul saying is that they
understand the grace but he wants them to
understand the fullness of Jesus Christ so that
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they will be able to put some roots in. When we

start to talk about how to live your Christian lives,
its not based on some kind of emotional decision.
Some love Jesus emotionally but dont have a root
system in place. So, from this point on, Paul says,
You need to understand Jesus in his fullness so
that you can put a root system in place, so that
when the deceptions and philosophies come
against you, you know how to stand strong.
Philosophies of Today
See to it that
through hollow
which depends
basic principles
Christ.
no one takes you captive

and deceptive philosophy,
on human tradition and the
of this world rather than on
Colossians 2:8
What are the philosophies of today? What are the

deceptions of this world? Lets consider four of
them.
1. Hedonism
Hedonism is the pursuit of personal pleasure.
This philosophy has gripped the world and
infiltrated the life of the Church and Paul says that
if you actually want to stand firm in Christ then you
have to understand that there is a philosophy, a
way of living and thinking, called hedonism. If you
understand Jesus properly then you wont go after
it. If you dont understand him properly then you
will somehow combine this faith in Christ with this
pleasure seeking. Eat, drink and be merry, for
tomorrow we die. So, some go to church on
Sundays but club every other day of the week

because they want to appease their flesh. The
Bible says that you are captive to that thing.
There is no worldly philosophy that does not
eventually take us captive. You might think that
you are free but you are captive. The more you
get to know Jesus and the true freedom, the more
you start to understand what that captivity is.
2. Legalism
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by
what you eat or drink, or with regard to a
religious festival, a New Moon celebration or
a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ. Do not let
anyone who delights in false humility and the
worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.
Such a person goes into great detail about
what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind
puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost
connection with the Head, from whom the
whole body, supported and held together by
its ligaments and sinews, grows as God
causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ
to the basic principles of this world, why, as
though you still belonged to it, do you submit
to its rules: Do not handle! Do not taste! Do
not touch!? These are all destined to perish
with use, because they are based on human
commands and teachings. Such regulations
indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with
their self-imposed worship, their false humility
and their harsh treatment of the body, but
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they lack any value in restraining sensual

indulgence.
Colossians 2:16-23
Legalism is any effort to add to the completed
work of Jesus, adding things that will make us feel
more righteous. If you are under any form of
judgement from any other Christian, or from your
own conscience, you are under legalism and you
need to understand Jesus better.
3. Mysticism
Lets consider verses 18 and 19. Mysticism is
seeking spiritual experience that is devoid of
Gods truth. Sometimes its good to be a mystic
in the sense of having spiritual experiences, where
you can commune with God through his Word, or
through prophesy, or some other biblical thing.
But mysticism to the extreme, without Christ,
results in unhelpful experiences that dont help
you or others.
When you constantly talk with a person that
keeps telling you of their spiritual experiences, you
feel disqualified. You ask, How is it that he has
all these experiences with God but I never do?
But if you understand what it means to be rooted
in Christ and understand the nature and character
and personality of Jesus, anybody elses mystical
experiences will not derail your faith.
When a mystical person stands up and, for
example, says, I had a spiritual experience: I had
a terrible disease for years and God healed me!
you may have had that same disease for your
whole life, never having been healed. You may
start to think that that person is more special than
you are. But when you understand Jesus, you will

understand his ways better. Sometimes he heals,
sometimes he does not. Someone may stand up
and give a financial testimony and you ask
yourself, How is it that it never happens to me?
Such things disqualify people who are not rooted
in Christ.
4. Asceticism
Asceticism is to deny one aspect of ones life so
that another aspect of ones life can get stronger.
Such people try to deny the body so that their
spirit can get stronger. Do not taste, do not
touch, do not . With that comes the bondage of
rules. We see this in verses 20 to 22.
So, we have four things that we need to deal
with when we know Jesus better, and these four
things must constantly get broken in our life:
captivity, disqualification, judgement and rules.
Christianity is not a set of rules. Soon we will be
seeing how the Christian lives his life in a pure
way before Godand its not a set of rules. We
have to make sure that we know Christ so that
nothing that anyone else does can put us into
captivity, disqualification, judgement, or rules.
Jesus Revealed in the Book of John

I trust that you spend as much time in the gospels
as you do in the epistles. We must know the
name of Jesus and the ways of Jesus as much as
we must know the ways of the Church and the
mission and the mandate of the Church. When
we lose touch with the head, the whole body starts
becoming distorted. God gave us every book to
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understand Jesus in his fullness. Lets now look

at the book of John.
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. But these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name.
John 20:30-31
This book was written so that you and I may
continue to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
Godthats why the signs were given (there are
seven miraculous signs that take place in the book
of John, that you and I may continue to believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God).
1. The Son of God (John 1)
The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came
from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Here are a number of different aspects of Jesus.
If they are not a revelation in your life, I pray that
you will put your Bible on the floor in your study,
get on your knees and say, Father in heaven, in
order for me to live a free Christian life, free from
captivity, free from deception, free from
judgement, free from disqualification and free from
rules, I need to understand your Son better, in his
full breadth, his full length, in his full depth. John
is a wonderful book where the Son of God gets
illustrated, many different aspects are revealed.

When we understand and live in that truth, we can
start to live successful, free Christian lives: free
from rules, free from judgement, free from
legalismand we are going to bring glory to God
all over the face of the earth. The people that are
in bondage to the world, to drugs and sex, must
not come into the Church and find bondage here,
they must come into the Church and find
freedomfreedom in all aspects, not just the ones
that you like.
2. The Son of Man (John 2)
Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. We
have to understand, from Matthew 3 and 4, that
Jesus overcame temptation as a man, not as God.
If you are the Son of God turn these stones into
bread. Jesus says that man does not live on
bread aloneJesus faced that temptation as a
man. How on earth do we overcome temptation?
We put our faith in Jesus Christ, who even as a
man was able to overcome temptation.
Jesus changed water into wine. Jesus was
not the miracle worker at the wedding, he was an
invited guest. Water in the Old Testament is a
reflection of Judaism. Wine in the New Testament
is a reflection of the New Covenant, which speaks
about an abundance; the banquet, about fullness;
and it speaks about incredible blessings. When
we come to Jesus Christ, we give up the old order
of water and come into the new order of wine,
which signifies joy.
One of the things that legalism does, as seen
in the book of Galatians, is rob us of joy. When
men and women are no longer joyful, it is a sign of
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possible legalism. Perhaps someone has put

something upon them, a judgement or a
heaviness. Perhaps you have lost your joy so, we
go back to the book of John and read the story
about the water turned into wine, the very thing
that Jesus came to do: to change the old order of
legalism, change the old order of Judaism, and put
in a new order there called the New Covenant,
which is about joy. We need a revelation of the
joy of God so that when we come to a church
meeting, feeling good or bad, we can enter the joy
because God has already changed the water into
wine.
3. The Divine Teacher (John 3)
Nicodemus was a teacher and Jesus said that he
needed to be born again. He started to teach
about the ways of God. The law of God gets
written on our hearts and the law of God gets
written on our minds. When we open up the
Scriptures, the divine teacher will teach us the
word of God. How does that happen? A lady
once told us about this situation: she said, Before
I was saved I assisted in two abortions. A week
after I was saved my cousin phoned me and said
that he had made a girl pregnant and wanted to
abort the child. My immediate response was, Do
not abort the child. Its not right. What
happened in that one week? The law of God was
written on her heart and mind. She might not
have understood the Scriptures but it was already
inside her. Allow yourself to submit to the word of
God because God is not a mother, God is a
father. We live in a mother culture: a culture of
recovery not a culture of obedience. But we
submit ourselves to the divine teacher. He will

teach us obedience. Mother always makes sure
that everything is alright, father always speaks
clearly. God wants obedience not just recovery.
Obedience will lead to recovery but sometimes
recovery does not lead to obedience.
4. The Soul Winner (John 4)
In John 4 Jesus comes to the lady at the well. Her
life is a mess. She has had five men and is living
with the sixth man. He says, Call your husband.
She says, He is not my husband. He says, You
are right, he is not your husband. He is the sixth
man. And Jesus was, in a way, the seventh. The
perfect number in Scripture is seven. Jesus starts
making that woman at the well whole and
complete. Jesus was a soul winner! He starts to
remove barriers from her life: cultural, religious
and sexual (men and women werent allowed to
talk to each other). Samaritans were not allowed
to talk to Jews. He removes the barriers so that
he can win her soul.
When we understand that, we take the
barriers away from people. We are not meant to
make it difficult for people to come to Jesus, we
are meant to make it easy. Why? So that they
can be freed up from the human philosophies of
this world that lead to captivity and deception.
They dont know they are deceived. They dont
understand what freedom is. And if we dont know
what freedom is then we cant lead them into
freedom. We need to be freed from the captivity
of human philosophy (hedonism, relativism,
secular humanism)freed so we can win these
souls and take these men and women to Jesus.
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We want to remove all the barriersbut first we

need to understand the treasure chest that has
been made available to us in all its fullness.
5. The Great Physician (John 5)
In John 5 we have the healing at the pool: there is
a cripple who cant get into the water. He has
been trying for 38 years! Some of you might feel
like that, perhaps sick for 38 years emotionally. I
want to tell you that there is a Great Physician in
the Scriptures, healing physical, emotional and
spiritual problems. Know him in his fullness.
6. The Bread of Life (John 6)
In John 6 Jesus feeds the 5 000.
When Jesus heard what had happened, he
withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.
Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on
foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and
saw a large crowd, he had compassion on
them and healed their sick. As evening
approached, the disciples came to him and
said, This is a remote place and its already
getting late. Send the crowds away .
Mathew 14:13-15
When some people walk into a church building,
the pastor thinks, I cant meet your needs. God,
how on earth are we ever going to minister to
these people? We should never want to send
them away, but we do ask, How are we going to
minister to that emotional hurt, sexual brokenness
or financial difficulty?
When Jesus looks at the crowds, and the

disciples say, Send them away, Jesus says,
Bring them to me. I want to feed them because I
am the bread of life. It was evening and it was a
remote place: the situations when we panic
when we feel isolated and when things seem to be
getting late! And thats the time that the bread of
life starts to come through. It says that every
single person was fed, every single one was
satisfied and every single person had leftovers.
We need to understand the bread of life. This is
not a miserly God, an economy God. This is the
God of even leftovers. If we are going to bring
people into freedom and fullness, they have to
understand Christ in his fullness, that he is the
Bread of Life with leftovers.
7. The Water of Life (John 7)
On the last and greatest day of the Feast,
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and
drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will
flow from within him. By this he meant the
Spirit, whom those who believed in him were
later to receive.
John 7:37-39
It went something like this on the last day and
greatest day of the Feast: as they were going
through the ceremonial process, there was a time
of silence where they would get a silver vase filled
with water and pour water out of it to symbolise
the outpouring of the water of God; and in the
middle of this silence Jesus stopped them and
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said, Me, me, meIm the water of life. He

ruined the whole party but he refreshed people
from that day onward, all those men and women
who are prepared to bow down on their knees and
let that thing become a revelation to them. Never
again should the born-again believer ever have to
thirst, never again should they ever be worn out,
never again should they ever be weary because
the Bible says the great treasure chest gets
opened to us and inside is the water of lifeand it
says that the water will flow from within us always.
When you get dried up within and you stop
meeting with the fountain of life, Christianity
becomes a set of rules and regulations.
Judgement sets in, and after judgement a whole
set of rules set in, and no longer can you live the
Christian life in freedom because you have dried
up inside. Let it not happen any longer.
8. The Defender of the Weak (John 8)
The woman caught in the act of adultery is
mentioned in John 8.
They made her stand before the group and
said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was
caught in the act of adultery. In the Law
Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Now what do you say? They were using this
question as a trap, in order to have a basis for
accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on
the ground with his finger. When they kept on
questioning him, he straightened up and said
to them, If any one of you is without sin, let
him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Again he stooped down and wrote on the
ground. At this, those who heard began to go
away one at a time, the older ones first, until
only Jesus was left, with the woman still
standing there. Jesus straightened up and
asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no
one condemned you? No one, sir, she
said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus
declared. Go now and leave your life of sin.
John 8:311
He is the defender of the weak. Not only does he
not condemn her but he tells her to walk away
from her sin. He takes those who are broken and
bruised, he brings them in, shows them himself,
and he says, Sin no more. Anything else is
legalism.
9. The Light of the World (John 9)
In John 9 he heals the man who was born blind
he is the light of the world.
10. The Good Shepherd (John 10)
What does a good shepherd do? He lays down
his life for his sheep.
The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and
destroy; I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.
John 10:10
How can we come into the Church and not have
life more abundantly?
By not understanding
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Jesus properly. I dont believe everyone will be

rich but I dont see poverty for the born-again
believer: in every single area of life. If we dont
get life abundantly then we go back to the
deceptive philosophies of this world and we start
following that: Let me follow hedonism a little bit
and maybe I will find abundance there.
Hedonism never leads to abundance, it always
leads to captivity.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11
11. The Prince of Life (John 11)
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the
tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across
the entrance. Take away the stone, he said.
But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the
dead man, By this time there is a bad odour,
for he has been there four days. Then Jesus
said, Did I not tell you that if you believed,
you would see the glory of God?
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus
looked up and said, Father, I thank you that
you have heard me. I knew that you always
hear me but I said this for the benefit of the
people standing here, that they may believe
that you sent me. When he had said this,
Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come
out! The dead man came out, his hands and
feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth
around his face. Jesus said to them, Take
off the grave clothes and let him go.
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John 11:3844
Right now there are people who are like Lazarus
who was in the grave: there are men and women
who stink from sin, from drugs, from sex. Jesus
says, Roll the stone away. Listen to the voice
that says, Lazarus, come out, come out from your
life of sin, come out from your life of captivity,
come out from your life of rules. As you stand
there with your grave clothes, we give the
command in Jesus name, Take those grave
clothes off! You will never have to walk again in
any form of prison. Some people who have been
born again are walking around with forms of grave
clothes wrapped around them. Jesus said, Take
the grave clothes off and let this man go free,
never again to be burdened by the yoke of
slavery.
He is the prince of life. When his word comes
it means life abundantly, life in the full. We need
to find the revelation so that we can live in that.
12. The King (John 12)
The triumphal entry at Jerusalem is in John 12,
and it shows us Jesus as King.
Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it,
as it is written, Do not be afraid , see, your
king is coming, seated on a donkeys colt.
John 12:1415
13. The Servant (John 12)
Of all the commands in Scripture, many find the
most difficult one to be, Serve. I dont know how
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many husbands find it a joy to make their wives

tea in the morning. By nature, few of us are
servants. We think we were born to be served.
That is a bit of a problem when we come into the
Kingdom because God says he is the King and we
are the servants. He is not a mother, he is a
father. He says, Serve your wife. Serve the
Church.
It does not come easy but its a
command. To serve in the Church is not easy, but
when we see Jesus who is seated at the right
hand of the Father, we see God who has come in
human form. He came down as the Son of God.
He wraps a towel around his waist, he gets down
on his knees and he starts to wash his disciples
feet. Who on earth are we to struggle with
servanthood?
14. The Consoler (John 14)
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in
God; trust also in me. In my Fathers house
are many rooms; if it were not so, I would
have told you. I am going there to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come back and take you to be
with me that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am
going.
John 14:14
He is the consoler. The disciples were starting to
worry about him getting ready to leave and he told
them not to worry. When a couple are expecting a
baby, they have nine months to prepare the
babys room. They have creativity that is limited
between the two of them and they have finances,
which is usually limited too. So, you have three

main limitations: time, creativity and finances. The
Bible says he is preparing a place in heaven for us
and he has no time limitations because he is in
eternity, he has no creativity limitations for he is
the creator and he has no financial limitations
because he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
So, you can imagine what our place is going to
look like!
He says it to comfort the disciples. Although
you are suffering here, one day you are going to
live in that wonderful place. When we understand
that, we dont go after philosophies like hedonism
and ducking and diving to try and earn an extra
buckwe know that over there its going to be
okay. I trust that you will take this teaching, get on
your knees and ask God to reveal it to you.
15. The Vine (John 15)
I am the true vine and my Father is the
gardener.
John 15:1
If you want to be fruitful and you want to be
sustained, then link in with the vine.
16. The Giver of the Holy Spirit (John 16)
Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none
of you asks me, Where are you going?
Because I have said these things, you are
filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for
your good that I am going away. Unless I go
away, the Counselor will not come to you; but
if I go, I will send him to you.
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John 16:57
17. The Great Intercessor (John 17)
In John 17 Jesus prays for himself, from verse 6
he prays for his disciples, from verse 20 he prays
for all believers. When we understand that, we
can go to Colossians 3 where it says we must be
holy and live a holy life. How do we understand
this? We understand that the Son is at the right
hand of the Father and he is interceding for us.
He is asking the Father to give us courage. He is
making requests on behalf of us regarding our
singleness, our marriage, our business ventures
and for us in the local church.
18. The Model Sufferer (John 18)
He did not fight or scream. In John 18 he suffered
as a model for us.
19. The Uplifted Saviour (John 19)
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to
the cross. It read, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE
KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read
this sign, for the place where Jesus was
crucified was near the city, and the sign was
written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
John 19:1920
Why was it written in those three languages?
They were the language of the culture, the
language of the State and the language of religion.
Jesus Christ was the king of the State, king of
religion and the king of their culture. In verse 30
he says, It is finished. There is nothing more
that you can do for your salvation, justification or

glorification. Its finished. Its a completed work of
Jesus and anything to the contrary will lead to
deceptive philosophies like legalism or mysticism,
which will result in captivity, rules, regulations,
judgement and bondage.
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his
spirit.
John 19:30
That word bow appears only twice in the
Scriptures. One of the times is when he is
teaching about how foxes have holes and birds
have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
his head. That word lay is the same word as
bow. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head. In other words, he was just walking,
pioneering, being a pilgrim in the world. But the
day he died on the cross and cried out, It is
finished, and bowed his head, his head was in the
place that God gave him for when he came to the
earth. The Son of Man has only one place to lay
his head and its there on the cross. If we
understand that, we will never be in bondage to
any form of false religion or philosophy. But you
have got to understand that by revelation.
20. The Conqueror of Death (John 20)
The stone was rolled away in John 20 and they
asked, Where is he? But he was gone from the
grave! Because he conquered death, you and I
can truly live. Never again under bondage but in
freedom.
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21. The Restorer (John 21)

Peter denied him three times and Jesus, in his
grace, asked, Peter do you love me? He said,
Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Then feed my
sheep. He restored the ministry to himand
Peter, who never understood the cross properly at
first, went on to become one of the great apostles.
4: Our Position: Gods Sons

We Respond in Maturity to Christs Cross
1. We Seek First the Kingdom
For he has rescued us from the dominion of
darkness and brought us into the kingdom of
the Son he loves, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over
all creation. For by him all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or
powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him. He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning and the firstborn from
among the dead, so that in everything he
might have the supremacy. For God was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross. Once you were alienated
from God and were enemies in your minds
because of your evil behaviour. But now he
has reconciled you by Christs physical body
through death to present you holy in his sight,
without blemish and free from accusationif
you continue in your faith, established and
firm, not moved from the hope held out in the
gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and
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that has been proclaimed to every creature

under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have
become a servant. Now I rejoice in what was
suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what
is still lacking in regard to Christs afflictions,
for the sake of his body, which is the church.
I have become its servant by the commission
God gave me to present to you the word of
God in its fullnessthe mystery that has
been kept hidden for ages and generations,
but is now disclosed to the saints. To them
God has chosen to make known among the
Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We
proclaim him, admonishing and teaching
everyone with all wisdom, so that we may
present everyone perfect in Christ. To this
end I labour, struggling with all his energy,
which so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:13-29
This letter of Colossians was written from prison.
Paul was in a situation where he was probably
about to be executed and he writes that he is
struggling for others.
I want you to know how much I am struggling
for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all
who have not met me personally.
Colossians 2:1
An amazing thing happens when we start to see
the gospel and we start to see what Christ has
done for us: we get elevated out of our
circumstances and the things of the gospel
become more important than our situations. As

we read these things, our lack of maturity gets
dealt with very severely and we realise that we
complain about the most trivial things instead of
being caught up in the bigger picture.
When material and financial things are our
goal, anything that hinders our gaining more
causes us to complain. When the kingdom of God
is our goal, whatever situations we find ourselves
in, we rejoice as long as we are seeing the
Kingdom come. Paul says that he rejoices in his
sufferings. He says he wants the Colossians to
know that he is struggling for them. What an
incredible sign of leadershipand he wants us to
know this. There are people who are praying for
the people of the church. The eldership meet and
pray regularly, and sometimes some of the elders
literally break down and cry in their struggle for the
church.
2. We Intercede on Behalf of Others
Paul wants us not only to know that should we live
in a good way but also that there are people who
are struggling for us so that we can live in such a
way. We have seen people who were struggling
but people interceded before God day after day,
week after week. Those strugglers were restored
to the Church because a man interceded before
God for him. The cross of Christ is not just for our
personal joy and personal freedom; when we
understand it, we start to wrestle for other people.
Thats maturity and thats leadership.
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3. We Know We are Holy in His Sight

There are three presentations that we see here.
But now he has reconciled you by Christs
physical body through death to present you
holy in his sight .
Colossians 1:22
We get presented through the cross, we get
presented holy in his sight. The day that we
understand the cross, as the forgiving power of
God comes upon us, its like a white sheet that
comes over us and we get presented holy in his
sight. So, when we start to deal with carnal
Christianity, we are not just saying this is wrong or
that is wrong, this disqualifies you or that
disqualifies youthe day that we get born again, a
white sheet gets placed over us and we get
presented holy in Gods sight.
4. We Embrace the Whole Gospel
I have become its servant by the commission
God gave me to present to you the word of
God in its fullness .
Colossians 1:25
There is nothing that can change our presentation
in front of God. The day that we believe in the
cross of Christ, we stand perfect in the sight of
God. But then Paul says, I present the word of
God to you in its fullness. Its not going to change
your position in Jesus Christ but its going to make
you mature. We like to get blessed and we like
the parts that are enjoyable. The Bible says that
for us to get strong we have to have the full

presentation of the gospel. The full presentation
says that we not only care for ourselves but that
we love our neighbour and we love God. The full
presentation says we give 10% of our income.
We want the full presentation. You stand perfect
in his sight presented before himbut if you are
going to live a successful Christian life then when
the gospel gets presented to you in the fullness,
you have to keep responding.
5. We Grow and Mature in Christ
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching
everyone with all wisdom, so that we may
present everyone perfect in Christ.
Colossians 1:28
Perfect, here, means mature. We are already
perfect in Christ but when we understand the
Scripture and the fullness, we become mature in
Christ. Paul says, I want to present you mature in
Christ. The task of the leaders is to help present
you perfect in Christ. Their job is to challenge
you, to search you and to stir you. Part of our task
is to teach you how to respond to prophetic words.
Our task is to teach you how to respond to the
Scripturesnot with a whip but with conviction so
that you wont go to church meetings just to
appease your conscience. Rather, you go to
church meetings to get fully involved in what God
is doing in the Church throughout the earth. The
Scriptures are there to exercise us, to stretch us,
to grow us, to develop us.
When the Word gets presented in its fullness,
its not up to us to pick and choose what we are
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going to accept. Its not like the TV where we can

just flick to the channels we like and avoid the
ones we dont. If you have an issue in the area of
finances, the church will present the issue of godly
finances to you (usually after the offering so that
you dont feel manipulated) but you will have to
make a decision. We have to present to you
praise and worship. Some people have been
brought up in a place where you can laugh and
joke outside but as soon as you walk into a church
building everyone has to keep quiet because, Its
Gods house. The church building is not Gods
house, its just metal and stone. We are Gods
house. We are the Church. The church building
is our house that God entrusted us with.
Psalm 149 and Psalm 150 talk about praise
and worship. One of the words for praise can
mean clamorous or foolish. Many of us have been
brought up in religion where there is no freedom.
Im not being harsh, Im just being real. Then you
come into this thing called biblical worship and you
think it is freaky. Go and find it in the word of God.
When the word of God gets presented to you in its
fullness, it can actually deal with your traditions
and your culture. Its about every single member
of the Church praying. Its about every single
member of the Church giving their tithes and
offerings according to the Scriptures. The Church
is not an audience, we have been called to be an
army. And every army has got a hospital attached
to it where people who are broken can get healed.
Hospitals dont have armies but armies do have
hospitals. God has called us, given us a purpose
and a mandate. We hear it clearly, its coming
over and over again and we respond to it.
Remember the thief on the cross. The picture

of Christs cross was not meant for the Church, it
was meant for the thieves. People mocked him,
ridiculed him and spat on him, and one of the
thieves asked the Lord to have mercy on him, and
asked Jesus to help him get to the Kingdom.
Jesus told him that today he would be with him in
paradise. A thief cant do a single thing when he
has two nails nailed through his arms. We, too,
can do nothing for our salvation, we can only
accept the completed work of Christ.
And
because of that we stand in his presence without
spot or blemish. In this place of understanding we
present the gospel, people mature and grow until
they are presented perfect and mature in the sight
of God.
What the Cross Means for Us

1. We are Redeemed
Propitiation means the wrath of God has been
appeased. Jesus died on the cross so that the
wrath of God was appeased. In him we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Reconciliation means that you have been
bought from a slave market. You were a slave: a
slave to sin, a slave to the world; you were a slave
to your habits. Because the blood of Christ was
shed for us, we have been redeemed from that
market, we have been bought. We used to be
slaves, we have been bought. We have a new
master now and the masters name is Jesus. He
has bought us with a price.
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2. We are Justified
When we talk of being justified, its a picture of a
law court. God is the judge. We will be judged for
our sin.
Jesus comes in and breaks that
judgement and we are justified. Justified is, Just
as if Id never sinned.
The opposite is
condemnation. We now stand perfect, legal in his
sight.
Colossians 1:21 speaks of what you once
were: alienated from God. Verse 22 speaks of
where you now stand: holy in his sight, without
blemish and free from accusation. Verse 23
speaks of how you must go on: continue in your
faith.
We cannot preach verse 23 until we have
preached verses 21 and 22, otherwise its
legalism. Once we have preached verse 21 and
verse 22, we can preach verse 23, and we can
preach it hard. But when you understand verse
21, where you were; and verse 22, where you
stand; then verse 23 should become your natural
response to the goodness of God.
If you believe that you have been justified and
you believe that you have been reconciled but you
do not continue on the process of sanctification, I
doubt seriously whether you have been born
again. We cannot say that we have been justified
in the presence of God, we have been forgiven
from all our sins, that the power of sin has been
broken over us, yet continue to sleep around,
continue to drug around, continue to do exactly
the same, except go to a church meeting on a
Sunday. That might make us think we are right
with God, it may appease our consciences, but it
doesnt solve the problem.
When God makes us righteous, when that

white sheet comes upon us, it changes our
behaviour. In the presence of God we are perfect,
and then he comes underneath the sheet and he
starts to do some things to our hearts. He starts
to tweak our hearts and our tongues. When that
tweaking gets refused, we throw the sheet off.
Justification and reconciliation lead to a process of
sanctification, which is the processes of God
working out. We cannot do anything to earn our
justification, nothing! Its a free gift. But there is
an issue of obedience. We receive the gift of God
in obedience and walk it out.
3. We are Reconciled
When talking of reconciliation, the picture is of the
home, of being a father and a son, and being
reconciled. What Jesus did on the cross is that he
reconciled us to the Father. The Bible says the
only way to the Father is through the Son. Thats
what Jesus came to do. Before we continue we
must understand that we are reconciled to the
Father. We need to understand what it means to
be a son.
Yet to all who received him, to those who
believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of Godchildren born not of
natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husbands will but born of God.
John 1:1213
There was a little boy who was abandoned on the
side of the road. He had no strength in his
muscles and could not hold himself up. He never
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smiled. One of the eldership couples adopted that

boy. God took a child with no hope, he took a
child with no future and he gave him one of the
most amazing fathers. I want you to think about
that little boy and understand this: that wherever
you come from, whatever your background is and
whatever road you might have been abandoned
on, that is exactly what Jesus has done for you.
Now, for us to understand reconciliation, to
understand that at one stage we were left out, we
were abandoned and had no access to him, with
no destiny whatsoever, we need to understand
that Jesus came, and through the work on the
cross he reconciled us to the Father. Now we can
lie in our Fathers arms, sit in his lap and call him
Father. Its not natural descent or human decision
or a husbands will. God in his grace can take a
child born illegitimately and weave a pattern of
wholeness and healing until that person becomes
a preacher to the nations. That is the incredible
grace of God. Every time you think about an
adopted child, just remind yourself of what Jesus
has done for you: reconciled you to the Father and
given you a hope and a plan.
When we
understand that truth with justification, redemption
and propitiation, when the Word comes and says,
Now, continue in this faith, we find the power to
walk out a life that is going to be pleasing to God
because of what he has done for us.
Son or Survivor?
Here are three things that a godly father installs in
his children:
I believe in you.
You are not alone.

It can be done.
The greatest hindrance to sonship is survivorship.
In Matthew 3 God says of Jesus, This is my Son
whom I love, with whom Im well pleased. In
Matthew 4 Jesus goes into the dessert and is
hungry. He gets tempted. The devil asks him if
he is the Son of God (after God has just said that
he is his Son), and says, then turn these
stones into bread. Jesus is hungry and needs
something to eat in order to survive. So, the first
temptation that comes to Jesus is the issue of
survivorship, the first thing that he gets tested with
is the issue of sonship. One of the first things we
need to understand, and then know without a
shadow of a doubt, especially for successful
Christian living, is not only that we are born again,
not only have we been set free, but we have been
reconciled to the Father. Were sons with a full
inheritance, not survivors. There are men and
women in the Church who are survivors because
they have not fully understood the reconciliation
process of God that happened through the cross.
Therefore, lets look at the differences between a
son and a survivor.
1. Asking versus Begging
A son asks, a survivor begs. Parents know whats
best for their children. Our Father knows whats
best for us.
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2. Secure versus Proving Self

A son rests in his fathers love, a survivor has to
prove himself. Some people have done well in
business, not because they are clever, but
because they went out there to prove themselves.
Why? Because they had it hard when they were
younger. There is a fundamental flaw in this
behaviour.
When your achievements and
successes revolve around your status and
recognition, youve got survivorship. The true
source of our status and recognition is the cross of
Christ. On the day of Christs death on the cross
we were reconciled to the Father, and if we never
achieve another thing in our lives, we stand in his
sight perfect as his sons. This is my son whom I
love, with whom Im well pleased. But Jesus had
done no public ministry up to that point!
We need God to do some adjustments in us
because when we start to talk about things of
godly living, some people start to call it harsh. But
when we understand our Father who knows whats
best for us, we then know how to live according to
the pattern that he has created for us. Its so
wonderful when we see the wedding of a couple
who have kept themselves sexually pure. It is the
most wonderful thing for a friend to be able to
stand in front of a couples families and ask for the
blessings of God to come upon the marriage and
know without a shadow of a doubt that the
blessings of God will be there because they have
honoured him.
You may say that you have already messed
your life up sexually. Well, if you come to the
cross and bow your knee, he puts a white sheet
over your sexuality, he puts a white sheet over
your financial dealings, and says that you can

stand before him perfectly holy. You get the
forgiveness of God and get married in purity in the
sight of God. If you are not married yet and you
say Christ is your King then he gives you a
lifestyle of sexuality that he wants you to live by
because he is your Father and he knows what is
best for you.
3. Responding versus Reacting (Four
Animals)
A son responds to discipline, a survivor reacts.
When you corner a rabbit, tortoise, snake or
turkey you get a survivor reaction: a rabbit runs, a
tortoise hides, a snake fights and a turkey blows
itself up. When you get disciplined, whether by
the leadership of the church or someone at work,
and your reaction is any one of those things, you
have not understood sonship.
If you get
disciplined or confronted then you shouldnt turn
and run like a rabbit. A rabbit runs to survive. A
tortoise just hides. Perhaps you have been
abused or perhaps you were taken advantage of.
When confronted you just want to curl up into a
little ball, get into your shell and close off
completely. But it shouldnt be like that, where
there is no access to you whatsoever. A snake
just fights. Some survivors, when put into a
corner, get hurt because they come out there
fighting. The turkey blows itself up, it makes itself
look bigger. When you confront such survivors
they give you the everythings good to me
attitude. Hows your job? I did 20 sales last
week! No you didnt, you did three. They tend to
make themselves look bigger.
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These are symptoms of survivorship. I am

challenging you because I want you to live in the
completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We
dont have to live under survivorship. When we
understand the Father, we dont have to run, hide,
fight or make ourselves look bigger.
4. Vulnerable versus Defensive
A son is teachable and vulnerable, a survivor has
highly developed defence mechanisms. Some
people tell jokes all the time. You know what
those jokes are? They are survival skills to take
the pressure off.
They constantly take the
pressure off by picking on others. A son is
vulnerable, teachable and open.
5. Receiving versus Working for Approval
A son receives a fathers love, a survivor works for
his fathers approval. This is key. One of the
greatest things that my dad taught me was that he
loved me unconditionally: whether I played Ateam, B-team or C-team sportor even if I did not
make the team, he just loved me. Some ladies
have lived under the performance mentality of
their fathers: theyre in bondage to their bodies
because their father had a perfectionist mindset.
Perhaps he sent you to the gym and you had to
work hard for your fathers approval. The Father
in heaven likes you just the way you are.
6. Trusting in the Father versus Trusting in
Self
A son trusts his father, a survivor trusts himself.
7. Reconciled versus Estranged

A son is always reconciled with his father, a
survivor always has a gap: he never feels
accepted, there is always just one step missing.
8. Healed and Whole versus Gangs and
Groups
A son lives healed and whole, a survivor forms
gangs. How do we know that? Just look at the
street kids. They live in gangs because they need
to survive. There is more chance of surviving in
numbers than there is by yourself. In many
churches we have gangs: gangs of divorced
people, gangs of single people or gangs of
retrenched people. A divorced persons healing is
not in a divorced persons support group. A
divorced persons healing is at the cross of Christ
with full integration into the life of a church. One
broken person with another broken person does
not make a whole person. But a broken person
and the cross of Christ does make a whole
person. If you are in any form of a gang, a gang
that you need to make you feel better, youre in a
bad situation. When you invite people for dinner,
make sure that you invite married and single
people. The home groups must be full of all sorts
of peopleit shouldnt be a gang. That way we
dont hide in our gang but we find our wholeness
as sons and daughters of the living God, whole
and healed.
9. Gods Loving Eye versus Nervous Fear
A son has his father as a rear guard, a survivor
has someone to watch his back.
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10. Father Focused versus Busy

A son talks about his father, a survivor always tells
us how busy he is and what he has done. Howre
you doing? Ive had so many meetings, Ive
been busy. Our identity does not come from what
we are doing, it comes from who we are.
11. Home versus Office
A son finds his identity in the home, a survivor
finds his identity in the office.
12. Table versus Rubbish Bin
A son eats at the table of his father, a survivor
digs up old bones. You have probably seen dogs
digging in a rubbish bin looking for something to
nibble on. This is a picture of a survivor.
Conclusion
Before we can preach Colossians 1 verse 23, we
have to live in verses 21 and 22. We used to be
alienated from God but now we have been justified
in his sight. We have white sheets over us. We
have been redeemed from the slave market.
Christ has taken the wrath of God and taken it
upon himself. We have been reconciled to the
Father in heaven. We walk in our inheritance as
sons, never as survivors.
Some of the most successful men and
women are survivors not sons. My God, my God
why have you forsaken me? is the thing that
heals usnot psychologists. They may help, but
the truth has to be that Christ was rejected so that
we can be healed.
5: Holy Living
The Possibility of Holy Living
1. We Have Power Over All Enemies
Since, then, you have been raised with
Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. Set your minds on things above, not on
earthly things. For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ,
who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs
to your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is
idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God
is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in
the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all
such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander and filthy language from your lips. Do
not lie to each other, since you have taken off
your old self with its practices and have put
on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here
there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or
free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as Gods chosen people, holy
and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience. Bear with each other and
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forgive whatever grievances you may have

against one another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you. And over all these virtues put on
love, which binds them all together in perfect
unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your
hearts, since as members of one body you
were called to peace. And be thankful. Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to
God. And whatever you do, whether in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is
fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives
and do not be harsh with them. Children,
obey your parents in everything, for this
pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter
your children, or they will become
discouraged.
Slaves, obey your earthly
masters in everything; and do it, not only
when their eye is on you and to win their
favour, but with sincerity of heart and
reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do,
work at it with all your heart, as working for
the Lord, not for men, since you know that
you will receive an inheritance from the Lord
as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are
serving. Anyone who does wrong will be
repaid for his wrong, and there is no
favouritism.
Colossians 3
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Colossians 3 contains some of the motivations as

to why we should live a holy life.
See to it that
through hollow
which depends
basic principles
Christ.
no one takes you captive

and deceptive philosophy,
on human tradition and the
of this world rather than on
Colossians 2:8
When you were dead in your sins and in the

uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God
made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all
our sins, having cancelled the written code,
with its regulations, that was against us and
that stood opposed to us; he took it away,
nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed
the powers and authorities, he made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by
the cross.
Colossians 2:1315
The cross takes care of all the opposition that we
face in this life. The cross deals with that which is
underneath us: the cross disarmed the powers
and principalities of the devil. The Bible says that
the opposition that comes from within us, our
earthly nature, our sinful nature, is also dealt with
by the cross. Paul says, I am crucified with
Christ. The old man has been dealt with, and
also that which is from the outside, the world, the
philosophies, the pleasures of this world and
values of this world that attack us from the
outside. Paul says, I am crucified to the world
and the world is crucified to me. All thats around
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us has been dealt with at the cross. That which is

above us, the law that rests so heavily upon us, is
taken care of at the cross as well. The written
code was cancelled at the cross.
So, the opposition that comes from above, the
law, is broken. So, too, the opposition from within,
around and beneath us. The cross is the weapon
for the believer to lead a successful life. When we
start dealing with holy living, it is not a decision of
will to live a holy life, it is not an issue of self
confidence, it is a complete trust in the finished
work of Christ upon the cross so you and I can live
a holy life. When the power of God becomes
manifest in our lives and in our bodies, we start to
live successful lives.
2. We Have a Firm Footing
Carnal Christianity is when we have our two feet in
two different worlds: one foot in the Church and
the other in the world. This causes you to lose
your balance. You have nowhere to stand and
you get pushed over. If you have one foot in the
world financially and the other in the Church
financially, you have got no balance financially. If
you have both feet firmly in the Church financially,
you have a solid footing from which to declare
warfare over your businesses and over your
finances. If you have one foot in the world
sexually and the other foot in the Church sexually,
you are going to lose your sense of balance and
you are going to fall. The cross is the completed
work of Christ so that you and I can live
successful, spiritual Christian lives.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by

what you eat or drink, or with regard to a
religious festival, a new moon celebration or a
Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ. Do not let
anyone who delights in false humility and the
worship of angles disqualify you for the prize.
Such a person goes into great detail about
what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind
puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost
connection with the Head, from whom the
whole body, supported and held together by
its ligaments and sinews, grows as God
causes it to grow.
Colossians 2:1619
He is talking about spiritual freaks who keep telling
you about what they see.
They have lost
connection with the Head. Listening to them you
feel disqualified because all these people have
these huge spiritual experiences and then you feel
that you can never achieve them.
Friends,
nothing else needs to be achieved except the
cross of Christsomething that we just receive.
Chapter 3s NIV heading is, in some ways, an
unfortunate one, Rules for Holy Living. The
TNIVs heading is, Living as Those Made Alive in
Christ. We dont live by rules but by the grace of
God and his Holy Spirit.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to
your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
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is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in

the life you once lived. But now you must rid
yourselves of all such things as these: anger
rage malice, slander and filthy language from
your lips.
Colossians 3:58
3. We Have a Position in Christ
Earlier we examined imperative and indicative
statements. Imperative is about the commands of
God. Indicative is about the position in which we
stand. Indicative (indicate) is about where we
stand in Christ: we have been redeemed, we have
been forgiven, we have been adopted as his sons,
we are seated at the right hand, we are seated in
heavenly places, we have all the power that raised
Christ from the dead manifest in our lives. And
now the Bible says, Put to death what belongs to
the earthly nature. That is not legalism, it is a
command of God. Its not based on self will or self
confidence but its based on the position that we
have in Christ. Its good enough to deal with every
single passion of our bodies and every single
pride that people will have in their hearts. Its
powerful enough to deal with those things so that
you and I can live spiritual lives, not carnal
Christianity. We must put to death the earthly
naturenot by rules and regulations but by the
manifest power of the almighty God and the
completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
4. We Have Gods Freedom
See to it that no one takes you captive
through hollow and deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human tradition and the

basic principles of this world rather than on
Christ.
Colossians 2:8
Verse 8 says captive. When we understand the
holiness of God, it is not captivity, it is not
bondage, it is freedom. The ways of the world
(with human philosophy) take us captive. I have
seen thousands of men and women captive to
pleasure at sporting events. Before the game they
were drunk.
What they think is freedom is
captivity. What they think is pleasure (shouting,
screaming and drinking) is captivity. Freedom is
in Christ. No captivity!
Verse 16 says judge. Judgement by mere
people is legalism. Were not judging you, the
word of God is doing that.
Verse 18 says disqualify.
Theres no
disqualification.
Verse 20 says, rules. This is not an issue of
rules. Im not handing you a set of rules, Im
handing you a spiritual life. If you think its just
about sexuality, remember Colossians 3:12 that
deals with our personal life. Verse 15 deals with
our spiritual life, verse 18 deals with our married
life, and submission. Some say its impossible
and it is if you dont understand your position in
Christ. But the spiritual wife who understands
what Christ has done for her will submit to her
husband, and the spiritual husband who
understands what Christ has done for him will lay
down his life for his wife.
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5. We Have the Spirit to Lead Us

We are not talking just about carnal Christianity
where there is some sexual sin going on, we are
talking about carnal Christianity where a wife who
has been saved for years will still not submit
herself to her husband. We are talking about
carnal Christianity where a husband who has been
saved for years will not lay down his life for his
wife, where kids will not obey their parents. Some
teenagers have been in the Church for years but
there is no Christ-like behaviour at home. That is
carnal Christianity. The day you get saved your
parents should be able to see that you were once
in darkness but now you live in light: you dont
have to be told to wash the dishes, you get up and
wash them because of the completed work of
Christ inside of you. Its not just about getting
people saved, its about changing peoples
behaviour. Its very easy for people to say, Ive
been born again! but unless the behavioural
pattern goes with it, I doubt it. If people question
your being born again, you are not born again.
I preach assurance of salvation. In Genesis
1:3 God said, Let there be light, and there was
light. And God said it was good. That same
command is in 2 Corinthians 4: God said he spoke
to the darkness and said that there should be light.
The day that we were born again, a light was
switched on in our hearts by the command of God,
we have been different. That light is good and we
know the difference from the day that we were
saved, the difference between good and bad. We
know the difference between light and dark
because the Spirit of God comes and dwells inside
us.
Nicodemus can mean the conqueror of men.

In John 3 Nicodemus goes to Jesus in the night
time (which is a reflection of the spiritual condition
of that world). Hes the one who conquered
men. He goes to Christ to conquer him but he
comes away conquered.
He comes away
completely perplexed, this teacher of the law. He
goes and asks, What must I do? You must be
born again. How? Must I go back into my
mothers womb? Jesus says, Flesh gives birth
to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You
have got to be born again by the Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God, who comes and lives inside
of us, is not given the name Holy Spirit for
nothing. Hes a holy Spirit.
When there is a choice between light and
dark, and our nature starts to go towards
darkness, the Holy Spirit (who has been given to
us from the day that we were saved) starts to send
off warning bells. The command of God, once we
understand our position, is to put to death that
which belongs to the earthly nature. Romans 8
speaks of those lead by the Spirit of God: we start
to walk in the ways of God. Husbands and wives,
children and parents, sexual issues, issues of
pride and arrogance : we start to line them up
with the word of God.
idolatry.
Colossians 3:5
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The word therefore means something has gone

before. We can put to death because its our
response to Gods gracious acts. I dont want to
put to death by rules or captivity.
6. We Have a Change of Heart and Mind
The day we get born again is our birthday. Since,
then, you have been raised with Christ . From
that day, Paul says, set your hearts on things
above, where Christ is seatedset your minds on
things above, not earthly things. The word set
means to actively focus and set your mind
continually on things above.
My mind speaks about our thought patterns
and our attitudes, while heart speaks about our
feelings. Before we start dealing with our earthly
nature we must set our hearts and minds on
things above because if we dont, human
philosophies, legalism, mysticism and asceticism
will start to rule our thinking patterns and our
feelings. Human philosophies of the world will
come and take you captive if you are spending
less time focusing on Christ and spending more
time with your worldly mates. You will be sitting at
the local bar on a Sunday thinking, Should I go to
church or shouldnt I?
Some people miss
meeting with God because human philosophy took
them captivethey had not exercised control over
their minds and hearts.
Living a successful Christian life takes
discipline because a Christian life is a way of
thinking and a way of feeling. If we do not set our
thoughts and our hearts on things above then the
things of this world will capture them and we will
live with one foot in the Church and the other foot
in the world. When you get dressed to come to

church and there is any form of attention being
drawn to yourself or your body, your heart and
your mind are set on the wrong things. A pastor
cant sit at the door and be like a policeman, You
should not be here dressed like that! When you
set your heart and your mind right and go to
church, you go there with one reason only: to
worship God and not to draw attention to yourself,
because God is a jealous God and he will not
share his attention with anybody.
The Source of Our Power

Paul says a very powerful thing in Colossians 3:1:
Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So,
were trying to deal with this earthly nature but
weve got to understand a few things before that.
1. We are Seated with Christ
First, weve been seated with him, born again, and
that which was dead has been made alive. We
have been made alive inside, alive to God. He
has given us abundant life.
We need to
understand these things. The world thinks that
they are having fun and those who go to church
meetings are all going to suck lemons. But we
come to Christ so that we can be made alive
properly. They dont know what fun is! Weve
been born again, made alive; there was darkness
and now there is light.
2. We Have the Power of Christ
Second, we have the power of the Christ who is
seated at the right hand. Hebrews 8:1 tells us that
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Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father

making intercession for us.
3. We See Jesus Interceding
Third, Jesus intercedes for us. We set our heart
on Jesus seated, asking the Father to help us.
Father, that person is battling with this sin and I
appeal to you for him. The power of those
requests come and break into our bodies, allowing
us to deal with the attitude of our hearts (the
passions, the pride, the desires), helping us to lay
those things down. Not because of determination,
self will or self confidence but because of our
position in Christ and because he is seated at the
right hand of the Father, offering requests on our
behalf for the things with which we struggle. Its
such a powerful thing.
1 Peter 3 says that Jesus is at the right hand
of the Father, over every power and principality. I
might not know what you are going through but he
does. And the Bible says that he is seated at the
right hand of the Father, the seat of honour and
powerand that position is more powerful than
any form of demonic stronghold, or any form of
opposition, or any form of your friends enticing you
to go and do what the philosophies of this world
want you to do. When we put our hearts there,
when we put our minds there, we live a successful
Christian life, dealing with carnality on the basis of
his completed work, our position in Christ and
Christs position at the right hand of the Father.
After explaining this he says, Put to death,
therefore, what belongs to the earthly nature.
Why the Old has Gone

1. We are Dead to Sin
Lets have a look at what we were like, what God
says we must stop.
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord,
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles
do, in the futility of their thinking. They are
darkened in their understanding and
separated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them due to the hardening
of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they
have given themselves over to sensuality so
as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a
continual lust for more. You, however, did not
come to know Christ that way. Surely you
heard of him and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which is
being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be
made new in the attitude of your minds; and
to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:1724
Romans 6:1-11 speaks of what Christ did for us.
Ephesians 4 speaks of what we do for Christ.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase?
Romans 6:1
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So many people believe that they can just go on

sinning because of grace. If you are born again
then you cannot continue to sin. It does not say
you wont ever sin, it says that you cannot
continue to sin (in 1 John 3).
We know, we believe and we reckon: the day
that we were born again we died to sinwe know
that, we believe that, but sin will still come our
way; what we have to do is reckon ourselves dead
to it. When you get tempted in your mind, sexually
or financially, you think of Romans 6 and say,
Christ did a work there, I just have to reckon on
it.
Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 speak of what
we do for Christ. The old way is dead. What we
do is put on the new way. How? By the
completed work of Christ and the power of the
Holy Spirit, and we put it on. Whats the old way
of thinking?
2. We are Dead to Old Philosophies
Unbelievers are darkened in their understanding.
Even clever unbelievers know nothing about God.
You can sit with a professor and argue, but they
know nothing about God. They will sit with you
and try to justify themselves. They will tell you that
they want to get married in a church because its
the right thing to do and they want Gods blessing
on their marriage. But when you tell them they
should not be having sex before marriage they tell
you that thats an outdated philosophy.
Its
impossible to get Gods blessing on your wedding
day while you are living and sleeping together.
You can have the best preacher praying for you
and blessing you but you will never get Gods
blessing. God says, Put those things to death so

that you can have my life.
Why the New has Come

We used to be like this but now put on the
new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
Lets look at four reasons why we should be holy.
Im not talking about justification or salvationyou
cant work for your salvation because Ephesians
2:9 says that we have been saved by grace, not
by works. But Ephesians 2:10 does say that we
have been saved to do good works.
1. We are Holy Because God is Holy
Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16 both say the
same thing: be holy because God is holy. A
church building is not holy, its just a building. No
stained-glass window in the world is holy. There is
no building, glass or silver jug in the world that is
holy. He is holyand because he is holy we
become holy. That means we put to death that
which belongs to the earthly nature because while
were sinning and practising pride and sexual
immorality, we cant get close to the One we want
to get close to, even with the completed work of
Jesus Christ.
With God there is no darkness, and while
people are living in the darkness, they cannot get
close to him. They still get to heaven if saved, but
they cannot get close to him. Im talking about the
process of sanctification. 1 Peter 1 is talking to
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believers and says, Be holy because God is

holy. So, we go to Colossians 3 and we put to
death those things because we want to get close
to Godnot by self will, not by determination, but
by understanding Gods truth. We put our minds
there and our hearts there. We understand the
power of the right hand and receive the full impact
of that power. We receive the baptism of the Holy
Spirit and we conquer sin. And with that comes a
closeness to God.
2. We are Designed to be Holy
For the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men. It teaches us to say
No to ungodliness and worldly passions .
Titus 2:1112
How do we say no? How does grace teach us?
We have to submit ourselves to it, we have to be
taught by it. We have to open it up, set our minds
up there, set our hearts up there and it teaches us
to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions
and to live self controlled, upright, godly lives in
this present age. Whats this present age? The
Bible tells us that this is a present evil age where
the world bombards us with billboards, sexual
immorality and suspicious financial dealings. The
grace of God teaches us to say no because God
designed us to be holy people, hes given us the
imputed righteousness of God and the imparted
righteousness of God. Its a cloak that comes
over us when we are saved. Then God starts
dealing underneath that cloak and he starts taking
all the junk out of our lives. Because of his grace
we are able to say no to ungodliness. When
opportunities arise and temptation comes, the

grace of God allows us to say no because he
has designed us to say no. We live self
controlled, upright and godly lives in this present
age.
A good eldership will not allow carnal
Christianity to exist in the life of the churchthey
will teach people how to beat it and they will not
tolerate it. God wants a Church without spot,
wrinkle or blemish.
People are given an
opportunity to see God, but once they have seen
God there must be behavioural patterns that line
up with the word of God, without any form of
legalism and captivityby the grace of God. The
commands of God are clear: put to death that
which belongs to the earthly nature.
Church meetings are not for dating-game
opportunities. Theyre not places where you come
to look at peoples bodies. Theyre not social
clubs where you go out drinking with your mates.
The church has one purpose, and that is to glorify
Jesus Christ, to make people into disciples and to
get them out into the nations of the earth. We
cant be lifting our hands but breaking the laws of
the land. We have to see Christ the King. We
have to see where he is seated and let that power
start to flow through us, husbands and wives,
fathers and children, employees and employers. If
you work for an unbelieving boss then you have
an incredible opportunity to show him the light, to
show her what it means to be born again.
You can take these things, get on your knees
before the Father, and ask him to show them to
you. We do not want to put anyone into captivity
in the slightest, but we do want to preach the truth.
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God wants us holy: first, because he is holy and,

second, because he designed us to be holy and
he has given us every available resource to
enable us to be holy. Were not preaching sinless
perfection on earth because we all sin but we are
preaching that we can break cycles of sin.
3. We Desire Righteousness, Peace and Joy
Now the acts of the sinful nature are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord,
jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness,
orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control.
Galatians 5:19-23
There is a difference between salvation and the
kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the
authority and rulership of God breaking into our
lives. Sexually immoral people will not inherit the
kingdom of God, and neither will those who are
selfish. Every one of us is selfish in some way: we
like our sleep, our time, our space and our rest.
When you have a baby and they take your sleep,
your time, your space and your rest, the selfish
ambition begins to rise in your heart. Look in the
Bible and remember that you will be losing your
inheritance.
In Exodus 19, the first time the Kingdom is
spoken about, the Israelites come out of Egypt
and we see that Egypt is a picture of bondage.

The desert is the place where they wasted time for
40 years when it could have taken them 11 days
to reach the promised land. When they came out
of Egypt, the Lord said that if they obeyed his
commands, he would make them a kingdom of
priests. So, it goes like this: they are in bondage
in Egypt; Moses, a picture of Jesus, takes them
through the Red Sea (baptised: we die to self and
rise to Christ); but theyre still not living in the
promised land yet. What we have to do to get
there is listen to the voice of God and obey it.
Then were going to get there.
There is only one direct definition of the
kingdom of God in the Bible and that is in Romans
14. It says, The kingdom of God is not about
eating or drinking but about righteousness, peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When we live
according to the pattern that God has for our lives,
righteousness, peace and joy enter our lives. If
we dont then we may still go to heaven but we will
lose righteousness, joy and peace. That is the
result of things like sexual immorality, ambition,
jealousy or discord. When we understand the
holiness of God, and the power that is available to
us, we start to fear the voice of God, follow the
voice of God and listen to the voice of Godand
he takes us right through the desert process and
into the promised land: we live out a powerful
Christianity in marriage, parenting, finances and
every aspect of life. But when we stop listening to
the voice of God, we go round and round the
desert for 40 years and never experience the
fullness that God has for us. God says, Put to
death that which belongs to the earthly nature so
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that you can understand the full power of the

Kingdom manifest through your life.
4. We are Offered Rewards
For we must all appear before the judgement
seat of Christ, that each one may receive
what is due to him for the things done while in
the body, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:10
We are not judged for our sins because Christ has
already been judged for our sins. We are not
dealing with justification here, we are dealing with
rewards. One day we will stand before the
judgement seat of Christ and we will not be judged
for our sin but we will be judged for what we did in
the body, good or bad. There are a whole lot of
rewards: rewards for overcoming trials, rewards
for helping people toward salvation, rewards for
caring for Gods people .
Run in such a way as to get the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:24b, TNIV
Therefore I do not run like someone running
aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating
the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and
make it my slave so that after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be
disqualified for the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27, TNIV
We get our sexual temptations, physical appetites,
thoughts and hearts under control so that one day
when we get to heaven and the Father looks at us,
through the Son, he will say, Well done, my good

and faithful servant.
So, we have not only understood Colossians
1 (redemption, propitiation, salvation, washing by
the blood, adoption) and Colossians 2
(overcoming
disqualification
and
human
philosophies), we have understood Colossians 3
(putting to death that which belongs to the earthly
nature). At the end of that: Well done, good and
faithful servant.
God has spoken clearly. Understand the
indicatives: where you stand in Christ; and
remember that you are responsible for laying hold
of the imperatives: what he has commanded us to
dowithout any forms of disqualifications, rules or
judgements.
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6: Put to Death the Sinful Nature

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. Set your
minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in
glory.
Colossians 3:2-4
Verse 1 speaks of our positionthe indicative. He
is talking about men and women who have been
born again, regenerated. This process is authored
by God and provided for by God and has nothing
to do with us. We cannot regenerate ourselves or
be born again by ourselves, it is solely by Gods
design and his authority. Verse 3 speaks about
looking forward to something eternal.
is coming. You used to walk in these ways in
the life you once lived. But now you must rid
yourselves of all such things as these: anger,
rage, malice, slander and filthy language from
your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,

Scythian, slave or free but Christ is all, and is
in all. Therefore as Gods chosen people,
holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience. Bear with each other and
forgive whatever grievances you may have
against one another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you. And over all these virtues put on
love, which binds them all together in perfect
unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your
hearts, since, as members of one body you
were called to peace. And be thankful. Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you
teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to
God. And whatever you do, whether in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
Colossians 3:517
The first four verses deal with regeneration. It
then speaks about the old ways you used to live in
before you were a Christian and it deals with the
process of sanctification. We are holy as a
position and were being made holy as a process.
We are holy and righteous in the sight of God and
we are being made holy as a processwe will
never fully get there on earth, but one day when
we get to heaven, it will all be completed. But,
until we get there God is changing us and dealing
with us.
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Sanctification is a process that we have a role

in. Regeneration is a process that we have no
role in. We get born again by the Spirit of God.
He is the author of it. Sanctification is about
putting to death whatever belongs to the sinful
nature, and we have got a role in that process.
We participate in this process through gracemotivated obedience. It is not a decision of our
will or a self discipline that does it, its through
grace-motivated obedience. Because of the grace
that has been given to me, weve been born again
by being filled with the Spirit of God, and weve
begun the process of sanctification.
God works in us and with us, not against us
or without us. Catch phrases of, Let go and let
God, and Stop trying and start trusting, are
simply not true here: there is no such thing in the
process of sanctification. Exercise self control and
work with God. Sanctification is dependent on our
discipline.
Two things happen here. In verse 8 we see
rid yourselves and in verse 12, clothe
yourselves. Yourselves means that God does
not do it, we do it. There are two separate issues,
but both are involved in the process of
sanctification: rid yourself deals with killing sin
while clothe yourself means cultivating godliness.
Both are vital.
Identifying the Sinful Nature

What is the earthly nature? How do we deal with
the sinful nature? Galatians 5:1326 speaks
about living by the Spirit so that we will not gratify
the desires of the sinful nature. Regeneration is a
process of God, sanctification is a process in
which we take part but it is not by the decision of

our will or our minds. It is not by self discipline, its
by the Spirit of God who empowers us to obey the
commands God has given to us.
Indicative is about our position, imperative
is about the commands that God expects us to live
bybut he gives us the Spirit in order to live them
out; otherwise it is like driving my engine without
oil, I seize my engine: I try Christianity but my car
ends up on the side of the road with fumes coming
out the bonnet. Some may say, This Christianity
business! I dont understand it! Its so hard, I
might as well go back to my old life of doing
whatever I like. But God says, I want you to live
this life. Im going to fill your engine with oil and
water and petrol so that you can enjoy the
highway of holiness.
One of the first things that we feel
experientially is the peace of Godbut another
thing we feel is this war that goes on inside of us.
If you dont feel the war then you are probably not
alive or you are not counting much for God. There
is the new man and the old man, the new nature
and the old nature. The old man has been
defeated but he is still there and there is a war that
goes on inside.
When you understand the
command of God, Put to death what belongs to
the earthly nature, you start to win that war.
When we dont understand that war and we dont
understand the commands, the rottenness inside
of us keeps beating us.
Going to church is not going to make that
rottenness go away, its by Christ coming by the
power of his Spirit and killing our earthly nature.
He did it on the cross but we continuously outwork
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it to rid ourselves of that sinful nature, making sure

that we live by the Spirit and not by our old
naturethey are in conflict with each other. Paul
says that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery,
idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy,
fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions
and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. He
warns that those who live like this will not inherit
the kingdom of God. Not might notwill not.
They will not know his righteousness, they will not
know his peace and they will not know his joy.
They will not know the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self control.
1. Distorted Sexuality
God created sexuality. Those feelings inside you
are not given by the devil but by God. But also
given to you is the Spirit of God who enables you
to keep them under control so that they can be
exercised in the God-ordained situation, marriage,
nothing else. No one said its easy but our
commitment is to please God.
2. Witchcraft
Witchcraft includes things like fortune telling.
Why do people go to them? So that they can plan
for the future. The same goes for horoscopes.
These are areas of the flesh.
3. Division
Paul also mentions things that bring division. We
have become a medical society like a hospital.
But Scripture is like a knife not a bandage. We

always want to bandage people and hope the
situation goes awayGod wants to cut the rot out.
Some people will complain that they are really
battling because a friend was promoted before
them or chosen for a team before them: They are
so successful and Im so jealous! Some people
try to justify that and say its understandable. No,
its not! Deal with it and kill it by the Spirit of God.
As it starts to rise up inside you, kill it. Dont get it
bandaged up, dont go and get counselling for it
kill it. Thats what the Bible says. Discord?
Selfish ambition? Kill it. When you sit in your
office and plan how you are going to climb the
corporate ladder, recognise the earthly sinful
nature and kill it. Some of these things will not
stop you from getting to heaven but we must still
kill them because they have nothing to do with
your regeneration and everything to do with your
sanctification. If it is of the flesh then kill it.
4. Indulgence in Self, Drunkenness or Orgies
Those who live according to the sinful nature
have their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in accordance with
the Spirit have their minds set on what the
Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is
death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is
life and peace .
Romans 8:56
Galatians 5 tells us we all face the sinful nature.
How do we know if we are winning the war? By
these two things: life and peace.
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the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does

not submit to Gods law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot
please God.
Romans 8:78
Dealing with the Sinful Nature

For just as through the disobedience of the
one man the many were made sinners, so
also through the obedience of the one man
the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:19
We have all chosen to walk away from God and
Isaiah 53 shows us that inside every one of us is a
rebel. Some work it out in alcoholism, some in
sexual deviation, but inside of every single one of
us is a rebel. God wants to come by his Spirit and
kill the rebel. He does it by the power of the cross
and we do it by a process of working with him and
getting rid of it. We have to understand that we
are rebels inside otherwise we come to church, we
lift our hands, we hear the sermon, and we walk
out with the rebel inside still alive, still going wild.
The rebel wakes up every Monday morning and
thinks to itself, How can I create havoc in this life
so that this person will never come into the full
processes that God wants for them? We must be
aware of it. We inherited it from Adam, it gets
broken by Jesus Christ on the cross, we continue
to defeat it as we walk out our lives.
1. The Sinful Nature Crucified

For we know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves
to sinbecause anyone who has died has
been freed from sin.
Romans 6:67
Notice how it does not say will be crucified, but
was crucified. Galatians tells us there are 5
things that we get delivered from.
In Galatians 1:4 we get delivered from this
present evil age.
In Galatians 2:19 we get delivered from the law.
In Galatians 2:20 we get delivered from
ourselves.
In Galatians 5:24 we get delivered from the
flesh.
In Galatians 6:14 we get delivered from the
world.
We have been set free. We are not fighting a
losing battle. We need to understand our position
and we follow it with our practice.
2. Feelings Not Leading Our Faith
Fact, faith and feelings are different things. If we
put our feelings in the front, they dont have
direction, so we go all over the place. Instead, we
use the facts, what God said (we have died to sin,
weve been crucified with Christ, the sinful nature
has been killed). That is fact. We stand on that
fact because Romans 6 shows us that we believe
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that fact by faith. When we believe what God has

said, our feelings line up.
If you are led by your feelings you will never
come into the fullness of what God has for you
because your feelings lead you astray. We hear
of such stories all the time. I have fallen in love.
I know he is not a believer but he is a lovely guy!
Is he saved? No. Do you know what the Bible
says? Yes, but Im getting older now and my
time is running out! I have let my feelings go for
this man who does not know Jesus Christ. His will
is not submitted to him, his mind is not submitted
to him, his heart is not submitted to him, his life is
not submitted to him, but Ive fallen for him with
my feelings. I will tell you the fact: you are not
allowed to marry an unbeliever. That is a fact of
the Scripture. Youve got to stand on that fact in
faith. When youre 29, 39, 49, 59 or 69, youve got
to trust God that if he wants you to get married,
there is a partner out there for you. Dont trust
your feelings, friends, because they lead you
astray, especially as time seems to rush by. We
stand on the fact because what is rising up inside
is the sinful nature, the earthly nature. Its rising
up and saying, Im going to be left alone!
Friends, God does not leave us alone. Fact. We
stand on it in faith, our feelings must line up.
Remember: feelings are deceptive. Dont try and
get a man saved or a woman saved so that you
can satisfy your feelings. There are many men
and women who are divorced today because they
rushed the process. They came and said, Hes
now saved so well get married! A few months or
years later, the thing falls apart because he was
never regeneratedhe could never live in the
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sanctifying process because he didnt understand

the grace that was available to him. Friends,
rather have a few years of heartache as your
feelings get confused than have a life of misery.
That is no condemnation to anybodyI am talking
about living a life that pleases our Father.
3. Avoiding Sin
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do not think about how to gratify
the desires of the sinful nature.
Romans 13:14
It tells us to clothe ourselves and that means were
not going to just relax and let God do it. He is not
going to do it because he is our Father. It says,
do not think about how to gratify the desires of
the sinful nature . How? We avoid sin and we
attack sin.
Every single one of us has got a weakness in
some particular area. Recognise your weakness,
know yourself, and avoid sin. The Bible says that
we are to be separated but not isolated. But when
we are in the world and we know that we have a
weakness in a certain area, we avoid that area.
Avoid it! Avoid it!
Joseph was called in by Potiphars wifeits
an example that we use all the timeand she tries
to seduce him. She says, Come to bed with me!
He runs! We could imagine what people might
have said, Hey, Joseph, where are you going?
Im running! Im running! Im avoiding Potiphars
wife. Why? Because I know that I have to run
away from these things, I cannot think about
entertaining the sinful nature. But, Joseph,
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youre a good looking guy and youve got all these

feelings. But, Joseph, , But, God. But, God.
Im running, Im running, Im running. If youve
got an issue with food, dont buy food books. Run!
4. Attacking Sin
Matthew 5 says that if your right eye causes you to
sin, gouge it out and throw it away. He is not
talking about the eye, he is talking about the heart.
It says that if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away. Friends, that speaks
of violent reaction to sin, about being on the
offensive, on the front footit is taking the thing
by the horns and attacking it, attacking it, attacking
it. In the book of 1 John he says, I write this to
you so that you will not sin. He does not say, I
write this to you so that you will not sin much. He
says, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
Full stop. This is not our salvation that I am
talking aboutthis is our sanctification that I am
talking about. Attack sin. When people are at
war, theyre not thinking, Well, Ill just see.
Maybe Ill just, uh, not take too many bullets
today. No, its, I do not want to take a single
bullet! Friends, not a single bullet. We have to
have a standard that is scriptural not a standard
that is worldly. We attack sin, we take it on. If it is
the issue of eating, we take it on by joining a
group that can help us lose weight. Chocoholic?
Taking it on, attacking it! At every meal, Spirit of
God, you have to help me, because I dont want to
be overweight.
I am not preaching body
perfection because some go to the other extreme
where they cant get their face away from the
mirrorsomebody has to tap them on the
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shoulder because they get transfixed by their

beauty. We dont want that. But, friends, we have
got to take it on. If the issue is sexuality then
youve got to fight the sin, youve got to attack it,
aggressively attack it. The Bible says that we are
to reign aggressively in this life: live within the
boundaries of his commands, run in the
boundaries of his commands and, in that place,
find freedom. Avoid and attack!
Power Over the Sinful Nature

How do we put it to death? It must be by the Spirit
and it must be by conviction. Hebrews 12:14 says
that without holiness we cannot see God. We
have to be convicted, friends, and not because a
pastor stands up and gets passionate about these
things. It cannot be because your home-group
leader wants you to do it, it has to be because you
are convicted by the Scriptures and by the Holy
Spirit.
1. Conviction from the Holy Spirit
How do we get convicted? By the Holy Spirit
because the Holy Spirit is holy. The war that goes
on inside of us is the war between the old man
and the Holy Spirit. Dont let the old man win it.
He is defeated but you still have to reckon yourself
dead to sin.
2. Conviction from the Word of God
We get convicted by the word of God. It is
wonderful to see new converts who start reading
the word of God. They were just trying to get to
the top, on a mission to make money. But as they
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read the word of God they make some radical

decisions in their lives. You can see that God is
preparing them. The word of God convicts us and
the word of God says there must not be a hint of
sexual immorality, not a hint. Once we have seen
that, friends, it convicts us. We bring our eyes
under control, we bring our minds under control
and we bring our hearts under control because we
have a conviction of the Scriptures.
3. Knowing Whats Permissible or Beneficial
When we dont know whether things are morally
right or wrong, there are four little tests from 1
Corinthians 6:12 to help. It says that everything is
permissible but not everything is beneficial. Ask
yourself these four questions to get conviction.
1. Is it helpful physically, emotionally and
spiritually? If it is not, dont do it. Although all
things are permissible, we will not be mastered
by anything.
2. Does it bring you under its power? Consider
the issue of smoking, not as a condemnation
but to help understand this question, Is it
permissible? Yes. Is it beneficial? Not to your
body. I am not saying, You may not smoke!
but I am saying that you should come under the
conviction of the Holy Spirit, under the
conviction of God. I know a man who had been
smoking for 40 years. After being saved for a
few months he told the Lord that he wanted to
give up smoking. He asked the Lord to help
him. He went a whole day without a cigarette
and when he got home he lit a cigarette and got
a terrible headache. He said, Lord, what is this
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terrible headache? The Lord said, You

wanted me to help you give up smoking! Its
simple. Does it master you? The Bible says
that nothing must master us. Some people
cannot control the TV switch. Some people
love sport and know that they cannot get
satellite TV because they will spend too much
time watching sport. They flee, they avoid it.
Some people could just flick through the
channels all day watching sport. That may be
fine on a holiday but does it master you? Deal
with it, kill it. Were not talking about empty
religious abstinence. Anything that masters us
needs to come under the conviction of the Holy
Spirit and we need to kill it, the fleshly, earthly
and sinful nature.
3. Does it hurt anybody? 1 Corinthians 8:13 says,
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to
fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I
will not cause him to fall. Romans 14 tells us
that it is better not to eat or drink anything that
is going to cause anybody to stumble. Does
the Bible say that you cant drink? No, it
doesnt. The Bible says you cant get drunk
and it says, Dont cause anybody to stumble.
The conviction that we have to come under is
that if anything that we do will cause hurt or
harm to anybody else then we need to deal with
it. We have to kill it, avoid it and move on.
Conviction comes by the Holy Spirit, by the
word of God and by just putting a few little
biblical questions in place.
4. Does it glorify God? So whether you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory
of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
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The first thing we need is conviction, not our

pastors opinion, but conviction to put something
to death.
The second thing we need is
commitment. In Luke 14 the Lord says that unless
you give up everything you cannot be his disciple.
It takes commitment.
Unless you give up
everything. Friends, we often think we can put
things off until another time. But we need to give
up everything. Rid yourselves, not, Let go and
let God. We give up everything to become his
disciplesnot by the decision of our wills but by
the Spirit of God who comes and convicts us and
by the word of God that has broken the power of
the sinful nature. We start to live in victory and we
start to please our Father in heavennot just with
regeneration but also with the sanctification
process that helps us become more and more like
Jesus. It helps us mature, it helps us grow. It
helps us develop and it helps us lead other people
further in their faith. Proverbs 27:20 tells us that a
mans eyes are never satisfied; like death and
destruction are never satisfied, so are the eyes of
man never satisfied. The Bible chooses to link
death and destruction with the eyes of man.
Death and destruction are everywhere and the
Bible says that our eyes are exactly the same as
that and that we have to get them under control
all our appetites, all our lusts, all our pride and all
our desires. We have to deal with the heart,
friends.
Conclusion
Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the
desires of the human nature. Were looking at
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Rid yourselves, Clothe yourselves, and Put to

death. Put to death is painful and that is why
the expression is used. It is a painful process but
we have all the tools available to us. The
completed work of Christ and the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Put to death! What?
Sexual
immorality,
jealously,
discord,
pride
and
drunkenness. Why? Because in the church of
God, God wants his name to be honoured and his
Son to be glorified. He will not settle for any
standard less than the standard given to us in
Scripture.
I pray, Father in heaven, please help us. Please

help us for the command is clear: put to death.
Yet the package available to us is great. I pray,
Lord God, that we would walk by your Spirit and
that there would be no carnality. We only follow
you, Lord Jesus, we follow your ways and we
follow your Word. We want to link with all our
other brothers and sisters who do the same. We
want to be one Church so that when the world
looks, they see a Church with different
expressions, different flavours; but one Church,
not the carnality of division. We dont want to be
accused of carnality or worldliness, Lord, no
divisions in our heart or mind. I pray for us and
our struggles in different areas. For one the area
is selfishness, for another the area is sexuality, for
another the area is selfish ambition.
Whatever the area, Lord, we say today, We
put to death, we put to death. The responsibility
is firmly upon our shoulders to walk out the
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process of sanctificationwith your help and with

your guidance. We commit ourselves and say,
whether it be eating, sleeping, bondage to
television or another thing, I want to kill that which
belongs to the earthly nature. Amen.
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7: Roots Determine Routes

Introduction
When we understand Scripture, we see that God
works with a strategy. We have been laying a
foundation of our position in Christ and then
looking at our practice. These are our beliefs and
our behaviour. We cant believe one thing and
behave in another waywe have to have our
beliefs and our behaviour consistent with one
another. Weve been looking at getting rid of sin
and ridding ourselves of the sinful nature. Lets
look at clothing ourselves with the godly nature.
1. Our Roots Determine Routes and Fruits
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as
Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built
up in him, strengthened in the faith as you
were
taught,
and
overflowing
with
thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6
Roots determine routes and roots determine fruits.
Whatever roots we have impact the routes we will
take. Whatever roots we have impact the fruits we
will produce. If our roots are bad, the route we
take will be contrary to the ways of God. If we are
rooted in Christ then the routes we take will be
pleasing to the Father. The Bible says that he is
the vine and we are the branches, we can produce
nothing unless we remain in him. So, when we
are rooted in Christ the fruitfulness of our lives will
follow the pattern of Scripture.
Lets learn
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something of the pattern of Scripture from

Colossians 3:1-12.
Since then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above, where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. It speaks of
our feelings.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly
things. It speaks of our thought patterns.
Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then
you also will appear with him in glory.
your earthly nature. What are those things?
Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires
and greed, which is idolatry. Why? Because of
our position in Christ.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
You used to walk in these ways, in the life you
once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such
things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander
and filthy language from your lips. Its our
responsibility.
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken
off your old self with its practices .
and have put on a new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator. Its like emptying your cupboards of
old clothes and getting a new wardrobe. This is
what we want to focus on later.
Here there is no Greek or Jew. Wheres
here? Its the church. Here there is no Greek
or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
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barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ, is

all, and is in all. It says that Christ breaks down
every dividing wall. Greek and Jew speaks
about racial barriers, circumcised and
uncircumcised speaks about religious barriers,
Barbarian and Scythian speaks about cultural
barriers, slave or free speaks about social
barriers. The apostle says that there are no
such dividing walls between any of these but
that Christ is all: Christ is more important.
Whether you have been brought up in a
Christian home or have been sinning and were
saved recently, you are not more special than
the other.
The Bible says Christ is in all. Part of the
sanctification process that we go through
happens in community not individually: it
involves the person that sits next to you or the
person that sits behind you. You have to
understand that before the process can take
place. Christ is all and Christ is in all.
Therefore, as Gods chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience.
2. We are Holy, Chosen and Dearly Loved
So, rid yourselves has to do with killing sin and
clothe yourself has to do with cultivating
godliness. Both of them are our responsibilities.
We have a position in Christ and we have a
behaviour that must follow that position. Just
before he is about to tell us how to behave, Paul
tells us that our position in Christ is safe and
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securewe are chosen! We are chosen, holy and

dearly loved.
Therefore, as Gods chosen people . What
a wonderful statement! Many of us will
remember wondering if we were chosen for a
sport team. We know the feeling of being off
the team and the delight of being on the team.
We know what it is like not to be invited to a
party. But God says, You have been chosen!
We never get dropped from the team. That is a
great security for us, friends, even if we were
rejected through our whole lives.
Therefore, as Gods holy people . Not only
chosen, the Bible says that we are holy. Before
we behave as holy we have to understand that
our position is holy.
Therefore, as Gods dearly loved people .
You are dearly loved, youre not just there to
make up the numbers. When school captains
choose their team, sometimes there are a few
guys left who are not great sportsmen. But they
have to be put on the team to make up the
numbers. God says that you are not just
chosen to make up numbersyou are dearly
loved! Not just loved but dearly loved!
Paul says, Clothe yourselves. Here he is talking
about the sanctification process. Weve looked at
rid yourselves in detail, now well look at clothe
yourselves: clothing ourselves away from the old
nature and with the Spirit or character of God.
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3. We Remove Our Old Roots

John Owen, a holiness preacher, said the
following:
Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.
If you are not at odds with sin, you are not at
home with Jesus.
Not because being at odds with sin makes you at
home with Jesus, but because being at home with
Jesus makes you at odds with sin.
It is very important that you understand that
process. Its like a country that has a bad rebelforce government. Another country comes in and
removes them from power and puts in a new
government. The problem is that the rebel forces
are still at large in the mountains, and theyre still
stronger than the new government. So, the
country that stepped in to help stays around to
help the new government.
The war between us and our earthly sinful
nature is like this: when we accept Christ he
comes in with all his armour, all his power, the
completed work of the cross, and he drives out
the sinful nature, our enemy. He beats the enemy
and the enemy flees into the mountains but he
doesnt disappear. If Jesus had to leave us then
we would fall back into sin. While Jesus is there
he is more powerful than the enemy that is in the
mountains and he is there to make us strong. If
we drop our guard then that mountain group of
terrorists is waiting to pounce. The strategy they
use is to bomb the embassies, which represent
authority. As we take Christ into our lives, we
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have an authority that represents godliness and

Kingdom living; the enemy comes with terrorist
tactics to undermine the Kingdom life that God has
established within us. But as long as we stand
strong with that Kingdom life inside of us, that
mountain group cannot come and take control
again of the life that we live.
If you do not wake up every morning with
something of a war-time mentality then you have
not understood the serious nature of the battle that
we find ourselves in. There are a whole lot of
Christians who just keep saying, Hey, peace,
everything is going to be alright! They dont
understand that right now there are terrorist
groups in this world that are plotting the downfall
of great countries. There is a war going on,
whether we realise it or not, so by faith we should
stand up in the morning and declare war: ask God
to come and guard our hearts and guard our
minds. Many people go to work and before 11 o
clock they are having hideous thoughts passing
through their mindsand the previous night they
were at a church meeting jumping, worshiping,
shouting and screaming to God, giving him all the
glory. How can these things grab our minds? We
have not understood that we are at war, we have
not guarded our minds with the finished work of
Jesus Christ.
4. We Find New Roots in the Cross
We will look at this clothing that the Bible speaks
of and what it means.
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received.
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Ephesians 4:1b
I want you to get out there and walkbetter
yet, run!on the road God called you to
travel.
Ephesians 4:1b, The Message
Walk worthily of the calling.
Ephesians 4:1b, ASV
Not achieved, received.
Walk worthily.
Remember these five positions that apply to us:
I was dead in my transgressions (Ephesians
2).
I am seated in Christ.
I am kneeling (asking God to give us the
power, length, width, height, depth of the full
knowledge of God, a knowledge of his love). I
pray that you would know him better.
I am walking (Ephesians 4).
I am standing (Ephesians 6).
Between every single position is the cross of
Christ. To go from the position of dead to the
position of seated in Christ, the cross of Christ is
necessary. To go from the position of being
seated, which is a permanent position, to being
able to pray, requires the cross of Christ because
it is the cross of Christ that gave us access to the
Father. To go from the position of praying to the
position of walking out a successful Christian life
requires dealing with all the enemies: the enemy
within, the enemy without, the enemy above and
the enemy below. Ephesians 6 helps us defeat
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the enemy in spiritual warfare by the cross of

Christ.
Roots for Our Routes

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord,
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles
do, in the futility of their thinking. They are
darkened in their understanding and
separated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them due to the hardening
of their hearts.
Because peoples hearts are hard, they are
ignorant of God.
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given
themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity, with a
continual lust for more.
More money, more position, more profile, more
power. Thats what unbelievers are after.
You, however,
Now he is addressing us.
You, however, did not come to know Christ
that way. Surely you heard of him and were
taught in him in accordance with the truth that
is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self,
which is being corrupted by its deceitful
desires; to be made new in the attitude of
your minds; and to put on the new self,
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created to be like God in true righteousness

and holiness.
Ephesians 4:17-24
Put off the old, put on the newhe tells us how to
do that. Remember it is clothe yourself, not
God clothe you. So, in the completed work of
Christ there is a responsibility that we have of
living correctly.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we
are all members of one body. In your anger
do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while
you are still angry and do not give the devil a
foothold. He who has been stealing must
steal no longer, but must work, doing
something useful with his own hands, that he
may have something to share with those in
need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come
out of your mouths, but only what is helpful
for building others up according to their
needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with
whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and
anger, brawling and slander, along with every
form of malice. Be kind and compassionate
to one another, forgiving each other, just as in
Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:25-32
The text continues:
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But among you there must not be even a hint

of sexual immorality, or of any kind of
impurity, or of greed, because these are
improper for Gods holy people
Notice the command: not a hint of sexual
immorality, and also our position: Gods holy
people.
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or
coarse joking, which are our of place, but
rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be
sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person
such a man is an idolaterhas any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of
God. Let no one deceive you with empty
words, for because of such things Gods
wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Therefore do not be partners with them.
He is talking to Christians. When you get saved
the wrath of God gets turned away from you but if
you will be partners with these people in any of
these works then the wrath of God will come to
you. My friends, that wrath will mean a loss of
rewards.
For you were once darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord. Live as children of the light
(for the fruit of the light consists in all
goodness, righteousness and truth) and find
out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to
do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but
rather expose them. For it is shameful even
to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
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But everything exposed by the light becomes

visible, for it is light that makes everything
visible. This is why it is said:
Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
Be very careful, then, how you livenot as
unwise, but as wise, making the most of
every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand
what the Lords will is. Do not get drunk on
wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be
filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:3-18
We understand our salvation, we understand that
we are chosen, we understand that we are holy,
we understand that we are dearly lovedbut are
we clothed in the godliness that God is expecting
us to be clothed in? As we look at this list from
the above text, we need to ask, How am I doing?
Falsehood versus truth.

Anger versus do not sin.
Stealing versus usefulness.
Unwholesome talk versus helpful talk.
Bitterness and rage versus kindness,
compassion and forgiveness.
Sexual sin and immorality versus the kingdom
of God.
Darkness versus light.
Unwise versus wise.
Foolishness versus the Lords will.
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Wine versus the Spirit of God.

1. Falsehood versus Truth
The first one is falsehood versus truth. The
Scripture says we are to take off the old and put
on the new: you must put off falsehood and speak
truthfully to your neighbour for we are all members
of one body. Friends, you dont go to God and
say, Help me not to lie. He says, Stop lying.
You say, Please, Lord, help me to stop telling
imaginative stories. He says, Stop it, dont ask
me to help you, I have done everything that you
need to speak truthfully. The Bible says that the
devil is the father of all lies and that Jesus came
as the way, the truth and the life. Every time we
release something of falsehood or lies, we release
the devil into the body of Christ, the Church. It
tells us: Dont tell lies because we are one body.
As soon as a lie gets told, friends, the Body
suffers, and what Jesus wants is a body that is
healthy and strong. Friends, it comes so naturally
to our old nature because we constantly want to
protect ourselves or exalt ourselves. We tell a
story and leave out some truth so that it makes us
look better, or we say something that makes
somebody look bad. Our old nature tries to
elevate ourselves and downgrade other people.
But when we come to Christ and realise that
Christ is all and Christ is in all, we speak truthfully.
For that simple reason, when we see a brother we
might not like, we have to learn to like him. We
might not like his actions but we have to learn to
understand that Christ is in that man and when we
speak of him, we speak truthfully about him.
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2. Anger versus Do Not Sin

The next thing is anger. Paul here turns from the
sexual sin and behavioural patterns to our
attitudes. Some people seem to think everything
is fine as long as they are not actively sinning.
They look at people who commit sexual immorality
and say, What horrible people! God is going to
judge them! But in the boardroom when they are
under pressure, they start to rant and rave and
scream and their veins stick out of their necks.
That is not the Spirit of God, it is our carnal flesh.
Not all anger is wrong. Jesus was angry and
turned the tables upside down. But uncontrolled
emotions, friends, is carnal Christianity, it is part of
the old nature. Ladies, if your husband is living
under your manipulative emotional state, Take off
the old nature and put the new nature on. A wife
should have the new nature of Christ upon her
emotions. In the area of any emotions, whatever
they might be, if you dont have the new nature of
Christ on then put it on. Take the old behavioural
patterns off: we have developed attitudes and
emotions to protect ourselves, we use emotional
manipulation on others to protect ourselves.
Remember that we are sons not survivors. God
will protect us. Take the old off and put the new
on.
3. Stealing versus Usefulness
The next thing is stealing. Stop stealing. Who is
he talking to? He is talking to the Church! When
does milk get stolen in some churches? On a
Sunday morning. Cups, saucers and teaspoons?
They disappear all the timefrom churches and
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businesses. Whats the root of this thing, friends?

The root of this thing is that people dont trust
God: you have to steal because you dont think
God will provide. Thats the old nature. When we
get born again as a new creation we trust God for
every single aspect of our lives and we do not
need to steal a thing. We trust him implicitly, and
that includes our relationships. Getting involved
with an unbeliever has its root in the issue of not
trusting God for a partner. God says that you do
not marry an unbeliever. Is there a lack of trust in
what God says in his Word? He is dealing with
our characters and our natures. God doesnt want
old behaviour when we think that our options have
run out at church meetings. That it is carnal
Christianity and God says, Put it to death, rid
yourself of it and clothe yourself with my ways.
4. Unwholesome Talk versus Helpful Talk
What about unwholesome talk? People ask if
were being a little petty and pious. The answer is,
No, we are trying to please God. If you want to
know if you have the new nature, if you have
clothed yourself with Gods manner of speaking,
then consider three things.
First, it must be helpful for building others up.
We grow up with friends pulling others down. At
school people rip each other off all the time. Then
we realise that somebodys been hurt. God says
your language must be helpful for building others
upnever, ever, breaking them down.
Go
through your last week, go through your last
meetings, go through your last encounter with your
friends, and see how you are doing.
Second, it must benefit those who listen.
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The third thing it says in the Bible is that it

must please the Holy Spirit. What about those
jokes at weddings?
What about when it is
degrading to women? The Spirit of God says, I
want a new creation, I want people to have new
thinking patterns and new ways to laugh. There
is enough joy in the Holy Spirit and enough things
to laugh at without having to laugh at jokes that
degrade women, or anybody else, and offend the
Holy Spirit. We just say, Hey, listen, I know this is
quite naughty but I will slip it in anyway. All the
time the Holy Spirit is prompting you, saying,
Dont say it, dont say it. But we just sneak it in
anyway and have a little giggle. Then the Holy
Spirit starts to knock and speak to us in our hearts
and God says, I told you not to say that. The
Holy Spirit should be controlling our speech
patterns!
5. Bitterness and Rage versus Kindness
And now for bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and
slander with every form of malice. This includes
behaviour on the sports fields. It says get rid of
these. It doesnt say you need inner healing, it
doesnt say you need counselling, it doesnt say
you need my prayers, it says get rid of it. We see
people that walk around with a kind of self pity for
year upon year because they dont understand
that the completed work of Christ has been done.
If you have had a bad experience then you have a
responsibility to take it off and put the new on: get
clothed with compassion and humility and all those
things. There is only one way to get clothed with
all those things and that is by getting involved in
the local churchotherwise we cannot complete
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that sanctification process. God put us together

with different cultures, different backgrounds,
different personalities. Through these different
people God teaches us his ways. Colossians says
that he will teach us tolerance and forbearance.
And they have to tolerate us too!
The
sanctification process of God works in us and
them. God puts you into a church, into a group of
people, that is different culturally, socially and
behaviourallyand you are going to have to bear
with them even while everything inside of you is
wanting them to go away. While you are bearing
with them, your old nature is being discarded and
the new nature is forming. God provides the
situation, we respond in obedience, he changes
us. We should be living with one another in the
continual sanctification process of Godnot under
carnal Christianity which takes the standards from
the world (backstabbing, backbiting, ripping
people off, pulling people down). That, my friends,
is the worldly standard, it is not the standard of
Gods Church. God will not settle for a standard
less than that of Scripture. If you want to learn
compassion then one of the best ways is to get
involved in a home group: ask God to give you are
heart for their needsthat is how you learn
compassion. Only when we mingle with Greek
and Jew, slave and free, Scythian and barbarian,
will we understand what character God wants to
develop within us. God will not let us off, friends.
6. Immorality versus the Kingdom of God
The sixth thing is sexual sinand all the other
sins. It goes on about foolish talk and coarse
joking. It says not even a hint is permissible. How
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do we deal with those things? 1 Thessalonians 4

shows us that one of the ways that we deal with
sexual sin is simply knowing God. It describes
how the heathens behave who do not know God.
But we are different: we have been born again,
Spirit filled and are a new creation. We have been
chosen, loved and accepted, and the way we
overcome sexual sin is knowing God. There have
been great men of God who have filled stadiums
all over the world and they have fallen into sexual
sin. It is very unlikely that they knew God the way
the Bible says you need to know God: intimately,
walking with him on a daily basis. When you walk
with God and start to know God intimately, your
behaviour changes. Exodus 19 says that if we
hear Gods words and obey his commands then
he will make us a kingdom of priests.
But this is the fight: from the day that Adam
and Eve sinned there was a fight for the souls of
men, and man has to hate the Enemy. Man has
to hate the devil like the devil hates man so that
the kingdom of God can come in our lives. The
enemy hated Jesus: at the time that he was born
Herod killed every boy under the age of two years
in the area because of his hatred for the King.
Jesus had to face the temptations of the
wilderness. The enemy came and tempted Jesus
with the very temptations that man fell with in the
garden of Eden. These were the lust of the eyes,
the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
The sins we are looking at all fall into the
category of one of those three things. First, the
lust of the eyes (what I see I like and want),
second, the lust of the flesh (the desire for more,
the desire for materialism, the desire to please
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self), and, third, the pride of life (promoting self

above everything else). They are all listed there
and Jesus had to face them all in Matthew 4 and
he had to overcome them.
You who are born again are united with
Christ. There are only three different pictures of
being united with Christ. The first one is the vine
and the branches. We are not some separate
part, we am united with Christ. What happens to
Christ happens to us. The second one is being
married. In Ephesians 5 it says that when a man
and woman come together, it is a picture of Christ
and the Church. We are united together and out
of that unison comes fruit. Out of the unison with
Christ comes fruit that is godly. The third one is
about the parts of the body. It says that he is the
head and we are the body. My friends, this is not
some kind of engine where if something goes
wrong I just take the carburettor out and I walk to
the garage and say, Can you fix that? We cant
take out anything that is linked with Christ, its like
his blood vessels flow through us all. When we
put our faith in Christ we put our faith in his
completed work: that he has overcome every lust
of the eyes, every lust of the flesh and every pride
of life. You must make sure that you take off
every one of those practices and put on the new
practices so that you can understand Kingdom
living.
The crowd wanted to force Jesus to become
a political-military king.
But Jesus came as
Saviour and King of the world. Friends and
families will try and put on us the same
compromising coat that the people tried to put on
Jesus. They will say, I know you are a Christian
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but come with us anyway. We stand up and stop

the nonsense, even if it makes us unpopular.
Friends, that is what God expects from us, that is
the behaviour God wants from us because the
world will put us in compromising positions. The
compromise will be the kingship and rulership of
Jesus Christ in our lives. We have to stand up
and say no. Avoid it or attack it!
We are talking about a fight in us between the
kingdom of God and the kingdom of Darkness. In
Matthew 16, when Jesus asks who the disciples
think he is, Peter answers, You are the son of the
living God. Jesus said that Peter had received
that knowledge by revelation. Peter had this
revelation from heaven and it says that from that
time on, when they understood who he was, he
started to tell them about his death. Then Peter
says, No ways is Jesus going to die on a cross!
Jesus then had to say, Get behind me, Satan. It
is part of the compromise, friendswe expect
Jesus to be the meek-and-mild type, but he is the
reigning King. When you stand in his way he will
say, Get behind me, Satan, because you dont
have the mind of Christ and you dont know what
God is saying.
Judas was used to get Jesus. Judas, as he
dipped his hand into the moneybag and stole
money, was open to Satans temptations. Satan
came into Judas and he became a traitor towards
Jesus.
There is a war. If you read the Scriptures with
open eyes you will see that it is a battle that you
and I live inand its for our very lives. Jesus
came and preached about the Kingdom. He
pushed back the darkness and healed sicknesses
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because sickness wasnt part of Gods plan. He

freed those who were demonised by dismissing
the demons and he pushed back the darkness.
When we compromise with things, the enemy
comes back and he starts to rob. We should be
on the front foot pushing back the kingdom of
Darkness, being clothed with the completed work
of Christ.
7. Darkness versus Light
The seventh thing is darkness versus light. What
is darkness? The Bible says it is shameful even to
mention what the disobedient do in secret. How
many of you have done some things in secret that
you wouldnt like to tell over the microphone? Do
you know that in 2 Corinthians 4:2 the Bible says
we have renounced secret and shameful ways?
God has dealt with all those thingsthat is the
work of the cross. Dont be involved in them any
longer. If you find yourself walking the rope
between light and dark, and you know that you are
going to get yourself into a shameful position, take
off the old and put on a cloak of light.
8. Unwise versus Wise
Next is unwise versus wise. Wise thinks, Wise
takes time, Wise considers the situation, Wise
considers the consequences. Wise takes a longterm view, Wise looks at the whole as well as the
parts.
Unwise behaviour is when you dont
consider the consequences.
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Be very careful, then, how you livenot as

unwise but as wise, making the most of every
opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16
An unwise man will be influenced by evil. A wise
man plans his day to include God: if you put no
disciplined planning into your day to spend time
with God, to clothe yourself with the completed
work of God and to protect yourself from the evil
days, you will live at the door of carnal Christianity.
9. Foolishness versus the Lords Will
The ninth thing is foolishness versus the Lords
will. Foolishness is being governed by desires,
impulses, hates and loves. The Lords will is
good, pleasing and perfect. Romans 12 tells us
that the Lords will is good, pleasing and perfect.
Foolishness is being governed by our desires but
the Lords will is to die to self, offer our bodies as a
sacrifice and renew our thought processes. When
that happens it is good, pleasing and perfect.
10. Wine versus Spirit
The final thing is wine versus Spirit All things are
permissible but not all things are beneficial. All
things are permissible but we will not be mastered
by anything. Romans 13 says that we are to obey
our authorities. Now, if you dont know Jesus
Christ then I am not talking to you. But, if you do
know Jesus Christ and you believe in the Bible
then it says we obey our authorities and our
authorities give us a standard for what
drunkenness is. The Bible does not say that you
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cannot drinkit does not say that. Some of us

dont drink, not for religious reasons but rather
because we know that with our natures we would
become aggressive. The Scripture is very clear: if
we want to lead a sanctified life then we have to
make sure that this issue of life is under control.
In Timothy we are given a standard for Christian
living for everybody: conduct in the house of God.
A little bit later it says that Timothy should take a
bit of wine for his stomach. We cant preach, Do
not drink, but we must preach Scripture. The
government sets the standards on what
drunkenness is and what you can drink. Your
experience and your traditions must change
because that is the standard. The Bible is the
standard and it includes worship, giving, marriage,
relationships and every aspect of our lives. The
standard for worship is dance before the Lord with
all your might; sing, shout, clap your hands and
spin around, as well as lay prostrate before him
quiet for hours. We draw upon the standard of the
Scriptures. It doesnt matter what we think, the
Bible is the standard. So, whatever the rules are
of our nation for drinking and drivingthat is the
standard, friends. That is the challenge. God
says that if you want to lead a holy and sanctified
life, it must not just be in position but also in
practice, not just in belief but in behaviour as well.
It says we are to make sure that it is the Spirit of
God that fills us up, not the spirit of the world and
the spirit of liquor. This is not legalism but
freedom.
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Conclusion
The more I see Gods pattern and plan in
Scripture, the more I know that we are going to
have to fight for it. We are going to have to fight
every inch of the way because the one who is
against us is aggressive. But we are committed,
and so is our King, to his Kingdom coming. If you
have to take off some of these things, some of
these old things or practices, please do some
business with God. Some things have got to
come off.
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8: Victory Over the Devils Schemes

Victorious Christian Living
In this section we will understand more about the
devil. First, we are not to be preoccupied with him
because God has won the victory through Christ
and, second, we should not neglect him because
he is still very powerful. We are to live between
those two boundaries. We live victoriously while
the world is still under the devils power. We have
been looking at clothing ourselves in the things of
God and now I want us to look more at what we
clothe ourselves with in order to defeat the enemy.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. Set your
minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in
glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever
belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and
greed, which is idolatry. Because of these,
the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk
in these ways, in the life you once lived. But
now you must rid yourselves of all such things
as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and
filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to
each other, since you have taken off your old
self with its practices and put on the new self,
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which is being renewed in knowledge in the

image of its Creator.
Colossians 3:1-10
We are looking at taking off the old self and
putting on the new self. In Colossians it talks
about clothing yourself and ridding yourself: some
things we take off and some things we put on.
And do this, understanding the present time.
The hour has come for you to wake up from
your slumber, because our salvation is nearer
now than when we first believed. The night is
nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us
put aside the deeds of darkness and put on
the armour of light. Let us behave decently,
as in the daytime, not in orgies and
drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and
debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do not think about how to gratify
the desires of the sinful nature.
Romans 13:11-14
We see two key things in this scripture: the first is
believe (in verse 11) and the second thing is let
us behave (in verse 13). When we have a belief
system, we have to have a behaviour system that
lines up with itthe indicative and the imperative,
our position in Christ and our behaviour in Christ.
We can only respond to the commands of God
when we know where we stand in Christ. There
are three things he says here: wake up, clean up
and grow up. And he is talking to the Church. For
us to understand these three thingswake up,
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clean up and grow upwe need to know what it is

like to fight against the enemy and how we live
victoriously.
1. Be Strong in the Lord
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his
mighty power. Put on the full armour of God
so that you can take your stand against the
devils schemes. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armour of God, so
that when the day of evil comes, you may be
able to stand your ground, and after you have
done everything, to stand. Stand firm then,
with the belt of truth buckled around your
waist, with the breast plate of righteousness
in place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of
peace. In addition to all this, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in
the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of
prayers and requests. With this in mind, be
alert and always keep on praying for all the
saints.
Ephesians 6:10-18
Many of us have heard of people who were
counting for God in a big way but at Christmas
parties with lots of drinks they fell morally and lost
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their marriages. Part of the task of the leader of a

church is to make sure that he prepares the
people to live victoriously, to help the people be
completely aware of what it means to live aware of
spiritual warfare.
People think that the Church is a playground.
The Church is not a playground, friends, the
Church is a battleground. Sometimes people
leave small churches so they can hide in bigger
churches. But they cannot hide in big churches if
they are confronted with the gospel. The gospel
confronts your character until it lines up with the
ways of Scripture. Church meetings are not
playgrounds where you just come to meet your
partner of the future. It is a battleground where we
all prepare to live victorious Christian lives, where
we get armed with the full power of God, where we
become completely aware of the devices of the
devil. Then we can go through a Christmas
season or be at a party, and at the end of it our
marriage is intact, our sexuality is intact and our
life is intact because we were aware of what was
going on. Friends, we cant go through such
seasons where the enemy gets his ways into us at
all. We are alert to his ways. We are not just
living carefree. When we wake up in the morning,
we know that life is not a playground, it is a
battleground. The day that we gave our lives to
Jesus we faced the opposition of the enemy. We
have to be aware of that.
The first thing about spiritual warfare is this:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty
power. Many would normally start with all the
different armaments that we have (the shield, the
sword, ), but before we start spiritual warfare we
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have to be strong in the Lord. If we are not having

fellowship with Jesus Christ then we can never go
into any battle expecting to win. It is impossible.
We must be strong in the Lord.
There is a wonderful illustration in the Old
Testament of Abraham and Lot: theyre journeying
together, theyre both pitching their tents, they are
heading for the promised land. They have a
quarrel and Lot starts to move towards a place
called Sodom, which was a place of sexual sin.
He pitches his tent outside Sodom, and the next
minute he is inside the place! But Abraham, the
New Testament says, was a friend of God. He
kept walking in the ways of God, he had fellowship
with God, he was a friend of God, and he was not
enticed in any way by Sodom because he did not
pitch his tent anywhere near Sodom. Church,
especially young guys, if you pitch your tent
anywhere near Sodom then the enemy will have
his ways in your life, and after a Christmas season
you will be calling the pastor, saying, Please help
me. Friends, we must rather prevent than cure.
Gods grace is a cure but prevention is better
where God gets the glory for victorious Christian
living. Its better than having to keep patching
people up. Be strong in the Lord!
2. Draw Near to God for His Power
Hebrews 10 says that the blood of Jesus has
opened up a way into the Most Holy Place,
therefore draw near to God. It is an amazing
privilege that we have as believersto draw near
to God. Yet we see, right across the spectrum of
the Church, born-again believers not exercising
the privilege of having an intimate relationship with
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the Father. Be strong in the Lord. Before we fight

any battles, be strong in the Lord. We are to know
his character, know his nature, know his sweet
voice.
In some schools they make the scholars go
the long way round to the classrooms, but they
allow those in their final year to cut across the
lawn. Its like that: we have the privilege of going
straight across the lawn, having direct access into
the presence of God, yet many keep taking the
long way round. Some think that they have to get
to God through a priest. The pastor is not the way
to get to God, Jesus is the way to get to God. And
every single Christian has got direct access into
the presence of Godand because of that we get
strong in the ways of God. Not first through
preaching, but first through having fellowship with
him, and then through the preaching.
The Bible says, And in his mighty power.
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead
is inside us. So, when we go into a season where
there is more temptation than usual, we dont go in
our own power and our own strength and with our
own self will. We go in the power that raised
Jesus from the dead that is available to us, and
only then do we start declaring war. Only then do
we go into the battle with the fellowship of God
and the power inside us.
The Devils Schemes

The Bible says, Put on the full armour of God so
that you can take your stand against the devils
schemes. What are the devils schemes? Lets
look at a few of them so that we can be more
aware of thembut there are so many. Wars are
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fought using military intelligence. This is like

Gods military intelligenceit helps us fight the
war better.
Jesus said to them, If God were your Father,
you would love me, for I came from God and
now am here. I have not come on my own;
but he has sent me. Why is my language not
clear to you? Because you are not able to
hear what I say. You belong to your father,
the devil, and you want to carry out your
fathers desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his
native tongue, for he is a liar and the father of
lies.
John 8:42-44
1. Exploit Insecurities with Lies
One of the greatest ways the enemy will have his
way with insecure people is by telling them lies
about themselves. He will keep coming at you
about your insecurities. Perhaps your choirmaster
said, You are a froggy! The Bible says that our
voices are sweet. In our minds we have this lie,
You are a froggy! Perhaps someone in the
church says, You know, you have a lovely voice.
Its so powerful. You think, Thank you very
much! It has been prophesied, you have a
beautiful voice. The enemy will keep coming and
saying, Froggy, keep quiet! This is just an
example, friends. He will keep coming and telling
you that your nose is too big or your mouth is too
round. He will keep coming and undermining what
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the Scripture says about you, your life and how

you will count for God. He is the father of lies.
2. Kill, Rob and Destroy with Flattery
John 10:10 reminds us that the devil comes to lie,
kill and destroy. Whatever you do, whatever party
you go to, the enemy is there to kill, to rob, to
destroy. People lost their marriages at parties
because the enemy was there saying, One more,
one more, one more . Gone! Just like that!
Why? Because the man did not put the armour
on, friends. He was caught unawares. The Bible
is saying, Wake up, clean your act up and grow
up. Put on the full armour of God so that when the
enemy comes to rob, kill and destroy, you
recognise it and you deal with it. Know that the
enemy is completely committed to making our
marriages fail. Even ministers. That is why
pastors dont travel alone, we will not be found in
the car alone with another woman. Any one of us
can fall tomorrow, any one of us, friends. Are you
aware of these things in your own life? The devil
is committed to destroying them. Sir, if your wife
has not given you much affection lately, and at a
company party a lady flickers her eyes at you, do
not be flattered, flee! Do not be flattered. We all
like to have these little emotions but the enemy
comes in as an angel of light! You must say to
her, Robber, killer, destroyer! You must see the
venom come out of her eyes. Men, I am preparing
you. Put on the full armour of God so that you can
take your stand against the devils schemes.
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3. Oppose Gods Word with Doubt

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of
the wild animals the Lord God had made. He
said to the woman, Did God really say, You
must not eat from any tree in the garden?
Genesis 3:1
If you go to a game reserve in your car, you will
not get out of your car to get a closer look at a kill.
Why? Because you know that they will take you
out: lion, elephant, rhino or buffaloany one of
those. It says the devil is more crafty than any
one of them. He said to the woman: Did God
really say ?
4. Doubt Gods Goodness with Impatience
The woman said to the serpent, We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did
say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that
is in the middle of the garden, and you must
not touch it or you will die.
You will not surely die, the serpent said
to the woman. For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the
tree was good for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,
she took some and ate it. She also gave
some to her husband, who was with her, and
he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realised they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves.
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Genesis 3:2-7
Young people, God knows your marriage partner,
if you are to have one. For some of you, God has
called you to be single. If you cant settle that in
your hearts then you will fight him. And then the
enemy will come and say, Come on, come on,
you cant find a believer so find an unbeliever .
The enemy will throw that at you, he will cast
doubt on Gods goodness. He will keep throwing it
at you. What happens when you are thirty, forty
and fifty and you are still single? Do you believe
that God is good? Or do you believe the enemy
who says, Pick anybody who walks past your
eyes? Many have done that and fallen short of
the glory of God.
5. Hinder Gods Work with Enemies
For we wanted to come to youcertainly I,
Paul, did, again and againbut Satan
stopped us.
1 Thessalonians 2:18
Satan tries to stop us in our work of God by
putting religious people in the way.
6. Distort or Prevent the Gospel with
Persuasion
He distorts
preaching.
and
prevents
effective
gospel
They travelled through the whole island until

they came to Paphos. There they met a
Jewish sorcerer and a false prophet named
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Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the

proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul,
an intelligent man, sent for Paul and
Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to
hear the word of God. But Elymas the
sorcerer, (for that is what the name means)
opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul
from the faith. Then Saul, who was also
called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked
straight at Elymas and he said, You are a
child of the devil and an enemy of everything
that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit
and trickery. Will you never stop perverting
the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of
the Lord is against you. You are going to be
blind, and for a time you will be unable to see
the light of the sun.
Acts 13:6-11
Over the dinner table at home you are going to be
preaching the gospel to your family. There will be
other members of your family trying to dissuade
your parents, your sister, your brother, from
listening to the Message.
Be aware of the
schemes. Go dressed up in the armour of light.
Get prayed up, get fasted up, get strong, so that
when you present that gospel, you can tell that
member of your family to be quiet. Its not just a
natural reaction to the gospel but a spiritual
reaction to the gospel of light.
7. Kill Righteousness with Persistence
Cain killed Abel. Cain is evil, Abel is righteous.
The enemy tries to kill everything that is righteous.
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This is the message you heard from the

beginning: We should love one another. Do
not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one
and murdered his brother. And why did he
murder him? Because his own actions were
evil and his brothers were righteous.
1 John 3:11-12
The enemy is committed to killing everything that
is righteous. A sinner says, Come and join me!
The righteous say, No, I cant. The devil wants
to kill that righteousness, he wants to break you
down. He will keep coming until you give up,
unless you can recognise it and stand strong with
the full armour of God.
Samson had a problemher name was
Delightful. For Samson it was Delightful, for you it
might be Money. Delightful kept coming back until
Samson went down. The enemy is committed to
breaking the righteous processes of God, and he
will find the thing that is weak in your life. He will
keep coming back until you are firmly planted in
the fellowship of God and the incomparably great
power for us who believe, and you put on the full
armour, and you stand. If not, you will fall. There
are only two choices: stand or fall. We see
believers fall one after the next because they are
not aware of the enemys hatred of righteous
processes.
8. Bring Fear with Thoughts of Death
Since the children have flesh and blood, he
too shared in their humanity so that by his
death he might destroy him you holds the
power of deaththat is, the deviland free
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those who all their lives were held in slavery

by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15
When you get a pain in your chest, do you get a
fear of death? When your babies are little and
sick, the enemy will come to say, They will die.
That is the way the enemy robs people and keeps
them captive to the fear of death. Friends, the
Bible says that we have no fear of death because
we know what lies on the other side.
9. Stop Responses to God with Blindness
In 2 Corinthians 4 we are told he blinds the minds
of unbelievers.
10. Remove Understanding with Theft
Matthew 13 tells us how the devil robs people of
understanding.
11. Seduce with Avoidance of Suffering
The devil suggest ways that dont involve
suffering.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to
his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things at the hands of the
elders, chief priests and teachers of the law,
and that he must be killed and on the third
day be raised to life. Peter took him aside
and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he
said. This shall never happen to you.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind
me, Satan!
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Matthew 16:21-23
You cannot hide in the crowd. This Christian life is
not easy street. This road that we take is a road
with times of suffering, where we have to kill the
very desires and nature of our life. We have got to
kill them, we have got to destroy them, we have
got to put our ambitions aside, we have got to put
our pride aside. It is a road of suffering. It is a
road of sacrifice and it is a road that ultimately
leads to crucifixion, where we get nailed to the
cross. Jesus says that that is the way of God
and any shortcut is a way of Satan.
Many say, Come to the Church and
everything gets easier. In some ways it does but
in other ways everything seems to get harder.
That is the way of the Lord. The Bible says that
many enter through the wide gate and few enter
through the narrow gate. Some have a perception
in their minds that Christianity is easy. The enemy
has tricked them and they will not be able to stand
on the day of evil. One of the things that it says in
1 Peter 4 is that we will have to suffer in our
bodiesthe one who has suffered in his body has
done away with sin. Especially young people,
while you suffer with your sexuality you have to
know that that is the way of God. He designed
your sexuality and he created it for one purpose,
and that is marriage. While you suffer as a
teenager with all those frustrations, you have to
know that that is the way of God and not the devil.
You put your armour on so that you can take your
stand against the devils schemes.
Oh, that the Church would know who the
adversary is, that the Church would wake up in the
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morning and know that there is someone against

us. When the believers are unarmed, the enemy
tackles and winssometimes because one man
did not come prepared or one man was sent off.
From the day that Jesus came, he started to
preach about his kingdom. He started to drive out
devils, he started to heal sicknesses. He says that
you will do greater things than these. We cry,
Hallelujah, but dont be preoccupied with the
devil, just know that he is around. Be strong in the
Lord and in his mighty power and take your stand
against the devices of the devil. Its not easy
street.
12. Hoodwink with Religious Pretence
For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workmen, masquerading as apostles of
Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light. It is not
surprising, then, if his servants masquerade
as servants of righteousness. Their end will
be what their action deserves.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
In large sections of the so-called charismatic
church there is so much emotionalism that people
have stopped using their brains.
In many
churches the pastor can hoodwink the people
because they dont know the truth. The Bible says
that the way you take your stand is you take the
belt of truth and you buckle it around your waist.
Then, if a leader talks the biggest load of
nonsense, you can recognise it. If someone
masquerades as an apostle of light and says that
everybody must give 30% of their salary because
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of an incredible revelation from God then you must

run! You must leave and never come back.
People can dress such things up in all sorts of
religious language. And many times the people of
the Church around the world have been
hoodwinked, friends. The only things that will
stand at the end of time are the things that we
build exactly according to the pattern of Scripture.
But you and I have to have the belt of truth firmly
around our waist so that when the angel of light
comes, we can kick him out.
When preachers preach things, you should be
able to know if it is right or wrong. Its not that you
should feel like a panel of judges. But the
preacher can be challenged because one of the
ways the enemy works is by deceiving people
through false apostles. You can hear many of
these unbalanced or untrue messages on TV.
Some preach one side of grace without
responsibility, causing licentiousness.
Others
preach responsibility without grace, causing
legalism. That is how the enemy works. He
comes and binds the Church up in licentiousness
or legalism. Instead of setting Gods people free,
these preachers either cause people to become
licentious (where they do whatever they like) or
they become legalistic (trying to earn salvation).
Know the belt of truth so that you can walk in
freedom.
13. Trick with Misused Scripture
The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91:
He has placed you in the care of angels.
They will catch you so that you wont so much
as stub your toe on a stone.
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Matthew 4:6b, The Message

14. Deceive with Imitation Signs and Wonders
We see this mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2.
15. Mislead with Alternatives
The devil offers exotic or occult-type alternatives,
so-called deep secrets that include sexual
immorality.
Nevertheless, I have this against you: You
tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophet. By her teaching she
misleads my servants into sexual immorality,
and the eating of foods sacrificed to idols. I
have given her time to repent of her
immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast
her on a bed of suffering, and I will make
those who commit adultery with her suffer
intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I
will strike her children dead. Then all the
churches will know that I am he who searches
hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you
according to your deeds. Now I say to the
rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold
to her teaching and have not learnt Satans
so-called deep secrets .
Revelation 2:20-24a, TNIV
16. Demoralise with Persecution
I know about the slander of those who say
they are Jews and are not, but are a
synagogue of Satan.
Revelation 2:9b
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17. Undermine with Sickness

Not all sicknesses are from the devil but many are.
Please understand that. Arthritis from old age is
not the enemywe live in a fallen world with a
fallen nature. Dont believe every disease is the
enemy.
18. Bring Dissension with Poor Doctrine
The devil brings dissension over doctrine and
causes rifts. We see this in the book of Romans.
19. Allure with Poor Sexuality
When we read 1 Corinthians 7 and 1 Timothy 5,
we see that it talks about the sexuality of
husbands and wives. It is saying that if you
abstain for a while then it must be by mutual
consent and only for a little while lest Satan tempt
you. God created the sexuality of man and
woman to be fulfilled in a marriage context. When
that is not being fulfilled, the enemy is having his
way. Be aware. And if there is an issue there,
hurt or rejection, please speak to somebody so
you can be healed and continue in the fullness of
what God has for youlest the enemy comes in.
20. Destroy Relationships with Unforgiveness
If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him and
what I have forgiven, if there was anything to
forgive, I have forgiven in the sights of Christ
for your sake. In order that Satan might not
out wit us, for we are not unaware of his
schemes.
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Where there is unforgiveness, the enemy will be

rampant. Once a young guy telephoned his father
and said, I just want to forgive you for what I had
to go through when you were divorced. Do you
know what happens there, friends? The enemy
gets kicked out and Gods glory comes in.
It is so easy to live with unforgiveness in our
hearts, especially when we feel justified to live with
it. But when we are aware of the devils devices
we know that that thing in our lives plays havoc. It
gives the enemy a foothold and he just shakes us.
If you have any form of unforgiveness in your
heart (about your past or your marriage or your
pastor ), deal with it lest the enemy have his
ways with you.
21. Torment with Pride and Bitterness
He must manage his own family well and see
that his children obey him with proper
respect. If anyone does not know how to
manage his own family, how can he take care
of Gods Church? He must not be a recent
convert, or he may become conceited and fall
under the same judgement as the Devil.
1 Timothy 3:4-6
Pride! It is the way of the devil.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to his neighbour for we
are all members of one body. In your anger
do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while
you are still angry. And do not give the devil
a foot-hold.
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Ephesians 4:25-27
Unresolved anger gives the devil a foothold:
husband, wife and children, employer and
employee, whatever it might be. Perhaps you
have an argument at work with your boss and he
corrects you. You go home and tell your wife and
family in anger. You go to bed and you justify
yourself right through the night. In the morning
you just want to explode. The enemy has got you,
born-again believer, when just a few days ago you
were worshiping. The devil is saying, I have got
Gods people because they do not know the
devices that I use.
The Armour of God

Finally be strong in the Lord and his mighty
power put on the full armour of God so that
you can take your stand against the Devils
schemes. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this
dark world and against the spiritual realms of
evil in the heavenly realms, therefore put on
the full armour of God, so that when the day
of evil comes, you will be able to stand your
ground, so that after you have done
everything to stand, stand firm then with the
belt of truth buckled around your waist, with
the breast-plate of righteousness in place,
with your feet fitted with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace. And in
addition to all this, take up the shield of faith,
with which you can extinguish all the flaming
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arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of

salvation, the sword of the spirit.
Ephesians 6:13-18
1. The Belt of Truth
We must know the word of God. You cannot be
scripturally illiterate and expect to win the fight.
When you do not know the word of God you are
vulnerable.
In times past people would wear flowing
robes. They would take their belt and they would
gird up their loins, tie it with the belt, so that they
were ready to walk. If you dont know the word of
God and you have a flapping robe, the enemy will
take you out. So, when a lie comes, you fight it
with the truth not with your opinion.
A lady once phoned a minister and said, I
dont go to your church. Will you baptise my
child? He said, I wont baptise your child. She
said, I dont think God would say that! Actually,
she has no clue as to what God would say! She
doesnt know what baptism or dedication is. Now,
if you dont know something from the Word then
dont speak it out because it will have no authority
against the enemybecause he knows the word
of God. He uses it out of context but he knows it.
When a born-again believer uses it against him,
the believer will be victorious, friends, victorious.
2. The Breastplate of Righteousness
What does that mean, breastplate of
righteousness? Our heart is one of the most
vulnerable areas for attack. Men and women are
deceived by their feelings and their emotions. We
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put the breastplate of righteousness on us and it

covers our hearts, it covers our feelings, it covers
our emotions. Despite what you feel, despite what
the enemy tells you, know that you are covered by
the righteousness of Christ. It is something that
we put on. Even when we are not doing well, we
dont put our faith in what we are doing, we put our
faith in what Jesus has done for us. We live with
the righteousness of Christ. It is not dependant on
our behaviour, good or bad, successful or
unsuccessful. It is dependant on his completed
work on the cross. And when the enemy sees
that, he cannot touch us.
One of the greatest ways the enemy gets
people is through discouragement. He sows
doubt on their assurance of salvation. We must
say, No, no, no! I am in the Lord. I am in the
position. I am full of the power. I not only have
the belt of truth but I have the breastplate of
righteousness. You cant touch me. When I
stand, I stand pure before God. All the sin of my
past, all that stuff that you will try and taunt me
with, is covered by the completed work of Christ
and I stand here. Even if we were sex addicts or
drug addicts, the breastplate of righteousness is
on us and we stand and worship God. You might
accuse me, you might lie to me, you might do
whatever to me, but the completed work of Christ
covers me and on that thing I stand.
3. The Shoes of Peace
Shoes do two things: they protect our feet and
they get us ready for running. When we are at
peace with God we are in a very powerful place.
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When we are at peace with God, we are assured

of what he has done for us.
4. The Shield of Faith
Whenever temptation comes for anxiety, impurity
or greed, we stand with what we believe. We put
the shield of faith in front of us.
5. The Helmet of Salvation
This picture is taken from the Roman soldiers. It
speaks of being invincible and also the
expectation of victory.
6. The Sword of the Spirit
The difference between the sword of the Spirit and
the belt of truth is that the sword of the Spirit
speaks of particular things that God has spoken to
us. Perhaps you have sleeping disorders because
of busyness, stress and troubles. Then you see
Psalm 127, God grants sleep to those that he
loves. Then God speaks to you through other
psalms as David explains that he lay down and
slept, and woke up refreshed; there were 10 000
all around, he still lay down and slept. It becomes
a revelation to you. Because of the character and
nature of God, despite all the busyness and
distractions and opposition, you can still lie down,
sleep and wake up refreshed. It becomes a
particular word of God to your situation. The
enemy is going to come with all his devices to rob
you of your sleep. But if you will go to the Word
and find the sword there, and you do battle, you
can find that rest.
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Be aware of the devils devices because he

will come to rob, discourage, kill, destroy, lie, steal
or cause doubt. But we stand strong: truth,
righteousness, salvation and the gospel of peace
on our feet, with the shield of faith. Roman
soldiers used a shield as big as a doornothing
can touch us.
Perhaps the enemy comes and tells you that
you are ugly. You say, God says that I am
beautiful! If the enemy comes and says, You
have a voice like a frog, you say, My voice is
sweet! If he says that you are an orphan, you
say, No, I am a son. Your feelings will deceive
you and say, You were rejected. No, you were
accepted. You are shameful. No, you are
glorious. Pay attention and you can stand. God
wants a victorious Church that is fully aware of the
devices of the devil, and fully aware of the power
that makes it possible for us to defeat him. Study
the Word, not because you have to but because
you want to. You want to win because God has
given us every resource and power to be
victorious. But we do still have to put it on.
The righteousness is a gift. The belief is a
gift. The indicatives are a gift. But our behaviour
is dependant on our decisions.
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9: Controlling Debt and Spending

Financial Freedom in Revelation from
God
Are you in debt? What are your spending habits
like, especially at times like Christmas? Are you
the Christmas turkey? There is no similarity
between the finances of the world and the
finances of the Church, none whatsoever. They
are two different systems completely. Lets look at
biblical finances.
Many of us have seen something of Gods
blessing in the area of finances but we have to
have banks to the river. A key area is not going
into debt. For some people there is an abundance
of finances in their lives. For others, they live near
the breadline. In seasons like Christmas, things
are designed to hook people, to indebt them to
such an extent that they have to pay it off for the
rest for the year. As leaders, pastors have to
make sure that the people dont get themselves
bound up spiritually, emotionally, physically or
financially; that they stay free in everything that
God has called them to do.
Moses turned and went down the mountain
with the two tablets of the Testimony in his
hands. They were inscribed on both sides,
front and back. The tablets were the work of
God; the writing was the writing of God,
engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard
the noise of the people shouting, he said to
Moses, There is the sound of war in the
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camp. Moses replied: It is not the sound of

victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the
sound of singing that I hear.
When Moses approached the camp and
saw the calf and the dancing, his anger
burned and he threw the tablets out of his
hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of
the mountain. And he took the calf they had
made and burned it in the fire; then he ground
it to a powder, scattered it on the water and
made the Israelites drink it. He said to Aaron,
What did these people do to you, that you
led them into such great sin? Do not be
angry, my lord, Aaron answered. You know
how prone these people are to evil. They
said to me, Make us gods who will go before
us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us
up out of Egypt, we dont know what has
happened to him. So I told them, Whoever
has any gold jewellery, take it off. Then they
gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire,
and out came this calf!
Exodus 32:15-24
Just like that, Abracadabra! Moses saw that the
people were running wild and that Aaron had let
them get out of control. They had become a
laughingstock to their enemies. Running wild and
out of controlGods people! He asked Aaron the
leader, How did you let them get like this?
Where there is no revelation, the people cast
off restraint.
Proverbs 29:18a
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I hope the business people are not thinking, What

is this guy going on about? Generally, we should
not owe a cent, except perhaps on a house or car.
That brings freedom! A few Christian leaders say
they believe that that is a fallacy: to make good
money you need to live in debt. But the Bible
says that the only debt we should have is the debt
of love, Romans 13 tells us that.
Where there is no revelation, people run wild
or run out of control. Now, the way that you bring
people who are running wild back into control is
not with control systems. The way you bring
people who are running wild back into control is
with revelation. This is absolutely vital. We
cannot dictate to people how they spend their
money. Its their money, they have worked for it,
they can spend it however they like. But we can
give them the revelation of Gods plan and Gods
pattern, and hopefully that brings them back into
controlnot with a control system. You shouldnt
feel that you are dominated. But you do need
revelation. Many times in the past, when Gods
people have run wild, the Church around the world
has dominated people. Instead of setting Gods
people free they have bound them up so that they
feel that they are shackled. That is not the way
you bring people into control. You give them a
revelation of the Father, you give them a
revelation of Jesus, you give them a revelation of
finances, you give them a revelation of the Word.
First, there was a calf and there was dancing.
Have you watched what happens in most
shopping centres?
Friends, most of the
decoration is gold and most of what is happening
there is dancing! They are dancing around it. And
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the believers are part of it. Are you a part of the

dance? People are going from shop to shop as
part of the dance. Are you the turkey? Are you
being seduced or do you know exactly what you
are doing?
Second,
they
threw
their
personal
possessions and their treasures at it. They took
off the golden earrings and they threw their
personal possessions and their treasures at it.
Third, the leaders let them get like that.
A credit card is there to facilitate easy
payment not to make payment possible. If you
cant afford it, dont buy it! Even if you have got a
credit card with a good limit.
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower
is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
What happens when you borrow money, even for
church projects? What happens when the interest
rate jumps from 15% to 25%? You could be
bankrupt. But money in the bank earns interest. If
you owe the bank manager, he is your master.
Let me give you a definition of debt. Debt is
a grant to pay later what is received now. Interest
is the fee that the debtor pays for this grant.
When a person goes into debt he obtains money
he has not yet earned. He is mortgaging his
future time, energy and assets for the money and
possessions he receives in the present.
This is a warning to Gods people. We need
to take heed. In the original Christmas, people
brought gifts to Jesus. How things have turned
around! During a modern Christmas, we have to
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give gifts to everybody else; and we expect friends

to give us gifts, and we expect our family to give
us gifts, and we expect Jesus to give us gifts! In
the original Christmas, gifts were given to him.
Remember, God is not obligated to fulfil our
unwise choices.
We need to ask, Am I
mortgaging God by committing him to a
programme he may not even approve of? What
am I talking about friends? I am talking about
buying presents for our kids when you cant even
afford it, or upgrading our motorcars because the
season catches us. The season is wild and the
spirit of buying is very powerful.
What happens when things go well in the
church? What are the dangers of a rich church?
What happens when finances flow? Little things
creep in that are very dangerous: if we dont get all
our little pleasures and comforts, we become
unhappy, we become dissatisfied.
Why, for many churches, is December the
worst month financially? Why is this when people
have been getting bonuses? Surely Gods people
are running wild. Even in a generous church, in
December, something happens to Gods people. I
understand that there are holidays and those
things. But Gods people have to be in control,
and it comes by revelation.
1. The Dangers of Debt
When is debt dangerous? When the resale of the
possession is less than the debt, when you keep
doing extensions on your house, upgrading your
house, until eventually your bond is more than you
can get for your house.
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When is debt dangerous? When we violate

our convictions. What does that mean? When we
live at a standard of living that means that our
wives have to go to work when we really want her
to bring up the kids in the ways of God. Now, I
understand that in some countries many times
both husband and wife have to work. I understand
that, and I also understand that sometimes wives
want to work and they feel called to the business
world. But are we violating our convictions?
Have we put our standard of living so high
that we have to get a second job? Many in
America have got two or three jobs just to
maintain their standard of living. What about
young people? Do you have to work extra shifts at
the restaurants so that you can wear the right
clothes? It is a violation of Gods principles,
friends. Christmas is a time for family, it is a time
to be at home, it is a time to break bread around
the table. It is not time to be working shift after
shift so that you can pay things back.
We rob God when we rob our Primary
Creditor to pay our secondary creditor. Our
primary creditor is God. Our secondary creditor is
man. An example is the tithes and offerings in the
church. Do you rob God so that you can pay off
your debts? Rather, friends, wait on God and get
a Scripture to give to your family in an envelope
than get yourself into debt. What happens when
you buy someone a present, one of those top of
the range things with every bell and whistle? They
look and say, Wow, nice. Then they never use
it.
Rather wait on God and get something
meaningful than spend more and more. Men tend
to buy more expensive gifts than they can afford
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because they havent given their family time, they

havent given their family attention, they have let
their wife down time after time. So, they buy their
family a bigger present, they buy a bigger car, a
bigger ring, a bigger diamond, in some hope of
removing the guilt. It doesnt work. If you are
living like that then you are a turkey!
Can we buy Christmas presents?
Yes.
Should we go into debt? Not a chance. There
was a man who went to the shop to buy a
chocolate. While there he saw there was a good
lottery situation. He decided he would just quickly
get a lottery ticket. But as he bought it his pastor
walked in! He went very red and needed to chat it
through.
Friends, lotteries are games of chance and
God is not a God of chance. They put up big
bright shiny lights in the casinos. I trust that none
of you will spend one single rand at those places.
A casino is a golden calf. Are Gods people
dancing around with all the rest of the world, all
going in together throwing their personal wealth,
saying, Oh, but Ive got a bit of extra cash?
Throwing it in! It is a game of chance, friends, and
God is not a God of chance. He works like this:
tithes, offerings, general generosity, alms and
apostolic givingand you will have more than you
need. God says he gives everything to us for our
good pleasure. God is not some kind of skimpy
Father. God wants us to live in blessing, to live in
abundance, and God wants us to bless others.
But dont rob your Primary Creditor to pay your
secondary creditor.
When is debt dangerous?
When debt
prevents us from responding to the promptings of
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the Holy Spirit to give generously, when it stops us

giving. God is like a river and he expects his
people to flow. When you are in debt you cant
flow. You become a dam, and the only time a
dam ever gives lots of good water is when it is full.
When it is not full they let water out the bottom
all that murky, filthy rubbish that just gets churned
out the bottom; and then nobody is really full
enough to give. God is a river, he wants to flow.
It is wonderful to receive things. And it is
good to bless eldersbut many times you need to
look around and bless people around you, not the
elders. But when you are in debt, it is impossible.
Its wonderful to hear of people in a church
blessing others with flights overseas. How can
they do it? Because they can respond to the Holy
Spirits promptings.
God is prompting us all the time. It is in the
church that peoples needs get metnot just by
the elders, not just by the churchs main bank
accountby every single person in the life of the
church. This is not some communist system
where the churchs administration takes care of
the needs. Everybody looks after everybody. So,
when the promptings of the Holy Spirit come, just
respond. You might not know the person. As you
walk God says, Send them, pay for them, bless
them, give them a meal. But Lord I am in debt.
So, the promptings still come but the debt keeps
us from responding.
When is it dangerous? When it stops us
moving. God has a fulltime calling on some of
your lives but you cant move because of debt.
The ministry does not usually pay as well as the
world does. So, if you cant afford your standard
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of living in ministry then you either need to get

your standard of living down or you need to get
yourself out of debt so that when God calls you to
go fulltime, you can go.
Can you move home, friends? Can you move
if God called you tomorrow? Can you leave for
some other nation and get a lower paying job to
help a church plant? God is more committed to
his Kingdom than to your progress in the
workplace.
2. The Consequences of Debt
What are the consequences of debt? First, it
hangs around like a bad rash. Have you ever had
a bad rash? Have you had an allergy rash? What
about athletes foot? You keep applying cream
but the thing doesnt go away. That is what debt
is like. It just clings to you. You cant get rid of it.
You cant sleep at night, it irritates you. We have
to be committed to get out of it, friends.
Second, its a denial of reality. Some say,
Look at how God has blessed me! No, he
hasnt! Your bank has facilitated your impulsive
behaviour.
Third, it leads to dishonesty and scheming.
The next month comes and a guy phones and
says, Where is the cheque? Its in the post.
Well, then, how is it that it hasnt arrived? Um,
its the postal system. No, its not! Thats
dishonesty!
Fourth, debt is addictive because spending is
powerful. How do you feel after you have just
been paid? How many of you feel good after you
have just bought a new set of clothes? How many
of you feel good after you have just bought a new
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car, a new house or new furniture? It is appealing.

It is addictive, friends, and people under pressure
spend more and more, and they eat out more and
more. Dont run wild, get a picture of God. Debt
robs God and it ties up resources.
3. Getting Out of Debt
How does one get out of debt? First, we must pay
back what we have borrowed. Come to Jesus
and he will rescue you so you dont have to pay!
No, thats not right. It says he will walk you
through the valley of the shadow of death, not
pluck you out of it. He does not save you out of it
like Father Christmas. He says, You got yourself
into this and I am going to show you how to get
yourself out of here. You have got to repay it,
friends. He is the only one who wipes debt clean.
Many Christians have got such a bad name
because they take things and the never repay
them, and then they start quoting scriptures! You
must repay it.
How did you get into it?
Normally
impulsiveness, greed and lack of discipline. There
is such a pressure to look right in this day and
age, friends. You have got to wear the right kit.
We know the clothing guys. They cut a little v in
the sleeve and they move the badge from here to
there. Every kid knows that if you havent got the
v in your shirt then you are not cool. Rather cut
a v in the thing and stay out of debt, friends!
Then the things got a little hoop here and a little
hoop there. Then it is checks and then it is
stripes. Its a hoodwink. It is a golden calf to hook
the Church. Far too many Christians follow it! Are
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you the Christmas turkey? Do you see what is

going on? Do you keep yourself free?
How do we get out? Get yourself under
control. Incur no new debts. Friends, the bank
gladly gives most salary earners R10 000 credit.
So does the local food shop. Some get R100 000
creditwithout even asking for it. How are you
going to pay that amount back? Then the local
clothing store gives you credit too. Some ladies
have got 10 cards in their wallets. How do we
know? Just have a look. It looks like they are
hiding a Bible in therebut no!it is just a set of
credit cards. Turkeys! Gobble, gobble, gobble. I
think I will just pay a bit off here and a bit off
thereand you will find that you are paying for
the next 6 months.
List your debts and systematically repay them.
How do we get out? Be patient and pray.
Winning a lottery isnt the way you get out of
debtthe same with gambling. Those systems
are of the world. Even if you did win, you would
be in such a predicament about what to do with
the money. The Bible says, Little by little. Little
by little you deal with your finances and save.
When you are faithful with little, he will give you
much. God is going to see multimillionaires in his
Kingdom. But little by little. You can often spot
men and women who have inherited large sums of
money. They generally blow it because it has not
come little by little. As the money comes little by
little, we learn the lessons little by little: business
lessons, and character development that goes
with it. Repay your debts, friends.
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4. Controlling Spending
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a
man who lacks self control.
Proverbs 25:28
In the old days the city walls were there for
protection. How do we control spending? If you
do not have self control over your spending then
youre open to any form of attack. If your wife is
the one who lacks it, build her wall up quickly.
How? By taking her credit away. The feminists
may rant and rave but, my friends, if we allow the
enemy into our city he will wreak havoc there, and
our marriages will pay, and our parenting will pay,
and our homes will pay. The spiritual realm will
pay for the rest of the year if you cannot take
control of spending in Christmas seasons. Build
the walls around your home. The condition of the
home is the responsibility of the husband. If you
are a single person and lack control then make
sure that you get somebody around you that can
help you. Some 18 year old girls go from one
store to the next with seven or eight accounts. If
you lack control then you are open to attack: some
guy comes along and says, Ill cancel that for you,
and then youve got a hook inside of you. Hes
fishing. He pulls you in whenever he wants to.
And these are Gods people! Gods people are
running wild.
5. Avoiding New Debt
First, it is not a good thing to take a deal if you
cant afford it.
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Second, God isnt in every good deal. This is

very difficult for some of you entrepreneurs. God
once told a man that he must spend time with his
family. He testified from the pulpit in his church,
God said, Spend time with your family, get to
know your family, establish your family. But he
was a restaurateur and he saw a good deal. So,
he bought a restaurant with stock and everything.
On the first night he went to the grand opening of
the restaurant. God said, I didnt tell you to buy
this restaurant. I told you to spend time with your
family. It was a good deal with good equipment,
but God wasnt in it.
Third, understand the difference between
spending and saving. If a squash racquet was
R300 in December but in January it goes down to
R180, when you buy it you have not saved
yourself R120, you have spent R180. You say, I
got such a good deal, I saved R120. No, you
didnt! You spent R180. And was it money you
didnt have? You may say, But I love squash.
Thats wonderful but you havent got R180.
Fourth, consider the long term costs of your
purchase. Well, your kid wants a puppyand
your neighbours kid has a dog! Beautiful things,
special price for Christmas, R300 for the male.
You say, Ive got R300! A dog doesnt cost you
R300, friends. A dog costs you R300 to buy and it
costs you R150 a month to feed. And the reason
they have vets that go to university for all those
years is so that they can take your money
because of your dog. You have got to know that
when you buy a dog, it is not just R300. It is food,
plus injections, plus when it gets bitten by that
terrier next door. You just keep paying.
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Ooh! A swimming pool for Christmas. I have

been promising them for years . Its R20 000
for a swimming poolplus chemicals, plus leaf
catcher, plus pump expenses . And, at the
price, you might expect the leaf catcher to have
legs and run around to catch the leaves, but it just
sits there. The business people might think,
What is he on about? Dont get hooked by a
standard of living that is beyond yourself.
Fifth, pray. Do you say, Oh, he is getting
religious!? But the Bible says that the peace of
God that transcends all understanding will keep
your heart in the love and the knowledge of God.
The problem with buying is that is hits you in the
heart. The wonderful thing with prayer is that it
hits you there too. People are led by their hearts,
from one shop to the next. When you are in
prayer, friends, you have got these two things in
check. Then you can find peace.
Sixth, understand and resist the lure of
advertising.
Consider this quote by Charles
Colson.
America
has
a
highly
developed,
technologically-advanced
industrythe
advertising industrydesigned to entice us
with a promise of redemption through
commercialism and materialism. Every time
we turn on the television or open a magazine
or newspaper, we are bombarded with the
gospel of commercialism: that for every need,
every insecurity, every worry, there is a
product for sale that can satisfy our need,
pump up our self esteem and soothe our
worry.
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Advertisers devote huge budgets to

hiring psychologists to probe the human
psyche and pinpoint our deepest needs and
longings. Then they craft seductive images
and phrases designed to hook us and beguile
us into thinking that buying their product will
satisfy those fundamental needs. And since
those deepest needs are religious, what ads
really trade on is the universal longing for
redemption. This is no accident. According
to Sociologist, James Twitchell in his book
Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in
American Culture, many of the early
advertisers were Christians, often the sons of
clergyman. As they developed the modern
art of advertising, they simply translated their
understanding of spiritual need into the
commercial arena .
And that has hooked us, friends. They also
appeal to three things: the lust of the eyes, the lust
of the flesh and the pride of life. You have to
know that when you see the bells and the whistles
going up, and the lights and colours, those things
have been designed by psychologists and
sociologists. They know what colours turn people
on. Why do the bells ring at the casinos all the
time? After an interval, another bell, another
interval, another whistle, then another light .
Gods people are in there and they are dancing.
Do I believe that God wants to bless your
business? Absolutely, but dont be hooked. Walk
away from the things that you dont need. Little
adds up. Be biblical or be bound. Follow the
ways of God: dont go into debt. Bless your
171
families but make sure, friends, that you dont

become the Christmas turkey.
Father, I pray that your Church will not be

seduced. You are a God who wants to bless us.
And I believe, Lord, that you will give us flowing
robes, as you gave your priests in the old
Testament: beautiful clothes. You said that we
should not worry about what we eat and what we
wear, that we should seek your Kingdom first. I
dont see you as a poverty God, I dont see you as
a miserly God, I dont see you as a withholding
God, I see you as an abundant God who wants to
bless your people.
But you have given us
restrictions, Lord, and the world is committed to
seeing us living beyond thoseout of control,
running wild, spending freely to try and alleviate
guilt, to try and feel the rush of spending. But,
Lord God, I pray that we would have a revelation
of you, of your Word and of your ways. We know
you have our best interests at heart.
I pray, Lord, that you would convict hearts:
that we would not go and spend hundreds of rands
on things like crackers, Lord, so that our table
looks right, crackers that we cannot afford. We
could rather stand up and give thanks to you,
Lord, wait in your presence and ask you to bless
our families, bless our fathers, bless our mothers,
bless our grannies. I pray that that would be a far
greater thing than the clap of a cracker, Lord, that
it would be the opening of heaven over the table.
172
Father, we want to have a revelation, not of the

Christmas tree with the presents, but that
offensive Tree on which you hung, on which you
said, Father, forgive them for they know not what
they do, that Tree that put us into spiritual
families, that Tree on which you said, It is
finished. We say, Thank you, Lord, because we
cannot earn our redemption, we cannot earn our
salvation, we cannot earn our justification; you
have given it to us as a gift and we are eternally
grateful.
Father, I pray that your Church would be free,

free from control. I pray that this teaching would
not be a control system but a revealing of your
heart and a revealing of your character. Father,
bless these people, every single person, Lord,
every family, every single person; that they would
find family in the church community.
Father, I pray that the only Christmas turkey
will be the one we eat, that it would not be us: that
not one of us would be hoodwinked by the ways of
the world, the advertising schemes or the
excessive spending that is going on. I pray that
we will dance around your throne, we will dance
around your Tree, we will worship you and you
alone. Amen.
173
10: Victory Over Sexual Immorality

God is saying, Honour me with your body, and
that is in the context of all things such as sexually,
eating or fitness.
And, so, lets read the
Scriptures. In particular, we will be looking at
some proverbs about sexuality because this is a
particular difficulty for many people, especially
young, single people. Married or single, we have
to keep our desires within the boundaries that God
has given to us.
Now, we dont want to become legalistic with
dress codes but your body does not belong to you,
it belongs to Godthat is what the Scripture says.
Your body is designed to give one and only one
other person pleasurewe dont go to church to
give people pleasure with our bodies. Even
fulfilled, happily married men, seeing the dress
codes used by some young Christian ladies, have
to exercise incredible discipline to stop their minds
from wandering. We want to honour God with our
bodies. One of the tasks of the pastor is to be a
father in the church, and Proverbs says, over and
over again, My son, my son, give full attention to
your father, listen so that you may live a
disciplined and a guided life.
Now, I believe in the grace of God and I
believe in the process of sanctification. But I also
believe that once we see Jesus there is a
behavioural pattern that goes with that: that we
must honour God with our bodies.
It is actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and of a kind that
174
does not occur even among pagans: A man

has his fathers wife. And you are proud!
Shouldnt you rather have been filled with
grief and have put out of your fellowship the
man who did this? Even though I am not
physically present, I am with you in spirit.
And I have already passed judgement on the
one who did this, just as if I were present.
When you are assembled in the name of our
Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the
power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this
man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature
may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the
day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good.
Dont you know that a little yeast works
through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of
the old yeast that you may be a new batch
without yeastas you really are. For Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with
the old yeast, the yeast of malice and
wickedness, but with the bread without yeast,
the bread of sincerity and truth. I have written
you in my letter not to associate with sexually
immoral people .
1 Corinthians 5:1-9
Its a strong word, friends, but its in the context of
grace. This is not a gospel of sinless perfection
but a gospel of progress.
We are making
progress in the things of God, we are always trying
to restore and get things right. Any form of
discipline has restoration in mind. But the Bible
says that there comes a time when we
disassociate from those who know Jesus Christ
175
but will not adjust their behaviour. We are looking

at sexuality here, and Paul is not talking about the
people of this world who are immoral, he is not
talking about people outside the Church because
in that case we would have to leave this world.
You cant say, Oh, thats great, Im never going to
go to work again because my boss is having an
affair. No, he is not talking about your bossyou
are possibly the only hope of salvation that that
man has.
But now I am writing to you that you must not
associate with anyone who calls himself a
brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an
idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a
swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those
outside the church? Are you not to judge
those inside? God will judge those outside.
Expel the wicked man from among you.
Our job is not to judge the world, forever turning
up our noses at them. The Bible says that God
will judge them. Our job is to judge ourselves.
Verse 12 of chapter 6 says that everything is
permissible for me but not everything is beneficial.
He is just reminded the Christians again of their
freedom. God has created things in the world for
us to enjoy. We are not coming under a set of
laws and regulations in Christ. He is reminding us
of those things.
Everything is permissible for mebut I will
not be mastered by anything. Food for the
176
stomach and the stomach for foodbut God

will destroy them both. The body is not
meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body. By his power God
raised the Lord from the dead, and he will
raise us also. Do you not know that your
bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall
I then take the members of Christ and unite
them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not
know that he who unites himself with a
prostitute is one with her in body? But he
who unites himself with the Lord is one with
him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other
sins a man commits are outside his body, but
he who sins sexually sins against his own
body. Do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not
your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honour God with your body.
God has bought your body, it belongs to him.
When you say, Worthy is the lamb to be
worshiped and praised, you are also saying, My
body belongs to him.
Pictures from Proverbs

I want paint some pictures that are in the
proverbs.
177
1. Sewer versus Stream

Have you ever been into a sewer? Have you ever
seen a septic tank being emptied? Perhaps
youve had a toilet block up in your home where
you have had to call a plumber to sort out the
rather unpleasant state of affairs. You gladly pay
the plumber because you are so glad that you
didnt have to fix it yourself.
But if you go on holiday into the mountains,
you can see beautiful streams. They are the most
beautiful places. The water flows crystal clear.
You can have the most incredibly wonderful
experiences with the freshness of the air, the
coolness of the water.
The Bible says in the book of Proverbs that
sex within the boundaries of Gods ways is like a
stream. Sex outside of the boundaries of Gods
ways is like a sewer that blocks up and washes
into the streets. That is what the Bible says. It
says that you have a choice: you can wait and let
the streams of God flow on your married life or
you can live in the disease-infested stink of the
sewer.
2. Uncontrolled Fire versus Camp Fire
Perhaps when you were at school, you went on
camp into the wild. There you light a campfire and
it keeps the dangerous animals away and it
provides you with warmth in the cold. Some
people like to go camping on holiday. They enjoy
the conversation around the fire, adding another
log, adding another log, chatting late into the night.
It brings back fond memories to many.
178
But there are people who have lost their

houses because of runaway firesfires that were
out of control.
Most of us will remember
newspaper reports of houses burning down,
sometimes entire blocks of flats burning down. Its
frighteningyou lose all your possessions. You
have nowhere to stay. When there are serious
fires out of control in some places around the
world, it makes headlines and people evacuate
entire areas because of the danger.
The Bible says very clearly that sex within the
confines of a marriage is like a campfire where
you sit around and you can talk late into the night
and put another log on and another log on. But
the Bible says that sex outside of the confines of
marriage is liking scooping fire into your lap. With
unwanted fire you lose what is most valuable to
you, like a home that is burned down with nothing
left inside. When somebody comes to buy the
house, instead of your good furniture and your
photographs and your memories, everything has
been burnt by the raging fire of an uncontrolled
sex life.
I paint pictures because I want to see a
Church that will honour God. Friends, we all have
to discipline our minds day by day, we all face it.
But when we see those pictures, we dont want
our house to smell like a stinky sewer, we dont
want fire to consume the most valuable
possessions of our lives. The Bible is talking to
married people too.
3. Animal versus Human
Do you eat grass for supper? No, you dont eat
grass. Do you eat meat raw? No, you never eat
179
meat raw, perhaps a little bit of sushi every now

and again. You wouldnt just kill a buck and eat it
there on the ground, would you?
The Bible paints a very clear picture. It says
that the man who was led by the adulterous
seductress was led like an animal to the slaughter.
The third picture that is painted for us is that of an
animal versus a human. You dont eat grass
because you are not an animal and you dont eat
meat raw because you are not an animal. Then
dont behave sexually like an animal because the
Bible says that if you behave like an animal
sexually then you will be led to the slaughter. The
Bible says that a wild ox will get slaughtered and a
wild animal will get pierced with a spear.
Summary
We have looked at three pictures: the first is a
sewer versus a stream, the second is a campfire
versus a fire out of control, the third is of an
animal or a human. Our bodies belong to God.
God gives us the power to live a holy life.
Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you
angry? Why is your face downcast? If you
do what is right, will you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right, sin is
crouching at your door; it desires to have you
but you must master it.
Genesis 4:6
Here we think of those stable doors where the top
half can be open and the bottom half closed. We
can see sin crouching at the door there: as you
take that latch off it gets you. Friends, the enemy
180
knows us well. If you are bent on making a

financial success of yourself, the enemy will catch
you, he is just crouching at the door. A business
deal will comethe Bible says, Dont let it master
you. When you hear the knock on the door, dont
let is master you.
But GOD was not at all pleased with what
David had done, and sent Nathan to David.
Nathan said to him, There were two men in
the same cityone rich, the other poor. The
rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of
cattle. The poor man had nothing but one
little female lamb, which he had bought and
raised. It grew up with him and his children
as a member of the family. It ate off his plate
and drank from his cup and slept on his bed.
It was like a daughter to him.
One day a traveler dropped in on the
rich man. He was too stingy to take an
animal from his own herds or flocks to make a
meal for his visitor, so he took the poor mans
lamb and prepared a meal to set before his
guest.
David exploded in anger. As surely as
GOD lives, he said to Nathan, the man who
did this ought to be lynched! He must repay
for the lamb four times over for his crime and
his stinginess!
Youre the man! said Nathan.
2 Samuel 12:1-7a, The Message
David had taken another mans wife, Bathsheba,
and slept with her. For us, whos the traveller or
stranger in this story? Temptation. That is what
181
that story is about. There was a man who had all

his wives, and another man who had just one. A
travelling stranger came walking past, Temptation.
Instead of David understanding that sin was
crouching at his door, instead of telling the
stranger to leave, he said to the stranger, Come
in, come in! And the stranger became a guest.
Eventually the stranger became the master.
Nathan said, You are a thief. You have taken
another mans possessions.
David, friends, was meant to be a shepherd.
He was meant to be someone who took care of
others. Young men, when you take one of Gods
daughters out, her body belongs to God until you
get married, and that girl is entrusted to your care
for you to shepherd her. And God has put an
eldership in charge of a church to oversee the
church, to ensure that people dont take
advantage of the ewe lambs that God has sent to
the church. David the shepherd should have
taken care of another mans wife and he stole her.
A sewer or a stream?
A campfire or an out-of-control fire? Sexuality
is fire, friends, that is how God has created it.
Sometimes it rages inside of you. But it is to be
within the confines of the campfire.
An animal or a human? You may say, But,
you dont understand. I understand fully. When
people are going out, they think, I love this person
passionately and want to take him or her to bed.
We all need to be told, Dont do itbut we also
want to know what power is available because it is
impossible for a human being to suppress those
feelings. We need the power of God and the Holy
Spirit to come and help us. We want the church to
182
speak about these things with straight talk. Then

we can say, I can be in the life of this church
because I know that there is safety and security
here because I will live according to a biblical
pattern. And when we live according to the
biblical pattern, the blessing of God will come
upon us.
I dont share this thing as some professor
lecturing, someone who doesnt understand. I
share this thing as a father of a church that would
dearly love to see every single one of the people
in the abundance and the fullness of God.
You may say, What happens if I have
overstepped the boundaries? Conviction helps
you find freedom. If you have stepped outside of
the boundaries then you can get on your knees
and say, Father in heaven, this body belongs to
you. Help me to honour you with this body. Go
and read Proverbs. Why were the proverbs
written? Many times it speaks about my son.
He is talking of adolescence, Christians growing
up in the ways of God. This is the reason it was
written.
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, King
of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight; for
acquiring a disciplined and a prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair; for giving
prudence to the simple, knowledge and
discretion to the younglet the wise listen
and add to their learning, and let the
discerning get guidancefor understanding
proverbs and parables, the sayings and
183
riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of knowledge .
Proverbs 1:1-7a
I have taken all of those illustrations from the book
of Proverbs. The reason he gives them to us is so
that we will gain insight and a disciplined life, so
that we will know what is right and fair and just. I
pray that there will be a radical commitment to
walk in the ways of God by the power of God, in
the freedom of God; but with the boundaries of
God in marriage, in singleness, in finances, in
work ethics, in relationships, in every area.
Friends, God has given us a most incredible
thing called confession and repentance, where we
place that which we have done on him, and
instantly we get set free, wherever we have fallen
short of his glory. The Bible says that we must
confess our sin one to another, and God removes
it as far as the east is from the west. Temptation
is knocking on the door. Knock, knock, knock.
Sin is crouching at the door and it is the very thing
that will stop you walking into the inheritance that
God has for you.
God has an inheritance for all of you. Some
of you must come into leadership, some of you
must relocate and help church plants, some of you
will get married and some of you will get
promoted. That is the inheritance that God has.
He has those for you. But at your door, knock,
knock, knock . I pray that we would recognise
the smell of the sewer, we would beware the fire
out of control, we would be on guard against
animal instincts that rise inside of us. We must
say, No, I do not eat grass and neither do I eat
184
raw meat. We will know that God has called us to

be shepherds until the day we get marriedwere
not thieves.
Father, every one of us needs your help in this

area, every single one of us. Help us, I pray, to
control our minds, our hearts, our emotions, our
thoughts. Lord, help us, empower us, walk with
us. Deep within the hearts of us, your people,
Lord, there is a passion to please you, to offer our
bodies to you as living sacrifices and to not
conform to the ways of the world. O Lord, some of
us work in the most difficult circumstances, where
these things are just wild. O Jesus, you stood
strong amidst great pressure, help us to stand
strong amidst great pressure.
Father, we want to see your river flow, where
people come through for you, where people get
touched by you, where people get healed by you;
that we would know the full inheritance that you
have for every one of us, that we would not sell
our inheritance for a pot of stewa short-term
gratification, Lordand so lose a long-term
package. The book of Job says, Sin tastes sweet
but in the end it leads to death. O Father, let us
resist the temptation of sweetness and live
passionately for you so that we can taste the milk
and honey your Bible speaks about. Father,
protect the people, I pray.
Protect them
emotionally, protect them financially, protect their
health, protect their lives, protect their property.
Thank you, Father. I pray that we would honour
you in response to your goodness, not out of a
185
legalistic way, but out of a joy in our hearts to

please you.
If you know that you have overstepped the

boundaries of this thing, you need God to take that
sin off you. I am not talking of remorse where you
feel a little bad and then go and sin again
tomorrow. God is not into remorse, God is into
repentance. If you really feel to repent, turn
around 180 degrees, turn around to a totally
different life, you can pray this prayer.
Father in heaven, I am sorry that I have taken

advantage of someone elses body, I am sorry that
I taken advantage of mine. This body belongs to
you, the Bible says that; it is the temple of the Holy
Spirit. Help me to honour you with this body.
God, I ask that you take away the guilty
conscience, to take away the defilement of sin, so
that I can live free and worship you properly in
Jesus name. Amen.

Victorious Living

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Victorious and

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

Victorious and Holy Living

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

Carnal means fleshly. Carnal Christianity is where

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

that you do as a Christian will be successful and

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

The Work of Christ ________________________ 11

Our Position Enables Us to Live Right _________ 12

Our Position in Christ ______________________13

We Have Privileges ________________________ 14

How to Live Victoriously ____________________15

Know God and His Word____________________ 15

2: The Nature and Power of the Gospel _____18

We Must First be Saved ____________________

The Nature of the Gospel ___________________23

The Gospel is Powerful Enough to Save All _____ 24

The Changes Brought by the Gospel__________26

We are Heavenly Minded ___________________

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

3: Treasures in the Revealed Christ ________34

Makes Us Stand Without Blemish_____________ 34

Philosophies of Today _____________________36

Jesus Revealed in the Book of John __________39

The Son of God (John 1)____________________

4: Our Position: Gods Sons ______________55

We Seek First the Kingdom _________________

What the Cross Means for Us________________61

We are Redeemed ________________________ 61

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

We are Reconciled ________________________ 63

Son or Survivor? __________________________64

Asking versus Begging _____________________

5: Holy Living __________________________71

We Have Power Over All Enemies ____________

The Source of Our Power ___________________81

We are Seated with Christ___________________ 81

Why the Old has Gone _____________________83

We are Dead to Sin ________________________ 83

Why the New has Come ____________________85

We are Holy Because God is Holy ____________

6: Put to Death the Sinful Nature ________92

Distorted Sexuality ________________________ 96

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

Indulgence in Self, Drunkenness or Orgies______ 97

Dealing with the Sinful Nature _______________98

The Sinful Nature Crucified __________________ 99

Power Over the Sinful Nature _______________103

Conviction from the Holy Spirit ______________ 103

7: Roots Determine Routes ______________109

Our Roots Determine Routes and Fruits _______

Roots for Our Routes _____________________116

Falsehood versus Truth____________________

8: Victory Over the Devils Schemes ______132

Be Strong in the Lord _____________________ 134

The Devils Schemes ______________________137

Exploit Insecurities with Lies ________________

VICTORIOUS AND HOLY LIVING

7. Kill Righteousness with Persistence __________

The Armour of God _______________________151

The Belt of Truth _________________________

9: Controlling Debt and Spending ________156

The Dangers of Debt ______________________