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Eden Valley SDA Church

Frank Fournier

To Him That Overcomes

In the meantime, I want to speak to all of us, but I can dedicate this little message to Sharon.

I think it's very needed, needed by all of us.

I'll have you turn in your Bibles to Revelation 3.

Revelation 3, when I was here a couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the centurion in Matthew chapter 8, and what was special about the centurion, of course, was that he amazed Jesus.

Jesus was amazed by a human being because this human being had so much faith.

He's the 1 who could see, even though he was a pagan Roman soldier, he could see that Jesus was God.

And this man could say, speak the word only and my servant shall be healed He had so much faith the kind of faith that I would hope this morning that you and you and I could have now when I prepared this sermon I did prepare 2 or 3 pages of Review, but I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to try and save a little bit of time.

So I had you turn with me to Revelation chapter 3.

By the way, I did promise when I finished 2 weeks ago that we would come back and look at the same message in the context of overcoming And so that's why we're looking at Revelation chapter 3, and we're looking at verse 21, To him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me on my throne, or in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in my throne." Now to me, this is always amazing when I read this verse, because I know that the great controversy started with Lucifer wanting to sit on the throne of God.

He wanted to elevate his throne above the stars of God.

Not only with God, he wanted God's throne.

It seems to me that God has a sense of humor here.

The whole issue was because Satan or Lucifer wanted to sit on God's throne.

But it's these people that he's caused to sin and that have found repentance, that have overcome even as Jesus overcame.

Well, we could go into a whole sermon trying to describe how Jesus overcame, but, you know, in the context of the centurion of Matthew chapter 8, Jesus simply overcame as the centurion overcame the disease in his servant, of course.

Jesus had to live life as you and I have to live it.

He met life with the same equipment we had, And by faith he laid hold upon his father, and he overcame.

Well, it wasn't sin, because he didn't have any.

But there was something else that he had to overcome.

And as far as I'm concerned, that's much harder to overcome this thing than it is to overcome temptation.

He had to overcome the temptation to use His divinity to help Himself.

He had the power within Himself to overcome by His divinity, but He had chosen to live life as I have to live it.

And friends, let me tell you something, I don't have divinity in me naturally.

Oh, I can partake of the divinity of God, but naturally, I'll tell you what I'll do.

If I know I have to overcome, I'll try with all I'm worth to overcome.

Now, the centurion, of course, showed us the way.

He was absolutely helpless to do anything about the disease that his servant had.

Now, there's no doubt in my mind he did everything he could possibly do to help his servant.

And you and I would do the same thing, don't you think?

We would exhaust all of our resources in an attempt to help.

But he had come to the place where he found himself absolutely, totally, completely helpless to do anything about it.

Friends, this is where overcoming begins.

I think it's Rich that taught us that this morning in the little back room.

You cannot overcome until you try and find out that you can't.

Until you get to the place where you know yourself absolutely, hopelessly, helplessly, unable to get past this business of sin in your life.

And so the centurion put his whole trust on the Word of God, on the promises of God.

Oh, he was willing to try to do anything he could.

But he was totally dependent on Christ to heal his servant because he couldn't do it.

And no more can you overcome in your own strength than he could overcome that disease in his servant.

In Acts of the Apostles, page 482, paragraph 2, man is to make earnest efforts to overcome.

Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome.

But when we think In terms of making earnest efforts to overcome, we think in terms of gritting our teeth and screwing up our willpower and doing what we have to do at any cost to ourselves.

You know there's a degree of that, I suppose.

We want to lean, we want to consent, we want to do what's right, we want to put forth an effort.

But I'm here to tell you this morning that that's not where you put the effort.

And by the time I'm done, I'm sure we'll see it.

Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining perfection.

But he is wholly dependent upon God for success." What does wholly mean?

It means there's no room for anything else but what God can do.

Human effort of itself is not sufficient.

Now, I know that I have used this verse too many times, that you all know it by heart, but still and all it just resonates with me.

Jeremiah chapter 13, we're looking at verse 23.

Here it says, Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

Then May ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.

So what is it that we can't do anymore than an Ethiopian can change his skin or a leopard his spots?

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To Him That Overcomes

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