0:18 I want to share something from God's word in the book of Hebrews. And you turn with me to Hebrews. We read there about the children of 0:37 Israel not entering the land of Canaan. And that is mentioned more than once in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and also in Hebrews chapter 3 and 0:53 4. So it's must be something important there which the Lord wants to emphasize twice in the New Testament because the the story of Israel is basically they were in Egypt which is a picture of 1:12 our being enslaved in sin. They were baptized in the Red Sea and came out but they did not enter into the land of Canaan which is a life of victory over sin. where you kill all the enemies and the enemies are a picture of 1:28 sin and they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. So first I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians 10 and then we'll come to Hebrews. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it says here that Paul is writing to 1:50 the Corinthians verse one, our fathers were all under the cloud. All passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses. 1 Corinthians 10:2 in the cloud and in the sea. in the sea was a picture of water baptism and the cloud coming on them was 2:08 a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So this is a very exact picture. Egypt is a picture of slavery to Pharaoh and sin and then they are delivered by the power of God through water baptism through the Red Sea and then the cloud 2:24 came on them as a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the whole purpose of the cloud in the Old Testament was to lead them into the land of Canaan. where God wanted to defeat all the Canaanites and make Israel occupy the 2:40 land. That is the story of the Old Testament. Now, the way it applies to us in the New Testament is that once you are baptized and you've come out and the Holy Spirit comes upon you, the purpose of that baptism, the Holy Spirit is to 2:54 lead you into overcoming all the lusts in your flesh. And the land of Canaan is your own body with so many desires and passions in it which are contrary to the will of God. We can say the enemies ruled in the land of Canaan. 3:14 And all the desires to sin in various forms that you find in you are symbolized in the Old Testament by the Canaanites who lived in that land. And God's purpose in delivering the Israelites out of Egypt was to bringing them into that 3:33 land of Canaan to occupy the whole land from the top to bottom. Now, it's a picture of how God wants our whole body to be under the control of the Holy Spirit so that we don't sin in any way in our body in any way. And here it 3:51 says they all ate from the same spiritual food. 1 Corinthians 10:3 was a picture of for us the reading the word of God and they drank from the same spiritual drink picture of our having the Holy Spirit but verse 5 with most of 4:08 them God was not well pleased. Now this is written to the Corinthians who were not living a life of victory. They were very carnal. They were fleshly. They were committing all types of sins in their life. And Paul is writing to them, 4:23 you are living in the same state like the Israelites in the wilderness who did not enter the promised land. And it says here also verse four six sorry these things happened as an example for us 4:40 today that we should not crave for the evil things they crave and do not be idoltors. An idoltor is someone who worships something something other than God. For 4:57 example, if sexual sin is more attractive to you than Jesus Christ, it's an idol. In other words, you sin in that area even though you know it displeases the Lord. That is a form of idol worship. You can worship food for example where 5:17 food becomes so important to you that becomes more important than God. You can worship money where that becomes more important to you than God. Anything in your life that becomes more important to you than Jesus Christ is an idol. It 5:31 doesn't mean you have to spend 24 hours a day thinking about the Lord. It's a question of who is first in your life. It's like the Bible says when a woman is married, her husband must be first in her life and the Bible says that Jesus 5:47 Christ is our divine husband. So it doesn't mean that a husband has got to be with his wife. Wife has got to be with her husband all the time. No, but he's always first in her life even if she's not with him all the time. 6:03 And so there's never a time when a a good wife's affection goes to somebody else. Then she's a prostitute. If she's faithful to her husband, she will never have an interest in any other man. And that's a picture also used in 6:20 the Bible of the bride of Christ that if we are really devoted to Christ, our interest will never be in something that displeases the Lord. And we have a conscience that tells us there's anything in our life that displeases the Lord. That becomes 6:37 important to us. Then we are spiritual prostitutes. It's a very strong word. The Bible calls it ars. And here it speaks about these Israelites who are like that. Now when you come to Hebrews and chapter 6:55 3, you see the same thing mentioned a second time. So which means that Old Testament picture is a warning to us which I don't know if every believer takes it seriously but it says in Hebrews 3 and verse 7:14 15 Hebrews 3:15 while it is said today if you hear his voice don't harden your heart as when they provoked me. And what is he talking about? It says here when they provoked him, when they came out of Egypt, verse 7:33 16, God was angry with them for 40 years. That is when they wandered in the wilderness. And now that is applied to us today by saying today verse 15 if you hear his voice don't harden your heart 7:50 by not entering into a life of victory overcoming every sin in your body. Is that God's will? God's will was that the children of Israel should go into the land of Canaan and occupy the whole land and not allow any Canaanite 8:09 to live there because God said that land is mine. God gave it to Abraham and said this land is for me for my people. In the same way when Christ comes into your life what he says is your body the Lord 8:25 says belongs to me from head to foot. I can't surrender my heart to Christ and say my body is for myself. That's a deception. If a woman loves her husband, she is completely his. Her body belongs to her husband in 8:44 exactly the same way. What would you think of a wife who tells her husband, "Yeah, I love you, but I'll never give you my body. Sorry." that now we think that's that's a you know legally such a marriage can be cancelled because the Bible says that 9:03 the two shall become one flesh that a woman who gets married is not only to give her heart to her husband but her body as well apply the same thing to us when we are the bride of Christ so when the Lord you say I give my heart to the 9:17 Lord good but if you don't give your body and the desires in your body to God you're exactly like a wife who tells her husband, I love you with my heart, but you don't touch my body. How long do you think that marriage will last? God has intended in 9:34 marriage that a woman gives her heart and her body to her husband. And that's a picture of how we now every husband understands that or all of you men understand that very well if you're married. Do you understand the same 9:52 thing in your spiritual marriage to Christ? that if you give your heart to Christ and you don't give your body to Christ, you're doing exactly the same thing that a woman is saying to a husband, I'll give you my heart but don't touch my 10:04 body. So that is why we her whole body belongs to her husband. You see for example in one Corinthians and chapter 7, let me show you scripture itself what it says. 1 Corinthians in chapter 7 it says here verse four it's talking about 10:26 marriage the wife does not have authority over her own body but the husband has and the husband has no authority over his body but the wife has. Every married couple knows that. So he's talking to these people. 10:50 Don't deprive one another. Don't say I won't give you my body. Now the same thing you apply spiritually. When you get married to Christ, the Bible says when you give your life to Christ, you're married to him spiritually. And if you say, "No, I'm 11:06 going to do what I like with my body." What do I mean by doing what I like with my body? I'm going to look at whatever I want to look at. All these people who watch pornography on the cell phones and look at filthy pictures, they are telling the 11:21 Lord, if they are Christians, don't tell me what to do with my eyes. My heart is yours, but my body is mine. You see, that's exactly like a wife tells her husband, I love you with my heart, but you can't touch my body. When you tell the Lord, I'm not going to 11:38 tell you Lord how I'm going to use my eyes. I'm going to use my eyes as I like and uh I'll read what I like. I look at whatever pictures I like, whether they are if they stimulate me, I like to look at them. Such a person is one of those 11:56 people wandering in the wilderness. The Canaanites are ruling his land in the body. And those are the people referred to in Hebrews chapter 3. It says God was not pleased with them. Not only God was not pleased, it says in Hebrews 3:17, please see 12:14 there, God was angry with them because he wanted them to possess the land. God is angry with those who say, "Lord, I love you with my heart, but don't tell me how to use my tongue. I'll speak whatever I like. If I feel like 12:32 getting angry, I'll get angry. If I feel like lusting with my eyes, I'll lust with my eyes. That's exactly what it's saying. And therefore, God punished them and said to them, "None of you will enter the land of Canaan. You will not come 12:48 into a life of victory because I brought you out of Egypt in order to bring you into Canaan to occupy that land." And the Lord says, "I delivered you from your sinful life in order that I might have your body that it can glorify me." 13:04 Do you know that when we sin? I want you to listen to this very carefully. With men, the great temptation is both with the tongue and with the eyes. Tempted with the eyes, tempted with the tongue. With women, it may not be so much with the eyes, but 13:19 with the tongue. And when we give either of these parts of our body to something sinful, we are actually giving our body over to Satan, allowing him to do something which dishonors Christ. The way we look at something or read something or the 13:38 way we say something which dishonors the Lord or hurts somebody, you're actually giving our tongue and our eyes to the devil. These are the two organs, the eyes and the tongue, with which most people sin the most. Men sin with their eyes and the 13:55 tongue and women with the tongue particularly. And the question is how important is our body in giving our body to God? Many people don't ask people to give ask people to give their body to Christ. They say give your heart to Christ. And 14:13 we've been taught, ask Jesus to come into your heart. And he comes into your heart in order to rule your body. Turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Here it speaks about the mercies of God. In the first verse, I urge you, brethren, by the 14:30 mercies of God. That means God has been so fantastically merciful to you. When the word mercy comes in the Bible, it's always referring to our past failures, the sins we have committed where God has been merciful to 14:48 forgive us and cleanse us from our past failure. And we all know that we have sinned so much in our past life. We have dishonored God. And even after we are born again, we have sinned so much and we've asked the Lord to forgive us. And 15:05 every time he does, those are all acts of mercy. And so you think of all the thousands of millions of times when God has shown mercy to you and to me. He says, "In view of all these, let's put it there, millions of mercies God has shown to you, what 15:24 should you do now? You have already given your heart to the Lord. What should you do next? Present your body. See what it says in Romans 12:1. That is the only way you can show your gratitude to God for all the mercy he 15:41 has shown to you for your past failure. In view of all the mercies of God, now present your body. And what should I give my body as a living and holy sacrifice? Now in the Old Testament, the 16:00 way they offered a bulock as a sacrifice was they had to take the bulock and cut it into pieces. They could not offer the whole bulock on the altar like that. It was going to be burnt on the altar. And you think, why does God want to cut the 16:17 legs and the parts of the bulock into so many pieces and then put it on the altar and the fire burns it up? Why not put the whole bulock as it is and burn it up if it's going to be a sacrifice? But there was a meaning in that Old 16:30 Testament law which said you must cut the bulock up into parts and put it up put it there to teach us that we have to present the individual parts of our body very often one by one to the Lord. Then only we think of it seriously. Now I'll 16:49 tell you what I mean. very easy to say Lord I give my body to you and a lot of people who say that don't really mean it so the Lord says cut it up say one by one Lord I give you my eyes I don't want to ever look at 17:08 anything that will dishonor you I don't want any see any picture on the internet or on my phone that will dishonor you don't want to read anything that will pollute my mind and bring dishonor to your name. That is the meaning of 17:24 giving your eyes. Okay? Cut up another part of your body. Lord, here's my tongue. I don't want to say anything that will dishonor your name. I don't want to say something in anger because anger is a sin. I want to give you my tongue. Most believers 17:43 feel my tongue is my own. Who's there to tell me how I should use my tongue? I'll tell you. When you give your life to Christ, your tongue is not your own anymore. Go back to the illustration. A woman who gets married says to her husband, "I've given you my 18:00 body. I've given you my heart, but I can't give you my body." That's what you're saying to the Lord. I Lord, I ask you to come into my heart, but don't control my tongue. My body is mine. What is the difference between you 18:11 saying that and a wife saying that to her husband? I give you my heart. I love you but I'm not going to give you my body. That's exactly what we say when you say Lord I can't give you my tongue. My body is mine. My eyes are 18:26 mine. Like that you know piece by piece I take my legs for examples. Lord I want to go certain places and I don't need to see whether though it honors you or not. I'll go where I like or take a hands. If I feel like 18:44 writing a stinging letter to somebody, I'm going to use my hands to write it or type it out. Then my hands don't belong to the Lord. They belong to me. You can go over different parts of your body like this and realize that very often a lot of 18:59 Christians who say, "I've given my heart to the Lord." They haven't given their bodies at all. And then compare yourself with that woman who says, "I give you my heart to her husband, but I won't let you touch my body." And you'll see how what a 19:12 terrible thing it is for us to say that to God. So it says here, present your body as a sacrifice to God. And sacrifice in the Old Testament means you put that bulock on the altar, cut it up completely and say, Lord, I don't want 19:25 to touch it. It's yours. So what I ask if you are not a Christian, I would ask you to give your heart to Christ. That's the first step to be born again. But if you are a Christian, I ask you to come to Romans chapter 12 and say, "Now present your 19:44 body also as a sacrifice to God because that is your worship in the spirit." Did you see that? Then it is acceptable to God. God will accept you when you present your body to him and that is the way you worship him in your 20:01 spirit. Now many people when they think of worship it is they think just singing some songs on Sunday mornings worship that is just thanksgiving and praise worship to something different. Here it says the spiritual 20:18 worship is when you offer your body up to the Lord and say Lord you can have it. And that is why we want God to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Because listen to this, the desires in our body are so 20:37 strong in every one of us where we cannot control them. You know, for example, all of us have got angry at some time or the other and we know we couldn't control ourselves at that time. We just let loose our tongue and afterwards you say how why in the world 20:53 did I speak like that you don't have control the same way you can lust with your eyes and afterwards you go and say Lord why in the world did I go and look at all that filthy stuff so we need the Holy Spirit and that's why the Bible 21:13 says in one Corinthians and chapter 3 please turn with me there. 1 Corinthians and chapter 3 it speaks about our body being a 21:31 temple of God. Verse 16, don't you know that you are a temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? So if you destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him because God is 21:49 holy. Think of this building that you're sitting in. A lot of people call this a church. This building is not a church. This is a hall. The church is the people sitting here. But still this is a meeting place which they call a church. 22:03 Now none of you would ever think of damaging the windows or the doors in this building. Why would anybody do that? You see this house belongs to God. We don't want to if it's look if the walls are dirty, we paint it up. We want it to 22:18 look nice and we want every part of this building to be used for God. And then the Holy Spirit says here, this building is not the house of God. It's your body that is the house of God. So you take care of the building and your body is 22:32 given over to yourself and the devil. That doesn't mean anything. you're being a hypocrite cuz God's not interested in the building. I'll tell you honestly, God's not bothered if the walls are a bit dirty or the crack in 22:45 the on the wall or the window or the door. He's much more concerned whether there's a crack in your body. If there's something in your body which is not yielded to him. So that's why it says here your body is the temple of the Holy 23:00 Spirit. And if a man verse 17 destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. Have you ever read that verse? How do I destroy God's temple? That is by doing something that harms this 23:18 body. You using it for myself, for my lusts, to keep my temptation. Turn also to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. It's repeated again. 1 Corinthians and chapter 6. Don't you know verse 19 1 Corinthians 6 23:41 verse 19 don't you know that your body that's the real church is a temple of the Holy Spirit I don't know whether you've seen this verse and taken it seriously because this is one thing 24:00 which if you understand properly it can bless bless you in many ways. I'll tell you why. One of the prayers I have prayed to God for many, many years is from verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 6. I want you to look at that. This 24:16 affects your physical health. See, by God's grace, he has kept me physically healthy for my entire Christian life. I've been born again nearly 60 years ago and 65 years ago, and God's kept me healthy all these years. But one of the words verses I've claimed 24:34 for myself is 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 13. God's word is true. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food. What he's saying is don't make stomach your stomach your god. There are two places in the Bible 24:53 where it says you make your stomach your god. Where food becomes so important for you. We need food to live but don't make your stomach your god. that you don't even think of whether you're destroying your body with the type of food you eat. Food is 25:08 for the stomach. God stomach is for food. But God will one day destroy both of them because the body now he goes on from food to sex. The body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord. There are two sins that he talks 25:27 about in this verse. One is a sin of gluttony. Gluttony means where you love food so much that uh you don't discipline yourself in your eating habit. And the other is sexual sin where you don't control your eyes and your thoughts in that area. He says 25:47 the body was not meant for that. Now listen to this last part. This is the important part. Your body is for the Lord. And if your body is for the Lord, here's a promise. Listen to it. The Lord will be for your body. That's the verse I have claimed 26:07 for many, many years in my life. I said, Lord, my body is for you. I don't want to use my tongue to get angry at anybody. I don't want to use my eyes to lust after anything or to look at anything impure. 26:26 I want my eyes for to be for you. I want my use my eyes to read God's word and only to look at things that are pure and look with kindness at people who are suffering so that I can help them. That's what I want to use my eyes 26:41 for. And I don't want to use it for immorality. I want to be disciplined in my eating because it says here the stomach God did not make us to worship our stomachs but keep it under 27:01 control. And if I'm like that and I say Lord my body is yours then the Lord will be for my body. That's a wonderful promise. The Lord is for the body. Can you read that? We live in a world there's so much of sickness and so many problems that 27:18 people have. Isn't it wonderful to have a promise that the Lord will be for your body? I'm not saying that you'll never have any problems. We all have aches and pains and we're not going to live forever. But we you will fulfill God's 27:33 plan in your life in your body if you say, "Lord, my body is for you." I want you to see another verse in that connection in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 we read in verse 27:51 18. It's a very interesting verse. Verse 18 and 19. Philippians 3 18 and 19. See what it says. He says there are many people who walk in a wrong way. And I'm weeping when I tell you this. Look at the burden that Paul 28:10 had to say as I say this. weeping to think of how some Christians are living. What a burden Paul had that Christians should live a holy life. And he says what is it? They are enemies of the cross of Christ. Let me ask you a question my 28:27 dear brother sister are you an enemy of the cross of Christ? You'll all say no I'm not. I'm not an enemy of the cross of Christ. Just hold on. He describes the enemies of the cross of Christ in the next verse. Then you can check out whether you're an 28:45 enemy of the cross of Christ or not. They are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction. And what is the mark of the enemy of the cross of Christ? Their God is their stomach. That's what it says here. Their 29:01 God is their stomach. That's what it says in the margin of my body of my Bible. That God is their belly, their stomach. That means they worship food. It says here those who worship food as an are enemies of the cross of 29:20 Christ. I told you there are two great desires in our body. One one is for food and the other is for sex and you can worship either of them. And it says if you worship them, you're worshiping an idol. And then you can't say you're worshiping God. 29:37 You're you're an enemy of the cross of Christ because the cross of Christ puts these desires under control. Sexual desire is only only only for marriage. Full 29:54 stop. Anything outside of marriage, sex is sin. And food, we are not to worship food. We had to use food to live a healthy life. And that's why the Bible speaks about being disciplined in our 30:10 life. Jesus spoke about three things in u Matthew chapter 6 where he in the sermon on the mount. Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 6. He said there are three things where you have to be careful that 30:28 you don't do it before men. One is giving money. Matthew 6:2, when you give money, don't let other people know about it. Do it secretly before God. Second is when you pray, verse six, 30:48 don't pray to show other people that you're a holy man praying. Do it secretly. The third is when you fast, verse 16, when you fast, don't do it in such a way that other people will notice your fasting. There are three things mentioned in 31:06 Matthew 6. Giving money, praying, and fasting. Fasting is a form of discipline where you limit yourself in eating food. But people can do these three things and boast about it. Then it has no value. The moment you boast about how much you are money 31:25 you're giving to God or how much you are praying or how much you're fasting that has zero value before God because you've done it to get honor from men. So it says don't do these things to get honor from men. So fasting is mentioned as one of 31:43 the things that one can do in a proper way. So there again he speaks about this disciplining our bodily desires. Fasting is disciplining our bodily desires. That's a very important area which sometimes we have not spoken of 32:00 sufficiently in the church. We can talk about so many spiritual things but the Bible says present your body. What did we read in come back to Romans 12:1? Present your body in view of all of God's mercies. If God has done so 32:16 much for you, what should you do now? You've given your heart to Christ. Great. Some of you have given your heart to Christ many, many years ago. Wonderful. Okay. God has been very merciful to you all these years. Now, he says in verse one, 32:32 present your body. But I want to invite every one of you listening to me today. You probably never heard a message like this before. Will you take a decision today in basis of Romans 12:1 and say Lord tell me what this means to give you my 32:49 body to put my body on the altar as a sacrifice present your body is a living sacrifice in the Old Testament when they sacrifice something the animal was killed and set on fire in our case this body is not killed is presented as it 33:06 says in Romans 12:1 a living And a holy sacrifice that means a body that what is a holy sacrifice? One which is pure. So I spoke to you on the matter of eating and sex which are two strong two 33:24 of the strongest desires in our body are the desire for food and for sex and also for sleep. That's another area where we should not be lazy. that that you sleep so much that you don't have time to read God's word or be 33:44 disciplined about the your duties. But let me think of mention these two things particularly that I mentioned the desire for food and the desire for sex are two areas where we have to offer our body as a living sacrifice and say Lord I want to keep 33:57 these in the channel in which you have planned. He doesn't say you shouldn't eat. He said be disciplined in your eating habits. and be disciplined to keep sex exclusively for marriage. Now I want you to turn to 1 34:16 Corinthians chapter 9 which speaks about the same thing. In one Corinthians 9 it speaks about discipline. He says the Christian life is like a race. You read that in Hebrews also. Let 34:33 us run this race looking unto Jesus. The whole Christian life is pictured like a race. We start when we are born again. We finish when Christ returns to earth or when we die and leave this earth. And this is a race from the time we are born 34:47 again till we leave this earth. And it says you know that in verse 24 you don't just run in a race. People run in order to get a prize. So he says don't just live the Christian life saying okay some go to church do the routine things read 35:02 the Bible. No, you must run in such a way that you want to win the prize. Not that somehow or the other even if I come last it doesn't matter. Nobody goes to the to any race saying it doesn't matter if I come last. Every person who goes to 35:16 a school whether it's a school race or the Olympic games they get into the race in order to come first. And he said don't you know that everybody runs in a race in order but only one receives a prize because that man is disciplined 35:28 himself. That's how he wins the prize. So everyone who wants to win a prize, verse 25, will exercise self-control in all things. Self-control in the area of sex, self-control in the area of eating 35:44 food. And they do it in order to receive nowadays a gold medal. And so I also run in such a way as not without aim. We are going to get a a reward from heaven. And so he says in verse 27, I discipline my body and 36:03 make it my slave. He's giving us an example of how we are to run this Christian race. Now this is not an area we have not we have spoken about much before, probably never at all. And so it may sound strange to you these words, but 36:19 this is in scripture. I showed you all these passages in scripture where it speaks about disciplining our bodily desires. And I believe the reason why many people who accepted the Lord come regularly to CFC and may have had some 36:33 experience of being filled with the spirit as well, they don't seem to make spiritual progress. They are just people who come and sit in the church and never seem to do much for the Lord. You'll have tremendous regret when you see 36:47 Jesus face to face. And the reason could be that you've not allowed the Holy Spirit to discipline you in the way you use your time and the way you use your body. Discipline. See that word comes here. I discipline verse 27. My 37:05 body so that now this is Paul. Paul is saying I discipline my body so that after I preach to others I should not be rejected myself. Imagine Paul saying Paul's such a great 37:23 apostle saying I can be disqualified. Verse 27 that means you come to the end of the race and you're disqualified. Why? Because I did not discipline my body. So he says I discipline my body and make it my slave. Or as another translation 37:40 says, I don't allow my body to tell me what it wants to do. I tell my body what it should do. It's like if you have a servant in your house and you're the master, does a servant tell you what to do or do you 37:57 tell the servant what to do? If the servant tells you what to do and you obey your servant, you're no longer the master. That's so simple. Such a simple illustration. A master and a servant. If the servant tells the master what to do 38:11 and the master obeys him, the master has become a servant. That's the illustration he's using here is my who is the master your body or your inner self that's given to Christ who is ruling your body is it Christ who lives in you or 38:28 your body is controlling you that is the point here because if you allow your body to control you and you become a slave to your body and bodily desires particularly in the area of the use of sexual desire and the use of the tongue 38:46 and the eyes could be the eyes, the tongue and the sexual desire. These are the three areas where we have to be extremely disciplined. Then he says I can be disqualified in the final day. But you say I accepted Christ. I came to the 39:00 starting line. Do you know that in many even Olympic games sometimes people who start at the starting line they get disqualified before they reach the end. Yeah. There are many races where people are disqualified because they did 39:12 something wrong even though they came. Imagine if you selected to represent India in the Olympics. Boy, what an honor that is that you go to represent India in the Olympics and you're running in the 10,000 m race or something and 39:26 you come to the starting line and so what an honor it is. You're representing India and India wants you to run and come first and you get disqualified. So that's what it says here. You can be disqualified if you don't control your body in the Christian 39:43 race which is far more important than the Olympic games. Now turn back to Hebrews. It speaks there about the children of Israel who went came out of Egypt. They were born again. Picture of being born again. 40:03 But they did not occupy the land of Canaan. Now that our human body is a picture of the land of Canaan, the land of Canaan is a picture of our human body. In the land of Canaan, there were many many giants. You read of Goliath 40:19 whom David killed and there many they called Canaanite giants and those are a picture of the strong desires in our body. Now, Israel looked at those giants and said, "We cannot conquer them. They are too strong." You remember 12 spies 40:37 went into the land, 10 of them came back and said, "We can't conquer this." That's exactly what many believers say. These desires in our body are so strong. The lust of my eyes, the lust of my flesh, the desire for sex, the desire 40:53 to get angry, and the desire for money. Many things in this body, Lord, I cannot conquer them. Exactly like the Israelites said, "These giants are too big. We cannot conquer them." And God said, "You're dishonoring me." Listen to this. God told those 41:12 Israelites, "You are dishonoring me by saying that those giants are more powerful than your God." Now, when we read it in like that, you say how foolish those Israelites were. They had God to help them. And that they thought these gi giants are 41:28 too strong, too strong for God. But there were two people there in among those spies called Joshua and Caleb. They said nothing. We can conquer them. If God is with us, they'll be like bread. We can eat them up. He called 41:40 them bread that we can eat. So soft and not at all strong. Now the application of that to us is do you believe that God can help you to conquer these strong desires in your body? And he says they could not enter in verse 19. What is the reason why 42:00 those Israelites could not conquer those giants? Because of unbelief. So we have faith that Jesus can forgive our sin, but we don't have faith that Jesus can help us overcome that sin. That is unbelief. Those who don't even believe 42:21 that Christ can forgive their sin, they are out there in the world. Now you come to the church because you believe that Christ can forgive your sin and you believe he died on the cross. Do you believe the same Jesus Christ who 42:31 forgave your sin can also give you power to overcome that sinful desire? And that is called a life of rest. In chapter 4 and verse one, let us be afraid. Hebrews 4:1, when 42:49 there is a promise of entering into this rest, you don't enter into it. The land of Canaan is called a land of arrest. That means arrest means freedom from the turmoil that comes by sin. Whenever you sin, whether it is a 43:08 bad thought or an angry word, if you got a good conscience, there'll be a turmoil in your conscience because you've sinned. and your conscience says you've done something wrong. Do we have to live like that? No. We can bring the giants in our body 43:26 under the feet of Jesus Christ. That was the test which which David was different from all the other soldiers in Israel. All they all looked at Goliath and how can you apply the story of Goliath to us? Goliath is the temptation to sexual sin, 43:46 lusting with your eyes. Goliath is the temptation to get angry and say what you want to somebody you are angry with. That's the goliath in your life. Goliath is the desire to eat and eat and eat and eat without any control 44:02 and make food your god. And you say, I cannot control it. I got I just have such a love to eat and eat and eat and drink without any discipline and it's a golad food, 44:20 sex, and the use of the tongue, use of the eyes. And if I look at these as giants, all of Israel looked at Goliath and said, "Impossible to conquer Goliath. Impossible to conquer Goliath. 44:39 Just like most of you may be saying concerning these desires I mentioned. It's impossible to conquer it brother. It's I'm such a slave to these habits. But David a young man said if God helps me this guy will come come beneath my feet. And God honored him. Do 44:55 you think David was stronger than Goliath? No. Goliath was thousand times stronger than David. Just like the lusts in your body and my body are stronger than us. The picture of David and Goliath is very clear. The lust for sex and the lust to 45:11 get angry and the lust for you know uncontrollable eating is too strong for us. But with the power of the Holy Spirit, you can bring it under your feet. That is the application of the story of David and Goliath for you and 45:29 me. And if you don't do it, it says you can be disqualified when you come to the end of the race. That's what Paul said. Even I Paul says even he could be disqualified because God does not want us to be slaves to sin to any type of 45:47 sin. What is the meaning of Romans 6:14? Sin shall not be master over you because you're under grace. That grace is a God's power. Okay, I'll just read one more verse and close. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 46:12 12. There's a great promise here verse 9. 2 Corinthians 12:9. The Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for 46:29 you to overcome any weakness because my grace is my power which will help you to overcome your weakness." That's the meaning of that verse. My grace is sufficient for you because that is my power which will help you to overcome whatever your 46:47 weaknesses. Do you say, "Oh brother, I got to I'm not able to control my tongue. I'm not able to control my lusting with my eyes. I'm not able to control my appetite, controlling my love for food. Okay, God says my grace is 47:00 sufficient for you because that is the power that can help you to overcome that weakness. And if you discipline yourself like that, your Christian life will shoot forward instead of the slow sluggish way. Some of you have been 47:13 Christians for many years, many many years. And if you're honest, you have not made much progress in your life. It's like a child who goes to kindergarten and after 20 years he's still sitting in the kindergarten or managed to get into first standard. Many 47:28 Christians are like that. They've been Christians for 20 years and they are still struggling with addition and subtraction. What would you think if your son is son or daughter is in a struggling with addition and subtraction 47:43 for 20 years not able to get promoted in school? You'll get worried. That's exactly what God is saying. You're struggling with certain things in your life which you should have conquered long ago. Learn to receive my grace. My grace is enough for you 48:01 because it'll be it'll strengthen you in your weakness to overcome your weakness. That's why it says in Romans 6:14, sin will not rule over you when you're under grace. So, I hope you've understood the connection between grace 48:16 and conquering sin. And one last verse, 1 Peter 5:5, how do you get grace? 1 Peter 5:5 says, "If you humble, God gives grace to the humble." If you have not got grace to overcome sin, I want to tell you, there's only one reason for 48:35 it. You have not humbled yourself before God. At some area in your life, you're very proud. 1 Peter 5:5, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. The last part of verse 5, 1 Peter 48:52 5:5, anyone sitting here whom God sees is really humble before him, he will get grace. And if you, anyone sitting here, you don't get grace, there is only one reason. There's pride in your heart. My dear brother, 49:09 sister, think of your land as your body as the land of Canaan, full of many giants. God wants you to overcome every one of them. Every Goliath there must be brought under the your feet. That is how you glorify Christ. You, the Lord told 49:27 Israelites, you're not glorifying me if you allow the Canaanites to live in the land. They went in and like with Joshua initially they won the battle but when Joshua died there was nobody to lead them into victory. The Canaanites ruled 49:41 the land. You read the book of judges. The Canaanites ruled that land ruled that land ruled that land and Israel Israel was defeated by the Philistines so many times till occasionally a Goliath David would come up and say no 49:53 we can bring these people under our feet and killed Goliath and defeated the Philistines. So now and then you hear a message that tells you you can overcome your sin. respond to that message and like David who was so weak say Lord I believe 50:07 in you can help me David did not look at his muscles he looked at God and don't look at your ability you say Lord you've you've been defeated so many times you cannot control your tongue you cannot control the lusting of the eyes God says you 50:20 trust me today I will help you to overcome all these things I'll help you to overcome your passionate appetite for food which you cannot control I'll help you to control the lusting with the eyes I'll help you to controlled your love for 50:36 money. I'll help you to bring your pride down. Trust me. I'll help you to control your eyes and your tongue and the worship of your stomach. Take God's word seriously and say, "Lord, please help 50:55 me. I cannot discipline these desires in my body. I want you to give me the power of your Holy Spirit. Give me grace to be an overcomer. Do you think God will say, "No, I won't help you." After all these promises in the Bible, when you go to 51:08 him, say, "Lord, please give me." He'll give you. But the Bible says, "You will seek me and find me." God says, "When you search for me with all your heart, when you're so desperate, I remember in my life, I was defeated by 51:21 all these things you're defeated by." I became so desperate that I began to fast and pray and say Lord I have to get victory and God met with me 50 years ago and filled me aresh with the Holy Spirit and change my life completely. I want to 51:35 tell you go if you allow God to do that that will change your life completely. Please don't go away thinking this is just another message. This is probably the most important message that you've heard for a long long time. Ask God to 51:49 help you to overcome these sinful desires which you know are dishonoring God in your life and bringing darkness into your home, darkness into your married life. Bring the light of God into your home. Let's pray. So while our heads are 52:09 bowed in prayer, dear brother, sister, is there anything hindering your communication with God? Is there somebody you have not forgiven? Forgive him right now. Is there somebody you need to ask forgiveness from? Say, "Lord, I will ask forgiveness 52:28 from that person right now." Do those easy things. And then God will help you with the more difficult things. And then pray, "Lord, I really want to be a conqueror, not a slave of sin in my life. I'm a child of God. I'm 52:47 not supposed to be defeated by Satan and sin. Help me to be an overcomer in my home so that I can lead my children also in the right way. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will take these words spoken in tremendous human weakness to people's 53:06 hearts and applied to every heart here. Lord, I long that everybody sitting here who has heard me today should come to a life of victory over sin and their personal life will be changed and their home life will be changed and they'll 53:20 become very effective for you in your kingdom and in this church and not just those who come and listen to a message and go away. Make every brother and sister here a strong useful instrument in your hand for your glory. 53:38 We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
