This messages covers the most powerful and inspiring response to the Gospel that I have seen in ministry. The Gospel awakened my friend to his true identity in Christ.

<p>This messages covers the most powerful and inspiring response to the Gospel that I have seen in ministry. The Gospel awakened my friend to his true identity in Christ.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Heritage Academy

Dee Casper

How to Overcome the Devil- Part 1

Oh, sweet Jesus, I pray for your presence in this place tonight.

I'm asking that as we look at the most profound response to the gospel that I've ever experienced in ministry, that you would use this story to bless, to encourage, to convict and to inspire all who are present and all who will be able to partake of this message at a later date.

Bless us with your presence and do something that we will not soon forget I pray and I ask this in Jesus name, amen.

This evening's message was intended to get your attention, but it's good news, I promise.

It's entitled, How to Overcome the Devil, and this will actually be part 1.

I'd ask for a raising of hands, but I can't see any of you, but I'm assuming that there's people out there.

Just make noise every once in a while to kind of affirm my assumption that that's the case.

Okay, so our text for reflection that's going to be over the course of this weekend is Revelation chapter 12 verses 10, 11, and 12.

And I have the text on the board, I mean you can't hide a Bible in the clothing that these young people are wearing and they're holding candles.

So I'm gonna provide the text on the screen for their benefit and maybe for yours as well.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come.

For the accuser of the brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

This is Calvary language that's used here, that fulcrum of the ages.

And they, the saints, overcame him, the devil, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.

And they did not love their lives to the death." And we'll define these terms at the end of the message.

"'Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.'" A life course altering event, a universe altering event happened at Calvary and it secured things in heaven.

It secured the victory for the redeemed, But there's a time on earth that the enemy realizes he has, and it is short, but my is his fury great.

But I praise God that the grace of God is greater.

We're gonna be covering this evening the power of the gospel and its ability to restore our identity in Christ and to overthrow Satan's attack on our identities.

Now, throughout scripture, Jesus and God throughout the Old Testament and so on frequently use lessons by contrast, sometimes using extremes to bring up a point that you won't soon forget.

And tonight's message is going to be heavy, but I ask that you would stick with me in this, because I'm taking a risk of potentially being misunderstood, but I believe I will be clear.

But there's an experience that I've had in recent months of the most profound response to the gospel I've ever had in my personal ministry.

The most profound, the most nearly biblical book of Acts response to the gospel I've ever seen.

But the person's story is quite dramatic, and so it's PC, I promise.

But I just I want you to understand that I'm making a point by contrast and I want you to insert your story into theirs.

Your struggle may be different than theirs, but just insert yours instead of theirs.

But I'm of the mind that we are not doing our young people a favor by avoiding heart issues and difficult topics.

Because the world is more than willing to educate them in these areas.

But we as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, as parents, as grandparents, as teachers and mentors, should be taking time to instruct them in righteousness, to prepare them for these things.

And we need to face them head on and uplift Christ in his ability to transform the life.

So my friend's story is what I'll be sharing again this evening, which for many people in this room could be yours.

Their manifestation of sin and difficulty in their life may be different than yours, but if you change the struggle and insert yours, I think you'll find a blessing from this message.

I've actually been convicted by this person's response to the gospel and wondered why I, as a minister of the gospel, do not find myself responding in the same way that he did at times when I hear.

So he and I both pray that this story will inspire you and that you'll find the same answers that he's beginning to find and commit your life to providing those answers for the people around you.

So, the church in the world defined him as a homosexual and an alcoholic.

That's how he was defined by the people around him.

Now, he did not grow up in our faith movement.

But he would prefer to be referred to as a brother that's struggling in the Lord, and here's why.

He says, to attach someone to their sin hurts them.

To define someone by their sin hurts them.

Because it pushes them away from God instead of drawing them to him.

We should not define people by the things that ensnare them.

It said in Jeremiah 31 and verse 3, the Lord appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you.

Jesus says in John chapter 12 and verse 32, that I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself.

If we lift up Christ he can draw them to him, but if we define them by their sin they'll be too ashamed to even try.

Shame is that I am something wrong, guilt is that I did something wrong.

Satan defines you by your failures, God defines you by the success of his son.

God uses guilt to remind us of our need of Jesus to draw us to Jesus.

Shame gets you so filled with self-hatred and unworthiness that you could never possibly go to God because He won't accept me.

Many people are being treated with shame when they should be pointed to God who uses guilt to draw them to himself.

So, when we use shame as punishment, it ends up pushing people farther away from God.

So, instead of being a person who struggles with same-sex attraction, you're a homosexual.

Instead of this being someone that has an alcohol problem, you're an alcoholic.

You could fill in the blank for any different sins.

So his experience with the everlasting gospel, I was preaching at a church, he has a relative, an adopted mother, she married his actual father, his biological mother ruined his life, made his life a living hell.

Literally, if there's anyone on the planet he hated, it was that woman, his biological mother, because of all of what she put him through.

But his adoptive mother was a different story.

She heard a message that I shared, along with some other messages at a church, got a hold of the messages and gave them to her son, who the world defines as a homosexual and an alcoholic.

I refer to him as a brother in Christ who's struggling, someone I love.

So this man, he whips out this DVD and puts it in his DVD player and what I shared is what I'll be sharing with you tomorrow to some degree of the sufferings of Christ from Gethsemane through the cross.

And his response to this message was the most phenomenal and amazing I've ever heard and it's even more phenomenal because people make assumptions about lifestyle habits that are, they view, worse than others.

Which I find is interesting because the Spirit of Prophecy says that the most dangerous sin is not homosexuality or alcohol, it's pride.

This is why Jesus says that the tax collectors and the harlots are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

It's the people that look like they have their lives together that are filled with pride that should be the most afraid.

And so in this man's situation he grew up in an environment in evangelical church that was very much like this that you know you have to ascend the ladder of holiness and I'm not saying we shouldn't be growing a Christian character I don't mean it in that way.

I mean the way that people view you, that you're that holy guy in the church and you just got to keep climbing the political ladder.

He had a very rough experience with religion.

But when this particular sermon was heard by him, it radically changed his life, radically changed this man's life.

And I'll explain his response here in a moment.

But he says, it turned my worldview of religion to pieces.

He thought that God was hate because the people of God treated him with hatred.

At least the people that claimed to know him.

His family sent him to a boot camp to fix him.

This is a place that they had heard that if you send him here, this guy fixes wayward children and problem people.

Well, the problem is this individual did not give him a healthy picture of God at all.

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How to Overcome the Devil- Part 1

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