<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>

Open Door SDA Church

Dwayne Lemon

The Power of Temperance

Well, let me go ahead and say Happy Sabbath to everyone.

It's very, very thankful to see all of you, and we are continually growing as a church, and we are very grateful to God because we are just beginning.

God has great things in store for his people, and it is time that the world gets to know about the true and living God in such a time as this in earth's history.

And so I'm very thankful that all of you have made it today and I trust that God has a special blessing in store for you.

So as we prepare to receive the word, let us all, if you are able to, go to our knees in a word of prayer.

And if you cannot kneel, that's all right.

But if you can kneel, let's kneel together as we prepare for God to speak directly to our hearts.

Our loving Father, we are grateful, Lord, for you bringing us safely through another week.

We thank you for this time, this opportunity, where we on earth remain silent as heaven speaks.

We know that you have a message for us, but we are praying that you'll please abide with us, forgive us of our sins, and give us ears to hear what your spirit wants to say to the church at such a time as this in earth's history and we ask that you will make your words plain to us and Lord while I trust that this message will prove a blessing to others I pray please do not pass me by I am asking for a fresh endowment of your Holy Spirit, that I too may have a sensitive heart to your voice, and I will receive Christ my righteousness.

And I pray these things in the worthy and mighty name of Jesus, let everyone say amen.

Last week, we talked about the importance of looking at the principles of the gospel and health.

Since New Year's, we have been focusing a lot on the gospel of health.

And the reason for that is because in God's mind, he's always connected the body, the emotion of man, the mental faculties, and spirituality as 1.

It is something that 1 affects the other.

What goes on in your mind is going to affect your body.

What goes on in your body is going to affect your mind.

The goal that God has set for each and every 1 of us is going to require a total surrender of the entire man, a complete surrender of self.

And it's going to involve not just our spiritual habits, but it's going to involve also our physical and our day-to-day practical habits.

And we saw yesterday, or last week, that we saw that we're living in a time where the reality is that while a war started in heaven, that war transitioned somewhere.

It transitioned right here to this earth.

And because of that, the Bible encouraged us to be sober and to be vigilant because our adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.

And we saw that Satan, like any smart assassin, every assassin has a target point.

And Satan's target point was none other than what we studied in 1 Peter 1 and verse 13.

We saw that connected to being sober was none other than doing this.

The Bible says, wherefore, gird up the loins of where?

Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober.

And then it says, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is very clear that the target point that Satan wants for you and for me is our minds.

It was right there in Proverbs 23 when I ask people, what do you think God wants with you?

You know, I often say, does God want you?

Then I'll say, well, what does he want about you?

And often we don't know the answer to that.

In Proverbs, the 23rd chapter, the Bible is very, very clear of what God wants.

And it's spelled out in Proverbs, we're looking at chapter 23, but we're going to consider verse 26.

The Bible is very clear in Proverbs 23 and verse 26.

And when you get there, please let me know by saying amen.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23 and verse 26, It says, my son, give me your what?

Give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.

The number 1 target point of both God and Satan is the human mind.

And so we learned that the great controversy is between Christ and Satan, but it's over the human mind.

That is the target point for both God and Satan.

If you go up to verse 7 of that same book and chapter, Proverbs 23, we find that why, we get the reason why God wants our mind, we get the reason why Satan has targeted our minds.

It says in Proverbs 23 in verse 7, for as he thinks in his mind, what are those next 3 words?

And this is the reason why God really wants his people to think straight in these very last moments of earth's history.

He wants us to have clear minds, Because I assure you that the devil, roaring like that lion that he is, he is really seeking to devour us.

And all of his devouring efforts start with the mind.

And this is why we learned last week, this is the battleground.

And just, believe it or not, this was the bulk of the work of Jesus when he walked on this earth.

He was trying to reach the minds of people, trying to reach their hearts.

We often read it was heart work with Christ.

It would better be termed it was mind work with Christ.

He was always trying to reach the mind of the individual.

He didn't want us to just be automations, you know what I'm saying?

He didn't want us to just follow him because he said so simply.

He wanted us to develop something that we talked about in Sabbath school today.

A love for the truth, A love for righteousness, a love for Jesus, a love for his law, a love for his church.

Because when love, I've learned something about the power of love.

Love can break the deepest bondage in the hearts of men.

Love is powerful, especially when it's heaven-born.

When it is heaven-born love, it can free us from any type of bondage that we suffer with today.

And so the truth of the matter is that our issue often is a lack of love, the proper love, the biblical love, godly love.

And God says the only way that we're gonna get that is he's gonna have to plant that in our minds.

And so it is that the great controversy between Christ and Satan is over the human mind.

And that is why there's another way of saying gird up the loins of the mind is guard well the avenues of the soul.

You see, righteousness by faith has always been built on this idea of cooperation.

Righteousness by faith is not God does everything and you do nothing.

Righteousness by faith is not God does nothing and we do everything and then call on him when we're in desperate need.

True righteousness by faith has always been built on the same exact principle, cooperation with God.

There's something that God does and there's something we do.

He supplies the power, He gives the wisdom, He gives the command, you and I yield.

Some people think that's too simple, that's it.

We love talking about how God says, let there be light.

But what we don't understand is that That same word, which he has now contained in these 66 books, that same word has power.

You see, when God said, let there be light, it wasn't like the light was saying, well, let me think about that.

Back to Menu

The Power of Temperance

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Lessons from the Life of Paul

I Keep Under my Body

36m

Crisis at the Close

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 3

49m

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Glorified in the Most Holy Place

33m

Is God Enough

57m

Becoming Useful for God

53m

Posh Pigs and Precious Prodigals

44m

The Unhindered Gospel

Dying in Order to Live

47m

Absolute Surrender

45m

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Back to the Father’s House

28m

Sanctuary, Salvation, & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation, & Our Savior - Part 2: Justified in the Courtyard

1h 7m

To Die is Gain

38m

Sound Doctrine