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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Aaron Sartin

The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

It's such an honor to be here and be able to speak this morning.

I'm sorry, I'm just, I have to pray that it's not my words that are spoken, but that the Holy Spirit will speak to all of us.

So why don't we go ahead and have a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done in our lives.

Lord, we thank you for this Sabbath day, the day that we can come and rest, Lord, from all of our works and enter into that rest that you have prepared for us, Lord.

I just ask right now that your Holy Spirit will be among us, and that you will speak your words through me, that we might all hear, Lord, and learn and apply them to our lives, Lord.

Again, the title of this message is the greatest battle that was ever fought.

And so maybe that will give you an image of, maybe you think, you know, this is going to be a powerful meeting.

I just want to share with you a little bit about it, especially a topic that is close to my heart.

What do you think is the greatest battle that was ever fought?

We're playing a role in this great controversy theme, right?

But that, I wanted to pose the point that that is not the greatest battle that we have to fight.

We think of In Earth's history, so many wars and battles have gone on.

We think of the World War I and then II, Vietnam, Korean War.

So many people involved in these battles, and yet that's not the greatest battle that we have to fight.

In Revelation, again, we learn about the great controversy that's being fought, the war that was in heaven.

Also we learn about the great battle of Armageddon, finally when Satan's army will come and try to take the New Jerusalem.

But let me just share a quote with you from the Prophet of the Lord.

It's in Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, page 141.

It says, the Christian life is a battle and a march, but the victory to be gained is not won by human power.

The field of conflict is the domain of the heart.

The battle which we have to fight, the greatest battle that was ever fought by man is the surrender of self to the will of God.

Yielding of the heart to the sovereignty of love.

The old nature born of blood and of the will of the flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

The hereditary tendencies, the former habits must be given up.

So brothers and sisters, what is this greatest battle that we have to fight?

It's giving up our own will, giving, yielding self to God, that He can work in us.

And I just want to, if nothing else from this message, I just want us to understand that this is a battle and it's every day that we are waging this war.

And you see that it is a battle, it is urgent, but why is this so important?

Let's look at some Bible verses and especially see what Christ has to say about this.

Let's turn to Mark chapter 8 and verse 34.

Says And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Verse 35, "'For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.'" So Christ is saying that if we are to come after Him, what do we need to do?

Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up His cross and follow Me.

So if we are to be Christ's disciples, we have to make that surrender of self.

We have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

Verse 35, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, for whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel, the same shall save it.

Let's just hold on to this verse, we're going to come back later and get deeper into this and see what meanings the Lord would have for us to learn this day.

Let's go again to Luke chapter 14 verse 33.

And this is a similar passage to the 1 we just read, but I want to key in on an important point here.

And this is Christ talking about what it takes to be his disciple.

It says, So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." So how much is Christ asking for of us?

The greatest battle that was ever fought by man, we are fighting this.

But Christ is asking us to give up all that we think that we have.

Nothing that we think we own is really ours, is it?

What we have, cars, homes, clothes, even the clothing that we're wearing these 4 days, it's not really ours.

Christ is asking us to give up all that we have.

And we might consider some of the things that are standing in the way of us doing this.

For many it might be the love of money, a love of fame, of honor.

For some, it could be the love of ease, Free from responsibility.

And this message especially, I mean, for all of us, but personally, like, I was convicted myself to look deep into my heart and see what I am holding on to, what's keeping me from giving all to God, giving all to Christ and following Him.

So I said that we can learn a lesson from this, how we can do this and through Christ gain the victory.

And the question might be in this battle, how are we to fight?

Let me just present quickly, I've come up with, I'm just reading the Bible, 4 ways to do this.

And perhaps you see more ways, and I'm connected with all these, there might be other meanings you can find but I will say the 4 C's to fight this battle against self.

In the book of Joshua we have in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15, we have the scene of Joshua standing before the children of Israel.

Explains to them how they followed after their idols, just as their fathers had before.

And just in the middle of this verse, he says, Choose you this day whom you will serve.

God, when we think about his love, there is no limit to it.

So His love had to be expressed, but it also had to be a choice.

God's given us all free will and the choice to love Him, to serve Him with all of our heart and mind and soul.

And so it's that choice that we have each day.

It's a daily battle that we're facing and this choice has to be made.

Are we going to choose to serve Christ or choose to hold back something?

Hold back even this little piece of our heart from Him.

So that's the first C in fighting this battle.

In Galatians 2.20, many of you are familiar with this verse of Paul saying that, I am crucified with Christ.

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The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

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