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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

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Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

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discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

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and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be

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your host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages

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are a blessing to you and bring you closer to God.

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Hello, welcome back to the Potter's House podcast, the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast.

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My name is David Bickford. I am the pastor of the Potter's House Salmon Arm and I thank

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you for joining me here again today. Today's message is going to be about Habits Part 3.

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Today we are going to group a couple of them together again and it is going to be Lust

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and Greed or what I like to consider the signatures of our time. If you have a Bible and you are

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going to follow along with me, the text that I am going to be using today is going to be

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from Colossians. It is chapter 3 verses 1-25 with a heavier focus on verses 5-11. You can

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kind of put that in the back of your head and we will get to that in a little bit.

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But first I want to take a look at an illustration I found. There was a penny-pinching tyrant

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and this is what we will look at first with the idea of greed. This penny-pinching tyrant,

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she owns a string of hotels. She owns the Empire State Building. She is a billionaire.

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Yet in September 1989, Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley was convicted of 33 counts of tax

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evasion for which she faces the possibility of being sent to prison for 100 years. According

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to the Time magazine, she emerged as a penny-pinching tyrant who tried to stiff just about everybody

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that she knew. No amount of money was too small to fight over and after the sudden death

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of her son at the age of 40 in 1982, she sued and won the lion's share of his estate which

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was only $149,000 leaving his four children with $432 each and his widow with $2,171.

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Now I don't know the background to this story but even on its face you can see how amazingly

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greedy or penny-pinching this woman must have been to even go through the process of suing

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or trying to go through legal means just to keep what little money this was when compared

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to her overall great worth. And so it's an interesting picture that greed is not based

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on amounts as much as on a hunger. And again, this is kind of what I talked about with sins

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of excess a little bit, right? Where it was with gluttony and things of that nature where

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it's just this overwhelming desire for just getting more stuff or a desire for avarice.

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So avarice being very strong in this person's life. So here's another story. This one's

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titled Consumed by Their Own Lust and this is radio personality Paul Harvey. If you haven't

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heard of Paul Harvey, he was pretty important radio broadcaster even as I was growing up.

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He would give these stories and then he'd say, and that's the rest of the story. And

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so he was a very good storyteller, lots of really good stuff from him. But in this illustration

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here Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly

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yet it offers us this fresh insight into the consuming self-destructive nature of sin.

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First the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then

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he adds another layer of blood and another until the blade is completely concealed by

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frozen blood. Next the hunter fixes his knife to the ground with the blade up. When the

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wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks

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it. Tasting the fresh frozen blood, he licks faster and faster and faster, more and more

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vigorously. Lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare, but feverishly now harder and

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harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood

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that the wolf does not notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue,

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nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is beginning to be satisfied

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by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more and until the dawn finds

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him dead in the snow. So here's a terrifying tale of about how our lusts can literally

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lead us into a position where we are willfully hurting ourselves, we are willfully harming

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ourselves just to feed this gap in our soul, this gap in our heart with this desire. You

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can see this illustrated very clearly with people who get addicted to certain drugs where

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the lust for the high or the lust for these drugs becomes overwhelming to the point where

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they're either unwilling to admit or unknowingly harming their bodies to fulfill that need

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or that lust. Chris Zillinger had this quote that says, it is a fearful thing that people

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can be consumed by their own lusts, only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate. That's

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a critical part of our understanding is that mankind being wicked from the beginning, like

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from since the fall, and it's only through God's grace that keeps us from succumbing

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to a fate like that wolf's. So in our text, Colossians 3, 1 through 5, let's read. This

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is about putting on the new self in Jesus Christ. So in verse 1, if then you have been

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raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right

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hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above and not on the things that

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are on earth. For you have died for your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ

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who is, your appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore

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what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness,

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which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once

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walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath,

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malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that

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you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on a new self, which is being

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renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised

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or uncircumcised, barbarian, Synthian, slave-free, but Christ is all and end all. Put on then

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God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and

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patience, bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving

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each other. And the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these

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put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ

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rule in your own heart, your own hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body and

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be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one

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another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns in spiritual songs with thankfulness

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in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name

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of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and Father through him. Now here are some rules for a

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Christian household we pick up again at 18. Wives submit to your husbands as fitting to

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the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your

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parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Father, do not provoke your children

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lest they become discouraged. Bond servants obey in everything. Those who are your earthly

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masters not by way of eye service or people pleasing, but in sincerity of heart fearing

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the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as the Lord and not for men, knowing that from

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the Lord you will receive your inheritance and reward. You are serving the Lord Christ

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for the wrongdoer will be paid back for wrongdoing he has done. And there is no partiality. Now

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I know that might be a bit overwhelming, that scripture, because it's a big chunk, it's

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a whole chapter. But the reality is as we focus on verses 5 through 11, again that's

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to put on death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion,

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evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now we know that we're being called to do

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these things, but we're not being called to do these things under our own power, but rather

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through Christ Jesus. And then I left in the rules for Christian house because it talks

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about wives submitting to husbands, which is very, very hard for our generation to understand,

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but really also it calls husbands to love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

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There's a portion of this too where it basically is talking about what love is, is to be self-sacrificing.

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So when the Bible talks about love, the ultimate love is what the love of Jesus Christ did

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for us. In other parts it talks about how that is what a husband is supposed to do,

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is to be willful or willing to lay down their life even unto death in service to their wife,

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to their children. And so that's the call for husbands. So let's look at the battle

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against our nature then and let's define lust. Lust is the strong craving of sexual desire,

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typically is the way we look at it, right? It also can mean hunger from anything, like

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a lust for power. While lust isn't a dirty word, it is a strong word. You don't have

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to lust for something you don't really care about. Lust is a strong, powerful desire,

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whether it's a noun or verb, you lust for things that you deeply crave. Someone greedy

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lusts for money. Someone gluttonous lusts for food. The most basic meaning of lust then

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is an unquenchable desire for sex, but people lust for all sorts of things, as I've mentioned.

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So some synonyms for lust would be lecherousness or craving, hunger, thirst, animalism, which

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I really like that one, animalism, because the world today wants to tell you you're nothing

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more than an animal. And I contend in Christ that we are far more than just a simple animal.

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And lastly, another one is carnality. And we use that quite a bit in the Christian world,

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because to give into your animalistic thoughts is to live a carnal life. And we are called

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not to live carnally, but to live unto the Lord. So then some antonyms or some opposing

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words to this. Again, I find this pretty interesting, but the words are apathy, dislike, hatred,

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or chastity. Now the interesting thing here is that apathy being what I've kind of categorized

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is not a sin of excess, but a sin of lack, like slothfulness. So apathy can be just as

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dangerous in a way, but chastity can be righteous. So let's define then the next one with this

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is greed. Greed is the overwhelming urge to have more of something, usually more than

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you really need. Watching kids at a birthday party furiously grabbing for candy from a

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pinata, you might find yourself surprised by their greed. There's no way they're going

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to be able to eat that much candy, but they want that candy and they'll never be happy

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until they get more and more of the candy. Greed is often connected with money and a

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desire to acquire as much of it as possible, but it can refer to that kind of urge towards

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anything as well, like food or material possessions. When you see greed, it can be a very ugly

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thing. You're observing a greedy person or the greed of a huge company that treats its

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workers badly in order to make money. Greed comes from the old English word gradig or

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voracious, which means always hungry for more. So again, you see again a similarity here

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to gluttony, whereas gluttony is more specifically looking at food alone. Greed can be anything.

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And then it's so closely tied to the idea of lust because you can lust after money,

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but then greed makes it so that you're never happy with the amount of money that you have.

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And so you become greedy in all things. Some synonyms are avarice, excess gluttony, oddly

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enough, and then selfishness because again, greed is only about your belongings, what

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you have, what you control, your power. And then some anonyms or opposing words are benevolence,

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generosity, and apathy. So the first two of those benevolence and generosity show a great

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kindness, a leader who is benevolent, who does things not for himself, but for the benefit

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of his people, is considered a benevolent king. We serve the highest of benevolent kings.

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We serve our Lord Jesus and our Father in heaven. And before anybody gets too far off

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the road, praying for a politician to save the day for us, just remember that the actual

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kingdom that we belong to is a kingdom. We have a king in our Lord, and he is a benevolent

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king for sure. But that's one of the things I always like to talk to people about is,

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what's the best form of government? Well, obviously on earth, kingship is not the best

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form of government because all men are wicked. And we know that because when we look at when

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the children of Israel were clamoring for a king, they were punished by being given

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a king, right? When King Saul was chosen, there was a warning attached to the anointing

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of that king in 1 Samuel. But before I get too off in the weeds, as I was saying, the

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best government is a benevolent kingship in heaven because our Father is just. But on

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earth, obviously, I would aspire to say that a democratic republic is the best form of

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government, not pure democracy, but rather a representative government, a republic.

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So let's look then next then at the biblical wisdom against gluttony. As we saw in our

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text in Colossians 3.1, chastity or self-control can help us to cure lust by controlling passion

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and leveraging energies for the good of others. Charity cures greed by putting the desire

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to help others above storing up treasures for ourselves. As we looked into that piece

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of text in Colossians 3.12 through 17, it says, put on then God's chosen ones, holy

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and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with

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one another. And if one has a complaint against the other, forgiving each other as the Lord

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has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. And above all these things, put on love, which

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binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts

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to which you, which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful, be thankful.

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Let the world of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all

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wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts. And

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whatever you do, do it word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving

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thanks to God the Father through him. These temptations of sin that we fight are not from

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God. In 1 John 2.16, it says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh

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and the desires of the eyes and pride of light is not from the Father, but it's from the

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world. This is an important thing to understand and

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encapsulate into your head is the idea that what we fight through is not from God, but

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it's from this fallen world. It's from the sin that entered into this world. And that's

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why we are called to put on our new self in Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4. If you have

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been raised in Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right

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hand of God. Set your mind on these things that are above and not on the things that

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are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ,

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who is yours, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

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And that brings me to my final point this morning, which is, how do we win the battle?

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What is winning the battle? In Matthew 5, 27-30, it says,

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You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone

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who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for

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you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And

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if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better

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for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell.

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Now if we take these words that are from Jesus to heart, then we know that we are responsible

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for not only our actions but our thought life. This is a critical thing that a lot of Christians

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have a hard time with. And I've even heard some Jewish leaders like Dennis Prager recently

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talk about how if it's just in your thoughts, then you can't be judged by it from a godly

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perspective. And that's as we can clearly see from Jesus's words where there's a big

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distinction between the old worldview and the Christian worldview or the today's worldview

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and the Christian worldview. In the Christian worldview, you are very much judged for what

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you allow to happen in between your head, in between your ears here. You got your ears.

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So in between here, what you allow to sit in here to grow, what you allow to, you know,

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if let's say you're going to jump into Facebook's metaverse or some virtual reality thing, what

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you do in that space, you will be judged for. So if you're doing ungodly, horrible things

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within your mind's eye and you're not taking those thoughts into captivity, there is judgment

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for that. And that's why we're told by Jesus himself that it's like adultery. If you sit

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and ponder about it, it's just as bad as doing it from a biblical sense. This means that

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we need to take accountability for every thought and judge it. The way that we can overcome

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greed is through charity and we have to bring that charity before the Lord. The way that

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we overcome lust is with chastity is to bring it into the Lord. So therefore, what do I

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mean by that? Well, it's pretty simple. If you have an issue of being greedy, go do some

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more charity work, right? Go do something that's going to take your mind and your actions

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off of you and do it in service to somebody else altruistically. Now, you might not be

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doing it altruistically in the beginning because you're a greedy person and you have an issue

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here and you have to break through that and put it under the blood of Jesus Christ. Similarly,

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if you have issues with lust, you need to abstain or get away from situations that are

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going to cause that to grow within your own spirit and you need to put that in the blood

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and prayer. Use the spoken word to come against your unspoken word. So as you are struggling

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in these situations, in these areas, make sure that you're praying against these things

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and that you're reading your word and putting it under the authority of Christ and not under

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your own authority. And again, I say that prayer is the tool that speaks to faith and

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confers the creator. So this is where you really need to spend time reading the word

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of God will instill Godly wisdom and tear away at the ungodly beliefs that we fight

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against. The word is pure and clear, but we can also pray to God to open our eyes for

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the truth of the word so that it can be written upon our hearts. The church allows us to live

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together and strengthen each other, building godly relationships and provide accountability

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and responsibility in our lives. This is why you were told not to forsake the gathering

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of the brethren. In Hebrews 1025, it says, not neglecting to meet with others as is the

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habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing

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near. Personal contract with other Christians is not merely a suggestion of the Bible. It

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is a command, a practical reason for us was given in the prior verse. Relationships with

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other believers are one way to be encouraged to live a life of faith that we proclaim.

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We are called to hold fast through our own spiritual maturity. Growing faith, however,

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is greatly influenced by having Christian examples around us. And that is why the Great

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Commission was for the church to make disciples, not merely to talk about Jesus. Matthew 28

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18 through 20, verse 24 commanded Christians to look for opportunities to inspire others

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to love and do good works. And then lastly, so lastly, we have Ephesians 6 10 through

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20, putting on that whole armor of God, finally be strong in the Lord and strength of his

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might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes

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of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against

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the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual

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forces of evil and heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may

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be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all stand firm, stand there for having

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fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. And as

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the shoes for your feet, having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace and in all circumstances,

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take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the

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evil one and take on the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word

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of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end.

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Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints and also for me that words

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may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for

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which I am an ambassador in chains and that I may declare boldly and ought to speak.

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So that brings me to the close. And if I could just, you know, if you're not driving, have

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every head about every eye closed, no matter where you are, because this at this moment

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is the invitation. At the end of every message, there's an opportunity. And this is something

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that I hold truly dear to in my life is the fact that every message needs to come with

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the opportunity for those that aren't saved. What does that mean? If this message is spoken

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to you, if you battle with these things, have you ever taken the opportunity to give your

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life to Christ and try it his way? Is your way working? Is your way working? And I contend

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that even if you think it is, it probably isn't working as well as you thought. I contend

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that every everyone needs to turn to Jesus Christ, but not all will have ears to hear

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it. But if this message did resonate with you, then I give you this, that you can too

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be saved. And it's very simple on how to do that. You just have to repeat. It's not

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it's not an incantation. It's a revelation. You have to accept Jesus Christ your Lord

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and Savior. You have to turn from your sins. That's what Jesus always did whenever he was

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talking to somebody like the woman at the well. He said, you know, I'm I am the son

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of God, right? There's a revelation of who he is. And there's a turning of your sins

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or repentance. So if you need it in like a prayer form, it's pretty simple. It's just

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simply Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm not perfect. I'm not my sinner.

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I turn from my sin or I repent. I turn from my sin or I repent. And then I accept you,

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Lord Jesus, to be my Lord and Savior, my my God. I thank you for sending your son, Jesus

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Christ, to die for my sins. And I thank you for the gift of salvation through grace in

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Jesus name. Amen. That simple prayer takes you from living a life of sin and enters your

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name into the book of life and gets you free admittance into heaven and eternity. But more

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than that, it will change your heart. If you learn to, you know, pray, read your Bible,

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find a Bible preaching church, and by all means, if you're in salmon arm, come and visit

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with us. Because Jesus Christ is changing lives. He hasn't stopped changing lives. A

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lot of people might have stopped listening in certain parts of the world, but that doesn't

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mean that he isn't still speaking to people. So I thank you for taking the time to listen

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to me this morning or this evening, whatever time it is for you. And I really pray this

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message resonates with you and I pray that you'll come back again. And I just, you know,

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quickly I want to give a little prayer for your day. Dear Lord God, I just pray that

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you'd help this message to go forth into the world to change people's lives so that they

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can too be free from greed, from lust, from any of these sins of lack or sins of want.

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I give you all the praise and glory and I pray that you'd help them have a beautiful

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week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.