Lauren Daigle - Light Of The World (Lyric Video)

Planetshakers | Light of the World

ANTHEM: Strategies for Fighting Lust

Lust
A desire that we should not have because it is untethered from the purifying effects of Christ and is therefore directed to the wrong object or is so out of proportion or unsuited to its object as to disorder our thoughts or feelings or actions.

Christ centered, gospel rooted strategies for overcoming lust:
Avoid
No
Turn
Hold
Enjoy
Move

Avoid
2 Tim 2:19-22
But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, "The Lord knows those who are his," and "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

• What sort of situations have defiling effects on our desires?

Romans 13:12-14

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on  the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh , to gratify its desires.

• Avoid the stimulus and associations that drag us towards lust. 

Blessed are the pure in heart-001

• Jesus is concerned with our heart. It is not enough to clean up our act on the outside.
• The aim of Jesus Christ is not reform the manners of society, but to change the hearts of sinners.
• The heart is what you are, in the secrecy of your thought and feeling, when nobody knows but God.
• What you are at the invisible root matters as much to God as what you are at the visible branch.
• Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
• From the heart are all the issues of life.
• The heart is utterly crucial to Jesus. What we are in the deep, private recesses of our lives is what he cares most about.
• Jesus did not come into the world because we have bad habits that need to be broken. He came into the world because we have such dirty hearts that need to be purified.

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart

Tithes, Offering & Firstfruits - Mensa Otabil - 001A

First Principles (Genesis)

Offering: minha

1. Gift: given without expecting anything in return. Can be given to show appreciation or affection. It is not a requirement. It is a free will offering.
2. Tribute: payment owed to a higher authority. It is a requirement e.g. by kings. Taxes are modern day form of tribute. If you don't pay tribute, you are offending the sovereign e.g. state. It is compulsory.
3. Sacrifice: surrendering something that has value. It is costly to the giver. It is given to show deep love and honor.

Fruit: 

1. Produce: something that has been grown. It involves work and effort. Has resulted from growth and/or development. Your work is your fruit. It is what you produce as a result of your effort.
2. Reward: payment received for work done e.g. fees, commissions, salaries, bonuses.
3. Increase: investment income, interest, capital gains etc.

Cain's offering was from the fruit of the ground. It was the fruit of his handiwork. "This is the fruit of my labor." Abel gave of the firstborn of the animals/flock and their fat. Both gave an offering that was the fruit of their labor. So, if both gave legitimate offering, why is one accepted and the other rejected?

God Demonstrates His Love

God shows [demonstrates] his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

Notice that "demonstrates" is present tense and "died" is past tense. God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The present tense implies that this demonstrating is an ongoing act.

The past tense implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated.

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
1 Peter 3:18


...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame...
Romans 5:3-5

(The goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations).

Suffering >> Endurance >> Character >> Hope

How is that possible?
...because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:5

God's love has been poured into our hearts.
The tense of this verb means that God's love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and is still present and active.

God did demonstrate his love us in giving his own Son to die once for all in the past, for our sins. But he also knows that this past love must be experienced as a present reality if we are to have patience and character and hope.

Therefore, he not only demonstrated it on Cavalry; he goes on demonstrating it now by the Spirit in our hearts. He does this by opening the eyes of our hearts to taste and see the glory of the cross and the guarantee it gives that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Buy the Future

• Jacob buys the future. He uses what he has today to acquire his future destiny. He uses the little he has today to acquire greatness in the future. He chooses what he can become over what he already is.
• When you sit to negotiate, and you are only concerned about the emergency you are in now; be assured that you will have an Esau situation thrust upon you.
• Esau cried for a reversal but it was not possible. The birthright had already been transacted away.
• Take care not to sign away something and find that you will never never recover it.
• Be very careful what you sign away.
• Esau sells the future. He mortgages his future in order to have something to eat today. He mortgages future greatness in order to have little pleasures today. He chooses what he has now over what he can become. 
• Africa is poor by choice.
• Don't negotiate when you are tired. If you are about to make an important decision under fatigue, ask for time out.
• Tired and hungry, Esau's eyes were fixed on one thing. 
• There are alternatives. If you don't like it, look somewhere else. Don't just get stuck with one thing because that is what was offered to you. If you don't like it, you can move on.
• Don't exaggerate your need. You will not die just because you missed that one deal. The sun will rise again tomorrow.
• Why pin everything on that one deal? Why allow one situation to define your entire life?
• Try not be desperate. Do not let any one situation to be too important that you can't give it up.
• 
  

The Cross

The first Adam, originally created in the righteousness of God, by his stripped us naked.
The last Adam, suffering the shame of nakedness, by his obedience clothes us in the righteousness of God.

Esau & Jacob

Things to Note:

1. Prophetic positioning
2. Productive system
3. Purpose and value system
4. Impact of the 3 on their destinies

Prophetic Positioning

• Jacob & Esau are prophetic positioning of people and nations. There are Jacob people and Esau people. There are people who run their lives after the pattern of Esau; and people who run their lives after the pattern of Jacob.
• The Jacob system and the Esau system do not have equal strength - one will be stronger than the other. They do not have equal advantage. You cannot have the same result from the two. Although of a common origin/birth, they have different destinies.
• Do you operate by the strong or by the weak system?
• The old shall bow to the  new. The one operating the old system is disadvantaged. The one operating a new system is advantaged.

Productive System

• Esau is a hunter.
• A hunter has to work very hard. Hunters rely on their physical strength to produce.
• A hunter goes after one animal at a time.
• The hunter kills whatever he gets. He goes in for the kill.

• Jacob is a cultivator. 
• Cultivators use thoughtfulness to produce.
• A cultivator works with several animals at a time.
• A cultivator grows what he gets. He doesn't kill what he has.

• One system works with diminishing returns. Whatever he has got a limited life. God may bless him with abundance but he depletes it.
• You may start with little but grow it to much. Jacob asks for seed and grows it into a forest. Esau gets a forest and turns it into a desert.
• Jacob multiplies what he has.

There are Esau nations and there are Jacob nations. Singapore is just a city state yet it's per capita income is close to all of Africa. A nation can develop from nothing and a nation can destroy everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6PexftP4M

Love is Patient

• Love always does what is best for others.
• Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. No marriage is successful without it.

Love is patient. Love is kind.

It is not envious, it is not boastful, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Where there are prophecies, they will cease;

Where there are tongues, they will be stilled;

Where there is knowledge, it will pass away....

...and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.