Sunday, March 7, 2021

Your body is the enemy of the soul - 2 Cor 20:17


2 Cor 20:17, “ You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.”

The battle you are crossing has two faces, one that belongs to me and the other side belongs to God.  When things don’t belong to you, before you touch them, you ask yourself if they really belong to you.  You can’t walk into a bank and take money from the counter or just take Tyrone’s car.  It is the same way for God. He puts us in a battle field and tells, “Remember that you have your portion of the battle and I have mine”.   

The first enemy of your life is your body.  Behind this body, satan acts and influences the body and that is what God calls battle.  I’ve never seen satan tempting a dead body.  He doesn’t need to.  As long as you are alive physically, then your body becomes a part of your battle.

You must know that your body is your main problem.  Because of our bodies, most of us will not enter the Kingdom of God.  That is why Paul said, “I want to do good but my body lets me down”.  Most of the time we pray, God protect us against satan.  What many Christians do to solve their problems, they try to protect their bodies through justification, defending your body, your feelings, your wrong doing so you can please your body.  We forget that the body will return to the earth.  If you already know that your body is a loser and isn’t worth it, why defend it.  Tell your body it is wrong.

Once you know that your body is wrong in a way, remember your problem is bigger than you.  Your body sometimes makes you feel so useless, how miserable is my life.  Your body will push you to believe you are miserable while your soul doesn’t suffer.  You will see someone crying and wishing they could be like Queen Elizabeth.  Do you know how much she suffers?  On one side, we want to appear like big people because our body likes glory and we want people to bow down.

I had the chance to talk to one of the most valuable men on the planet and he said that he only sleeps 4 hours because he has so many problems with people coming to see him and calling him and he must see the doctor all the time.

Michael Jackson also, had to have treatments because he was trying to make his body look a certain way and he had to see the doctor every day and now he is dead.  He was once great but now the young people don’t know who he is.  He forgot that the first enemy he had was his body.  The secret for salvation is whoever wants to gain his life will lose it, surrender all to Jesus then you will win the battle.

God is bigger than your problem.  When I don’t get what I want, what do I do?  Nothing.  If I want to buy this hall and I don’t have money, I just have to accept it.  But your body will tell you, it is time to break a bank, sell drugs and then you can afford the drugs.  Your body will not tell you that you will be caught.  If that thought comes up, the body will tell you a way around it.  Your body will have plans and strategies.

The body which is your enemy will tell you that you must win this battle.  What do you gain if you gain the entire world with everything it contains, gold, houses, money from the banks, aeroplanes.  What will you do with it all?  Good or wrong, you don’t need all of it but what you need most of all is your soul.

You should know that the most important thing for you is your soul, not what is in this world.  When I look for things that give me joy, ice cream, chocolate, I believe that this will help me.  Levi will tell you when you give him food, “mmmm that is yummy” and he talks like poetry because he is full of joy.  If only I could do that kind of poetry for reading the Word of God and joy from reading Word of God.

I can buy shirts. I once saw a bottle of wine for US$17,000.  I saw this man coming and asking for 6 of those bottles.  He paid with his card.  The man was rushing quickly and packing it with respect.  My heart was pounding.  The man gave bottles to different friends.  He gave the remaining 3 bottles to the man that served them.  More than $40K in wine.  Who is going to buy it from that man?  Where is he going to sell it?  He won’t drink it and he will fight day after day for a customer.  He won’t be allowed to sell it in the shop.

Our bodies will give us something that will give us more problems.  For example, you can feel like you are thirsty.  You search for water.  For those that drink alcohol, they can drink bottles of beer but can’t drink one glass of water.  Some need to drink alcohol or they start to shake.  He asks for money, and if you don’t give he starts to lie, I need money to take my mum to hospital.  He lies to get money and then once he has the money, he drinks and then he starts to swear and kick people.

I once saw him stumbling home, shouting, “Open this door you dog”.  He came inside.  Another day, he jumped into the back seat of his car and thought someone had stolen the steering wheel.  How do you try to drive your soul when the priority for you is your body?

If your daughter doesn’t respect you, you feel bad.  I feel shame on me.  It is the same with God, when we don’t respect what He says to us, we let Him down. He is disappointed, “I gave you everything for free and in return you tell your Father God that you don’t respect Him”.  We respond by saying, “I’m tired of you, I quit,” and you become rebellious.

We forget that our bodies lie to us.  God can turn off our breath at any moment and our body can’t stop that.  Then God will ask you, what did you do during your time on this earth.  Did you look after your soul?

Adam was given the job to take care of the garden of Eden.  Your soul is your garden of Eden. When someone talks to you wrongly, you feel you need to fight.  When you become angry, it is a simple battle.  Don’t fight back.  Tell yourself, this is not my battle.  If my eyes see something that I don’t like, automatically I become angry.  Why did you put this here?  We must consider God’s position.

Once we open the door, our soul will be the first thing that suffers.  By serving your body, you are killing your body for eternity.  When I watch boxing on tv, it is a battle, a fight.  With boxing, people fight each other for others to watch, they fight for the glory and for the prize money.  They give up everything, including certain food and time and they train to win. How often do you train your soul to feel fit?

Do you hate to put on weight physically, do you also hate to put on spiritual weight?  When you don’t want to go to work, maybe people will call you lazy.  Life is about working and we need to do something but when it is about your soul, how often will people tell you to do God’s work? Children will tell you they are too tired to go to school but the parent will push children to go to the school.

Regardless of how good your sleep is, you have to get out of bed.  That is your side of your battle.  Now spiritually, how often will people tell you to wake up?  Many people will try to please others. E.g. singing for others.  Once I was invited to join a gang.  They encouraged me by saying they would protect me.  I told them I’m not strong to fight other gangs.  Many young people feel pride to belong to a gang and when they walk on the streets they feel like they are something.

Have you tried to join or make this connection with God to feel a part of God’s army where you can stand up and fight against evil and against those who try to destroy God?  When the battle comes, fight your part and let God fight His part.  E.g. “My thoughts, I will not give in”.  “My desire for wrong, this is not my part, what you are asking me to do is the battle of God”.  When you live such a life that you don’t have to respond to all temptations but give it to God, you will be a winner.

When you are tempted to steal, say, “No this isn’t my battle to possess this, God this is your role to get this for me”.  As adults we fight against our parents because we have our own way.  Sometimes we try to prove to God that we are grown up children and He can’t tell us anymore what to do and I will come back to God when I want, read my bible when I want and deal with my own problems.  The problems of my body are my own problems.

When someone dies the corpse remains but the soul has gone. So the dead body is not me. I should remember that when I’m tempted that this is not me, my body is not me.  I just have to decide, I don’t want to do this.  For example, we all know someone who decided to stop smoking.  She just quit.  She didn’t need a counsellor.  She didn’t cut down slowly.  It didn’t kill her.  It was a matter of decision.  God told the king, take your positions, and stand firm and see the deliverance.  What position do you take in life?  Do you stand firm?  Or do you go left and right and try again tomorrow.  How often do you stand firm in order to protect your soul?  When you stand firm, the battlefield belongs to God now and he will act for you.

A friend of mine, he was someone who always wanted to get everything.  One time he borrowed money and he was told he had to pay 40% interest per day.  He wanted to buy something to make him appear special.  After a few days he couldn’t afford to pay it back.  The lenders gave him a job to steal from people’s houses until the day that he finished to pay back the money.  If it was $10, 40% was $14 so it kept getting bigger.

In Congo, when someone is caught stealing, they will burn you alive.  When he was caught, people asked, “Where is the tyre?”  That is how they kill you.  They were punishing the body.  How often have you been influenced by people?  It will be good, just for today.  That is the time to tell God, “The battle belongs to you, I stand firm God, intervene.  I’m shaken by what I see, please God intervene”. 

In the gang, they were telling me that the longer you stay with us you will get a title.  I responded, “I have title in heaven that is bigger than yours and I can’t sacrifice what I have in heaven”.  Do you remember that at any minute you can die?  Where are you going to go?  Last time Ange was planning a trip and that trip was planned for many weeks ahead.

Usually people don’t just decide to go somewhere without planning.  If you do, you may not find a place to sleep.  We must plan our journey to heaven.  If not, you may find yourself in hell.  You can only plan by asking God to fight for us.  Please God do this battle.  When God fights, we have the victory.