View source for Never, never, never give up!

==Never, never, never give up!==
<p>To not overcome even one sin is to be denied the rewards to the overcomer. </p>
<p>To not overcome even one sin is to risk incarceration in the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire has authority over us until we are free from sin. </p>
<p>We find in the Book of Judges that Israel was not always faithful in fighting forward to total victory over the enemy in the land God had promised them. This displeased the Lord greatly. </p>
<p><em>But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. (Judges 1:27) </em></p>
<p>We too will discover that there will be some sinful urges in our personality that will not leave even after prolonged attempts at resistance on our part. Our personality is familiar to them and they are determined to remain in it. </p>
<p>The one who is to rule with Christ will not cease praying, confessing, getting others to help in prayer, until the last Canaanite has been removed from him. Total victory! </p>
<p>If God sees we are to have a high place in His Kingdom He may let us fight for awhile. The result of the fighting is the development in us of a character that can work with Christ in the removal of all the disobedience to God that currently exists in the creation. </p>
<p>These are the rulers! </p>
<p>It reminds us of the three among the mighty men; and the three among the disciples who were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. </p>
<p><em>"God forbid that I should do this!" he said. "Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?" Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors. ( Chronicles 11:19) </em></p>
<p><em>After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. (Matthew 17:1) </em></p>
<p>Then there are those who do not attain to a hundredfold level of rulership. They are not among the highest in the Kingdom but they sit at Christ's table in the Kingdom. </p>
<p>Christ will have infinite patience with any person who is struggling to conquer sin and self will. </p>
<p><em>A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope. (Isaiah 42:3,4) </em></p>
<p>Christ has no patience whatever with a believer who is content with his sinful state and is trusting in God's mercy and grace to bring him to Paradise with spotted garments. </p>
<p><em>Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy. (Revelation 22:11) </em></p>
<p>We are to be made perfect as a home, a resting place, and a place for God's Throne. The Divine work on us keeps on after we die. This is why the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews notifies us that those believers in the spirit world cannot be made perfect apart from those of us on the earth. </p>
<p>Believers in the spirit world already are in Heaven, we might say, but residing in Heaven does not fashion us in the form God desires. These people are in "heaven," but they have not been made perfect as yet. </p>
<p>God in the past has allowed us to view eternal residence in Heaven as the goal of salvation, but residence in Heaven never was the Bible goal. Now God's actual goal has been revealed to us—that we be changed into Christ's image and dwell at rest in the center of God's Person and will.. </p>
<p>Heaven apart from the perfecting of the occupants would not be a desirable environment for people or the Lord. </p>
<p>What we hope for in Paradise is, as I stated previously, the result of the inhabitants being filled with the Fullness of God. Paradise cannot be paradise until we become the dwelling place of God and our sins and self seeking have been removed from us. </p>
<p>Eventually the environment we are in will conform to the work God has done in us. </p>
<p>Never give up seeking the fullness of God. Never give up striving to grasp that for which you have been grasped. </p>
<p><em>Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14) </em></p>
<p><em>These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39,40) </em></p>
[[Sermons WOR]]