Time Will Rob You of God's Blessings

1 John 5:5 “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

The one who overcomes the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Do you not think it is time for us to start living like we have overcome the world?

Instead of being confident in our victory in Christ, many Christians live in fear, and I have discovered the one thing that Christians fear the most. Do you know what it is?

Christians fear TIME the most.

Man was created with a body, soul, and spirit. We have a triune nature because man was created by God in the image of God.

Now, this is pretty amazing. Did you know that time has a triune nature? Any way you want to measure time it has three parts.

Seconds, minutes, hours

Days, weeks, months

Years, decades, centuries

Past, present, future***

Our past, present, and future is what scares us the most.

Satan will use your past to keep you from getting saved and to keep you from serving Christ once you are saved. Satan will rob you of present blessings which leads some to doubt their future, but Christ conquered time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning and the Ending, but He existed in time so that you could conquer time.

If you are saved, you do not have to live in fear of your past, present, or future because you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who allows you to overcome the world.

1. Don’t fear the past; overcome it.

Satan attacks so many people with their pasts.

As a matter of fact, the past keeps many people from getting saved, and it keeps many Christians from serving Christ like they know they should.

Lost people think they have to reform themselves before they get saved.

As an example, take drug addiction. A lost person’s mind says I must quit drugs before I can get saved, but, dear friend, the only way to overcome drugs is through Jesus Christ.

In our minds, especially those that are younger, we view some sins as being worse than others, and some think that to be saved they must “give-up” those “bad” sins.

Reforming yourself does not play a single part in salvation.

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

What you do is not is not what makes you lost. What you are makes you lost, and what you are is a sinner.

Being a drug addict does not make you a worse sinner. Your just a sinner who needs Jesus so you can overcome the world.

James 2:8–9 “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators.”

James 2:10–11 “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a violator of the Law.”

You break God’s Law in one point you violate the entire Law.

You are not a sinner because of what you do. You are a sinner because you were born.

Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned—”

It is not what you have done in your past that condemns you because Jesus erased your past on Calvary.

Colossians 2:13–14 “And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Those things in my past that were counted against me were wiped clean by Jesus Christ. Why should I fear what has been covered?

Christians are haunted by the past too. The Devil attacks every single Christian with that Christian’s past making him or her feel inferior and incapable of doing what God would have them to do.

Hesitant to lead in prayer

Hesitant to serve

Hesitant to share Christ

Remember what our opening verse said? It said if you believe in Jesus as the Son of God you have overcome the world. How could your past possibly keep you from doing what God wants you to do?

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.”

When you were saved, your past passed away, and you do not have to live in fear of it.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

There might be someone here this morning that is hesitant about serving because of his or her past, but can I share some examples with you?

Mary Magdalene

Saul of Tarsus

The Woman caught in adultery

The man possessed with demons

Simon Peter

Your past cannot keep you from doing what God wants you to do, and your past cannot keep you from being saved. All you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for your sins and rose again on the third day.

2. Don’t fear the present; overcome it.

1 John 5:5 “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Dear Christian friend, do you realize that you have overcome?

Christians worry.

Christians live in fear.

Christians live in depression.

Christians have anxiety.

At times, those four behaviors have described all of us since we have been saved. If any of those behaviors describe you now, you are living in fear of the present, but you can overcome it.

Philippians 4:4–5 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near.”

Philippians 4:6–7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

If we rejoice in the Lord realizing the Lord is near, we can have peace that passes all understanding.

We are going to face trials and tribulations, and some of those will be scary, but Jesus says this.

Matthew 11:28–30 ““Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.””

Job 14:1 ““Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil.”

Trouble starts in our life the minute we are born as the first thing all of us experience is a doctor slapping us on the behind to make sure we are alive.

When trouble comes our way, we need to take it to the Lord immediately, and if we do, we can overcome the present. Did you know that sometimes God sends trouble into our lives to get us to trust in Him more?

2 Corinthians 1:9–10 “Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,”

Do you know why many will not answer the call to serve spiritually in the church?

FEAR! FEAR OF FAILURE! FEAR OF LETTING SOMEONE DOWN! FEAR OF COMPARISON!

Can I tell you something?

God did not call you to sit; God called you to serve, and what He has for you to do, He has given you the abily the spiritual gift or gifts necessary to accomplish what He has for you to do.

Donald Williams example.

Christian friend, do not live in fear of the present. You have overcome.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

3. Don’t fear the future; Jesus Christ has secured it.

If you are saved, you future is secure.

Romans 8:34–35 “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”

Romans 8:38–39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nuttin’ can separate you from the love of God because of Jesus Christ.

I cannot tell you what tomorrow holds, but I can tell you who holds tomorrow.

Friend, our future is secure because Jesus Christ is no longer in that grave.

1 Corinthians 15:55–56 “Where, O death, is your victory? where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law;”

1 Corinthians 15:57 “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God saved us from our past. He equips us to live in the present, and He has secured our future. A Christian has nothing to fear.

Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

What could the world possibly do to me that could compare to what Jesus Christ did for me?

Because I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, I have overcome, and I can do anything the Lord calls me to do.

As I close, let me just say this.

If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, you should be quaking in fear.

You should quake because of your past. You should quake because of you present condition, and you should quake because of your eternal destruction, but Jesus Christ would love to enable you to overcome that fear.

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”

If you get saved, you will wonder why it took you so long to get saved.

If you are saved and finally surrender yourself to Christ in service, you will wonder why it took you so long to surrender.