 Yes. So before the break, we were looking at the example of Demus and how even though he was in full-time ministry, even though he was a man who knew the word of God and shared the gospel and all of that, he allowed himself to be drawn away by the attractions of the world. So how can we keep ourselves from making the same mistake? Let's look at a few scriptures. Maybe the first scripture that we could read is Mark chapter 4 verses 18 and 19. If someone could please read out for us, Mark 4, 18 and 19. Mark 4 verses 18 and 19. Okay, so we know that the word of God is supposed to bear much fruit in our lives. And when we choose to practice the word of God, when we choose to think in alignment with the word of God and have the priorities which the word of God is recommending for us. When we live in that way, the word of God becomes fruitful in our lives. It accomplishes the purposes for which it has been revealed to us and we grow in God. We become more like Christ and we also enjoy the kind of full abundant life that we are meant to. All of this happens for us when the word of God becomes fruitful in our lives. But over here, we see that there are some people who hear the word, start getting to know the word of God, but then they are drawn away by something else. It talks about the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things. So they start looking at the wealth in the world and all that it promises, wealth promises status. People are going to think better about you if you have money in your hands. If you have wealth, then you have more power. You can control people, you can get things done which normal people cannot. So wealth gives you a lot of power to be able to do things that others cannot do. Wealth also looks like as if it can make people very happy because you have all these pictures of smiley faces in rich surroundings having a lot of money and we assume that wealth will make us very, very happy. So deceitfulness of wealth. We start thinking that if I can get wealth, then my life is made. Which is why people have this strange idea that if you win a lottery and you win some huge amount of money, then automatically you must be a very, very happy person. In fact, someone had written an article, I remember reading a few months ago, an article about how life becomes really tough after you win a lottery because now everyone is jealous of you, everyone hates you, everyone wants something out of you and humans don't change, so life actually doesn't change. Money doesn't actually make things better. So deceitfulness of wealth. So you start focusing on earning wealth, becoming more rich, assuming that that will make you more happy, that that will take care of the problems in your family, that that will solve all your issues. So the deceitfulness of wealth makes you start spending more and more time in earning that wealth. And what happens in the process, the word of God which you have heard a few times, that word of God gets choked, it gets cut off because you have no time for it, right? I mean, practicing it, following it is going to take a lot of time. I mean, you know, you got to spend time in God's presence, you got to be careful about not compromising and the word of God says that you have to spend time in church with God's people and all of that. Where's the time? You got to make wealth, you got to earn wealth, you got to chase after it. So the deceitfulness of wealth, it draws you away from the world and you have less and less time for it and this word of God gets choked in the sense it can no longer operate freely in your life and help you to become all that you're meant to, you have now pushed it off into a corner. So the word of God gets choked in your life and it says over here, making it unfruitful. So the word which has got great power within it to actually make a person's life and establish them, that word of God is rendered unfruitful in that person's life because they are now really, really busy chasing after this wealth which has deceived them and in the same way, all the other desires, the desires for other things. You know, the Bible says, you know, place these things first, these desires first, the kingdom of God, His righteousness, you know, loving people and putting other people's interests first. You know, see this, the Bible says, you know, desire for these things but over here the word is saying that you've got to desire other things, you know, which are all completely self-focused. So when you start chasing those things, the word of God gets choked. There's no room for it to operate in your life any longer and accomplish the things that God wants to accomplish and so the word of God is rendered unfruitful. Okay, so what happens in such a person's life? We see the details being mentioned in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. 2 Peter 2, 20 and 21. 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. So you see, it's a very dangerous thing for believers to get sucked back into the world. We were in the world once, our priorities were the same as the world's priorities and, you know, we had no interest in what God wants, we had no interest in pleasing the Lord. We were in that state, but then we came out of that condition and we got to know the way of righteousness, you know, the way it says over here in verse 21. We got to know the way of righteousness. We got to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So we started to move away from the world and now our priorities completely changed. We began to want to please God. We began to renew our minds and we began to realize, oh, there are things which are more important, more precious and which have long-term benefits for me. So we began to understand all of that and so the hold of Satan upon our life started to get weak. You know, he could no longer control us the way he controlled us before. We were now in no longer in the kingdom of darkness. We were now in the kingdom of the sun and so we started to live free lives. We started to become the Christ-like people that God wanted us to be. Now such a person, if they neglect spending time in God's word, if they neglect praying in the Spirit and allowing the Holy Spirit to strengthen them, if they neglect these things and they start spending more time on worldly things and allowing its attraction to start growing in their lives, when they start doing that, then Satan really sits up and pays attention because now he is able to gain a foothold in that person's life and so he will start making every effort to literally drag them down into the pit with him. I mean that person is in a very, very dangerous state because now they have deliberately chosen to allow the word of God to start getting choked. You know, they're pushing it off into the sidelines. They have no time for the things of God. They're very, very busy now spending more and more time on the attractions of the world and when that happens, it's very, very dangerous because they start getting entangled in it and one day if they continue to delay and continue to not take care of this great danger, the entangling will increase more and more and one day they will be completely overcome and when they're completely overcome, like demons, they will say no more. They'll turn their back on Christ, walk away. So, and it says over here, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. I mean, what a serious statement to make, you know, here, Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he is saying it would have been better if these people had never become believers first of all because at least then, you know, maybe they would have been, you know, average sinners and their fate in hell, their judgment in hell would not have been that severe. But now these are people who came into the family of God, who knew the Lord, you know, and who knew the way of righteousness and now when they turn their back on it, you know, the Satan's grip on them will be so strong now that he will drag them down probably to the lowest levels and then the judgment upon them, the eternal judgment upon them will be really, really great. It's a very, very dangerous thing to do. So once you're in Christ, better to stay in Christ. You know, if you get careless and if you allow Satan to gain a larger and larger foothold, you will get so entangled that one day you will no longer be able to free yourself from the entanglement. You know, you will be overcome by it. So these verses here are talking about the serious danger of a believer allowing themselves to get attracted by the world. So every time we see the attraction of the world increasing, you know, the promises which wealth makes, you know, the things which the world is regarding as important and chasing after, then all those things start becoming more and more important and we start realizing no time for church, no time for prayer, no time for the Bible, no time for all those believers who want to come and say hello and sit with you and talk and talk and talk. No time for all of those things. If you start noticing that, immediately understand that this is the first sign of danger. It is no time then it means that you're literally choking off those things of God. No time for them. And this time which you're taking that you're now investing upon the world is increasing and increasing. The entanglement will start getting tighter and tighter. You know, the ropes with which the world is tying you starts getting tighter and tighter. And one day you no longer, you'll discover that you're not able to overcome the world's attraction anymore. Now it is so attractive that God is not looking attractive in the least and you no longer have that desire to come to him, to return to him because now you have been overcome. So it's a very, very dangerous place to be and so we believers have to take a strong stand and choose not to be drawn into the world. And so the advice given to us in James 1, 27 is this. Is someone could read out James 1, 27. James 1 versus 27. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this. To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. So you see what is actually true religion which God the Father finds acceptable. I know which he considers as pure and faultless. True religion is this where you are actively involved in the world in a sense. You see, you can see the need of people. You're going out to them whether they're believers or unbelievers. You're getting involved in their lives. You're doing whatever you can to help them to raise them up out of the difficulties that they are in. You're fully actively involved in the world. You're not sitting on a mountain somewhere meditating. No, you're very, very actively involved in society. You're very, very aware of the needs which are there. You're very, very aware of the people of that strata of society that has nobody to look after them. And you can see all the evil that is being done by those in power, how they are taking advantage of them. You can see all of these things. You are extremely aware of your current affairs. You know what's going on and you are fully involved. But you're not allowing yourself to be polluted by the world. So true religion, what God finds is pure and faultless is this. Being fully involved in the world where you have been placed, where you are very aware of what is going on and where you want to bring in God's values and establish them. So you're very, very active in that. But at the same time, while you're interacting with the world, you don't allow yourself to be polluted by the world. So you meet with powerful people. You interact with them. You raise up funds for whatever project God has laid on your heart. You're walking around with big names in society. You go and meet politicians. You work towards having legal policies brought into place which can make society better. Your name gets published in the newspaper. You're among the big people. But you're not allowing their priorities to touch you. You don't allow their priority to start coloring your priorities. You stay true to God. You stay true to what the Bible is teaching. Because you know that having your name in the newspaper today is very nice. Having your photos taken with all the big people is very nice. But it's so temporary. Those people are going to die and they'll go to whatever destiny they have chosen for themselves. But you are one who is going to one day go into the New Jerusalem and be there for eternity in the presence of God. So you have bigger things on your heart and mind. So you do not allow their priorities of these other people to rub off onto you. So when they invite you to their parties and they ask you to join one more extra project because that's going to make a lot of money. You say no because you know that you need to create time for the things of God. So you only take on the things which you have been enabled by God to do. But you say no when it starts choking out God. So immediately that becomes a warning sign to you. The day you realize that you don't have time for the Bible. The day you realize that you have to start bunking church. The day you realize those things, you immediately realize the world is taking over and I better pull back. I better pull back and give the word of God breathing space. Enough room in my life to do what the word of God wants to do. So you choose to keep yourself safe and not allow yourself to get polluted by the world. Because that's how it happens. The pollution is very slow and gradual in the beginning. And that's what must have happened with Demas. He never even realized that he was getting polluted. He was ignoring the warning being given by the Holy Spirit. And finally one day that pollution took over. He became so polluted. He became so entangled that he could no longer overcome the attraction that was so strong. He could no longer overcome it. And he chose to go back into the world. So we choose not to do that. And we can keep ourselves from being polluted. Why? Because of 2nd Peter 1.3. If someone could read out for us 2nd Peter 1.3. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. So we have been given the divine power. And we have been given everything we require for a godly life. So it's not impossible. It is not difficult. Because from childhood we are taught you need to get the best marks in class. You need to be the highest scorer. When you take up extracurricular activities, you need to shine in those extracurricular activities. Our parents kind of drill that into us that you got to be the best. You got to be the highest. And when you start entering into college, you say go for those career options which will earn you the highest salaries. Where you can live a comfortable luxurious life. That's basically what is taught to us. Right from the time that we are a toddler. And we just want to go and play over there in the sand and in the mud. And your parents are saying no, the mud and the sand is not important. Come read your books because that is going to make your life. You are going to earn a lot of money. So we are taught this from a very young age. And so we think that these things are the most important things in life. To be able to grow up, get a good job, make a lot of money and establish myself in life. So from a young age we are literally tuned in our minds to think that this is the goal of life. And how do you fight something like that? When you become a believer, you grow up and you become a believer and you suddenly realize that this is an entirely different system in place. A godly system in place which is saying exact opposite of everything that you were taught from childhood. And you are now trying to reprioritize and you think, my goodness, how do I reprioritize all my life I have been told that I am supposed to become rich and get a really grand job and make a name for myself in life. And now here I am in this kingdom of God and over here everything is upside down. Here everything God is saying, put other people's interests before your own. How do I change this whole priorities and all of this? How do I renew my mind? If you are thinking that and you are wondering how you can ever overcome the attractions of the world, this is the worst for us. Over here is divine power and what kind of power is this? It's the resurrection power of God that's being talked about over here. That power has given us everything we need for a godly life. So even as we go to him humbly and we say, Lord, what am I to do? My whole life I was taught that this is what I should aim for. And now here you are trying to teach me an entirely new set of things which is like so different and so new. I don't even know how to be this other person. But Lord you said in your word that your divine power has been given to me. You know your own divine power which that resurrection power which raised up Christ from the dead. That power has been made available to me to be able to live a godly life. So Lord you enable me. You help me. You help me to renew my minds that I start reprioritizing everything. So that I start looking at everything in a new way and the Lord will help us to live in this new way. He will enable us to put on God every day to such an extent that these attractions of the world will not look that attractive. We will start seeing things in the correct perspective and we will realize that actually what the world is offering is so temporary and in fact so shallow because everything looks so bright and shiny on the outside you know with the people and their beautiful clothes and you know the money in their hands but when you look when you take a peek into their inner lives oh what a mess, what addictions, what hatred and jealousies and you know conspiracies to pull each other down and oh what an ugly mess it is you know when you just when you peek inside. So we start seeing things the way God sees them and we realize that oh what the world is actually offering is very very attractive is not attractive and we are able to stay true to what the scripture is teaching us. So these are things that we start learning through the power of the Holy Spirit who is working in us and he has already given us everything we need for a godly life and so he will empower us, he will equip us. So we can turn to him and say Lord you promised in your word that I will be able to live a godly life in you so you help me oh Lord to keep myself you know from being polluted by the world I want to put on God every day, I don't want to make any provision for the flesh you know so even as we say all of those things he will enable us not to be sucked into the attractions of the world. Coming to the second point you know which is very similar to what we have already talked about the cares and pressures and responsibilities that we have when we are in this world you know because we have to earn our livelihood which means that we have to you know spend a huge chunk of our day at our workplace you know doing the things which are required for our job then when we come home we have responsibilities at home we have our family members who are depending upon us there are things that we need to do for them and then there are all these you know things which are not going right you know at the workplace here at home in our relationships you know the pressures of life as in you know the finances maybe are not adequate then there are people who are working against us trying to you know pull us down you know blackening our name all kinds of things are going on so all of these other cares and the pressures and the responsibilities and those things start weighing down upon you and you think my goodness there's so many things to struggle through in 24 hours where's the time for God so that also becomes another thing which chokes the word so when we look at Mark chapter 4 18 to 19 which we have already read not only does it talk about the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things which choke the word another thing which chokes the word is the worries of this life that's what it says in Mark 4 19 the worries of this life choke the word so when we find ourselves so caught up in our job so caught up in the things that need to be done at home you know when we are so caught up in all these responsibilities that are there on our shoulders and the word of God gets getting choked starts getting choked at that time we need to sit and ask ourselves Lord how did my priorities go off balance how do I get back on track because the Christian life is all about balance and God is the one who helps us to stay in balance he helps us to maintain the right balance between our responsibilities in this life and our responsibilities towards him the one who has saved us the one because of whom you know we are able to even think about having an eternal life so in fact we have a huge responsibility towards him yes we have a responsibility towards our work we have a responsibility towards our families we have a responsibility towards those in society who are you know looking up to us we do have a responsibility towards all of them but our ultimate responsibility is towards God because of him we at least have eternal life now because of him at least now we have you know been a peace with God has been made and our future is now secure so more than anything else we have a responsibility towards God so he gets to decide how to strike the balance he gets to decide how much time I should spend on my work he gets to decide how much time I should spend you know on responsibilities regarding the family you know regarding society and all of that and he will enable us to strike the right balance that's what Jesus says right he says all those what tiring and weird heaps of burdens on your shoulders come to me come to me and he says I will teach you he says I am a gentle and humble teacher is what he says in Matthew 11 the verses are Matthew 11 not 28 to 30 or something like that and over there in those verses he says I am a humble and gentle teacher I will teach you you know so rather than putting on the yoke of the world and allowing it to tell you how you should live put on my yoke I will tell you how to live in a balanced way I will teach you the right priorities so that you will be able to fulfil the things that you're supposed to do at the same time you will be able to grow in the things which I want you to grow in so that your future is established firmly so that your family is secure in my hands so the Lord says he will teach us so Jesus Christ will be our teacher he will you know speak to us even as we spend time in his presence he will show us how to balance things how to get things right you know so he will enable us to balance the cares of this life with the heavenly priorities that we also need to be watching out for the Lord will do this for us so we need to go to him and he will help us another thing that maybe we could keep in mind would be 1st Peter 5 7 to 9 if we can have someone read out 1st Peter 1 no sorry 1st Peter 5 1st Peter chapter 5 versus 7 to 9 just all your anxiety on him because he cares for you be alert and of sober mind your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings it says in verse 9 you know resist the devil standing firm in the faith so we choose to believe and trust this Jesus and say no Jesus knows what is best he is my teacher he said take my yoke upon you you know he gave me the salvation invitation Jesus Christ gave his salvation and invitation and said come to me don't follow the world anymore come to me and in me you will find rest is what Jesus has promised so you stand firm in the faith and say I will choose to live according to Jesus priorities what he is guiding me and advising me on a daily basis you know during my quiet time when I am spending time with him you know on my knees what is he conveying to me what lessons is he teaching me I will choose to hold on to that I will stand firm in faith it may look like as if you know my job is going to suffer because I am not giving it enough time it may look like as if you know people are going to be angry with me for all those things which they are asking me to go for fine no problem let them be angry but if I can hold on to Jesus he will work it all out so resist the devil and don't allow him to you know forcefully suck you into the world but resist him and say no I will stand firm in faith and trust this Jesus to you know tell me what I should do and what I should not do so when you hold on to him like this in stubborn strong faith saying no whatever the world is saying whatever people are saying about me I choose to follow what Jesus is asking me to do I will prioritize my day I will give this many hours for this and I will give this many hours for God and if you make up your mind and you choose to live in that well balanced manner the Lord will take care of your needs because it says here past all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you he knows that you have a job that you know and you need to earn your livelihood he knows that you have family members who need to be taken care of does he not know these things in fact he says if you come to me and take my yoke and learn from me you will find rest for your souls so he is interested in giving us a good life but he says you got to trust me to you know to decide for you what your priority should be I will tell you how to work out your you know work and you know home family life balance I will show you how to balance between the responsibilities of the world which you need to fulfill and my your responsibilities towards me and towards the kingdom of God I will show you how to do these things and he is a very very practical God he will bring very very practical thoughts to your mind even as your spending time in his presence he will guide you and lead you on how to live out your life because you can really cast all your past and it says over here you know believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings and trials so it's not like as if what we are undergoing is something exclusive and God the same God who is strengthening them and helping them to take a stand will come through for us you know if we could actually go to Matthew 11 and look at that before we you know move to the next point Matthew chapter 11 I think it was verse 28 onwards where Jesus you know makes his salvation invitation to us Matthew 11 28 Matthew 11 28 come to me all you 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 easy and my burden is light my yoke is easy and my burden is light you know Jesus does not lie so he is not saying that life will be easy because he says you know you will have trials as long as you are in this world he has made that very very clear so he is not saying that all your problems will go away but what he is saying is as you learn to depend on me and learn from me you will discover that what I am teaching is actually practical you will be able to do it you know so because there are people who are taking on so many responsibilities and they still have time for God and they are doing something significant for his kingdom they are not in full-time ministry I mean they have their own routines and responsibilities that God has given to them but they are able to make an impact for the kingdom of God in their own way why because they have discovered that if you really take on Jesus yoke and follow what he is saying and do things his way he will work out the details he will make sure that all aspects of your life are taken care of and you will find rest for your soul in him so we have this beautiful promise of Jesus and so we choose to stand firm in our faith with him we do not give in to Satan's temptation to allow our entire world to revolve around our anxieties revolve around the attractions of the world we choose rather to keep our trust in Jesus and follow him coming to the next the third thing about overcoming the world so we looked at the attractions of the world how to overcome those we looked at the case and anxieties and responsibilities that we have and how to deal with those in the right manner and coming next to the hardships and the difficulties and the trials and in fact even the persecutions that we face in life you know how do we overcome this aspect of the world so just going to that verse which talks about the trials which will be there in the world and how Jesus says don't worry I'm still there with you that would be John 1633 so if someone could read out that for us John 1633 John 1633 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in the world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world so Jesus is saying you will have trouble in the world because we are living in a fallen world and that fallen world is following a very crooked system with very crooked priorities they are giving a lot of importance to things which are minor and things which are really really important they are not giving any importance to them and that is why so many people are suffering the rich are getting richer their lives are good but then the ones who are poorer are really suffering because of the way the priorities are all wrong all messed up and that is why the world that we are living in is in such a mess and things are not going to be smooth living in this kind of a world so there will be trouble there will be hardships but Jesus says you know you can still have peace in me in me you may have peace is what he says so he says take heart I have overcome the world I know exactly how to deal with all these issues that you are facing so even as you choose to trust me keep your eyes focused upon me do the things which I am guiding you to do and even as you are doing that I will make sure that I will guard your heart and mind so that you will have peace in spite of all that is going on in your life so this is a promise that God makes to us so there are times when we will be persecuted because of our stand for Jesus we are not willing to compromise we are not willing to do the crooked things which the world does and so when that happens the hardships that we face will increase because the people are opposed to the lifestyle that we have chosen the godly lifestyle which we have chosen so they will oppose us so not only will we have the normal hardships which other people face we also have this additional hardship of standing up for Christ and that brings trials into our life but Jesus says take heart don't feel discouraged don't feel like giving up you never have to feel that you have to give up because as long as I am there I will always make a way I will find some way for you to come out of this situation so it says here, Jesus says here take heart in the sense don't get discouraged don't think that this is finished now it's all over no more hope, never ever think that take heart because I have overcome the world I know exactly how to deal with this world because Jesus says I lived in this world, I was part of it I know exactly what's going on over here I know what the pressures feel like I know what people are capable of I know all the things that can go wrong I am aware of it, I have undergone all of that but I overcame all of that when I was in the world when he was not even using his divine powers he was completely relying upon God upon God the Father and he was choosing to be 100% human so in his humanness, he overcame every aspect of the world including the trials and the hardships and the case and anxieties of this life and all of that so he knows how to overcome it and he says, I will be your teacher come to me, take my yoke upon you learn from me you will discover how gentle and humble I am in the way I teach you such a beautiful thing that the Lord can do for us so we choose to trust him and he will enable us to live our lives right just moving very quickly into some points which are given in our notes regarding how to be overcomers in this world so the first of course is that we should we've kind of talked about all these things already so this is like, we are summarizing it so the first point is we choose to set our desires on what is above because as long as our eyes are upon the things of this world and we are going on feeding those desires those desires will grow strong obviously so rather than keeping our eyes on material things and allowing those desires to get stronger we choose to set our desires on the things above so okay we will need to look at maybe two Bible passages just to get the both sides of the of the situation maybe we could first read out Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 12 and 13 Ecclesiastes 3 12 and 13 please Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 12 and 13 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live that each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil this is the gift of God okay let's just hold on to that scripture and now let's look at another scripture this would be 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 18 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 18 command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment command them to do good to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share okay so we see this is a balance that has to be struck so in Ecclesiastes 3 it talks about how it is good you know for us to be happy for us to eat and drink and find satisfaction in the work that we are doing all that is a gift of God but there's another side to it the other side is mentioned in 1 Timothy 6, 17 to 18 which we read out just now where it says you see even though you're having a good time and you're enjoying all that you have all that God has given and gifted to you you are not placing your hope in those things continue to place your hope in God so he continues to be your first priority so keeping him in mind you know you choose to be rich in good deeds you know in the things which God has you know purposed for your life so you allow him to be your first priority you do the things which please him you do the good deeds each day that God has set before you to be done for his kingdom for his people you continue to do all of that because even though you're enjoying your life and you're having all these good things that God has gifted to you your focus is not on them your focus is on eternity your focus is on what God is preparing you for for this amazing future which is awaiting you and therefore you choose to be rich in good deeds and you choose to you know not just hold on to your wealth but generously share it with other people and you choose never to become arrogant where you think oh I don't need God I'm well you know I'm well established I can take care of things so now I'll start doing things my way no never allow yourself to reach a point where you say I will do things my way rather you always choose to say no Lord my hope is in you so I will choose to do things your way I will submit to what you are asking me to do so there is a balance to be struck God has gifted us with things that we can enjoy we must be happy we must enjoy those things God likes that in fact it says God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment so yes we are meant to enjoy the life that we have in the world but we do not allow ourselves to grow arrogant we keep our eyes focused on the heavenly things of God and we choose to have our priorities you know in line with whatever he is asking us to do and that is why it says in Matthew 6 31 to 33 this is the advice that Jesus gives in Matthew 6 31 to 33 yeah if someone can read out Matthew 6 this is 31 to 33 so do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well it is so plain and Jesus would never ever lie never he would never lie he says here all these things will be given to you as well so he is saying keep your priorities right seek first what is good for the kingdom of God seek his righteousness living in the right manner according to godly values keep these things first in your life and all these other things will be given to you as well the pagans they run after these things you see because they have nobody else to provide these things for them either they do it for themselves or they know they have finished but you have a heavenly father who knows that you need these things so he will take care of these things and that is why we saw in the previous scripture where it says put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment so we can trust God to take care of us we don't have to worry about that but we don't have to desperately run after these things to the point where we are choking out the things of God no we don't need to do that we don't need to go to that extent so as long as we keep our priorities right God will our father it says our heavenly father knows that you need these things so he will take care of all that we require and so in the context of all these verses which we have looked at you know we now finally come to this verse which you know says what you should be setting your heart upon so if someone could read out Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 3 Colossians 3 1 to 3 since then you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on things above not on earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God yeah so it says over here your life is now hidden with Christ in God so set your mind on things which are about Christ set your mind on things above and the word used over there that's the Greek word which which basically means what exactly does it mean setting your mind on something basically you direct your mind towards that particular thing you know you start striving towards that particular thing so whatever you are okay let us say you know I have set my mind on you know on winning the marathon so what do I do my entire thinking you know I align it towards you know how do I win that marathon what are the things that I should be doing how do I equip myself so all your energies everything that you are doing is focused towards that marathon you are going to be running that you want to win so over here it says set your mind you know your entire mind is focused on and the direction of your thoughts your energies everything is now directed towards God towards what he wants towards the priorities that he has set and it says set your mind on things above not on earthly things so rather than allowing all your focus your thoughts your energies to be focused in in the direction of earthly things you choose to focus them towards heavenly things because we know that Jesus Christ will take care of whatever we require for our everyday life okay so that was point the first point you know about being an overcomer in the world there are another couple of points and we'll you know cover them next class so next class we'll continue this topic of overcoming the world and then we'll also get into overcoming the devil so I think sure we'll have time for both of those things next week so the focus will be more on overcoming the world and the devil you know in the next session that we will have so we need to close now so let's just close with a word of prayer thank you so much a lot for all the important lessons that you reminded us of today we pray your father that we will be people who will keep our eyes focused on you even though many things appear attractive when we look into your word we realize that there are things which are more attractive there are things which are more permanent and of eternal value so we pray that we would be shaped by your word shaped and led by your by your Holy Spirit rather than being following the world following the worldly system and following what the people of the world are saying so we pray a lot that we would always keep our priorities right so that our lives and our families can move in the correct direction where we can have fulfilled blessed lives in you so that you can always continue to provide us richly with everything that we require for our enjoyment because that's what you have promised in your scripture help us a lot to strike the right balance between the responsibilities of the world and placing you first so that all other things fall into place in our lives and in our homes thank you Lord in Jesus name Amen thank you so much for being there in the class and we'll meet again next class thank you