 Okay, the recording will start soon. Let's take a moment please just to pray together and we'll get started. Could somebody please pray with the class today? Can I pray? Go ahead the way please. Thank you Lord. Thank you Abba for this wonderful opportunity that you've given us. We invite you Holy Spirit into our midst. Lord you open our hearts, our minds to receive your very words of truth. May it renew our minds Lord. We surrender our hearts, our soul, Lord our will, our emotions, Lord our spirit, Lord that you may take it Lord and use it Lord. You change it up according to your purposes in your well in alignment to your word, your truth Lord. We pray Lord that we be receptive to what you have to tell us Father and we pray that your presence be upon the pastor and each of the student Lord that we may be used mightily for your glory. You make us vessels of honor Lord for your namesake. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Welcome everyone to VC 209, our course on holiness. Kind of towards the end of this course and I hope to finish today or maybe next next class which will be on Wednesday. So we have been talking about overcoming the flesh, the world and the devil because this is the challenge. These are the things that keep us from living holy, walking in holiness. Even though the God who has called us is holy and he has called us to holiness. The flesh, the world and the devil pull upon the believer and try to keep us, prevent us from living a life of holiness. And the fact is as long as we are on this earth, as long as we are living in this natural body on the earth, we're going to face, we're going to face the pull of the flesh, the world and the temptations to the devil. We're going to face it. There won't be any moment when all these things just go away. Well as long as we are in our natural body in this world, in this time. And so we have to be constantly, constantly alert, on guard. We must be aware how these things operate. How does the flesh try to destroy the believer? I mean pull the believer down. How does the world influence the believer? And what we are dealing with now is how does the devil operate? So we started talking about this, the last part, overcoming the devil in our last class. Just going to quickly review a few things and we'll move forward. And yeah, I will come to those questions. So chapter 7, overcoming the devil, we said that there is an adversary, the devil. And we have to be called and we have been empowered to overcome, to resist the devil successfully. But then in order to do that, we must become aware of his activities. How does he operate? He said, look, there are just four main things he does. I mean, if you broadly categorize what he does, you can put them in four big categories. One is he tempts us, secondly accuses us or throws accusations to condemn us, condemnation. He tries to deceive us, give us falsehood and he comes, opposes us, opposes us, opposition. He tries to hinder us, do things to stop us. But in our overcoming of the devil, we must be absolutely certain that Satan is defeated in him. That's our position. The devil is defeated, Christ won the victory, we are here to enforce that victory. So we're not striving for victory. That was done for us on the cross. We're enforcing that victory. So the way we engage is a little different. We're not trying to fight for victory. We are fighting from a place of victory in order to enforce that victory. Saying devil, you have been defeated, you're going to stay defeated in my life. So in order to do that, he must be aware of his tactics, how he operates. One big way is through mind games. Second is he looks for open doors. So obviously, if we want to live overcoming lives, we need to keep our doors closed to the enemy. Don't give him an opportunity. Sin and doing wrong things obviously opens the doors and so that's why it's so important to repent the moment we do something wrong. And thirdly, he violates. He tries to forcibly do things he knows he's not supposed to do, but this is where we put up our shield of faith and we say, no, I know you're a trespasser, but no trespassing. I am not going to give you the opportunity to trespass. He will try to. That's when we resist. Number three, as part of our strategy, you know, we'll come in the devil and this is so simple and yet it's so important. We must be vigilant and give the enemy no opportunity. That is our responsibility and that is us taking our spiritual life seriously. That we must be alert and know that, hey, the enemy is going to use things around me to try to pull me down. So obviously, if I'm alert and I can think strategically, I'll just make sure he doesn't have the opportunity. We can be preemptive or preventive in many of these things. And let me say this and I don't say it in any way to demean or disregard, but you know, if we as believers will be wise, so be vigilant, be alert, but be wise. I mean, think strategically. Think like a soldier. Think like somebody in the army. Be preemptive. Be preventive. We can actually thwart the enemy even before he makes his move, that you make your move. And if we as believers do that, I think we can, you know, we can really live victoriously on the earth. The Bible, you know, talking about Jesus, John 14, you know, Jesus makes the statement. He says, the ruler of this world is coming, of course, that he's referring to the devil. But look at what he says. He has nothing in me. Now that's so, so wonderful. The rule of the world is coming. The devil's coming. But he has nothing in me. You know, there's nothing in me he can claim. There's nothing in me that he can have access to. He's coming, meaning, of course, Jesus is in the world. The devil is around. He's going to try to do his part. The devil is going to try to tempt Jesus. He's going to try and, you know, whatever, test, attack him at all points, just like as we are. But Jesus, he has nothing in me. No foothold, no access point, no entry point, nothing. And so if we can live like this, then while the devil around us is trying and his demons are trying to do their thing, play their mind games, or look for entry points, or try to intrude, he says, sorry, you have nothing in me. I'm like Jesus. I walk like Jesus. You have nothing in me. They've also Paul told us, he said in Ephesians 4 verse 27, he says, don't give any place to the devil. Literally in the Greek it means, don't give the devil any foothold, any landing place. You can't even put his foot down in anywhere in things that concern you. No foothold. Don't give any place to the devil. Now that's our responsibility. So if we can live with that mindset, I'm not going to give the devil any foothold, any place to land his foot on in my life. It's like half the battle is over. We are preventing a lot of things. Sadly, if we leave so many entry points to the devil and the devil is landing, the devil and his demons have so many places to land, then we've got a lot of battles to fight. Fighting here, fighting there, fighting there, fighting there. Hey, why don't you just close all the doors? Don't give the devil any place to land. If he's coming, he's going to be on the outside. We can't prevent him from coming, but he comes and he finds no entry place. You just keep going about your business. And like Jesus, you can say the devil comes, but there's no place. He comes looking. Where's the entry point? No place. So that's a great way to live our lives. That's a commitment to holiness. That's a commitment to living a life that pleases God. And when we see him coming, our response is resist the devil. So we can't prevent him from coming, but we can prevent him from having a landing place and we resist when he comes. So in view of this, we keep every area of our life and submission to the Lord. We will feel the pull, the pressure of our flesh, the pull and the pressure of the world and the temptations that the enemy tries to place around us. But we are committed to holiness, committed to living in submission to the Lord. So we give no place to the devil. And part of this is our words. We should be careful of the words we speak, be careful of our tongue, our words are important, our words pledge our allegiance to God, and our words are important. So use your words. Watch against sin. Don't give sin any place in your life. I'm just pointing out a few things here that we could be careful about. Don't get into strife with anybody. You know, there would be always opportunity to get in strife, strife or envy or selfish interest. These things are detrimental. They just open the door to confusion and every kind of demonic work. So we be careful against strife. Right? So we conduct ourselves in such a way that even people who are opposed to the gospel have no chance to speak. So Paul writes in Timothy, says, you tell the young people, younger widows and so on to live in such a way they give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. So whether it is people who are adversarial to the gospel or whether it's even the enemy trying to use an opportunity, so like you live in such a way that the adversary, whether people or the enemy, say, they have no chance to speak, no chance. So a lot has to do with this, being vigilant, giving the enemy no opportunity. I think be wise, think very strategically, think like a military person and you pre-empt to prevent what the enemy would try to do. And lastly, of course, God has given us spiritual weapons. He's not left us here just to try to do things on our own. Ephesians chapter 6 talks about our spiritual weapons. Bible says, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the vials of the enemy. So put on the full armor. God's given us the armor, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth are featured with the preparation of the gospel, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit. He's just given us everything. So he says, you know, go use it. And if you do that, he says, having done all to stand, stand. That means when we do our everything to stand, we will stand. The enemy's not going to knock us down. We can stand. God's given us the weapons and we can demolish the mind games that the devil plays. So 2 Corinthians 10, chapter 10, verses 4 through 6, with the weapons God's given us, we cast down imaginations, we pull down strongholds, we bring every reasoning and imagination that's contrary to God. Pull it down, we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So the mind games, the devil is going to come and play those games, but we have the weapons which we counteract and we neutralize everything the enemy attempts to do in our minds. So we have to use those weapons. Now, if as a believer we don't use our weapons, now God is not going to come and do that for us. God has given us the weapons we have to use. Now, of course, we can support one another because we are an army. We can help each other. We can assist and aid each other and God will come to our assistance, but we've got to use the weapons. God has given to us and we're not getting into this, but we all know that we have the right to use the authority of Jesus' name, the power of the Word of God, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is on our lives. We declare what the blood of Jesus has done for us. We put on the full armor of God, praise and worship stops the enemy. It stills the adventure and through prayer and intercession we counter what the enemy is doing. So all of these are things God has given to us and we make use of these things and we intentionally, meaningfully engage in battle. So overcoming the enemy, overcoming Satan, and I've put it, it looks very, very simple, four points, but I think they are just simple and yet they're very important. Know that the enemy has been defeated. Be aware of his tactics, how he operates. From our side, be vigilant and try to always stay in a place where the enemy has no opportunity. Stay in that secret place. Stay in that place where he has nothing and when he comes and he tries to intrude when he tries to violate use of weapons, use the spiritual weapons God has given to us. So our goal is, in this course, learning about the holiness of God, our goal is to live the overcoming life of victorious life over sin and the flesh, the pressures of the world and our Satan. So we must know, every believer can live victorious over the flesh, the world and the devil, you as a believer can live victorious. That must be in your mind. You know, don't embrace the notion that you cannot be victorious. Don't tolerate that thought. Don't embrace any idea that says, well, as long as you're in this world, you're going to be a victim. You're going to suffer under the hand of the enemy. You're going to be trapped by the weaknesses of your flesh. You know, don't have that poor negative mindset about the Christian life. The Christian life is one of victory, overcoming. You are an overcomer and God has given us what we can overcome. So that should be our mindset. I can live a victorious life or whatever I'm facing. And then we must, of course, be determined, make a determined effort to walk victorious. Take the word of God. Take what the things God has given to us and say, I'm going to do it. I'm going to live victorious. I'm going to fight the good fight of faith. I'm going to press in to the things God has made available to me in the kingdom. I'm going to take it by force and I'm going to walk in what God has provided for me in the kingdom. So in closing, we want to answer the question, why live an overcoming life? Why is it even important? Why should I, you know, it takes effort, conscious spiritual effort. So why? Well, three simple reasons, because we want to delight the Father's heart and we want to please his heart and living overcoming life is living a life of holiness and that pleases, it delights the Father's heart. It delights the Father's heart. The Apostle said, you know, we want to be well pleasing to him. You know, we want to be well pleasing to him. Of course, he is conscious that one day we'll have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Yes, it is there. There is that sense of fear and responsibility. But the bottom line is that the underlying motivation is, I want to be well pleasing to God. I want to please his heart. So you and I make choices. You make decisions that are, secondly, we want to reveal Jesus to the world. You know, how can we show the world the reality of being a Christian, of following Jesus Christ? You know, if we live defeated lives, how will people get the fragrance of this knowledge? If you look at Second Corinthians 214, he says, thanks be to God. He leads us in triumph in Christ, you know, and it says, in that context of leading us triumphantly in Christ, through that there is the diffusing of his knowledge in every place. You know, sometimes, and I don't want to say this in a demeaning way, but I think it's a misrepresentation that's happening in the church where people say, okay, through God's grace, through our sinfulness, all of that, okay, the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It is through us walking triumphant in Christ that God is diffusing the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. That must be very clear. That's what the scripture says. Now, it is, yes, supposedly being terrible sin or terrible weakness or bondage, but how is the fragrance of his knowledge going to be diffused when that person comes out and overcomes that weakness, overcomes that bondage and breaks free from that bondage and by the power of Christ and overcomes that weakness, as we come out as triumphant in those situations, through the empowering of God, that's what's going to diffuse the fragrance. So, we must be very clear. This is what the Bible says, that it's through us being triumphant in Christ there is that fragrance revealed or released to the world. It's a God that my life released that fragrance, but I need to triumph. I need to show that we can overcome. I need to demonstrate by my life that a living, a victorious life in Christ is available to reveal Jesus to the world. And third reason, very important reason why we need to live this victorious overcoming holy life in Christ is so that we can be fruitful for the kingdom of God. And this is a passage we've seen before, that as we add to our faith, virtue and knowledge and all these other things, it's going to bring us to a place where we can, we will not be barren or unfruitful or if you want to restate it in a positive statement, we will be fruitful and bear much fruit in our knowing Christ. But it is as we add to our faith, virtue and knowledge and brotherly love and so on. That means we're growing in these areas that's going to cause us to be fruitful in knowing Christ. So, that's the motivation. That's why we seek to live a holy life. That's why we decide to live an overcoming of victorious life because we want to delight the Father's heart. We want to reveal Jesus to the world. We want to be fruitful for the kingdom of God. You know, and I feel really sad as you see what's going on all around the world. And, you know, I'm not saying we have, we can do much about this, but then when we see, you know, great, I don't know what to say, great, but renowned, well-known Christian leaders whom the world sees, see the world, when they look at the Christian world or the Christian Christendom, in the world, the unsaved, look at the Christian, they only see the big names, the big name pastors, the pastors of big churches and big movements. And then things happen in the lives of these well-known, renowned leaders. It brings a big stain to Christendom. And it is sad, but then that's the opinion the world gets. You can't blame them because these people are in the forefront. These people in many ways are representing what Christendom is all about to the world. And sadly, that's all they, the world can see or understand. And that, you know, that just shows how important it is for us, especially for us in leadership, for us who are representing Jesus or are the face of the Christian, Christian church to the world, how important it is for us to, you know, live holy and to show that, you know, yeah, we can live victorious lives. It's a tremendous responsibility and, you know, we need to fulfill that. So we come to the end of this course on holiness. We divided this course into three sections. The first one was just understanding the holiness of God, trying to get a vision of that, how holy God is and how His holiness pervades every aspect of who He is and it undergirds every facet of His nature. Secondly, we talked about repentance. How repentance is important in the life of the believer. We never stop being in a place where we could, where we will repent, if something is wrong, we repent. We should acknowledge, turn away, confess and turn away from our sin. And thirdly, we talked about overcoming. It's just a practical side, how to live overcoming life. God has given us the tools. Actually, it's very basic. It's His word and His spirit. By the word and by the spirit, every believer can overcome. Don't make it complicated. It's all available to all of us. And with the help of the word of God and the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our flesh, we can overcome the influences of the world and we can overcome the works of the devil against us. So in closing, I just want to put before us, especially those of us who are going to prepare for leadership or preparing for Christian leadership. You know, many of us are going to be leading churches, leading ministries. We're going to be in places of responsibility. And there are going to be a lot of other people looking up to us. They're going to be watching our lives. And even the world, meaning the unsaved, are going to watch you and me. And you and I, many of us, will become the face of the church or will become the face of Christ to those who are looking. So I just want to leave us with this, with this deep sense of responsibility, that holiness is not an option. And we have to be determined till the last day of our lives to live holy. Never take it lightly. It's not a very favorite subject. You don't find too many people preaching sermons on holiness. You may not get a lot of, you know, a big crowd listening to sermons on holiness. But you know, this is foundational. This is, this is what we stand on. And if we mess up here, everything God does through us could be tarnished, could, you know, could mess up. So I don't have words enough to convey how serious this is, how important this is. And the life of holiness for every one of us, especially for those of you who are preparing to serve God somewhere or another, because a lot of people are going to watch you. A lot of people are going to look at you. And if we fail in this area, no matter how much good we do, people will forget the good. And they will talk about our mistakes. They will talk about our failures. That's sad, but that's how the world is. So all I can say is till our last breath, we have to be committed to being holy before God. Okay, let me take the questions in the chat before we close. Anita's question. Why did God put devil and mankind on earth? This is something we can try and think about. There's an interesting book that was written quite some time ago. I would encourage you to, I was putting the thing around the chat. It's a book called Destined for the Throne by a man named Paul Bilheimer. I think it was written, I forget the year, that must be in the 80s. It's a small little book, but it's pretty very good, very good. And it's very insightful. And he shares, he's asking the same question that you asked. Why are we here at the church? Why is God letting the devil be around? What is all this working towards? And I just want to summarize. I mean, you can read the book, but to summarize it, basically the idea is the church is being prepared and God is using the devil. Using the devil means he's not making the devil do what he's doing, but he's like, okay, devil, you do what you want to do, but everything you do is going to help the church become better. And it's going to make the people of God be what he wants. So it's like our training ground. It's like our practice time. It's us using what God has done for us in Christ to overcome the devil and actually prepare us for a life of reigning with Christ, both in the millennium and the ones. So that's an interesting, I would say it's a spiritual insight from the Word of God. It's all backed up by scripture. While the Bible doesn't state it explicitly, we can infer from scripture that this is what God is doing. So I would just share that with you. Samuel, some practical ways to be preemptive. Do we anticipate the enemy's attack with our hand? Yeah. So that's a good question. And the answer is yes. So you think strategically. For example, I'll tell you a very simple, simple thing that happened this morning over the weekend. My wife, AB and I, we had gone to Mangalore. Mangalore is it's not too far from Bangalore. It's about we predict the flight to Mangalore. And, you know, we went there this weekend to minister mainly because of a leadership change. Paul and Diana, who've been serving there for four years, they're moving to Bangalore to take care of one of our churches here. And John Paul and Glads were appointed to pastor the church in Mangalore. So that's what happened this weekend. So we went there to do that and explain to everybody, you know, this is what's happening. So we did that. I came back and then, you know, this morning I was thinking maybe I should send an email to everybody in the congregation in Mangalore. And that's a very simple thing. I'm just trying to give you how to think. Maybe I should send an email or a mass message saying that, hey, you know, thank you, thank you all for your support. And, you know, just to, you know, affirm, you know, what they're doing, et cetera, and then give them my mobile number and email ID and say, hey, if you want to do, if you want to reach out, reach out anytime. So I was, the thought went through my mind. But immediately, and as I was thinking about, look, it's a very naive thing, nothing complicated. I'm just sending an email to the congregation in Mangalore, you know, blessing them and thanking them, et cetera, and giving them my, wanting to give my number and email and just say, hey, feel free to contact, you know. But so that's a very innocent thing to do. But here's the other thought. If I do that, how will it affect the leaders we have put in place? People, what we really want is, we want the congregation to connect with the leaders we have put in place. And that is, now, of course, it's John Paul and Glads. We want them to connect with them. And we want to empower John Paul and Glads. And we want them to be the leaders. And we want them to go forward here. But if I, by sending an email and saying, hey, feel free to contact me in some way, I will be circumventing that. And in some way, I will be maybe even undermining that leadership. See, we're all one team, but I have to think I must strengthen the leaders. I must not promote myself. So that that congregation in that city must connect very strongly with the leaders we've put in place. A very simple thing. So I said, okay, I'm not going to send that email. I won't do it for this reason. Why? I need to stay out of the picture. The congregation must learn to connect and then that leadership there, they must be strong. I don't want to do anything. Even it's an innocent thing to, in any way, dilute that relationship. Okay. So it's a very innocent thing, very simple thing. But I am thinking because if I do something very innocent like this, just send an email to the congregation in that city, hey, you know, it under in some way dilutes the leadership and the enemy could use a good thing for wrong reasons. So we have to think strategically. What do we want? We don't want people to be dependent on or connected to past ashes. We want them to connect to the leadership there and they have to be strong together and they have to advance. And so that's how we should think. And I'm just so I said, okay, I'm not going to do this. Right. So that's a very simple example. It's very naive. I mean, it's very, very innocent. But there is wisdom. And this is also being preventive or preemptive, you know, in how we function as churches and ministry and so on. We have to think otherwise, an innocent action could give the enemy an opportunity. We are innocent, but we are not wise. So we need to be innocent, pure, but we also need to be wise. Right. I hope I got explained that. So this is a simple example. And now, in many things in our personal lives and how we order so many things analyze all of those things, we have to be very careful, be wise, how you go about things so that, you know, we basically be smarter than the devil. Okay. Any other questions before we wrap up today? So this will be our last class on the course on holiness. I will work on the assessments, put them out and you can work on it through the rest of April. We have a couple of weeks and continue to think about this review the notes, strength establishes in your life. And yeah. Okay. Fine. If there are no more questions, we will close in prayer and we will dismiss. All right. Okay. Let's, I hope all of you benefited from this course and, you know, that you carry the Kennedy question. Any materials to read further on holiness? Now, if you do a search, if you do a search on books on holiness, I would, you know, you would find, for instance, there's a book, I think by R.C. Scrawl, there is, and I kind of forget anything. So if you just do a search, go to our own books on holiness. Now, some of these books may be a little, see, one of the things I like to do is to keep the content very practical, like how do you live it out? So there are a couple of books on holiness written by good Christian authors. You can, you can get them online, you can read them. And maybe I would even recommend this book, Holiness, Holiness Truth and the Presence of God by Francis Franchipane. That's another book. That's a good book, Francis, Holiness Truth and the Presence of God, Francis Franchipane. So these are good resources you could find online, and if you can get your hands on them, I'd encourage you to read it. But what I've tried to do in this course is take scripture, put it together and also keep it very practical. Sometimes some books become very theological and content and then drawing the practical application, it's like, it's a little difficult, but hopefully we've been able to bring some truth, bring truth together and also make it practical. But I'd encourage you to look, definitely, you know, read additional books and do a study in scripture on holiness and take it forward. Okay. All right. I would welcome anyone to invite any one of us to please pray and we will close and dismiss. Shall I pray first? Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you, Father God Almighty. Our hearts are full of gratitude, Father. For you, what you say, Father, you do the author and finisher of our faith. You lead us, Father. You lead us to walk in holiness. You draw us closer to you, Father. And the way you have led us, Father, to this course, we are so very thankful to you, Father, from the bottom of our hearts for bringing us to this day when we have completed the course, Father. And as we, as we, what we have learned, Father, as we live in it, Father, as we apply to our lives, Father, we ask you the wisdom, the grace, the strength, and Lord Father, you're leading your guidance of the Holy Spirit to do your will on this earth and Father, glorify you, please you in all our ways, in all our walks, Father, all the weaknesses we lay at your feet. And Father, we declare that in your presence, we will go, Father, and do the work for which you've called us, Father. And we thank you for Pastor. We thank you that he was, Lord Father, teaching us so beautifully how to live a life of holiness of our Father. We thank you for everything that we have learned and everything that you want to lead us into, Father. We thank you that we can lean on you. We can trust you in days to come, Father, as Lord Father, you use us for your glory in all ways. Bless every student who's part of PPC Bible College, all the teachers and everyone, Father, and give us the wisdom and knowledge of your love, your, your truth and your word, Father, so that in all things we may glorify you. Once again, we thank you. Once again, we thank you, Father, from the bottom of our hearts, Father. We give you glory, honor, and praise for you who deserve it all, our Father. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, we ask and pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I see, yeah, Anita has a question about the certificate. Yeah, yeah, you know, we'd encourage everyone to continue and do your third year. Now, if you cannot do your third year online, you can always use the year learning platform. You'll be just listening to the recorded videos, lectures, and you'll get the same certificate as anyone, whether you're doing in-person on campus, online, or through the learning portal, you'll get the same certificate. And in case you're not able to complete the third year, then, of course, you can request a two-year certificate and, you know, you'll be happy to send that to you. So, there's flexibility, but I definitely will encourage you to do the third year, because the third year we do a lot of practical things about church administration, about you know, we do book studies, studying the Bible, chapters in the Bible, books in the Bible in depth, so that's very useful. And we do a lot of practical stuff, practical things. So, I'd encourage you to finish your third year. And also, like I mentioned, one of our earlier things, we are setting up APC World Missions and also another pastors and ministers fellowship. So, APC World Missions is where we're going to, you know, try to help people in the ministries. We really are looking for people who would finish three years with us, because then we know you've got the full training, and then we could really, you know, invest in whatever you're going to do, whether start a church or whatever ministry. So, that's something to keep in mind. Now, we're going to get ourselves, we're getting ourselves organized, but then APC World Missions really is going to help people finish three years with us, so that, because we know, you know, you've got the third year training as well, which is very important. Okay. So, do your best, however, whichever option you want, whether you can do on-person, online class, e-learning, it's all the same, but please do try and finish the three years. Okay. God bless you all. I'll see you again soon. Bye now. Thank you so much, Pastor. We are really blessed. Thank you.