Sýðubjörg Gunnarsdóttir heiti ég og ég er fostuðkona í Smárakirkju.Við langar til þess að bjóða þið velkomin í hlaðvarpun okkar,en hér ætlum við að tala uppbyggjandi og hvetjandi orð.Ég vona svo sannlega að þetta blessiði og hvetiði áfram til að gera góða hluti í lífinu.Amen, amen, amen, let's pray.Come Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to you today Almighty God,that you will be glorified and exalted in this place.We thank you that you have drawn each one of us here todaybecause you know we need to hear what you want to say to your church.We thank you that Smárakirkja is your lampstand.We thank you that today you are walking amongst us.So touch my lips with your call, that you will only speak through me what you once said.Only what you once said, Father, and the way in which you want it said.Give me the boldness and confidence to preach your word with power and authority.For your glory, open our hearts and minds to receive what you say to us today Almighty God.In Jesus name, amen.I speak Jesus because your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life.Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire.Isn't it amazing when God confirms a sermon and tells you to start somewhere else?Hallelujah.Today we're going to start with 2 Corinthians 10.If you want to get there in your Bibles or on your phones, if you have a Bible on there,it's always good to follow through.And we are going to read through 2 Corinthians 10.And we're going to start in verse 3.For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.For our battle is against spiritual forces, not against the worldly items.For the weapons of our way are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of Godand take every thought captive to obey Christ.So what is a stronghold?You may ask me.It's arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God.That is what a stronghold is.It's arguments we create, opinions we create.That are contradicting the word of God.That's what a stronghold is.It's when we form an opinion from traditions of men or from our bias when we grew up inour society or whatever it might be, that is contradicting what God's word says.And we hold fast to those and we give those things authority over the scriptures.That is a stronghold.And God says, whoa.We have divine power available to destroy those strongholds.We don't need to do them in our own strength, but we have the power to break through them.So we're going to look at Romans 12 now.And Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 says, if you want to turn there.And this is talking about one of the strongholds, two of the strongholds that we need to think about and deal with.In Romans 12, 1 and 2, we see two strongholds we need to think about here.One, verse 1 says,I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.Now, I don't want to go too much into verse 1 because I think Joseph did a wonderful job last weekbreaking that down and he phrased the living sacrifice as intentional surrender.And if we look at the word intentional that Joseph used there, it means done on purpose,planned or performed with a clear goal in mind rather than happening by accident.So, intentional surrender or living sacrifice is we are given the choice to choose.That's today's sermon name.We are given the choice to choose.We have choices and we have to make a choice.We have to choose what we're going to do, how we're going to live.So, we are given the option and that's called free will.When we have the option to choose, to make a choice, that is free will.God is not forcing any of this on us.He has finished the work on the cross.This is not about our salvation.This is about us becoming and living into the fullness of Christ.I'm not talking here today and concerning your salvation.If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you're born again, you're a new creation, you're going to heaven.Hallelujah.Whether that be through escaping through the fire, I don't know and it's not for me to try and determine.But what I can tell you is if you believe in your heart and you confess with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour,then you're born again.Then you're a new creation.So, I'm not here today to talk about your salvation.You're saved or you're not saved.That's between you and the Lord.However, we have to make choices whether we want to live and conform to this world or live and conform to the ways of the Word.We have choices to make and only you can make these choices.Not me, not anyone else, but you.For your life, you have to make these choices.It's very clear and very simple.But today, I want to focus on, do not be conformed to this world.Do not be conformed to this world.And, let me get my Bible here.Revelations 12.I want us to go to Revelations 12, verse 7.12, verse 7.I want to explain a little bit about what it's saying here.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.And, it says, in 2 Corinthians, before I get to Revelations, if you just bear with me a minute.And, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.And, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieversto keep them from living.To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,who is the image of God.So, with that in mind, we read Revelations 12.Now, war arose in heaven.Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.And, the dragon and his angels fought back.But, he was defeated.In other words, Satan was defeated.And, there was no longer any place for them in heaven.And, the great dragon was thrown down.The ancient serpent.He was called the devil and Satan.The deceiver of the whole world.He was thrown down to earth.So, who is the God of this world?Satan.Now, Satan has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers.But, we are not unbelievers.So, we have a choice.Do we conform to Satan and his plans and purposes?Because, he is the God of the world.As it says in Romans 12.Or, do we believe in the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God?Are we conforming to the glory of Christ, the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God?Or, are we conforming to Satan, the God of this world, who has blinded the unbelievers?Are we conforming to Satan, the God of this world, who has blinded the unbelievers?We here are all believers.We have a choice.If we choose to carry on living as we were when we were taken out of the Maori bog and set upon the rock Jesus Christ,then we are choosing to confirm and submit to the slave of the devil.We are still living under his slavery.Because, we are choosing to live there.We may be saved.We may be set free.But, we are choosing to put on the yoke of being a slave to him.Or, we can say, no.I'm going to conform to the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.I'm going to conform to what the word says.I'm going to break the stronghold of conforming to this world and the desires that it has in my flesh.The desire of a nice house.The desire of a nice job.The desire of a title.The desire of having a stage in which I can build my ministry.We have a stage.The foundation is Jesus Christ.We don't need any other foundation.We don't need any other stage.When we are performing on the stage, it's not about me.It's about Christ in me.It's not about him.It's all about him.It's not about me.Me preaching here today is not about me.I must preach for his glory.I am the vessel through which he flows.If it's about us, we're in trouble.Because he's already done it all on the cross.And we're just going to start repeating his works.In which case, we are confining to the law and we will never fulfill it.Because if we are trying to get saved by works or recognition by works, then we are missing the point.He's already recognized us.He's already loves us unconditionally.He accepts us.He embraces us.He receives us.We are loved.But yet, we still want to conform to the ways of the world.We still want to be recognized in the world's systems.Why?Is it our ego?Is it our pride?Do we want to have the fame and the glory?We don't want to lay it all down that Christ may be exalted.And if he is exalted, he will draw all men unto him.I must decrease the Christ in me.He would increase.And therefore, I start to break conforming to this world.I move away.I separate.I say no more.Do I want to be seen in that way, in that light?I want to be seen as a child of the living God.I want to be a lamp on a lampstand for his glory.I don't want people to know who I am.Because it doesn't change you if you know who I am.But it changes you if you know Jesus Christ.He will change your life.He will give you a new life, a new hope, new opportunities, new ways to see this life.But we need to be willing to die to self.And say, I don't want to live that life conforming to this world.It's not about my title or my job or my balance in my bank account.It's about me.Because today,the money's there and tomorrow there's a world economy collapse and the money's gone.It's not the first time.And it won't be the last.But if we put our faith and trust in him and we build up treasure into eternity,there is where you will get what you deserve.On the earth, we have limited.We are limited.We are limited.So my key for us is that we let a yes be.A yes and a no be no.Don't sit on the fence.It's not the time nor the season for us as believers to be sitting on the fence.The world needs to know we are his.We put our faith and trust in him and we live for his glory, his name, his fame, him being exalted.You see, James 4, 4 to 12 tells us,you adulterous people,do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.You want to carry on conforming to the world?You are pulling away from God.You are pulling away from God.God never,never withdraws from us.We withdraw from him.We walk away from him.And the further we go into conforming to the world and its desires,the form,we are still allowing the strongholds to have a say in our life because we are not allowing them to be broken.Those arguments,those lofty opinions that we have,that we get drummed into us at school.You need to go to university.You need to get a degree.Yes, yes, yes.Wonderful.And then how many people are standing with degrees but can't find jobs?Because now everybody's got a degree.You're no longer different or set apart.But how many people have experience to go with these degrees?And we're going to look at four guys.And then we'll look at some other people.But we'll start with these four in the Old Testament.There's a type in shadow is my friend.Gunnar started teaching me about these types and shadows.We're going to go to the book of Daniel.And there's four guys there.Daniel, Mishak, Shadrach, Mishak and Abednego.Daniel who was called Belteshazzar.So we see these four guys.They were Jewish people in Israel.And then Babylon came along and the Chaldeans.And they said, right.Let us find youths without blemish of good appearance,skillfully in all wisdom and endowed with knowledge,understanding, learning, competent to stand in the king's palace.Bring them back to Babylon.And we're going to teach them literature and language of the Chaldeans.Wonderful.But do you notice that these men had wisdom, knowledge,understanding and competence.So we think it's all God.And that a lot of it is 99% is God.But we still need to read the word.We still need to look after ourselves.We still need to get learning and understanding and become competent in ourselves,in the Holy Spirit, because it's not by strength nor by might.And I'm not talking about a knowledge that makes me arrogant and puffs me up.There's enough of that in the world.But we want to study the word so that we know God.That we get closer to Jesus.That we know when someone is preaching heresy,we can say, that's not for me.Because there's lots of it going around.But we need to know who we are in Christ.And we need to know the scriptures.So as they're there in Babylon,so what I'm going to tell you is,if we see as a type and shadow,that these eyes were taken and put into the world of Babylon.Babylon representing the world.Everything that the world has to offer,you could find in Babylon.So they were thrust into the world.And yet they chose to not conform to the world.They chose to be set apart.They chose to rather face persecutionthan adopt and become transformed into,conformed to that world.And the first test is the food.They were given the king's food.Nice wine and meat and so forth and so forth.And they said, no, whoa, whoa, whoa.Can we please, they went to the eunuchwho was overseeing them and said, please,can we not do this?And the chief of eunuchs said,well, if you look worse than the other people,I'm going to get in trouble here.So they said, well, do what we do.Because this is a three-year program.It's like an internship or an apprenticeship today.So they were on an internship for three years.You test us for 10 days.If we look better than those peoplethat are eating the king's pork,then let us do our own.They said, yes.The eunuch agreed.The eunuch agreed.And at the end of the 10 days,it was seen that they were better in appearanceand fatter in flesh than all the youthswho ate the king's food.So the steward took away their food and wine.They went to drink and gave them vegetablesbecause God gave them favor.God gave them favor.God gave them favor.You see,as for these four youths,God gave them learning and skillsin all literature, wisdom.And Daniel had understandingin all vision and dreams.And then what happens?The king has a dream.So he calls all these clever people,all these magicians,all these people.He says, come, come, come.Tell me what my dream is.They said, well, tell us what your dream is.We'll give you the interpretation.He said, no, no.You tell me what the dream wasand the interpretation.Not just the interpretation.You tell me,we'll give you both.Okay.Well, it's impossible.And Daniel says,Daniel answered the king,no wise men, enchanters, magiciansor astrologers can show to the kingthe mystery that the king has asked.But there is a God in heavenwho reveals mysteriesand he has made known to the king,to King Nebuchadnezzar,what will be in the latter days.And then Daniel transformed,explains,the dreams to himand what it means.You see, and thenthe king says to Daniel,truly your God is the God of godsand the Lord of lordsand a revealer of mysteriesfor you have been able to reveal this mystery.And from that, from obeying,from trusting God,from not willing to conform to this world,then the king gave Daniel high honors.Why?Because he didn't conform to Babylon.He was willing to be set apart.He made a choice.Yes, I'm in Babylon.Yes, we are in the world,but I'm not going to conform to it.I'm not.I'm going to live for the glory of God.Then,old Nebuchadnezzar,he decides to make a big,wonderful golden statue of himself.Huge.Huge statue.Huge statue.Every time the music's playing,people have to bow down to him.But,but,three men wouldn't bow down to him.Shadrach, Meshach and Abednegosaid no.And what did the magiciansand all those people that were in powerthat didn't like these four guys do?They went to the king and said,but these three guys are not willing to bow down.Whenever you blow the horn,they said no.Because they said,we will not serve your gods.Shadrach, Meshach and Abednegoanswered and said to the king,oh Nebuchadnezzar,we have no need to answer you in this matter.If this be so,our God whom we serveis able to deliver usfrom the burning fiery furnace.And he will deliver us out of your hand,oh king.But if not,if not,be it known to you,oh king,that we will not serve your godsor worship the calling imagethat you have set up.Even at the risk of their own lives,they would not bow downand conform to the gods of that world.We have a choice to make people.We are in interesting daysand we are being asked to make choices.And Nebuchadnezzar was filled with furyand the expression on his face changedagainst Shadrach, Meshach and Abednegoand he ordered that they be thrown into the furnaceand the furnace had to be ramped up20 times its normal heat.And then suddenly they were all standing thereand the men that took the three prisonersdead because the fire was so hot.Boom.As they were going close, they died.The three men got thrown inand Nebuchadnezzar was astonishedand rose up in hasteand declared to his counsellors,did we not cause three men bound into the fire?They answered and said to the king,true, oh king.He answered and said,but I see four menunbound walking in the midst of the fireand they were all dead.They are not hurtand the appearance of the fourthis like the son of the gods.You see, we are never alone.No matter what we are trying to face,no matter what the situation or circumstance is,in the storm, Jesus was asleep in the boat.He had no fear because he had said,we are going to the other side.Though his disciples did not understand thisand they were panicking and fretting,he was asleep.No matter the storm,no matter the tempest, whatever,oh, we're gonna die,don't you care, don't you care,look, did I not tell you,we're going to the other side.Oh, you of little faith.We're going across.Same here.Same here.Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the doorof the burning fireand he declared,Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,servants of the most high God,come out and come here.And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednegocame out from the fireand the satraps and the prefects,the governors, the king's councilsgathered togetherand saw that the firehad no power.over the bodies of these men.The hair on their headshad not been singed.Their cloaks were not harmed.They didn't even smell of fire.Some of us could go in that fireand come out smelling like roses.New method of showering,go in the ferny fire.You see, they chose not to conformtheir ways to the world.They chose to be set apart,to stay fast and true to God.And why?Because John 17, 3 says,and this is eternal life,that you know,you know the only true Godand Jesus Christ whom you have sent.We need to know him.We need to trust him.We need to live for his glory.We must decrease.He must increase.It's not about us.It's all about him.We have to stop conformingto this world.We have to lay our lives down,our desires,all these ambitions and plans.It's good to have them.It's good to have them.But if they don't align with God's word,lay it down.If we come to fulfill a portion of the bodyin this local churchand we are looking to fulfill itso that we may get a name for ourselves,we're doing it from the wrong base.What is the motive of doing what we're doing?Is it purely obedience?That's a good thing.Is it that we,we may be recognized and seen?That's not so good.But the base of why we do what we domust be love.Compassion and love.Not about us.It's not about who we are.It's about,it's about Godand knowing himand serving himand living for him.And God's taking me all over the place today.But anyway,I'm sure he knows what he's doing.So.Do not gratify the desires,of the flesh.Rather live and be led by the spirit.If you choose to live by the spirit,you will not follow the lusts of the fleshthat continually tempt us.God has given us the helper,the Holy Spirit,to keep us on the straight and narrow,to bring to remembrance that what we have read and studied.So that when we are being led astray,there's this warning, this caution,or as Joseph put it, this tapping to say,that's not right.You will not follow the lusts of the fleshthat continually tempt us.Instead, you will produce the fruit of the spirit.Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.And I'm reading from Michael and Pippa Gumbel,the daily reading we're doing.And it says,as my friend, Michael Timmis wrote to me,the way I define love is by using the fruit of the spirit,which starts with love.I believe the joy is love rejoicing.Peace is the love at rest.Patience is love waiting.Kindness is love interacting.Goodness is love initiating.Faithfulness is love keeping its word.Gentleness is love empathizing.And self-control is love resisting temptation.Love.We need love.The first task we have as children of the living Godis to declare the truth to one anotherand to this lost and dying world.And if we avail ourselves to God,our mouth will be like a two-edged sharpened swordthat brings life and godlinesspenetrating through bone and marrow.God spoke to one nation and told themto tell all the others.The second task of the servant is to make God visiblebecause it says in his word,in him I will display my splendor.We need to decrease the crust in us, with increase in our power.We need to increase the crust in us, with increase in our power.We need to increase the crust in us, with increase in our power.We need to increase the crust in us, with increase in our power.the third taskto be a blessing to this worldis that we be a lightfor the nationthat people come to salvationand it's important to notethat the lord of thisthe god of this world, small gnot big g, this god of this world, satanand his demonsalso know the scriptureit's notthat he doesn't know who god iswe see it multiple times in the wordthey question jesuswhy have you come, it's not your timeI've even got a bottle with my name on ithallelujahrepent lordin jesus nameyou see it's important that we understandthat jesuswhen he was being prepared for ministryin the wildernesswas temptedlust of the fleshlust of the eyesand the pride of lifethe three things that we have to put to deathon the altarnow there seems to be a theme for methat's reoccurringbecause we have jackhe was talking about the altarwe have joseph here talking aboutintentional surrenderhe's been preaching about the pruningso god is telling uswe need to be readywe need to be preparedand jesus when he was challenged a third timehe answered the devilhe said it was writtendo not put the lord your god to the testthree times jesus is temptedthree times he responds withthe written word of godthe written word of godsayingit is writtenit is writtenthe powerin the written word of the living godthere is powernow the question iswho has authority in your lifedo we submitto the written word of godand give it authority in our livesor do we allowthe ways of this worldto have authority in our livesthe word of god is living and activesharper than any two-edged swordpenetrating bone of manGod has a plan to bless your lifeand to bless your lifeand the god of the swordhas a plan to curse youyou might thinkthat you are livingthe perfectrighteous lifefulfilling the desires of your fleshand that is the devil's greatestadvertising toolhe will fan everything tofan into flames your desireshe wants you in firefor that new pair of trainersgo and spend two hundred dollarswell that's cheapmaybe a thousand dollarsgo buy themgo buy themJordan 1sor whatever they're calledwe need thosenothat's his planbut at the end of the dayhe's just getting you one degree offgod's plan of purposeI'm not saying Jordan 1s are bad shoeshear what I'm sayingI don't knowI don't wear thembut free will tells usyou get to decide what planyou want to haveand you get to decidewe are onthat's god's love for ushe allows us to chooseare we going to put the ego to deathor are we going to allow itto have its way in our livesme myself and Ithe unholy trinitygod's plan to bless your lifeis in his wordsatan's plan to curse your lifeis what the world has to offerwe are in the worldbut not in the worldnot of the worldjesus prayed in high priestlythey are in the worlddon't take them out of the worldbut protect them in the worldso we are here and left in the worldotherwise jesus would have ruptured usat the momentsave godbut we have a purposegod has said we are createdby god's workmanshipfor good workswhich he has prepared for us beforehandgod knitted us togetherin our mother's womband even before we were conceivedhe knew our purposewhy did he make usthe way we arewhy did he give usour personalitiesand our characterhe made usfor his gloryfor his honornot ourshis gloryhis honorthe world and its wayswill expose those three things in usthe lust of the fleshthe lust of the eyesand the pride of lifeit will feed the fleshit will feed the flesheverything at onceor we decide not to conformwe renew our mindswe recognize the word of godas ultimate authorityand we submit ourselves under itso what do we want to doyou seefault lineskeep us dividedsin workingin our liveskeeps us dividedit keeps doctrinesas the church dividedbecause of different doctrinesit keeps people dividedbecause of racismit keeps people separatedbecause they have different political viewsit's all nonsenselet us renew our mindsread the wordlet us be washedby the washing of the wordand let usput our faith, hope and trustin the lord jesus christlet us not conform to the ways of this worldbut let us choose to livein confirmationwith himwith him as lord and saviouron the throne of our liveswe have to step offif we are still dictating our lifewe haven't understoodthat we were bought by the blood of the lambthat ownership of your lifeis transferred to someone elseit's not your life anymoreit's hishe purchased youyou didn't come cheaplyno matter what the housing price isin Reykjavikyou cost more than thatand that was a mansionyou still cost more than thatbecause he laid his life down for youthe son of godhe purchased youand he gives us free will to chooseand todayyou need to make that choicelord are we going to conform to youare we going to break these strongholdsour arguments and our lofty opinionsfrom the traditions of menfrom the way we grew upfrom what this world has told usand saygod what does your words sayand how do I conformhow do I come under your authorityand surrender allnot just saying itbecause we sing the songswe say the wordsbut do we mean themJesus said you will worship in spirit and truthtruthfor one time you were darknessbut now you are lightin the lordwalk as children of lightfor the fruit of light is found in youin all that is good and right and trueand try to discern what is pleasing to the lordtake no part in our fruitful works of darknessbut instead expose themin jesus nameamenamenamen
