Herbert W Armstrong

   One specific area that he mentioned here in Revelation 2, with each one of these seven arrows, he says like verse 7 (Revelation 2:7), "He that has an ear," in other words, if God has opened your ears to understand the spiritual truth, "let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches" — plural, showing that the message of all seven is for everybody, and not just the message of one, but the message of all seven. "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him that overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

   Now in this statement of overcoming, he gives reasons that we all ought to be striving to overcome. He shows the reward for overcoming. Why should you overcome? Well, if you want to eat of the tree of life that's in the middle of the garden, then you're going to have to overcome. And that just means living forever. It means having a chance to live through eternity.

   Now in verse 17, well verse 11 the next verse, verse 11 (Revelation 2:11). "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death." And that's really not saying anything different from the first one, just in a different way. Whoever overcomes will be in the first resurrection. They won't be hurt of the second death. But the one up above, you'll be given to the tree of life.

   Now in verse 17 (Revelation 2:17), "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him that overcomes, I'll give the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saving he that receives it." So God is going to change your name when you're born again, when you live forever and eat of the tree of life. And God's going to name you what you are, and it's going to be your name forever. So it's important that you try for a good name. And you can have a stronger name depending on how hard you work at overcoming. How would you like to be named "He just barely made it"? You know, that wouldn't be a very encouraging name.

   But you know, over the years that I've been in the church, when you change churches and you start talking with the previous minister about the people in that church, you know, you always say, "This guy really has a good attitude." And he will say, "Now, you know, this man really means well," then you expect "but" after that. So now I'll tell you, "This guy really tries," and then you expect "but."

   You notice, in the rewards stated here, so far we haven't read any reward for him that tries. So far there isn't any reward there for him that had a good attitude. So far we haven't read any reward for somebody that means well. You're either an overcomer or you aren't. And if you are an overcomer, then these rewards are going to be given you. But if you're not an overcomer, you won't last till then anyway.

   Now you can look back over the years you've been in the church. You can see people who had knowledge, you can see people that had good attitudes, people that meant well, people that tried, but where are they? They're not still around. They're not still here. They weren't overcoming. They really weren't. To come to church and sit in a chair and warm the chair doesn't get you anywhere. It might make your present life happier, which I'm sure it does, but as far as the eternal reward mentioned here, it doesn't get you anywhere. To him that overcomes — he did it, he succeeded, he accomplished it, he made it. He wasn't just a good attitude. He wasn't just one who tried. He wasn't one that just meant well. He did it. He did it.

   Now what do you have to overcome? When you think about men like David, you think about men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you think about men like Peter and Paul and Job and Paul in the Old Testament. What is it that you have to overcome? Now you know God's holy days should have you every year zeroing back in on what you have to overcome, because during Unleavened Bread, we are all supposed to be putting leaven out of our houses, putting down what leavening we are trying to put out of our houses. Now during this past Unleavened Bread, what leavening did you find in your house? Moodiness? Bad temper? Weak character? Marriage problems? Poor financial management? What was the ghost in your closet? What was the problem that you have to overcome? Well, if you're going to receive these rewards mentioned, you're going to have to be an overcomer.

   Now I say the person who is going to be overcoming the most is the person who is fulfilling what the holy days portray. You make lists of your blessings, you are working on — you are aware of what you are trying to overcome. You are aware of what you are trying to eliminate out of your nature that is unchristian, ungodly, and you are working on building into your nature what is lacking there, whether it's compassion, whether it's patience, whether it's good leadership like we read about, whether it's setting the right example. What are you overcoming? What are you working on? Now you've got to know. You're never going to get there if you don't know.

   Too many people's lives just happen, you know. Days come and go, weeks come and go, months come and go, holy days come and go. They don't have any direction. They don't have a definite path or goal or definite work they are striving to accomplish. They don't have... If a person came and visited, "What are you trying to overcome?" You know, we have a speech in the Spokesman's Club. It's a heart-to-heart, where a man is supposed to be able to stand up in front of the men and just mention the way he is and what's made him that way and how he's trying to get changes and overcome.

   Well, if you're going to have a new name, a white stone and in that white stone a new name, that's for overcomers, not for triers, not for good attitudes. Now you might notice verse 26 goes on ((Revelation 2:26), "He that overcomes and keeps my works unto the end, to him I'll give power over the nations." He'll be a king and a priest. He'll be ruling in the world tomorrow. He'll be ruling with a rod of iron. "As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers. I’ll give him the morning stars. In other works you’re going to be shining like a spirit being, a descendant of God an heir of God. Now look at the reward promised there.

   Now he goes on in chapter 3 and finally finishes in chapter 21. Revelation 21 and verse 7. Revelation 21:7: "He that overcomes shall inherit all things." It means — it doesn't just mean this globe, this earth. It means ultimately sons of God are going to inherit all of God's creation, all the things that exist. "He that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son."

   But what about the ones that don't make it? What about the ones that don't overcome? Well, look what he lists in verse 8. What would keep you from overcoming? What would hinder you from this great reward we've read about? Well, one could be fear. Verse 8 says, "But the fearful..." You've got to have faith. You can't make it with fear. You can't be an overcomer because you fear the great tribulation and you fear the lake of fire and you fear God and that's what causes you to depart from evil. The fearful, they're not going to make it. The unbelieving — they're not going to make it. If you don't really believe what you read and you don't really believe the word of God and you don't really believe the Bible studies and the sermons and the guides and the booklets and the magazines that ground you in the truth. If you are skeptical and doubting and unbelieving, you're not going to overcome. You're never going to have time to work at overcoming. You're going to be so busy with intellectual doubting and disbelieving and questioning.

   So two attitudes that keep people from overcoming: the fearful and the unbelieving. Well, there's another attitude: the abominable, and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. So you know, I think a lot of times we forget there is a hell. There is a lake of fire. Sinners are going to be consumed in hell, that's true. You know, we, because we don't believe that fire burns on and on and on and tortures you forever, maybe we forget that that's our fate if we don't overcome. If you're converted, you have God's Spirit, and this is your day of salvation, and you're not overcoming, we’ll, all have our part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, the second death. And he warns you right here that you aren't going to overcome if you're fearful. You aren't going to overcome if you're unbelieving. And then he lists the immoral reasons that you wouldn't make it, and all liars.

   Now when you stop and think about overcoming and you think about it in a systematic way, you think, well, why should I overcome? Of course we have read promises and rewards and blessings. And well then, what do you have to overcome? How do you overcome it? Well, look at the holy days. Unleavened Bread shows you that you should examine yourself and find out the leaven that's in your life that you are going to put out of your house. The next holy day shows you how. What is the next holy day picture? Well, it pictures three things, really. It pictures the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. It pictures the birth of the New Testament church. And it pictures the coming of the Holy Spirit. So that's how you put leaven out of your house. You know what leaven is by the law of God. Both by the Holy Spirit and by the church, you put it out.

   But if you don't even know what you're working on, what you're overcoming, what your biggest enemy is, what's your biggest drawback and handicap and weakness is, then you know you're just not going to make it. You're not going to be an overcomer. So I think most of us need to be a lot more mechanical and a lot more deliberate when we work at overcoming.

   One of the physical human beings that I admire as much as anybody I've read about is Ben Franklin. Now how could a man who wasn't converted, who didn't have God's Holy Spirit, accomplish as much as he did? Well, he had a very mechanical, systematic way. He took a look at himself and he said, "Boy, there are a lot of things about you I don't like." And he made a list of things he didn't like about himself. He said, "You know, there's sure a lot of other things I admire in other people. I sure wish I had that in my nature," so he made a list of that. And then he divided up his year in time periods because he knew you have to have a feeling of success.

   You know, if you just got, say, "Well, I'm overcoming vanity," boy, oh boy, what a giant beast you are attacking. That's just a kind of an ambiguous big blob. You are attacking vanity. You know, you can't do that. You've got to be a lot more specific than that. You've got to get down to a lot more brass tacks than that. You have to be as Ben Franklin was, and if you've never read the autobiography of Ben Franklin, you know, Mr. Armstrong said that outside of the Bible, that was the most helpful book he ever read. Well, I heard him say that and remember that he said that, and I said that and bought a copy of it, and after quite a few years, I finally read it. And I use it every year at college teaching students too, because he's got some chapters in there that beat everything you'll read anywhere. He's got one of the best chapters in there on how to work on yourself to become what you ought to be, to add what you lack, to get rid of what shouldn't be there.

   And he had a lot of good ideas. He knew that you have to feel success. You have to feel accomplishment. So he would divide the year into thirds and then he would evaluate himself day by day by day on how he felt he was overcoming. Now, it's kind of funny because he admitted there were certain things he didn't think were very important. He learned the hard way they are a lot more important than he thought they were. He also admitted that some of the things that you list, you think you're doing a lot better than you really are until you start putting it down in black and white on a page.

   And I know back when we had the leadership training class, and we may do this in our leadership breakfast too, we had a sheet we passed out that had students evaluate themselves. You know, how do you think you rate when it comes to brotherliness? How do you think you rate when it comes to leadership? I did an experiment over at Big Sandy. I took the third year speech class. The beginning of the year, I had everybody fill out one of these sheets, and I think there were 17 traits that they evaluated themselves on. Well then we gave heart-to-heart speeches. We gave regular type sermonettes, and then after the semester, right at the end of the semester, I had every other man in the class fill out a sheet on every other man.

   You know, that was really funny. I could never get over the reality that you don't see yourself the way you really are. You just don't. You know, you might think you've got a real good personality. So here you go in, you fill out the personality — 95, boy, that's really good. But you've been around those guys for four and a half months. You've been in class three days a week, 50 minutes each time, and by the end of that semester, they fill out a sheet on you. Personality — 40, 35, 44, you know, it kind of gets to you.

   If I as a teacher had told this guy, "Look, I just want to help you to become a more balanced, strong Christian. You just don't have much personality." You know what he'd say? "So, I wonder why Blackwell didn't like me. Wonder what he's got against me. What did I do against him?" He's gonna say, "I guess we got a personality conflict." He wouldn't admit that I was right telling him the way I saw him, the way he was. But I will guarantee you this: when he had 15 other students rate him 40 on personality, he couldn't blame me. He couldn't just claim that it was a personality conflict. He knew, and he knew that he knew, that he just overrated himself. I mean, that sobered him to the very toenail.

   We may do that in the leadership class, but I think all of us need to do that. You can't win a battle if you are fighting a general enemy. You don't know what the enemy is and where he is, and you can't shadowbox like that. You can't just fight an invisible enemy. What are you overcoming? This past month, you've been overcoming. What's the big thing this past year you've been working on? You've been trying to overcome. You don't even know, you can't even put it down on paper. You're not even aware of what it is. Then I'm sure you hadn't been overcoming it. You couldn't have been if you don't even know what it is.

   So we need to be a lot more specific in this job of overcoming. First, we need to evaluate ourselves like Unleavened Bread says. Now that's a godly type practice. I think God did that back in the book of Genesis. You know, after each day, God evaluated this day. He looked back over and said, "That's good." Each day, so "that's good." And even evaluated his whole week at the end of the week. He said, "That's very good." And if we get that much done in a week, we say that is very good too. But you know, that's the only way you are going to grow. It doesn't just accidentally happen. You are not just going to float into God's kingdom. You are not going to just generalize your way into God's kingdom. You've got to be overcoming.

   Now another good way to work on this overcoming is to take a good look at men. What was it that David was overcoming? Well, his biggest problem was family troubles. Man, he had trouble with Absalom, he had trouble with Amnon, he had trouble with Solomon. He had trouble with his wives. He just had a lot of marriage troubles. Now he didn't have trouble with his heart. He had a good heart.

   What about old King Solomon? Well, he really had a battle with intellect, you know, big head. The wisest man to ever live had more brains than he did character. His head destroyed him. He didn't have enough character to rule his head. His head ran away with him. I've seen a lot of people who had that happen too, but I don't even think those men were fighting vanity. I don't even think they were fighting the big head. I don't think they were fighting intellectualism. I mean, you think men like Dr. Martin or Mr. Fortune, Mr. Hunting or any of the top men in the past that were in the church? During their Unleavened Bread days when they made an analysis of their leaven, they put in their intellectuality, IQ, intelligence, heady, high-minded, braininess? I doubt if they had that in their mid-leaven they're looking for. You think Mr. Dart did? Do you think GTA did? Do you think any of those men did? Well, I don't think they did.

   What about some of the other men you think about? What about old King Saul? What happened to him, you know, why did he quit overcoming? He was doing well, he was doing alright. What happened to him? What was he overlooking that he wasn't working on?

   What about the apostle Peter? Maybe it is more obvious. Maybe he cared about what people thought about him. That was his biggest problem. In fact, see if I can find this one scripture. John chapter 12. That was a problem with a lot of people. It's gonna be a problem with a lot of people in God's church in the future. It's always surprising to me that the apostle Paul would commend one church because they weren't embarrassed about him being a jailbird. But apparently a lot of others in his day were embarrassed about Paul. I said, "Well, say, I hadn't heard or seen your preacher in a while. Where is he?" "He's in jail," you know, they wouldn't say that. They wouldn't admit that. They just kind of duck and embarrass and avoid the question. But Paul commended the church because they weren't embarrassed about his imprisonment. And that may be true to a lot of us in the future.

   But notice here in John 12:42: "Nevertheless among the chief rulers" ??" even like in the third chapter back here where one great Pharisee came to Jesus by night. He didn't want anybody to see him there. He was one of these kind — Nicodemus. "Among the chief rulers, many also believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him" — kind of like Peter, you know. He went down there to Paul and Antioch and he was eating with Gentiles, but boy, when the people from Jerusalem came down, he withdrew himself. He wasn't gonna let them see him eating with those Gentiles. So he cared more about what people thought. And I think there are people who quit coming to church because of that. They're embarrassed about things that have happened. They're kind of embarrassed about things like that. "But even among the chief rulers, many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."

   You don't think that's what caused Peter to deny Christ three times, do you? You don't think that's what caused Peter in so many areas to withdraw because he cared about what people thought? They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. You know, haven't you come to that place in your Christian growth that you don't worry about what other people think? You don't care what other people say. If you're pleasing to God, then why do you worry about any of the rest? But there are those like Peter who cared too much about what other people thought.

   What about Job? What did Job overcome? You know, Job is one of the biggest books in the Bible. Mr. Neff gave a Bible study up at the Dells. I may try to repeat it down here some night. What was the big problem with Job? You've always heard that the thing with Job was self-righteousness. Now, in a way you're right on that, but another way you're not. What was it about Job that almost cost him eternity? We need to know because it could happen to us. I mean, if Job just barely made it in, there are some of us right in this church that have the same overcoming ahead of us that Job had. And if you don't see it, you know, you're in really dangerous ground if you don't see it.

   When I think of people like Abraham and Isaac, I can't think of a whole lot they had to overcome because they seem to be born strong. They seem to inherit strong character to begin with. Well, I kind of admire old Jacob, not in a respectful way, but in a way of someone that really had a lot of battles. I mean, he really had a lot to overcome, and after all, he's our father, even more recently than some of these others. What about Jacob? What was it he had to overcome? What were his big list of unleavening that he put down on his list during Unleavened Bread? Well, he was stubborn and hard-headed. He was kind of the kind that, you know, get what you want, even if you do have to kind of shade little things to get it. In other words, he wasn't exactly that just and upright and honest — a little bit on the crooked side. But he was going to get what he went after.

   So when you think about overcoming, I think that's why God puts a lot of these stories of people in the Bible — to show you what they had to overcome. So you wouldn't get discouraged thinking, "Oh, I'm hopeless. No chance for me." I mean, if there was a chance for the apostle Paul, if there's a chance for a man like David, if there's a chance for all these men we read about in the Bible, then none of us can say there's no chance for us.

   Let's look at a few of the things that are listed in some of the areas in II Peter chapter 2. II Peter 2:19: "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." Now what is the meaning there? Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. Well, he explains a little better in the next verses. "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" — in other words, you can come out of the world, you can withdraw yourself from the system and be converted, be enlightened, go through repentance, be baptized, have God's Spirit. You can be an overcomer for a while, escaping the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But watch out, because then you can again get entangled therein and get overcome by what you had overcome in the past. So you can be overcome by the pollution of the world. You can be entangled again by the pollutions of the world that you've overcome in the past.

   Why? He says, "The latter end is worse with them than the beginning." So those of us who are converted, you know, our day of salvation is at stake. We'd have been better off never having been converted than to be converted and not be an overcomer. "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." So if after you've escaped the pollution of the world, if after you've overcome, then you turn right around and forsake the holy commandment, "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

   Now maybe a lot of us look back in our lives and we can see when we first were called, first converted and baptized and had God's Spirit. Boy, we'd come out of the world and we were studying and praying and fasting, and we were in everything the church had, and we were all busy in the church and active with each other, and what's happened since then? Have we turned back to the vomit? Have we turned back to wallowing in the mire? Gone back to the materialism, gone back to the pleasures, gone back to the everyday pursuits?

   You know, that's the danger Jesus said about the cares of the world choke the word and it becomes unprofitable, unfruitful. And I think most of us need to look back and see if we've gone downhill since we've been converted. Are we overcoming or losing ground? Are we going ahead or going backwards? Well, if we've really been converted, it's serious. Look how God likens the past we've come out of — vomit. The pig wallowing in the mire. I never can get over the stench of the ground when you raise pigs on it. You know, you can drive by there and there may have not been any pigs on that ground for seven years — stink terrible, horrible, filthy thing. That is right in the ground, right in the soil, the land, the ground itself polluted. Well, you know, God likens going back into the old world's ways to the pig turning back to that wallowing and the dog turning back to its own vomit again. But is that happening to a lot of us, and we're not even aware of it? When you look back and examine the years since you've been called and converted and had God's Spirit, are you going forward or backward? I mean, are you overcoming or are you being overcome? Well, that's real serious.

   Notice in Romans chapter 12. Romans 12:21, none of us are standing still. You know, you're either going forward or backward. You don't stand still. Romans 12:21, he says, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Don't be overcome of evil but overcome evil. So you're either going ahead, making progress, developing, you're either being an overcomer or else you're being overcome. One of the two. You can only weigh what's going on in your life in the past months and years and figure that out, know that one way or the other.

   Now coming back to the example that Ben Franklin uses in his autobiography, I suggest that all of us need to design us a plan similar to this for overcoming. You know, it's frustrating to me a lot of times to have someone who's had a long-standing marriage problem. They'll call me up and they'll say, "We'd like to have some counsel," and somehow they feel like I'm going to come up with some magic scriptures they've never heard before or that I'm going to have a magic solution or I can just kind of wave a wand and all of a sudden their marriage problems just disappear. And I don't have any. I don't have any.

   When I talk to someone about a marriage problem, first thing I do is find out what their plan is for working on their marriage problem. Well, now let's see, what are you doing about this problem? You admit there is a problem. You are aware of the problem. You know it's there. What are you doing about it?

   OK, there are several things I suggest that people do. One of them is hidden away in a word in the Bible that maybe we've never read — a word called supplication. Now if you check the word supplication in a Lexicon, which gives you the more thorough Greek meaning of the word, then you'll find out the word supplication means regular beseeching God about a particular matter. In other words, what it means is you're praying 10 or 15 minutes every day about the one problem, not about the work, not about the world, not about everything else under the sun. When you're supplicating, you're putting a magnifying glass or a microscope or a telescope on one thing.

   And I remember before I ever even run into the meaning of the word, one of the ministers who wasn't able to be married, who was several years older than I was, was having to live the rest of his life without the opportunity to be married. And he was a man that was a real man with a lot of drive, and he every day, at a certain time every day, he would be down on his knees praying about this one problem. He was asking God to help him control himself that day, to help him control his thoughts, to help him to have the character to turn his eyes the other way when temptation would come. Every day for 10 or 15 minutes in the morning before he'd even go out into the world, he'd pray and ask God for help for that one problem.

   Now when you mix that with fasting, and I've talked to people about marriage problems, I just say, "Well, are you fasting one day a week about it? Are you supplicating God every day 10 or 15 minutes about it?" Then you're not doing what you can do about it yet. You've got to do what you can do about it. You know, there's a scripture that says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

   Now there's one other thing I usually suggest somebody like that does. And this applies for any overcoming battles that you're fighting. No matter what the problem is you're having, you have to overcome it the same ways. The third thing I suggest somebody does is to take a notebook and go all the way through the Bible and make a notebook of that particular problem. Now I've got a — I had a sheet before I moved the last time where I jotted down all the admonitions in the Bible that a husband should follow. Because I wanted to be sure that I was living up to God's qualifications or standards as a husband.

   So unless you've done that — now, if you have marriage problems, you have financial problems, if you have alcohol problems, if you have temper problems. You know, one young guy I talked to over in East Texas, he was the kind of a person that had an explosive nature. And when I talked to him, I was surprised that nobody had ever made him realize you could do anything about the way you were. You know, the way he'd been told — and he wasn't in the church — the way he'd been told was that you are the way you are. Learn to accept yourself for what you are. Stretch out and let the head shrinker tell you why you are the way you are, but they can't tell you what to do about what the way you are.

   You know, it's kind of like this Dale Carnegie speech course. One of the first things he says in that is you can't change your voice. Your voice is a matter of heredity. You're stuck with it. Forget about it. Learn to live with it. Just, it's going to be the way it is, and there's not a thing you can do about it. Now that's totally not true.

   But I talked to this guy and said, "Look, let me just make you a list of scriptures." So I took my Concordance and I went through the Bible and I showed him all these scriptures. "There's more hope for a fool than someone who's given to wrath. You see a man who's quick-tempered? There's more hope for a fool than for him." But you know, when I began to show him that you can change the way you are, you can control the way you are, you can do something about the way you are. You don't have to just learn to accept yourself, therefore force everybody else to accept you — somebody that blows your top and just is dangerous and violent, might kill somebody, but that's just the way you are. Just learn to live with it. I don't learn to live with anybody like that. I stay far away from anybody like that.

   But you know, unless you are zeroing in on your problem and working on it like this, you're not really trying to overcome. You're not really doing your part. Now, in the Autobiography of Ben Franklin, he takes traits like thrift, cleanliness, being on time, drive. How do you develop drive? I remember a minister that came out to work with us one time, and we were sitting on a Friday night, I think, talking. He said, "Well, you know, I wish I had drive. I wish I could get up and be a dynamo, and I wish I could," and he — I wish and I wish and I wish. And I said, "Well, that's probably why you never have. All you've done is wish, wish, wish, wish. That didn't get you anywhere." And if you want to develop drive, there are ways to develop drive. Why don't you go to work on developing drive instead of just wishing? You don't ever get it that way. It takes work. It doesn't just come by nature.

   But there are a lot of good traits that Ben Franklin lists in that Autobiography. Some of them — one of them was organization. When he was younger, he had such a good memory he didn't need organization. He could always remember where everything was, so he took that one for granted. He never did put that on his list and work on it 17 weeks. And as he got older, he wished he had, because as his memory began to leave, so did his awareness of where everything was, and he was lost because everything was disorganized and he never worried about organization. So you can't take for granted any weakness like that.

   Now, what I suggest we all do, it is just like God's holy days point out — make a list of what we're working on. Now in a big summary way, you might summarize yourself as Mr. Armstrong has, Rod Meredith did, in four ways, you know: character, personality, the mental, and the physical. You know, who wants to get the reputation of being that great athletic football tackle who's dumber than a frog? You know, nobody likes that image. That's terrible. But we've got the image of athletes being dumb — big dumb fullback, big dumb tackle, big dumb athlete. So if your strength is physical, that is really a bad one, isn't it? That's really a shallow one, that's really an empty one.

   But what if you don't have any physical health, any physical strength, any physical vigor? What if you're the kind that says, "Oh, exercise is worthless. There's no benefit in walking or jogging or tennis or exercise," and so you'd have nothing to do with exercise at all. And how much brain can you have? You can't have a very balanced brain. You can't have a very vigorous brain. You can't have a very strong, alert, healthy brain if you totally ignore the physical.

   But you know, some people I know of, I'd have to say by far character and personality are way ahead of those two. I remember one year at college, they posted our grades on a bulletin board. Well, that was embarrassing, you know, to have your grades posted right out in the hall of administration as you come in the front door on the bulletin board there, especially if the top two were girls, which they were. The one was an Okie and the other one was somewhere in the Middle West. Well, that really put the pride on some of us. But you know, both of those girls later went out of the church. Because they had more brain than they did character. Their heads ran away with the rest of them, and that doesn't do you any good.

   But all of us should be aware of which one of those we are, you know. What does it hurt you if you don't have personality? How many of us are the strong silent type? You know, how far can you go being the strong silent type? Well, I'd rather be that way than the gay blade, you know. How about if you got lots of personality but not much character? Well, you know, you can stand around and be friendly and happy and smile and be pretty and all that, but you never can make yourself do what you ought to do. You never can really develop in ways of character. I'd rather have character any day than personality.

   I remember I had a roommate my first year, Raymond McNair. He dumbfounded me. I couldn't believe him. You know, whatever you're supposed to do, he'd do, like one of my brothers, the hillbilly up in Arkansas. You know, anytime he finds out something serious, he says, "Right then?" Well, I think about it and plan on it and intend to and don't. So you know, it always frustrated me having a roommate that just automatically, he'd go to church and hear what you're supposed to do and he's doing it. I heard the same thing. I was going to do it and planning on doing it and I should do it. Sooner or later I would do it, maybe. But you know the frustration of being around someone that's strong character.

   What about people that are just great personalities? Live wire, sparkle, smile, friendly, happy, warm. But you know how many of them lead other people astray? How many of them stumble and fall themselves? Character is a lot more important than personality. But that might be a place to start, you know, which one of those are your strengths and which one of those are your weaknesses.

   Now, here's one danger, one pitfall. I told John Hill one time I appreciated the sermon he gave more than any sermon I'd heard up until then. He gave a sermon one time and he said, "Look, the world has a philosophy in these self-help books, these lift yourself up by your own bootstraps books, and that's this: Analyze yourself and find out what your weaknesses are. And know and use and realize your strength." Now here comes the philosophy: "Try to make your weaknesses your strength, and ignore and forget about your strengths because they are — they're your strength, so let them alone, leave them go." And you know, he said, "Now let me tell you, that's a satanic philosophy. That's gonna frustrate you, that's going to discourage you. You're never gonna be able to do that. You can't change yourself that much."

   He said, "Instead of that, use your strength. Take advantage of your strength." Not meaning that in the wrong way. "Work on your weakness. But don't let working on your weaknesses keep you from using your strengths." You know, what if Peter had tried that lift yourself up by your own bootstraps philosophy, and he said, "All right, I'm not going to use my strengths. I'm just going to work on my weaknesses." Well, that'd be ridiculous. Peter kept using his strength, also at the time he was working on his weaknesses.

   So when you're overcoming, it doesn't mean you're to spend all your time thinking about what's wrong with you and what you don't like about yourself and the way you'd like to change to be. You can't just do that without using your strengths and doing all you can do with your abilities and your talents. But we all need to know what we're working on overcoming. Maybe it's temperament. Maybe it's particular moral weakness.

   You might notice in certain parts of the Bible there are listings of things that are things you're battling or overcoming. Notice Matthew 15. Matthew 15, Jesus says (Matthew 15:19), "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man. But to eat with ceremonially unclean hands, that doesn't defile a man." Now most of those we've already put in our background, being converted, having God's Spirit, having overcome — we put out murder, adultery, fornication, theft. But what about evil thoughts? What about blasphemy? What about false witness?

   There are many places that list things like that. In Galatians 5 where it lists the works of the flesh. Galatians 5, verses 19, 20, and 21, and you may get some of the list of things you're striving to overcome out of these. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest" — they're going to be seen. They're apparent. They can't be covered over — "which are adultery, fornication" — most places you'll find this physical drive is always one of the biggest battles anybody has, so it lists adultery and fornication. "Uncleanness" — that just means impurity. That's a real general one. Are you pure-minded? Are you pure in deeds? Impurity.

   Then what about "lasciviousness"? You know what that means? You just have an excusing attitude. You justify wrongs in you. You license weaknesses and errors. You learn to live with them. You learn to accept them. You don't do anything about them. "Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance" — is that you? Find that in your nature sometimes you just vary with anybody else. If they say black, you'll say white automatically. If they say yes, you'll say no. You're just at odds. The variance is just different. You just — you find that in your nature sometimes. "Emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies" — all those are works of the flesh. All of those are flesh you're supposed to be overcoming. You're to be replacing it with what's listed below, the fruit of the Spirit.

   In fact, this is a good self-evaluation chapter. You know, why don't you sometimes sit down with a notebook and write down I Corinthians 13 with your name in it? "Bill Smith envies not, vaunteth not himself, seeketh not his own." You know, put your name in where it says love. Same way here in Galatians. "Now the works of Bill Smith are manifest." Oh, you know, that makes it kind of personal. "The fruit of God's Spirit in Bill Smith: love, joy, peace, longsuffering" — you know, you're building one and getting rid of the other. You're overcoming one by developing the other. So this chapter is especially good to do that. It lists one and the other back to back.

   "Emulations" — look up those words and find out what they mean. "Wrath, strife, seditions." You know, the word sedition just means standing apart. Opinionated, somebody that's strong in their own ideas, whether it's fact or not or true or not. "Heresies" — now that's someone that's spreading error, false teaching. "Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings" — now what's revellings mean? Are any of us guilty of that? We're just wanting to just party all the time, wanting to just satiate the senses and eat, drink and be merry, and that's the attitude talked about there — "and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past" — notice — "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

   If we have those things in our nature, we're not overcoming, we're not heading into God's kingdom. We're heading into the lake of fire that's going to burn us up, then we'll cease to exist forever. So don't get the complacency that just because you've been in the church so long and you come to church regularly and you come and study, you've got to be overcoming. Because that's a mighty blunt statement. They that are doing these things, they who are still living in these ways, practicing such things are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

   Now, there are a few other chapters that list these things together this way. Notice I Corinthians chapter 6. I Corinthians 6:9: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" Even if they meant well, even if they had a good attitude, even if they tried. You know, we've heard the old saying hell's paved with good intentions. So that isn't what's going to get it. Don't you know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? "Be not deceived" — don't kid yourself. Don't kid everybody else. Don't kid anybody. There is no deception. Fornicators aren't going to inherit the kingdom of God, idolaters aren't, adulterers aren't.

   I think there are people kidding themselves there. You know, there are people who've latched on to the church's change of doctrine about divorce and remarriage, and they try to decide their own case whether they're married or not. Now let me ask you this: can you marry yourself? Can you bind yourself? Can you just stand up and go through a ceremony and bind yourself in marriage? Well, you can't loose yourself either then. You know, if you're going to call on the minister to bind you in a marriage, then you've got to have the minister loose you too. But there are people who think they're in God's church, who think they're headed toward God's kingdom, who are going to be left out all of a sudden because God's gonna say, "Hey, no, no, y'all are living in adultery. You can't — you're not going into God's kingdom. Why don't you know? Be not deceived. Adulterers aren't going to inherit the kingdom of God."

   "Nor effeminate" — oh, no matter how much you make light of homosexuality and queers, no matter how much we grieve over someone who's dead who practiced something like that, no matter how good they might be in every other way. No effeminate, no abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Don't kid yourself, don't kid anybody. God has standards and they're not let down and they're not changed. No, no effeminate are going to inherit God's kingdom. No abusers of themselves with mankind. No thieves, no covetous, no drunkards, no revilers, no extortioners. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Don't kid yourself. Don't kid anybody else. And he starts off, "Don't you know that?" Which is kind of a striking way to start off.

   I hope a lot of us will be waging a lot more specific battle so you can know what you're striving to overcome and you've got a plan of going about it. You are supplicating God. You're fasting regularly about a problem you've got to overcome. You're putting together all the scriptures on these problems. Then you're going to be working on it and doing something about it.

   You know, one little phrase I put on the board down at the college in Big Sandy was kind of striking, I guess, to the students. I put down two statements. One statement says "I can." One statement says "I cannot." "I cannot do anything." The other statement says "I can do all things." That's kind of striking because those are two opposite scriptures. And you know, if I look back over the years I've been in the church, I think that's the key that people have to finally come to. How many years you battle trying to do things yourself, trying to do things on your own, striving to succeed or overcome without the tools God gives.

   Now the key on these two is the difference. Let's look at the one that says "I can of mine own self do nothing." John 5:30. If you're not overcoming, that may be the reason you're not overcoming — because you're trying it on your own. You set your will and you bear down and you try, and you're gonna fail and get frustrated and disappointed and discouraged. "I can do nothing." That's what the statement says, verse 30, "I can do nothing." Of course, the key is in the middle — "of mine own self."

   Now, the one that says "I can do all things" is back in Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. And if you haven't learned this yet, you're destined to learn it between now and the time you start overcoming and headed into God's kingdom. Philippians 4:13 says just the opposite: "I can do all things." But the key is in the middle — "through Christ who strengthens me."

   Now if Jesus is the one who says, "I can of mine own self do nothing," then you know it's silly for us to be trying it. And yet if Paul is the one who said "I can do all things," because he learned the key, and that is through Christ who strengthens me. And that's really the key of Mr. Armstrong's success. You know, back in Zechariah when it's talking about Zerubbabel, it talks about "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit." That's really dead key.

   Well, I hope all of us can get down to brass tacks about being aware of what we're working on. Now maybe what you have to work on is spiritual irregularity. You don't study regularly, you don't pray regularly, you don't fast regularly. Maybe that's the place to begin. Maybe some obvious marriage problems, maybe some obvious health problems, or maybe with some obvious your brain runs away from your character and you don't rule yourself. Maybe with some of it's just too much brain and not enough brawn, or maybe it's too much personality and not enough character.

   But you know, we need to be aware of what specifically we're vigorously working on and go about it systematically. And I say if it's whether it's marriage or a sex problem or whatever it is, follow this example that I mentioned.

   I remember one lady one time whose husband took off and left her, and she was about to go crazy. She just couldn't think, couldn't concentrate. When she'd get down on her knees, she'd worry. She just couldn't, and she's becoming a nervous wreck, and she'd had a nervous breakdown. And she — I was talking with her and I said, "Well, you know what I'd do if I were you? I would take the Bible and get down on my knees and just read it out loud. Turn to all those prayers you can find and read them out loud. Let those be your prayers. That'll keep your mind captive. They won't let you worry and your mind wander. And you know, another thing I'd do — I'd take notebook paper and I just write out books of the Bible. Because when you're writing out, your mind is on what you're writing, or you couldn't write it. You bring your mind into captivity and soundness and stability."

   And you know, later on she mentioned that she was sure that was the only thing that saved her sanity. That she did that vigorously. She'd get down on her knees and read the Bible out loud as her prayers, and she'd just write out book after book after book and then throw them in the trash because they accomplished their purpose. But you know, her husband's back with her later and got everything straightened out, and they're real pillars in one of the churches now.

   I hope all of us can really be working at overcoming and don't kid ourselves by just having a good attitude or trying or just, you know, being happy losers or something. Well, that ain't gonna be much solace whenever you miss out on being in God's kingdom. So let's work on being overcomers.