Sermon Central
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This Is How We Overcome
Contributed by Rodney Burton on Jan 27, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: God tells us in Revelation how we overcome, but it is still up to us to live it out.
“THIS IS HOW WE OVERCOME”
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
“An overcomer is one who, by God’s grace received through faith in Christ, has experienced the new birth and remains constant in victory over sin, the world and Satan. Surrounded by great opposition and rebellion, overcomers refuse to conform to the world and to any ungodliness within the visible church. They hear and respond to what the Spirit says to the churches, remain faithful to Christ to the very end and accept only God’s standard revealed in his holy Word. Note that we either overcome sin, the world and Satan, or we are overcome by them and are ultimately thrown into the lake of fire. There is no intermediate group” (FLSB).
1. WE OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
--Too much of the church has forsaken the blood in search of a more “appealing” gospel
--From Genesis through Revelation runs a trail of blood that is necessary to us overcoming
--The blood of Christ is the most powerful substance in the history of the world; but it is only beneficial to you and me if we apply it to our lives.
*14 Scriptural blessings of the blood of Christ
1. Atonement for the soul (Rom 5:11)
2. Remission of sins (Heb 9:22)
3. Life and peace (Col 1:20)
4. Redemption (Eph 1:7)
5. Justification (Rom 5:9)
6. Made nigh (Eph 2:13)
7. Pure conscience (Heb 9:14)
8. Cleansing from sin (1 Jn 1:7)
9. Sanctification (Heb 10:10-14)
10. New covenant (Mt 26:28)
11. New birth (1 Pet 1:18-23)
12. Overcoming power (Rev 12:11)
13. Church membership (Acts 20:28)
14. Salvation (Heb 9:15)
2. WE OVERCOME BY THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONY
--Don’t despise your own testimony!!
--Each test that God brings us through is another testimony to His power and work in our lives
--What God has done for you should serve as a constant reminder of His goodness as well as a faith builder for what He can do in your current situation
--The greatest victory God ever provided for us was our personal salvation. Nothing we ever face will be as important or as difficult as that victory . . ., so why don’t we trust Him more?
*The biggest reason many are overcome rather than overcoming is that they quickly forget what God has done and can do!
**Psalm 78:9-11,40-43 (Psalm of warning, instruction, and teaching)
--This generation of Israelites who had seen God’s power displayed time and again were guilty of forgetting God and as a result they didn’t receive their inheritance
--An overcomer sees his/her current test as an opportunity for God’s power to produce another testimony (Psalm 77)
**WHENEVER THINGS WOULD GET DIFFICULT, ISRAEL WOULD QUICKLY FORGET GOD AND LONG FOR EGYPT. A SURE SIGN OF NOT BEING AN OVERCOMER IS WHEN YOU ELEVATE YOUR FORMER BONDAGE OVER YOUR CURRENT SITUATION
3. WE OVERCOME WHEN WE NO LONGER LOVE OUR LIVES MORE THAN WE LOVE OUR LORD
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Cassie Bernall was an overcomer that fateful April morning in 1999 at Columbine High School—her victory came days before when she wrote in her journal
Now I have given up on everything else—I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought Him back to life again, and to find out what it really means to suffer and to die with Him.
The beauty is this: An overcomer is willing to die for the One who raises the dead
**1 Corinthians 15:30-32 & 2 Corinthians 1:8-11**
*When a person is no longer concerned with his/her life and whether he/she lives or dies, he/she is a victorious overcomer!
“True believers, living in the center of God’s will, need not fear death. They know that God has a purpose for their living and that death, when it comes, is simply the end of their earthly mission and the beginning of a greater life with Christ” (FLSB).
