Sermon: Sweet Victory
Scripture: Romans 8:30-39
ICE BREAKER: What was your the greatest victory you achieved as a child?
REVIEW:
This week, we looked at how to live a victorious life in Christ!
Everyone loves to win - and a victory is especially sweet when it comes through trial and suffering! However, it often feels like life has us down more often than not. Victories in our daily life can feel like a distant hope, something we can imagine but rarely experience.
This should not be the case for followers of Jesus. We have been bought at a price, filled with the Holy Spirit, and promised eternal life! This Sunday we looked at three reasons believers give up on victorious living and found the solutions to those mindsets in Romans chapter 8.
The first reason believers don't pursue victory is they simply don't feel they are qualified for spiritual "wins." Too many believers have convinced themselves that a victorious spiritual life is for the "Special Christians." Achieving spiritual success is for the people who look like they have their life together!
In Romans 8 it says that ALL God's children have been CALLED by Jesus. Then it asks a question that should fill our hearts and minds:
"If God is for us, who is against us?"
While this is a rhetorical question, the answer often is - US! We are our own worst enemies! We disqualify ourselves when Jesus went to the cross to prove that we are invited in to the victorious life!
The second thing that derails victorious living is suffering. When those without Christ suffer, it can feel like the whole universe is against them! However, for believers, we have the opportunity to see EVEN SUFFERING as a gift that leads us closer to Jesus.
The Christians that Paul is writing to in Romans 8 were under severe persecution - some even being put to death for their faith. However, Paul doesn't tell them to fall into despair and ruin. Instead, he encourages them by reminding that NOTHING can separate them from God's love - not even death itself!
Armed with that truth, we can handle suffering in a way that leads to our growth, not our demise!
Last, people will opt out of the victorious life because they have a wrong view of their identity. For those believers, Paul says:
"...in all things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Him who loved us."
More than conquerors! You were made to live a powerful, purposeful life! Everything you need to live that life is inside of you if you have believed in Jesus!
APPLY:
We spend a lot of our time and energy trying to figure out how to experience Victorious Moments. What Romans 8 teaches us is key to flipping the script on the world's definition of success:
VICTORY IS NOT A MOMENT
VICTORY IS A PERSON - AND HIS NAME IS JESUS!
WE are called, not because we have earned it - because Jesus earned it for us! WE can suffer well because Jesus has gone before us and showed us how to suffer well AND is with us today in our challenges
And we are Capable - MORE than conquerors, because of the God who lives in us - not our strengths!
Victory is a PERSON! Which means you can live a victorious life NO MATTER your circumstance! You just have to wake up every day and choose to walk with Him!
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S APPLICATION QUESTION:
What is one way you can begin to live a VICTORIOUS life this week?
PRAY:
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any of the areas above that are keeping you from victory. Center yourself on the truth of who Jesus is and what he offers your life!
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