Everyday Church
Victory Through Christ
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. What's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're having a great day in the Lord and just pray for you today. And I just hope that as you go throughout the day that man used to experience a great, just an abundance of God's blessings in your life. And yeah, he sure has been good to us, hey, man. And so as always, I'd love to hear from you if throughout the day or whenever you'd have a question, be sure to email me at everydaychurchabc@gmail.com. It's a great way for us to communicate. You can like and share this, that helps out. Also leave it in a comment. Just leave a comment on the podcast. And if it's a blessing to you, be sure to share it. We're in first John five today. And just, you know, one thing about John, John really emphasizes, you know, the light, God be in the light and God be in love. And so when you get to the second half of first John, it's all about love. And, you know, it starts there in first John chapter three for God commended this love toward us. And then from that, you just see it kind of growing in the conversation. So when we get to chapter five, he says, "Whosoever believe it that Jesus is the Christ "is born of God, and everyone that loveth him, "that be yet loveth him also that has begotten of him. "By this we know that we love the children of God, "when we love God and keep his commandments." So how do I know I love somebody? I know this because I love God. And I know this, I know that I love God. It's evidenced through my obedience to his word and to his Holy Spirit. And so verse three, he says this, "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments." And I love the phrase here at the end. He expounds on that. And he says, "And his commandments are not grievous. "His commandments are not burdensome. "They're not a burden to us. "Because he has enabled us to be obedient to him." We're not trying to fulfill something so that we can have God's work accomplished in our life. We're obedient to his commandments and obedient to his word because of what he's already accomplished in our life. And we've just gone over that and over that and over that. It's not what we do for God, but it's who we are with God. And so what a great reminder is that God is not trying to burden us down. Being a believer is not a burden. Remember Jesus said, "Come unto me all the labor "and our heavy laden and I will give you rest. "Come and learn of me. "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And so the Lord is not trying to burden us down. You know, I remember, man, I remember growing up. Man, I hear people talking about me and say, and I'm gonna tell you, it was the most miserable thing that you could imagine. And to this day, I can get around people that I grew up with and the church that I grew up with. And man, it's like they're dragging. You know, it's like they're barely trying to make it or something, you know, and they'll even say things like that. And you know, the Lord has given us, there's a cross to bear, but I think that we can do that with joy. I think women can be obedient to Christ with joy. The walk of Christ is not meant to be without joy in Christ. In fact, I think we reminded that the joy of the Lord is our strength. And so it's not burdensome. So we move on to verse four, and he says, "Whatsoever is born of God over cometh the world. "Whatsoever is born of God over cometh the world." So he ties us into his commandments. His commandments are not outgreatheous. They're not meant to stall us out in our Christian walk. Don't quit, right? He's writing to people, telling them, this is how you know you're a believer. And don't quit, persevere, continue on in the faith. And that which is born of God over cometh the world. And this is the victory that over cometh the world. Even our faith. Think about this for a moment. If there's victory, there must be a what? There must be a battle. There must be a test. There must be a trial, something there that if there's going to be a victorious outcome, there must have been a challenge that stood in our way, an obstacle that stood in our faith, in our way. And the way that we overcome that, he says, is through our faith. And you remember what John's already said, you know, when he talked earlier about love not the world, neither the things that are in the world for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, though that's the world. And so now John is saying that the believer that is born of God that's been born again, you can overcome the world. And here's how you overcome the world by faith, by faith, by believing in Jesus, right? We've quoted many times what the disciples ask in John. What do we do to work the works of righteousness? Believe on me. It's what Jesus said. This is the work of righteousness that you believe on me. Faith, faith in him is the, that's where we get our victory from. It's not in the reality of our circumstances getting better. It's not when, you know, man, when the trial comes, that's when I can finally have joy and I'll finally walk in victory. No, no, my friend, listen, victory is by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the victory that overcometh the world. What is he talking about? Our faith in Jesus, our faith in the work of God. And so, you know, whatever you may be struggling with today, you may really be struggling with some things and you may feel like, man, I'm losing the battle. I'm not winning, there's no victory in this. Friend, it's not, it's not in what you're accomplishing. Think about that. It's not in what you're accomplishing. I can't accomplish anything that makes me more victorious. Victory comes by faith in Jesus. Faith in Christ that produces good works. Faith in Christ that produces obedience in my life and not I that live, but Christ that lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh. Paul said, I live by the faith of the son of God who died and gave his life for me. And so, what a great promise that we can have victory in Christ through faith. And so, I love how throughout the scriptures, you know, I think about David when David went to fight Goliath and, you know, Goliath comes to him and he's got all the weapons. He's a whole lot bigger than David is. And he's just, he's just going to task with him, running his mouth. And David says, he says, David tells him, say, hey, you come to me with a sword and a spear. He said, I come to you in the name of the Lord. And the last thing David says is the battle is the Lord's. Man, I love that phrase there. Minions said that when they went into battle, the battle is the Lord's. And because the battle is the Lord's, we can, we have victory. Remember, our victory was secured on the cross. Our victory was secured on the cross. When Jesus said, it is finished, victory was given to the believer. And so you and I may not have experienced complete victory. Maybe, maybe there's a, a knee-only shirt going through. Maybe there's a trial you're going through in a relationship or something like that. Maybe there's a senior struggling with. Friend, I want to encourage you today, victory over the world, victory over the flesh, victory over self. Listen, it comes through faith in Jesus. And then he says, verse five, who is he that overcome at the world? But he that believe it, that Jesus is the Son of God. He's the one that overcomes the world. He that has put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and who's no longer dead and trespasses and sin. And no longer walking according to the course of this world. But by grace has been saved and is now the workmanship of God created under good works. And you could just go on and on when you talk about what God's work is and what it means in our life. And so as you go throughout the day today, be encouraged in the victory that Christ has given you. Victory comes through Jesus. Victory comes through faith in Christ. And victory has been given to us in Christ alone. I'm praying for you today. And I just, I pray that God will help you whatever it is you're going through. I love the Psalm. He's the glory and the lifter up of my head. Man, I love that. That's a great verse in the Bible. Sometimes we need to be reminded that victory comes through faith in Jesus. It's not something I can accomplish. It's not something I can hope to secure for myself. It's me turning to the Lord in those dark moments, those hard moments and say, Lord, I don't feel it. I don't feel victorious. I don't see victory. Sometimes I think we're afraid to go to God and just say how we feel. Or I feel like I'm losing. I feel like I've failed. I feel like I've done it before. Lord, I feel like I'm a failure, right? And so we play games and stuff at our house and we cut up with each other and stuff. When we lose, we like to give each other a hard time. But Nate's quick to say, if you lose a game, he'll say, you're the loser. You're the loser. And we laugh and cut up like that. But sometimes we get to fill in that way. Sometimes we feel like we missed a step. We've made a wrong turn. And the devil will convince us that there's no victory for us. That's when you have to acknowledge the emotions, acknowledge the hurt, acknowledge the confusion. And maybe you made a mistake, you gotta acknowledge that. But go into God's word and say, no, no, no, victory is by faith in Jesus because God's word has said it. Hold onto that, my friend. Put your faith in that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you so much for anyone and everyone that would listen to this today. And may it be an encouragement to them and to help Father, we pray. And Father, I'm thankful that we have victory in you. Father, I'm thankful that it's not by my nor by power, but it's by your spirit and Father, that we can overcome even this world. You said, we love you, we thank you, and ask that you would be with us throughout the day and your precious name, we pray. Amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)