Just Like Jesus, Part 4: His Victory

I just wanted to wrap up.

This is funny.

I started a series I think it was last July.

It was a four-part series, so I'm going to finish it tonight.

Y'all remember way back in July, this is my series and it was good.

I'm going to remind y'all because I like it.

You know, we're the body of Christ.

This is called the Just Like Jesus series.

The Just Like Jesus series and we were learning about, since we're the body of Christ, we are supposed to follow the Ark of His life, and the Ark of the body of Christ is going to do what Jesus did on the earth.

And so he started as a child.

He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

And we grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

We learned about that, and so our life will match our growth, will match his growth.

And then the second one was our mission will match his mission.

He came to seek and save that which was lost, and the church is going to mimic that mission.

We are seeking and saving the law.

Bring salvation to people, hallelujah, that's our mission.

And then his passion will be our passion, and that passion is a double meaning there, of course, his zeal, his ardor for the things of God.

That's our zeal, that's our ardor, our excitement for the things of God, for the people of God, for the work of God.

But also that word passion means suffering death on the cross.

I'm telling you, it's up to us to die daily to the things that are own will, that are flesh desires, and then we crucified.

We're crucified with Christ, but not but.

And yet we live.

And it's not, it's not we that live as Christ that lives in us, that we give ourselves to him, to his mission, to him, to his, because of love for him.

And the suffering that we do is not redemptive.

He suffered once and he paid all of the price for our sin.

We don't have to suffer to get into heaven anymore.

We don't have to suffer sickness and disease and and lack and poverty and things that he paid for with his own blood.

We don't have to suffer those things.

That's not the suffering, but we do suffer.

Persecution.

We do suffer, and we are suffering in this life is not to gain our own redemption but to bring him glory, to win the battle of glory.

And so we, we aren't.

We follow that arc, but y'all know we, we.

Jesus didn't stay on the cross, did he?

So what's tonight going to be Our?

His victory is our victory, his victory is our victory, and so if we're just like Jesus, we're going to have the victory that he had, we're going to carry that forth.

So our foundation scriptures through this whole series has been out of first John four, uh, verse 17.

Love has been perfected among us.

In this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment is the day of judgment, it's coming.

Judgment just means separation, and we can see that right now.

God is separating the wheat from the chaff.

He is separating what is good from that which is evil, and we are nowhere in my lifetime has it been more apparent that which is good and that which is evil, and there's a separation.

And so it is the day of judgment and we have boldness right now because of his love.

And it says because, as he is, so are we in this world.

Jesus is not in this world anymore.

He has ascended to the throne, to the fatherer, where he is seated with him in heavenly places, and he is in heaven, but he's got you on the earth and we are going to be just like him.

We are his representatives, his ambassadors here on the earth.

And then in Ephesians five it says in verse one therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and we use that example about little kids, how they want to be just like and how it's a.

So many times it's a compliment.

So many times I look at Ben and I say, dear Lord, he's just like his dad, he is.

We have made another one.

He is just like and.

But but as he is, so are we in this world.

And so be imitators of God as your children.

We don't have to imitate our heaven, our earthly father.

We can imitate our heavenly father and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us and offering it a sacrifice to God for a sweet, smelling aroma.

So both of these scriptures we're talking about imitating God and it also talks about love.

And so tonight's scripture is out of Romans 837.

You know we're talking about Jesus.

His victory is our victory.

And Romans 837 it says yet in all these things we are more than conquerors.

Through him who loved us, his love is alive in us and it makes us more than conquerors.

So when I got to meditate y'all know I grew up in church my daddy got saved and when I was seven years old and we, our whole life changed.

He quit drinking, we stopped going to the Catholic church, where I would fall asleep on the pew, and we started going to a church that had really long services.

They were like two hours long and short.

Little people would dance around on the stage and say, no, you don't double.

And it was jarring really.

I did not know how to handle that at seven.

But, praise God, I began to because Pastor John Hostine and Dodio Steen were my pastors at Lakewood church and I learned.

But I grew up in the word of faith and I got to learn about.

This is just when this idea about being more than a conqueror was hitting the body of Christ.

And I remember the man who taught on it, terry Mise.

He's still preaching an A, and so I actually looked up his podcast this morning because he was a friend of our family the one time.

Good man, sweet man, and so, anyway, more than conquerors, so more than a conqueror.

So he got to study it and that idea what is more than a conqueror?

He got to thinking about all the conquerors in the Bible.

You know, you got David, he conquered Goliath and you got Daniel, and you got, and you got conquerors.

Man and we could all.

He was trying to figure out what we?

What was he going to put on this book cover?

You know what picture was he going to have?

And he's like man, they're just, they're just, they're conquerors.

But who's more than a conqueror?

And he got this idea about a prize fighter, about a you know a boxer.

And he goes in.

He has to prepare himself, he goes through, and he goes through 10 rounds, a tough, heavy, blow by blow, and he, at the end, I mean he is the victor, he is the champion.

They hold his bloody arm up in the sky, but his, his eyes are swelled shut, he's limping around, but he is the champion.

And so he, he walks off that stage.

He's the champion.

They write him that check backstage.

He is still the champion, he drives home, he is, he is the conqueror, the conqueror, the conqueror.

He gets home and he gives that check to his wife.

She's more than a conqueror.

So that was his.

I remember that that was his illustration, because she didn't have to go through the heat of battle, she did not have to take all of those blows, she just got to reap the rewards.

And that's exactly what Jesus did for us.

He took all of the blows, he fought all of the battle against the enemy.

He completely won.

He wiped them the Matt clean with the devil's face and he won.

And we get to now enjoy the spoils of war.

All that he bought and paid for is ours and hallelujah.

So thank you, terry Mize.

We're more than a conqueror, and and so inverse in Colossians, chapter two, listen to what Jesus did.

It says in him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body, the sin of the flesh.

So we, the sin has been cut away off of us and we're buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him.

Everybody say with him, through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

This is not just a.

This is not just a religion, a nice little religion that makes a lot of sense and that checks all of the boxes in your theological mind.

I'm telling you we believe, we're a believer in Jesus.

You believe that he rose from the dead.

That makes you crazy, that makes you absolutely radical and it makes you unstoppable.

Because if he raised Jesus from the dead, what's he going to do for us.

So he's and with and you being dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh.

In other words, you were, you had sin and it was in, it was blocking your fellowship with God, but he's made you alive together with him, having forgiven you All trespasses everybody say all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting and requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way.

Everybody say out of the way.

We had a sin problem.

It was a big, big problem and it was blocking out our fellowship with God and it was in the way.

And it was all of these rules and requirements where we didn't meet up.

We failed.

We were never going to win, we were never going to make all of that list of requirements in the law, and the first one is just to love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.

We failed on that.

And to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We failed on that.

We failed.

But Jesus, he took all of it and he nailed it to the cross and then he disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it.

So all of the demonic powers, all of the forces of darkness that are here to drag us, to separate us from God, to keep tempting us over and over again.

You know, jesus was tempted in all points, yet without sin, and so he wants us to be have his victory over that and then to lead it in as a public spectacle, triumphing over them in it.

So there is a Roman and I've said this before and Pastor preaches this very thing but there is a Roman tradition during the Roman Empire, when the Roman army conquered a new area, that they would take all of the army, all of the leaders of that city, and they would strip them of their military garb and their regalia.

They would completely disarm them, and that's why it says here he made a public speck, having disarmed the principalities and powers.

That's what Jesus did that the devil and demon powers.

He took away their weaponry, he took that away and they put those men in chains and then they would lead them through the city and they would have a big party and a big parade, kind of like Mardi Gras or like any.

And it was a big, it was in the area, it was the biggest thing going on.

People came out to collect in the streets to see this spectacle.

And who was it?

It was the vanquished army of people in chains.

And so people would come out and they would burn incense.

And that incense smelled really good.

It filled the air with incense and to the victorious army, whoo, it smelled like incense.

Nice, ooh, it smells good.

But you know what?

To the losing army, to the losers, it did not smell good because they knew that that smell meant that at the end of that parade they were going to be killed.

Some of them would be killed to make a mockery of their old culture and their beating and they would be, that would be the symbol, and then some of them would be sold into slavery.

But either way, their future was not good, and so that smell to them smelled like death.

That's why James read that scripture earlier out of 2 Corinthians 2.

Thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus and, through us, diffuses the fragrance.

That fragrance is that incense that would be burning at that parade, and it's the fragrance of Christ.

It smells great because why we know at the end of the book we win.

It smells real nice to us, smells like life, smells like a new life with order and God's way of doing things, but to the enemy it smells like is death.

It's bad, and so that's that train of vanquished foes.

If you turn to Psalm 18, when I was 16, I went to my dad's redemption class at Lakewood Church and I got to hear him teach on this, and so I thought about getting my 16-year-old girl out here and making her sit there on the front row and listen.

We preach this right out of Psalm 18, the train of vanquished foes.

This is what Jesus did.

You know he died.

We talked about suffering in my last message.

He suffered and he died.

For us it was redemptive.

When he said it is finished, the old covenant was passing away and Jesus went straight down into shield, into the depths of the earth, and there he handled some business.

He wasn't just put away in the grave to lay there and rest for three days, he was busy.

He was busy.

And so Psalm 18 talks about, kind of describes, some of the language of right at the crucifixion.

Remember how there was an earthquake?

And so in verse 7 it says then the earth shook and trembled and foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because God was angry.

He was angry at the devil and smoke went up from his mouth and devouring fire from his mouth.

Coals were kindled by it.

He bowed down the heavens and came down with darkness under his feet, and he rode upon a cherub and flew.

And he flew upon the wings of the wind and made darkness his secret place.

That's Jesus going straight down to handle the devil and to put him in his place.

And so you can keep reading on.

But God delivered Jesus because he delighted in him and rewarded him according to his righteousness Verse 20.

And then and then, in verse 37, it says I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them.

Neither did I turn back again until they were destroyed.

I have wounded them so they could not rise.

They have fallen under my feet, for you have armed me with strength for the battle.

You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

That's victory.

That is victory.

You have also given me the necks of my enemies.

The neck was a sign of submission, if you could put your boot on that person's neck, and it said that I so that I destroyed those who hated me.

They cried out, but there was none to save, even to the Lord.

I'm telling the devil, even beg God to help them, but God did not answer them and I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind and cast them out like dirt in the streets.

The devil has no authority left.

He has nothing on you.

He has nothing on you.

You know.

What he does have, though he has lies, he has deception.

If he can deceive you, if he can make you think you are less than if he can get you to focus on the problems of this world, because he is still the GOD, the little GOD, the God of this age, he still does control those in his kingdom, in Satan's kingdom, who occupy this world.

He still does control their thoughts.

He still does control, and they are slaves to sin.

So they are slaves to the death and demon powers and to the powers of darkness.

So those people that are carrying that sense of the devil, those people still have positions of power in this earth, don't they?

That's what we feel when we feel persecution.

We're feeling that, but there is no power behind them.

The power they have is no match for the power of Jesus, who has already beaten them.

That's why, in John 16, jesus said in the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world.

The overcome means I have conquered it for you and I have taken away its power to harm you.

This world, the devil in it, cannot harm you.

There is nothing that he can do to you, because you are a child of the Most High God.

Once we get that revelation oh, the devil hates that If we really know how beaten he is, then we will never listen to him again, and so he can't have that.

That's why he's always lying.

He's always working in your ear.

He's always reminding you of your past.

You've got to remind him of his future.

Hallelujah, all right.

So we've got to get victory in three areas.

We've got to know that we're really free and we are victors in these three areas.

I'm telling you, once we'll get ahold of it, we will never let the devil deceive us again.

So these are the three areas.

We've got to get victory over sin.

All of these areas listen, I'm going to read you it's all tied to our love of God and his love for us.

So there is.

His love is what keeps us.

We're more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Okay, so we're going to start with victory over sin.

Listen to 1 John, chapter five, verse one whoever believes that Jesus Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves him, who begot, also loves him, who was begotten of him.

So in other words, we, if we love Jesus, we're going to love all of his kids.

That means look at your neighbor, that's it.

You love that person, you love that person.

Okay, everybody say I love you, okay, you got to love them.

And then by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

So this is our victory over sin, right here.

Did Jesus keep God's commandments?

Yes, he did.

Can we keep his commandments?

Yes, we can.

Because we love him, we will keep his commandments.

For this is not, for this is the love of God that we do keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome.

They are not.

Why are they not burdensome?

Because the Holy spirit lives on the inside.

He's our helper and he will help us do all the commandments of Jesus.

He will help us.

But whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.

Who is he who overcomes the world?

But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

We overcome the world, we overcome sin by just keeping his commandments and we overcome, so overcome sin.

We are overcoming this world.

We overcome this world, we overcome the world's mindset and we overcome the world's behavior.

The world's and that's really tied to our behavior again is just keeping his commandments.

So let's now turn to Romans 15.

You know, we ought to have radical Christian behavior.

We didn't just get saved so we can talk about it.

We've got to actually do something and put action to it.

And I'm going to tell a little parenting story here.

I'm not going to tell my own because then I get in trouble, but I have some of my own parenting stories.

But I just read a book by Ms Nancy Dufresne.

Brother Ed Dufresne used to come here and minister at our church.

We love him so much.

He did go to heaven several years ago, but his wife just such a strong lady of faith that she's actually a pastor of a church and has been for many years.

And so she's helped families to raise their own kids, raised her own two boys to be in the faith and follow the call of God on their lives.

And she was telling a little parenting story.

She said when one of her oldest child was really a willful child I don't know any kids like that at all Strong willed child.

But her oldest son went and so she found herself kind of she knows the word about, you know, she found herself kind of using spanking as a hey I'm.

The word says don't spoil the child or don't, you know, don't spare the rod.

So she was.

She was using that, that rod, and it wasn't working.

And every time she'd tell him to do something, he would throw a fit and he would jump up and down and he would not respond to her.

And it would happen every day.

She was stumped about it, she prayed about it.

She, finally, she called her mom.

Mom, what do I do?

She said, well, find something, it'll work.

It'll work.

And they prayed about it and she got this idea, something.

When the next time he threw that little bit and started jumping up and down, she said oh, you want to jump up and down, okay, well, how about you just keep jumping up and down?

You better jump up and down.

I'm going to set a timer five minutes.

If you stop jumping up and down for five minutes, then I'm going to spank your bottom.

You got it.

You got it.

Since you want to jump, you're going to jump, brother.

And so she did that and he never threw that tensor answer Again.

He made it through the whole five minutes and he was tired of jumping and but what she did is she took the control and power away from him and now and so then he learned not to do that, hallelujah.

But my dad told me my one piece of parenting advice he didn't give.

He didn't give out a lot of parenting advice yet I might still need it.

But but one thing he said when the kids were little.

He said Claire, always win, always win.

And so I was.

I got her to respect Nancy that she won, she won that and he, he did not throw that that tantrum again.

But we've got to watch over our behavior, right, and if we're a mom, we got to watch over the behavior of our kids.

We can't be letting them act the fool like that in the grocery store.

But we've got to be an example right, and many of us are parents in the faith.

What we do when people come in the door and we're trying to disciple people, what kind of lifestyle are we living?

What kind of music are we listening to?

What kind of attitude is coming out of our mouth every day?

Are we a good example?

So Romans 15, verse nine, says let love be without hypocrisy.

That is what the world hates so much.

They are tired of Christians preaching at them and then doing the opposite thing.

So we got to actually back it up.

I appreciate this church.

I see people who really live their faith in real life, and I love y'all for that.

So, but let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil.

See, it is okay to hate.

We hate evil.

We love people, but we hate evil, and it's going to show right.

It's going to have some kind of passion about it.

Abhor it.

Cling to what is good.

Be kindly and affectionate to one another, with brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation.

Am I?

I?

I'm letting the Lord work on my patience, amen.

That's why I have a 16 year old that I am helping learn how to drive, and it is perfecting my patience as I sit in the front seat.

She drove us to church tonight.

Hallelujah, patient and tribulation.

That just means, though, that we're we're not Waiting on God to do something.

But we but we trust him, knowing that he's working some things out already.

And we're using our mind all the time, our Mouth, we're using our mouth and we're using the word actively against those tribulations.

Right, but we're bearing up under them, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you.

Bless them and don't curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Be of the same mind toward one another.

Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no evil for evil.

Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

Now, this is what I'm getting to.

Jesus.

God said vengeance is mine and I will repay, says the Lord.

Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

So this is radical, right here.

This is radical.

This is a totally against what your flesh wants to do.

But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink.

Not the devil, we're our enemy of the devil.

He never gets a drink from us, amen.

But people in this life who have set themselves against you there is a time to show them radical love.

There is a time to show them compassion and let God handle it.

If they're it, vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

And then finally, it says in verse 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I can't tell you how many times I have prayed that lately.

Overcome evil with good.

There is a tide of evil and pastors been preaching out of it and out of Isaiah 59.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him.

Raise up a standard is also a mighty flood tied the other way of righteousness that comes and overcomes, overwhelms, over comes.

But we've got to overcome that evil with a tide of good and right, and so that's that's our command.

The commandments are not grievous, are they?

We love him, so we're keeping his commandment, his commandment over come evil with good.

That means we can do it.

It's not grievous.

That means he's gonna help us do just that very thing.

He's gonna help us do it, hallelujah.

Hallelujah is radical.

It's radical.

So we're overcoming sin, we're overcoming this world's behavior.

That's, the world does the exact opposite of everything I just said, but that we're overcoming that behavior.

We're be overcoming that mindset of the evil one and and finally, we're overcoming our.

It says in in First Corinthians 15.

It says that our final, our final enemy To overcome is death.

We are even overcoming death.

That's what Jesus did.

He Overcame death, hell and the grave.

He took the keys of hell and death from the devil.

He took them back.

You know, adam had had, adam had the keys originally had all of the dominion over heaven and earth and and just sold them to the devil the minute he sinned.

That's what Adam did effectively.

He gave the devil rule and reign over this world.

And Jesus took him back and then he gave him to you.

He said all authority is in heaven, nurse, is given to me.

Therefore, go, therefore, go, therefore.

He gave, he gave those keys to you.

So now the church has the authority, we have authority and we even have authority over death.

So we're gonna read out in first Corinthians 15, and if you don't feel good after this, that's the thing, actually I'm gonna.

I'm gonna turn you real quick to Hebrews 2 14.

Let me turn there and read it my own self Hebrews 2 14.

Why is it important that we know we have victory over death?

Why is that important?

Because in in Hebrews 2, 14?

.

All right, it's talking about Jesus bringing many sense to glory when he, he is the captain of our salvation.

Oh, that's good.

He was made perfect through sufferings.

I'm gonna actually I'm backing it up to verse he first 10.

He was made perfect in sufferings both, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all One, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them his brothers.

That's me and you Saying.

I will declare your name by my brethren in the midst of the assembly.

I will sing praise to you and again I'll put my trust in him and again, hear mine.

The children, guys, give me as much.

The children have partaken in blood, blood.

Let himself likewise share the same that Through day.

Here is this, here's the point that through death he might destroy that him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who, through fear of death, all their lifetime were subject to bondage.

So when Jesus, when he defeated the devil after the cross, he rendered the devil powerless over us.

He broke us free of the bondage of the fear of death.

People who are afraid of death are in bondage, and when you think about that, let that sink in for a minute and think about that.

In relation to Everything going on, though, in the world right now, what is the devil and his mouthpiece in this media, in this world?

The false prophet is the.

I believe that the false prophet, literally, is the media, the lying voice of the media, anyway.

And so the false prophet is saying fear death, fear death, fear death, fear death, fear death.

All the time, constantly, 24 7.

Fear death, and with it, because they know what they can do, that you're bound, you're in complete Bondage.

You will do anything, they say, if you are afraid of death.

A Hero is someone who is not afraid of death, who looks death in the face and does what is right, anyway, to save and deliver someone else.

That is a definition of a hero, and Jesus needs us to be heroes like him right now.

We need to all of it.

I want you to put your cape on right now.

Fasted it on.

Right goes right there.

All right, put on.

Put it on, because we need some heroes in this world right now who are not afraid of death.

So we need to be meditating on on how Jesus conquered death, and in 1st Corinthians 15.

This is the ultimate, this is our ultimate victory right here.

1st Corinthians 15.

Dear Lord now.

So let me just it takes a minute to develop, but Paul, the apostle Paul, is explaining the resurrection.

He's saying that the last enemy that will be destroyed is death, and that Someone will say in verse 35, 15, 1st Corinthians, 15, 35,.

But someone will say how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?

Foolish one.

What you so is dead, foolish one.

What you so is not made alive unless it dies.

In other words, when you plant a seed, the, the seed looks a certain way when you put it at the ground and then the seed completely goes away, it's destroyed, right, it explodes into something else and then, like the little plant starts kind of inching its way up out of the seed, and the seed, completely the way it was, is completely gone and it turns into a plant that doesn't look anything like the seed.

So he's explaining that whole process and what you sow.

You do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain, or perhaps weed or some other grain.

But God gives it a body, as he pleases.

So to each seed its own body.

So then he makes the case that your flesh, your body, is just a seed.

It's nothing like what it's gonna be in heaven.

It's nothing like that.

It's just a little thing in there.

It's gonna be so much better, so much more beautiful, so awesome.

I've never seen a beautiful seed, but we look pretty good now.

Y'all look pretty good, y'all are good looking.

People Think of how much better you're gonna look in heaven.

All right, so just like that.

I mean there's different kinds of bodies and they have a different level of glory, and so in verse 42 it says so also as a resurrection from the dead.

The body is sown in corruption, ha ha ha.

It's raised in incorruption.

It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness.

It is raised in power.

It is sown in natural body.

It is raised.

A spiritual body.

There is a natural body, there's a spiritual body.

So it's written the first oh, I love this.

The first man, adam became a living being.

The last Adam, that's Jesus, became a life giving spirit.

This body is just a body.

It can only do.

I mean, thank God, it has life.

All right, it has life.

Jesus came to make you a life giving spirit.

Who can grant and give life to others?

Adam just sucked all the life up himself.

Jesus gave it to everyone else.

That's what we do.

We're not suckers, we're givers of life.

It's awesome, but we can't be afraid to die in doing it.

We can't be afraid, we can't be selfish with our stuff, with our, not even with our life.

We cannot be selfish.

He said, no, there's a better way.

So, yeah, we were all gonna, someday, this body, we're gonna lay it down unless we're raptured.

I like that option, like that option a lot that Jesus would just take us and catch us away.

But this is our future.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed for the corruptible, this seed that we have right now, it said it must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible is put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written death is swallowed up in victory.

Do not be afraid of death, do not be afraid, do not be unduly in grief about your loved one, because it says oh, death.

Where is your sting, oh Hades?

Where is your victory?

The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He even gave us the victory that he had over death.

He even gave us that kind of victory, that kind of power.

I see that in the early church, I see that in Stephen.

Stephen was not afraid to die.

He was not afraid.

He did not give up his faith.

When people stood there with stones in their hands and reared back in him, he would not deny the Lord.

He kept preaching the word, even though they gnashed with their teeth.

They did not wanna hear the truth.

But it was okay.

It was okay.

There was something greater that he there was.

It was something greater that he lived for.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Your labor is not in vain.

Your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

You do not have anything to fear.

You do not have any.

The best the devil can do and he can't even do this, because we've got healing in our covenant.

He can't even.

He's not taking our life, he's not.

But even.

But you gotta go there.

Even if he tried, even if he did, the best he can do is take this seed.

He can never take the glory of incorruptible glory that God has in store for you.

He can never take that.

He can never take that.

And so all we but?

But the glory comes when we fulfill God's call.

That's how we spread the glory.

So we gotta do something with all this glory that we've got by fulfilling the call of God.

So I gotta I'll close.

I'll close with Romans eight.

Ooh, I'm 39 minutes, Pastor.

Preach is longer than that.

Y'all, y'all are not, y'all are so patient.

All right, romans eight, cause if you can't get happy at that after Romans eight, how can you get happy?

All right?

Oh see, we're.

We're heirs with him, joint heirs with Christ.

All right, so we're, we're, more than conquerors.

Remember that.

We read that earlier.

And then, what shall we say to these things?

Verse 31?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with us?

With him also, freely give us all things, and who shall bring a charge against God's elect, god who justifies?

So who is he who condemns?

Who he condemns literally is the devil.

Do you know the word?

Satan means accuser, it's a prosecutor, it's a legal term for the prosecution.

That's what Satan's name literally means.

Satan is the accuser.

If you start feeling guilty, that's not from God, the from for something you've already repented of.

No, the devil's trying to throw something back in your face.

You bind him.

So who is he who condemns?

It is Christ who died and furthermore, it is also risen.

Who is even at the right hand of God?

Who makes intercession for us?

Who shall, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sort, there is basically nothing the devil can do to separate you from God's love.

And if you have God's love, you have every, everything.

You have everything.

You are the winner.

You are the more than conqueror.

He loves you.

He bestowed upon you everything he bought and paid for on the cross.

That's why we're more than conquerors, through him, who loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, angels or principalities or powers or things present, or things that come or hide or death or any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We are in him, we are with him.

He took us with us.

He took us with him to the cross and to the grave, and in his resurrection we raised with him the newness of life.

So we have absolutely nothing to fear.

We are overcoming sin, we are overcoming this world.

We are even overcoming death.

Stand up with me and say hallelujah, hallelujah.

We are like him in every facet and we are like him in victory.

We cannot lose.

Everybody say I cannot lose, I cannot lose and the devil cannot win.

The devil is a loser, the devil is a loser.

I want you all to say that every time you're tempted to be fearful, sad, depressed, he's lying to you, telling you something I want you to say devil is a loser, he cannot win and I cannot lose.