HOW TO WALK IN VICTORY
1 John 5:4-5:4
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Intro: ABC Wide World of Sports use to come on with the words “The Thrill of Victory and the agony of defeat.”
1. There is nothing as exciting as winning.
2. The taste of victory in our lives is sweet.
3. Victory is essential to our health and happiness. Defeat is destructive to our lives, and
remaining in defeat can destroy our faith.
4. It is not God’s will for your life to walk in defeat, but it is His will for you and I to rise-up in the
middle of Satan’s attacks upon our lives and live in victory.
I. To WALK in Victory you must believe the WORD!
A. Gloom breads failure
1. It is impossible to live in victory without a victorious
concept
1 Cor. 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The old saying goes you are what you eat.
1. The same is true for our lives:
2. If you are defeated in your thought life with negative thoughts of failure then you will never
win.
3. But If you put your mind into victory and HOPE you will always win.
Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
C. We have hope
1. I don’t want to fall into the hands of a doctor without HOPE
2. A lawyer without HOPE
3. A minister without HOPE
Psalms 71:14 But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.
D. We serve the God of hope
1. Not the God of defeat
2. Not the God of pessimis
3. Not the God of disillusion
4. We have HOPE and beyond We have blessed assurance
Psalms 98:1 1 Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
E. You can live in doom and gloom or you can live your life surrounded in HOPE
1 . David never allowed himself to focus on problems
2. He will never be remembered as a blues singer
3. He had bumps in life
4. battles in life --failures in life
5. He had difficulties in life--- He wept--- He mourned
- BUT he learned to live in praise
Psalms 42:5 Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and 6my God!
3. Learning to Live in Praise in Essential to Victorious Living
a. Praise builds our courage
1. (Jehosphat) II Chronicles 20
2. (Paul & Silas) Acts 16:20
3. (John) Revelations 1:10
4. Praise builds our faith
5. Praise puts our faith into action
6. The building of our faith pleases God; It excites God when we trust Him.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Praising God in the midst of our trials is like saying: “God you are my source of strength and though storms rise and winds howl, my trust is in you.”
- Praise brings the power of Heaven to our aid
6 The grave£ wrapped its ropes around me; death itself stared me in the face.
7 But in my distress I cried out to the LORD;
yes, I called to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry reached his ears.
8 “Then the earth quaked and trembled; the foundations of the heavens shook;
• God heard
• God moved
II. To walk in Victory you must get your eyes off of Circumstance
A. Peter got out of the boat
1. Peter focused on Christ not the storm
2. As his attention shifted he began to sink
B. Lame man at pool of Bathesda
1Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,£ with five covered porches. 3Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.£ 5One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”
8Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”
9Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.
a. The King of kings walked into the mans presence
b. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
c. The man focusing on the circumstance, “I have no man to help me…”
d. Get your eyes off the circumstance and get your eyes on me.
C. Sometimes attacks come and they are so heavy that they overwhelm us, and it is hard not to
focus on the problems that we are dealing with.
1. Loss of health
2. Loss of loved one
3. Loss of possessions
- Attacks are hard and they hurt, they bring pain and suffering into your life.
4. But Jesus is our CHAMPION, our REFUGE, our STRONG TOWER, our SHELTER in the
storm.
5. He is the God of HOPE
- Focus on the Promise not the problems.
III. To walk in Victory you must never accept Defeat
A. . Too many Christians come under attack and they give up. They want to just sit down and not
move.
B. . They think if I don’t do anything maybe the devil want notice me, and he will leave me
alone: WRONG. You merely exist in defeat.
C. When you are defeated forward progress is stopped
1. When your Pray life is stopped you are living in defeat
2. When your Devotional life is stopped you are living in defeat
3. When your Commitment to service is stopped you are living in defeat
D. Some folks are sitting in pews and haven’t done anything
5. Don’t live in defeat do something
ILL. Put Johnson in!
It was the middle of a high school football game, and the home team was losing. They just could not do anything. One irate fan yells at the sidelines, “Put Johnson in!” The sidelines yell back, “Johnson is in!” The fan yells again, “Well take Johnson out!” In other words do something.
- In II Kings 7 There is a story of Samaria under siege.
1. No food
2. Most of the animals had been eating.
•3. Many wear starving to death.
• 4 Lepers lay at the gate discussing their options
a. We can go into the city and die
b. We can stay here and die
c. We can go over to the Syrians;
d. If they spare us we live
e. If they kill us we die
- They decided to do something
- God rewards faith put into action
1. They found they enemy gone
2. They found food
3. They found treasure
4. Because they decided to do something
- Peter When he got out of the boat and walked on the water didn’t hear a mad rush behind him
of others jumping out of the boat.
- Peter did something
Conclusion: You can live in victory. You don’t have to remain in defeat.
1. Set your mind to thinking victory
2. Don’t focus on problem focus on the Promise
3. Do Something get up and get moving.
These are the steps to victory. As you begin to make these steps you will find that God provides victory in every situation of your life.
