The Victorious Christian | Tony Evans Classics

God causes things that seemingly have no benefit once he puts it in his blender for those who are following him in the midst of what does not seem rational Fair what it seems problematic and difficult he puts them in his blender and begins to cook up something he begins to cook something that brings him glory and brings you good many of us stood up this morning because we're going through something that is defeating in nature it's beating us up and it's wearing us down and we feel like we are the defeated Christian many of you did not have to stand this week you'll be standing next week because something will happen that won't be in your favor and many Christians today are going through discouragement and see themselves more as victims than victors I want to introduce you to one of the most famous and fascinating scriptures in all of the New Testament on Victory for those who are going through right now and need victory and those who will need it sooner or later the chapter is Romans chapter 8. and Paul in this particular chapter you uniquely talks about this thing called Victory in fact he introduces us to a word that's never used in the Bible except In this passage it is the only place this word is used the word is found in verse 37. verse 37 reads but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us the word overwhelmingly conquer is one Greek word that's only used in this passage and it means to be a super Victor it's like Superman this is it's like um Iron Man it's like Mighty Mouse these aren't just Victors but they are they set the tone they set the temperature they set the the momentum they set the uh the direction so the idea of overwhelming conqueror a word never used in the Bible except here in verse 37. where God says to his people you're not just supposed to be a Victor you supposed to be a super Victor you should be just getting by he says you should be overwhelmingly winning you should be not just okay you should be slamming it overwhelming conqueror super Victor is the word used here now in order to conquer something you need something to conquer when I play basketball by myself I always win I have never lost to me and that is because when I'm playing by myself there's nobody to overcome nobody in my face nobody trying to block the shot nobody trying to to block my sight line nobody trying to stop me driving to the back I have never failed to successfully drive to the basket when I'm playing by myself because there's nobody to hinder me but to be an overwhelming conqueror is to conquer something in the face of being opposed in the face of something that is in my face trying to block my progress this is the environment in which this chapter was written verse 17 of Romans 8 he says and if children heirs also Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him he talks about two kinds of Christians here he talks about children who are heirs and sufferers who are co-heirs see that the verse he says if you're a child you're an heir you bear the inheritance of the father as a child of God you're a child your children but then he says if you're suffering your coheir you can be an heir but not necessarily A coheir because coheir is tied to suffering air is tied to sunship so if you are a Christian today if you have trusted Jesus Christ you are an heir of God you have an eternal inheritance if you are going through the pains problems difficulties struggles defeats of life then Jesus Christ is now inviting you to become a coheir a co-heir is more than an heir you can have a child who's your child who's not necessarily in your will that they are born a child but to be a coheir to to be a recipient of the benefits of heirship the benefits of Airship so so he wants to talk to them on a deeper level about being coheirs not being heirs here's the difference if you are a child of God and therefore an heir you go from Earth to heaven Heaven is your guaranteed right as a child of God if you are a co-heir through the time of suffering we'll talk about that in a moment you not only go to heaven heaven comes to you co-heirship brings about a different dimension of experience of God as you go through suffering which is tied to coercion from verses 17 to verse 27 he talks about groaning you'll see that word groaning show up in those verses our time will not let us spend time there but if you want to read he talks about groaning the aches and pains of life he talks about even nature groaning earthquakes tsunamis it's a the aches and pains of creation and then he goes into personally and he says and we also grow if you've not grown you haven't lived if you haven't had to go [Music] Lord have mercy he says life brings groanings it it brings tough times and difficult times and in this world you will have trouble but then he comes to one of the most famous verses in the New Testament verse 28. he says and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose everybody loves that verse but let's spend the second in that verse because this is all setting you up for being an overwhelming conqueror he says for we know we don't think hope wish he says Paul says let me tell you something we know and I will show enough all things are working together for good to them who love God and are called according to his purpose let me read that again all things you'll see in a moment that word all things going to show up a few times things are working to together for good God causes them to work worked forth your benefit that's good something beneficial to those who love God and are called according to his purpose the condition here it is foreseeing God take all things and work them together for good your benefit is conditioned upon you loving God all things work together for good to them who love God in other words let me reverse that you may not have things working together for good if you don't love it but what do we mean by loving God Jesus says in John 14 15 he says you love me if you keep my Commandments so loving he's not talking about a feeling he's not talking about getting Juiced up on a song or like in a sermon you love God with your feet not merely with your feelings so as you are going through your suffering because everything that leads up to this is groaning see verse 17 down to verse 27 is all groaning pain difficulties inconvenience aches the aches and pains of life he says while you're going through the aches and pains of life I want you to know something all things work together for good because God causes them to work together for good if you love him if you right now or when you do go through something and it is tough and difficult and hard and painful that is the time to follow Christ more closely than you've ever followed him before see that's not the time to back off that's not the time to run away that's the time to draw near because all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to what he's about God what are you doing and allowing this thing to come into my life to come in my way for not letting me be able to get out of it for not giving me release from it what is your purpose in conforming me to Christ in this and I'm going to love you in the middle of this which means I'm going to find out what you want me to do in the middle of what I'm going through and even though I may not feel it like it wanted or desire it that's what I'm going to do I'm going to love you with my feet in the middle of this problem because I want to be a co-heir stick with me he says for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose in the context of this pain God is causing something to happen causing he's he's making it happen and what he's making happen is he's taking all things all the different elements good bad and ugly and he is causing them to do something that they would not normally do on their own because if they would normally do it he wouldn't have to cause it he causes it because he has to make it happen if you are baking a cake you've got flour you've got sugar you've got butter you got nothing mag you've got you've got eggs you've got different ingredients designed to bake a cake you probably aren't going to eat any of those ingredients ingredients on their own by themselves you're not going to eat flour by itself you're not going to stick up a stick of butter in your mouth by itself you're not going to just gobble up some some raw eggs by themselves you're not going to just suck some uh nutmeg out by itself because all those things are mixed are of no benefit what you're going to do is you're going to cause those things to work together cause you're gonna go in your kitchen and you're going to pull out a blender and you're gonna put all those things in the blender and the blender is gonna Force those things to relate to each other in a way that they would never relate to each other on their own the blender is going to force something to happen cause something to happen that would not normally happen if you just left the items on the counter and said why can't you all get along you're gonna have to go that cake to come about by putting all of those ingredients in the blender mixing them together and then things are going to get worse before they get better because you're going to put a fire under them you're gonna put this Blended situation in a heated scenario you're going to put this Blended situation in a hot environment and all of a sudden something that was independently of no value by themselves becomes good it becomes beneficial and the smell of the cake levitates you from the back room to the kitchen because you have caused all things to work together for something beneficial that nothing would be by itself the verse says God causes forces arranges and makes things that seemingly have no benefit seemingly by themselves are not satisfying seemingly by themselves are going nowhere once he puts it in his blender for those who love him for those who are following him in the midst of what does not seem rational Fair what it seems problematic and difficult he puts it in his blender and he is cooking up something he is causing them to work together in a way that they didn't work together in other words when you have a trial over here and a problem over there and a difficulty over here and you got all this stuff sitting on the counter and by themselves you don't want to eat any of them because all you see are all these independent elements but you add to those independent elements loving him that is uh seeking the obedient way to proceed in spite of the individual elements that you see God becomes your blender and he takes all of these independent things problems though they may be he puts them in his blender and begins to cook up something he begins to cook up something that brings him glory and brings you good that is he is going to benefit you now I know you can't see it because it's not in the blender yet I know you can't see it because it hadn't been cooked fully yet but when he finishes what he is about he is cooking up something and causing things to work together for your good now the beautiful thing is he's doing this with all things that's what the verse says he causes all things to work together he can take messes and create Miracles he he causes all things to work together for something that is is beneficial now having said that that leads him to his section see everything I just said was an introduction because now he comes to his section and he's talking about the greatness of God in the midst of groaning so if you're here today and you stood up because you're going um this this verse for you if you're here today and you will be going through something God wants you to know he is for you that's why he raises in bulletproof machine gun fashion in these verses verse 31 what shall we say to these things he raises the question what are we going to say his point is if God is for you who can be against you if if if God is going to work it out for you who can stop him if God is going to go ahead of you who can hinder him if God is fighting for you who's going to overrule you that's his question he now impregnates the question with theology he says if God verse 32 did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him freely give us all things I like that word free in other words he just gonna flow it to you you don't have to go out and make it happen you don't go out to force it to happen uh uh uh what's what's once you put the ingredients in a cake mix or once you put the mix together and you put it in the right environment the Cake's gonna come he says he's going to freely give you all things that makes him ask another question who's going to bring a charge against God's elect God is the one who justifies Christ Jesus died he rose he's Seated on the right hand of the father and he intercedes for us he goes before you to make sure this stuff happens now watch this now as you go through the groaning of life that's his context if you if you'd follow God in the midst of your pain it's heal him when there's no problem it's easy to follow him when there's no challenge but in the midst of your suffering you are now being invited to become a coheir not just in air that is to benefit at a deeper level from the relationship he says when you decide to do that God becomes your blender and he causes all things to work together because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross his point is if God Gave You Jesus why would he withhold something less than Jesus he gave you the most difficult thing he spared not his own son everything else is easy from there downhill from there and free from there so having set that stage up he now comes down and he says what will separate us from the love of Christ verse 35. What's that question mean what will separate you here it is from the experience of God's love for you God just doesn't want you to know about his love he wants you to feel that thing see you can have somebody say I love you and you can feel the love or you can just have somebody talking he wants you to experience his love when does he want you to experience watch this during the extremes of life notice what he says he wants you to experience it in spite of tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness Pearl or sword I don't see anything positive in those verses I see nothing positive trouble I'm down down down discourage stuff is coming against me I'm persecuted I've run low on food famine I run low on clothes naked I'm in danger Pearl and the sword is after me and in the middle of all this mess he wants me to experience the love of Christ now let me explain the greatest time you will experience the reality of Christ is when life is not working not when it is working see most people come to God when life is working and God says you haven't seen me yet till life is not working you got all these negative things coming at you you've got one pain one problem after another coming at you but in all these things I love this all these things we are overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us God's going to show you his love during your roughest time not just doing your nicest time he's going to show you his love during your most difficult days so everybody who stood up today you good position because you are well situated if you will follow him in your difficulty to see him show up and show out in an overwhelmingly conquering way that's not regular that's super unleaded that's not normal that's God coming and showing up how does he show up notice what he says he says I'm convinced death nor life Angels Go principalities things present things to come Powers height death nor any other created thing e if it's been created it shouldn't have the final say so okay I bet you there has been no problem anybody in this room has ever faced that didn't come from something that was created okay nothing has ever happened to you that didn't come from something that was made it had to exist for it to happen to you if it existed and it happened to you that means it was a created thing he says I'm convinced that none of these extremes which includes everything in between and it concludes every creative thing here it is should have the final say-so in your life should have the final say-so in your situation because it cannot separate you from the experience of God's love now what does it mean to be an overwhelming conqueror here it is it is when you are going through the groanings and God overrules in the middle of it you are an overwhelming conqueror because God has overruled in your situation the Supreme Court is the final decision maker of the land lower courts may have made one decision but if the Supreme Court agrees to hear it they have the authority to override what lower courts have said the lower court can be against you you can have a whole series of lower courts against you but if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case and if the Supreme Court is for you then the Supreme Court can overrule the lower courts who ruled against you there are folks in this room right now where your circumstances are ruling against you where your situation is not for you where there are people who are not for you where there are circumstances that are holding you down that that is Acorn that's just not the Supreme Court because he says if God is for you he's the final arbitrator of the situation who then can have the final rule against you the woman called adultery in John 8. Jesus said go and sin no more why because sin had to be addressed but once the sin was addressed and she got right with God he told her go and sin no more and then he asked her a question he said now where are your accusers there were a whole bunch of Hypocrites who had accused this woman Jesus Christ overruled the Hypocrites showed them their hypocrisy it says they left one by one and Jesus says now I thought we had a whole lot of people here holding you down holding you back and we're going to cancel out your future but I stepped in the middle of that mess and I overruled them so I want you to go now because I overruled the people who were going to try to ruin you even though it was sin when you address the sin and wanted to follow me I addressed those who are going to hold you down see you can give people credit but don't give them too much credit because uh when God rules that is the final rule or the final say-so in your life it is God who makes the final say so because he is the Supreme Court because of the work of Christ he is free to flow in your life and in your situation now I want to call your attention to something I want you to read verse 37 real slow because there's a word I want to pick out of verse 37. and I want to talk about that word now I've talked about the unique word overwhelming conqueror the word that's only used this time in the New Testament or in the Bible you're not supposed to just win you were supposed to win big okay so you're going through something or you will be going through something and God says you're supposed to win and you're supposed to win big you're supposed to be an overwhelming Victor not a get by person so in other words trying to make it that means you're not overwhelming conqueror yet you doing okay that's not an overwhelming phrase you uh you uh you you you you try to get by oh you you no different than anybody else okay you're not an overwhelming conqueror okay people say people will say uh you know what I got to you know I got I got Bread on my table and I got clothes on my back and I got a roof over my head well I got I got Sinners we got Bread on that table and roof over their head and clothes on their back I know atheists who got Bread on that table and and clothes on their back and the roof over their head now that's all nice because the Bible says God Reigns on the just and the unjust but God is talking about something bigger than just what everybody else has what everybody else can do he's talking about something overwhelming now watch this what do you think the word is that we ought to pay attention to in verse 37. okay somebody said all well you can't say you're in the first service you heard me they gave it away I'm going to talk about the word in in okay I just want to look at that word in he says in verse 37 but in all these things we are overwhelming conquerors let me tell you what most people come to God for they come to God to be an overwhelming conqueror from all these things see we come to God to take us out of this problem remove this problem get rid of this problem we want to be overcome is from it he says uh not so fast I'ma show you how big and bad I am imma make you an overcomer in it okay okay right smack dab while you in the middle of your mess right SmackDown when your situation has not yet changed we have not arrived at from yet we still in it he says imma make you a Victor in it in fact Let me say something I didn't say in the first service you may not get Victory from until you see victory in see a lot of us want Victory from When God says I want you to see what I can do in it before we get you from it because then you will know who I am to overwhelmingly give you Victory while you are still stuck in the middle of the problem you're asking me to get you out of I am going to make you an overwhelming conqueror in the middle of it Israel was going through the Wilderness they were in the wilderness they were hungry in the wilderness but while hungry in the wilderness God opened up heaven and let Corn Flakes from above rain down called manna from on high while they were in he didn't take them out of the Wilderness he left them in the wilderness to see how he could overwhelmingly provide while they were in a desert situation before he ever took him to the promised land he let them see what he could do in a Wilderness situation some of you are asking God get me out of this Wilderness and take me to the promised land god is saying well we're going to get there but before we arrive that you're being delivered from the Wilderness I want to show you how I can take care of you in a desert situation I want to show you how I can meet your needs I want to show you I can't win your thirsty bring water out of a rock in the middle of a Wilderness so that you know I can overwhelmingly Supply while you are still in your situation this is the testimony of a Christian who all their world is falling apart in their life their hope is gone and then God gives them a peace that passes understanding that's supposed to be not sleeping they're supposed to be panicking they're supposed to be losing their natural minds and God joins them in the middle of it before he takes them out of it in order to in order to let them know I'ma I'ma show you what peace looks like when there's nothing to be peaceful about imma show you what Joy looks like when there's nothing to grin about imma show you what victory looks like when there's when you still haven't been delivered because then you know you're an overwhelming conqueror you are a conqueror in spite of the situation you will see what I can do to deliver you even in the midst of what you're going through listen what Paul is saying is in the extremes of light God will meet you in them while you're waiting for him to deliver you from them yes keep praying deliver me from it but let me see you while I wait in it so that I can know your power and not forget it when I've been delivered from it so I want some of you to change your prayers instead of just spending all your time saying God how long God take it away God delivered me I want you to say God let me see you work while I'm waiting on you to deliver me let me see your presence and power while I'm still stuck in the Rut and the mess and the admire of my situation let me see what you can do while I'm waiting on the Lord that's what it means to wait on God it means to see God in the middle of it while you are waiting and there's nothing like God coming through in a way that lets you know he's God even when your situation nation has not changed because then you get to see know and experience his reality how many of you watch professional wrestling WWE whatever raw whatever it is but what you need to know let me tell you a little secret about professional wrestling the Victor is decided ahead of time before you ever see the match fair that The Rock's gonna win or that the Undertaker is going to win you know or whoever they are it's it's decided before the match oh the victory is going to be so they don't go into the ring wondering who's going to win victory has been declared in advance but just because victory has been declared in advance doesn't mean you're not going to get slammed just because victory has been declared in advance it doesn't mean you're not going to be thrown down just because victory has been declared in advance it doesn't mean you're not going to be thrown out the red just because victory has been declared in advance it doesn't mean nobody gonna jump on you just because victory has been declared in advance doesn't mean you won't get a cut or a bruise or bleed a little bit all it does mean is what happens in the ring doesn't determine the outcome because the outcome has been determined in advance I wish I could tell you this morning fall in love with Jesus and you won't get slammed I would love to tell you this morning fall in love with Jesus and there will be no bruise I would be pleased to tell you fall in love with Jesus and you won't get thrown out the ring but what I can tell you is that your victory has been declared in advance so even though the devil is slamming you even though people are abusing you even though you're being thrown out of the ring God has already decided in advance that you are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you so why are you in the middle of it here's what I want you to do I want you to do what the Bible says it says in everything give thanks I want you to give fights in spite of it thank you Lord that you've already declared me a victory thank you that you're my blender and you're gonna stir all this stuff together for my benefit thank you you've already gone ahead of me to give me my deliverance and you're going to show me how bad you are while I wait on my Deliverance somebody ought to bless the Lord today in the middle of what you're going through in the middle of your problem and if you're paying because God loves you even though you're being bumped around in the ring of light as long as you obey him as you go through [Applause]

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 613,113

Keywords: tony evans, dr tony evans, pastor tony evans, dr. tony evans, tony evans sermon, tony evans sermons, God's sovereignty, God's plan, God's goodness, Biblical principles, Faith and trust, Christian living, Spiritual growth, Christian teaching, Biblical preaching, Christian inspiration, Christian faith, Bible teaching, Bible study, Christian ministry, Christian worship, Christian church, Christian culture, Christian theology, Biblical commentary, DTE83, D8T3E, TE83, 83TE, T8E3

Id: 1oSthbCBkhU

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023