A LIFE OF VICTORY

John 10:10 (CSB)

A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

God’s eternal plan was for you to have eternal life, but God intends on top of that for you to have a victorious, abundant life, and in Joshua’s farewell address found in Joshua 24, we find God’s prescription for you to live that victorious, abundant life. I like to describe it as God wants your eternal satisfaction to begin the moment you are saved. God wants you to have victory, to have an abundant life.

Joshua at the time of his farewell address was an old man. This was the last time that he would be addressing the nation, and his desire was for Israel to stay in the Promised Land, the Land of Canaan, and he was advising them how they could hold onto that which God had given them.

Joshua is an extremely important book for Christian’s to study because it shows us how we are to live in victory once we are saved, and I have told you this before, but let me refresh your memory.

The Promised Land, the Land of Canaan, represents the victorious life Christians have in Jesus Christ. It represents a life controlled by the Spirit.

Egypt represents that from which we are saved. Egypt is the land of sin, a life controlled by the flesh.

Once Israel was delivered from Egypt into the Promised Land, they were never to return to Egypt. I hope you see the picture.

When you were saved, you were saved from sin, you were delivered from Egypt if you will. God’s desire is that you live in the victory of that deliverance from Egypt from sin. We are saved from sin not to sin which is something many people miss today especially if they emphasize God’s love over His holiness.

Joshua begins his farewell address by reminding Israel what God had done for them, and dear friend, you might not live in defeat if you consider what God has done for you.

Joshua 24:11–13 ““ ‘You then crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. Jericho’s citizens—as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hethites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—fought against you, but I handed them over to you. I sent hornets ahead of you, and they drove out the two Amorite kings before you. It was not by your sword or bow. I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’”

It was God who had given Israel their victories. It was God who had delivered Israel from bondage in the land of sin, and if you are saved, God has done the same thing for you, but like Israel, you must claim that victory if you are to live victoriously.

To live in victory, to be victorious in the possession God had given them, Joshua told Israel that there were three things they must do, and if you do those three things, you will have the victorious, abundant life Jesus desires you to have.

(1) If you want victory, you must have careful REVERENCE.

Joshua 24:14 ““Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.”

The first step to a defeated life is to get casual, to get careless, to lose the awe, to lose the FEAR of the Lord.

Throughout the Bible, we are commanded to revere the Lord.

Psalm 25:14 “The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he reveals his covenant to them.”

Do you want God to reveal wonderful things to you? Then you must revere and fear the Lord.

Psalm 31:19 “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you.”

Do you want God to bless you with His goodness? Well, His goodness is reserved for those who revere or fear Him.

Psalm 147:11 “The Lord values those who fear him, those who put their hope in his faithful love.”

Do you want to please God? You cannot please Him if you do not give Him the respect and reverence He deserves.

What does the Bible mean when it says we are to fear God or to give God reverence?

It is a conscious choice that we make. That is what Joshua says in verse 14. Fearing the Lord, respecting the Lord, being reverent to the Lord is a choice, a conscious choice we make.

The best way to explain it is to think about it in terms of a slave and a son. A slave fears his master’s lash, but a son fears his father’s displeasure. When we make a conscious choice to fear the Lord, to be reverent toward the Lord, we will not have a casual attitude toward displeasing the Lord.

Are you casual about displeasing God? Do you casually sin not caring what your Father thinks? If you do, you do not fear God, and you cannot possibly live in victory.

If you want to live that abundant life Jesus desires for you, you can never lose reverence for God. If you lose that reverence, you will live a defeated life. Do you have the reverence for God you once had?

Don’t answer with your lips. Answer with your heart. If you are choosing to be reverent, you are living in victory. If you have become casual toward God, you are experiencing the agony of defeat.

If you want victory, you must make a conscious choice to show God His proper respect and reverence.

If you never lose sight of from where you were delivered, you will never lose that respect and reverence.

(2) If you want victory, you must have courageous RESOLVE.

Joshua 24:14–15 ““Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.””

Are you resolved to worship God no matter what anyone else says? If you are, you will have victory.

It is the kind of resolve that Daniel had that I says I do not care what the government says I am going to worship the Lord. It is the kind of resolve that says I do not care what my coworkers say, I do not care what my classmates say, I am going to serve the Lord.

That kind of resolve springs forth from reverence and leads to victory. Joshua says that we are to fear the Lord and worship Him in sincerity and truth.

The KJV says to serve Him in sincerity and truth. In the KJV, “serve” literally means homage and worship. Serve does not mean doing things. You can do things from can to can’t and not serve the Lord.

Serving the Lord means worshipping the Lord, loving the Lord, and bowing before Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Now, let’s take that a step further.

Did you know you can come to church every time the doors are opened and not be serving the Lord? If you come to church just to be coming to church just to do your “job”, you are just doing something to be doing it, and you are not living in victory. When you come to church, you should be coming to serve to worship the Lord.

How is worship of the Lord described?

A. It is sincere worship.

Joshua says in Joshua 24:14 that we are to worship the Lord in sincerity.

Now here is the key to sincere worship. Grab hold to the pew.

The word sincere, biblically, means without blemish or without fault.

Do you realize what that is saying? I cannot sincerely worship if I am blemished. In other words, I cannot sincerely worship if I have sin in my life.

In the Old Testament, sincere was used to describe animals being presented for sacrifice. These animals were to be whole and complete. In New Testament times, sincere was used to describe something in the marketplace that was being sold with a blemish. It was a term closely associated, Bruce, with the selling of homemade furniture.

Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”

If I am going to sincerely worship God with all my heart, I have to continually present myself without blemish to God.

1 John 1:5–7 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

You cannot serve God sincerely with sin in your life because sin brings darkness and God is light. Where there is darkness, there is no what? ___________

Where there is light, there is no what? ______________

It is quite the dilemma. Let me give you an example. My office as AP and “sin” detector.

To sincerely worship, we must continually confess and repent.

1 John 1:8–9 “If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If you want to live in victory and to worship God sincerely, you must continually confess and repent. Let me tell you what the Devil has successfully done in every church in America, and this is why so many Christians and churches are not living in victory.

The Devil has gotten Christians and entire church congregations to believe sin is okay and repentance is bad or embarrassing, but dear friend, if you want victory, you must worship Him sincerely, and that sincerity comes from you not having any blemishes. Praise God that we have an advocate.

1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.”

I am eternally grateful that when God sees me, He sees me clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness.

Our worship is to be sincere worship.

B. It is scriptural worship.

Joshua 24:14 says we are to serve Him in sincerity and in TRUTH.

Sincerity is not a substitute for truth, and truth is not a substitute for sincerity. You can be sincere and be sincerely wrong, and you can be truthful yet insincere.

Even in sharing the gospel truth, we need to be sincere. I have seen people who prided themselves on being arrogant and confrontational with lost sinners. I caution you against that. Truth must be balanced with sincere love for the sinner. The two concepts go hand-in-hand.

If you worship the Lord in sincerity and truth, you will have victory.

C. It is steadfast worship.

Joshua says in verse 15 that as for him and his family, they were going to serve the Lord.

“I don’t know what choice you are going to make, but as long as I am living, my family and I are going to serve the Lord.”

“I cannot choose for you. You can serve the gods of Egypt if you want, but it is settled with me. I want to live in victory, so I am going to serve the Lord.” By the way, our society would be in much better shape if more heads of households would be like Joshua and be the spiritual leaders of the house that God expects them to be.

If you want to live in victory, you must have the resolve to stand on the truth, and that might mean that you are making that stand alone. We compromise serving the Lord for everything else. We are not to steadfast, are we?

“Johnny has a baseball game today. We will pray before the game.” “Suzy has band camp today. We will be there next week.” “Pete is on an Ag trip. I am sure he will read his devotional.” Joshua said as for me and my house we are going to serve the Lord, and we wonder why we do not live in victory.

I want you to know, dear friend, the truth is settled, and that truth is steadfast.

Psalm 119:89 “Lord, your word is forever; it is firmly fixed in heaven.”

God’s Word is firmly fixed. You must have the resolve to stand on that truth on that Word. You must have the resolve to stand alone when necessary. Some local Methodist congregations have had to do that. They have had to make the choice to stand on God’s Word or man’s word, and there might come a day when Beech Grove has to do that. If you are careless, if you are not resolved, the Devil will boot you slam out of Canaan.

Joshua says, “I cannot control what you do, but I can control what I do.” To have victory you must have careful reverence and courageous resolve.

Speaking of that resolve. I want you to notice something interesting about Joshua 24:14.

Joshua 24:14 ““Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.”

Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshipped in Egypt and beyond the Euphrates. Israel had a problem with idol worship. The problem existed throughout its history from when Abraham left the land beyond the Euphrates to when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.

Now, they had been out of Egypt for 40 years, but there were weeds from the old life that kept springing up, and that is why so many of us live defeated lives. We do not have the resolve to completely remove the old gods from our lives.

We let those residual sins, those hangover sin, that are deep down in our hearts, and those gods will come back into your life if you do not have the resolve to remove them. Israel had been out of Egypt for 40 years, yet the gods of Egypt still haunted them. Remember, Canaan represents victory, and Egypt represents a life controlled by the flesh.

Even after you are saved, if you are not courageously resolute, those gods you served in Egypt will come back and demand your service, and I am telling you that is why many in the church are living in defeat.

Many just do not have Joshua’s resolve to take a courageous stand, and as a result they return to the pagan altars of Egypt and the pagan altars from beyond the Euphrates.

Listen, dear friend. This is as true as anything I can say.

You are made to worship something or someone. If you do not revere God, if you do not have the courageous resolve to stand on the truth, you are going to serve something or someone else other than the true God. I am telling you it is in your genetic code to worship.

Here is the big problem, and you can study it for yourself if you want to do a little research.

Many of the idols people worship in the church today are demonic influences that they do not have the resolve to completely eliminate, and old-time preachers used to preach that and so did Jesus, and so should preachers today.

I am not talking about those left behind in the lost world. I am talking about those who are supposed to be in Canaan, those that are supposed to be living in victory, yet they have not completely removed the gods of Egypt, and those gods of the past are still infiltrating the church and possibly you.

Let me give you some that people in the church worship today that keep them from living in victory. Remember, we are to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth.

A. Mammon

Mammon was a god of wealth referenced by Jesus.

Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Many a Christian journey has been interrupted by the pursuit of wealth. If you begin to pursue, if you begin to serve mammon, you will be evicted from the Promised Land. Mammon is a demonic influence tormenting so many Christians.

Let me ask you a question. Why do so many in the world and the church so equate success with having money? It is mammon, and Jesus Himself said you cannot serve mammon and God. You cannot serve both. If you pursue mammon, you will not have victory because you will not worship God in sincerity.

B. Bacchus

Bacchus was a god of pleasure, and many Christians are demoniacally influenced to pursue pleasure.

In particular, Bacchus was the god of drunkenness, drugs, and pleasure. It was a god to be pursued if you wanted to satisfy the flesh. Many a Christian journey has been interrupted by chasing the next high. You cannot serve God in the reverence He demands if you are pursuing pleasure. You will be evicted from Canaan.

C. Venus

Venus was a goddess of sexual lust and promiscuity.

Ask David about what that demonic influence will do to you. Many in the church totally disregard what God says about sexual purity, but God gives us the truth about it.

Colossians 3:5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

Paul uses the word mortify. He is saying to warn your members, to warn Christians, that fornication and inordinate affection is idolatry. God has standards that are in concrete. A Christian man and a Christian woman should not be living together outside the bonds of holy matrimony. The Bible calls it idolatry, yet society condones it, and I do not even have the time to discuss what Paul describes as inordinate affection but just to say this.

Homosexuality is a sin. Paul calls it idolatry, and you cannot be an idol worshipper and worship and serve God, and I do not care what society says.

If you want to live in victory, you must put lust, fornication, adultery, and homosexuality out of your life.

D. Mars

Mars was a god of war, hatred, and revenge.

Do I need to say more? Christians are to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we have hatred in our hearts and if we seek revenge, how can we love as Christ commanded?

Have you ever heard a Christian brag about his or her temper, or brag about his or her desire for vengeance? If you have, I can tell you that those Christians are not living in victory, and they are not being very Christlike.

E. Baal

Did you know old preachers, using the Bible, used to preach that Baal was a demon god?

It makes sense when you consider how Baal worship has survived down through the ages even into the Church Age.

Revelation 2:18–20 “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

1 Kings 16:31 “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.”

You will miss the reference John is making if you do not know the Old Testament. Jezebel is associated with worship of Baal. (Rev. 2:18-20, 1 Kings 16:31)

The Church of Thyatira, according to Bible scholars, is associated with the time frame of 606 AD to 1517 AD, but elements of Thyatira are found in the church today so are elements of Baal worship. Do you believe me?

There is a book by Steve Farrar titled Battle Ready. In that book, he describes the Baal worshipped by the Jews, and listen carefully.

Baal worshippers were pro-choice. They believed in killing babies, only they waited until the babies were born.

Baal worshippers were environmentalists. They were more concerned with the fertility and productivity of the land than they were human beings.

Baal worshippers were promiscuous with homosexuality at the very top of their promiscuity.

Baal worshippers sought to legitimize Baal worship by mingling it with the worship of the true God.

Is that not what we see going on in many circles today? Everything is accepted at the expense of the truth. You can only serve God in sincerity and truth. If you do not revere God, if you do not have a resolve to make a stand, if you do not continually repent, you will fall victim to these old demonic influences, but the trouble comes from so many Christians denying that is demonic influence.

(3) If you want victory, you must have complete RELIANCE.

If you want victory, you must be completely reliant upon God to give you that victory.

Joshua 24:20–22 “If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.”

Joshua 24:23–24 “Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.”

Do not just say you will do it. Just do not give lip service to it. Incline your heart to God.

Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Peter gave lip service to Jesus. He said he would go to prison and the grave for Jesus but before the night was over he had denied Jesus three times. Lip service will not give you victory. If you want live in victory, you must have careful reverence, you must have courageous resolve, and you must have complete reliance.

It is a reliance that says God I cannot do it, but you can do it in me, and I am going to let you do it in me. That is what Paul did.

2 Corinthians 1:9–10 “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;”

Dear friend, if you never lose sight of the fact that you are serving and worshipping the God who raised the dead, you will live in victory. I want you to remember this.

“Victory is not your responsibility; victory is your response to His ability.” AMEN!!!!

Reverence, resolve, repentance, and reliance will keep you from being evicted from Canaan.