I'M MORE THAN CONQUERORS
Peace in a Pandemic • Sermon • Submitted
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· 408 viewsThe verse before us today has brought comfort and hope to the hearts of God’s children for 2,000 years. It reminds us that us that we are “More Than Conquerors” in spite of how things appear to us, or in spite of how we may feel about our circumstances.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I want to talk to you today from the topic “I’m More Than A Conqueror.”
“I’m More Than A Conqueror.”
Somebody need to hear this morning that “I’m More Than A Conqueror.”
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire.
Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane.
Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting.
When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway.
He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let's go! Let's go!”
The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the air.
“Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.”
“Why?” asked the pilot.
“Because I'm going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I'm a photographer and photographers take pictures!”
After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you're not the instructor?”
That is exactly how life appears to us at times, isn’t it?
It seems at times that whoever may be driving the plane doesn’t know where he is going, or what he is doing.
But, that’s just how things appear to us.
From our vantage point it seems that our lives get into more messes than we can figure out.
But, again, that’s just how things appear.
According to the Bible, the children of God are a perpetually victorious people.
We can’t always see it.
We don’t always feel it.
We don’t always live like it.
It’s true nonetheless.
The text before us today has brought comfort and hope to the hearts of God’s children for 2,000 years.
In spite of how things appear to us, or in spite of how we may feel about our circumstances someone need to know that “I’m More Than A Conqueror.”
I. THE REALITY OF BEING A CONQUEROR
I. THE REALITY OF BEING A CONQUEROR
Paul uses the phrase “more than conquerors”.
This translates a word that only appears here in the New Testament.
It refers to those who “gain a surpassing victory.”
It means, “to be completely victorious; to carry away an overwhelming victory.”
It literally has the idea of us being “Super-conquerors”.
That’s what the Bible says we are, but that is not always how we feel.
Most of the time, most believers I know seem to be overwhelmed by life.
When Paul writes that we “are” “super-conquerors”, he uses a tense that suggests a “present tense, active situation.”
In other words, he is saying that Christians “keep on winning a glorious victory.”
He is saying that even when all of life is arrayed against us, we are still “super conquerors.”
Regardless of how things feel to us or look to us, we are still “more than conquerors”.
That is the clear testimony of the Word of God
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our prayer should be that we would accept by faith the promises of God concerning the victory we have in Jesus.
Our prayer should also be that God would help us to live out that victory everyday, in spite of how things look to us, or how we feel about our circumstances.
II. THE REALM OF BEING CONQUEROR
II. THE REALM OF BEING CONQUEROR
Paul says that we are “more than conquerors” “in all these things.”
Most of us have the idea that victory occurs when we are living lives that are free from troubles, afflictions and heartaches.
Paul says that reality is something far different.
We are “more than conquerors” in spite of everything the world and the devil can throw at us.
The “these things” Paul is referring to can be found in verse 33-35.
Look at this list of problems. Many of these things are a common part of living.
We are “super-conquerors” in spite of those who Charge Us, v. 33
We are victorious over all those who would challenge our relationship with the Lord.
God has “justified” us and nothing will ever change His mind.
We are “super-conquerors” in spite of those who Condemn Us, v. 34
We are victorious over those who would declare that we are unworthy before the Lord.
Jesus Christ died for us on the cross and shed His blood to save us and no one can undo what He did for us on the cross!
We are “super-conquerors” in spite of those who Confound Us, v. 35
The world and the devil have ever been the enemies of the children of God.
The attacks are frequent and they are severe. In spite of everything they throw in our direction, we are still victorious over all their efforts to defeat us and to destroy us.
Look at the list of attacks the children of God face in this life.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Tribulation – To be squeezed or to feel pressure. This is the common problems all people face,
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
1 Man that is born of a woman
Is of few days, and full of trouble.
Distress – Literally “a narrow place”. It means to be hemmed in by one’s circumstances. To be trapped with no way out.
Persecution – Suffering inflicted on us because of our relationship with Jesus.
Famine – A lack of necessary resources. This is the natural byproduct of persecution.
Nakedness – A lack of proper clothing. To be in a state of destitution. This is also a byproduct of persecution.
Peril – The threat of imminent and awful danger.
Sword – The threat of murder. The cold, hard death dealing instrument that sent many believers out into eternity.
We are “more than conquerors” not by avoiding these things, but by triumphing over them through Jesus Christ.
III. THE REASON WHY YOUR MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
III. THE REASON WHY YOUR MORE THAN A CONQUEROR
Paul tells us that the only reason that we are victorious in this life is “through Him that loved us”.
Our victory does not lie within ourselves; our victory rests in Christ alone!
Consider for a moment what we deserve,
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then, stop and think about what He did to prove His love for us,
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The love of God for His children is so vast, so deep and so far reaching that God wants us to know that nothing can come separate us from His great love for us.
Verses 38-39 tells us the depth, breadth, height and length of God’s love for His children.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul tells us that none of the things mentioned in these verses can “separate us” from the love of God.
The word “separate” means “to divide, to put asunder, to divorce, to put away.”
So, we are “more than conquerors”
Victory is ours because the Lord loves us and promises us that His love is the guarantee of our conquest of all the things that come against us.