Being Steadfast 6 - Steadfast in Victory

Being Steadfast in Victory

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp concluded a historic season Sunday night by catching a go-ahead touchdown with 1:25 remaining to propel his team to a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.

The star wideout caught eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns in the game — and rushed the ball for seven yards on a pivotal fourth-and-one conversion on the team's final drive. He was named the game's most valuable player for his performance.

On the victory podium after the game, Kupp, an outspoken Christian, used the sport's biggest stage to thank his teammates and give glory to God.

"I don’t know, I don’t feel deserving of this. God is just so good. I’m just so thankful for the guys I get to be around, for the coaches, for my family," he said.

Later, when speaking with reporters during the postgame press conference, Kupp offered more detail on why he never lost confidence even as the team trailed in the second half.

He shared a vision he said God revealed to him three years ago as he was walking off the field following the Rams' loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. He had been unable to play in that game due to a torn ACL but said his faith led him to believe that he would get another chance at victory.

"In 2019, we walked off the field that last time after losing to the Patriots. I wasn’t able to be a part of that thing," he said. "But I don’t know what it was, there was just this vision God revealed to me that we were going to come back, we were going to be part of a Super Bowl, we were going to win it, and somehow I was going to walk off the field as the MVP of the game."

Kupp said he kept the vision to himself and his family until Sunday night. But since the start of the playoffs, he believed the script was written.

"I shared that with my wife because I couldn’t tell anyone else obviously what that was, but from the moment this postseason started, there was just a belief every game that it was written already," he said. "It was written already and I just got to play free knowing that I got to play from victory, not for victory. I got to play in a place where I was validated not from anything that happened on the field but because of my worth in God and my Father." - Cooper Kupp

Kupp, who won Offensive Player of the Year last week for his accomplishments, had one of the best statistical years in NFL history for a wide receiver.

Cooper Kupp's full season (21 games):

* 178 catches, 2,425 yards, 22 TD

* NFL regular season receiving triple crown

* Unanimous All-Pro

* Most catches in a single postseason (33)

* NFL Offensive Player of the Year

* Super Bowl MVP

One of the greatest individual seasons ever.

According to Sports Spectrum, earlier in the week, the 28-year-old superstar described how his faith in Christ allows him to compete at the highest level each and every day.

"I think the thing that He has taught me is that you will find that you are most fulfilled, you will find the most joy when you are rooted in your purpose, and specifically rooted in His purpose for you,” Kupp said. "That, to me, has been one of the best things about this year."

"My motivation coming in every single day is to run the race in such a way as to honor God and the passions and the talents that He’s given me," he added. "When I’m rooted in that, I am in a great place. I am able to play freely."

(Source: Super Bowl MVP gives glory to God, shares stunning reason he never lost faith on his team's path to victory - TheBlaze)

Cooper Kupp made a proclamation based on what God had revealed:

Deuteronomy 32:3–4 NKJV

3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

To proclaim is to announce, declare, ascribe, call out, cry, invite, preach, pronounce, publish, read and to herald.

David made a proclamation when he stood before Goliath:

1 Samuel 17:45–47 NKJV

45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

David knew that He served a God who would make him victorious over the Philistine. But, more important than knowing this, he spoke it. First, David established his authority, not in himself, but in the Lord. Verse 45- “but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty.” He understood that by no strength of his own could he defeat Goliath. After establishing his authority, David tells Goliath what he was going to do. Nothing happens until something is spoken. David knew that his words had power. Therefore, what he spoke by God’s authority would come to pass. Lastly, he established that it all would be for the glory of God. Likewise, everything that we do should be to the glory of God and for his honor so that others might be saved.

1. We Must Establish Our God-Given Authority

Luke 10:19 NKJV

19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Matthew 16:19–22 NKJV

19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

2. We Must Proclaim What God Will Do

Based on His Word and His Character

Psalm 103:1–6 NKJV

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed.

Isaiah 53:1–6 NKJV

1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Philippians 4:19 NKJV

19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

3. We must Move with His Spirit

1 Chronicles 14:10–15 NKJV

10 And David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” The Lord said to him, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.” 11 So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 12 And when they left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire. 13 Then the Philistines once again made a raid on the valley. 14 Therefore David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; circle around them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. 15 And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”

1 Chronicles 14:16 NKJV

16 So David did as God commanded him, and they drove back the army of the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer.

4. We Must Speak What Give Us to Speak

Exodus 4:12 NKJV

12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

Exodus 4:15 NKJV

15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.

Jeremiah 1:7 NKJV

7 But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Jeremiah 5:14 NKJV

14 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.

Isaiah 59:21 NKJV

21 “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”

Allyson Testimony