Victory Over Sin

Transcribed by Beluga AI.

Well, praise God for the new birth and praise God for answering all our prayers for not only Stephanie, but Ron is doing much better as well. Let’s continue to lift up our brothers and sisters.

Please turn with me. We’ll go back to the text we read last week. We’ll go a little bit further. 1 Corinthians 15:55 to the end.

⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:55-58, ESV)

Okay, let’s pray.

We ask you, Lord, to unpack these verses even more. We just celebrated the Resurrection. Lord, we want to know now what is this new life that we are that we’ve been ushered into as we follow Jesus, the resurrected King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Well, I joined a basketball league, 35 years and above, a church league. First of all, my wife was very worried about me joining because she knew that my body probably would be in shock. She was right.

Afterwards, I couldn’t drive home because my feet were cramping. I had to wait in the parking lot about 10 minutes until my feet calmed down. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with shins on fire, cramping. Did you know that there is a muscle in the front of your shin bone?

I thought it’s just bone and skin, but there is a muscle there, and it was so tight. I was in so much pain. But I joined this league because I refuse to let my body just decay.

If you’re in your 50s, and I was trying to get some of my friends who are around my age to join. And I’m hearing all of these things, and I’m not judging them, but maybe I am judging them. They’re saying, oh, I’m in pain. My knees are bad, and I don’t want to just allow pain to dictate my life.

I was in pain some years ago, and I could have just said, well, that’s just old age. We’re all going to just decay and just get worse and worse and worse.

So, I remember my 30s. I thought I was healthy, but I wasn’t healthy. I was just stitched together by my youth and just barely hanging on. And it just took one fall in my late 30s on the basketball court. And I had a herniated disc.

In my 40s, I started to recover a little bit more. I had some knee pain after Covid.

I could have thrown the towel and said, no more basketball, no more mobility. I’m just going to have to live with pain for the rest of my life and just slow down. But I refuse, I refuse to say I am a 50-year-old who’s going to just slow down.

So, I went with that kind of mindset and I actually did quite well on my first day. It was a tryout. The last time I went for a basketball tryout was when I was a freshman in high school with zero basketball training.

I never played a minute of organized basketball. I just kind of played around in my driveway. So, of course, I was cut from the team. But this time I said, Lord, I’m going to show out. I’m going to show the people that I am skilled. And so I was.

I think I’m a lottery pick. I think I’m a lottery pick. There’s about 60 people, 35 to 40, okay, they’re better than me because they move faster. I don’t count those, but people in their 40s and above. I think I’m in the top 10.

I think I’m a top 10 out of the 60 men who are there. I think I am a lottery pick. But the reason why I say this is now that I overcame the mentality that I just need to show up and I can play, I can hang with these 35-year-olds. Now I am actually going to go into strict training. I’m going to practice, I’m going to run, I’m going to get in shape. So, you’ll see me transform over the next 12 weeks. And I’m going for the championship. I’m going for the MVP.

It’s possible for a 50-year-old to be a champion and an MVP of a 35 and above league. It is possible in Christ.

Why I talk about this is it starts with a mindset. And so, if your mindset is. Well, let me first. Let me first ask the question. It says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What kind of victory is he promising here? Any answers? What kind of victory is this? Victory over what? Yes, Sin. Yes. Yes. That’s great.

And? I think I heard it over here. Death. I think all Christians would readily say victory over death. I agree with. Because Jesus rose from the dead, I’m not going to stay rotting in the grave for all of eternity. I will be raised with Christ. I will receive a resurrected body.

So, we agree with victory over death, but do you agree victory over sin? Do you believe that? Do you believe that’s possible? How many say it’s possible? How many say, I say Amen. I really believe it’s possible.

Keep your hands up if you believe it’s really possible.

You know, I’m glad this church believes that victory over sin is possible. Did you know that many, many people in the church don’t believe it’s possible? They say I’m a sinner and I will just keep sinning and sinning and sinning. It’s like I’m 50 years old. I’m just gonna. I’m just gonna fade into oblivion. I’m just gonna let my body decay. I’m not gonna be better. I’m not gonna overcome. I’m not.

It really starts with a changed mindset.

If you’re a Christian and you’re struggling with the same sin over and over, and you just believe, okay, he forgives me, he covers me. That’s true. But if you still are struggling with the same things into your third decade, your fourth decade, your fifth decade of being a Christian, you’re gonna feel like a loser. you’re gonna feel like something that Jesus promises is so out of reach, like this victory over sin. Is it possible?

Theologically, people actually don’t even believe it’s possible. Some people give verses that say it’s not possible. They quote King David in the Old Testament. They say, look at this sinner; as great a man as he is, he kept on sinning, and he sinned in these spectacular ways. So, of course, we’re going to keep sinning.

That’s not much victory if you’re going to struggle with sin to the day you die. Victory over death, we can say Amen to. Victory over sin, also, we must say Amen. It starts with a mindset. Do you believe that Jesus can overcome all the sins in your life? And so, you might ask, what sins?

Let me just give you a quick set of verses for you to wrestle with this coming week. Turn with me to Matthew 15.

Actually, before I go there, I want to wrap up. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says,

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58, ESV)

And I want to key in on the phrase ” of the Lord,” “in the Lord.” All that you do for the Lord is for him.

Whether it’s preparing the snacks, whether it’s doing the sound, whether it’s doing praise, everything is for Him.

And so, for me, I hope, I would hope that I would have the same zeal whether I’m preaching to a packed stadium or to a few handful of people. Because I’m not here for you. I’m really not here for you. I’m here to meet the Lord.

Everything I do may be done with this kind of heart. It’s for Him. Let me abound. Let me do my best for Him. Let me meet Him.

Let me exalt his Name to the best of my ability, with enthusiasm, with joy. Because if we look to one another, because a lot of people, they, they go to church for people. They go because they, for the community. And that’s the main reason. And they, they’re, they’re so annoyed by so and so. They’re like, this person is annoying. This person is not pulling the weight.

And if we look to each other are. We will not abound in the Lord. We will actually get smaller and smaller.

Our enthusiasm will wane if we look to one another because we’re flawed. We’re still on the path of overcoming, and so we cannot look to each other. We must look to the Lord. That’s how we maintain our enthusiasm, whether it’s a few people or a packed crowd. It’s for the Lord.

If you’re by yourself and you’re singing, you’re not doing it for anybody else. It’s in your prayer closet. you’re doing it unto the Lord. And when we gather, we bring that same enthusiasm. It’s not about anybody who’s gathered here.

Of course, we love each other. Of course, we stir up good deeds for one another. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here for the Lord. We’re here to glorify the Lord. We’re here to meet the Lord. We’re here to testify of the goodness of the Lord.

That’s how we maintain this steadfast, immovable, abounding work that is not in vain. So, victory over death we can readily agree with as believers, because Jesus rose from the grave. If he did it, everything we’re doing is useless, is in vain.

So that part, at the very least, all Christians, we say Amen to that. But victory over sin, is that possible?

Let’s struggle with Matthew 15:18.

¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:18-20, ESV)

What ruins any situation is our own heart. You could have the best situation, but as soon as you bring an evil heart into that situation, it’s ruined.

And so, we think, we come into a situation and we think the problem is everybody else. And we don’t deal with our heart because it’s easy to blame other people, easy to blame other situations. But God says the source of our discontent lies within.

And how do we know what sins we need to overcome? Some are obvious. Like if you are actually murdering people, that’s an obvious thing. you, you’re going to suffer the consequences of sin.

But if you have hatred in your heart, it’s the same thing. It might not come out in the same aggressive form, but it’s the same. It’s an evil thing that must be addressed in the heart.

You might not be addicted to pornography. That’s an obvious thing. We need to struggle with that and see the Lord break through and overcome that addiction. But you still might have a lustful thought. So there’s something in the heart that needs to be addressed.

And you might say, I don’t know what’s in my heart.

Start with examining the speech that comes out of your mouth. Look back on this past week. What came out of your mouth? Was it kindness? Was it mercy? Was it grace? Was it forgiveness? Was it joy? Was it thanksgiving?

Or was it grumbling? Was it complaining? Was it blaming? Was it slander? Was it criticism? Very clearly, through the mouth, we get a clue about the condition of our heart. And I invite you to start there. We must overcome these things.

We must overcome these things because when we gather as Christians who don’t overcome these things, we make the mistake of thinking everybody else is the problem. The situation is a problem. The church is a problem. My society is a problem. America is a problem. The world is a problem.

No, the problem is within. It’s my evil heart that needs to be dealt with. How do we know where we need to repent? You start with the words that come out. That gives a clue.

And so, once you start identifying, here are the sins: the slander, the sexual immorality, the hatred, the violence, the addictions. Once we start identifying what the sins are, how do we deal with it?

Because Jesus says, victory is yours. You gotta go get it. You gotta go get it. I’m not gonna be fit by just passively sitting there on my couch. I have to work on maintaining fitness and overcoming illnesses and overcoming pains in my body. I can overcome. I just need to work harder. I need to be smarter. I need to eat better.

I can’t overcome these things. I have to go after it. Even in terms of health, if you don’t go after it and you just sit there, of course you’re just going to decay. Spiritually, the same thing. You see these sins in you, you have to go after them and go to Jesus and say, help me, Lord, I’m tired of these sins. Help me, Lord.

You repent, you ask for forgiveness, you ask for help to overcome. You apply the victory over these areas, and over time, you will be victorious.

Or you can just sit there on the couch and say, this is the condition of my heart. Here are the words. It’s not changing. I’m going into my 50s, my 60s. Nothing is changing.

But thanks be to God, he forgives me, right? That’s not how we want to do Christian life. We want to go after our sins by running to Jesus, asking him for help. Victory is yours in Christ. You need to apply it in these specific areas. Go after it.

It happens in physical fitness. You got to go after it. You can’t.

You can’t be passive spiritually. You need to shed blood and attack these sins that you see. Run to Jesus, ask him to help overcome these things. And may the victory that Jesus declared at Calvary be yours and mine.

Okay, let’s pray.

Father, forgive us. We say Amen to victory over death in the grave because you did it first. But when it comes to victory over sin, which is the sting of death, many times we don’t quite say Amen with the same forcefulness.

And we live with sin. We justify our sin; we blame others instead of looking inward to our sin. The mouth speaks and shows us the condition of our heart, and yet we ignore it. Forgive us, Lord, of our pride, of our anger, over sexual immorality, over judgment, slander, evil thoughts.

There are so many things that our mouth reveals about the condition of our hearts, the worldliness. We repent, Lord. Forgive us, Lord. We run to you, we hold on to you violently, and we struggle to the point of shedding our blood.

Whatever it takes, Lord, we want to overcome these things physically. We will spend so much energy and effort to be physically just a little bit stronger, a little bit faster.

How much seriously do we take the condition of our hearts, Lord? That should be our aim. That should be our focus.

And so, Lord, we want to apply the victory that you accomplished at Calvary in the specific areas of sin. May you help us to overcome. We know we can have it. This victory is ours in Christ Jesus.

We know by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, we are overcomers. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Pray that you meet us as we remember Your Body that was broken and Your Blood shed.

Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.