Let me ask you something – when you get up in the morning and look at your face in the mirror – what do you see? A winner, or a loser? Interesting question. And when God looks at you – what do you think He sees – a winner, or a loser?

Let me begin today by asking you a question. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? A winner or a loser? Or maybe you’re someone who’s neither. In that grey mass in the middle where most other people are. Neither winning or losing. Neither succeeding at life or failing. Are you someone who’s been conquered by the circumstances of your life? Or are you someone who’s turned the tables and rather than being conquered by them, you’ve in fact conquered those circumstances?

Interesting question because so often the way we see ourselves will have such a powerful impact on the life we end up living.

The athlete who settles down in the starting blocks of a race waiting for the starter’s gun to fire. Let me ask you. If that athlete, in his heart of hearts, sees himself as a loser, if he’s there thinking, “I’m never going to win this race”, do you think for one moment he’s actually going to win the race? Do you think for one moment that he’s going to throw his heart and every other part of himself into drawing ahead of the rest of the field and winning the prize? No.

So why do we imagine that, in our lives, it would be any different? Why do we imagine if we see ourselves as being a failure or a loser, we would make a success out of our lives? Let me ask you again. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

Not sure if you’ve ever thought much about that. But many a person is living their lives out as someone who’s been defeated. And so many others hover in that grey no man’s land between being conquered and having victory. Never really living out their lives to the full.

I’m so excited today because on the program we’re kicking off a series of programs. Ten in all. So this week and next week. Called ‘More Than Conquerors’. Because here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter what you or I see when we look in the mirror. What really matters is what God sees when you and I look in the mirror.

And what He sees when He looks at our reflection is someone who’s not a loser. Someone who’s not with that large grey mass in the middle who don’t have a clue whether they’re winners or losers. What God sees in us isn’t even someone who’s a conqueror. What God sees in you and me is someone who’s more than a conqueror.

How do I come to that conclusion? Well the victory that God wants you and me to have in our lives is plastered all over the Old Testament and the New Testament. And when I opened my eyes to it, I’ve got to tell you, it blew me away.

It’s a whole different perspective, if you’ll pardon the pun, God’s perspective on who we are when we place our faith in Jesus and what life He wants us to have. A life of victory. A life where circumstances don’t conquer us but where we conquer them.

See being more than a conqueror isn’t just about not being defeated, it’s about living life so fully, so completely in the victory that Jesus Christ purchased for you and me on that cross. That His glory and His power and His love and His grace overflow out of our lives into the lives of other people.

See a conqueror sits back and surveys the battlefield and gloats in his or her victory. But someone who’s more than a conqueror takes victory and shares it around.

My friend, listen to me, God wants for you and for me to be more than a conqueror. What I don’t mean by that is that we set some selfish agenda for ourselves and then we trample over all and sundry to get what we want. What I don’t mean is that we’re meant to have lots of money and live in a big house and be wealthy. There are plenty of people out there who’ll tell you that and I’m not one of them. If that’s what you want to hear, go listen to them.

No, what I mean is that come what may, whatever life hurls at us, whatever trials and wildernesses we have to walk through, that there will be something inside us. A joy, a quiet assurance. A peace that doesn’t make sense.

That’s what I mean. Joy and peace and an assurance that our King, God Himself, is still on the throne; that our redeemer lives. That come what may, one day you and I will be with Him in all His glory, come what may.

See, this idea of being more than a conqueror, it’s not my idea. Actually it comes from Gods word, specifically the apostle Paul. Now Paul, Paul poured his life out to tell people about Jesus and yet, he faced the most awful trials. Have a listen.

He’s writing to the Church in Corinth and he’s sharing some of the things that he’s been through and his helpers have been through and he says that:

We’ve been through great endurance, in afflictions, hardship, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, in labour, sleepless nights, hunger.

And yet they’ve survived. They’ve survived by:

Purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the power of God.

With the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. In honour and dishonour. In ill repute and good repute. When we are treated as impostors and yet, are true. As unknown and yet are well known. As dying and see, we’re still alive. As punished and yet not killed. As sorrowful yet always rejoicing. As poor yet making many riches. As having nothing and yet possessing everything.

That’s what he writes. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 5 to 10.

You see here what’s going on? He’s saying circumstances buddy are not going to get the better of me. Paul’s had a tough gig out there living his life for Jesus. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 8 to 10. This is what he says:

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

And when he’s writing to the Church in Rome, he picks up on this, this reality of his life and listen to the words of confidence and assurance in the face of the toughest of circumstances. Romans chapter 8, verses 35 to 39. This is what he says:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor present things nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don’t know about you but Paul has something I want. And it’s not just him. We’ll look at some other instances of this over the next few weeks. My point today is this. Let me come back to it. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see a winner or a loser? Because there’s nothing, nothing in the Bible about living out our lives as losers. There’s nothing in Gods will that wants us wallowing around in self pity and fear and grief all our lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong. God promises us that we will have pressures, that we will travel through persecutions and trials and losses and all those things. He promises we will and it’s human, sometimes those things are hard, sometimes those things get us down. But in those, His will is for us not to be defeated.

Not just for us to have victory but for us to have the sort of victory where we have more than enough to share around with others in need. The sort of victory where we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

The question, well the question is this. Are we ready for that sort of life? Are we ready to be more than conquerors? Is that something that we really really want? Well, is it?

I often try to imagine what it must have been like when the guns fell silent at the end of World War II. Seventy two million dead … and then, all of a sudden peace. It must have been surreal. It must have taken some – coming to grips with. Peace always does.

World War II was the deadliest war of all of history. The estimates are that some 72 million people were killed. Just stop and take that in. 72 million people. Now it’s interesting to know that the Axis forces, that’s Germany, Italy and Japan, lost 11 million but the allies, they lost 61 million.

Such a great irony that the cost of defending freedom was, well, five and a half times greater than the cost of trying to destroy it. My parents lived through World War II in Europe. My father was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was drafted into the Wermacht and fought on the Russian front.

They’ve never spoken too much about it but just piecing bits and pieces together, the war footage I’ve seen on TV and the snippets from my family, the cold hard statistics. I just can’t imagine, it must have been horrific. It must have been unbelievable; the destruction; the fear.

Can you imagine? These people had lived all their lives in their homes assuming that World War I was the war to end all wars. And then 72 million died in World War II. But the thing I most try to imagine and I just can’t imagine it, is what it must have been like the day the guns fell silent. Not the celebrations in the streets that followed but in that instant, in that moment when the clock ticked over in May, 1945 and the killing stopped. Peace. Victory. What did it feel like?

I gained a unique perspective from a Jewish woman, now well into her eighties, who was there. She, her mother and her sister had been shipped off to Auschwitz. When they arrived she was separated into a different queue from her family and she never saw them again. She was young and strong and she ended up working as a seamstress in Germany making uniforms for the German soldiers.

In the weeks leading up to the end of the war she told us that there were rumours. The young women would whisper secretly about what was going on but no-one really knew until one day the allied forces marched into the city where she’d been imprisoned and set her free.

I’ll never forget the look in her eyes when she shared that moment with me. Victory! Finally, after all this, victory. How sweet must the taste have been. How sweet when the guns fell silent when V.E. day was declared on May the 8th, 1945. Victory! Peace! It’s over. Can you imagine?

Earlier this week, on the program, we were talking about the fact that Gods heart is for us to have victory in life; for us to have peace in life. For us to be more than conquerors as the apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it’s written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep to the slaughter.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

It doesn’t matter what we’re fighting against, struggling against. God wants us to have peace. But here’s the problem. Amongst the ranks of those who bear the name of Christ, the armies of Christian soldiers, amongst those ranks in many units, in many places, all they know of is rumours of peace. They’ve heard that peace is coming but don’t know that it’s actually here, it’s arrived.

Peace has broken out. The guns have fallen silent. Hostilities have ceased. The one who has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ, this saviour, has peace, can live in peace. This one has victory, can live in victory:

Therefore, since we are justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to the grace in which we now stand and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

That’s the apostle Paul, Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2.

When we put our faith in this Jesus we are made right with God. We’re justified. And so we have peace through Jesus with God. This is the grace in which we now stand. That peace. That victory over death is something that each believer possesses here and now. What’s more, we’re meant to live in it. We’re meant to experience the sweet, sweet taste of victory here and now.

You know what I find really scary? Worldwide there are billions of people who, one way or another, believe in Jesus. Billions. But so many in the midst of Gods kingdom haven’t woken up to the fact that victory is ours. The guns have fallen silent. Peace has broken out. It’s time to taste the sweet, sweet taste of victory.

And you might say to me, “Berni, how can you say that? Look at what’s going on in my life. Look at the battles I’m fighting on so many fronts. How can you say that peace has broken out? How can you say to me, taste the sweet taste of victory when I don’t even know how I’m going to make it through to tomorrow?”

And my answer to you is this, by faith. 1 John chapter 5, verses 4 and 5:

Whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

You go back to listen to apostle Paul’s words on being more than a conqueror and what you realise is that he wasn’t talking necessarily about victory over his circumstances. He was talking about victory in his circumstances. The victory that Jesus bought for you and me on the cross is a victory that is meant to make us strong in the middle of all we’re going through.

My friend, we can have peace. In fact we’re meant to have peace right now, here today. Look around. The moment we believe in Jesus and what He did for us, in that very moment the clock ticks over, the guns cease to fire and there is peace, blessed peace, between God and us. And His victory, the victory over death that Jesus purchased on that cross when He paid for my sin and yours, the victory of a new life that’s there to be lived.

You know what I ache for? You know how I shared that look in the eye of the elderly Jewish woman as she told me about the day she was set free? I ache to see that look in the eyes of every man and woman and child who believes in Jesus. I ache to see that freedom, that peace, that victory becomes the dominant reality in the life of each one of us who puts their faith in Jesus.

Why? Because when we live our lives in that truth, in that reality, we become more than conquerors. The things that once shot fear through into our hearts no longer have an impact. The trials encountered in the wilderness that we walk through become opportunities to discover a mysterious God instead of all deals of dread.

My friend, Jesus came to set us free. He came to give us victory. And He came to make us more than conquerors.

After all the destruction and the mayhem and the mess in our lives, why wouldn’t we want to live out that freedom, conquer the enemy and taste the sweet, sweet taste of victory? I tell you, that’s how I’ve decided to live my life. I have decided to take Jesus at His word and simply believe that He means for me not to be some angry, stunted, bitter little person but instead to taste that sweet taste of victory.

Sometimes we can be fighting so many battles in our lives – it feels like we’re living in a war zone. That’s because we are – we’ve stepped into a spiritual battlefield. How’s it going to turn out? Who’s going to win – us or the enemy?

Just recently my wife, Jacqui, and I discovered that a friend of ours had been diagnosed with lung cancer. She had breast cancer and now the cancer had spread to her lungs. And you know, she is such a wonderful woman. Godly all her life. She served others and here, in her late fifties, this … it doesn’t seem fair.

It doesn’t seem, through our eyes, right. God, why her? Why do you allow this to happen to her? And I tried. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes. Chemotherapy. An uncertainty about, well about life itself. How long she would live. I tried to imagine but I couldn’t. I tried to imagine what it would be like to know that your life would be cut short. To know that the end of this life, here on earth, was going to come sooner, much sooner, than I’d hoped or expected.

See we all have hopes and dreams and plans. I’m always looking forward to things and planning new things. I’m thinking about the radio programs I’m going to be writing and recording next year. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden I discover that, for me, there’s not going to be a next year. At least not here. What would that be like? How would I cope? How would I react? Let me ask you that question, how would you react? How would you cope?

If you’ve seen that movie Forest Gump you’ll know that great line from the movie when Forest says, “My mamma says life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” And it’s true. Sometimes our lives feel like a war zone. Like everything is going wrong. It’s tough when someone you love is really sick. Or when we lose loved ones. Or when we’re sick.

It’s tough when there’s not enough money to put food on the table. It’s tough when people lose their homes and their livelihoods. It’s tough when we set out to do the right thing, to live our lives for God, to honour Him and yet people misunderstand us. People turn against us. People … well you get the drift.

And you know something, even sometimes when it feels as though life’s going along pretty, well okay, there’s still a war raging. We get lulled into this false sense of security and we start to drift along in comfort but get this, this is the reality. Life is a war zone, 24 x 7. We are living on a battlefield because our enemy, the devil, is roaming around like a lion looking for someone to devour.

Now I’m blessed. I live in a safe country, a safe part of the world. By any standard, the city where I live in is affluent. Yeah there are some bad things that happen but by and large, it’s safe. It’s free. There’s enough to go around. And so in my neck of the woods, at least, it’s easy to be lulled into this false sense of security. This idea that “oh it’s all okay”.

But tomorrow, well tomorrow I could be diagnosed with cancer. Tomorrow I could find myself in some sort of trouble. Listen to me, that’s life! And I know, doing what I’m doing, that every day of the week, 24 x 7, that my enemy, the devil, is roaming around looking for someone to devour. Me.

The apostle Paul wanted you and me to understand that we live on a battlefield in a war zone. Have a listen. It comes from the book of Ephesians in the New Testament, chapter 6 beginning at verse 10. He says:

Finally be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle isn’t against enemies of flesh and blood but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day and having done everything to stand firm.

And then, just to make the point, Paul writes about the armour of God using the picture, the metaphor of the armour worn by Roman soldiers of the day. It continues on in Ephesians chapter 6 beginning at verse 14. He says:

Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist. Put on the breast plate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith with which you’ll be able to quench the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

Paul’s saying here to his friends in Ephesus and God’s saying here to you and me through this letter in the New Testament, that we need to live our lives on a war footing, we’re in a battle. And you know something, it’s not just the circumstances of life on their own, as if some days they aren’t bad enough. But the devil is a reality. There’s a war going on in the spiritual dimension which is as real, as powerful, as anything that we can see or touch or smell or taste or feel, here in the physical dimension.

Listen again to what Paul writes. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12:

Our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood.

In other words it’s not about what we can see. He says it’s:

Against the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

But the point of this battle that we live in is that we are meant to win. We are meant to have victory. In fact we already have victory if we put our faith in Jesus Christ. And now God wants us to live in that victory.

Can I tell you something? We all have days where we feel like we’re defeated. I do. You do. And so often they sneak in under our guard after some great victory. You know, something goes really well and you think, “God, you are so good. Thank you for that.” And the very next day you feel so low and wonder, “what’s it all about? Why am I even living life?”

The tragedy is many people live their lives like that. Some people live like zombies, living dead. Physically they’re alive but spiritually, emotionally they’re dead inside. There’s a reason for that. Because we live on a spiritual battlefield that is so real, so powerful that, through Paul, God’s telling us that actually that’s what it’s all about. That’s actually where the action is. And we ignore that at our peril.

But even when we feel defeated, even when victory is the furthest thing from our minds, God wants us to know that victory is ours. That we don’t have to live our lives in defeat and misery and self pity. God’s perspective is so different from our own.

Let me share with you what the apostle John had to say on this whole “victory” thing. Because I think it’s something God wants to write on our hearts today:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments.

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments and his commandments aren’t burdensome for whatever is born of God conquers the world and this is the victory that conquers the world – our faith. Who is it that conquers the world? But the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what the world wants to throw at you and me. If all we have is just a humble love for God in our hearts. If that’s all we have then it may not seem much in the face of cancer or loss or grief or temptation or whatever else the world throws at us. But it turns out, in God’s eyes it’s everything:

Who is it that conquers the world? But the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

In God’s eyes it’s absolutely everything.

Let me ask you something – do you believe in the devil? I mean – do you believe that he exists? And if so – let me ask you this – what’s he up to right now? What’s he doing? Where is he? And what’s God’s take on all that anyway?

In my younger years, I spent ten years in the Australian Army. Four years training at the Officer Training Academy, and then six years as a junior officer. One of the things that really struck me about the way that the army trained was not only that it trained specifically for war, I mean that’s obvious for an army, but that in all our training we trained against a specific notional enemy.

Funny thing that. They had fully blown manuals, hundreds of pages just describing the capabilities and the tactics of this notional enemy. Whenever we went out on exercise they would have an enemy that fought against us who behaved exactly like the enemy described in those manuals.

And when you think about it, it makes sense to prepare a soldier, a platoon, a battalion, a brigade for battle. You had to train them to engage with, fight with and defeat the enemy. And that intensive training made our army one of the finest fighting forces in the world. I mean, I can’t imagine what a sloppy outfit we would have been if we didn’t get a handle on who the likely enemy was, how he behaved and how to defeat him.

In fact, when you sit back and think about it, as a citizen of any country, that’s exactly what we would expect our army to be able to do in order to defend us and to protect us. To defeat the enemy.

Over the last few days on the program we’ve been talking around the theme, I’ve used the apostle Paul’s words to describe it, that we are more than conquerors. In every game there are winners and losers and when it comes to the most important game of all so many people feel as though they’re not winners at all. Many in fact feel as though they’re losing at life.

It doesn’t mean that we’re all a bunch of whacky fruit cakes. Just this sense that the circumstances we’re confronted with, the grind of life, is wearing us down. And the point is that when Jesus came He came to give us victory. A final ultimate victory over death itself because anyone who has their faith in Jesus who died to pay for their sin (I use that word quite deliberately) and rose again to give them life. Anyone who believes in that has eternal life, but also a victory here and now.

One of the most encouraging things that Jesus ever said to His disciples just before the authorities arrested Him and took Him away to be crucified. I mean, here’s this miracle working Jesus, the disciples lived with Him for three and a half years. They put all their faith and hope in Him. They saw the amazing things He did and heard the amazing things He said. And He was about to be snatched away from them, nailed to a cross and He says to them, John chapter 16, verse 33:

I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace. For in this world you will face persecution but take courage, I have conquered the world.

So it’s not just a victory in the end but Jesus the conqueror of this world, here and now. Despite the fact that sometimes we have to face what appears to be a defeat. And that’s why it’s so important for us to take some time today just to reflect on the battleground in which we live.

Yeah, circumstances can get us down. Bad things seem to happen to good people. And when those things happen, it’s really, really tough. But there’s something else that can get us down. There’s something else that can rob us of the victory that Jesus has planned for us here on earth. Or should I say someone else.

C.S. Lewis was a great children’s author. He wrote the books of Narnia. But he was also a great theologian. He once had this to say about our spiritual enemy, the devil:

There are two equal and opposite errors in to which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and yet to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

In other words, to ignore the fact that the devil is real and alive and has an impact on us is as dangerous as partnering with him in his evil plans and designs.

So easy for us just to live life with our eyes closed, pretending that there isn’t a spiritual dimension. Pretending that there isn’t a battle going on for our souls in the heavenly places. As we saw yesterday on the program, God’s word clearly tells us that there is, in fact, such a battle raging. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12:

For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Why do I bring this up again today? Why? Well here it is. Because we have victory over the devil. Jesus said that:

This thief (the devil) comes only to steal, kill and destroy. To rob us of life but that He (Jesus) came so that we can have life in all of its abundance.

There’s a clear choice. Which one do you want? You can spend your whole life being plundered by the devil or have the victory over him that Jesus came to give us. Well? But like any army we need to understand our enemy and learn to fight against him. And for us it’s much easier because Jesus has already defeated him through his death and resurrection. Paul writes in Colossians chapter 2, verse 15:

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

The battle has been won. You and I, do you believe in Jesus? Well then you and I, we have victory. We are more than conquerors. And to live that out two things need to happen, just two actually. The first one is we just have to open our eyes and be alert. Be aware. Have our eyes open to the reality that the enemy, the devil, wants to bring us down. Listen to this verse, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8:

Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion our adversary, the devil, prowls around looking for someone to devour.

See, just like an army. If the army’s asleep, if the army’s not on guard the enemy’s going over run them. Peter’s saying here, “get a grip on the enemy, be prepared, be alert, understand the reality because the enemy is out there after you and after me.”

And the second, the second is to train against him so we actually live out that victory. James chapter 4, verse 7:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

See the mistake we make is that sometimes we try to take the devil on head on; to fight him at his own game. But he’s been at it much longer than you and I have. He has strengths and powers that we ourselves can’t match. The answer is not, let me say that again, not in fighting the devil.

The answer is in living in God’s camp:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. (Step one)

Step two:

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

The answer is having an intimate, close relationship with Jesus. Just day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, living out the love we have for Him and the tremendous love that He has for us. That’s what it means to submit ourselves to God. It’s a positive act. Whereas trying to grapple with the enemy on his turf is a negative one.

And this is what happens when we get it right, when we just position ourselves in God’s camp. We submit ourselves to God and then when the devil comes along we have the power, the power from God to say “no”. We resist him and there, there is the victory:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

This is not rocket science. The enemy, the devil, is a reality. He’s here prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour – you and me. But we already have victory over him. He’s already been defeated. His bravado and his powers are a sham. They were disarmed at the cross; made a spectacle of. Jesus has won. We have victory. We are more than conquerors.

Paul the Apostle – talks about us being – more than conquerors over the adversities of life. Cool idea – but how does that fit with humility? How does that fit with Jesus saying blessed are the meek? Turns out – actually, that it’s a perfect fit.

Victory! Victory is a word that Christians love to bandy around. Paul the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 57:

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Yeah okay, but what does that actually mean? What is victory? I mean victory’s nice but on the other hand victory can be pretty ugly to. You don’t have to look very far back in history to see how victory in a war has come at a terrible price. How victory of one group of people has bought terrible pain and oppression to another group of people.

Surely if God tells us that those who believe in Jesus are more than conquerors, it has to be a different kind of victory. The picture of a conquering army may conjure up images of victory but what about the death and the destruction that it took to get there to become a conqueror in the first place.

No, if God’s talking about some sort of victory in our lives when we put our faith in His Son, Jesus, then it has to be a different kind of victory. A pure victory. A sweet victory. A good and wholesome and wonderful victory. Because if it’s not that sort of victory then surely it can’t be from God.

Question is, when God talks about victory, what sort of victory is He talking about? What does He mean when He speaks the word “victory” into our lives? What exactly is His plan when it comes to making us more than conquerors?

In the world’s eyes, victory’s all about winning. It’s about the winner. Take the swimmers of the Olympics, one one-hundredth of a second can be the margin between gold and silver and no-one remembers the guy who came second. No, it’s a winner takes all model. Winning is everything. There’s no glory in coming second in this world. In fact, a lot of what victory’s about is actually beating the other guy.

Now I don’t know what part of the world you come from but in my neck of the woods cricket is a big deal. I know, I have some American friends and they can’t believe that anybody could possibly be interested in a game that runs for five days, six or seven hours a day. But there you go.

Over the past decade or so the Australian cricket team has mostly been on top of the world. Beating New Zealand and India and Pakistan and South Africa and the West Indies. And even the inventors of the game, England. In fact for me, the absolute pinnacle of sport, the ultimate, the sweetest victory of all is when we beat England, the Poms, the old enemy as many of the commentators call them.

In this world winning is about beating the other guy, right? It’s about me getting the glory. It’s about me thumping my chest and telling myself how great I am. But when God, in His Word through the apostle Paul, talks about us being more than conquerors, that’s not really what He had in mind.

God has an entirely different notion of what victory means. Have a listen to this beautiful psalm, Psalm 149. We don’t know who wrote it but clearly this is a psalm of praise after God gave His people, Israel, a great victory. Have a listen to it. Psalm 149:

Praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song. His praise is in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in its maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to Him with tambourine and lyre, for the Lord takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with victory. Let the faithful exalt in glory, let them sing for joy on their couches.

God’s given them some great victory over an enemy that’s threatened them and instead of beating their chests and slapping one another on the back and telling each other how utterly amazing they are and how they whopped the enemy and “good on me and good on you”. What do they do? They sing praises to God and give thanks to Him and give Him the glory, all the glory.

And this one verse leaps out at me. Have another listen to it. Psalm 149, verse 4:

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with victory.

God gives victory, not to those who are full of themselves but to the humble.

There’s an amazing scene at the end of World War II when General Dwight D Eisenhower, the supreme allied Commander in Europe addressed the British parliament following victory in Europe. These were General Eisenhower’s first words when he was introduced on the floor of the British parliament. But first he had to wait for a 5 minute standing ovation to end and then this is what he said: “Humility must be the measure of a man whose success was bought with the blood of his subordinates and paid for with the lives of his friends.”

After this first sentence parliament then gave a second standing ovation which lasted fifteen minutes before they again took their seats. And you know something that bit about “success bought with the blood of subordinates and paid for with the lives of friends”, that rings so true when I look at the victory I have in my life.

It’s a victory purchased for me through the blood of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God who came to this earth, suffered incredibly. Was nailed, brutally nailed to a cross and died a gruesome death for one reason and one reason alone: to pay the price of my rebellion and yours. To pay the price of our failures and losses and defeats and let me call it what it is, my sin.

That’s where it was purchased. Through none of my good works. None of my virtues. None of my hard work. It was all done for me, that I might have life eternal. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 beginning at verse 54:

When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality then the saying that was written will be fulfilled, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

God is looking to make us victorious. God is looking to make us more than conquerors, but not in an arrogant sort of way. Not in the sort of way the world expects to conquer. No, in a humble sort of way.

When you and I defeat sin in our lives, when we overcome this obstacle and climb over that mountain and by faith, cast another mountain into the sea. None of that is in our own strength. None of that is through our own abilities. None of that is ’cause we’re great people.

It’s all about the power and the mercy and the grace of God. And this God is looking for humble conquerors:

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with victory.

And again in James chapter 4, verse 6:

He gives all the more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

My friend, when we taste the victories in life that God brings, they are so incredibly sweet. I know, I know there are those among us today who are facing impossible odds. I know that there are those who are caring for mothers with Alzheimer’s disease. There are those struggling to put food on the table. There are those, even in parts of the world where this program is heard who are fleeing for their lives. But as the apostle Paul writes:

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

My friend, we are more than conquerors and that victory is so sweet.