Sermon Transcript

0:00:00.0

Well, sports teams that go undefeated are the stuff of legends. Wouldn't you agree? Any sports fans out there? The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl and to go undefeated in a single season. They were 17-0. And that was probably the reason back when I was a young boy growing up in Indiana, I was a Miami Dolphins fan. Long before I became a Cowboys fan…not a Redskins fan, no, a Dallas Cowboys fan. Long before that I was a Miami Dolphins fan growing up in Indiana. And it probably had something to do with just, you know, the sunny Florida, the dolphins, the flamingos, those kinds of aqua and orange and white uniforms. That had something to do with it, but also just the gridiron greats that set NFL history in 1972. I still remember the names of these players, starting with Coach Don Shula, a legendary coach in the NFL. Quarterback Bob Griese. He was incredible. A Purdue Boilermaker grad. Go Boilermakers, right? Right, Rosie? Okay. Larry Csonka. Remember Csonka? I mean, what a great football name. Csonka. Larry Csonka had a nose like he had carried the ball up the middle far too many times, just kind of smashed on his face there. Mercury Morris, he was the halfback. Lightning speed, and his name kind of said that. Paul Warfield was the wide receiver. Nick Buoniconti, he was the linebacker. What a great football name, again. And then one of my favorites was the 5' 7" kicker. He was a lefty named Garo Yepremian. The guy could kick the lights out of the ball. This was the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team who won the Super Bowl in NFL history.

0:02:00.5

Now, some of you are New England Patriots fans, and I'll pray for you this morning. But some of you are saying, "No, the 2007 New England Patriots went 18-0." Yes, they did before they lost in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. Sorry, Pats fans. They finished the season 18-1, leaving the '72 Dolphins the only team to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl.

0:02:27.8

Well, today I'm beginning a brand-new series of messages titled "Undefeated." And, no, I don't want to spend the next 6 or 8 weeks talking about sports legends and sports fans and gridiron greats. I want to talk about how to live an undefeated life. How do you live the kind of life that triumphs over troubles, that soars above every struggle, and that overcomes the deadly sins that drag us down?

0:02:55.8

Back in the 6^th century, Pope Gregory I was the first one to come up with this list of the seven deadly sins- pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy and greed. What a list it is. And we're going to talk over the next several weeks about how to conquer these things so they don't drag us down anymore. How to live an undefeated life, a life that triumphs over troubles, soars above every struggle, and overcomes the deadly sins that drag us down. And along the way, here is what I promise I'm going to do. I’m going to point us to Jesus. Jesus, who we'll just call in this series the Undefeated One, He makes us more than conquerors. And He helps us live an undefeated life.

0:03:49.3

Now, I think a good place for us to start is all the way back in the beginning in the book of Genesis to kind of get an understanding of why we might need a series like this. Genesis 1, 2 and 3 tell us that creation story. And the Bible tells us that you and I were created in the image of God. I think part of what that means is we were created to glorify Him, and we were created to live a victorious life. I don't think it was every God's intention for us to experience death, let alone defeat. But Adam, our spiritual and physical forefather…you know the story. Adam was created in the image of God. He wasn't created in perfection. Theologically we say he was created in innocence. And he was given a free will. He was given a choice. He could either obey God and go God's way, or he could disobey God and go his own way. And in Genesis 3 it tells us Adam went his own way. He sinned against God. And the consequences that God warned about, which was death, fell upon Adam. He died spiritually. That means his sin separated him from God. And later he died physically.

0:05:04.8

And the Bible tells us in the book of Romans that "death entered into the world through one man"—that was Adam—"and death spread to all men because all have sinned." You see, we inherited a sin nature from Adam. Adam was born in innocence and created in innocence and was placed in a paradise, a perfect place, the Garden of Eden. But when he sinned, he was kicked out. He left, and now here we are in paradise lost. This is not paradise in case you were wondering. Even the most beautiful place on earth is not paradise. We live in a fallen world, a sin-stained world, which makes it all the more difficult, friends, to live an undefeated life. Jesus Christ went to the cross, died on that cross, and rose from a dead a victor. And our victory is in Him. But the challenge for us is, how do we live an undefeated life? How do we live a life that overcomes and conquers the deadly sins that threaten to drag us down every day?

0:06:20.7

Let's go back to the 6^th century for just a moment. Again, Pope Gregory I initially rolled out the seven deadly sins. They've been kind of tweaked and morphed over the centuries. In fact, by the 13^th century Thomas Aquinas worked on them a little bit. Today we have a list that sounds, again, something like this- pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, greed. That's a deadly list, isn't it? At some level it's also a desirable list. Mark Twain said, "There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable." Isn't that true? That's why sin is so tempting. It's tempting to go down the road of pride or anger, lust or laziness and so on. We have to figure out, as followers of Jesus Christ, how do we overcome these deadly sins that threaten to drag us down into defeat.

0:07:26.8

My concern is that too many of us, as followers of Jesus Christ, are not living a victorious Christian life because one or more in this list…and you can make up your own list perhaps. This is just a fun list to work with from the 6^thcentury and then some. But we're not living that undefeated life, that victorious Christian life. And the question is, why? Why? And how do we do that in partnership with the Holy Spirit and in the victory that Jesus has given to us.

0:07:57.0

Back in Middle Ages, the seven deadly sins were popular. They were popular themes in music, in art, in literature, in the theatre and plays, always with the idea that these were the kinds of vices that we needed to overcome. Because, as Pope Gregory said back in the 6^th century, they lead into other areas of greater immorality. For instance, anger could lead to murder. Lust could lead to adultery. And so, these were the seven that kind of emerged over the years. This is not a list of sins that you will find explicitly or in one place anywhere in the Bible. But we could find stories behind every one of these, and we will. We'll explore them over the next several weeks with the idea that we want to come out as more than conquerors, singing, "Oh victory in Jesus," "We are the champions," and all of that kind of thing.

0:08:59.2

Maybe this is why Peter wrote in his second letter, 2 Peter 1:5…listen to this. He says, "Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue." You see, back in the Middle Ages when they were talking about the seven deadly sins in art and drama and literature, they always did so by laying alongside of the seven deadly sins seven heavenly virtues, corresponding virtues. Because that was the idea was to supplement our faith with virtue, Peter says. When was the last time you heard the word "virtue" in our culture today? What you see on display more often than not is not virtue, but vices. And that ought not to be on display or even hidden in our lives as Christians. The heavenly virtues, correspondingly, were humility, patience, purity, diligence, self-control, gratitude and generosity. And Peter says to us, "Make every effort." It's going to take some holy sweat here, friends. "Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue."

0:10:14.1

If you look back over the last six weeks or six months, or maybe six years of your life, can you say, "I am growing in godly virtue? Or are the vices defeating me every day?" We want to overcome the deadly sins that drag us down and make sure that the heavenly virtues are more a part of our life than these vicious vices that threaten every one of us.

0:10:44.9

I've titled this morning's message "More Than Conquerors," and it comes from Romans 8. But I want to use that as a theme for the rest of our time together and talk about a couple of ways that the Bible describes us, as followers of Jesus Christ, as more than conquerors. First, we are more than conquerors over the troubles of life, the trials, the tribulations and the difficulties.

0:11:14.9

Romans 8:35, Paul says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" If he were writing today, he might add to that "or coronavirus or pestilence." Who or what can separate us from the love of Christ? "As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'" And then he says in verse 37, "No, in all these things…"—in all these trials and troubles and tribulations of life that come upon us—"we [that is, believers in Jesus Christ] are more than conquerors through him who loved us." I love that phrase. Write it down. Circle it in your Bible. "More than conquerors." I love the way the apostle Paul skillfully weaves together the love of Jesus Christ, the trials and tribulations and troubles of life, and the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors, he says.

0:12:24.4

Now, again, I want to take that phrase, those three words, "more than conquerors," and drill down a little bit starting with the word "conquerors." It comes from a Greek word that literally means "to win a victory over, a victor or a conqueror." Now, here is the part that you're going to love. It's the Greek word nikon. You ever heard of nikon cameras? Or better yet, Nike sportswear. This is the word right here. It means victory. It means conquerors. We are more than conquerors. And we're going to trace this word all throughout the New Testament in our time remaining this morning, often translated "overcomers" or "conquerors" in your Bible. And it's all throughout the New Testament, even comes from the words of Jesus Himself.

0:13:16.5

But now let's drill down on the words leading up to that, "more than conquerors." Paul doesn’t say we're just conquerors. That might be enough. He says we're more than conquerors. It's an idiom that literally means "to a very great degree, or extremely." He's wanting us to understand we are extreme conquerors. We are over and above what conquerors…we have conquered beyond our wildest dreams. You ever heard of the extreme sports? Turn on the ESPN channel, and there's this thing called extreme sports and even the extreme Olympics and all of that. Well, we are extreme conquerors in Jesus Christ. It would be like saying from a sports standpoint, our opponent never had a chance to defeat us. It wasn't even a contest. The score was 56 to nothing. We were like a professional football team playing a second-string high school squad. Wasn't even a contest. We were overly conquering. We blew them out of the saddle. We went 17-0 for the season. We set all kinds of records. We are more than conquerors, the Bible says of believers in Jesus Christ.

0:14:41.1

The problem is, why don’t we live that way? Why are we still living such a defeated life as Christians? Why are the seven deadly sins—pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, greed, one or more of them—still getting the best of us? Come on. That's not who we are. We are more than conquerors. We are victors, not victims. And our victory comes through Jesus Christ. And we're going to hear throughout the rest of message this morning again and again and again and again how the New Testament underscores the idea that we are the champions. We are the victors. Can you imagine anybody from the 1972 Miami Dolphin team talking around after their NFL retirement with slumped shoulders, saying, "Well, we were just bunch of losers. We never won a game." Of course not. Their head was held high. They were inducted into the Hall of Fame. They were champions, and they thought of themselves as champions and as victors and as conquerors.

0:15:53.2

Back to that Greek word nikon, Cathryn and I were in Italy not too long ago. And we got to Rome. Rome was fabulous. We went to the Roman Colosseum. It was incredible. If you're into ancient ruins, it's just a great place to go. And flowing from the Roman Colosseum, what's left of it, you flow into what's called the Roman Forum. And it's just a beautiful area of ancient ruins. Not far from the coliseum is Constantine's Arch, still like it was, I'm sure, centuries ago. Back in Roman times when the Roman army would go out and conquer their enemy. They would bring back their prisoners, and they would kind of shove it in their face by making them march in a victory parade. And this is how the Roman army would put on display the victory and the conquering that they had done. And their prisoners would be walking in the parade, and they would have to go right through the victory arch, the conquering arch, Constantine's Arch. A little bit further into the forum there is one called the Arch of Titus. And let's go back to that earlier picture. Here is the Arch of Titus. This is not Constantine. This is the Arch of Titus. And the guide that was taking us through the forum there brought us underneath the arch there. And then there was a relief that we can go to on the next slide here. This is a picture of a victory chariot drawn by four horses. And our guide said, "If you look up over there, there is the Goddess of Nike, the victory goddess." Well, that's the word here in the New Testament in the Greek. It's nike.

0:17:44.4

Long before the Goddess of Nike was ever the symbol of Roman or Greek victory, Jesus said these words in John 16:33- "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have niked the world. I have overcome it. I am the victor." When Jesus died on the cross, there are seven last words that He said. I believe the sixth one He says, "It is finished." It was a victory cry. He wasn’t saying, "I am finished. Oh, they got me." No, "I have fulfilled the purpose for which the Father brought Me. My death upon the cross and subsequent resurrection is a victory cry." It's why we sing, "Oh victory in Jesus." It's why the apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15, "O death"—let alone defeat—"O death, where is your sting?" And what I hope happens during this series is that even in the midst of the trials and the troubles and the tribulations we're experiences as a church, as a city, as a nation, as a world in the midst of the long list of troubles that Paul (0:19:00.1) mentions in Romans 8…you know, you could put in the coronavirus, right? He lists famine and nakedness and danger and sword and distress and persecution. How about pestilence and viruses and all that? No, we are more than conquerors. We are champions in Christ.

0:19:20.4

And it begs the question, how are going to come out of this? My wife sent me and the kids something this week. It was kind of funny. It was talking about what lockdown can produce. You’re either going to become—let's see if I remember this—a chunk, a hunk, a monk or a drunk. One of those four things. That's what lockdown will do for you. No, let's come out of this declaring our victory in Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors. And learning how, once again, in partnership with the Holy Spirit, to overcome the deadly sins that drag us down.

0:19:58.3

Which brings me to number two. (0:20:00.1) We are not only more than conquerors over the troubles of life, but we are more than conquerors over the sin that entangles us. Now we're back to that list. Maybe you're already thinking of one- pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, greed. Are the vicious vices more a description of who you are, or the heavenly virtues? How do we live out the fact that we are more than conquerors over not just the troubles of life, but the temptations of life? Over the sin that does so easily beset us and entangle us.

0:20:41.8

Now I'm in Hebrews 12. Go there with me for a moment. Hebrews 12. And the writer of Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." I love these verses. They're some of my favorite because the writer of Hebrews pictures believers in Jesus Christ as athletes running a race. And he says we have this cloud of witnesses around us. Picture believers in Jesus Christ up in the stands, so to speak. Those that have gone on to be with the Lord watching the race below. And they're watching you. They're watching me. We're running in this race. And the writer of Hebrews says, "Lay aside every weight." It's the picture of a runner in the Olympics. You see them taking off their warmups before they get ready to run. It would be foolish for them to run in their warmups. They want to be as light and as free as possible.

0:22:01.7

He says, "Lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely," that sin which entangles us. Another translation says, "The sin that does so easily beset us." I've given you a list of seven- pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, greed. Any of that tripping you up these days making you feel more defeated than undefeated? It's time to be a heavenly racerunner and learn how to be more than conquerors over the sin that does so easily entangle us.

0:22:43.1

You know, there is a weariness that comes over us, isn't it, during the trials and the troubles of life. I don't know about you, but I'm kind of coronavirus-weary. I’m a little weary of Zoom calls right now. I love the technology, but I'm just a little weary. I need some human connection beyond just my family. And we've been doing great, and I hope you have been as well. But there is just a weariness in the trials and the tribulation of life. There is a weariness in the struggle with sin. Have you noticed that as a believer? Are you tired of being tired about pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy or greed getting the best of you? Well, you've come to a good place, because God is in the business of moving us from weariness to wellness.

0:23:44.0

We learn that from Isaiah 40:31 where is says, "Those who wait upon the Lord, those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Again, maybe a picture of runners and walkers in a race. God has more than enough strength to overcome the weariness in your soul, the weariness and the battle with the trials and tribulations of life. The weariness in the battle with sin. Some of you are fighting a very private sin with pride, anger, lust, laziness, glutton, envy or greed. And it's just a battle for you. How do you become and live out the fact that you are more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ?

0:24:35.9

Let's go a little bit deeper into the New Testament. 1 John 2:14, "I write to you, father," says the apostle John, "because"—listen to this—"you have overcome the evil one." That's past tense. That's who you are in Christ. You don't aspire to be an overcomer, a nikon. You are an overcomer. You have overcome the evil one. The greatest enemy to us in any given day is the world, the flesh and the devil. And we're right there in the battle every day. But we are overcomers because of the victory that Jesus won for us. The challenge is shortening the distance between who we are in Christ, more than conquerors, and our everyday present reality, and bringing closeness to those, shortening the gap there.

0:25:31.9

1 John 5:4, For everyone who had been born of God overcomes the world." Have you been born again? I know you were born physically, but have you been born spiritually? Remember, when Adam sinned, he died. He died spiritually, which means his sin separated him from God. That means when you're born physically into this world, you're physically alive but spiritually dead because your sins have separated you from God. You have a sin nature. I have a sin nature. But Jesus said, "You must be born again." John refers to those who have been born of God. Have you been born again? Has the spiritual you that was dead upon arrival when you born into this world, has it been given life through the lifegiving power of Jesus Christ?

0:26:21.3

John goes on to say, "And this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith." How do you become a Christian? Well, by grace and through faith. How do you live the victorious Christian life? It's going to be by grace and through faith. Albeit, Peter says, "Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue." It's going to take some holy sweat in partnership with the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us as believers. You have a part to play in that. But this is victory that has nikoned the world. It's faith. Not faith in faith. Not faith in your best effort. Not faith in something else, but overcoming faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

0:27:18.0

Let me quickly just go to one more place that I think is just full of encouragement for us as we get started in this series, that is Revelation 2 and 3. And I'm going to have to talk fast, and you're going to have listen fast if we're going to land this plane in a timely way. But Revelation 2 and 3 contain the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. I visited those ancient ruins years ago. They're along the western coast of modern-day Turkey. We're talking about Ephesus and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and places like that. John the apostle records letters from Jesus to these early churches. And they have similar patterns to them as many letters do. And they always give an encouragement to the conquerors, to the overcomers.

0:28:04.7

Revelation 2 beginning in verse 7, the letter to the church in Ephesus, "To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise." In other words, conquerors will eat from the tree of life. How cool is that? Now we've come full circle. We started in Genesis in paradise with Adam. We live in paradise lost. But God's great goal…His intention is never that we would experience death or defeat. And His goal through the purpose of Jesus Christ is to bring us to victory and to paradise again. Your future and my future in Jesus Christ is to eat from the tree of life again in paradise.

0:28:55.0

Secondly, conquerors will escape the second death. Now the letter to the church in Smyrna, Revelation 2:11. "The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death." The second death in the Bible is that separation from God forever in a place called hell. And if you've not been born again, that's your eternal destiny. But the good news is it doesn't have to be. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can escape the second death.

0:29:31.5

Number three, conquerors will feast and fellowship with Jesus. Chapter 2 and verse 17, the letter to the church in Pergamum, "To the one who conquers I will give him some of the hidden manna." How interesting is that? Manna was that bread that they ate in the Old Testament. "And I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." This is to the one who conquers. This is the one who is an overcomer will feast, will fellowship with Jesus, and will do so with this white stone, a picture of our new identity in Christ.

0:30:07.5

Number four, conquerors will rule the nations with authority. Chapter 2, now the letter to the church in Thyatira, verse 26. "The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give,"—listen to this—" authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father." Jesus left this earth saying to the disciples, "All authority on heaven and earth has been given to Me." Sounds like He's going to share some of that authority with us in heaven. What does it mean that conquerors and overcomers will rule the nations with authority? I'm intrigued by that.

0:30:50.0

Number five, conquerors are secure in their eternal destiny. Chapter 3 and verse 5, the letter to the church in Sardis. "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." You ever wonder if you're going to lose your salvation? No, you're not. He'll never blot your name out of the book of life. You're more than conquerors. You're in the victory circle. You're the champion in Christ. You're secure in your eternal destiny.

0:31:24.4

Number six, conquerors will remain strong in God's presence. Chapter 3 verse 12, this is the letter to the church in Philadelphia. "The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God." It's real interesting as Cathryn and I have traveled the ancient world and been to some of the ancient ruins, oftentimes you go to a place and the only thing that's left is a pillar. A pillar from some large structure, maybe a temple or something else, because a pillar is one of the strongest and most massive pieces in the building. And John here compares the conquerors and the overcomers in Christ as pillars in God's temple. We'll remain strong in His presence.

0:32:10.3

And then finally, conquerors will sit with Jesus on His throne. The church in Laodicea, the letter to them, chapter 3 verse 21. "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne," Jesus says, "as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne." That just blows me away. What exactly does that mean? I'll sit on the throne with Jesus. But this is meant to encourage us. To give us some sense of who we are in Christ and how we will live out our identity in Christ through all of eternity as more than conquerors.

0:32:58.9

What we want to do during this series is to make that a present reality. That we are conquering and overcoming the deadly sins that drag us down. That we're triumphing over troubles, soaring above every struggle, and saying once and for all to pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy and greed, "You didn't have a chance against me. It wasn't even a contest. I beat you 56 to nothing because of who I am in Jesus Christ." And at the end of this time my prayer is that every one of us will be singing over and over again, "Oh victory in Jesus, oh victory in Jesus." Say that with me wherever you are. Oh victory in Jesus. Because we are more than conquerors.

0:33:50.9