(1 John 5:4-5) "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. {5} Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Introduction:      Are you overcoming the world?  Jesus said, “he that believeth overcometh the world”.  All the way through the Word of God, and especially in the book of Acts, they are just dripping with victory.  There were insurmountable obstacles….harder times than you and I have ever imagined meeting. Yet, one after another, there was victory and triumph. They certainly were living triumphantly. The demands of Christ seem to be impossible and the resources of the Christian are inadequate. How do you live triumphantly? How you can bring your own life up to the dimension that God intends it to be? Paul gives us the simple secret right here in Galatians 2:20.  The Bible says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. That is the simple secret of triumphant living! There are three stages in living triumphantly day by day. First of all, the triumphant life is:

I.          AN EXECUTED LIFE 

Jesus said in John chapter 12 that when a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it brings forth fruit. But unless that corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. The only way that there can be fruitfulness in the Christian life is if that life dies. All through the gospels Jesus keeps coming back to this one secret of discipleship: Except a man deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. The Executed Life is:

A.        An Actual Past Event 

"I am crucified with Christ." I died with Christ. You must come to realize that it is an actual event in the past. When Jesus died on the cross, He took you with Him. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior He made that death real. Now when God looks at you, He doesn't look at you as alive unto sin living the same old life. He looks at you in union with Christ and He sees you as dead unto sin, as dead to the old life and alive unto God.  But that's not enough.  The Executed Life must be

B.         An Appropriated Present Experience 

The Bible says, "I am crucified with Christ". That happened in the past when Jesus died on the cross. But:

·         I'm to be aware of it day by day. 

It has to be an actual experience (Rom 6:11) "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." and it has to be a daily experience (1 Cor 15:31) "I die daily." Every problem is a cross to die on and every hard situation is just another cross on which to die. Every sermon is just another place to die. Every criticism is just another cross to die on. You talk about liberty, you talk about freedom this is it!  What difference does it make if a person criticizes you? They can’t hurt a dead man! What difference does it make if they praise you? A dead man can’t get a big head!  All of our problems in the church are over self. All the problems in the home are over self. All the problems in life arise from self. What liberty, what freedom it is to be free from self!

·         It’s taking your position of death.

Friend, this is the key to triumphant living. When you, by faith, are willing to accept the position of death and reckon yourself dead the Holy Spirit then makes it real in your life.   

·         We can have unity and harmony. 

The Christ that’s in me will gladly submit to the Christ that’s in ___ and the Christ that’s living in ___ will want what the Christ that’s living in me wants. When it’s not me but Christ living in me, and when it’s not ___ but Christ that’s living in him, there’s unity and there’s harmony. Just to get ‘self’ out of the way, to take our position of death. That’s the first step – the executed life. 

II.         AN EXCHANGED LIFE 

The measure to which the life of Jesus is released in you is determined by the measure to which you are dead to self. 

            A.        The Power Of Christ Released

When you come more and more to this place of being dead to self and reckoning yourself dead, then the power of Christ’s Life is released in you! That power of Christ is released in you only to the degree in which you are dead to self.  This is “the exchanged life.”

            B.         The Person Of Christ Resides

Christ constitutes Himself in my life. He is my life, not a figure of my life. He is living in me and living His life in me! 

·         That makes the Christian life possible! 

For what I cannot do, He can do. 

·         That makes the Christian life practical. 

For what I am unable to love, He is able to love. What I am unable to overcome, He is able to overcome. 

·         That makes the Christian life personal. 

Because He liveth in me – in me. Every day that I live, every circumstance that I encounter, every temptation with which the devil attacks me – it’s Christ Jesus living in me. 

III.       AN EMPOWERED LIFE 

It doesn’t merely say that I live by faith.  He says that “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” 

            A.        Grounded Faith

Whose faith is he living by?  I’m living by the faith of the Son of God!   

You say, “I don’t understand what that means.” It means that I am counting on…

B.         God’s Faithfulness

That’s what faith is. Faith is counting on God’s faithfulness. Faith is merely relying that God will do what He said He’ll do. Everything that comes to us in the Christian life comes through faith and is made real and effective by faith. First of all, you are going to have to

·         Reckon with yourself.

Are you willing to take the position of death? Are you willing to die to every affection, every lust, and every desire?  

·         Rely on Christ who’s going to do the living in you.

Not you yourself, but its Christ.   

·         Realize it by faith, not by feeling. 

I don’t care how lousy I feel. I don’t care how depressed I am. I don’t care how I feel, if I know in my heart that everything is right between me and God – I know I have victory, regardless of how I feel. I know by faith that I have victory!  No matter how I feel, I just know that the Lord is equal to anything that comes to me

. 

Conclusion:       There’s no reason why every Christian cannot experience daily the triumphant life.  If you’re not, then you’re living below what God intended for you to live.