Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Dec 4th, 2021 The Victory Is No Mystery – The Saturday Morning Post

Today’s Passages – 1 Corinthians 15 – 16 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 16 – 20; Proverbs 4)

Read the “1204 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Good morning. Another week has passed. Black Friday, Small Store Saturday, and Cyber Monday are all behind us. Only twenty more shopping days till Christmas. Did you get all your Christmas shopping done? Good! You had a victory. That’s what today’s blog is about: VICTORY! We already have the victory, but we don’t realize it. When we don’t realize it, we lose.

I was reminded of an Abbott and Costello skit. They go into an illegal gambling establishment to bet on the horses. This was where they may have gotten the idea for off-track betting. Just remember that legal gambling is just as bad as illegal gambling – only someone else gets to keep your money! Costello places the bet, and a voice comes over the radio…

“And they’re off…”

“The race is over…”

“You lose!”

That was a comedy, so you already knew that Costello was going to lose. Do you know you already have the victory: you are not a loser? 1Corinthians 15 tells us…

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Corinthians 54-57)

We have the victory! It was given to us by God through our Lord Jesus Christ! Death has no more sting: death cannot hurt us. Death is swallowed up in victory!

How can we know this victory now?

Well, you could… die. And at the rapture of the church, when your corruptible has put on incorruption, and your mortal has put on immortality, your new spiritual body will be with Jesus. That’s victory!

Or (and I prefer this way better) by faith. 1John 5:4 says…

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1John 5:4)

Verse 58 of 1Corinthians 15 tells us the result of this victory through faith…

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Corinthians 15:58)

We will be stedfast and immovable, standing firm in our faith. God said it; that settles it.

We will be unmoveable. Nothing, and nobody in this world, or any situation for that matter should shake and shatter our faith. We have the victory and greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

And we will be always abounding in the work of the Lord. Soul winning, tithing (supporting our pastor, the church, and it’s ministries), and what ever the Lord has asked us as individuals to do (teach, edify, be a friend), are some of the works we should be abounding in.

And at the end of verse 58 there is victory: “…forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

That’s victory. Keep on going for the Lord.

Peace.