This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're continuing through 1st Corinthians 16, this is day four of our look. We're
talking about the kind of spirit that causes you to last, to keep on keeping on
with the faith. We've talked about a giving spirit, an expectant spirit, a
humble spirit.

Today I'd like to focus on a victorious spirit. And I'd like to go back to one
verse we read yesterday but didn't really have the time to talk about. There is
an abundance of truth in verses 13 and then on to verse 14.

We just read through all Paul's description of the leaders, but right in the
middle of that description of Christian leadership and how we would follow and
submit to Christian leadership, he plops in these two verses, verses 13 and 14,
"Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be men of courage, be strong, do
everything in love. " These are amazing statements. We're facing challenges in
our lives.

It's interesting, especially in verse 13, the form that each of these challenges
takes. There are different verb forms in the Greek language. Some of the verb
forms look to past actions, some to continuing possibilities, some of them look
to future hopes.

So the form that you put a verb in would look in those different directions. In
verse 13, each of the verbs that he uses has a form that declares to us the
nature and the challenge of the Christian life. It's a present imperative.

And the idea is, right now, do this. Not this is what you're looking forward to
in the future, not this is what happened in the past, but right now, do this.
It's the call of Christ and it's an ever-continuing, constant challenge in our
lives, but the question is, right now, what am I doing?

If I want to live out this keeping on, keeping on in the faith, if I want to
have a victorious spirit, the only way to do it is in the moment. I can't have a
victorious spirit for tomorrow. I can't have a victorious spirit for next year.

I can't have a victorious spirit for what happened in the past. The only way to
have it is right here, right now. And Paul says, here's five things to do right
here, right now, every moment of your life today, every moment of your life, the
rest of your life.

Number one, he says, be on your guard. And that's the challenge to watch. Be
alert.

Be on your guard. To have a victorious spirit realizes there is an enemy out
there, there is one who is attacking me out there, so I've got to be on my
guard. If I'm going to be victorious, I can't pretend that there's no such thing
as the opportunity to fall, to fall to temptation, to fall to sin.

I've got to realize I've got to be on my guard, right here, right now. That's
part of a victorious spirit. He goes on and he says, to have a victorious spirit
is to stand firm in your faith.

So he gives the challenge to watch, and then here he also gives the challenge to
trust. Right here, right now, am I standing on my faith? That's the firm ground.

On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand, the old
song. I am standing on the rock of Christ.

I'm standing on the firm ground of my faith. Any other ground, if I'm trying to
stand in my doubt, that's jello. That's quicksand.

If I try to stand on the opinions of this world, jello, quicksand. If I stand on
the truth of Christ, I'm on the rock. I'm standing firm on my faith.

If I want to live a victorious life, if I want to be victorious in this moment
of my life, that means I'm standing firm on my trust in him. That's the rock I'm
standing on. He goes on and he says, be courageous.

In many ways, that's a challenge to mature. Children are afraid, but those who
have matured in their faith have more and more courage and less and less fear.
He has the idea here of be men of courage.

He's not talking just to the men of the church here. The idea behind these words
is instead of acting like children, act like those who have grown up to
adulthood. Instead of running away from opportunities for faith, be those who,
with courage, stand in the moment and face up to those opportunities of faith
and put your faith in Christ in difficult situations.

The challenge to grow, to mature. With maturity comes that kind of courage in
your life, but you can only do that right here, right now. There may be
something you're facing in your life right here, right now, that everything in
you wants to run away.

Everything in you wants to run away from that relationship. Everything in you
wants to run away from that ministry opportunity. It seems too big for you.

Everything in you wants to run away from that conversation you need to have with
somebody. I got to tell you, from my own experience and the experience of
thousands of people I've talked to, you are not the only one who's ever felt
that way. The truth is, we often want to run away from those things that are the
greatest opportunities of life, where God wants to do the greatest things in our
lives.

Where does the courage come from to face those, to walk through those? It comes
from your maturity in Christ, a new life, right here, right now. Be courageous.

He goes on and he says, "Be strong. " That's the challenge to endure, to have a
strength that comes from Him. The idea of this word "strength" in the Greek
language has the idea of "power" behind it.

Be powerful. To me, I'm reminded here that if I'm going to be powerful, I've got
to realize how weak I really am, and that I need His strength. You see, as we
walk through these challenges, challenge to watch, to trust, to mature, if I'm
going to do all of these in the moment, every moment of my life, if I try to do
this on my own strength, in my own power, I'm not going to make it to the next
three moments, let alone to the next three days, or the next three years, or the
next 30 years of my life.

How can I be strong in the moments, moment by moment by moment of my life, only
by realizing Jesus will be there with me in the moments, moment by moment by
moment of your life. There's never a moment in which He will not be with you,
and never a moment in which He is not willing to give His strength to you. So be
strong in His power.

To be strong is to be like Paul saying, "When I am weak, then I am strong. " He
says that in 2 Corinthians near the end, chapter 12. So admit your weakness, but
look to His strength in this moment.

After saying all that, these first four challenges, He gives a final one in
verse 14. Do everything in love. Let it all be done in love.

That's the challenge to love. And really, in some ways, that's all you need.
With all that we've read in this book, it could really come down to just this.

Do everything in love. Let the motivation for everything you do be love. All
these problems that we've talked about, we'll talk about this again tomorrow,
that the Corinthians had faced, and Paul writes to give them answers.

Those problems would have all been solved if they'd just from the very beginning
done everything in love. It's because they were doing things in selfishness or
self-centeredness. They were doing things because of their pride that they got
into trouble.

Let the motivation for what you do be love. So let me ask you, what could you
take today that maybe you have to do anyway? You have to do it every day.

Maybe it's something for your kids. Maybe it's something for your spouse. Maybe
it's something for your work.

Maybe it's a drive that you have to make. Something that maybe even seemed
boring. How could you take something you have to do today anyway and decide to
do it with a motivation of love?

If you have to commute every day, it just gets old. So do it with a motivation
of love. Or the reason I'm doing this is because I love my family.

Or the reason I'm doing this is because I love you. Or I love those people that
I'm serving in my work. Or I love the opportunity to reach people at my work.

Let the motivation be love. In every one of our lives, there are a lot of things
we have to do that we really don't want to do. And what really begins to wear at
life, what causes the victorious spirit to melt away in a moment, is to begin to
let those things wear you down.

And to feel like I have to do this. Now I have to do this. And your life becomes
a series of have-tos.

There are things you have to do in life. What's the motivation? Instead of
saying I have to make that drive, I have to change that diaper, I have to do
that work, I have to serve those people, today re-up, re-energize by
re-recognizing I'm doing it because you love me and I love others.

I'm doing it from a motivation of love. Jesus, you did it, everything you did,
with a motivation of love. Now we're not perfect, we're not like you.

And you see that we're a great mix of motivations. What we want, what we need,
what we're looking at, what we're afraid of. Lord, purify our motivations.

And more and more every day, let the motivation be love. And if there's
something that's wearing us down right now, let us look afresh and anew to the
motivation of love. And help us, right here, right now, to be on our guard, to
stand firm in our faith, to be courageous, to be strong, to let it all be done
in love.

This moment, right here, right now, today. We pray this in your name, Jesus.
Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at a refreshed spirit as we come to the
end of our study of 1 Corinthians.