This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day five of our look together through Revelation chapter 12, verses 10
to 12 today. I love these verses because they talk about how you and I can be
part of the victory that God is winning. Remember that this whole chapter is
about what God does about evil, and it just tells us the truth.

Truth number one, Satan is real, and so evil is real in this world. Truth number
two, God has won the victory. Jesus' death on the cross is real in this world,
and truth number three, there is no victory without a battle.

God is allowing us to be in the midst of this battle. So how can you and I be a
part of this victory that he is winning? Listen to what God has to say to us in
Revelation chapter 12, verses 10 to 12.

"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, 'Now have come the salvation and the
power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, for the
accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God night and day, has been
hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to the earth
and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short. " Now these verses, we've already
unpacked some of them and looked at what it has to say to us about Satan and his
time being short, and so I want to focus today on what these verses have to say
to us about you, what they have to say to us about life and the kind of life
that we can live of victory.

You and I can live a life of faith and victory, and how do we do that? Verse 11
says, here's the three things you do. You realize that you have overcome by the
blood of the Lamb.

Number two, you realize that you're victorious by the word of your testimony.
And number three, you love the Lord even above your own life. That's what you
do.

That's how you enjoy victory in daily life. That's the attitude, the heart, the
focus that allows that to happen. Let's walk through those.

Number one, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Satan will come to you
sometimes and he will accuse you. He's called the accuser at the beginning of
these verses.

And he'll say to you, "What kind of a Christian are you that you would say
something like that about somebody, that you would allow those kinds of thoughts
into your mind? What kind of Christian are you that you'd let your finances get
so messed up that you can't be a good steward of God? What kind of Christian are
you that you would say those kinds of things even to your own family?

What kind of Christian are you that you'd fall to that same temptation again and
again? " You get the idea. Satan will come to you and he'll say, "You are a
mess.

What are you going to do when he says that to you? " You agree with him. You
ought to just agree with him because you know what?

You are a mess. And I'm a mess too. I mess up all the time.

I believe lies. I act selfishly. We all mess up all the time.

We're malicious. We're self-indulgent. We hurt others thoughtlessly.

And so when Satan comes and says, "You're a mess. What kind of Christian are
you? " You say, "I agree I'm a mess, but I'll tell you what kind of Christian I
am.

I'm a Christian who has overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ gave his
life for me, for this mess. Jesus Christ gave his life to forgive me because
that is where the victory is.

" If you think victory is found in cleaning up your own life, you're going to
live a life of defeats. The victory is in the blood of the Lamb. Now, Jesus
wants to cleanse your life and change your life through his blood.

He doesn't want you to make no mistake. He wants to take that mess of a life and
he wants to bless that mess and do something different in your life and cause
you to grow. But you're always going to see some of the mess as long as you're
on this earth.

Oh, you might take care of this sin and this area and that way of thinking, but
then uncovers another sin, another area, another way of thinking that you have
to take care of. How do we overcome? We overcome not by our goodness, not by our
steadfast spirit.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb. You want to live a life of victory? You
focus on the cross of Christ.

That's where the victory is. We're victorious by the blood of the Lamb. There's
a second picture here.

We are victorious also by the word of our testimony. They overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. As a believer in Christ,
as a follower of Christ, you need to tell someone else the freedom which Christ
has brought into your life.

There is something that happens when you do that, not just for them, which would
be enough, If it was just that we got to pass it along to someone else and they
got to hear the good news of what Christ could do, maybe somebody in your
office, somebody in your family, somebody who's not yet a believer, somebody
who's already a believer, you're passing along. Here's the good news, the
testimony of what God's done in my life. It's great for them to hear and that
would be enough, but there's more to this than that.

You also overcome by the word of your testimony. There's something about you
telling others what God has done in your life that helps you to win this battle
in daily life. If you keep it all bottled up inside, if you're the kind of
person who thinks I don't want to bother anyone else with my story, it is not a
bother.

In fact, it's a command to tell your story. In fact, it is absolutely essential
to tell your story if you want to live this life of victory. If all you ever do
is let words of negativity come out of your mouth, then you're going to live a
negative life.

If all you ever do is let words of thoughtlessness come out of your mouth, then
you're going to live a thoughtless life. When you begin to let words of praise
come out of your mouth, words of testimony come out of your mouth, guess what
happens? You begin to live a more praise-filled life.

You need to talk about the things that God's doing in your life because what we
talk about is what we live out. So how are you talking about them these days to
the people in your family? Have you told anybody lately, "I'm really grateful to
God for his blessings in this area"?

Have you said it to anybody lately out loud? There is something that happens
when you tell the testimony. It doesn't have to be a 20-minute testimony.

It can be a few sentences, but you need to tell someone today. Tell someone
who's already a follower of Christ. Tell someone who's not yet a follower of
Christ.

In this case, they were talking to those who were not yet followers. And you
would think that they were defeated because of their testimony. That's why they
became martyrs.

But no, they overcame because of their testimony. That's why they were able to
live a life of victory even in a world where there was evil. I don't want to
live afraid of evil, afraid to say, "I want to live a life of victory.

" We are victorious by the word of our testimony. We're victorious by the blood
of the Lamb. There's a third picture of victory in these verses.

The Bible says, "They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
We love the Lord above even our own lives. " As a believer, as a follower of
Jesus Christ, the greatest weapon that you have ultimately against evil, against
Satan, is that you're prepared for death.

Because you know on the other side of death is heaven, is the presence of God,
is an eternity of joy. Now, you don't want to die. You want to live out all that
God has for you in this world.

You want to love all the people that God's put into your life, your family and
people you haven't even met yet. You want to live that plan and that purpose
that God has for you. There is within every one of us the desire to do that.

You don't want to die, obviously. You want to fight to live on this world. But
you know that when you do die, God has a life of incredible hope on the other
side of that.

That is what we look forward to. I remember hearing the story of a missionary in
a country where his life was threatened quite often by a group of gangs in the
area. And one time a group came in and talked to him and said, "If you don't
stop this testimony, if you don't stop talking about Jesus Christ, we want you
to know that we have weapons and we will use them.

" And the missionary was able to look at them and humbly say, "I understand that
you have weapons, but I have a greater weapon, and that is I'm not afraid to
die. " As a believer in Jesus Christ, you don't want to die, but you don't have
to be afraid to die. We love the Lord even above our own lives because we know
that our love for him will last beyond our own lives.

Cyprian was a bishop in a place called Carthage, bishop in the early church. And
he wrote to a friend in the third century these words that have always moved my
heart. Here's what Cyprian said, "It is a bad world, an incredibly bad world,
but in the midst of it I have found a quiet and a holy people who have learned a
great secret.

They are the despised and the persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome
the world. These people are called Christians, and I am one of them.

" These words of Cyprian, you can echo them, "I am one of them, and so are you.
" What does that mean? It means that you have so much hope for the future that
you don't have to fearfully or selfishly hold on to your life here.

It means that you have a story to tell that can change someone's eternity and
change your spirit of victory in daily life. It means that you have a weapon of
guaranteed victory in your personal struggle against Satan, the blood of Jesus
Christ, victory guaranteed. And the rest of our life in this world, you and I
are learning to live out that guaranteed victory that we're going to enjoy
forever in heaven.

In your battle with temptation, victory is guaranteed. You're going to enjoy
that in heaven one day. We're learning to live that out now.

In your battle with depression, victory is guaranteed in heaven one day. You're
learning to live that out now. In your battle with circumstances or with
prejudice or with materialism or with injustice or with selfishness, guaranteed
victory one day in heaven.

And we are learning to live that out now. Let's pray together. Our Father, we
are grateful for the victory.

And we pray. We pray that you would help us to live out the victory that you
have given. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You're going to want to make sure to join us for next week. It's
Revelation chapter 13.

We're going to explain in that chapter some of the most familiar pictures in the
Book of Revelation. The Beast, let me just say it this way, 666, we'll talk
about it this next week.