A megachurch pastor encouraged Christians to become overcomers when facing the specific challenges of this era in a sermon.
In the second session for Cedar Training Center’s conference featuring the theme “O Lord, make me an overcomer” held on October 6, Pastor Yu, senior pastor of Silicon Valley Christian Assembly in the United States, defined “overcomers” as people who, under all circumstances, live in a way that is Christlike, a way that does not resist God’s will or the Holy Spirit’s work. He explained that overcoming should be a normal state as a Christian. Although no one could judge whether they were overcomers, all Christians should still pray and strive to be an overcomer.
Pastor Yu started by reviewing his previous sermon in this series, where he preached on Revelation 2 and 3 to explain the calling to be an overcomer and the things given by Jesus to those who overcome. He stressed some of the main points of that sermon: the Lord calls people from every church to become overcomers, regardless of how good or bad their church is; triumphs and revivals always rise from true repentance; victory is always followed by blessings from God, yet the blessings are not what the overcomers seek after, but rather Christ himself is their real pursuit.
Moving on to this sermon, the American Chinese pastor stated, “God is still calling Christians and churches to become overcomers in this generation. How do we make this time-transcending calling not only our prayer but also our testimony?”
First, Yu introduced some of the challenges to become overcomers which are specific to the 21st century.
He quoted Philippians 2:14-16 to highlight that even in a crooked generation, God’s calling to victory does not become invalid. No matter what the circumstances are, or what the people around us, our generation or our churches are like, there is no excuse.
God calls overcomers in every generation, yet each generation has its specific challenges.
“We should learn from Nehemiah who inspected Jerusalem’s walls to have first-hand knowledge of the circumstances he was facing. We need to have a clear understanding of the challenges of this generation as well.”
Pastor Yu pointed out three of the many features of the generation we are in.
“First, individualism has developed into its extreme form.” Pastor Yu warned that “if ego is an enemy of Christian’s growth, today the ego is especially strong,” he said.
The second feature was that this fast-changing world rendered people both extremely busy and pushed them to quickly fall into decadence.
“The rapid development of material culture leads people into the trap of dissatisfaction and vanity.”
Thirdly, he highlighted that the information explosion brought chaos and left people superficial.
Pastor Yu continued that the foundation of Christians’ triumph is the triumph of Christ.
“By no means can anyone become an overcomer by themselves, but they must stand on the foundation of Christ’s triumph”, said Pastor Yu. “One aspect of this, is that Jesus has granted us the power and position of authority to triumph. Another aspect, is that Jesus has been living inside of us, which enables us to overcome.”
“Christians’ battles should start with a celebration banquet before they enter the battlefield, as described in Psalms 23. And God has even sent his Son to us. Whenever we are surrounded by the enemies, we see the banquet and we know that we can win the battle in Christ.”
Quoting from 2 Corinthians 2:14, he stressed that the triumphs are defined in Christ.
He claimed that Christians could see from three aspects that they could rely on God to overcome. From Philippians 2:9-11, Matthew 16:18 and 18:18, he concluded that we have inherited authority from Christ to overcome. According to 1 John 4:4 and 2 Corinthians 4:7, he declared that we have the life of Christ in us. From Romans 8:35-37, he concluded that God’s love can always support us in all sorts of situations.
Pastor Yu further encouraged Christians that we should take initiative and act resolutely to overcome and win the battles since we were not unable to. Instead, with God’s power, we should be not resigned to a powerless life and humiliation from the enemy.
Toward the end of his sermon, Pastor Yu drew a conclusion on the features of overcomers. “They are people who, in every circumstance, live in such a way that God’s will shall be done, Christ will be exalted, and the Holy Spirit will work freely with no hindrance.”
Reviewing the verses mentioning overcomers in Revelation 14, he encouraged the listeners again not to fix their eyes on their weaknesses, but to know that the calling to become an overcomer is a calling for every Christian.'
- Translated by Grace Song
