This morning, we continue our “Identity Crisis” message series where we are faced with that question, “When everything else fails, at your core, who are you?”  We’ve been reminded how we were created on purpose and for a purpose.

We learned of our need to be born again and how, at that  moment, we become children of God.  We were also reminded of the worship war raging and how jealous the enemy must be of us.  After all, God chose not only to create us in His image, but also for us to be His temples; filled with His Presence through the Holy Spirit. 

We know that we are loved with an unconditional and eternal love that nothing can separate us from; nothing like the way in which we use the word love.  We are gifted.  We receive spiritual gifts to be equipped and enabled to serve others letting the love of God flow through our lives to reach others.

This week, we’re learning how we are overcomers.

The enemy wants us to believe that we are victims.  He would have us believe that we are helpless and powerless victims of life.  Who we are is the result of our upbringing, of our circumstances, of the choices of those around us, of anything and anyone outside of ourselves.  The enemy is even OK with the old adage, “The devil made me do it.”  Essentially anything to keep us oppressed and enslaved in life.

To a degree, this was true of us all at one point in our lives.  However, this no longer has to be true of any of us who have accepted the salvation of Jesus.

Romans 5:6-8

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus came to set the captives free!  We may have been powerless victims at one point, but in Christ, we are overcomers!  We’re not victims, we’re victors!  Oh the love of God!  What we could not do on our own, He did for us.  There is truly no one like our God!

Jesus warned His disciples about His soon coming death and resurrection, their coming persecution, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He warned them of all of these things so that they would not fall away.  He knew that trouble was coming and wanted them to understand what God was up to in the midst of it.  He wanted them to overcome that adversity.  He told them:

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Yes, Jesus endured a horrific season of pain and suffering and loss.  However, it was followed by an eternal glory that far outweighed it all.  He did not only overcome those troubles, but He was given authority over all things!  He then chose to freely give it away to us.

You are an overcomer!  You, like Jesus, may endure painful seasons, but they are just that; seasons.  They will come to an end and to the one that perseveres faithfully to the Lord through them, they will overcome!

Consider all that Joseph endured throughout his lifetime and what his brothers put him through.  In the end of it all, he said to them:

Genesis 50:20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

No one is an overcomer without facing difficult circumstances and obstacles which to overcome!  There is no superhero without a villain.  There is no healing without sickness and disease.  There is no restoration without loss.  There is no deliverance without bondage.  There is no peace without chaos.  There is no victory without a battle.

Jesus wrote in Revelation chapters 2-3 to seven churches.  He ended the messages to those churches with these lines:

– To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

– The one who is vic