Pattern of Victory — Esther Sutera

Gratitude for God’s Provision

As usual, Noreen talks about thanks, and we'll find out by the time we get done this morning that there is a great deal of area in our life where we need to really give thanks. And by the time we're all finished this morning, I trust that our hearts will be filled to overflowing with what the Lord Jesus has done for us and all of the provision He has made for us.

He has set before us a banquet table, and He says, Come eat. And so many times, you know, we don't do what He has provided for us. And He has provided a great banquet table for us, and I trust this morning that we will be able to go to that table and say, Oh, Father, I thank you for the spread on that table.

One of the ladies, too, said that wouldn't it be nice if the Lord put it upon the hearts of the ladies in Grand Prairie, not Grand Rapids today, that perhaps once a month or once every two months or something that the ladies of all of the churches should come together in fashion and be led in God's Word, a time of sharing and a time of growing.

Wouldn't that be nice? And all we can say is if that is in God's mind for Grand Prairie, He will put it on the hearts of some of the ladies of Grand Prairie. You have become our team, and we are all working for the same Master, so let's be sensitive to what He's saying to us these days, right?

So we're really excited about that. And this is about the, what, the two, four, about sixth, seventh time we've been together, and it's just been exciting, ladies. It's been exciting one morning after another, and I feel that God has talked to all of us.

I didn't bring my circle this morning, but that does not mean that God's not going to be talking to me this morning, because, you know, God is always talking to us and making us grow, and we're so thankful for that.

And, oh, Mike, we never get the idea that we have arrived, but God continues to talk to us, and I'm so excited about that again this morning. All right, let's just have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, so often we feel just like Moses.

Prayer for Faithfulness in Handling God’s Word

We kind of bristle against the fact that, oh, Father, we are just not capable to handle Your Word, but, Father, You just said that we are to be available and that we are to be tools, and so this morning we handle carefully Your Word.

And all that I ask this morning is, Lord, the things that are not to be said will go unheeded, but, Father, Your Word will be lodged in the heart of every one of us this morning, and if it's lodged in our hearts, Lord, then You are the one that will bring the harvest.

Lord, we can't be, but You bring the harvest. The harvest all around us is ripe, and, Father, even in our room here this morning, there's a great harvest, and we thank You this morning that You have given us the privilege and the opportunity to share Your Word with our sisters all over the place, and especially here again this morning.

Father, You have given us an opening in these days to share our lives, to share our testimony. Oh, how long we have put a bushel over our candle, and the little song says, hide it under a bushel? No. And so I pray this morning that even in these days, it's only a beginning for us to let our light shine just the way You want it to shine, dear Father.

Father, we just thank You again for what You're going to do. We thank You for Your faithfulness, day by day, in Jesus' name, amen. I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to you ladies again for hanging in here, for coming so faithfully, for working in the nursery so faithfully, for bringing the coffee and the refreshments so faithfully.

God bless you, and may He reward you greatly. It's much appreciated. Thank Noreen and the girls for every day so faithfully taking care of these things. Sometimes it falls on our shoulders, and we have to do it, and you know it's very difficult since we don't know the ladies in the area.

But I just want to thank the girls, especially this morning, that God has put you in the place and used you, and that perhaps in days to come, we'll have a greater door of opening for this area. That is our prayer this morning.

Introducing the Pattern of Victory

Well, when we were in Tucson last fall, my husband has done this teaching in effect. But last fall when we were in Tucson, the Lord led me to reaffirm this study done just a little bit differently than my husband has done it.

But all of the ladies said we needed that reaffirming. And so this morning, no matter what I tried to say, I was going to bring a topic on why we can't forgive and the circle of forgiveness and freedom.

And somehow I always went back to this, remembering what the ladies in Tucson said. We are so glad that one more time you showed this to us so we can understand. And when we're finished, I'm going to give to you sheets, copies of this, so you can take it home.

And the prime reason for that is that in days to come, you can refer to it. And if you have difficulty, doubts, or questions in your Christian life, you can refer to it and say, I know exactly where I am, I know exactly what to do.

For aren't all of us interested in the pattern of victory for our personal lives? And I think that's why we're here this morning. Each one of us is interested to be able to say, I know how it is to walk in victory in my personal lives.

And when we're done this morning, I'm going to give opportunity again to share. And I trust this morning that you will take that opportunity to share with us again what God is doing and continuing to do in your hearts and in your lives.

That's so refreshing to all of us, so we thank you for that. So anyway, we'll go on then in that each one of us is interested in personal revival and each one of us wants to have victory in our own hearts and lives.

And that's why we're going to talk about that this morning. Now, for the ladies that were in Sexsmith, I did this in Sexsmith. But I trust that I always say that in a Bible study, repetition is good. Because if we repeat sometimes the things that we learned the last week, it helps us to remember.

If you are like I am, I have to hear it several times, many times before it really grips me. And so I trust this morning for you ladies from Sexsmith that you will learn more and catch more and probably will be done even just a little bit different than was out there.

But we have to remember that there is a pattern in God's Word for us to have personal victory in our Christian lives. And that basically is to walk in personal revival. And you know, then we don't have to frustrate so much and say, I am praying for a great outpouring.

First of all, we are going to be in a position where we say, Lord, I want personal revival in my own heart and life and then let God prepare our hearts. One young man came up to me last night and I was so excited to hear this, a relatively young Christian.

And I have been watching him in these days. I have been watching him. And you know, there's a spark in his life. He's a tall fellow. And you know, he came up to me last night and he said, you know, he said, I just feel like I'm right now ready to know what it is to walk in revival.

And I said, praise the Lord. That's what we trust and pray. It will be in all of your hearts and lives that after these days and after these three weeks, you can say, I feel like I am just now ready to start walking in personal revival and that I can know victory in my own life.

And that God does have a pattern for me to walk in victory, that God has not put us out and let us go on our own, that he does have a pattern. And quickly we're going to go through that pattern and then afterwards we will pass out the little copies of this and you can work with it yourself.

Seeing and Remembering Biblical Truth

Well, to begin with, I always have to take this off too much, I guess. To begin with, this is not going to be hard. It's very simple. Perhaps you have done this many times. The reason I have put it on chart is sometimes it's so hard to explain to women what I'm trying to say.

So I thought I'm going to make a chart and as I share this, I will let them watch what it is. And this pattern that you will be seeing this morning, you may well already have done in your lives many times, but this morning I trust it will be a strengthening process for you and say, Lord, I understand better now because I see.

They tell me that once you see, you remember a whole lot better than if you keep hearing. So this morning as you hear something that you may have heard before, but as you see it and as you refer to it later, I want it to be a pattern in your life for personal victory, not for these three weeks, but from here on in forever until you see Jesus.

That's what it's all about. And so we deal with the three S's, which you have seen a number of times during this crusade again, but we deal with the three S's. First of all, we're going to talk about the sin.

I think all of you can see this. I have walked around and I think you'll all be able to see it quite well. And we, we will start right here. What is sin? Forgiveness and cleansing. First of all, I was going to, I want to say that many times we don't understand forgiveness.

We have a lot of ladies say that I can't forgive myself for certain things. But the reason they can't forgive themselves is because they don't understand divine forgiveness. And now before we move on though, I wanted to say this, that this morning we are not going to deal with specific sins.

Victory over a Defeated Christian Life

We're not going to deal with the sin of anger, the sin of dishonesty or whatever. Today, the theme will be the problem of a defeated Christian life. How many of you in these past, in the past year have felt so defeated in your Christian life?

And, and you felt that so many times I feel so defeated and the word victory for my Christian life is hardly ever around. And you get to the place, sometimes you say, I want to give up. How many of us have been to that place?

And you know, girls, it doesn't have to be anymore. Yes, there are times of difficulty, but there is an answer. So this morning, remember, it's not picking at any sin in your life. It's picking over the whole thing that I, as a Christian woman have been defeated too many times and I have not known victory.

Very little victory and sometimes none, but you know, we must be convinced of one thing. Can I say it again? We must be convinced in our hearts of one thing and that victory for you and me as a Christian is possible and available.

God has made it possible and he has made it available. So he never intended for us as Christians to be defeated. God has made victory possible and we will see the pattern this morning. So we must understand that personal victory is not only freedom from our sin, but freedom from our selfishness and from our bondages.

So it is for us then to find out what is the root cause of our defeated Christian life. And unless we find out the root cause, we will be up and down, in and out, warm and cold just like a yo-yo. Our Christian life is constantly bouncing and then after a while we say, I am so tired.

I feel like giving up. And then God says, I have a pattern for you and I want to show you the pattern so that you can walk in personal victory. So then I think probably I hear some of you say, yes, that's true in my life.

Yes, I've been an up and down, in and out, warm and cold, really on fire one day and down the next day and we're going by our feelings, bouncing with our feelings and you know, our feelings will bounce.

If it's cold outside, it's going to be different. Our feelings will be different. If it's hot outside, our feelings are going to be different. If someone has crossed our path, our feelings are going to be different and our feelings are always bouncing up and down.

But this morning we want to know that God has a firm pattern fixed for our victory, does not depend on our feelings. It depends on what God's word says to us. So let's move on then and remember that there is both the possibility and the availability of victory for the Christian woman.

That's good news, isn't it? That's good news. Last night he said where there is conflict, there must be a conflict in order to have a victory. There must be a conflict in order to have a victory, right?

And so if there's a conflict in your life, praise the Lord because He has the victory for you in it. And when you walk through the victory, then you will grow and your faith will be expanded. Well, forgiveness.

Divine Forgiveness as a Permanent Blessing

The author of forgiveness is God. He is the author of forgiveness. No one else can forgive. Forgiveness is not man-made. God is the author of forgiveness. And since we have broken His law, then it is only He who can forgive us.

You know, I can forgive you for breaking my china cup or smashing my car, but only God can forgive us of our sins. How awful it is to go through life always wondering, am I forgiven? Has God really forgiven me?

Am I really forgiven? And we go back time and again and say, oh God, I've asked you to forgive me so many times for the same thing. God, did you really forgive me? He is the author of forgiveness. He has forgiven us once and for all.

And I think the time has come this morning, ladies, for every heart in here this morning to say once and for all this morning, I am going to believe God that He has forgiven me, period, signed, sealed, and settled.

In Luke 23, 24, he says, Father, forgive them. He didn't say forgive them for part of the things, but he said, Father, forgive them. And when he said, it is finished, it was finished. Did you know that forgiveness was a very personal blessing?

Father, I am forgiven. Before I even deserve it, I am already forgiven. Did you know that forgiveness was a priceless blessing, a priceless blessing? Did you know that forgiveness was a permanent blessing?

It is a personal blessing, a priceless blessing, and a permanent blessing. Forgiveness is a permanent blessing. So when you know this morning that God has forgiven you, you cannot come back tomorrow morning and say, God, have you forgiven me?

He said it's permanent. Believe him. Believe him. Psalm 103 says, As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed his sins from you. Forgiveness is a permanent blessing. It's yours. Take it.

Have you taken it? If you have never taken it, for sure, forever, settle it this morning and say, forgiveness is mine. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. And the poem says this way. God said, I will cast into the depth of the fathomless sea all your sins and transgressions, whatever they be.

Though they mount up to heaven, though they reach down to hell, they shall sink in the depths, and above them shall swell all my waves of forgiveness, so mighty and free. God said, I will cast all your sins in the depths of the sea.

In the deep, silent depths, far away from the shore, where they never can rise to trouble you more, where no far-reaching tide with its powerful sweep can stir the dark waters of forgetfulness deep. God said, I have buried them there, where no mortal can see.

I have cast all your sins in the depths of the sea. P .S. And he says, no fishing allowed. Isn't that great? No fishing allowed. And if he said it, do we believe it? You know, so often we don't believe his word.

Isaiah says, for thou hast cast all my sins behind your back forever. Now tell me, how many of you are guilty this morning of coming to God over and over again and asking him to forgive you over and over again for the same, same, same, same, same, same thing?

I think all of us. But if I can get anything across this morning, say, God is the author of divine forgiveness. Believe that he has forgiven us once and for all, and don't keep asking him all the time to forgive you for the same thing.

So it is high time for us to go back to the cross where he shed his precious blood for all sin and linger there until once for all, forever, we accept his divine forgiveness. Do you know what someone has said?

Forgiveness is something I do for myself. The fruit of forgiveness is freedom. Freedom from the bondages of all my sin and freedom from defeat. And so once we understand forgiveness, and then we'll come in the cleansing.

Cleansing from Sin and the Need for a Cleansed Vessel

And God has made cleansing for our sin possible and available again. So God has made all the provision needed. Sin needs to be forgiven. And if God has forgiven me, then I have no reason not to forgive myself or others.

So forgiveness, the provision for forgiveness is made and the cleansing is there. And because of the forgiveness and the cleansing, we can have a cleansed life, right? So God says in Mark 2 .5, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

And then comes cleansing. Who but God can cleanse? For the psalmist says this, cleanse thou me from secret faults and keep me from presumptuous sin. After we understand forgiveness, then comes the emptying process and we understand that God can only work through a vessel that is forgiven and emptied and cleansed, right?

And so no sin is bad enough to permanently disrupt or destroy my relationship to God. And you know this other thing, remember this. God does not require a golden vessel nor even an empty vessel, but he requires a cleansed vessel.

You know, our lives are a vessel. He does not require a golden vessel or a silver vessel, but he must have a cleansed vessel so he can fill us. Fill us, cleanse from the core to the circumference. You remember, God's people were met with an overwhelming defeat when there was sin in the camp, when Achan had sinned.

And God had to deal with the sin from the inside of the camp to the outside of the camp. And then when the camp was once again cleansed of the sin, and then guess what, then there was victory. God works the same way in our own hearts and lives, that when we are cleansed from within and once again taken care of the hidden things in our hearts and lives as was in the camp when Achan had sinned, God withdrew his blessing and victory when there was sin in the camp.

I like to think of that in our own lives. God withdraws his blessing and victory from our own lives if there is a hidden thing in my camp, right? And then when we are reminded, God said to Joshua, get up off your knee, find the sin, take care of it so that I can fight your battles.

And so many times we are in defeat and we know no victory is because we have blocked and there is the Babylonish garment in my heart, or the wedge of gold that God said don't take it, and Achan thought he could get away with it, and God withdrew his blessing.

There was no victory. They just had come through a tremendous victory and because of the small thing within the heart of Achan and the family, God withdrew and they were in great defeat. They went out to try to fight against Ai and they lost.

After coming through a great victory, they had a great defeat because within their hearts there was sin, there was a hidden thing. And so God is saying, you are forgiven. And then after you are forgiven and you understand how you are forgiven, there is a cleansing process that God requires.

And so the blood of Christ alone provides the necessary remedy for forgiveness and cleansing. Forgiveness and cleansing of all of our sins produces a cleansed life. But only, absolutely only, because of the blood of Christ.

Nothing I can make, nothing I can dream up, but all of this pattern, all of this provision is here only because He has already given me the pattern. Hebrews 9 .22, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

But we are forgiven and cleansed through the offering of the body of the Lord Jesus once for all. After He has offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down on the right hand of God. And do you know what ladies?

That's where He is today. He is sitting there today. The blood was shed for our sin and He has offered it once for all. It's finished. Never to be offered again. Never to be sacrificed again. It is finished.

It is there for us to take. And so the basis then of, so the basis of forgiveness and the basis of cleansing and the basis of the cleansed life is the shed blood of Christ. And when He shed His blood there, He said it is finished.

You are all forgiven. The plan of redemption is done. That's it. Ephesians 1 .7 says, In whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to His riches, to the riches of His grace.

The Sufficiency of Christ’s Blood and Confession

If I were up to it, I would have taught you all a chorus here this morning. If I had time, I would have gotten Marlene on the side and we would have just learned that chorus. But Roy Hession sings a chorus before he preaches.

Roy Hession who preaches in our crusades on occasion on our weekends. And God gave him a chorus before he preached the message. And it was this, It is surely sufficient for me. It is surely sufficient for me.

If the blood of Christ is sufficient for God, is it surely sufficient for me? You say my sin is so repeated and so much. But ladies, if the blood of Christ was sufficient for God, who are you, who am I to say that it's not sufficient for us?

It is surely sufficient for me. I hope one of these nights that we will sing that chorus. It is surely sufficient for me. If the blood of Christ is sufficient for God, it is surely sufficient for me. Sufficient in every area of my life.

I'm going to have you girls join with me this morning and read different scriptures that I've given you. Because after all, I don't have to do all the talking. I like when we interact. I like when you share.

I like when you read. Because then we are sort of doing it together. And so this morning, how sufficient is the blood of Christ? We're going to look just exactly how sufficient it is. Someone has 1 John 1 .7.

Sufficient for all the cleansing of sin. And what does he say we should do? What is the provision? The pattern is this. Let's see what someone has. 1 John 1 .7. How much sin? Who said it? God said it.

If the blood of Christ is sufficient for God, it is surely sufficient for sin. And so that provision is made that all sin is taken care of because of the blood. But what must we do? Someone read 1 John 1 .9.

Okay. What are the first five words of the verse? Okay. I have that in the back of my Bible that when I deal with people, I say there are two parts to that verse. The first five words are for me and all the rest is for God.

All the rest is for God. If I confess, if we confess our sins. So that is for me. God has already started and made the provision. Step one. Step one is there. Step two is for me. If we confess our sins, then he does all the rest.

You see, we are not machines or robots. God asks us to come to him and asks us to accept the forgiveness that he has provided for us. Someone has Proverbs 28 .13, I believe. The covering of sin brings what?

Can anyone tell me? If I keep covering my sin, what does it bring? The opposite of defeat. To cover our sin brings spiritual defeat and offers no pattern for spiritual victory. The only way to forgiveness and cleansing is to deal with our sin.

And I think we've heard that in these days already, that if we lift up the corner of the carpet and sweep our sin under there, God cannot forgive covered sin. We need to bring it out. So we need to confess our sin.

For he that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. The psalmist says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Have your prayers bounced from the ceiling?

How many times? Oh, how many times we go to the Lord and we pray and we feel that our prayers are going just that high and they fall right back down. And the psalmist David said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, if I allow sin in my heart, the Lord won't hear me.

But God has a pattern for that too. That is included in his pattern. This verse is so simple that all of us can understand it. But you know, when it comes to our confession, the confession of our sins, so many times in days gone by, we have had sort of a band-aid kind of a confession, right?

Just over the top. But God is saying in these days, if we have a band-aid confession, ladies, we're going to have a band-aid victory, right? But if our confession is true, according to what God wants us to do, we will have victory in our hearts and lives.

The provision is there. So the psalmist David gives God the green light. He says, God, you search me. There's no point in my saying, Lord, what is there in here yet? And start pulling myself apart. That brings defeat too.

But God is so kind and he is so gentle and he will search us. He does the searching. And if there are errors in your lives, he will do the searching. You know, we always talk about sins of commission on the outside.

And I just mentioned a few. I'm going to mention just a few of the sins of omission in our lives, which so very often we don't think about. But nevertheless, there are sins too. And it's one of them is by not loving God totally and putting someone or something ahead of God.

That is a sin too, because we are to love him supremely. And then I think Marilyn touched on that or Noreen or one of you did this morning. We can read the word, but we can read it carelessly. We can sing, but we can sing carelessly.

And I was just thinking this morning when she was leading the choruses, it is so easy for us to sing from here up. But you know, it's true. The second time we sing it again, we say, Lord, don't let me sing it from here up, but Lord, let me sing it from the innermost being of my heart.

And it makes a difference. And it does create praise. How many times on a Sunday morning have you sat? We call it a worship service in our churches and everybody's mind is wandering every which way and we're singing the words and our hearts are far, far from the Lord.

And we do call it a worship service. And God said, ah, that's not worship. That's not worship. You know, when we worship him, we shut ourselves in with him and our hearts are in tune with him. And then he brings a spontaneous worship within our hearts that we can't help but overflow.

That when we do speak, that when we do sing, he is overflowing. Like John says, and out of the abundance of our hearts flows the living water. It's not the water that I fetch out of a broken cistern, but it's his water that flows through my life.

Oh, I tell you how often I sit in our Sunday morning service at home with about 700 people and I say, oh father, oh father, teach us to worship. You know, we have such a full schedule on the bulletin and God is set aside and we call it a worship service and we don't worship him.

And so ladies, if the platform isn't made in our church, we still have a pattern. God still has a pattern. And when you're alone at home in your worship time, you can have your own altar at home. I do.

And you know, I don't know if you are like I am, and I think I mentioned that to one of the ladies these days already, I am very easily distracted. And so when I spend time with the Lord in reading his word and praying, I put a washcloth over my face.

I shut myself out. I shut myself out. I look at this and I look at that and my mind thinks I need to do this and I need to do that. And I close my bedroom door so that if the phone rings, I shouldn't hear it.

But do you know, God wants a little bit of our attention, all of it. He wants us to worship him. And you know, even though we don't, we can have a beautiful time of worship in our own hearts and in our own homes.

And then, you know, that overflowing praise runs over onto those with whom we come in contact with. And you say you must be very easily distracted because you have to put a washcloth over your face. Well, you know, I thought I had a real bad back problem.

And the only way I could get relief from my back is I had to do the knee chest, right? Like the mothers have to do after the baby is born. Get down on your knees and put your chest on the floor. Well, that gave the relief to my back ache.

And I found that the absolute best time to have time of prayer and worship. It was just really great. God taught me something, really taught me something, you know, to get down before him just in the low situation and say, Oh, Father, what a good position to be in just to be able to let you talk to me.

And you know, so that's true. We can learn to worship. We can learn to let him talk to us and then let the song and the words flow out. And you know, even on a Sunday morning when the songs are chosen in the church, you know, you can shut yourself in.

You can shut yourself in. You can close your eyes and you know, if everybody else isn't, you can shut yourself in with the Lord and say, Oh, God, what a short time we have here together and worship you.

Godly Sorrow, Repentance, and Restitution

So anyway, God has made the provision. Someone has 2 Corinthians 7 .10. Yes. For what kind of sorrow? What kind of sorrow? Right. Right. And I think when God says for godly sorrow, worketh repentance.

And my heart would say too, if people respond to an invitation, I trust it will be a godly repentance and a godly sorrow. Repentance like confession must be complete and for the right reason. Why do we respond to God's call?

Is it a godly sorrow for our sin? I wonder sometimes if we respond to God because it's going to make life a bit easier for us. I wonder sometimes if we as wives want our husbands to become Christians and the leader of our homes, it's going to be easier for us.

I wonder sometimes if our motives are just a little bit off and you know, God talks here about godly sorrow and true repentance toward God. Could we say that if our repentance is not godly and it becomes a selfish kind of a repentance and out of that kind of a selfish kind of repentance, we will know very little victory because God has provided a way and if we do not have a godly sorrow, we are spurning the provision that God has already made.

So godly sorrow includes the sin of understanding the consequences of sin. Godly sorrow includes, means a complete break with sin and a complete and a total surrender to God's will. Godly sorrow includes forgiveness, cleansing, restitution and reconciliation.

When God, when we forgive people and our hearts are cleansed and God says we are willing to go and make restitution and then be reconciled for God's glory, that the work of, that the shedding of the blood may be made of a veil in our lives so that we know what it is to walk in victory.

Then someone has 2 Corinthians 4, 1, 2, 3, my, what a, what a, what a, what a verse. All we're trying to say here is that God sees the heart. He knows how we ask him to forgive our sins. He knows what kind of confession we have.

He knows what kind of repentance we have. But he also knows about the honesty of our heart. And he is asking us to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. And the example was again with Achan, right?

God is asking us to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. Oh, doesn't it feel good if you can just look at the Lord and say, Lord, as far as I know this morning, I've been honest. Doesn't that make you feel good?

I have an overhead that says, is an open book and says, read me, read me. I'm an open book. Lord, read me. As far as I know. I'm not going to search anymore. My book's open and here's this great big book right above me, say, read me.

That's freedom. That's freedom. And that's what God is asking us to do. It's not that hard. God has made the provision. He has paid the price. He has given us the pattern. He has made victory possible and reachable.

It's not that hard. All God is saying is, I want you, I want your will. I want you to come. I want you to confess. And I think we need to stop here for just a moment, just a moment and say, Lord, as far as I know, in this step one, I have taken care of all that I know there is to be taken care of.