- Mark Barclay here. I call you blessed in the name of Jesus. Welcome to the broadcast today. Whatever media, however it's coming to you, we welcome you. Hope it's a great blessing to you. We've studied hard and we got some good word for you. Listen, we're in the middle of a series one I've taught, taught again, teaching it now, it's just simply called "How to be an Overcomer". You can get it if you want, it's easy, and it's one of the many things that we are, for a short season, downloading for free. So when you get this, you may still be in that time span. If not, it's still available to you. And I taught a whole series. I've heard all my life people say, "I'm an overcomer, "we should be overcomers." The Bible says he's made us more than overcomers, but what is one? What does it mean? How do you get there? Because I like to win, and I like to win against all odds. And you can, when you learn how God said to do it. I'm also praying for you to meet my Christ. Lot of the things we teach are for God's kids. And so invite him in your life today. Sometime during this broadcast, think about us, pray for us, and any time you can send some financial seed, 'cause that helps us bring all this stuff basically free to everybody on the globe. Here we go. It's gonna be awesome. Hope you got your Bible because your life is about to be changed, amen. Did you bring a Bible tonight? We're gonna study a few minutes, lift it up. Hope you don't get tired of doing this, 'cause I'm gonna keep saying this. I believe you're gonna have the fruit of your lips. Say I believe--
- [Congregation] I believe--
- Everything--
- [Congregation] Everything--
- That my Bible says--
- [Congregation] That my Bible says--
- No matter what the devil says--
- [Congregation] No matter what the devil says--
- No matter what his friends say--
- [Congregation] No matter what his friends say--
- And no matter what my circumstances say--
- [Congregation] And no matter what my circumstances say--
- Tonight--
- [Congregation] Tonight--
- I am a believer--
- [Congregation] I am a believer--
- Therefore, I'm a receiver.
- [Congregation] Therefore, I am a receiver.
- I do believe--
- [Congregation] I do believe--
- That I will receive--
- [Congregation] That I will receive--
- Absolutely everything--
- [Congregation] Absolutely everything--
- That God has for me tonight--
- [Congregation] That God has for me tonight--
- In Jesus' name.
- [Congregation] In Jesus' name.
- I think we ought to clap. You're not tired, are you? Come on. Thank God, thank God, thank God. Turn with me to Isaiah 61, please. Amen. Now interrupted my series. I've been doing a series on Overcomers. In the series, we been hitting some different topics on becoming overcomers. The first one we talked about was what is an overcomer. And we talked about how to find victory in troubled times and breakthroughs and how God helps us do that. It is the will of God for you to be an overcomer. You may not feel like one. You may be losing some battles, but that is not the will of God for your life. Let me promise you that right now. So we started out dealing with that. We dealt with discouragement. Everybody say discouragement.
- [Congregation] Discouragement.
- We dealt with condemnation, say it condemnation.
- [Congregation] Condemnation.
- And we talked the difference between that and conviction and where they fit in and all of that, praise the Lord. And then we talked about hurt feelings, say hurt feelings.
- [Congregation] Hurt feelings.
- That was a good one, wasn't it?
- [Congregation] Yeah.
- And then we did one on bitterness and unforgiveness, say at bitterness.
- [Congregation] Bitterness.
- The last one we did together was on anxiety. Say anxiety.
- [Congregation] Anxiety.
- Being anxious and worrying and what do you do about that. And tonight for a few minutes, I wanna talk about how to overcome defeat. How to overcome defeat. And we're gonna deal with that just a few minutes. Isaiah 60, are you there? Excuse me, Isaiah 61, are you there?
- [Congregation] Yes.
- The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Remember Jesus, this is about Christ. Remember he quoted this one day in his own right as recorded in the Gospels. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel or the good tidings, the gospel, the good news, unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up that brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God and to comfort all that mourn. Now let's make a quick list, 'cause this is... Well, there's two reasons to read this, I think. One, we're a reflection or a servant of, or a follower or a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now this is what God anointed Jesus to do. As we fulfill his ministry in the earth and do what we're called to do, we should be doing some of these things under the Lord, Jesus Christ and under his permission and under his anointing. Let's go back through and make a mark in one, two, three, four, five, or something. Here we go. The spirit of the Lord, God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach. Put number one by that or a little star, however, you mark it on your electronic device or in your Bible, to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to, you mark bind up. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. So we should go to the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives, put a mark on that. Proclaim liberty to the captives, the next one, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Now that doesn't just mean the natural prison. If someone committed a felony or something went to jail. He is not talking about a jail break, he is talking about getting people free from the bondages of life and being a prisoner to the enemies of life, amen? To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord is another one. It's the Lord's anointing and it's his call to keep reminding us of, not only the day we live in, but the day of the Lord that's coming, amen, et cetera. And it says, and the day of vengeance of our God, we, you and I, would call that probably the judgment day it's coming, or the great tribulation period where the wrath of God is poured out, and to comfort all that mourn. To comfort all that mourn. So if we go down through this list, we would find out that a lot of this is still the work of the church, amen.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Now I wanna go over to Joshua 1. Go with me, please. Joshua 1. Say, praise God or something.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Joshua 1. Joshua, if you know the story he took over from Moses by the hand of God, and Moses laid hands on him in front of all the people. And I just wanna start reading 'cause it's a powerful text about feeling like you're not gonna have the victory. Joshua didn't necessarily feel like he was qualified. He didn't feel like he was as strong or as big as Moses his father, mentor, I guess we might say pastor. Verse 1, Now after the death of Moses, everybody say Moses is dead.
- [Congregation] Moses is dead.
- The servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, or servant, saying verse 2, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan thou and all of this people unto the land which I do give to them, even the children of Israel. Verse 3, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. Everybody say tread upon.
- [Congregation] Tread upon.
- I'm coming back to that. Verse 4, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even out of the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and onto the great sea, towards the going down to the sun shall be your coast. 5, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. Now that phrase means to have victory over you, or to win the battle, or to resist you. Nobody, say nobody.
- [Congregation] Nobody.
- The rest of verse 5, as I was with Moses so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Say it sound just like my God.
- [Congregation] It sound just like my God.
- That's what he said to Joshua, I believe that's what he's saying to us. I'll not fail you, and I'll not forsake you in the battlefield and I'll be there to give you the victory. Verse 6, now, you know, when you read the Bible, you don't have to say the numbers. I'm saying, in case you lose track of me. Verse 6, be strong and of good courage for unto this people shall thou divide an inheritance to the land which I swore unto their fathers to give them. 7, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to their right hand or to the left. Not the right or the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest. I'm gonna come back to this as well, 'cause this helps us with victory. Verse 8, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. When? Then. Or when is then? When you get the word of God in your mouth and you meditate in it day and night, then, the Lord said, after that, you could say. Then means after that, in this case. Or what if the word of God is not in my mouth? What if I'm always talking to some defeat talk? Or something that's a great... Maybe it's just coming out of you like a murmur or a gripe or a complaint, but actually it's a indictment against the scriptures. Then you probably are not gonna enjoy the fullness of prosperity, which is not just money and the great success in this life. The more I walk with God, the more I realize he's extremely intricate, but he's not really complicated. He's made this about a simple as he can, that almost simpleton level someone could understand what God is saying and follow after the living God and get saved and live after his ways, amen.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Verse 9, final verse for this text. Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, be not afraid, wish you'd underline that, neither be thou dismayed. Dismay is a weird form of discouragement when you can't see your dream come true or you can't picture within yourself, how would this ever be? How would God ever move? There's no way out of this. That creates a feeling of dismay, and the commandment is you don't be afraid, Joshua, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest. Now to me, that sounds like Joshua had a choice. Joshua, you can be defeated or not, you can be dismayed or not. You can be of good courage or no courage. You can be courageous or discouraged. It sounds like a choice. I mean, when God says you be strong and have a good courage, it almost sounds like, okay, well, what if I don't? Or when he says, if you meditate in this, my word, and you speak this out, you will be prosperous and a great success, it's almost like I'm commanding you to do it, but if you don't do it, there's an alternate life. That's why I try to tell everybody, someone once said, well Brother Barclay, you're making us tithe, and I'm making you do nothing.
- [Congregation] That's right.
- That's not true. I'm not making you do anything. Well, you teach that you have to tithe. You've never heard me teach that in your entire life. I don't believe you have to tithe. And I believe there some people stupid enough not to. And they just take matters in their own hands. And then they wonder why all kinds of stuff happens. And then they wanna blame the church, the pastor, the Bible, God, when they just didn't follow the simple directions that the Almighty God told you to follow if you'd like to make your way prosperous and live a successful life. God, if I didn't appreciate anything else tonight, God told you what to do about it, praise God.
- [Congregation] Praise God.
- I like a better amen, amen.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Amen. Now I said, there's a couple of things I wanna go back to. Let's go back for a minute if you will, to verse 3. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given thee. That have I given thee. Now I've illustrated this before, but if you were to look at say Mark 11:22-23, now Mark 11 says that you can have what you say. So it's almost like this idea of planting your foot down and marching around the city like God told Joshua at Jericho and other places. Wherever you place your foot, I will give you that. It was like a dominion march. But I can't find a put your foot down to gain something other than put your foot down against sin, but you know what I mean. In the new Testament, it changed from the foot to the mouth.
- [Congregation] Right.
- Now in the New Testament, it says, no, don't let any corrupt communication come out of your mouth. Life and death is not in the power of the foot, life and death is in the power of the tongue. It didn't say you can have what you want, it says you can have what you say, amen. And in Mark 11:23, it says, you say unto this mountain, you don't go march around it. You say unto this mountain, be thou cast into the sea. If you believe in your heart what you said, once you say it and you can... I'm paraphrasing, you continue to believe in your heart after you sayeth, whatsoever you sayeth, you can have whatsoever you sayeth, amen?
- [Congregation] Amen.
- And so this authority and I can go on, there's many other verses about speaking outwardly your trust in God, your trust in God. And I know sometimes we faith people get labeled as name it and claim it, but that's probably the nicest thing I'm called nowadays. I take that as a compliment, praise God. But it's not a matter of you just playing God and naming what you want and claiming what you want and doing what you want. It's a matter of using your voice and putting claim to the promises that God promised you in the Holy scriptures.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- This is one of the reasons, this is one of the ways that you get to have victory. This is one of the walks to victory, is that you do what God said and you trust him to bring it to pass. Now, if you were with Joshua imagine telling that many people, including probably teenagers and everybody, I don't know, imagine that many people marching around the city seven days in a row and told not to make a sound. Not one sound. Don't know what the city's saying? Or you think they were napping for seven days? They're hanging over the wall. They're laughing at God's people. They're mocking God's people, amen? And imagine getting that many people do obey the leader all on one day, let alone seven in a row. And especially when he tells you to shut up and don't speak again, don't even utter a sound, Joshua said, until I tell you that God says it's okay. As good as you are at Living Word, that would not fly here. I'd be in every cult book written everywhere. You kidding me? I told you to shut up, I'm a meanie. God would never say such a thing. He's a loving God. But you see God wasn't being mean to them, God probably wasn't even tired of hearing their cry. God said, you be quiet and obey me and go march with your foot around that city and I'll give it to you. Nobody anticipated. I don't know if Joshua knew what was coming or not. I don't know, I don't think so. I don't think they could see walking around that city how are we gonna beat this enemy? They got spears, they got catapults, they got a fortified walled city, how are we gonna get in there? We've been marching around the desert for 40 years, I mean, we're tired, thirsty, hungry. what's going on here? I think a lot of those people and I really believe one of the reasons Moses and many of those under him did not cross the Jordan into the promised land is because they didn't have the heart to fight for that city. They want a God just give it to 'em. They come back with a complaint. The giants are tall, the city walls are high, you mean we gotta fight for this? I know a lot of Christians like that. They just think God should just give it to me. I shouldn't have to pray to get an answer, I shouldn't have to ever fast and pray. That'd be uncomfortable and I'd be really hungry. And to come out to the church house, you gotta be kidding me, man. And I got to find a way to get blessed in God and still do what I want. But see those people don't live successful, prosperous lives. And again, prosperity is not just money. It's beating diabetes, it's beating cancer, it's beating depression, it's keeping your kids from the gangbangers and the prostitutes and on goes the story. That's prosperous living. Any amens in here at all tonight?
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Praise God. So God does his part, he's told us what to do, to obey him and then the power of God comes. So I wanted to get you straight in your mind. I know you probably know this, but I wanted it straight that in the new covenant, we no longer place our foot to claim the promised land, the promises of God. That authority has been transferred to our mouth. We open our mouth. Remember what the Holy Spirit said to one of the churches in the New Testament recorded he said, God called those things that are not as though they were, and you have that same spirit of faith. You don't have the same level of faith that God does, you have the same spirit of faith. Do you understand the difference? I'm sure. The spirit of faith calls those things that are not as though they were. That's not pretending.
- [Congregation] Right.
- It's certainly not like the people that they call things that are as though they weren't, we don't do that. It is what it is, but doesn't have stay that way. Real faith people don't pretend like it isn't what it is. It's like, oh, the doctors say you got a big lump it's cancer, it's probably gonna kill you. And you say, oh, I don't receive that. Well we're looking at it. We're glad you don't receive it in here, but do you know what's growing out here? I don't believe it's there. Of course it's there. It is what it is. If you can't label the giant, how are you gonna go after it? It can't just be grapes and honey, and no. It can't just be sweetness. This is the earth, man. Amen, so true people of faith trust God. That's what we're talking about. So when it says, we call those things that are not as though they were, it doesn't mean that we pretend like we're creative gods or that we just think we're God, or we can just make up anything we want and start saying it and claim it. You won't find verses for that. What it means is we're, we're reading the book, the promises of God, and we're calling those promises to come to us. We're calling those things that are not, they're not here yet. We're speaking as though they were, amen?
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Praise God. They're pretty simple, actually. Amen, so that's the power that we have in the New Testament. So if we wanna be victorious, which is the opposite of defeated, then we're gonna have to do this the way God said, 'cause in case you haven't noticed, we're not playing a football game here, where there are happy winners in a poor loser, or even happy losers. 'Cause with every game somebody has to win and somebody has to lose with the really strange, occasional in some sports, they let you tie. The same is true with combat. You get in a battle, somebody at the end of the day, the end of three days, the end of the week, whatever, there's gonna be a winner and there's gonna be a loser. It's called a battle, amen. When we say we got the victory, we means we won the battle. But for some reason it seems like modern people want victory, no battle. They want the medals and rewards of victory, but never pull the trigger one time. I was speaking spiritually of course, not weaponry, amen?
- [Congregation] Amen.
- And so praise God, it is the Lord who always gives us the victory, but that's just not a given because you bear the name of Jesus Christ. You and I must trust our God to keep putting us in the victory circle and do the things that make for victory and not keep working the formula for defeat.
- [Congregation] Amen.
- Amen, now it's been a long time ago, but I played sports in high school, football and basketball and baseball. Now my grandkids think I'm just old and old. And so they were playing basketball and I said, let me shoot a hoop. And they said, grandpa, really? I said, yeah, just let me try. So I kept backing up and backing up and backing up and they said, grandpa, you should stop right there. You're already gonna embarrass yourself. So I flung it and made a really nice swisher form from way back, and then I taught him my old trick where I used to go like this and make a basket. And they were like, oh my God, old people can do that? Now, they didn't say that or I would've whaled 'em, but they didn't have to speak it. These said it. Now, I never... I'm making a point with this. I don't ever remember playing sports through those years when I was a young man and ever having the coach, when you lost a game saying, that's great, just repeat everything you did next week. Anybody play sports in here besides me?
- [Congregation] Yeah.
- Did your coach ever tell you that? Great loss, let's just repeat it next week. So there's no reason to practice this week. You already got defeat down. Huh? I never heard that out of him. Instead, whichever sport you're talking about, man, we reviewed the plays, we went over, who did what right, who did what wrong, why did we lose, so we could try to assure that we did not get defeated again.
- [Congregation] That's right.
- And that's how God wants to always give us the victory. Not without the battle. Read your Bible. The great story in the lions den happened because there was a lion's den and a man went in it that really didn't deserve to be there. But he did, but he came out of the lion's den. The greatest victory stories in our Bible are about people who went through horrible battles while God was alive. Now nowadays people talk like God's dead, but while God was alive, they went through all of that. God knew he was gonna get him out of the lion's den. When that army, Pharaoh's army chased and chased down God's kids did to kill 'em, God knew he was gonna split the red sea. Why did he wait for the last minute? God knew he was gonna get those three Hebrew children out of that death penalty, that crematory, fiery furnace. We're not in the beginning of the last days, we're in the last of the last days. You're blessed to have this book. You're blessed to have this insight. You're blessed to have this forewarning. And they, overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony. Huh, guess who wins? Man, I like church. I like preaching and teaching the word of God. I even like you. Praise God, thank God for you God's people. Listen, when we started this, I was telling you that this USB drive is available to you. This series has several messages on here, not just one about becoming an overcomer. That's what I'm dealing with right now is trying to teach people, you can win, you will win. It's God's will for you to win. This is not just a pep talk. Scripture, after scripture, after scripture. Bible story, after Bible story teaches us how God always wins, his kids always come out on top and no matter what battle you and I are facing right now, praise God, this is what it's all about, winning and not losing, standing up and not staying down. So get this series. Get on the website, bookstore, call us, email. There's all kinds of ways. We want you to have it, "How to be an Overcomer". If you don't know my Jesus invite him into your life right now. Most everything we teach will not work for people that don't know Christ. So just say, Lord, come live in me and make me a Christian, and then you call us and we're gonna tell you how to live your best life now. I promise you that. See you on the next broadcast, send an offering and pray for us, in Jesus' name.