“Discover the Champion in You!”
This mantra opens up every broadcast of Joel Olsteen's television ministry.
If any of us looking within ourselves for a champion, we will find despair or a lot of hot air:
"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there
is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 14: 3)
Jeremiah gives a damning indictment of man's heart:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17: 9)
Before than, God acknowledge the fallen state of man:
"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually." (Genesis 6: 5)
Jesus Christ taught that what was in man was not something worth discovering:
"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and
they defile the man." (Matthew 15: 18)
We do not need to discover a champion within ourselves. All that fallen man can find is . . . a fallen man! Hardly a champion, we are dead in our trespasses.
We can receive a champion greater than anything we could ever imagine, one who can rescue us from our dead and lost state, and seat us in the highest status in the universe:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
"Even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
"And hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus:
"That in the ages to
come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus.
"For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
"Not of works, lest
any man should boast.
"For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 4-10)
He brings us from death to life, He seats in high places, above all principalities and powers (Colossians 2: 15) He showers on us His exceeding riches of grace and mercy, and not only that, but He fashions us for works, which He has already set in place for us to do!
This is not self-actualization, not one bit of it! We are Christ's, and Christ is God's!
We have a greater champion
than anything we can create on our own:
"And it came to pass,
when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold,
there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua
went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our
adversaries?
"And he said, Nay; but
as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto
his servant?
"And the captain of
the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the
place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. " (Joshua 5: 13-15)
Jesus Christ is our captain, He is our
leader, in Him we are more than conquerors (Romans 8: 37). I am not interested in just being a
winner, I need someone who helps me
overcome death, hell, and the grave. I need someone who can wash all my sins
away. I need someone who makes me a winner. It is not self-actualization that
we need, because without Him, we can do nothing.
We need to know who we are in Christ:
"As He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
And
"I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4: 13)
He is our Champion, Christ. We need to discover more of this Blessed Person, and if He does not live in you, receive Him by grace through faith, believing in your heart, confessing out your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10: 17)!