Discover the Champion in You -- He is not You!

“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)!