[Donald Turgeon] Well, good morning to everyone. I hope you're all having a very enjoyable and healthy Feast. Welcome to anyone listening on the webcast, anyone in our overflow. It is very, very good to be here. Very good to be here, especially after last night's event. I don't know if anyone felt that thunderstorm. I thought a building was breaking in half there at one moment, and the power went out. But it is always good. I feel when you come and you're ever in an ocean setting, it always feels like you feel quite insignificant and right-sized by God. And last night, we were further right-sized, it felt like, with the power of weather and everything that happened last night.

So, it was a dramatic evening, a beautiful day, and we are here to rejoice and delve into God's Word together on this family day. What a wonderful thing. Family day. A lot of young people out here. It's an interesting sight. So many young people, I think there are 150 young people in the youth class. We have a bunch of teenagers as well and young adults. What a blessing we have in God's Church. So many gathered here today. When I think of Youth Day, harking back to my childhood, I was the fourth out of five siblings. So, I sort of grew up in the shadow of my older brother and sisters. And it's interesting. There's books on siblings, your birth order, and where you are. And it's very interesting if you're a firstborn or if you're a middle child. Very interesting.

But I know in my situation of being a fourth child, whenever my mom went shopping with my older brother, I tagged along. And she said, "Why do you want to come?" Because I said, "I'm going see that close in about two years." So, I had a vested interest, right? Because I'm going to wear that. Now it didn't matter that we had extremely different body types, right? I was just a whisperer. My brother at that age, probably could have been on the high school wrestling team. But there was nothing that a belt couldn't solve, right? So, I wanted to see that close because I was going to wear it at some point.

And then when you have a larger family, when you go to school is where I really noticed it, right? I got to school and they'd go through and they'd ask for your name and I would give them my name and they'd go, "Oh, you have an older brother, Wayne." All right, anyone experienced this? You didn't even have a name a lot of times, you were just someone's brother or... You know what I mean. That's your older sister, right? "Oh, I had your brother in class and he's an excellent writer. I'm expecting really good things out of you." Already day one, expectations are high. And I always thought if I had a different teacher, right, if I had a teacher that didn't know me, it probably would have been a whole different situation, a skinny kid, red hair, ill-fitting clothes. They would have had no expectations. They probably would have thought, "Just give him some extra juice box and cheese and let him read the book with the big pictures in it and he'll be fine," right? But that wasn't the case because when they heard my name, my last name, there was an expectation because of what my older brother had done that I would perform a certain way because he had performed a certain way.

When we think about family, our family name has a lot that is associated with it physically. But now we're here at the Feast and we think about we're a part of God's family. We have God's family name upon us. And we are here and someone might say, "Oh, we have an older brother as well. We have an older brother, Jesus Christ." And He did certain things when He was here on the earth that led to certain expectations for us today.

Turn with me if you would to John 16, John 16:33. This is a verse we normally read at the Passover, but I just want to take a minute here and read it because it's germane to what I want to talk about this morning.

John 16:33 Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."

Overcome. That word overcome comes from the Greek word nikaō. It means to conquer, to prevail, to come off victorious. It implies a battle. Now I thought about putting a Nike shoe up here because that's where Nike gets its name from, right? Nike, it's victory. Overcome means victory, to be victorious, to actually subdue something, to win a battle against something. It's a beautiful concept. Well, that was our older brother, of course, setting the bar really, really high, like my older brother did when I first sat in class and I said, "Oh, you're so and so, boy, we're expecting big things out of you." Our older brother overcame the world, right? He was the perfect one. He was the oldest. He set the path.

Look at Revelation 21:7. Now Revelation 21:7 is interesting because it's right in that section of scripture we always read during the Feast of Tabernacles, but a lot of times we don't quite get there. We stop at Revelation 21:4 because I love that verse, too, about every tear will be wiped away, there'll be no more death, no more sorrow, and we sort of stop there, then you go to Revelation 21:7. And I read this sometimes, maybe it's just me a little trepidatiously when I see this and I go, "Oh, verse 7.”

Revelation 21:7 “To he who overcomes, he shall inherit," let's just marinate on this for a minute, "Shall inherit all things. I will be his God and he will be My son."

Overcome. To he who overcomes, to he who is victorious. And I stop and I think and I go, "I get stuck at that because, boy, I want that, but can I overcome?" Right? And sometimes I wonder if I even think in terms of victory. Do we even think in terms of victory? Because I see that word overcome and it seems like this negative word. Boy, I really got to work on that. You know, I got to overcome that, right? It's something I'll get to. You know, maybe I will. I don't know if I can, right? Do we even think in terms of victory? And it's very easy to lose hope.

And you read this verse and it's a powerful verse. It's all-encompassing. What's left out? Right? He says, "You will inherit all things. I will be your God. And you will be part of this family." That's what we're talking about on Family Day. And it's easy because sometimes in life, sometimes even on a very physical plane, it's easy not to think in terms of victory, right? Our victories are far and few between, right?

Every year we will go somewhere, my wife will say, "Yeah, we got to get in shape because we're going to be on the beach." Well, I'm going to wear a sweatshirt. All right? That's what we're going to do. But you start thinking about that, right? "Okay. I'm going to lose weight." You stop. You stop. You start, you stop. And then what happens? I usually accept, right? You go to that spot. Because I used to think it was the dryer that was shrinking my clothes. But it turns out it was the refrigerator the whole time. So, you get into these spots in life where even some of these things, we don't win. How about you young people out there, right? Certain classes, you think, "Boy, I want to get better in math, or science, or English." And you feel you get the grade back. And it's a struggle, right? And you wonder, can I really win?

Now, it really comes home for me in the world of sports because I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, right? So, if you know any Bills history, I've languished for years waiting for that elusive Super Bowl, right? And it's not so much we don't think we can even win. We understand that. But we even label our defeats, right? We have them categorized, right? We have Wide Right, the Music City Miracle, 13 Seconds. It's like Shakespearean tragic comedies, right? And we sort of understand our place in the universe. And it's very easy, even physically in our lifestyle to not think in terms of victory. But, boy, is it so important spiritually? Right?

Now we come to this verse here in Revelation 21:7, "He who overcomes..." He who is victorious... And where am I spiritually? How about that sin that so easily besets me, right? That easily ensnares me. Well, all the things I want, I come back to that same spot. How can I have victory? But I want what it says here in Revelation 21:7, I want to be a son of God. I have God's name. I want to be in that situation. I want to inherit all things, as He says, "To the one who overcomes."

So, my question this morning is, how is this victory possible? How is it possible? We're going to shift gears from the impossible to the possible. So, the same John who wrote John 16:33 had a lot to say about this in 1 John. Turn to 1 John if you would, and we'll look at a couple of things about how is this really happening? How do we get there?

1 John 5:4 "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world."

Has victory over the world. Look what it says in verse 1. Who is those who are born of God?

1 John 5:1 "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."

Sounds pretty easy, right, that word believe. We'll go into that a little more. "But whoever believes," he says, "is born of God." And John wrote so much about belief and love and who Jesus was and where that victory comes from, because he said, "Whosever born of God, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, whoever puts his faith, his trust, his hope in Him, overcomes the world."

Because all these efforts, all these different plans and programs we've tried over the years, whether in our personal life, spiritually, we go back up and down the hill, there's effort, there's definitely effort. We are supposed to put forth the effort, but that overcoming, that victory comes through Jesus Christ. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. In verse 4, "our faith, our belief, our hope, our trust, and the one who can deliver that victory. It's our older brother who did that, it's our older brother who carved the path, who showed the way to victory, and He's reaching a handout, and He says, "Come. Come to me and follow me. Be on the winning side." Right? Be on the winning side. If you look in 1 John 4:4, probably the same page in your Bible or one page over.

1 John 4:4 "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them."

That's present tense. He's talking about the antichrist or the ones who denied Christ. He says, "You've already done that, children of God." I hope you are encouraged by that because victory is not a flag that goes out there years from now. Victory is today, right, as we walk and we trust and we put our hope and our confidence in the one who's already had victory, on the one who's already overcome the world, as we let go of the things we hold on to and hold on to Him. He says, "You little children have overcome them. You have victory." And one of the reasons why we come to the Feast is to get a foretaste, again, a feeling of what that family looks like, the good things that are promised to us, what victory looks like.

Look back in Romans 8. So, not only do we get victory now, let's look at what type of victory this is. Romans 8. Romans 8 I know is a favorite chapter for many people. It is filled top to bottom with some exciting things about what God's Spirit does for us. He says, "If we have His Spirit, if we're led by His Spirit we are His sons and daughters. Now what can separate us?" You know all the great verses that are in here.

Romans 8:31 "What shall we say then to these things? If God's for us, who can be against us?"

And He goes through a number of things, that He sent His son, in verse 32. "And who shall separate us," in verse 35, "from the love of Christ?"

Romans 8:37 What I want to focus on, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

If you want a title for my message, it's "More than Conquerors." That expression, more than conquerors, comes from the Greek word, it has that nikaō at the end but it's hupernikaō or what we would say hypernikaō, or it means in the vernacular, exceedingly great victory, abundant victory, or if we were talking in sports terms, it would be a blowout. All right? It's not even close. Boy, what I long for one of those games, right, where it's not even close. It's a victory that's given to us, that's not... I'm not sure if we won or not, that it ended in a tie. No, and it's exceedingly great victory, an exceedingly great victory, an overwhelmingly conquering that is done through Him, through Him, right? So, that's sort of the classroom application, right? As we sit here and we think about, and we think, "Yeah, I believe, faith, I trust, that's where I am, that's what I try to do, I get that," right?

So, I want to go into the laboratory for a second here. We're going to get the beakers out and we're going to go into some real-life applications. So, for the remainder of the time I have, I just have two areas to look at because I'm always saying, "What does this victory look like? What are we to overcome? Right? Because it says, "So, he who overcomes." We said Jesus overcame the world, He overcame all the things, all the trappings, He overcame the tempter, the deceiver, the one who has caused so much angst and suffering. He overcame all the things that were put before Him, and we are asked to do the same thing. We are asked to do the same thing.

So, what does this victory look like? What are we trying to be victorious over? So, I have two points, two areas I want to look at. The first one is going to be geared more towards our younger people on Youth Day. Certainly application for all of us, but I want to talk more to the young people. On the second one, you put yourself in what category you want, whether you're younger or older, I'm not going to put a number on it, but a little older, we'll go for the second point. Turn with me, if you would, back in 1 John, because John writes so much about this. 1 John 2. Let's just look at if we're going to have victory, this is an area where victory must be won.

1 John 2:15-17 John says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world. The world is passing away, and the lust of it, and he who does the will of God, abides forever."

John is saying here all the things that sit in front of us, that get us excited, the trappings of things that can suck us over away from our faith, and our walk, and our trust in Jesus, they're all going to be going away, but boy, they all seem so real. That's why I talk to our young people on this point. It is so critical because if it was so blatantly wrong, no one would buy the package. Would they? But the tempter, the deceiver is very, very clever, and you don't see the end trap until it's late, young people.

And we live in a world that is active in robbing our young people of the walk with God, and we have to fight back. We have to have eyes open wherever you are. You are sitting here today because you are sanctified by God. God is working with you wherever you are in that process and wants you in His family, but there is one here that wants to pull away. Wants you to pull away.

There's a common expression in the business world that came up several years ago called the burning platform. Some of you may have heard that. A burning platform is really the concept that changes essential. Staying the same is unacceptable. And even though it's sometimes radical or risky, it must be done even though it might be painful.

Now this comes from the concept of a situation that happened in the summer of 1988 on an oil rig called the Piper Alpha out in the North Sea. There was an explosion that happened on that oil rig. They said the flame from the fire was seen 35 miles away. Two hundred men were on that rig. Now most men went to the back in a storage area and they were trying to wait back there and wait and wait and hope rescue would come. Two men came forward eventually to the edge of that platform, that platform 175 feet above the water. That bridge that comes across here, the St. Simon Bridge, is 185 feet when you drive across. We had the chance to see a lighthouse in Savannah here. It was 178 feet. You look down, my knees were starting to buckle, right?

Those two men decided they could no longer stay where they were because there was no rescue coming. It was a dead end. They were going to die if they stayed there, and they jumped. It was painful. They said it took seven seconds before they hit the water. They broke their legs. But they were alive and they lived because what they were on was going away. There was nothing to hold on to anymore. They needed to jump.

And I'm asking young people to think about that. In this world that is going away, we need to jump to a new world. We are here to jump to a new world. And I would always want to say at this point in the sermon because as a young person looking at you might say, "Oh, he's an angry old man who's lived his life.

He's done all the fun stuff, and now he's telling me no." I say, "Go and live and enjoy the good things of life. Live and have the wonderful things that are held out to us." God created us to enjoy life and enjoy the things that He gives that are good and right. But understand what is here. The trappings of this world that can easily suck us in, especially young people. And that's why I'm making my point. But it's of all ages, right? And it's subtle. But this world is passing away. We are here to talk about a new world, of letting go, of overcoming and having victory because our hope and our trust and our confidence in all things. And it's difficult as a young person.

I have two children. I know the walk, the struggle, the difficulty of carving a path that goes against the grain and the value and the morals of this world and the difficulties of that and trusting in God and saying, "God will work out this situation. God, I have to give you this situation because I can't do anything about it but help me walk through that." Hebrews 11:13. We know this verse very well. A lot of times it's quoted at the Feast.

Hebrews 11:13 The faith chapter "These all died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, and they embraced them."

You have to have a different type of eyesight. You're looking down the road to what's coming, what God holds out. Why? Because God is good. I think it's a concept for our young people to keep, top of mind, God is good. God is good. When it's not working according to the timing you want, the timing I want, the painting's not fully painted yet. God is still good. We look further down into the distance. They were assured, they embraced and they confessed that they were strangers. This is not our home. They were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:14-15 "For those who say such things plainly declare they'd seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return."

Is that not true if we just stop and we think? It's even hard sometimes to come here to the Feast and disconnect. We heard that earlier, right? We have opportunity to think about it. It's pretty cozy and the things we know, and this is pretty fun right now. And I think I'm good with all this. Why do I have to leave? Right? But we read here that this is passing away. And I think about this, it's interesting. We read that parable about the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said, "And I've done all these things. What else? What else?" And he said, "This one thing, do this and come. Follow me." Right? What is that one thing? That one thing, right, that we need to sever and say, "You know what? I'm ready to jump. I'm here to embrace a new world."

And I speak very directly to our young people because our young people are under attack. And I think we all realize that. We in this community have an obligation, I think, to encourage, to instruct, and to hold out the good things and the good things that are here that are done right. And it's so good to see our young people doing things the right way and reaping those blessings, but it is not easy. It is not easy.

All right. For you older people now. And again, these, I hope you understand in that first point. I can see myself in that first point, right? It's not that we're excluded, but I want to put a heavier emphasis on our young people today because it is much more difficult. Now I am sounding like the old man. It is much more difficult today than when we were kids. It truly is. There's many, many more things, unfortunately, that our young people are up against and we are here to put a hedge around them, but they are here to choose and to understand the trap that needs to be avoided.

Let's go back to Luke 14. And I will say on that last point as well, when you think about these situations and the difficulties, I hope you think about these young people, everyone on that point, that we think about Jesus, right? When we get to a spot, we don't look to the left, it's easy to get around. Well, they're doing this, this is fine, nothing's really happened, I haven't seen anyone swallowed up into the ground, and life still goes on, but we look to our older brother Jesus Christ who overcame the tempter, right? What happened when Satan said, "Listen, I want to give you all the kingdoms of the world and its glory?" Right? That was held out to Jesus. We remember that. That's who we look to, our older brother. We're in that family now. That's the expectation that's in front of us. Look at Luke 14. I call this the fine print section of our Christian walk, right? We talk about Jesus came here, in verse 25.

Luke 15:25 "Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and He said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate, or love, or prioritize his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.'"

And I think sometimes it's easier to go through that checklist and go, "Yeah, you know what, I can love Him more than my father." I get that, my mother, okay, brothers, sisters. What's the last thing that's talked about there? Even our own life. Even our own life becomes subject too, it has to be overcome, it has to be subdued, wrestled with until there is victory.

How do we get that victory? By saying, "God, take away my will, my agenda, my agenda, and replace it with yours." We're here at the Feast, right? We think about that. If we have no agenda, wow, is there great cooperation? You see great examples of that. If we live our life that way, God is not random or arbitrary. He just says, "You know what, you need to just be beat down and never have anything that's good." No, God is a God that says, "If you live this way, there are results today of peace," right?

When you give away and you don't have an agenda, there's unity, there's joy, all the things that sometimes we naturally think, "Well, I got to be more of that way, I got to work that up." We do that when we give it away and we say, "God, your will. Let it be your will, not my will, that I have no agenda, that there's cooperation in everything I want to do." That's what He said. Deny Himself. Bearing with one another, right? When you're not in the picture anymore, all of a sudden you have different eyes. You see things differently. We would see our fellow men differently, that they are created in the image of God. Boy, that changes a lot of things when you are on social media and have a nice little rant, maybe late one night, but there's a child and it's someone who's created in the image of God. We see as God sees, bearing with one another, cooperating, unity.

I heard an interesting little expression a while ago that said, "We're all just walking each other home." And when I thought about that, I thought, "Boy, that spirit of just helping, assisting, guiding." And it's beautiful when you see that. I know It's encouraging because so many of you people are doing that. My wife has an expression she's used and has stuck with me over the years, where it's like we have come to the mountain of the Lord, right? But we are all at different spots on that mountain. Sometimes you want to rest. Sometimes you need a hand. Sometimes you can lead. But we're all in different spots in this journey and we recognize that, boy, that love, that empathy, that we now begin to look like who? The sons of God. There's a transformation that happens today because we have denied the self. We look a lot like our older brother and God the Father. And He recognizes us and we're part of His family. Part of His family.

Luke 15:27 He also says in verse 27, "Whoever does not bear His cross."

I think that's interesting. I don't bear your cross, you don't bear my cross. It's an individual personalized plan. My wife said that once when I was going through something, and she said a beautiful thing, "That's designed just for you. It's good. That's what is needed for you." And He says through this that we would do the same thing. Could you imagine Jesus when He had this assembled crowd on a hillside? He didn't start out with a lot of, you know, first 50 get Jesus Love Me T-shirts, and coffee mugs, and come on in, it's all great, right? That wasn't the thing. The very first thing He hits them over the head with is that I've got to be number one. But that's our older brother who's going to take His cross. Could you imagine His thought process as He knew what He was going to do, the one who divested Himself of His God who had humbled Himself, who came here as a lowly man, paid the price, and He knew what He would suffer on the cross?

Sometimes I think about that and I'm like, "Boy, I'm offended about that. How could you do that?" The one who... What did our older brother do? We could spend a sermon on that. There was no offense, right? That we become more like Him, right? Imagine those things that just peel away, that we take up our cross and we walk as He did.

I remember a situation, I was in Ambassador College and I gave a speech, it was my freshman year and I got done with the speech. An older gentleman, I thought he was older at the time. He's quite young now. He came up to me afterwards and he said, "Boy, that was a good speech. You're really going to be able to be a good speaker once you get some life experiences." And my sister had just died two months earlier in a car accident when I went to Ambassador. It was just two months earlier. And I thought I had experienced everything. He didn't understand that I had life experiences. That was my cross. He didn't get that. That was my thought. That was going to be 40 years ago this fall. I didn't realize the things that would come after that. That's what Jesus said, "Take up your cross."

Paul. Remember Paul when he said, "You want me to go to see this guy, Paul, the guy who's been brutalizing the church?" Don't worry. I have things for Paul that he will have to deal with. Go to John. Go to John 21. Situation after Jesus had come back from His ascension, He was with the disciples one more time before He ascended. And we always love Peter and how he is always, you know, in a crowd. If you have a Bible study, Peter would be the guy that would ask the question, right? He would be there. Okay, I got it. I got it covered. So, in John 21, Jesus says to him in verse 17.

John 21:17-18 "A third time, do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my sheep." And this is what he says in verse 18, "Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish," right? For telling him.

And I think about that because I was just talking to someone before services started. We are in a situation now where we didn't think the game would probably play out this long. 2022 Feast, right? And I had jokes sometime with some of the older ladies in our congregation about having a walker, you know, race down the aisle, right? Because we have so many now. We are aging. We are getting older. And that's what He was saying to Peter, and Peter looks and he says, "Well, what about him?" Right? "What about John?" He says, "Don't worry about him. Follow me." Follow me, right? That's what's being asked of us in this point here. When we deny ourselves and we say, "God, whatever your will, whatever your desire is, that's what I want." And we'll walk as long as it takes to walk there.

And I am extremely encouraged all the time when I talk to people. Some of you said you were here since '63 when the rain was pouring in and light bulbs were breaking. You've been walking that walk through difficulties, and perils, and persecution, and you continue to walk. That's very encouraging. Encouraging to me. But that victory comes, that overcoming comes as we walk and put our faith, and our hope, and our confidence in Him, in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it would be what? Easy to walk away. Easy to walk away, but He says, "Come and follow me. Trust me. Find goodness in me."

And it's encouraging when you see that, and that's part of denying the self, bearing with our cross what He has given us in this lifetime as we march forward to that kingdom, as we separate from the things that will attach us to this world, right? It feels like it's one of those shuttles. Remember when the shuttle would go up and you have a separation? We're forced to go in two different directions, right? And that's what we're here at the Feast to do, to separate fully and say, "I am totally with my older brother and I want victory through Him, through Him."

You know, if you think about this lifetime, there are certain victories I don't think we're ever going to see in this lifetime. We may never get that ultimate job that you hoped for, things may never work out quite that way. We may never have the perfect family relationships that, boy, wouldn't you love to have that if there was harmony at the Thanksgiving table all the time? Right? You may not ever get to that spot. You may never get that perfect body you've wanted in this lifetime. You never get that. Most importantly, the Bills may never win the Super Bowl. I'm prepared to deal with that. I'm prepared.

But as great as all those things would be, they really are nothing because we have an older brother who has given us an unbelievable victory. He's already given us a victory. It says that already, "We've overcome as we walk with Him." That's the beautiful thing. As we separate from the things of this world that are passing away, as we deny ourselves, as we walk forward in trust every day, as we come to His Feast and we picture the things that are coming, and we've heard about the goodness of God.

We heard Mr. Hall talk about as we suffer, we will be what? Glorified with Him. That we set our vision in a different spot. It's way down the road. So, all the things that's swirling around us don't really impact our joy, and our peace, and our unity, and our walk with Him. Boy, that's a toll. I'm not saying it's an easy task. It's a task that our older brother has said, "You can do this with me. You can do this through me. I can't do it by Myself. You can't do it by yourself."

But as we lean into Him, as we spend time with Him, as we trust Him, we let go. And I think every day is a day in the lab. We get a lot of days in the lab and today is another day in the lab that we go out and say, "God, help me to separate. Help me to trust. Help me so that when I read Revelation 21:4, 'He's going to wipe away all tears,' that I'll go down a few more verses." I'll read verse 7.

Revelation 21:7 Where it says, "To he who overcomes, to he who is victorious, to the one who has victory through My son.”

For the one who has put His life even though it hasn't made any sense a lot of times to people around him, even to himself, he's chosen to walk with Me and to wait, through a lot of pain, through a lot of difficulty, through a lot of things that didn't make sense in this lifetime, to that one who's overcome, I will be his God and he will be My son.