Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world: that confession from 1 John 4:4 is the heart of this message by Pastor Paul Hohman. He teaches that believers lose strength the same way Peter sank on the water, by taking their eyes off Jesus and fixing them on the winds and the waves. The answer is to keep going back to God as your source, the One who gives strength, wisdom and peace in the middle of pressure.
He illustrates the point with David and Goliath, where a whole army forgot who its God was and one shepherd boy did not. Below are the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, every Scripture he uses (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on June 13, 2023, as the first of three messages on this theme. It runs about 51 minutes and closes with a prayer of surrender. Pastor Paul opens by reminding the church that believers are called to be separate from the kingdom of this world and to live in the kingdom of heaven, where we walk by faith and not by feelings.
Murphy’s Law is not our law, he says. Our law is the kingdom of heaven: we are blessed, fearfully and wonderfully made, and placed here for such a time as this. Whatever your age, God still has a purpose for your life.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Pastor Paul Hohman |
| Series | Greater Is He (part 1 of 3) |
| Main text | 1 John 4:4 and 1 Samuel 17 |
| Key theme | Keeping your focus on God as your source in times of pressure |
| Length | About 51 minutes, ending in prayer |
Peter, the Winds and the Waves
Everyone goes through difficult seasons, Pastor Paul says, times when we are stretched to the limit and think we might break. Much of that comes from losing our focus. He turns to the familiar story of Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14:28–31). Peter asked Jesus to bid him come, Jesus said come, and Peter stepped out of the boat.
Peter was a fisherman. He knew what water does. Yet he got out of that fleshly way of thinking and saw spiritually that he could do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13). He actually walked on the water, obliterating the laws of physics. Pastor Paul compares it to stepping off the church platform and simply walking across the air.
Then, while looking at Jesus and doing the supernatural, Peter lost his faith. His perspective shifted from Jesus in front of him to the winds and the waves around him. Those winds and waves, Pastor Paul explains, picture the world we live in, with its issues, problems, troubles and stresses.
Was Peter someone special? No, he says. Peter simply applied what Jesus taught him. Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will do the works He does, and greater works than these (John 14:12). We are not just pew fillers, Pastor Paul says. We are here to represent Jesus Christ, so let us take steps of faith and do the signs, wonders and miracles He has called us to do.
Greater Is He That Is in Me Than He That Is in the World
The anchor verse is 1 John 4:4: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Pastor Paul leads the church in saying it together, the way many believers have memorized it: greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
The point, he says, is that God is our source. When we are stressed out, often over molehills we have turned into mountains, we have to learn to look to Him. Feel weak? Go to your source; He is your strength. Feel mentally incapable? Go to your source; He gives wisdom. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches (John 15:5). Branches produce fruit only as they are fed by the vine.
The world works hard to distract us through media, billboards, the mail and more, wave after wave pulling our focus onto the cares of this world. When difficult times come, Pastor Paul says, remember who is on the inside of you.
Some people say, You just don’t know what I’m going through. You are right, he answers, I might not, but God does. You cannot hide anything from Him; your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23), and your Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8). So go to your source.
In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Pastor Paul explains that the Greek word for tribulation, thlipsis, means pressure, oppression, stress, anguish, adversity, affliction, a crushing, squashing and squeezing. He says it is used 45 times in the New Testament.
You will have that pressure because you live in the world. Many people come to Christ because they cannot go on alone and expect every problem to disappear. Then they realize they are still in this world. What Jesus gave them is hope, because He became their source. Unbelievers notice the difference: you are steady instead of riding the roller coaster of emotions. You will run and not be weary, walk and not faint, and be the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13), not because of your name or where you grew up, but because of Christ in you.
Jesus Is a Teacher, Not a Genie
Jesus knew pressure in this world. In Gethsemane His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death, and He asked His disciples why they could not watch with Him one hour (Matthew 26:38–41). His sweat became like great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). He was beaten, spat on, mocked and shamed in the open, and He did it for you and me. Because He did, He is our source, and we walk as overcomers.
Then comes the invitation of Matthew 11:28–30: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” Pastor Paul loves the words learn from Me. Jesus is a teacher, not a genie. We pray a prayer and want the answer right away, as if we placed an order to pick up around the corner.
He ties this to the teaching Dr. Hohman had just given the church: God takes us from faith to faith, strength to strength and glory to glory. It is not that every problem goes away. It is that He helps us through the problem. Keep your eyes on Him, Pastor Paul says, the way Peter needed to.
Being a pastor, he admits, does not make him more special than anyone else. He still has to read the Word and pray every day, because God is his source. And Jesus is not beating him up; He promises, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).
He compares it to marriage: going through finances, jobs and children together bonds a couple more deeply than dating ever did. Jesus is the lover of our soul, and the more we go through with Him, the more we love Him. Seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
We will slip up and fall down, he says. Get up and grow through it, because your confidence comes from Him. Your ears will hear a word behind you: This is the way, walk in it (Isaiah 30:21). His father’s old puppet-skit song still reminds him: read your Bible, pray every day.
David Saw the Giant for Who He Was
Before the story of David, Pastor Paul reads Psalm 73:26–28: “My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever… it is good for me to draw near to God.” He explains that deserting God for harlotry can mean anything that steals our time with Him, and he warns the church to beware of time stealers in these days.
Then he reads from 1 Samuel 17:20–51. David was a young shepherd. His father Jesse sent him with food for his brothers on the battle line against the Philistines. When he arrived, Goliath of Gath came out shouting his challenge. Pastor Paul describes him as a champion among a people of giants, bred from birth to fight and to intimidate.
All the men of Israel fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. After all they had been through, knowing who their God was, they chose to fear a man. They lost their perspective, he says, just as Peter did: Look how big these waves are. Look how big this giant is. The table below sets out the contrast he draws.
| Who | Where their focus went | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | From Jesus to the winds and the waves | He began to sink |
| Israel’s army | From the living God to the size of Goliath | They fled, dreadfully afraid |
| David | On the living God, his source | The giant fell and the army rose up |
David asked, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? He saw Goliath for who he really was. He did not focus on his size; he knew who his source was. When the world rises up to intimidate you through the mail, television, radio or social media, Pastor Paul says, remember that greater is He that is in you.
His brother Eliab accused him of pride, and Saul said he was only a youth. David replied that when a lion or a bear took a lamb from the flock, he went after it, struck it, delivered the lamb, and when it rose against him, caught it by its beard and killed it.
David did not run for his father or his brothers, Pastor Paul says. He knew the authority God had given him and would not let anything steal, kill or destroy the blessings God had given. The church must stop letting Satan rob its joy, peace and relationships and lie that you are good for nothing. Through Jesus we no longer fight for victory; we fight from victory.
The Battle Is the Lord’s
David said, The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul put his own armor on David, but David had never tested it and could not walk in it. So he took his staff, chose five smooth stones from the brook and went with his sling in hand.
Goliath despised him and cursed him by his gods. Then David answered: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” All the earth would know there was a God in Israel, because the battle is the Lord’s.
When Satan rises up to defy you, Pastor Paul says, tell him he has no weight in your life. Even when it seems nothing your hands touch is working, go back to your source, because the living God inside you makes you fruitful.
David ran toward the Philistine, slung a stone and struck him in the forehead, and the stone sank in. Pastor Paul notes that Goliath’s helmet came down around his eyes and nose, yet the stone found its mark. Goliath fell on his face, and David took the giant’s own sword and finished him. By my God I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29).
When the Philistines saw their champion dead, they fled, and the army of Israel was spurred to chase them down. It was not really a small boy who frightened them, Pastor Paul says, but the presence of the living God in a boy taking giant steps of faith. Victory had been there for that army the entire time. God was in those men all along; they had simply lost sight of their source.
That is why God gave us a manual, he says. Scripture and worship songs rising in your mind are the Holy Spirit drawing you back to your source. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105).
Hard-Pressed but More Than Conquerors
From the manual Pastor Paul reads Isaiah 40:28–31. The everlasting God neither faints nor is weary; He gives power to the weak, and those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Waiting, he explains, does not mean stopping and doing nothing. It means patiently continuing to apply the Word and serve, until God breaks through and the load lifts off your shoulders.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7–12, Paul writes that we have this treasure in earthen vessels: hard-pressed on every side yet not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, struck down but not destroyed, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. That is for every believer, Pastor Paul says, young or old, not just for ministers, and it is for right now.
Our bodies will decay, but Christ in us is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), and we carry that hope to people under pressure who believe the enemy’s lies.
He closes with Romans 8. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). Then come Paul’s questions in Romans 8:31–37: If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), so there is nothing to worry about, whether a hard phone call or a difficult conversation. The greater One inside will give you words and let peace flow from your life, because He is a God of reconciliation.
Keeping Your Focus This Week
Pastor Paul ended by leading the church to lift their hands in surrender, praying that their eyes would be opened to know their source and to see the way David did. Here are practical steps drawn from this message:
- Start your day at the source. Read your Bible and pray every day before anything else claims your attention.
- Say it out loud. When pressure rises, declare that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
- Watch for time stealers. Notice what pulls your time and thoughts away from God and set it aside.
- Size up the giant correctly. Like David, name the problem for what it is and keep your eyes on the living God.
- Wait by serving. Keep applying the Word and doing what God called you to do while you wait for His breakthrough.
- Let your faith inspire others. One act of faith, as with David, can stir everyone around you to rise up.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Separate from the kingdom of this world
- 0:47 God still has a purpose for your life
- 1:42 Peter steps out on the water
- 2:47 Losing focus on the winds and waves
- 3:47 1 John 4:4 and God as our source
- 4:50 The vine and the branches
- 7:19 John 16:33: peace in tribulation
- 8:25 The meaning of tribulation
- 10:58 An overcomer because of Christ in me
- 12:00 Jesus under pressure in Gethsemane
- 13:06 Matthew 11: a teacher, not a genie
- 16:03 A relationship that deepens through hardship
- 18:26 Psalm 73: it is good to draw near
- 20:18 David goes to the battle line
- 23:02 Israel loses its perspective
- 26:18 The lion and the bear
- 31:00 Fighting from victory
- 32:59 Five smooth stones
- 33:56 The battle is the Lord’s
- 35:56 Goliath falls
- 38:16 God gave us a manual
- 41:21 Isaiah 40: those who wait on the Lord
- 43:28 Treasure in earthen vessels
- 46:46 Romans 8: more than conquerors
Greater Is He Series
This is the first of three messages on this theme at NTC Ministries. Continue with the next one:
- You are here: Greater Is He That Is in Me Than He That Is in the World — Keeping Your Eyes on Your Source
- Next: Greater Is He That Is in Me Than He That Is in the World, Part 2: Joshua, Caleb and the Twelve Spies
Frequently Asked Questions
Does trusting God mean my problems will disappear?
No. Pastor Paul says many people come to Christ expecting every problem to vanish, then realize they still live in this world, where Jesus said we would have tribulation. What changes is that Jesus becomes their source of strength, wisdom and peace. The problems may remain for a time, but He helps us through them and takes us from faith to faith and strength to strength.
Why did David refuse Saul’s armor?
According to the account Pastor Paul reads, David tried walking in Saul’s helmet, coat of mail and sword but had never tested them, so he took them off. He went instead with the staff, sling and stones he knew. Pastor Paul’s emphasis is that David’s confidence came from knowing his God, not from equipment, which is why he could say the battle is the Lord’s.
What does it mean to wait on the Lord?
Pastor Paul explains that waiting in Isaiah 40 does not mean stopping and doing nothing. It means being patient while you keep applying God’s Word and serving where He has placed you. As servants of the living God, we keep doing what He called us to do, trusting that He knows the perfect time and will show up.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- 1 John 4:4 — He who is in you is greater
- Matthew 14:28–31 — Peter walks on the water
- John 16:33 — I have overcome the world
- Matthew 11:28–30 — learn from Me
- Psalm 73:26–28 — good to draw near to God
- 1 Samuel 17:20–51 — David and Goliath
- Isaiah 40:28–31 — renewed strength
- 2 Corinthians 4:7–12 — treasure in earthen vessels
- Romans 8:31–37 — more than conquerors
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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