Victorious Christian living
Luke 19:11-27
by Pastor Dade Ronan
I. INTRODUCTION:
A. Pray for the message.
B. Under Vincent Thomas Lombardi's direction from 1959-1967, the Green Bay Packers collected six division titles, five NFL championships, two Super Bowls, and a record of 98-30-4. Lombardi knew a lot about winning. If football is a game of inches, so is career success. In the competitive world, you seldom win by a landslide.
1. One of Vince Lombardi’s famous sayings is, “Football is a game of inches and inches make a champion.”
C. Buzz Sullivan, was a high school diving coach, and he said, "A champion is someone who goes so far they can't go another inch—and then they go that inch." Why is that important? Winning in business or in personal life is all about inches: going small distances successfully, then going farther still.
D. The world defines success as:
1. The favorable or prosperous completion of attempts or endeavors.
2. The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
E. The Christian defines success as:
1. Being faithful in the little things.
2. Being victorious in obtaining Jesus.
F. We as Christians define successfulness as being in the will of God, which will produce fruitfulness. I propose to you that being in the will of God is to live a Victorious Christian Life. It is synonymous, congruent, equal to, the same as, So, how can we have Victorious Christian Living for this next decade? I have found 10 actions from Scripture that will enable the believer to have a Victorious Christian Life. These 10 actions I found was done by simply searching Scripture for the phrase “will of God.”
G. One of Pastor Chuck Smith’s favorite books is a commentary on the book of Joshua titled, “Victorious Christian Living”, by Alan Redpath. If you have an opportunity to buy it at the Christian bookstore, I would highly recommend it. In this book, Alan Redpath notes that it is in God’s will for the Israelites to cross the Jordan River and possess that which God has already given them. It is God’s will for our life that we possess that which God has already given us through little successes or inches of life. For the Christian, those successes come from being faithful till the end that we might obtain the prize who is Jesus our Lord and Savior. To be in God’s will is to be victorious. To live in God’s will, now that is Victorious Christian Living.
H. In the book titled “The Philosophy of Ministry of Calvary Chapel” by Pastor Chuck Smith, he states “It's important that we discover what we are by the will of God.”
I. 10 Actions for Victory:
1. Be A Baptized Believer
2. Be A Serving Believer
3. Be A Prayerful Believer
4. Be A Transformed Believer
5. Be A Joyous Believer
6. Be A Giving Believer
7. Be A Complete Believer
8. Be A Thankful Believer
9. Be A Sanctified Believer
10. Be A Good Believer
J. If we call ourselves believers, ones who have put their trust and faith in Jesus, then the Bible says that we are part of God’s family, “Children of God”.
1. Joh 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
K. Jesus further defines the responsibility of the believer and member in His family.
1. Mar 3:35 “For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
2. Eph 6:6 “Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
3. Heb 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”
4. 1Pe 4:2 “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
5. 1Jn 2:17 “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
II. MESSAGE:
1. Be A Baptized Believer
a) Luk 7:30 “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.”
b) Act 2:38 “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
c) If you have never been water baptized, I want to encourage you to do so this year. We offer 2 church wide baptism events during the summer where we all go out to Lake Afton, perform water baptisms and have a picnic. If you want to get baptized immediately, please talk to one of our Elders and we will schedule something special for you.
2. Be A Serving Believer
a) Act 13:36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers.”
b) Gal 5:13 “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
c) When I was a young Christian, I asked the pastor if there was anything I could do at church that needed to be done. He said, “yes” and I immediately started spraying down the sidewalks with a water hose. That was my service for about 3 months. I stayed faithful at it until the pastor came to me offered another ministry. We have ministry cards available for you if your desire is to get plugged in here at Calvary. If the Lord has placed something on your heart that is not represented on this card, just fill it out and write it down. If God has called you to rotate tires, praise the Lord. The point is to give believers an opportunity for ministry.
3. Be A Prayerful Believer
a) Rom 1:10 “Making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.”
b) Rom 8:27 “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
c) Prayer Poem for a New Year
Lord, I confess before You that:
I have had longings and nudges from You
Which I did not translate into action.
I have made decisions without consulting You,
Then have blamed You when things went wrong.
I have said that I trusted You,
Yet have not turned my affairs over to You.
I have been greedy for present delights and pleasures, unwilling to wait for those joys which time and discipline alone can give.
I have often sought the easy way
And have consistently drawn back from the road that is hard.
I have been fond of giving myself to dreams of which I am going to Do sometime, yet have been so slow in getting started to do them.
Forgive me for all the intentions that were born
And somehow never lived.
And now I claim Your promise to change me.
Do for me what I cannot do for myself.
Lead me into a new tomorrow with a new spirit.
Cleanse my heart; create within me new attitudes and new ideas, As only You can. Amen.
d) Luk 18:1 “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”
e) 1Th 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”
f) 1Ti 2:8 “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
4. Be A Transformed Believer
a) Rom 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
b) Col 1:10 “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
c) Col 3:10 “And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”
d) 2Pe 1:2 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
e) By your increased knowledge of the Word of God, you renew you mind, which transforms the way you live. If we take in the knowledge of God, then what will come out is that knowledge in the form of application. Apply God’s Word to your life and it will transform your mind and heart.
f) 2Ti 2:15 Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
g) When I was in California on vacation, my friend Mike’s son had a Transformer robot that transformed from a Jet into a Robot. It was so complicated that both he and his son had to read the instruction to figure out how to transform one into the other. What a man reading the instruction, I know impossible, but it’s true it did happen. When you read the Word of God, it is like their commercial, “Transformers, more than meets the eye.” If you will commit to studying the Word of God, I promise you it will transform your life for it is God’s instruction book for our life as a believer. Using the acronym B.I.B.L.E., it spells out Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
5. Be A Joyous Believer
a) Luk 10:20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
b) Rom 15:32 “That I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.”
c) Gal 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.”
d) Php 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
e) 1Th 5:16 “Rejoice always.”
f) Nobody likes a mean, bitter, grumpy, angry, mad, irate, cranky, grouchy, and crabby person. People’s lives will never be impacted for Christ with such an attitude. Who wants to live life in such an awful manner? God has a plan for every one of us, the very fact that He loves us and has a plan makes me want to be joyous.
6. Be A Giving Believer
a) 2Co 8:5 “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”
b) Let Me Give
I don't know how long I have to live
But while I do, Lord, let me give
Some comfort to someone in need
By smile or nod-kind word or deed.
And let me do what e'er I can
To ease things for my fellowman.
I only want to do my part,
To "lift" a tired and weary heart.
To change folks frowns to smiles again
So I will not have lived in vain.
I do not care how long I live
If I can give-and give-and give!
c) Giving is the ultimate proof of love. Jesus gave Himself for us. In what ways can we give of our time, treasure, and talent? The what is up to you, but the when begins immediately for the believer.
7. Be A Complete Believer
a) Col 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
b) Jas 1:4 “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
c) Don’t settle for less than what God has for you. Be patient, as it will not come fully in a snap of a figure. But know that God does what us to move into that direction of being complete in Him.
d) Php 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
8. Be A Sanctified Believer
a) 1Th 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”
b) Joh 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
c) 1Jn 2:15 “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.”
d) The believer needs to live a life that is set apart or sanctified from the world. We are to live in the world, but we are not to be doing what the world does. The ways of the world only lead to sin and separation from God. God has a better plan for you, a fulfilled life, a blessed life, a life that leads to victory. Don’t run the race in another man’s lane. Run the race that God called you to and that is in your own lane, sanctified and set apart from the world.
9. Be A Thankful Believer
a) 1Th 5:18 “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
a) Two Little Words – A doctor wrote a letter of thanks to a schoolteacher for having given him so much encouragement when he had been in her class 30 years before. He later received this reply: "I want you to know what your note meant to me. I am an old lady in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and feeling like the last leaf on the tree. You will be interested to know that I taught school for 50 years, and yours is the first letter of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a cold, blue morning and cheered my lonely old heart as nothing has cheered me in many years."
a) If You Think, You Must Thank – Sir Moses Montefiore, the Jewish philanthropist, had as the motto of his family, "Think and Thank." In the old Anglo-Saxon, thankfulness means "thinkfulness." Thinking of all God's goodness draws forth gratitude.
b) Have you thought about all that God has done for you thus far, how God has provided, blessed, given you grace , mercy and peace, given you salvation freely, everlasting love and eternal life. Have you pondered the goodness of God in your life? When you do, you will see and understand the vastness of God’s involvement in your life and be thankful that He is. Thank God today and you will be on your way to a Victorious Christian Life.
10. Be A Good Believer
a) 1Pe 2:15 “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
b) 1Pe 3:17 “For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
c) 1Pe 4:19 “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”
d) It is God’s will that the believer does good works. Not that he is a good person, but that the believer does good works as a testimony to the world that there has occurred a change in the person’s life.
e) Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
f) Jas 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
g) So transversely, one who has faith, it will be evident by their good works. A believer’s life ought to be marked by good works. It is not the quantity or even the quality of the work, but simply that they exist. Now that a new decade has began, a new chapter in your life, my it be marked by good works as unto the Lord.
B. Closing.
1. Being faithful in the little things, the inches of life is what God’s will is for the believer’s life. To have successes in the inches of life.
a) Luk 19:17 (NKJV) And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’
b) Luk 19:17 (NLT) "'Well done!' the king exclaimed. 'You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.'
2. God’s Word has shown us that we are to have little successes, victories by inches. Apply these 10 actions to your life and by doing so; you too can have a Victorious Christian Life.
a) 1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. Close In Prayer.
