Many who call themselves “Christians” are not, in fact, living the life of victory that Jesus came to give them. Somehow, the promise of victory isn’t happening in their lives. Something has to change. Not next year, not next month, not next week … now!

A NEW WAY OF LIVING

Over the last couple of weeks on the programme, we’ve been talking about the reality that Jesus came to purchase a special kind of victory for each one of us

The sort of victory in life that lifts us up above temptations, that lifts us up above the devastating impact of our sin that lifts us up above the power of the devil to destroy our lives.

The sort of victory that brings a sense of God’s abundance into our world so that no matter who or what attacks us, no matter who or what tries to rob you and me of the joy and the peace and the gladness in our hearts, we can have victory of that who or what and still have the joy and the peace and the gladness in our hearts.

That’s what I call victory and that abundance is precisely what Jesus came to give to you and me. A pivotal passage of Scripture that I come back to again and again in my life when the ravages of the devil and of circumstances are tearing away at my flesh is what Jesus said to His disciples in John chapter 10 verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.

I sometimes ask people, ‘What sort of life do you think that God wants you to live?’ A boring life, an ordinary life or a stunning life. Come on, on a scale of zero to ten what sort of life do you think that God wants you to live? This God who sent Jesus to die and rise again for you. Zero – a rotten life, five – well an okay kind of life I guess, seven and a half – a pretty good life or ten – a stunning life.

Remember Jesus said that He came so that we might have life and have it abundantly and that anything less than that was from the devil. The original Greek word that sits aback of our English translation literally means ‘super abundantly’. That super abundant life isn’t always a comfortable life or a wealthy life, no often it’s not that at all but it is a life that weighs in and counts for Jesus, a life that bears fruit super abundantly. That’s the life that Jesus has planned for you.

The question is, how do you and I grab hold of that life because let’s be honest, of the millions of people who will listen to this message today in over a hundred and sixty countries around the world, the vast majority, eighty, ninety percent aren’t living that sort of a life?

It seems as though in the Kingdom of God today there are the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have not’s’ when it comes to this abundant victory. Which one are you? A have or a have not? Something has to change right? And I believe, in fact I know that the biggest con out there robbing God’s people of His abundant victory is this, that life is all about being happy, us being happy, me being happy, you being happy.

This big con, the reason that so many people are so unhappy in this world, is that we’re told happiness comes from self-gratification, from buying and having everything we want, that new dress or that new pair of shoes, that new camera, that new car, that new house, that new whatever it is, that’s why most people often think to themselves, ‘If only, if only I just earned a little bit more, just maybe ten percent more then I’d be happy’.

From bitter experience I can tell you that’s simply not true. In fact the biggest shock I had when I became a Christian back in 1995 was that once I started using my God-given gifts and resources to do things for other people, something frankly I had never done much of before, all of a sudden I discovered the satisfaction and the contentment I’d been looking for, for all those years.

That’s exactly what God tells us through His Word, Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 to 8:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ who, though he was in the form of God, didn’t regard equality with God as something to be exploited but he emptied himself, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

These days I bless other people, not because I’m a good guy because I’m not but because it makes me feel good because it brings me the peace, the joy and the contentment that I was always looking for but was forever unable to find so long as I was trying to make myself happy. Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

Probably because right from the beginning, right from when we’re little we’re taught that the aim of the game is to succeed, it’s about winning, it’s about coming first, it’s about me feeling good about myself. It doesn’t matter what game you’re playing the aim, the only acceptable outcome is to win.

Well, winning is all well and good, it’s great to be successful and yet so many Christians think that success is the name of the game that they’ve completely lost sight of Jesus. I even had one Christian tell me once that his aim was to have the latest BMW SUV sitting in his driveway. Really? Is that really what’s going to make you happy, success?

John chapter 19 verses 28 to 30:

After this when Jesus knew that all was now finished he said in order to fulfil the Scripture, ‘I am thirsty’. A jar full of sour wine was standing there so they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine he said, ‘It is finished’ then he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.

When Jesus died on that cross He didn’t even have the clothes on His back. He was beaten, crucified, this miracle working Jesus who had promised so much looked like the biggest loser of all time. They scoffed at Him, they spat at Him, they mocked Him, ‘Save yourself’ they shouted.

And yet through His suffering He purchased eternal life for you and me. It’s fine to succeed but that’s not the aim of the game. Now He wasn’t a loser Jesus, when He gave up His life for you and me, far from it, He did it willingly, John chapter 10 verses 17 and 18.

For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.

In the world’s economy losing makes you a loser, losing the argument, missing out on the promotion, not being as beautiful as the beautiful people, all that makes you a loser but that’s not the way it is in God’s economy. In my life and I know this has happened in yours too, many things have come against me.

I set out each day with faith in Jesus and the joy of the Lord in my heart and like a pack of wolves people and situations and circumstances and things come to tear away at my flesh, to attack my faith, to drag me down and our natural reaction to that is, well God what’s going on here? What have I done to deserve this? Can’t you make it stop?

We behave as though something is wrong when the truth is the moment we step onto the spiritual battle of life with Jesus in our hearts the devil is going to come after us with a pick axe, with all the powers of hell unleashed against us but no matter how bad it gets remember this powerful truth from God’s Word, Romans chapter 8 verses 37 to 39.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this world there are winners and there are losers but in God’s Kingdom there are only winners, victors, conquerors. No sorry, that’s not quite true – more than conquerors, there … that’s better.

GIVING AND SACRIFICE 

Giving in sacrifice is an interesting notion because inevitably if you and I are going to live in victory we need to discover that real victory in this life only comes when we develop a generous heart. At the moment you decide to become a generous person you realise that it’s not all peaches and cream, generosity inevitably involves sacrifice and sacrifice inevitably costs us something.

More often than not it hurts, a lot, so do you still want to be generous? Do you still want to have victory over your cravings and desires by becoming a giving person? It stands to reason that generosity is one of the things that brings victory into our lives because God is generous and you and I, well we’re made in His image.

Let me ask you this, what was the very last act of creation? What was the very last thing that God did on the sixth day before He rested on the seventh day to enjoy all He had created? Most people would answer that the last act of creation was to make Adam and Eve, to create humanity, God’s crowning achievement and if that’s your answer too then sorry to disappoint you but it’s the wrong answer.

God did one more thing before He was finished, do you want to know what it was? Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 to 28:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and he said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over everything that moves upon the earth’.

What was the last thing He did? He gave the whole thing away, He gave it to Adam and Eve, to you and me. He blessed them with all He had made, now that’s what I call generous. These days people seem to be in it whatever ‘it’ is for themselves. Generosity seems to be an old fashioned concept. Well in a sense it’s a very old concept, the very first act of generosity happened precisely six days after the beginning of time.

It was Gods idea and when you and I live out who we are, created in God’s image, by being generous with our time, with our money, with our emotional energy, with our gifts and abilities, then we’re living a life of victory. But you see God when He looks at your level of generosity and mine He’s not primarily interested in how much we give. That may sound a little odd at first but it’s true.

I had an elderly woman write to me recently and she said this;

I’m so sorry that I can’t give much to support your ministry, I’m only an elderly pensioner and I don’t have much to live on.

Those were her exact words. Now look I can’t respond to every letter that I receive, I wish I could but I can’t but this one I just had to respond to personally. I was able to write to her and remind her of what Jesus said about the poor widow who dropped her two small copper coins in the offering plate alongside all those wealthy guys who obviously had much more to give. Luke chapter 21 verses 1 to 4.

Jesus looked up and saw the rich people putting in their gifts into the treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in much more than all of them for all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she, out of her poverty, has put in all she has to live on.

Don’t you love that! Jesus was so excited, He grabbed His disciples, He shook them, He said in effect ‘guys check this out, look at this old widow, she gave more than all the rest because they gave out of their abundance but she gave all she had.’ Jesus isn’t interested in how much we give, He’s blessed each one of us with different things and in differing amounts but what He’s really interested in is how much it costs us.

For Him giving and sacrifice are one of the same, part of that is because He knows that you and I are enslaved by our desires and the one way to break that, the one way to set us free is to turn us into sacrificial givers. Jesus knows there’s a powerful yet very tender connection between our hearts and our wallets, Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 to 21.

Don’t store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will also be.

Jesus said some of the strangest things, basically the upshot of what He’s saying here is, where your wallet is there your heart will also be. Okay so I brought it into the twenty-first century but you get my drift. You read that and you think about it for just a moment and you have to come to the conclusion that He’s got it the wrong way around. Surely the money follows your heart right? But that’s not what Jesus said, He said that your heart would follow your wallet, they’re connected.

Keep spending on your own self-gratification and just guess where your heart’s going to end up. So what’s the answer? Well He gives it to us in the very same breath. Start living your life sacrificially with the aim of storing up treasures in heaven. In other words get focused on serving God and other people.

Do that and two things happen. Firstly, obviously you end up with treasures in heaven but secondly, not quite so obviously the power that money has over you is broken. Sacrificial giving of everything we are and everything we have breaks our enslavement to our own selfishness.

And in that one thing there is so much victory that flows out of learning to become a sacrificial giver. What’s sacrificial giving again? It’s giving that costs you something. God isn’t so much after our money, I mean think about it, He created the whole universe, He doesn’t need your help or mine in anything, no the thing He’s really after is your heart, not part of your heart, not a divided heart but the whole lot.

Let me share another letter that I once received from a man, it’s at the other end of the spectrum from that little old lady who had a real giving heart. This is what the guy wrote:

How dare you ask me to support your ministry? Don’t you trust God, if God wants you to be in ministry let Him provide for it.

Now on the surface of things that sounds pretty fair until you realise that ninety-nine percent of the time God funds His work through His people. The first fundraiser in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 25. God tells Moses to build a dwelling place for Him amongst His people, it was called the Tabernacle. Great God, how do you want me to fund that little number? Exodus chapter 25 verses 1 and 5:

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering from all those whose hearts prompt them to give, you shall receive the offering for me in accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it.

So let me ask you, is God poor? Did He need their gold and silver and purple cloth and all the rest of the things He listed there to build the tabernacle? No, He just wanted their hearts. He knew that their hearts were attached to their money and He wanted to set them free to live in the victory that He planned for their lives.

You can’t live in victory if you’re enslaved to your own selfish desires and when we do let go, when we do start giving sacrificially something else amazing happens. The blessing of God, in all sorts of different ways, gets poured into our lives, Luke chapter 6 verse 38:

Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put back into your lap for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

I used to think the more I gave to God’s work the less I’d have for yours truly, numero uno, me. But that simplistic thinking just doesn’t work in God’s economy because when it comes to God’s blessing the worlds formula’s are completely irrelevant. As God graciously led me through the transformation from being stingy to becoming more generous (a work by the way that remains in progress for the Lord), I discovered that the blessing of God began to flow in so many different ways that I simply couldn’t contain them.

Giving to God is not a zero-sum game; in fact it’s anything but.

FAITHFULNESS AND POWER 

When you think about it, it’s only in the tough times that we can in fact discover first-hand, in our very own experience, how faithful God is. In fact, sometimes, life is just plain tough. I don’t care who you are; how super-spiritual you are; how much people look at you and think, ‘Boy! That one there, they have it all together with God’, sometimes life is just a shocker! You believed in God for good; you did good; you gave; you sacrificed, but all you can see around you is devastation.

I love the beautiful old song that goes like this: ‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end: They’re new every morning, new every morning, Great is Your faithfulness, o LORD; Great is Your faithfulness.’ Do you know it? It’s an awesome song. It comes straight out of the book of Lamentations, chapter 3:22-24. The writer’s looking around, just after Jerusalem’s been destroyed and raised to the ground by the Babylonians. God’s city is gone; God’s temple is gone; God’s chosen people are gone out of His promised land, and in the middle of all that – that devastation, he writes this because he knows this truth deep in his heart: That the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; great is His faithfulness.

Despite all the evidence you and I may see to the contrary, that’s the truth, and when you and I can stand in the midst of the ruin and the devastation that comes into our lives, during those times of trial and suffering, and whisper those words from our heart – ‘Great is His faithfulness’, that right there is the victory that the Bible promises, and the victory that God calls us to, and the victory that Jesus died and rose again to give to you. In fact, to be honest, it’s the sweetest victory of all.

‘Great is Your faithfulness, LORD, unto me. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed Your hand has provided. Great is Your faithfulness, LORD, unto me.’ Amen to that.

And from the very beginning, Jesus asked His disciples to get out there, and to give, and to sacrifice, but before they went, He gave them the power: The incredible power to do that and to get through it all, the same power that’s available to you and me. Back then after His resurrection and ascension, they began to proclaim Christ, and they began to see thousands of people coming to believe in Him! And they went out and they suffered much persecution, and they laid the foundations of the church and our faith, which still lives on two thousand years on. How did all that happen? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, despite the obvious failures and limitations of those disciples. Let me come back and say it again: The very same power that they had is available to you and me here and now.

Let me tell you the truth, each time I look in the mirror when I’m shaving in the morning, I see my own face – the wrinkles; the grey hair; the dimple on my left cheek; all the imperfections, and if you stare at your own imperfections long enough, you become fixated on them. No amount of wishing we could look different can change the face in the mirror, right? It’s like that with the rest of our lives too. I can’t change the way I am. I can’t remove the bad habits and the dimples and the imperfections from my life on my own, but fortunately I don’t have to. Neither do you, for that matter. Galatians 2:19-20:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

 In other words, the moment you believe in Jesus, the old person dies; a brand new person comes to life. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It’s no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. That’s the only power that will ever bring transformation. It’s the only power that will ever give you a new lease of life: Resurrection-power, the only power that will give you victory in this world.