GYC SE 2008: One

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GYC Southeast

Dan Augsburger - Prevailing Over the Enemy: How to Lead a Victorious Christian Life

Dan Augsburger

The Need for More Abundant Life

The Cost of a More Abundant Life

The Provision of a More Abundant Life

The question was asked, is your Christianity worth sharing with the world?

Do people want to know Jesus as a result of what they see in your life and in my life?

And last night, Jeffrey spoke to the fact that by our actions, we can cause people to lose interest in Jesus.

We can actually cause people to have less confidence in God.

There's a story in the Bible that strikes me a great deal.

It's the story of the father who brings a boy to be healed by the disciples, and the disciples try to pray for him, remember?

Now there were 9 disciples at the base of the mountain and there were 3, you know, up in the mountain with Jesus.

And Ellen White says the problem was jealousy.

And the fracture, you know, the break in their relationship to each other actually caused a break in their relationship with Jesus, and therefore, His power could not work through them.

You know, they had the truth, they knew the 1 who had the truth, you know, they were in relationship, and the man came to the right people, right?

He came to the right group to get help, but they couldn't help him.

And it's interesting, when Jesus finally came, He didn't say, Lord, you know, do this.

And I believe the reason there are so many questions in the world today regarding Christianity is not because the Bible has lost its wisdom and God has lost His power, but it's because our relationship with God is often so compromised that God is unable to work with us in the way that he wants to, but people instead of questioning us and saying, why is it that somehow your relationship is negating the power of God, they're saying there must not be anything to God.

And So a lot of people, they even sometimes join our churches with the expectation that as a result of that association, as a result of what they learn, their lives will be better.

But in too many cases, they find themselves still stumbling, still struggling, and many of the issues not being resolved.

And so, what we're talking about here is the ability for us to know Jesus in such a way that we will experience victory and we will experience His power.

So here, this question was being asked, is your form of Christianity worth sharing with the world?

Hannah Whittle-Smith in her book, The Christian Secret of a Happy Life, speaks of someone coming to her and asking the following question, line 12 and page 6, you Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable.

He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it.

You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable." Okay?

Often times, you know, it's like we're happy Christians, but we've forgotten to tell our faces that we're happy, okay?

And it's like a headache, you know, it hurts, but you can't afford to get rid of it.

Speaking to these kinds of things, Ellen White said, Let us remember, line 18, that a Christ-like life is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Christianity, and that a cheap Christian character works more harm in the world than the character of a worldling.

It is the purpose of God to glorify himself in his people before the world.

He expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent him in thought and in word and deed." Okay?

The most powerful argument that can be given for the world.

Now in Christian history there was a man that probably some of you have heard of.

He was the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, remember?

And it's interesting, he wasn't a Christian in his younger days.

In fact, there was a time in his life where he speaks of trying to sin as much and as rapidly as he possibly can.

You read about that, I think, in his book, Grace Abounding to the Chief Sinners.

He speaks of the fact that he could sin without any difficulty.

It didn't bother him 1 bit, but when he saw Christians sinning and going against what he knew was right, he said it caused him physical pain.

And I believe that there's a lot of people who have enough of God wired into them, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, that they are very aware when they see the real thing versus the pretend thing when it comes to Christians.

And I think there are those people who are searching.

Sadly though, they sometimes go searching in all the wrong places.

Turn with me if you would now to Matthew chapter 13 verse 44 Matthew 13 verse 44 it says there Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

A couple of elements there, first of all, The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure.

It is something, you know, wonderfully valuable.

And a man is out walking, he's out, you know, going along through life, and he finds this treasure, okay?

He says he hides this treasure, and then for the joy, you know, that he has, he sells all that he has in order to obtain it.

I believe this verse speaks of kind of the pathway of the Christian life.

First of all, it has to do with something that is worth everything, okay?

And there are literally, you know, millions of people who have been willing to give up their lives for the sake of what they gained in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think of 1 young woman, her name is Marie Duran.

At the age of 14, as a result of her being a Yuganat, and because of her father being a Yuganat pastor, and her brother Pierre being a Yuganat pastor, and the authorities trying to find them, especially Pierre, her brother.

At the age of 14, they put her in jail there in Aigues-Mortes, in the south of France.

And every day they said, if you will just recant, if you will just give up your beliefs, you know, in your Huguenot religion, we will give you your freedom.

Eventually they caught her brother and killed him.

Her father by that time had also been killed as a result of their faith in Jesus.

They continued this every day until finally someone came along and said, This has to stop.

It was not, you know, it was, think of the worst hotel, you know, and then go down as far as you can go from that in terms of the rank scale.

When in England they made the law that basically said, unless it's a pastor, you agree to conform to what the king wants.

You know, you're going to be disenfranchised, you're going to be thrown out.

John Bunyan was 1 of the people in prison because of his preaching illegally, quote unquote.

And they said, you know, if you just stop preaching, we'll let you free.

And he said, if you let me free, I'll be preaching tomorrow.

Okay, these were authentic Christians because they had found something in Jesus that was more precious than everything else.

And some people think that Christianity is all about obedience, but let me tell you, there's something even more important than obedience, and that is learning to love God and trust God because if you love Him, you will obey Him.

But if you're not convinced that He is trustworthy and that He's precious and what He wants to give you is precious, it'll be hard to obey Him.

For those of you that are married, there's a few married couples here.

If your relationship were only based on obedience to each other, it'd be a pretty lousy relationship.

It's because you love each other, because you trust each other, because you value what you gain in the relationship.

And it's supposed to be the same way with Jesus.

Anyway, so here's this treasure and he goes down the pathway and he finds his treasure and he hides it.

Somehow that treasure is taken into his experience.

In his case, it says he hid the treasure because Jesus was using something that the people could understand.

It says for the joy he rejoiced and eventually He sold everything he had in order to gain that, to buy that field that had the treasure, right?

Series

Dan Augsburger - Prevailing Over the Enemy: How to Lead a Victorious Christian Life

The Need for More Abundant Life

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

With Me Where I Am

33m

SWYC 2009 Plenary Sessions

An Out-of-Body Experience

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I Met God

I Met God 8

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Do You Want to Be Made Whole?

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When You Don’t Understand

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Power

39m

The Three Angels' Message for the Millennial Generation

2. Fear God and Give Glory

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The Gift of Struggle

02 The Gift of Struggle

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Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

20 The Judgment Continues

47m

Gerard Damsteegt: Sanctuary Series

Sanctuary, Part 2

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Identity Matters

53m

Unlock Revelation

10. Revelation’s 1000 Years

1h 8m

Sound Doctrine