GYC SE 2008: One

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

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

Father in Heaven, I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to gather together this afternoon.

I'm grateful that the message that you have there in your Word for us today is 1 that you have been giving for thousands of years.

You shared the message to the people of the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

And down through the years of the early church and later the dark ages and the more modern times, Reformation and since, it has still come through.

And there have been people who have found new life, changed lives.

I Pray that you'll send the Holy Spirit into our room this afternoon so that the Spirit would be teaching through me Please forgive me of everything that might hinder that communication And do the same work for my brothers and sisters here Lord because It's not what I say that counts, but it's what you say through me that will count.

Might you make me nothing that you might be everything.

This morning I mentioned John Newton and we've all sung that hymn, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, That Saved a Wretch Like Me.

I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

I was mentioning to someone earlier that I teach the history of Christian spirituality and 1 of the things that I love to do is learn about great Christians and find out what books they read, you know, and then you work back and you discover what I refer to as spiritual trees.

Some person that you've probably all heard of is George Mueller.

He was the man in Bristol, England, who as a result of prayer alone had an orphanage which in 1874 he was able to feed 2, 100 people without asking anyone specifically for money.

Supported I think over 180 missionaries personally, sent 10, 000 pounds, published, he said, 4 million tracts that year, thousands of Bibles, personally supported 9, 000 children in day schools in 1874.

Can you imagine how much that would have cost all by prayer alone?

He said there were 3 books that changed his life.

1 was a book called An Authentic Work, the autobiography of John Newton.

He said, in that book, I learned that God can save anyone.

If God could save John Newton, certainly He can change me, because George Mueller had a fairly rough beginning, like many great Christians.

He was wont to take advantage of every situation, be it when his father gave him money to pay for his first communion, he kept most of it for himself and gave the priest only a little bit of it.

He had the habit of suggesting trips and offering to generously take care of the purse so that the rest of the group could pay most of the expenses.

1 time he went to a hotel and he slipped away before he paid, and the next time he was caught and he ended up in jail.

Now it's interesting that George Newell's father wanted his son to be a minister, wanted his son to be converted, but he didn't want a lot of that religion for himself, unfortunately.

And so he kept sending his son off to spiritual schools and eventually his son became a Christian, George became a Christian, I think 1 of the greatest Christians that ever lived.

So he said John Newton's book told him that God could save anyone.

Another book that he read was the Life and Times of George Whitefield.

He was 1 of the great, great preachers in England.

And he said, from George Whitefield I learned how to have my daily devotional life.

Where he literally talks about how he would read and pray on his knees.

And Mueller said that when I discovered that, he said, I gained more in a short amount of time than I had in months before.

And the third book, which I think a lot of you have probably heard of George Whitefield, or maybe some of you, but the third book that so changed his life was a book by a man named August Franck.

And back in 1690, the same way, by faith alone, he began an orphanage as well.

Eventually had a publishing ministry, a medical dispensary, all kinds of things.

And 150 years later, George Mueller went to his school and there for the first time saw a Christian kneel in prayer.

He was so fascinated that he came back to see it for himself and he became a genuine Christian as a result of seeing that person kneel, but in reading the biography of this person by the name of August Franck, who is virtually unknown, maybe because most of what he wrote was in German, Mueller got the idea of having the orphanages and it's pretty much just a mirror.

Frank began with a little box to receive donations for his work and for his life and Müller would do the same thing later when he lived in the 1860s into the 1890s when he did his main ministry.

God has done amazing work and it's interesting that for all of these people, it always began with knowing Jesus as their personal Savior.

Earlier we talked about the fact that, you know, we discuss whether we really need this more abundant life.

Number 1, God has called us to that life, okay?

We have been called, and words are used such as holy and blameless and perfect.

The Bible writers had no problem with that even though we do.

I believe because we tend to view those things as things that we must do on our own.

And I tried to point out that Ellen White herself says that God has made complete provision, but we are what?

God has made full provision in his Son, and as we cooperate with his son, that which is impossible for us becomes possible.

And I shared a quotation how God is able to give us a transfusion of himself that will cause us to choose his will and to act out his character.

And I can't speak for you but I can't imagine any more good news than that.

That God is willing to give us a transfusion of Himself and that that will bring about a complete change in our lives.

Too many of us are fighting the battle where the battle isn't, okay?

Our part is to make sure we're in connection with Jesus and making the choices that He wants us to make to do our part that will then allow Him to do His part.

And there's a fairly famous little booklet published by the Review and Herald by W.

There's a chapter where it begins and says, For a long time I tried, and then he talks about how he tried to do the work that only God could do, that only God had and asked him to do, instead of doing his part, that would then allow God to do his part.

Prescott was a contemporary of Ellen White, an early pioneer within the church.

Well, the first reason is that God has called us to a better life.

The second reason is that if we don't lead that better kind of life, as was pointed out by Jeffrey, there are others that will be negatively influenced by our example.

And the third reason, as we read about in the marriage supper parable, is that if we get to the marriage supper, but we don't have that garment of righteousness, which I believe is not only something that is applied legally, people like to use that kind of terminology, but also in terms of a changed life.

It says there that someone will come along and say, How did you get here?

And the Bible uses the word that the man was speechless because he had no excuse.

There was no reason for him to arrive there without that garment of righteousness.

I believe not only in being justified by faith, but I believe in being changed by faith.

So when we're talking here this afternoon, we're not talking about you know, just pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but we're talking about what God can do when people surrender their lives fully to Him.

So we talked about the need, the second thing we talked about was how if we are not under the control of God, who are we under the control of?

And would you agree with me that if we have not made the choice for God, by default, we are under whose control?

You know, my choice, and I can choose for God, or I can choose for myself, or I can choose for Satan.

And though he doesn't wave a flag and say, I'm about to take you down the garden pathway and get you into all kinds of trouble.

That is His plan and He does it in many clever ways.

At your age, He may get you enticed with a career path that is outside of his will and often outside of the way you have been wired.

And told me just, you know, close to the time he died, he said, I never worked a day of my life, I only had fun.

And there's some of you who took classes from him here in this room, mentioned it to me.

He couldn't think of anything better than going to work.

And I think that when we are fully following God's will, God will lead us in ways that is appropriate and right to the way that He's wired us and developed us.

And He'll give us those experiences that will make it possible.

Another trap that the devil leads us down is in terms of relationships.

Series

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

The Cost of a More Abundant Life

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

1. Die

55m

Plenary Meetings

Crucified with Christ

42m

Seminars

Your Problem Solved

1h 2m

Weimar - COVID-19

COVID 19 and the Fear of Death

58m

A Living Sacrifice

The 1888 Message and the Cross of Christ

48m

Overcoming Addictions (Evening Meetings)

Overcoming the Greatest Temptation

43m

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

09 Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice

27m

Talking Points, 3rd Quarter 2020: Making Friends for God

13-A Step In Faith

29m

Prophecy

Preparing for the Sunday Law

1h 13m

Evening Plenary

03 Your Problems Solved

51m

The Final Call

3- Wretched, Miserable, Victorious

1h

Sound Doctrine