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 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?

The Cost 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.

The Provision of a More Abundant Life

Father in heaven, I'm grateful that we are here discussing this subject that is really so wonderful.

I'm grateful that the Holy Spirit has been present, and I pray, Lord, as people have listened, that they have been blessed and that they have been able to learn some things that will hopefully help them in experiencing the more abundant, victorious life that you want them to have.

I'm grateful that you're the 1 that determines the pathway, that you're the 1 that helps us, and that in the end, Lord, we can find ourselves in that celestial city.

Help us, Lord, to live in such a way that others will want to know that city as well someday.

Lord, you know that I'm only an instrument, I'm only a mouthpiece, and I really need you to speak through me, Lord, so that the people's time here will not be wasted.

Now there's 1 good thing about knowing these things and that is when you go and talk the way that I have been.

And any of you, by the way, can do as much as I've done and someday, the Lord willing, you'll be sharing just as I have.

When it's not about you, when it's all about God, you don't have near the worry, you know, in standing up before people because you literally look for God to impress you as you're sharing.

And I can assure you that if you've been to other seminars of mine, the subject matter is the same but the illustrations always change because they're prompted as I'm going along and I just let the Spirit move.

And that's 1 of the reasons why I don't like PowerPoint, because PowerPoint just holds you in and you can't be flexible at all for the Spirit's promptings.

Let's look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 20.

As we pick up, Galatians chapter 2 verse 20.

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, it says, I have been crucified with Christ, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He says it's no longer I who live, but it's Christ now who lives in me.

It says, but God forbid that I should boast except where?

In the cross of Christ, of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Paul said, when I look at what's made the substantial difference in my life, It's been the cross of Christ.

He said, I don't want to boast anywhere but the cross.

And you know, when Paul went to Athens, you know, and there he attempted to reason with those people who were caught up in the mysticism of their day, and he tried to reason using logic, he discovered that that didn't work, and he says, you know, I choose to only know 1 thing, and that's Christ and Him crucified.

Paul came back to Christ and Him crucified.

It says, therefore I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.

I remember I was at the University of Michigan, teaching a little bit to the campus group, the missionaries that work on the University of Michigan campus, and I spent the whole week talking about about what it means to really lift up Jesus that you know we have been called to lift him up and how sometimes we spend more of our time lifting up programs and and and good preachers and and we have a great music program.

But it's pretty rare where we say, at our church, you'll really experience Jesus.

And is it any wonder, if he said, if I be lifted, I will draw all men unto myself.

Is it any wonder that we don't gain greater results?" And I remember a student wrote me after the fact and said, you know Dan, she said, for the first time when I realized it wasn't about me and my enthusiasm but it was all about Jesus, she said, it changed completely the way I give my Bible studies.

A huge change in how we view what we're doing.

It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is what?

We have been called to give our lives as reasonable sacrifice.

Now, if you gave a sacrifice, what would happen?

If you would sacrifice something, you would take it and it would be...

You would surrender completely, you would put it on the altar for the purpose of what?

When Paul calls us to give our lives as living sacrifices, he says give it for the purpose of it being what?

Now we're lucky in our day we're not really thinking of our lives being consumed, you know, on a martyr's pile, on a fire.

You know, we're not talking about that kind of thing.

But the surrender should be to the same extent, and I believe that's what our brother Jeffrey was talking about this morning.

Because we don't know when the times will change and we're called that way.

And as he so rightly pointed out, he said it would be easier to die for Jesus than to live for Jesus, because living for Jesus is in the ongoing dying to self experience that goes on from day to day.

Now, I'd like to have us look at a few quotations.

First of all, at line 41, it says, The new birth is a rare experience in the age of this world.

This is the reason, I'm on page 19 by the way, 19, line 41, 42, something in there.

The new birth is a rare experience in the age of this world this is the reason why there are so many perplexities in the churches many so many who assume the name of Christ are unsanctified and unholy they have been baptized but they were what they were buried alive self did not die and therefore they did not rise to a newness of life in Christ.

The reason there are so many perplexities in the churches is because many have been buried alive, self did not die and therefore self came back up just as alive and just as active for wanting its own thing as before.

Now if you went to a funeral home and they were burying live people, would you have a problem with that?

Sure, they would throw the funeral director in jail for that, wouldn't they?

And I say this without throwing any stones, but I am absolutely amazed that we don't even mention dying to self in our fundamental doctrines.

If you read what the Bible says, if you read what Ellen White says on the subject, I mean that's foundational.

That is foundation and I will prove that to you in a greater way.

Just imagine what it would be like to be in a church where every person was wanting only God's will to be done.

I remember there was a time when I attended a church where we baptized a whole bunch of people.

Now we only had like a nominal attendance of 115, 120 and I think with REAP baptisms we had almost 80 people.

And we were, you know, we were thinking about the future and Some people quickly figured out that when they held the next business meeting, these on-fire members, these new members, could come and vote every single officer out of the church.

And it's interesting that the stress became to how to keep the status quo.

Series

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

The Provision of a More Abundant Life

Transcript

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Parent Conference

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