#7                                THE “VICTORIOUS” CHRISTIAN LIFE

   How many Christian people have ever wondered, “What am I to do and how am I supposed to live now that I’m a Christian”? Have you taken the time to ask this question of yourself? Do you have any idea what God wants from us once we become His child?

   The title of this lesson is a little misleading at best. If what we are going to learn in this lesson helps us be ‘victorious’ in our every day routine as Christians, God will be very excited and pleased with our lives. Unfortunately for God and for ourselves, most of us do not live the ‘victorious’ life presented in the N.T., a life that pleases our Lord.

                                    I. The Christian Life is a ‘Surrendered’ Life

                                           (Romans 12:1-3; Galatians 2:20)

   The Apostle Paul admonishes us in these verses of Scripture to give ourselves totally over to the God that has saved us from our sin and from an eternity away from God in hell.

   A. Surrendered to ‘consecration’ (dedicated to a sacred purpose or service)

(Numbers 32:12) Caleb and Joshua. (II Kings 23:3) King Josiah and his subjects. (Philippians 3:7, 8) Paul the Apostle. (I Thessalonians 5:23) Paul’s letter to the Church.

   B. Surrendered to ‘self-sacrifice’ (self denial)

(Mathew 16:25; 19:21; Romans 14:21, 13:4, 15:1; I Corinthians 10:24).

   C. Surrendered to ‘holiness’ (sacred, devoted to God)

(Luke 1:74, 75; II Corinthians 7:1; I Peter 1:16; II Peter 3:11).

   D. Surrendered to ‘humility’ (meek, modest, and lowly)

(John 13:3-5, 12-15; Mathew 18:4; Luke 22:26; Romans 12:3; I Peter 5:5).

                             II. The Christian Life is a Lifetime ‘Walk’ with our Lord

                                                            (Romans 8:1)

   Throughout Paul’s writings to the N.T. Churches, he continues to exhort the believers to have a lifestyle (walk) that is pleasing to God and that has a testimony to the world.

   A. A Walk in ‘newness of life’ from our old life (changed from within)

(II Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:1; Romans 6:4, 12:2; Colossians 3:10).

   B. A Walk by faith (II Corinthians 5:7) (trusting, believing, and having confidence in God)

(Hebrew 11:1, 6; James 2:17; Ephesians 6:16; James 1:5, 6; I Timothy 1:19).

Examples of great faith- (Mathew 8:2) -The leper (Mathew 8:10) - The Centurion

(Mathew 9:18) – The ruler (Mathew 9:28) – The blind man (Mathew 14:26) The diseased (Mark 5:28) – The Afflicted woman.

   C. A Walk in the Spirit (The Holy Spirit) (Galatians 5:22-25)

(Galatians 5:16; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 5:18; I Corinthians 2:13)

   D. A Walk in ‘love’ (Ephesians 5:2)

(Mathew 22:37-39) – Unselfish (John 13:35) – proof of discipleship (John 15:12) – Christ love the standard (I Thessalonians 3:12) – Abounding (plentiful, to be filled) love. (I Peter 1:22) – Fervent (earnest, glowing) and not pretended love.

                                    III. The Christian Life is a Lifetime ‘Race’

                                                        (I Corinthians 9:24)

   The Christian life is often presented by the Apostle Paul as a ‘race’.

   A. (I Corinthians 9:24) Running the race for Christ.

   B. (Galatians 5:7) There are many hindrances (obstacles) to the runners in the race.

   C. (Philippians 3:14) As we run the race, we must ‘press’ (bear down, thrust) forward.

   D. (Hebrews 12:1) The race requires us to be focused, patient, and mindful of what the  worldly issues are that usually get in our way and weigh us down.

   E. (II Timothy 4:7, 8) As we continue the race throughout our lives, it is important to keep in mind that God wants us to not only start the race, but to be found faithful and finish the race. There is a wonderful prize waiting for each of us that run a faithful race.

                                      IV. The Christian Life is a Spiritual ‘War’

                                                           (Romans 7:23)

   A. (I Timothy 1:18) We are called to enlist as soldiers and be good warriors for God.

   B. (Ephesians 6:12) There is a great, wicked, powerful invisible enemy that we must fight every day of our lives, for ourselves, for our families, and for our Lord.

   (I Peter 5:8) Our total vigilance (alertness) is required because the devil would like nothing better than to knock us out of the battle and he will stop at nothing to try and destroy us.

   C. (I Timothy 6:12) In order to fight a “good fight” we must be found faithful.

   D. ( II Timothy 2:4) The reason that the majority of Christians today are not in the battle and are ‘silent’ Christians is that they are “entangled with the affairs of this life”.

   E. (II Corinthians 10:4) The battle that we are raging will not be won with bombs, bullets, or swords. We have a “leader” that provides us with weapons far greater than what the world has in their arsenal.

   F. (Ephesians 6:12-17) Fighting a Spiritual war requires that we have superior Spiritual equipment to fight and win the battles that we face every day. The Spiritual armor provided by God is more than capable of winning the battles that we encounter.

   If we make the decision to get in the battle and “fight the good fight of faith”, we must be ready to be on the offensive and not on the defense all the time. As we review the Spiritual armor that God provides for us in (Ephesians 6:12-17) we find that there is no armor to protect our back sides, only for the front side in order that we might be on the attack!!

God bless