Victory in Christ

Victory

Sunday 03/23/14

Topic: What is Victory in Christ?

 

Series – What is Victory in Christ.mp3

Click here to watch the video.

 

Victory in Christ

This morning I was all prepared to teach the second segment of the teaching of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Christ, but God had other plans. In worship, as we sang the song below, the Lord dropped in my heart another message about victory in the Christian life and specifically concerning temptation and sin. So I taught on Victory in Christ!

Satan is not interested in you or your life so much as he is in your genuine faith in Christ. Temptation, according to James chapter 1, comes in order to draw us away from placing the whole of our relational trust in God. The devil lies to us, as he first did to Eve in the garden. Like that first temptation so many years ago, his purpose in tempting and the lie behind whatever he says is, “Is God really good? Can you really trust Him?” This has always been the accusation of the enemy and his lies have never changed. He wants to challenge the genuineness of your trust in God by presenting you with other ways of meeting your own needs or fulfilling your own desires apart from Him.

The focus text we used was James 1:14-17,

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

God warns us to not be deceived into buying the devil’s lie. If the gift is truly good – it comes from the Father. If it “looks good” to the eye, or is appealing to the senses but did not come from Papa, it is NOT A GOOD GIFT! You are being lied to and the end of that road is always death!

I hope you enjoy the teaching as much at the church did, it was obviously a word in due season!

 

What is Victory in Christ?

We encourage you…give it a listen!

God bless!

I hope you will listen to this weeks teaching and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to do so here.

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!