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*Beyond Victory*
*2Corinthians 12:1-10 January 25, 2004*
* *
*Scripture Reading:*
*Introduction:*
Have you ever been to the top of the Hancock Building or the Sears Tower on a clear day?
They say you can see all the way to Michigan.
In fact, I think I have even caught a glimpse of the far shore from there on occasion.
I am a little bit dubious about it because I had to squint pretty hard.
And like they taught me to look through the haze and the fog in the Navy, one must look a little off-center to get the picture in peripheral vision.
Looking straight on seems to blank it out.
It is quite a thrill to see beyond the normal horizon.
I remember being up in Alaska on active duty.
We sailed into Kodiak and then took a small plane into Anchorage to catch a larger jetliner back to the lower 48 from there.
Down at sea level we were surrounded by mountains.
But we soon rose above them on a very clear day to see from mountain peak to mountain peak across immense glaciers, pristine rivers and valleys lush with endless forest stretching as far as the eye could see.
I was so impressed with God up there.
We skimmed the tops of mountain peaks seemingly ten feet under the plane.
I felt I could reach out and touch the hand of the God who formed them.
Can you imagine the thrill of the astronauts flying to the moon and looking back at earth – a blue sapphire of a jewel crowned with life abundant?
At least that is the way God intends it (John 10:10).
Who could not believe in God from that perspective?
/“6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 ¶ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
(Psalms 139:6-10 NIVUS)/
Vision is indeed a matter of perspective.
God’s vision for you includes victory.
As we learned Wednesday evening in our truth lesson at the quarterly church business meeting, God’s vision for you starts with grace.
It is a grace he has accomplished for you, and not you yourself, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross for the forgiveness of sins by which you are set free from the control of sin in your life.
/ “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8-9 NIVUS)/
/ “1 ¶ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2 NIVUS)/
/ /
This “hope of the glory of God” is that victory that began with God’s grace.
Sadly, not everyone comes into that victory through grace.
I was greatly burdened this week to hear of a man in his 40’s who died under a bridge in Albany Park.
They found him frozen solid wearing a thin jacket over three shirts with only sandals for his feet that he had taken off.
No one knew him.
He was anonymous.
But God knew him and wanted him to have victory.
Somehow the circumstances of life, and probably sin, had overwhelmed him.
God does not intend for life to end that way.
God wanted that man to come into victory.
But in our present mini-series on victory in 2Corinthians 10, 11 and 12 we have already come a long way in our thinking about victory.
2Corinthians 10 was about spiritual warfare, or “getting victory.”
A key verse there tells us –
/ “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIVUS)/
We learned how we could apply God’s reward of Christ’s victory in our lives and ministries.
(You have spiritual advantage in battle because your resources for victory in Christ are invincible beyond the understanding of this world.)
Next, 2Corinthians 11 was about keeping the faith, or “maintaining victory.”
A key verse there tells us –
/“30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.
33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.”
(2 Corinthians 11:30-33 NIVUS)/
We learned about some of the threats to Christ’s victory in our lives that we must guard against.
(You must guard against spiritual arrogance.)
And this brings us right into chapter 12 for this morning which is about flying higher, or “beyond victory.”
First we need to get victory, then we need to maintain it, and only then are we able to see beyond it to the fullness of the vision God has for us.
It is the vision of God’s glory – beyond victory.
This is what Paul is sharing with the Corinthian church and, by extension, us.
He has done the spiritual warfare, he has fought the good fight, and now he has “seen God.”
He is teaching from his own example and experience.
He has been attacked by spiritual enemies in the church, and so he shows us how to do spiritual warfare.
He knows this warfare is a long haul, and so he shows us how to maintain the victory.
But getting the victory and maintaining it still need the vision of what is beyond in order to encourage success, and so he humbly, and yet purposefully, shares with us what no man can see unless he be in Christ.
Please turn with me to 2Corinthians 12 on page 1806 of the pew Bible.
You will notice again that he leaves chapter 11 with the idea that only in his weakness is he strong.
It is only from the position of being “lowered” that he can see up.
For all of us too, the only way we can have the victory of God’s vision for us being born out in our lives is to give up our stubbornness in wanting to do it our own way instead of God’s way.
God’s way is his grace to us in Christ.
Too many people refuse to accept him as the “way, the truth, and the life.”
Only in Christ and through Christ can you have personal victory over your besetting sin – your fatal flaw.
When we do it God’s way we can begin to see across the mountain peaks in our lives toward the horizon of heaven.
We begin to believe in God’s goodness.
We begin to understand that God’s goodness overflows into our lives to such an extent that we couldn’t keep up with it if we wanted to.
But we don’t need to.
It’s like drinking out of the saucer.
That’s good enough for me.
Michael Combs writes about it:
/"Drinking From My Saucer"/ \\ by Michael Combs.
I've never made a fortune, \\ It's probably too late now.
\\ Oh, but I don't worry about that much, \\ 'Cause I'm happy anyhow.
As I go along life's journey, \\ I'm reaping better than I sowed.
\\ I'm drinking from my saucer, \\ 'Cause my cup has overflowed.
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