New Life in Christ
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AN OVERCOMING FAITH
AN OVERCOMING FAITH
Today is the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS
So our focus this morning is on developing an overcoming faith. This is difficult for us in America because we have always had freedom to worship and freedom to believe what ever we want. But for most of our brothers and sisters in other countries, that is not their reality. There are a lot of countries in the world where you do not have the freedom to believe, worship, or share your faith. We are seeing a shift in our own country but only God knows if we will see persecution like our brothers and sisters or not. But our culture is definitely getting more hostile to the Gospel and Christians. So how can we build an overcoming faith that is what we are going to explore this morning. Let’s begin by looking at Sabina and Richard Wurmbrand’s story. This is quoted directly form there website persecution.com
Despite imprisonment and other persecution, Sabina and Richard Wurmbrand faithfully advanced the gospel in Romania, abandoning selfish pursuits and obediently surrendering daily to Christ. Following their decades-long ministry work, Sabina and Richard co-founded The Voice of the Martyrs.
By choosing to “lose” their earthly lives, sacrificing their comfort and safety in this world, they found true life in Jesus Christ. Today, our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters are finding life that counts for eternity at the cost of harassment, imprisonment and even death.
We pray for our persecuted Christian family members who choose to walk this path in obedience to Christ. Like Sabina and Richard Wurmbrand, and countless others throughout church history, they are examples for us.
NEW LIFE IN CHRIST — AN OVERCOMING FAITH ROMANS 12:1-2, 21
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
What does that mean offering your body as a living sacrifice?
The most difficult part of this statement is the living part right? I heard a pastor say one time that because the sacrifice is living, it can crawl off the alter. Have you ever crawled off the alter? What do I mean by crawl off the alter? The issue is you need to be making choices everyday to sacrifice your life to God. This isn’t a one time I prayed and I did that. This is everyday minute by minute I am going to choose God’s will over my own and that is hard. It is very difficult. We like to give God Sunday morning and if you are an over achiever Wednesday night. This passage is calling us too much more than that. Living sacrifices pursue holiness, which is their reasonable service. That is we should be pursuing lives that are set apart that look different than the rest of the world actually so different people will ask us about if and you should be ready to give an answer for the hope that lives in you. So where does the power to overcome? Look at the beginning of verse 1. What empowers us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices? I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. So it is Because of God’s mercy, biblical disciples offer themselves as living sacrifices through daily choices.
As demonstrated by Sabina Wurmbrand and other persecuted Christians, biblical disciples can overcome evil with good through the power of Christ living in them. That same type of biblical discipleship is something I can attain through daily sacrificial living, as Christ lives in and through me.
Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, inspired by Christ’s example, were exemplars of sacrificial Christian living. As they lived their lives for the sake of Christ, they overcame evil with good.
The highest grossing film franchise in the world garners total worldwide box office revenues of 22.56 billion U.S. dollars. The top four film franchises gross nearly 50 BILLION dollars globally.
Why are people from all around the world drawn to the stories in these film franchises?
Perhaps it is because we live in a world where humans have a common struggle against evil, and it is a continual battle. Disease, disaster and delinquent behavior prompts us to hope for something good — something better.
Biblical disciples live the type of lives that continually encounter evil. However, we are given a source greater than any evil, and we can experience daily victory as we overcome evil with good.
What does it look like for someone to find life? I want you to watch this video and see the possibilities for your own faith.
PLAY VIDEO: FINDING LIFE (download the video and additional free resources at vom.org/IDOP)
Sabina found a full and meaningful life as she trusted in Christ. This new life then dramatically moved her to intentionally lose her life for Christ’s sake day by day.
I. THE SOURCE OF OVERCOMING FAITH (ROMANS 12:1-2)
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I want to spend some time now really looking at The Mercy of God (Romans 12:1)
First how is God’s mercy offered to us? God’s mercy is offered to us solely via Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. There is no other way to be saved than Christianity this is not my opinion, these are the very words of God Himself, Listen to what Jesus said,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
ii. Because of the mercy of God, biblical disciples can present ourselves as living sacrifices.
1. Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice is an active pursuit. (John 15:4)
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
a. Biblical disciples present ourselves as instruments of righteousness, forsaking the dominion of sin over our lives because we have been brought from death to life in Christ. (Romans 6:13, 16)
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Romans 6:16
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
b. Biblical disciples choose daily to die to self and lose their lives for Christ’s sake. (Luke 9:23-26)
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
This is hard. It is easy to say, “I surrender all, I will deny myself and lay my life down to serve others.” But wow is it hard to do.
I want to leave you with a story about a tribal couple from Kenya. Their names are not given. But listen to the story about a faith that endures through unspeakable persecution.
She stood over her husband’s coffin. There were tears in her eyes, but her voice was strong. The bruises on her body told the mourners that she, too, had been beaten. As Christians, she and her husband had refused to take a Kikuyu tribal oath that wasn’t consistent with their Christian faith. For this, her husband was beaten to death, and she was beaten and hospitalized. The crowd was still, silenced by the power of the widow’s words and her will. “I, as his widow, also tell all of you, in the presence of my dead husband, that I hate none of those who killed him. I love the killers. I forgive them, knowing that Christ has died for them too.” No one in attendance that day would ever forget the widow’s words or her example of extreme forgiveness and grace. (Source: The Voice of the Martyrs, Extreme Devotion, VOM Books, 2015, p. 73)