3/24/13   Design For Life - TRIUMPH

    Today is Palm Sunday.  It is a day when the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is remembered and celebrated.  It is the story of Jesus receiving the adulation of the crowds, receiving the cheering and being the central focus of a parade.  This is different from what we see in His earthly ministry for about three years.  He had not been trying to build His public image.  Now, He was entering the city to cheers.  It was a day of triumph.
    It didn’t take long for the cheers to turn to jeers.  The crowds turned on Jesus and it appeared that His triumph turned to failure.  However, that is not true.  Jesus won.  God knew the outcome before it all began.  He knew there would be victory.
    It was not only the events of Easter that brought victory.  It was not only the resurrection that showed the ultimate triumph.  The church today continues to have victories in the battle that ensues.  Jesus knew that a difficult battle was ahead, but He also knew it would end in victory.  The church today, we as a fellowship today, face battles.  But, we also see victory.
    How often do we think that we can’t make it?  How often do we submit to defeat when we could persevere to triumph?  Today millions are celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus.  Today, let’s look at the triumph God wants us to have.
Two Perspectives on the Normandy Invasion
    June 6, 1994, was the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, which began the historic World War II battle to liberate continental Europe from Nazi control. All the major television networks ran anniversary programs that included interviews with aging veterans.
    One of the programs paired two contrasting interviews back to back. The first interview was with a marine who had landed on Omaha Beach. He recalled horrors and sounds. The aging veteran recalled looking around at the bloody casualties surrounding him and concluding, “We’re going to lose!”
    The next interview was with a U.S. Army Air Corps reconnaissance pilot who had flown over the whole battle area. He viewed the carnage on the beaches and hills, but he also witnessed the successes of the marines, the penetration by the paratroopers, and the effectiveness of the aerial bombardment. He looked at everything that was happening and concluded, “We’re going to win!”
Leith Anderson, Leadership That Works, (Minneapolis, Bethany House, 1999), pp. 164-165
    Perspective and information make all the difference.  Do you see things from God’s vantage point?
Adversity and the Lesson of the Coffee Bean
    A daughter complained to her father about how hard things were for her. “As soon as I solve one problem,” she said, “another one comes up. I’m tired of struggling.”
    Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen where he filled three pots with water and placed each on a high heat. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second, eggs, and in the last, ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
    The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After a while, he went over and turned off the burners. He fished out the carrots and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. He poured the coffee into a bowl. Turning to her he asked, “What do you see?”
    “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.
    He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled, as she tasted its rich flavor.
    She asked, “What does it mean?”  He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity—boiling water—but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
    The egg was fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside hardened.
    The ground coffee beans were unique, however. By being in the boiling water, they changed the water.
    He asked his daughter, “When adversity knocks on your door, which are you?”
From the Internet; submitted by Eric Reed, managing editor, Leadership Journal
http://www.preachingtoday.com/search/?searcharea=illustrations&type=keyword&keywordid=3426&start=41
    Triumph. Victory.  It comes after struggle, work, a battle, some effort.  It doesn’t come before.
Romans 8:31-39 NKJV
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    What can separate us from God’s love?  Will all kinds of problems make God not love us?  Will the worst things possible cause God to abandon us?  Even when believers are killed, brought to the slaughter like sheep, we are not abandoned by God.  There are many horrible things happening.  Today we face battles we never thought we would see.  Things are happening in our world that no one could have predicted.  Our nation is a mess.  How are we going to make it?
    The Bible says that we are more than conquerors through Jesus who loved us.  We don’t have to live in excuses, we can live in God’s victory.
    Here is a note from the Fire Bible about being more than conquerors.
We are more than conquerors.  This entire phrase is one word in Greek—hupernikömen. This compound word appears once in the NT, as part of this verse. Huper means “over, above,” and nikömen means “victors, conquerors.” Paul is saying that rather than being “victims” of their suffering and circumstances in a fallen, sinful world, Christians are “over and above victors” or “super victors.” Rather than barely getting by in life’s difficult circumstances, Christ’s followers are “overwhelming conquerors.” That is because Jesus won the decisive victory for us through his death on the cross. Because of his victory, we can now have spiritual salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, supplying the power for us to be “more than conquerors” through life’s struggles.
    Nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  It is possible to fail in our spiritual walk, to tell God you don’t want Him any more.  If that happens, if a person fails in his spiritual walk, it won’t be because God didn’t love them.  And it won’t be because of the attack of an adversity. Instead, it will come from a person’s failure and spiritual neglect to remain faithful to Jesus.  Only through a personal relationship with Jesus do we experience the full extent of his love.  We must  continue true to Jesus our Lord.  This means we live in nonstop surrender to His authority.  Then we know for sure that we are never separated from God’s love.
    Let’s look again at verses 38 & 39.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have victory.
I Corinthians 15:57 NKJV
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are loved.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 5:1-2 NKJV
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
We are delivered from condemnation.
Romans 8:1 NKJV
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
    One of the powerful spiritual weapons of the enemy is to condemn us.  He works to make us feel worthless and unloved and unlovable.  That simply is not true.  Victory comes as we are in Jesus, as He dwells in us and we are serving Him.  Jesus delivers us from sin’s power and we are being drawn to eternity in heaven.
    The book of Romans has many powerful verses of victory.  I love a verse near the end.
Romans 16:20 NKJV
20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
    We must not give up, we must persevere to the victory God planned for us to have.
Never Give Up
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: The only fight which is lost is that which we give up.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian History, no. 32.
We Are Already Set Free
    There was a Glasgow professor named MacDonald who, along with a Scottish chaplain, had bailed out of an airplane behind German lines. They were put in a prison camp. A wire fence separated the Americans from the British, and the Germans made it next to impossible for the two sides to communicate. MacDonald was put in the American barracks and the chaplain was housed with the Brits.
    Every day the two men would meet at the fence and exchange a greeting. Unknown to the guards, the Americans had a homemade radio and were able to get news from the outside, something more precious than food in a prison camp. Every day, MacDonald would take a headline or two to the fence and share it with the chaplain in the ancient Gaelic language, indecipherable to the Germans.
    One day, news came over the radio that the German High Command had surrendered and the war was over. MacDonald took the news to his friend, then stood and watched him disappear into the British barracks. A moment later, a roar of celebration came from the barracks.
    Life in that camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards, even laughing at the dogs. When the German guards finally heard the news three nights later, they fled into the dark, leaving the gates unlocked. The next morning, Brits and Americans walked out as free men. Yet they had truly been set free three days earlier by the news that the war was over.
    While Christ’s Kingdom is not fully achieved, we know the outcome of the battle. We too have been set free.  As many have said, I’ve read the end of the book and we win.
Ray Bakke, Chicago, Illinois. Leadership, Vol. 19, no. 2.
Song: We Are More Than Conquerors
We are more than conquerors thro' Him that loved us so.
The Christ who dwells within us is the greatest power we know.
He will fight beside us tho' the enemy is great;
Who can stand against us, He's the Captain of our fate.
Then we will conquer, never fear, So let the battle rage.
He has promised to be near until the end of the age.
We are more than conquerors thro' Him that loved us so;
The Christ who dwells within us is the greatest power we know.
Words & Music: Ralph Carmichael

LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
DESIGN FOR LIFE

What are the key points of this message?

How can we apply this message?
Something I said earlier today:  The church today, we as a fellowship today, face battles.  But, we also see victory.
We must never accept defeat as inevitable.  We can never roll over and play dead.  The strongholds of the enemy will NOT prevail against the church.