Victorious Living, Too Or Is It Two? Both Will Do. Series

Last week I started a small series, two sermons that are both brought to you by the letter ‘V’. A V twin series. [PP Early twin Harley Davison]. My thinking was to highlight that as we enter 2025 that we know we can be, or more to the point are victorious in Christ Jesus. That we will know our value in Christ and not be vanquished and as a result our witness will speak volumes. Having dived into this I have realised that I could have probably made this a V 6 series, but another time.

I wrapped the last message up by saying that accomplishing victory in Christ comes down to our vantage point, or point of view and these things based on the scriptures I shared,

Accept your being God’s child

Listen to the direction of The Holy Spirit’s guidance

Focus running towards the goal, of being in the word (Bible) seeking after God’s will for your life in his word

Be humble

Live daily for Christ

Victory comes in seeking to be made new in Jesus' likeness, for it is being in Jesus' likeness that you will recognise your true value and advance to victory, eternal victory.

Right, so we have had a run over all that I spoke on last week and there are another couple of points that I want to make, one of which ties fairly closely to what I spoke about last week and it is what Jesus said, and it comes down to what Jesus said about us his people his flock: Let’s have a look at John 10 and see what he says about his relationship with his people, his flock.:

10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:1-18)

Right, we started the reading with a V word, but that is not the one I will focus on in this passage. But that word was “very” Jesus said “Very truely I tell you.” Where Jesus was going here was giving an account of who he was and in doing so he gives two ‘I am’ statements about who he is the first being “I am the door of the sheep.” Now that’s an unusual thing to be, but we will get back to that in minute. The next is “I am the Good Shepherd.”

I’ll just talk a little about these two statements before going back to the V word, did you see it in the passage, not ‘very’ but the other one?