John K. Jenkins Sr - Lessons Learned Living a Victorious Life - Part 2

Today, I am continuing with part two of what I started last week, which is a series on lessons I’ve learned for victorious living. I went through the first five points last week, and I want to cover the second five points today. Today is a Bible study, and what am I going to say? Look at your neighbor and tell them, «To somebody who doesn 't know, I’m bringing Bible study to you.» Why? Because you don’t come to Bible study, so I had to bring Bible study to you. Amen!

I did the first five points last week-lessons I’ve learned that God has enabled me to experience on a journey that has made me successful in so many areas and helped me to live a victorious life. I may not be everything I’m going to be, but I thank God I’m not as jacked up as I used to be. I am still the president of the «Jacked Up Ministry.» We should really rename this church the «Jacked Up Baptist Church of Leonardo.» Amen, because everybody has some kind of area in their life that is jacked up. Look at your neighbor and say, «Some area of your life is jacked up!» I mean, are you all willing to be honest and say that everything in your life is not quite there? You haven’t arrived; you’re not firing on all cylinders; you’re not correctly dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s. Amen? That 's going to be the journey of all of our lives. We’re always going to have something that God’s working on; as soon as you get through one area, there’s something else God’s going to do with you. Amen? We never arrive; we don’t arrive until we transition from this body to another body.

But here’s the truth of the matter: God wants us to learn the lessons of what the keys are to help us live victoriously. I went through the first five points last week, and I want to hit the second five today. Number six: Somebody said, «Aren 't you going to go through the points from last week?» If you weren’t here last week, shame on you! Go get the DVD. I’m not going to waste any more time in this series going back over what we’ve already covered. You can buy the tape, buy the DVD, buy a CD, or come to church and watch us online. Amen? Can I get an Amen right there?

Here 's point number six: Do you want to live a victorious life? This lesson I learned: Equip yourself to do the work of ministry. Equip yourself. Ephesians 4 speaks to this matter. Here is Paul talking to the Church of Ephesus, and he talks about the gifts that God gives. In verse 11 of Ephesians 4, he says, «And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.» Now, here’s what this means. I didn’t read all of it, but you can read down through the rest of it. A key point is that God places gifts in the body to help the body grow and help people be what they’re supposed to be. Part of this means that if you want God to help you succeed in life and live a victorious life, you need to recognize the gifts that God has put inside you and put yourself in a position to learn to operate your gifts.

Everybody has gifts inside of them. Everybody has some gifts that the Spirit of God has deposited inside of you, and you and I should be in a constant mode of helping to develop and train those gifts. Now, I want you to look at the person next to you and say, «You look like you’ve got some gifts inside of you.» Then ask them, «What are you doing to develop those gifts?» You know what the worst thing in the world is? It’s for somebody to have a gift but not know how to use it, to be gifted but not know how to function in it. So I believe that the call of God in all of our lives is to learn what your gifts are. We’ve got classes for that. We’ve got classes for that. We’ve got classes for that for you to learn what your gifts are. We’ve got classes for that-to learn how to operate those gifts.

But 80% of the church members in most churches -it’s true-80% of them, instead of recognizing that we’ve got classes for this, are instead saying, «I don’t have time for that.» If you don’t say Amen together, nobody will know I’m talking about you! You don’t have time for classes? You don 't have time to learn? You don’t have time to go and learn what God has put inside of you for your own edifying and for your own success in life? They don’t have time for that! You don’t have time to take a class? You don 't have time to learn how to study the Bible? You don’t have time to learn what your gifts are? And God said, «If you don’t have time to learn to function in my kingdom the way I’ve gifted you, why should I help you with the other areas of your life?» If you’re not going to help my kingdom, then why should I help you?