An Eternity of Victory // From Vanity to Victory, Part 4

<p>Victory as it turns out, is something entirely different to winning. When we talk about winning, we think about what we can win. What’s in if for us. When Jesus talks about victory, He’s talking about something entirely different. And it’s a victory that He would have us live out … for an eternity.</p> <p> </p> <h3><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>A Life that Really Counts</strong></span></h3> <p><em>“From Vanity to Victory”</em> – that’s what we have been talking about these last few weeks on the programme and that’s what we are going to be talking about again today. Because I know that so many people … people even who believe in Jesus, many of them are living real lives of vanity rather than lives of victory. Lives that feel more or less, on the empty side. Lives that feel as though they lack meaning and purpose and direction; lives that leave us asking, "Is this all there is? Is this really what life is about? There’s not more to life than … this?" Or as Solomon put it:</p> <p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Vanity of vanities; vanity of vanities! Everything is a vanity. What do people gain from the toil at which they toil under the sun?</em></p> <p>So, today we are going to kick off our look at what constitutes a life of victory. What does a life of meaning and purpose and victory actually look like? Because if we can find such a life; if we can discover how to live such a life amidst all the pressures; all the realities going on in my life, all the pressures and realities going on in your life, it strikes me that will be a really, really worthwhile thing to do. Do you think?</p> <p>And there’s one life; one life above all other lives that brings this whole question of victory into sharper focus than any other. That’s the life that we are going to be looking at right now. It’s a life that began so well. Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth in their ancestral home of Bethlehem. And then His awesome launch into public ministry – the baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Let’s read about