Victory New Testament Fellowship International P.O Box 850146 Mesquite, Texas 75185 Chartered Since 1953

The unchurched visiting your congregation this Easter will be grappling with the most fundamental question any of us can ask about life: “What on earth am I here for?" This will be your opportunity to tell them that nothing matters more than knowing Gods purpose for their lives and nothing can compensate for not knowing it -- not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure. We need to teach that, without purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. But, its never too late to discover our God-ordained purpose.

Below is a basic outline on what I will be preaching this Easter

The New Testament teaches that God created you for five purposes. They’re listed in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, practiced by the first Christians, modeled by Jesus, and explained by Paul.

You were planned for God’s pleasure. This is the first purpose of your life. The Bible says, “You created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NLT). The Psalms tell us, “The Lord takes pleasure in his people” (Psalm 149:4, TEV). Just as parents enjoy watching their children, God gets pleasure in watching you.

The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and he created you as an object of his love. God made you to love you. Even more amazing is that God made us “in his image” which means we are unique from the rest of creation. Unlike animals, we have the capacity to know God and to love him back.

Any time you give pleasure to God you are worshipping him. Today, the word “worship” has been reduced to a synonym for music, ritual, ceremony, or prayer, but worship is far more than that. Worship is a lifestyle of knowing and loving God.
You were formed for Gods family. This is the second reason you are alive. The Bible says, *His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ and this gave him great pleasure (Ephesians 1:5, NLT).

God created the world because he wanted a family, and he wants you to be a part of it -- for eternity! Once you understand this amazing fact, you’ll never again have reason to feel insignificant. You matter so much to God that he designed this universe just so he could create you to be a part of his family. You were made to last forever.

The word for loving other believers is “fellowship.” Unfortunately, like “worship” the word has been misused and watered down. Today fellowship is reduced to coffee and cookies and casual conversation.

But real fellowship is being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. Most Christians know John 3:16, but don’t know 1 John 3:16 (GW) which says, “We understand what real love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us.” That means that we must give our lives for other believers. That is real fellowship.

You were created to become like Christ. This is Gods third purpose for your life. The Bible says, “From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him, and all along he knew who would, should become like his Son ... “ (Romans 8:29, LB). It has always been Gods plan and purpose to make us like himself. At Creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26, NIV). Not to be gods, but to be godly. God wants you to develop his values, attitudes, morals, and character.

Philippians 2:5 (NCV) says, “In your lives you must think and act like Jesus Christ.”

Once you understand Gods third purpose for your life, a lot of what happens to you will begin to make more sense. One question we often ask is, Why is this happening to me? The answer is... to make you more like Jesus!

If God is going to make you like Jesus, He is going to take you through everything Jesus went through. That includes times of loneliness, fatigue, misunderstanding, criticism, and many other problems that build our character.

For God to teach you real love, he must put you around some unlovely people. For God to teach you real joy, he will allow you to go through times of grief. To learn inner peace and patience, God allows storms, chaos, and stressful situations that test our patience and teach us to trust him.

You can grow from any situation if you just ask God, What do you want me to learn from this?

The goal is clear: Then we will be mature just like Christ is and we will be completely like him. The process God uses to make you like Jesus is called “discipleship” and it will take the rest of your life. You may sometimes feel your progress is slow, but God is never in a hurry, and the Bible promises, “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished ... “ (Philippians 1:6, NLT).

You were shaped for serving God. This is the fourth purpose of your life. The Bible says, “God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God has made us to do good works which he planned in advance for us to live our lives doing” (Ephesians 2:10, NCV).

You were put on this earth to make a unique contribution, to give something back. That contribution is called your “ministry,” or service. We serve God by serving others.

The Bible teaches that you are created, saved, called, and commissioned for service. Ministry is not just for clergy; every believer is a minister. Anytime you use the talents God has given you to help others, you are ministering.

To prepare you for your specific role, God has uniquely formed and shaped you. The Bible says, "You shaped me first inside and then out. You formed me in my mother's womb.” (Psalm 139:13, Msg).

I've put the five most important factors that God uses to shape us. What we need to do is ask, What am I gifted to do?, What do I love to do? What is my abilities, my personality, and my experiences? When it comes to experiences that shape us for service, God uses family experiences, vocational experiences, educational experiences, and spiritual experiences. But most important of all, he uses painful experiences to shape you for his service.

Who could better help the parents of a Down syndrome child than other parents with a Down syndrome child? Who could better help somebody recover from the pain of a divorce, an addiction, a business failure, or a rape than someone who has been through it? The very experience you regret or resent most in your life is that which you've wanted to hide and cover up and forget, it is the very thing that God wants to use as you minister to help and encourage others. God doesn't just use our strengths; he uses our weaknesses, and yes, even our failures, too.

You were made for a mission. This is the fifth purpose of your life. Jesus said, 'In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world I give them a mission in the world' (John 17:18, Msg).

Notice the phrase “in the world” To be balanced, God wants you to have a ministry in your church and a “mission” in the world. You need both, not one or the other. Your ministry is to believers and your mission is to non-believers.

Once you've discovered God’s first four purposes of your life, your fifth purpose is to pass on the Good News to others. This is your mission: 'Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him" (2 Corinthians 5:18, NCV).

If you want God’s blessing on your life you must care about what God cares about most. What is that? He wants his lost children found! He wants everyone to know him, and his purposes for their lives.

Paul was passionate about this purpose. He stated, 'The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me, to tell people the good news about God's grace' (Acts 20:24, NCV). Fulfilling your mission in the world is called evangelism.

Because of misuse and misunderstanding, both believers and non-believers are scared of this word, but it just means “sharing good news”. Once you become a part of God’s family it's your purpose to tell others how to become a part, also.

Why does God leave us here on earth once our eternal destiny is settled through salvation? Well, there are only two things you can't do in heaven: You can't sin there, and you can't share the Good News with unbelievers there (because they are all believers!). Which of these two do you think God leaves you on earth to do? Someone cared enough to tell you; God wants you to tell others. Is anybody going to be in heaven because of you?

My life verse is Acts 13:36 (TEV) which says, 'David served God's purpose in his generation, ... then he died.' This phrase is the ultimate definition of a life well lived. You do the eternal and timeless purpose of God in a contemporary and timely way in your generation.

I pray that people will be able to say that about you when you die, that you served Gods purpose in your generation.

One of my roles with Victory New Testament Fellowship, is to provide people with opportuni¬ties to participate in fulfilling the Great Commission through their giving to the ministry. Because of their financial partnership with VNTFI, we glorify God together!

One of Victory’s core values in ministry is to bring glory to God. We state it this way:

VNTFI’s utmost goal is to bring glory to God. (Matthew 5:16). One way we bring Him glory is to live by faith (Romans 4). We entrust our talents, our finances, and our plans to God's control. We are comfortable with uncertainty because we rest in the certainty of His char¬acter and His Word. Ultimately we want others to trust Jesus more because of our example.

Victory Fellowship has always looked to the Lord to supply our financial needs as He moves in the hearts of the partners God has given us.

The majority of our support comes in the form of indi¬vidual gifts of approximately $25.00. These gifts represent the desire of individuals. A special group we call “Burden Bearers” they are loyal friends and as they commit to consistently pray for us and to support the ministry with a monthly gift. We are extremely grateful for our Monthly Partners, because they enable us to keep the Bible teaching and preaching going forth. We truly consider them a part of the Victory New Testament Fellowship family. Monthly Partners donations represent about 70 percent of our revenues. We could not exist without them.

In addition to our Monthly Partners, we have a number of people who have joined an inner circle of faithful friends by giving specifi¬cally in two areas.
These are investments made by those with an interest in a specific ministry, such as Home Missions, Prison outreach, or international ministries, where they may designate their gifts to support a particular area.

Occasionally we have a specific project over and above our normal operations that, if funded, would extend the ministry or increase efficiency.
And as people today are concerned with leav¬ing financial legacies; VNTFI is partnering with a faith-based company that helps individuals establish wills and trusts that provide security for loved ones as well as honoring Christian minis¬tries. There is no cost or obligation for this ser¬vice, and the consultation is entirely confidential.
It is my joy to connect with donors and friends of Victory Fellowship as together we take sound biblical teaching around the world.

We have never been an endowed ministry, and we face the seemingly overwhelming task of interna¬tional ministry, knowing that only when people band together through giving at whatever level they are comfortable with or called to, can Victory New Testament Fellowship accomplish all the challenges that God has placed before us.
No matter the size, every gift is accepted as a gift from God. And every gift helps the unimagina¬ble become reality as we seek to reach this world for Christ.