Holiness, Godliness, Usefulness
06/30/2014, by John Kincaid
Lesson 283: Changed
The Holy Spirit is able to change our heart in ways that our best efforts never could.
We grow in holiness as we depend on the Spirit to change our desires so that we follow Him.
Believers don’t become sinless, but our attitude toward sin changes. We can’t enjoy it anymore.
Think about being on a diet; I will never succeed as long as I desire junk food. I can force myself to eat lettuce for a few meals, but my heart dreams of cake.
I will eventually stumble into old habits, unless my desire for junk food is killed at the root.
Only then will I be able to make permanent lifestyle changes and stay on course.
Before salvation, we loved the world and were hostile to God.
James 4:4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility with God? whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
We can’t hate our sin until the Holy Spirit changes our heart. If we hate sin, this is a testimony that the Spirit has changed us.
We can’t grow until we realize that every step in our progress depends on the Spirit’s work.
About This Series
The goal of this series is to become more useful in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, as an instrument in the Redeemer's hand. The theme verses for the series are Ephesians 4:22-24, Philemon 11, 2 Timothy 2:21
- to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
- and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.
- Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
|
|
|
