How Christians Change

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. This is not my sermon page, actually. My daughter

! Just ran up thinking I left a sermon page. This is something else. Thank you, sweetheart.

! I appreciate that. Yeah! Family in a pinch, baby. I love it. All right. So good morning,

everybody. It's good to be with you. Today, we're going to be talking about a topic that is near

and dear to my heart, and that is the question of how we change. Or perhaps you want to think

of it as how we grow or how we pursue holiness or how we pursue maturity. The Christian word

that we use for it often is sanctification. Whatever word you'd like to use, what we're

going to be talking about this morning is how we as Christians seek to grow more in the character

of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So I'm going to be pulling some ideas from a TDI class

that I taught earlier this year. TDI stands for the Discipleship Institute, which sounded

cooler than adult Sunday school class. But that's basically what it is. So I'm pulling

some ideas from that. The class that I taught was largely based on material from David Powlison,

who is a professor and a biblical counselor who I have just deep appreciation for. So this

morning, we're talking about change. Our culture has got all kinds of ideas about how to change.

It's got self-improvement strategies. It's got atomic habits and successful mindsets.

And we can actually find kernels of wisdom in a lot of those ideas. So that's important to recognize.

But when our culture thinks about pursuing change, it ignores or sometimes it even suppresses

three key realities. And those three realities are, and I'll be reminding you of these as we go through,

one is the necessity of God's Word, second is the significance of the heart, and then third would be

our dependence upon the living God. Okay? So James Clear's Atomic Habits. It's a great book. It provides

a super helpful framework for considering how to build good habits, but James Clear is not going to

highlight the sufficiency of God's Word. Stephen Covey, or Covey, however you pronounce his name,

he's got some very helpful ideas for how to become a highly effective person, but he's not going to talk

about the heart as the governing center of your desires. Sahil Bloom, he's got some great ideas about how to

prioritize a meaningful life, but he isn't going to point you to a relationship with the living God as one of his

five types of wealth. Okay? So I've benefited from all of these authors. They have some good things to say,

but they're missing the most important parts of what it means to truly change. And what I want to point you to today,

in today's message, is that for the Christian, the Christian who has been ransomed, saved, claimed,

adopted, rescued, and born again through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, for the Christian,

pursuing change means tethering yourself to the truths and promises of God's Word.

It means understanding the nature of the heart as it's taught in the Bible. And it means seeking after

the living God who loved you so much that he gave himself up for you.

So that's the threefold focus we're going to be focusing on, is the Word, the heart, and the Lord,

the living God. That's where we're going today. As Christians, we don't reject those realities,

like our culture does, but we do tend to forget them. We tend to neglect them, and sometimes we

can misunderstand them. And I put myself in that category, by the way, as someone who far too easily

forgets and neglects these truths. So I need to be reminded of these things as I'm preaching. I am

preaching to myself as much as I'm preaching to you this morning. Okay? We are all learners here.

Before we dig into these, I want to start by saying why we change in the first place. Why do we even

bother with pursuing change? Are we seeking to become our best selves? Are we trying to live our

best life now? Are we wanting to change our lives just to make them better and more fulfilling? Like,

what's the reason that a Christian would pursue change? Here's the target. It's given to us by

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 16. He says this,

Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and do what?

Glorify your Father who is in heaven. So the reason that we're pursuing change is so that we can

become more like Jesus and so that we can reflect his character and his ways and his priorities in such

a way that God is glorified. Okay? So we're not talking about mere self-improvement here today.

We're talking about the glory of God. That's what we're going after. So with that in front of us,

here's what I want you to do this morning. We're going to get a little personal.

I want you to think of a besetting sin in your life. I want you to think of an area in your life

that you know that you are deficient in, that you know that you need help in.

It could be something as simple as just addiction to constantly checking your phone. It could be raising

your voice with your kids when they disobey you. It could be a tendency to slip into words and

behaviors with your friends at school that you know that God and your parents would not approve of.

It could be an irritation that you carry in your spirit towards your spouse. It could be anger that

you have towards a co-worker. In this little bit of time that we have together, I want us to try to

make this personal. CCEF, they use this wonderful phrase, the personal God gets personal with us,

which I love. I love that phrase. And in order for the personal God to get personal with us,

we have to be honest and vulnerable with him about ourselves. So I'm going to invite you to do that

this morning as we go through this. First reality of change is the sufficiency of God's Word.

It's the sufficiency of God's Word. Let's look at how Jesus Christ, the God-man, the second person of

the Trinity, the man who the winds and the waves obey, the one who is holding up the universe right now

by the Word of his power. Let's start by considering what he says about the nature of his Word, the Bible,

the scriptures, the 66 books that are given to us in his Word. So would you turn with me to Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4? If you've got a Bible in front of you, Matthew chapter 4, because I want you to see this.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

If you're using a pew Bible, you're going to go to page 809, Matthew 4.

It says this,

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him,

If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, It is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So in Matthew 4, we see our Savior facing his greatest temptation in the wilderness,

battling not only the physical weariness of a 40-day fast, but also the seductive words of his great enemy,

the devil. And with every temptation that the devil throws at him,

Jesus responds like a drumbeat. It is written, it is written, it is written.

And the first passage of Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture that he fires back at his enemy,

is it is written,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by what?

By every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So I want you to see this.

I want you to feel the weight and the goodness and the goodness of what Jesus is saying here.

Because according to Jesus Christ, God's word is to our souls what food is to our bodies.

Okay?

God's word is to our souls what food is to our bodies.

Which means that you and I, brother and sister, are utterly dependent on the Bible.

Because these are God's words.

This is not a book of opinions.

This is not man's best attempt to try to understand who God is.

This is God himself speaking to you every time that you open up this word.

from Genesis to Revelation.

So the personal God gets personal with us

as we read his words as found in the scriptures.

Which means that if you want to change,

if you want to grow and you're not anchored

in the wisdom of this book,

then your growth is going to be stunted.

You're never going to get very far.

I've never met a mature believer

who isn't knee-deep in this book.

God's commands and God's words are not burdensome.

They are life-giving.

You cannot live by bread alone.

You live by every word that comes out of this book,

and you can't live by it if you don't read it.

Here's another astounding claim from God's word

that I want you to see.

Go with me to 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

Again, if you've got a pew Bible,

it's going to be on page 996.

This is the Apostle Paul talking.

He says this.

All Scripture, all Scripture is breathed out by God

and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for training in righteousness

that the man or woman of God may be complete,

equipped for every good word.

So hear the totality of that statement in 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

Here's what that means at a minimum,

is that if the only book that you had was a Bible,

you didn't have any self-help books,

you didn't have any financial advice books,

no books on leadership development,

you would still have everything that you need

in order to faithfully and rightly obey and follow the Lord Jesus Christ

in every situation that you encounter in life if you have this.

That's the claim of 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

So if we want to change,

we need to be always growing in our knowledge of the words

that God has spoken to us through the Scriptures.

There's just no replacement for getting in this book

and feasting on this daily.

Only man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Okay.

Now before we move on,

so we're talking about the sufficiency of God's Word.

Before we move on,

I want to be clear about something.

I want to be clear about what the sufficiency of God's Word doesn't mean.

Okay?

Here's what it doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean that there's no wisdom to be found in books outside of the Bible.

It doesn't mean that.

It doesn't mean that we do not need the counsel of wise friends

or that we don't need community,

because in fact, you've got Proverbs 11, 14,

which says that in an abundance of counselors,

there is victory.

So that verse right there would point us to humbly seek out the help and wisdom of others,

especially those who are anchored in the wisdom of this book.

So get good counsel from friends.

Read good books,

and then weigh everything that you were told by God's Word.

Okay?

I also want to say this.

I think that this is important about the sufficiency of the Bible.

The sufficiency of the Bible

also doesn't mean

that Christians should avoid medication to help with things

like anxiety, depression, or other mental hardships.

Okay?

I want you to hear this.

God's Word is very honest

about the fact that we live in a fallen and sinful world.

And one of the effects of the fall

is that sometimes our brain can turn into our enemies.

Okay?

That's an effect of the fall.

There are situations

where the wisdom of God's Word

would encourage you

to take medication

that helps you to get your head above water

so that you can think clearly.

But you never stop being dependent

on God's Word or on His Spirit.

So whatever sin, struggle,

that you thought of

when we started this sermon,

God's Word is up to the task

of giving you the wisdom that you need

to be complete

and fully equipped

for every good work.

That's what the Bible claims for itself.

Now, as you get to know this book,

if you're paying attention,

you're going to notice

that the Bible talks an awful lot

about the heart.

Okay?

So now we're into our second key reality

for pursuing change,

the importance of the heart.

When I say the heart,

you probably have some sense

of what I mean.

That word gets an awful lot of mileage

in the English language,

and it does in the Bible too.

Across the 66 books

of the Old and New Testament,

the word, the heart,

shows up nearly a thousand times

in Hebrew and in Greek,

a thousand times.

The first time that the heart

is used in your Bibles

is in Genesis 6, 5 through 6.

This is in the account of the flood.

It says this,

the Lord saw the wickedness of man,

that the wickedness of man

was great in the earth,

and that every intention

of the thought of his heart

was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted

that he had made man on the earth,

and it grieved him to his heart.

And then at the end

of the flood account in Genesis 8,

it says,

the Lord said in his heart,

I will never curse the ground again.

The Lord's resolve.

He said in his heart.

And then after that,

it's just off to the races

with the phrase,

the heart.

If you pay attention to it,

you're gonna see that

all over the surface of the Bible.

So what does the Bible mean

when it says the heart?

We tend to divide

the heart and the mind,

the heart and the mind

in a way that the Bible does not.

We tend to classify emotions

and feelings and desires,

and we put those

within the bucket of the heart.

And then our thoughts

and our reasoning

and our decisions,

we put those into

the category of the mind.

And the Bible says

that all of those things

originate from within

the heart of a person.

All of those things,

mind and heart go together.

They're not against one another.

We could say it like this.

The heart is the fountainhead

of your deepest thoughts,

your greatest loves,

your strongest emotions,

and your every desire

and decision.

The heart is the fountainhead

of your deepest thoughts,

your greatest loves,

your strongest emotions,

and your every desire

and decision.

Or we could say,

if I know your heart,

then I know you.

Now, as Les covered last week,

before Jesus saved you,

what was the state

of your heart?

He was dead.

Right?

Let's do a quick review

from Ephesians 2,

1 through 3.

The Apostle Paul says this,

And you were dead

in the trespasses and sins

in which you once walked,

following the course

of this world,

following the prince of the air,

the spirit that is now at work

in the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived

in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires

of the flesh and the mind,

and were by nature

children of wrath,

like the rest of mankind.

Which means that

before you came to Christ,

your heart was dead.

Dead to God,

dead to the ways of God,

you had no desire

to truly love God,

or worship God,

or follow God.

That's the state

of every human being

when they are born

into this world.

And then we get

to the glorious verses

of verse 4 and 5,

which says,

But God,

being rich in mercy

because of the great love

with which he loved us,

even when we were dead

in our trespasses,

made us alive

together with Christ,

by grace you have been saved.

Which means that

if you are in Christ,

you've been born again,

and you have a new heart.

This is what the Lord spoke

through the prophet Ezekiel

back in Ezekiel 36

when he wrote this

hundreds of years

before Christ's arrival

on this earth.

This is the Lord speaking.

He said,

I will sprinkle

clean water on you,

and you shall be clean

from all your uncleannesses,

and from all your idols

I will cleanse you,

and I will give you

a new heart,

and a new spirit

I will put within you,

and I will remove

the heart of stone

from your flesh,

and give you

a heart of flesh,

and I will put

my spirit within you,

and cause you

to walk in my statutes,

and be careful

to obey my rules.

So this is the same thing

that Paul is talking about

in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

A lot of us love that verse

when he says,

if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation, right?

And this changes everything

about how we pursue change.

If we are in Christ,

our hearts have been transformed,

and they have been made new.

If you are a Christian,

your heart that once cared

only for yourself,

that was ruled by evil desires,

your heart that was once dead,

is now under the rule

and reign of your Lord Jesus Christ.

And now in Christ,

you have a desire

to know God,

and to worship God,

and follow God,

and trust God,

and live your life

for God,

because your heart

has been radically reoriented

towards him.

That is good news.

Now here's the hard reality.

All right?

And I like how

Les put this last week.

you are a new creation,

and you still have grave clothes

that are sitting on you.

You are a new,

you have a new heart,

and there are dead sin cells,

not skin cells,

sin cells,

that are still clinging to you.

You've been made new,

and God is still at work,

he's still in the process

of transforming you

into his image and likeness.

So we call this

the already

and the not yet,

right?

Those two together,

which means that your heart,

even though it's new,

is still capable

of desiring sin.

All right?

One day it won't.

New heavens,

new earth,

glory,

after this life,

when you're in the presence

of Jesus,

that's gonna be gone.

But right now,

your heart is still capable

of supplanting God

and putting idols

in his place.

Supplanting as in quotes.

Of course,

you can't totally dethrone God.

This is how Jesus puts it

in Matthew 15.

He says,

but what comes out of the mouth

proceeds from the heart.

Proceeds from the heart,

and this defiles a person.

For out of the heart

come evil thoughts,

murder,

adultery,

sexual immorality,

theft,

false witness,

slander.

These are what defile

a person.

So what he's saying

is that anytime you sin,

it is out of a desire

that originates

in your heart.

Anytime that you think

or speak rightly,

okay,

you do what is right,

that is also out of a desire

that originates

from within your heart.

Jesus puts it like this

in Matthew,

or I'm sorry,

in Luke 645.

The good person

out of the good treasure

of his heart

produces good,

and the evil person

out of his evil treasure

produces evil.

For out of the abundance

of the heart

his mouth speaks.

So again,

you have a new heart,

but on this side of heaven

you are still capable

of desiring

and choosing sin.

And the Bible

is very honest

about that.

That's why in Ephesians 4,

Paul says,

he says,

put off your old self

which belongs

to your former manner

of life

and is corrupt

through deceitful desires

and instead put on

the new self

that is created

after the likeness

of God

in true righteousness

and holiness.

And this is why

Hebrews says,

put aside every weight

in the sin

which clings so closely.

This is why James says

to put aside

all filthiness

and rampant wickedness.

You are a new creation,

but you are still

in a battle.

There is still a fight

to press into

as a Christian.

And so that sin

that you've been keeping

in the back of your mind

that you've been thinking about

as we've been talking,

the desire for that

leads,

the desire that leads

to that sin

is primarily about

your relationship

with the living God.

So if you're following

my points,

we've reached

the third key reality.

Without question,

this is the most important

reality

in our pursuit of change

and that is

your relationship

with the living God.

Change for the Christian

is not primarily driven

by habits

or disciplines.

Those things

are important.

They are necessary.

But real change,

true change,

the kind of change

that God

is after

in us

is primarily

relational.

It's primarily

relational.

So Jesus makes this

gloriously clear

that the foundation

of obedience

to God

is to love God.

When he was asked

the greatest commandment

was,

what does he say?

He says,

you shall love

the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind.

This is the great

and first commandment.

And the second

is like it.

You shall love

your neighbor

as yourself.

On these

two commandments

depend

all the law

and the prophets.

So love God,

love your neighbor.

Jesus was saying

that if you want

to follow the Lord,

if you want

to walk in holiness,

then love God

with all of your heart

and love your neighbor

as yourself.

So he's making

the core of obedience

to God

relational.

The personal God

gets personal

with us.

which means

that we don't

think about

facing our sins

in terms of

a self-improvement

project.

Instead,

we honestly

and openly

and probably

a little painfully

search our hearts

with the help

of the Spirit

to see what

we are treasuring

more

than the God

who loved us

and gave himself

up for us.

So I want

to give you

an example

of this

from my

own life.

Those of you

who know me

pretty well,

you're going

to be aware

that this is

an ongoing

struggle for me.

I have a tendency

to fall into

a pair of sins

that run

parallel

with one another

and those are

anxiety

and irritability.

They tend

to run along

the same

track.

So here's

a very real

example

from my

wife.

From my

wife.

From my

life.

This involves

my wife.

Ooh,

all right.

Could have

changed that

phrasing.

All right.

So my

wife calls

me while

I'm in the

office.

My wife

calls me

while I'm

in the

office.

She has

good news

for me

and that

good news

is that we

have a pipe

leaking in

our basement.

All right.

And the

moment that

I hear

that,

the agitation

starts to

sink in.

Right.

I've got

this phrase

that I like

to use

when things

break down

in our

house and

that phrase

is,

you've got

to be

kidding me.

Does

anybody else

use that

phrase?

You've got

to be

kidding me?

Right.

After a

while,

I'm sure

that my

wife has

begun

thinking,

no,

I'm not

kidding

that our

house that

was built

before the

moon landing

has a

leaking pipe.

But in

that moment,

in that

moment,

I do not

care that my

frustration

makes no

logical sense

because all

that I see

in front of

me is a

house project.

It's going

to cost

me time

and it's

going to

cost me

money.

So what's

really going

on behind

you've got to

be kidding

me is,

how dare

this home

steal my

time and

my money

and my

comfort and

disrupt my

day and my

plans?

That's what's

going on behind

you've got to be

kidding me.

Which means that

functionally,

at that moment,

the God who

owns the cattle

on a thousand

hills and is

working all

things,

including a

leaking pipe in

my home,

all things

together,

for my

good and

his glory,

the God who

rescued me

from my

sins,

who has

showered me

with grace,

who loves

me,

who is so

patient with

me,

who has

good purposes

for me,

even behind

the inconvenience

of a broken

water pipe,

I have

dethroned him.

I have

dethroned him

in my

heart and

my actions

and my

words

reveal

that comfort

and ease

are the

greatest

treasure to

me in

that

moment,

not my

Lord and

Savior,

Jesus

Christ.

And when I

get home

to scope

out the

leak,

and I'm

short with

my wife,

and I'm

short with

my kids,

I am

bringing

forth evil

out of the

evil treasure

of my

heart.

This is what

Jesus says,

in a situation

where God

calls me to

bear good

fruit,

instead I

bear thorns,

thorny,

sinful

response out

of what I'm

desiring

within my

heart.

So this is

not fundamentally

an anxiety

problem.

At the

deepest

roots,

it's not

an anxiety

or anger

or irritability

problem,

this is an

idolatry

problem.

problem.

It's a

treasuring

comfort

rather than

God

problem.

So you

might ask

yourself,

how has the

living God

gotten

personal with

me in my

idolatrous

craving for

comfort and

ease

recently?

family.

So first

off, I'm

very much a

work in

progress,

so just

honest about

that.

But here's

a way that

God has

met me.

This is

James 1,

2 through

4.

Count it

all joy,

my brothers,

when you

meet trials

of various

kinds.

It just

covers everything,

which is so

frustrating.

when you

meet trials

of various

kinds,

for you

know that

the testing

of your

faith produces

steadfastness.

And let

steadfastness

have its

full effect

that you

may be

perfect and

complete,

lacking in

nothing.

So here's

what that

verse has

assured me

of,

that God

is at

work.

every,

he's at

work in

my character

every time

that I

face a

trial of

any kind.

So that

could be the

deepest of

sufferings,

like the

hardest of

things that

you could

go up

against.

And that

could be the

most trivial

of inconveniences

of everyday

life.

I'm stuck in a

traffic jam,

right?

my God

is using

that to

shape me

and to

make me

more and

more like

my Savior,

who is the

one who is

truly perfect

and complete,

lacking in

nothing.

I'm not

going to

pretend that I

understand all

of the

purposes that

God has

for my

trials,

but I can

take to

the bank

the promise

that he

intends to

shape me

and make

me more

like him.

And God's

word says to

face those

trials with

joy.

And so

the living

God, he

meets me

with the

scriptures

and with

his spirit

and I go

to him.

All right?

You can't,

this is part

of it, is you

go to him,

to the living

God who

really hears

you, who

really listens,

who is really

intimately involved

in your life.

And I confess

to him,

Lord, forgive

me of my

love for

comfort, help

me to trust

you in this,

my heart wants

to go this

way, forgive

me for that,

help me, I

pray to him,

I reach for

him, I rely

on him, and

I increasingly,

little by little,

this is not a

magic wand,

little by little,

I increasingly

choose to seek

him rather than

ignore him or

run from him.

glory.

And slowly

but surely,

he transforms

me from one

degree of glory

to another.

And I start

treasuring my

Lord, I start

trusting him

more, I start

being more

patient with my

family, less

irritable, when

something breaks

in our pre-moon

landing house,

and the fruit of

the Spirit begins

to characterize me

more and more.

more.

And again, it's

not perfectly,

because perfection

doesn't come until

Christ returns or

calls me home, but

more and more I

begin to look more

like my Savior.

Savior.

The God who showers

me with the grace of

his forgiveness, he

also showers on me

the grace of

change.

Forgiveness and

change, his grace

sufficient for both

of those things.

Now, that is not

flashy on the

surface, it's not

super exciting or

very dramatic, but I

am totally convinced

that this is where

God meets us.

And he helps us to

pivot from our

thorny, sinful

responses and help

us to move towards

more and more

bearing good fruit.

And if you are a

Christian, I want to

say this, if you are

a Christian, then you

are capable of

bearing good fruit and

becoming more like

Jesus because you

have the Spirit of

God at work in

you.

So it doesn't

matter how deeply

rooted your sin is.

If you came in with

a sense of despair

over a besetting

sin, God wants you

to know that his

grace is sufficient

to change that.

It doesn't matter how

deeply rooted that is.

It doesn't matter if

you're 12 or 16 or

45 or 85.

If you are a

Christian, you have the

Holy Spirit of God at

work in you and

changing you.

He's going to help

you to grow in

holiness.

You're going to have

to act.

You're going to have

to choose.

You will have to walk

the hard road of

obedience, but you

will do so in his

grace and in his

strength, which means

that there are no

hopeless situations in

this room.

Do you believe that

about yourself and

about the brothers and

sisters in Christ that

you know?

That's what we should

believe.

Okay, I want to leave

you with some

application that I hope

will be helpful in

terms of thinking about

living this out a little

practically.

So I've got five

applications.

I'm going to throw at

you fairly rapidly here.

Number one, resolve

right now to know

the Lord and his

promises through the

scriptures.

Make that resolution.

Take Jesus seriously

when he says that you

cannot live by bread

alone, but that you

need every word that

comes from the mouth

of God.

He also said in John

10, 27, my sheep

hear my voice, and I

know them, and they

follow me.

So God's word is where

you hear his voice.

If you need help in

knowing how to read the

Bible and apply it to

your life, I've got 20

copies of an article by

David Pollison.

It's out on the

Connect desk.

Printed 20.

We can print more if we

need to.

And it is going to be,

I believe, helpful.

If you are uncertain of

how do I apply the Bible

to my life, how does this

relate to what's going on,

grab that article on your

way out.

It's a version of an

article that I hand out

in the TDI class that I

teach.

So number one is resolve

to know the Lord and his

promises through the

scriptures.

Number two is begin the

hard but good work of

prayerfully identifying what

rules your heart.

Okay, you've got to

identify what rules your

heart.

And one way that you can

do that is you ask

yourself some difficult

but life-giving questions

that sound like this.

What preoccupies my

thoughts?

What drives me?

What do I feel entitled

to?

What would put me in

despair if I lost it?

What do I organize my

life around?

And the more specific and

honest that you can be

about what goes on in your

heart with the Lord, the

better.

Those kind of questions are

going to reveal things.

things.

Number three is blame the

heart, not the heat.

Okay?

Blame the heart, not the

heat.

We are remarkably good at

blame shifting when it

comes to our sin.

That was the first response

to the first ever sin in the

Garden of Eden.

Immediately, Adam passes the

buck, right?

And we do the same thing with

our sinful responses.

We think, if only I had a

different job, if I had more

money, if my spouse was more

kind, if my kids weren't so

difficult, if my teacher

wasn't so harsh, if I didn't

have this suffering going on

in my life, then I wouldn't do

or say or think X, Y, or Z.

But Jesus does not say, out of

the abundance of your

circumstances, the mouth speaks.

He says it's out of the

abundance of our heart that we

respond in sinful ways.

Which means that situations,

hard situations, are

significant.

God is not unfeeling towards

hard circumstances or

suffering.

He's near to the broken

hearted.

He saves those who are

crushed in spirit.

But circumstances are never

determinative of our sinful

responses.

So our trials, they have a

way of exposing what is

already happening within our

hearts, what we already love

and value.

So own that.

Don't let the enemy trick you

into blame shifting or

excusing your sin or idolatry.

Number four, embrace the slow

work of sowing and reaping.

Okay?

This is slow, steady work.

If you think just for a moment

about the nature of bearing

fruit, Jesus could have picked

any other image to describe how

we change.

He keeps coming back to bearing

fruit over and over in the

Gospels.

That is a process that's slow.

Right?

It starts very small.

And over time, it yields

fruit.

And some people, they bear more

fruit than others.

But if you are a Christian, you

are going to bear fruit.

Because at the end of the day,

you have a new heart.

You have what you need.

But don't be discouraged if that

process is slow.

Be encouraged by the little

pieces of fruit that start to

show up in your life.

Because that's a sign of the

Holy Spirit at work in you.

Embrace the slow work.

And then lastly, I just, I

can't, I can't overstate how

important this is.

Is you have to seek the living

God.

You have to seek the living God.

The Apostle Paul in the book of

Galatians, he provides us with

what I think is one of the most

wonderful verses in all of the

Bible.

I've alluded to it a couple of

times already in the sermon.

It's Galatians 2.20.

I have been crucified with

Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but

Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the

flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me.

So you, dear brothers and

sisters, have been crucified with

Christ.

Which means that your old self is

dead.

In the sense that it no longer

rules.

Christ does.

And the life you now live in the

here and now, in the Monday through

Friday, in the day in, day out

ordinariness, in the pain of your

trials and your sufferings, you

live by faith in the Son of God who

loved you so much that he gave

himself up for you.

You are his.

You belong to him now and forever.

So seek him.

Trust him.

Ask his spirit for his help.

Find him as your refuge.

Learn how to pour out your heart to

him.

And then you act.

You obey.

You live by faith for his glory.

And you do so knowing that his grace

covers your every step and that he

is with you always to the end of the

age.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you

are a God who is right now, right

now at work completing the good work

that you began in us.

You are not a God who leaves us to our

own strength.

You do not leave us to our own power.

You are a God who meets us with grace.

The grace that we need hour by hour in

every circumstance or trial.

We thank you for being a God who is

intimately involved in our lives.

Thank you that you are not a God who

keeps us at arm's length.

You are a God who draws close.

Thank you for being personal.

Thank you for the grace that you pour

out even when we resist you.

Thank you for your patience.

You are good.

We ask you now for your help as we

seek to grow more and more like you.

It's in Jesus' beautiful name that we

pray.

Amen.

Amen.