Sorting Out God’s Orders from Our Opinions
We must learn from the first century church to thoughtfully identify our own debatable issues and never confuse them with God’s clear statements of right & wrong.
Sanctification
Exemplifying Christ
We should pursue progress in our sanctification by imitating Christ’s forceful and strategic response to sin and temptation.
Envisioning The End
A thoughtful focus on the imminent return of Christ will serve as a major motivation for Christians in their fight against sin and their pursuit of holiness.
Aiming at Love
We can simplify our Christian duty to keep God’s moral laws by consciously seeking to love and serve others as Christ did.
Our Daily Relationship with God's Holy Spirit
The evidence of regeneration is seen in the redirecting, refocusing and reassuring ministry of God’s Spirit which indwells every Christian.
How God's Spirit Can Overpower Our Temptation
We must engage in a battle with temptation throughout our Christian lives, seeing sin for what it is and relying on the power and provision of God’s Spirit.
Learning to "Live by the Spirit"
Biblical sanctification requires the active presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and is advanced by a renewed mind yielded and set on his agenda for our lives.
The Foundation of Our Sanctification
We can only think and proceed rightly in our sanctification when we are absolutely clear about the finished work of Christ that secured our justification.
Why "Just Trying" Doesn't Work
Romans 7 presents a dramatic and frustrating internal conflict that illustrates that attempts to please God without the enablement of the Holy Spirit are always futile.
Thinking Rightly About Holiness & Sin
The law was given to expose our sin, make us see our need for grace, as well as giving us an objective expression of what holy conduct looks like.
Our Changed Relationship with God's Rules
We should see and understand God’s goal for our sanctification; and we should also know that “the rules” alone are inadequate to bring it about.
Looking to the Benefits of Obedience
Remember that the high toll that sin exacts in our lives should motivate us to pursue obedience with its short-term and long-term rewards.
Confronting the Enemy Within
Though freed from the domain and penalty of sin, God calls us to rigorously deny our sinful impulses by actively pursuing God’s agenda not sin’s enticements.
How the Resurrection Should Transform My Behavior
Because of our alliance with Christ & his resurrection, we can, with his empowerment, experience a foretaste of our sinless & victorious resurrected lives now.
Rethinking Christ's Death & My Temptations
Because of our spiritual alliance and association with Christ’s work on the cross, we should be eager to be holy and repulsed by sin.
Seeing Obedience as an Act of Worship
Obedient living is an act of genuine worship when it is motivated by a high view of God and a sober realization of his just response to sin.
Motivated by Heaven’s Perspective
Our fight with sin is fueled when we adopt heaven?s perspective on the gravity of sin and the incredible cost of celebrated reconciliation.
Recalling Why This is So Important
Serious effort in our sanctification bears witness to the reality of our justification; we must understand this relationship and give this fight with sin our all.
Spurred on By Godly Examples
Sin is a powerful and detrimental entanglement that we must fight everyday so that we may continue to grow up into Christ’s likeness.
Embracing the Unconventional & the Unexpected
Often it takes ambitious faith to obey God’s counter-intuitive commands or accept the way he lavishes his grace on the unworthy.
Examining the Difference That Really Matters
We must look carefully & prayerfully at our own lives to insure that it is God working in us and not just pressures & expectations that are shaping the course of our lives.
A Crash Course in Justification & Sanctification
Spiritual maturity assumes we have mastered the truth about what it means to have been once and for all justified before God, and the truth about growing in increasing sanctification so that we will be useful in ministry for Christ.
Working & Trusting to Prove the Reality of My Faith
Real faith will be manifest in real life by your actions, encounters with God’s word and a daily and prayerful dependence on Christ.
More than a Creed
We are called to love God with all of our mind – that includes making sure that our Christian experience moves from a list of beliefs to a way of thinking!
Three Important Truths About Your Spiritual Growth
God has saved us to be conformed to the image of Christ…so we should desire to grow, but we must be careful to undertand God`s involvement in our spiritual growth so as to rightly rely on him and give him credit as we make progress
Why Being Holy Is Such a Big Deal
Being unholy should be considered a non-option for us! Too much of the past, present & future is riding on the moral decision we make this week!
How God Wants Us to Act Differently In Our World
God has called us to be like him because he has set us apart for himself.
How God Wants Us to Think Differently About Ourselves
God expects us to be different than the rest of the world; and that distinction begins with how we think about ourselves.
Attacking Prideful Pretense
We cannot afford to pretend to be someone we are not. Exalt Christ, honor your siblings and forget about what people think of you.
Combating Sexual Sin
God has called us to fight sexual sin by guarding our thoughts and cultivating contentment.