Living in Victory

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

GALATIANS 5:18-23

 

PONDER THIS

When I was a younger preacher, I thought if I could be pure enough, holy enough, and clean enough, then the Holy Spirit would fill me. But I had it 180 degrees backward. I could never be clean and pure until I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we have the idea that being filled with the Holy Spirit is an attainment—it isn’t. It is receiving a gift from God, just like when you were saved.

You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God because you don’t have what it takes. That doesn’t mean you can cling to your sin and expect God to fill you, but it does mean the only way you will ever be victorious over sin is to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit of God is the transforming fire of God. Fire transforms whatever it is burning into its own likeness. It turns whatever it’s burning into fire itself. When you are with the Lord Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, you are being transformed from glory into glory. And because the Holy Spirit of God is the transforming power of God, He not only consumes, but He also transforms.

What are some things the Holy Spirit has changed in your heart?

What is an area of your life in which you do not reflect Christ? How are you seeking to surrender that area to the Holy Spirit’s transformation?

PRACTICE THIS

Ask friends in the faith for testimonies of how they have been transformed by the Spirit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Binds the Hands of Love?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world. That’s not happening! The people of God are not so full of love to God that they spend half their days in his word.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half loving and repairing what they spend it on.

It’s not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love for the lost and hurting of this world. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles from the dollar store, and the entertainment of the world feels empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

To be sure, he is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love. By expanding my joy in God, no matter the cost, if by any means possible I might include others in it.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love and make them ineffective. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords of selfishness that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4–5).

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Colossians 1:23

[23] if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Titus 1:2

[2] in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

1 Peter 1:4-5

[4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, [5] who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

2 Timothy 4:8

[8] Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

All Honey and No Bees?

“And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.”

GENESIS 12:8-10

 

PONDER THIS

God tested Abraham several times. God did not test him to make him fall but to reveal some weaknesses and flaws. Our faith will also be tested at times. The famine Abraham encountered was in the land of Canaan, the promised land. He was exactly where God had told him to go. What’s the lesson for us? Sometimes we have the idea that when we serve God, obey God, and live by God, we’re going be free from all testing and trials—there’s going to be all honey and no bees—but that is not true. There are trials and heartaches even in the land of milk and honey.

Many people get married with this idea also. They think it’s all going to be sweet, wonderful, and all romance. Then they face testing and trials, and they wonder what has gone wrong. Maybe nothing has gone wrong. All couples will face challenges. A wise man once asked, “Have you ever thought about what Noah’s Ark must’ve smelled like on the inside? You couldn’t stand the stench on the inside if it weren’t for the storm on the outside.” God’s way is not the absence of the trials but His presence with you in the trials.

What are some things you have gone through that made you question if God was with you?

How does God’s presence with you in the trials of life change how you think, feel, and act during those trials?

PRACTICE THIS

Seek to glorify God by supporting and encouraging a friend who is going through a trying time right now.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

If He Calls, He Keeps

[The Lord] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

What are you depending on to ensure that your faith will last until Jesus comes?

The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure?

Does the perseverance of our faith rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve? Or does it rest decisively on the work of God to “keep us trusting”?

It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will do whatever is necessary to “keep us trusting!”

The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now. But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called.

At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together in this way.

“[The Lord] will sustain you (keep you) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude 1–2). (See the same reality in Romans 8:30, Philippians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:5, and Jude 24.)

The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe forever all whom he has called.

John Piper 

Bible Study

1 Corinthians 10:13

[13] No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Deuteronomy 7:9

[9] Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

1 John 1:3

[3] that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John 17:21

[21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Praying in Faith

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

HEBREWS 12:1-2

 

PONDER THIS

Imagine you and your spouse are at home and you’re having one of those tremendous arguments that is heated and volatile. Suddenly, you hear a cry from your upstairs bedroom. You go up and find your baby’s burning up with fever, terribly sick. You know you need to pray, but there’s all this hate and animosity in your heart. When you get down on your knees to pray, don’t you feel like a couple of fools? There’s nothing more debilitating to faith than sin in the heart.

Do you want to have a life of faith? If you do, you have to ask yourself the question: Have you forsaken idolatry? Anything you love more, serve more, fear more, trust more than God is an idol. Some love money more than God. Some fear Man more than God. Some trust ability more than God. They may not even realize it, but it is evident in the way they live. So many try to keep their same lifestyle, and they wonder why it doesn’t work.

This passage makes it clear—to have a life of faith you must look to Jesus. How do you look to Jesus? By laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us. There’s no way that you can pray in faith with unconfessed and unrepented of sin in your heart.

When have you recently been convicted of sin? How did you respond to that conviction?

How can you assess the things that threaten to become idols in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and confess to God any idols you identify. Ask Him to help you cast them aside.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers