Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Be Filled With the Spirit - Ephesians 5:18

The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be compared to a glove. Until it is filled by a hand, a glove is powerless and useless. It is designed to do work, but it can do no work by itself. It works only as the hand controls and uses it. The glove’s only work is the hand’s work. It does not ask the hand to give it an assignment and then try to complete the assignment without the hand. Nor does it gloat or brag about what it is used to do, because it knows the hand deserves all the credit. A Christian can accomplish no more without being filled with the Holy Spirit than a glove can accomplish without being filled with a hand.
(MacArthur, Ephesians, 250)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

What Are We Doing?

David Platt in his book Radical writes,
One of my good friends spent time recently among unreached and unengaged peoples in Southeast Asia. As he talked with villagers in one remote area, he tried to uncover their core beliefs. he asked them, "How were we created?"
They responded, "We don't know."
He asked, "Who sends the rain for the crops?"
They responded, "We don't know that either."
Then he asked, "What happens when we die?"
They looked back at him and said, "No one has come to tell us about that yet."

Soon thereafter he found himself in another remote village with people who had never heard the gospel. They were warm and hospitable, and they invited him to share a drink with them. One man went into his small shop and reappeared moments later with a classic red Coke can. Immediately, it hit home with my friend. A soft-drink company in Atlanta has done a better job getting brown sugar water to these people than the church of Jesus Christ has done in getting the gospel to them. (Radical, 158)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Repentance - Part Three

So how do we repent? James MacDonald suggests that the best biblical model for repentance is the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32. (let me encourage you to take some time and read through that text) MacDonald then writes that repentance involves the mind, the emotions, and the will. (I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God, 92)

First is the mind. In the story of the prodigal son verse 17 says that he "came to his senses." We too must come to our senses we must begin to see our sin for what it really is - disgusting and destructive!

Second is the emotions. As we discussed earlier, grief is the appropriate emotion (2 Corinthians 7:10). Our sin should grieve us and not just because we suffer the consequences of it, but because it displeases and grieves our Father. The prodigal was grieved by his sin; he returned home guilty, humble, and weeping.

Third is the will. Here is where the rubber meets the road; here is where plans begin to form, that is, plans to avoid our specific sin in the future. So, what will you do to avoid your sin in the future? Let me give you a few suggestions:

  1. Accountability is a must. Find someone you can depend on to provide you with biblical encouragement.
  2. Renewing your mind with Scripture is also vitally important. You must continue to remind yourself what God has to say about your sin. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
  3. Finally radical amputation may be necessary (Matthew 5:29-30).
I know this is a pretty simplistic approach to a big issue, but my hope is you might find some help in these posts. If you are struggling and need some one on one counsel don't hesitate to let me know.

Repentance - Part Two

Yesterday we began a discussion on the topic of repentance. Most of our attention was focused on determining what it is we (individually) need to repent of. Once the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sin, repentance is the process of seeing our sin the way that God sees it. Once we see our sin the way God sees it we will have what the Bible calls 'Godly Sorrow' and 2 Corinthians 7:10 teaches that godly sorrow leads to repentance.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
The question is does our sin cause us to sorrow? And I am not talking about sorrowing because of the consequences of our sin, but rather to sorrow because the sin itself brings displeasure to our loving Father. Do you weep for sin? Do you cry out to God for mercy? Maybe we can all take a cue from the grieved and humbled tax collector in Luke 18:13
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'
Brothers and Sisters we (I'm in this with you) must come to the place where we weep for our sin; we must hate it just as our Father in heaven hates it. God be merciful to us!

Repentance - Part One

Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry;" it's more than regret. To repent means to change your mind (and purpose) about something. In his book I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God, James MacDonald defines repentance as the process of seeing our sin the way that God sees our sin. I love that definition because it reveals a much deeper issue: we don't like to call sin, sin. In a recent Wednesday night discussion we were talking about getting frustrated by circumstances that don't go the way we want them to go. In the discussion that word "frustrated" kept getting used, over and over again. Until someone finally called frustration what the Bible calls it: Anger. You see "anger" is a much heavier word than 'frustration.' But we resist the heavier words; we make light of our sin or we don't even classify our sin as sin.

I write all this to direct our attention to the first step of repentance - recognizing our sin; recognizing what needs to change; viewing our sin as God views our sin. James MacDonald asks these provoking questions: "Can you name a specific area of your life that is not like that of Christ and is bringing you heartache and struggle because of it? What specific thing is God seeking to work on in you?" He then goes on to list 5 steps to help us get specific in naming our sin:
1. Ask God for wisdom to know exactly what He wants to change in you. (James 1.2-7)
2. Review Biblical lists for attitudes and behaviors to change. (Colossians 3.5-10; Galatians 5:16-21; etc.)
3. Isolate your own areas of need.
4. Confess to a friend.
5. Express to the Lord your willingness to change.

So here is where we must begin, calling our sin what God calls our sin; seeing our sin the way God sees it. Let me encourage you to spend some time searching the Scriptures and allowing the Spirit to search your heart and we will pick up here tomorrow.