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One More Encouragement

In the sermon last week I tried to encourage our church to live lives of holiness. Holiness is no easy task. It does not come naturally and, unfortunately, sin does. So, any and all attempts to purify our thought life, our words, or our actions will be a fight.

Like any fight, the fight for holiness can get discouraging. You battle and battle against sin and it just seems to resurface when you are at your weakest. In those moments we need some encouragement to stay in the battle and not give up.

The greatest encouragement in my life to pursue holiness is the presence of God. The Holy Spirit lives inside everyone who has believed in Jesus for salvation. He is God and he is also a person. He can be saddened (Ephesians 4:30) and he can be enlivened (Ephesians 5:18b).

Because the Holy Spirit is a person and a person living inside us, we know when he has been grieved by our sin and we know when he is enlivened by our pursuit of a godly life.

My point is this, the pleasure and joy of knowing the Holy Spirit is pleased with my progress in holiness is more satisfying to me than the brief pleasure that sin may bring. When weighed in a scale, the pleasure of God is of more value to me than the pleasure of sin. This is my motivation and encouragement to pursue holiness.

And, in those times when I give into sin the Holy Spirit disciplines me for it. But even in those moments the grace of God is at work to further instill a distaste and dissatisfaction for all of sin. Why? Because the presence of God within us is far more satisfying than anything sin might offer.

Love in Christ,
Pastor Mitch

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