Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Generation of Mark 13:30

At the beginning of Mark chapter thirteen Jesus is leaving the temple area and one of his disciples points out the grandure of the temple buildings. Jesus' remark to that disciple concerns the fact that these buildings will one day be torn down. The disciples question Him further as to the times of these events, and so begins an extended teaching from Jesus on the end times.As Jesus' remarks are drawing to a close, He makes this comment in Mark 13:30: "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." (NASB) So the reader is left to wonder the meaning of this statement. Either our understanding of generation is wrong, or we are understanding what Jesus meant by "these things" wrong. I think there are at least two solutions. The word for generation (genea: Greek) could mean, as some side column reference Bibles note, "the human race". This is possible, since the events have not all happened and the human race
15 comments
Read more

Taming The Flesh Through Suffering

There are at least a dozen books in my pastoral library that deal with battling lust. It is true that this is a huge issue for men and a great source of stumbling to many men and many pastors for that matter - so on one hand I am glad they are there and I am grateful for the insight they have given to me. But I was really struck by a verse of Scripture this morning from 1 Peter 4:1b-2. "for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God." Simply put, I believe Peter is telling us that those who are suffering for Christ's sake have their mind on Christ and suffering and not on the passions of the flesh. The reason so many men battle with lust and fleshly temptations (and I include myself in that group) is that our minds are far from the things of Christ. Suffering in the flesh is the direct opposite of indulging the flesh. The man who is getting lashes on his b
2 comments
Read more

Is That A Bible I See Before Me?

The Weakness of Islamic Evangelism Lately I have been struck by the testimony of those who have suffered at the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. One issue that comes to the front of my mind is Islamic evangelism. Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll spoke to ABC News of her captors holding her at gunpoint and forcing her to read the Koran, which she did. After several days they asked why she had not yet converted to their beliefs. Explaining that she needed more time she continued to read. Again the question came to her about conversion. Finally and saddest of all, she told them that she would convert because she feared for her life. But this leaves us with a strange view of the Koran and the way that Islam chooses to do their evangelism. If the Koran were powerful in and of itself, those who seek to convert Christians to Islamic beliefs would not need to use guns in the process. That is, you should automatically appeal to your most powerful source. The fact that they use guns s
2 comments
Read more