Inward

When we look at the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” it is not also a command to love ourselves. The assumption is that we already do that naturally. But, in our series, when we practice “inward” we are actually being transformed. Tonight I want to specifically look at three things in our lives by which we can practice the motion of “inward” transformation.

Confidence

Sanctification

Edification

Confidence

You know, one of the things I learned early on about having a dog is that you need to train them to be confident.

Believe it or not, Koda is pretty confident.

And the most dangerous dogs are not the confident ones, they’re the insecure ones.

So you build your dog’s confidence by teaching them.

I hand fed koda, so that she knew that my hand was good and she didn’t need to guard her food from it. In fact, she could be confident that my hand would provide her with food.

As believers, our confidence also grows.

And insecure christians, can be equally as dangerous as insecure dogs (they’re the ones who bite)

The etymology/Breakdown of the word

con-: An intensive prefix meaning "with" or "completely".

fidere: The core root meaning "to trust" or "to have faith".

Confidence is not arrogance

It comes from a place of trust in who God is.

Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Arrogance is false confidence

Arrogance is insecurity

It comes from a place of lacking

Our confidence does not come from ourselves.

Proverbs 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Our confidence does not come from others.

Psalm 118:8–9 “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”

Our confidence comes from God, his grace and his mercy.

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Sanctification

The process of being made holy

Sanctification is an inward transformation to become more and more like Jesus

We are being holy-fied.

Bruce Milne puts it this way:

“Having brought us to birth “in Christ,” the Spirit continues to work upon us to conform us more and more to the image of the Christ with whom he has united us. This process of moral renewal and transformation is commonly referred to as sanctification.”

This is not to be confused with justification.

Justification is where God declares a sinner righteous and innocent in His sight. This happens immediately when we confess Jesus as our Savior.

Sanctification is a life long process.

God is so vast, that we can never run out of ways to become more like him.

And this actually gives us hope in a broken world.

We know we are being sanctified, when we look at the world, recognize its brokenness, and are grieved by its brokenness.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Revelation 21:5 “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Edification

I chose to finish with edification because confidence and sanctification actually equip us to better edify the body of Christ.

It is something we both benefit and participate in.

To edify is to build or construct.

The Greek word for it, oikodomé, translates to the building of a house.

It most commonly refers to the body of Christ, the church.

So to edify the body of Christ, is to build it up as one builds up a house.

And as we are also a part of the body, we too are being built up in this house.

Ephesians 4:14–16 “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

How do we edify?

Speaking the truth in love

Doing our part (properly)