This I Believe: The Christian Life Explained

It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service. This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.

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“A wasted life is as tragic as an early death”

In my bible reading this week I was challenged by a passage from Ecclesiastes. Written by Solomon near the end of his life, he looks back and says something very profound to both young people and older adults:

Ecclesiastes 11:9 ESV

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 ESV

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

(1) It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly,

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV

Now 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.

Can you know the will of God?

God’s will: that I be saved

- God’s will is not a secret

that I be Spirit filled

Ephesians 5:17 ESV

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:18-20

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Ephesians 5:19–20 ESV

19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ephesians 5:18–20 ESV

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

It’s God’s will that I am saved

God’s will: that I be saved

God’s will: that I be saved

It’s God’s will that I be Spirit filled

(2) being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service.

(2) being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service.

It’s God’s will that I be set apart

Set apart - separated from what? From a life that doesn’t put Jesus at the center. From sin.

Set apart to what? - To a life lived for God. I am the good china, I am the wedding dress, I am the jar filled with spare change.

I am set

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It’s God’s will that I receive his power and share my faith.

God doesn’t put spare change in a jar. He puts his Spirit in you.

Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

(3) This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.

Short explanation: You don’t just receive Jesus and poof, instant super christian.

There are crises

There are progressive experiences

Romans 6:1-14

(3) This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.

Romans 6:1–14 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

It’s God’s will that I be set free