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– For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Summary: The power God in us assumes two things.
1).
That we have received this Spirit.
As such, we must first ask if “I” have repented and been baptized for the forgiveness of sin, thereby receiving the promised Holy Spirit (). 2).
That one we have received this gracious gift, we must move on from a Spirit of weakness, fear, and timidity, and move forward in a Spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
Summary: The power God in us assumes two things.
1).
That we have received this Spirit.
As such, we must first ask if “I” have repented and been baptized for the forgiveness of sin, thereby receiving the promised Holy Spirit (). 2).
That one we have received this gracious gift, we must move on from a Spirit of weakness, fear, and timidity, and move forward in a Spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
I. Wrong tools
Imagine for a moment that you are building a shed.
You have all of the materials necessary, to include the diagrams, the wood, the fasteners, the nails, the bolts, etc… So you begin working on the shed.
You lay out where everything is going to go, and maybe you’re able to get by with your hammer while laying out the foundation.
And then you hit a point and you can’t work any further.
You’re stuck because, you see, the only tool you have is a hammer.
You’ve hit a point where you need a Phillips-head screwdriver, but maybe you don’t need any different.
Perhaps you’re like me and you don’t know building or tools, and so you just assume that you have everything you need because you’ve never built anything else anyway.
Why doesn’t this hammer work!?
So, you take that hammer, and you try nailing the screws into your shed.
It doesn’t work.
You try again, this time with even more conviction than before!
It still doesn’t work.
This goes on and on.
You tap, you pound, you throw the hammer, you scream.
Now, at this point what makes more sense?
To think that sheds can’t be built?
Or to recognize that hammer isn’t enough?
Do you give up on ever building this shed, or do you realize that you have the wrong tool for the job?
I wonder this morning, how many of you are trying to build your spiritual life with the wrong tools.
This morning we read
It has been my observation that many Christians and non-Christians WANT power, love, and self-discipline, but they seek it with the wrong tools.
It has been my observation that many Christians and non-Christians WANT power, love, and self-discipline, but they seek it with the wrong tools.
If a Christian, perhaps they simply seek to exert willpower.
They have some understanding of the ways of god because they vaguely recollect, or recall what morality looks like to God.
For the life of them, though, they can’t seem to follow.
Perhaps, if that doesn’t work, they go chasing after the wise philosophers of our time who tell us that love means that we accept everything and anything so long as nobody gets hurt.
YOU may be hurt, but as long as you’re not hurting anyone else…
Maybe…and for matters of full disclosure, this has often been my personal idol…Maybe we seek out answers in psychology, personality profiles, self-help books, and the psyche.
We’re not sinners in this paradigm.
We’re broken.
In churchy language, we’re just being authentic, and we just need to surrender more.
You don’t find peace in any of it, though, do you?
Do you know why?
Because you’re using the wrong tools.
Errors:
If I read the right self-help book I will develop self-discipline.
Hammer.
You’re a sinner.
Sin requires spiritual death, not a good cleaning up.
John Owen:
Ah! Well if I’m a sinner I’ll simply resist sin more to find peace with God.
Hammer.
Such a person hath cast off, as to the particular spoken of, the conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining grace; and so far is he fallen from grace, and returned under the power of the law.
If I take a marriage course I will learn to love better.
Hammer.
You can’t love like God if your passion isn’t God.
If I explore my past enough I can get to the root cause of my problems.
Hammer.
Life will have struggles no matter how good or bad your past may have been.
Such a person hath cast off, as to the particular spoken of, the conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining grace; and so far is he fallen from grace, and returned under the power of the law.
We are a culture awash in spiritual hammers.
And these hammers in the spiritual life are deadly.
John Owen, a 16th century theologian wrote in his book, The Mortification of Sin, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
He’s right, and I would venture to guess that most of you here this morning would agree.
The problem with the hammers we use isn’t that we aren’t seeing the right problem.
It’s that we are using the wrong tools to get at the root of the problem.
Here’s reality.
We can go to church every day of the week, say 1000 prayers, and be no closer to power, love, or self-discipline than when we started.
I can try every outward thing to get at an inward problem and never make so much as a dent.
I can read every self-help book on the market and still be an awful spouse.
I can watch videos on investing wisely and still lack peace.
A friend of mine once relayed a dream about fighting a demon.
No matter how many times he hit it, punched it, kicked it, slammed it with the world’s tools, it just stood there smiling back.
Serenely.
Mockingly.
How many of you have felt similarly, “powerless, loveless, and anything but disciplined?”
What do we do?
Do we just look at the structure of our faith and assume that’s it?
There’s nothing more we can do?
And then walk away?
No.
We repent.
That’s our only tool.
II.
The Two-Fold Cure
- Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Did Peter say repent only?
No. Did Peter say be baptized only?
No
Did Peter say be baptized only?
No
He said repent AND be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you…WILL…receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I’m going to offer today that some of us have been baptized but we’ve never repented of our sin.
We’ve gone under the water but have rarely given thought to what it means to turn our back on this world and turn our face always and only toward our Savior.
I’m also going to venture a guess that there are some here today who believe they have repented but have never been baptized.
How, dear friends, can we say we’ve repented if the first call after repentance is to be baptized?
We cannot.
It’s like saying you want to be a professional boxer until the boxing coach tells you to strap on the gloves.
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