Sermon Tone Analysis

Turn to and read 1 John 4:1-6.

Everyone goes through life submitting either to the voices of the world or the voice of God.

Jesus spoke those words on many occasions.

We all have ears.

We must decide who or what we are going to listen to; the spirit of truth or the spirit of error?

Will you submit to the voices of this world or to the voice of God?

This morning, we want to take a closer look at why we should allow God’s Holy Spirit to control our lives moment by moment to create a right spirit in our hearts.

Only by the power of God’s Holy Spirit can we truly become the people that God created us to be.

As we have already seen, the spirits of the world - the spirits of error - desire to destroy us from the inside out.

The Holy Spirit, though, desires to build us, renew us, and grow us from the inside out.

The Results of Corruption

Do you remember the process?

Attraction, adaptation, addiction, alteration, and annihilation.

Turn to and read Hebrews 12:12-16.

First, there is a heart wound.

The wound leads the heart away from God.

The wound gives way to a root of bitterness.

Bitterness leads to internal trouble.

Trouble leads to defilement, profanity, and fornication.

God desires to heal the wound.

What kind of life do you want to live?

Do you really want to be a puppet under the control of a spiritually destructive voice?

You have only one life!

Choose to be controlled by the Holy Spirit rather than by the spirits of error; the spirits of this world!

Submit Your Desire to the Will of God

Daniel, now living in Babylon, was free!

He could indulge in everything that the world had to offer.

In fact, he was being encouraged to indulge in everything that the world had to offer.

In a way, he was being “ordered” to indulge in everything that the world had to offer.

Daniel found himself in a situation where the temptation could not have been stronger for him to listen to the “voices” of the world; to listen to the spirit of error instead of the spirit of truth!

I don’t think most of us realize how strong that battle was; the battle between truth and error.

Most of us don’t realize how strong that battle is now, in 2019!

Ancient Babylon was the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, multicultural, imperial crossroads that became the unwilling home of Judean exiles, including the prophet Daniel, in the sixth century BCE.

But digital Babylon is not a physical place.

It is the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, multicultural, imperial crossroads that is the virtual home of every person with Wi-Fi, a data plan, or—for most of us—both.

Kinnaman, David.

Faith for Exiles (p.

20).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Those of us who long to keep him at the center of our lives constantly fight the centrifugal force of a world spinning us away from him.

Kinnaman, David.

Faith for Exiles (p.

20).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

But, in spite of having to live among such wickedness, Daniel submitted his desire to the will of God instead — and so can we!

You see, God tells us..

As we journey though this life, we must choose who will be our spiritual master.

We do not have the option of going through life without one.

We will have a master - either the spirits of the world or the Spirit of God.

When Daniel purposed to yield to God, where did it start?

It started in his heart.

Submit Your Desire to the Will of God

A desire of the heart is a moldable thing in the hand of God.

Your desires can change.

God can change your desires.

But we must do our part.

We must first submit the desires of our heart to the Lord!

We often misinterpret this verse.

We seem to think that, whatever our desires our, that, as long as we delight in the Lord, He will give those desires to us.

I’m afraid to say, that’s not correct.

As we delight ourselves in the Lord, He begins to change our desires and conform them to what His desires, for our life, are.

So, how do we “delight in the Lord?”

Well, it begins by delighting in His Word.

Young resilient disciples report nearly double the spiritual intake in a typical year compared to habitual churchgoers and about six times the number of hours of Christian content compared to nomads and prodigals...We also found evidence that resilients experience less overall screen time than other segments of young Christians and former Christians.

Kinnaman, David.

Faith for Exiles (pp.

94-95).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

In other words, to “delight in the law of the Lord,” which leads to “delight in the Lord,” begins by putting the smartphone down; closing the laptop; powering off the tablet; turning off the TV; and picking up God’s Word!

Desires change through obedience by faith.

Allow me to ask you: Which do you think tasted better?

The king’s meet and wine or the pulse and water?

We need to be real honest with ourselves.

Physically, I can guarantee you that the king’s meet and wine tasted better.

So, what does a person do if they have already developed a taste for the king’s meet and wine?

In other words, what are you supposed to do if you have already developed a “desire” for the “spirits of error” and the “spirits of this world?

What do you do if your heart is controlled by a love for this world and the things of this world?

What do you do if your being controlled by the world’s music and entertainment?

What do you do if your heart has been flood with error by way of social media and the internet?

What do you do if, unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you have already bowed to the idols of this world?

You’ve already given in?

By faith, obey!

You see, we often will say, “God, if you’ll change my desires, then I’ll obey.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

If we obey, God will begin to change our desires.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Take, for example, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were being forced, by the spirit of error, through Nebuchadnezzar, to bow to the golden idol.

Do you realize what they didn’t say?

They didn’t say, “God, if you’ll put the fire out, then we’ll be obedient to you and not bow.”

They said, “No matter what, we are going to obey God!” And, we know the rest of the story.

Can’t you imagine how the desire of their heart - to serve God - was solidified when, after their act of obedience, God stepped in and brought out of the fire?!?

Don’t wait for your desires to change; go ahead and start obeying now!

Desires can change through patience.

Desires, like appetites, take time to change, and new ones take time to develop.

The great thing about Daniel and the three Hebrew children is that they never developed a desire for the king’s meat and his wine.