Desire or Do?

ILLUST: New Year’s Resolutions

55% Health, 8% met goals, 80%+ bail in a week

Problem? No motivation, Specific goals, plan, support

Me? Small goals (USB inserted right way, or elec plug)

BIG POINT - No better life than the one fully yielded to Christ

(S Clymer story, plumber bill to the dollar)

READ:

RESOLUTIONS and SPIRITUAL GOALS (in common) - (think on goals you can be directly involved with)

1) Motivation - the “why” (improper motivation leads to unresolved goals)

Why resolve to get physically healthy?

Doctor report, clothes not fitting, need to feel better health-wise?

Why resolve/decide to get spiritually healthy?

Trust God’s Word, go through a trial, H.S. Conviction

KEY: Understanding what God did through Jesus - leads to rational response to truly worship and serve Him

2) Measurable Goals

Weight loss, “x” number of pounds

Success breeds more success and excitement

What are the measurable spiritual goals?

Gal

Galatians 5:22–23 NASB95

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When you start to see the evidence of the H.S. working through your yielding to Him, it breeds more and more, and there is excitement

is clear call to “LET” this happen (be transformed)

3) Plan

Desire is good, but needs to shift to “DO”

Treadmill won’t do it FOR you, won’t grab you and force you to walk/run

SPIRITUAL - Same deal

Bible won’t jump off the shelf into your lap

Church won’t suddenly appear at the house

H.S. will not force you into prayer

ALSO:

Knowledge without action, visible fruit, is just being arrogant, puffed up

Actions without correct basis of belief - inadequate, ineffectve

Decide to dedicate yourself to Christ

Step forward, step out, DELIBERATELY

What’s your plan? Bible, Church, Prayer?

Do you understand why God wants you in His Word and in prayer?

Do you understand what it means to be a part of this church?

Maybe you’ve never experienced true spiritual growth. Want to?

; - living sacrifice - our old self is the sacrifice we give, willingly

PLAN - You WILL make time for something that is important to you. YOU WILL

(and what you find you are not making time for, it’s really not important)

4) Adequate Support

We tend to do better when others help us with our goals, even when they are tough on us; Helps, especially what that someone has been there themselves, and succeeded.

Helps to go to a gym where others can help, with others to push you, or to have others walk or ride with you, to keep you going

Spiritually ! we need each other, and we need each other to be strong, because each of us will feel weak at some time, but we cannot quit

”4

2 Corinthians 1:4 NASB95

who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Church is to be our MAIN support

My desire is for Cornerstone to be so much stronger

It takes members (not just attendees) to grow stronger

We are weak when the majority comes when there’s nothing better happening

5) Celebrate Achievement

Physical health, others celebrate and praise you, they get excited with you, you did something someone told you you could do!

Spiritual growth

Boast in Christ - praise, prayer, let that excitement be seen clearly

And don’t do it alone - grab others to boast with you!

Ultimately, in glory - we’ll sing Holy, Holy, Holy, in the very presence of Christ, hearing “well done”

SUMMARY POINTS

All of this is prefaced by WANTING TO GROW!

SPIRITUALLY, YOU WILL ACHIEVE WHAT YOU PURSUE - GUARANTEED

, God warned Cain about sin becoming master if pursued

PURSUIT - What you pursue will become your master, 1 Peter 3:10-11

If you pursue complacency, lukewarm, you’ll succeed amazingly

If you pursue Christ, surrender, you will allow Him to master you, amazingly

We need a gut check on our desire and motivation

Psalm 37:4 NASB95

Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Starts with surrender to the Lord

We can talk much about “put off,” “don’t,” etc.

Must “put on,” “DO”

is about living consistently with the gospel we have received

And each spiritual step takes a WILLFUL decision

TRUTH - (sadly mission often) - Look at Rom. 12:1-2

Choices - conform to the world, OR transform by the power of the Spirit

conform = squeezed into a mold by the world’s ideals

transform = break that mold, show Christ

Which comes first? The choice to renew your mind, and be transformed, it’s an inward action, and then your choices start to show that you are not conformed

Ideal - believer, saved, SHOULD be troubling to conform to the world; making choices that are in lock-step with the world’s response to life should bother the Christian

Fact - cannot be transformed without being saved

Without Christ, the ONLY choice is to conform to the world

There is no in-between, James calls that being “self-deceived”

Let God transform you inwardly - LET HIM!

AND…this transformation is how God expresses His nature!

The world boasts of a “transformed life” and their version is empty

Only the Christian faith has the truly effective power to transform human life

Go ahead, try any area, any problem, any issue (marriage, child-raising, addiction, etc.)

There can be no shift from conforming without transformation by the Spriit

NEW YEAR

Believer? Grow

Unbeliever? Trust Christ

CHURCH

Want to be strong? Really? Why? What does that mean, and look like?

Our church is at risk, because we identify with the world far more than we identify with Christ

Culture affects us

We must affect culture

Not talking about just “rejecting” the world

Much more than putting up a sign or a flag or a Facebook post, and calling yourself a “Christian”

MUST put on the new self, must yield to H.S. - TRANSFORM!

IT TAKES EFFORT - and it’s worth it

It’s a lifelong effort, “are being saved” -

It’s not that we are “ashamed” of the gospel

By and large, we don’t understand it’s power, and we don’t understand the impact it should have on us?

Overall, we, for the most part, have to decide if we want to be strong

Decide to get physically healthy? Won’t happen by accident

Decide to get spiritually healthy? Same deal.

CHALLENGES

What is your motivation?

What is your plan?

What goals do you have, specifically?

What kind of support do you have?

Does the reality of spiritual growth excite you?

ACTIVITY - write down a spiritual goal you’d like to work on, and that you are actually willing to work on. Keep one side, leave the other up front.

Communion is about remembering Christ, walking in the light of the power to be transformed

So, repent, confess, settle with God, and come and celebrate what He’s done.

The new spiritual life starts today.