Series: Greater Reward Week 1: Out of Control
Why is it that so often we have really good intentions, we want to change, but we find it so difficult to make the changes in our lives?
Romans 7:15, 18-19, 24.
Discipline is choosing what you want most over what you want now.
Desires don’t determine who you become. Disciplines determine who you become. Willpower doesn’t work.
Your spiritual enemy tends to minimize the consequences of wrongdoing.
The key to really changing starts with our identity.
Romans 7:24.
Cycle of Shame.
- We think we’re bad. So we try really, really hard.
- Eventually our willpower weakens.
- We have some sort of inevitable failure.
- After which, we experience tremendous guilt & shame, which reinforces the belief: I’m never going to please God.
Romans 7:24
It’s not about behavior modification. It is about spiritual transformation.
When you know who you are, you know what to do. It’s not behavior modification, it’s spiritual transformation.
Galatians 5:16.
Flesh: Greek: sarx, used 147 times in the NT.
Walk: Greek: peripateo, is a present tense verb. Meaning it’s a continuous, regular action, a habitual way of life.
It becomes a spiritual habit that’s born out of a spiritual identity. I’m walking with the Spirit of God.
Walking in the Spirit
- I belong to Jesus.
- I depend on the Spirit & that builds my faith.
- It empowers the right actions; it makes me closer to God.
- You change when your identity changes. It’s not behavior modification, it’s genuine spiritual transformation empowered by the Son of God.
We’re not striving & living for the future results way out in the future, we’re living from an identity today.
The Holy Spirit is helping me choose what I want most over what I want now.
Galatians 5:22-23.
What do you want MOST?
WHO do you want to become?
God’s Spirit in you helps you choose what you want most/now—which is the greater reward.
