I would like you to turn your Bibles to a passage that has colored my thinking this morning.
! And it is preparation for the text that we'll study together.
So turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Corinthians 2, where the apostle, I'm going to pick up there if I could in verse 12, says,
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.
So I took leave of them and went to Macedonia.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
To one, a fragrance of death to death.
To the other, a fragrance of life to life.
Who is sufficient for these things?
I want you to turn now to Ephesians chapter 3.
There are many truths in the scripture which drive me to the point of wondering about my sufficiency.
In fact, the truth of the matter is, is I don't know when I open the book that I'm not struck by,
who is sufficient for these things?
But I feel a little bit like the boy who's cried wolf so many times that people don't believe him.
You know, if I were to say to you this morning, this is probably one of the best passages in the Bible,
he'd probably just snicker.
Because you've heard it so many times.
I have to confess that I took small comfort.
I remember when I was reading John Boyce and he said that actually, he said,
a pastor should probably feel that way every Sunday.
Because the word is priceless, every word of it.
But having said that, this is one of the best passages.
And I don't say it lightly.
You'll hear me say that again next month and I'll probably say the same thing.
But I tell you, this text is sweet, beyond imagination.
And I would appeal to you, I would plead with you here at the very outset,
I want you to say to yourself, just quietly,
I think I might work at memorizing that.
Would you do that?
Just say it to you.
That is not really binding.
That's not a contractual statement.
But it kind of gets you moving.
It gets you a little bit of motivation.
I think I might work at memorizing that.
Say it to yourself.
Don't let your wife know or your friend know.
But go ahead and just, I think I might memorize it.
Say it.
Go ahead.
Just quietly to yourself.
Before the service is over, I'm not going to lead you in saying it publicly
and have the deacons jot down the names of all of you
and say it's a four-week performance bond here.
But this is a wonderful text, and it is at the heart of the rich blessings
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can't help but go back and remind myself that so many of the things that I pray for,
and I would imagine that you pray for,
are not of the same quality of the things that Paul is praying for here.
Hey, it's okay to pray for sickness and job and all those kind of things,
but here's Paul in prison in great affliction, and he says,
for this cause, this is why I bow my knee to the Father,
that you would be strengthened with his Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in you,
that you might be rooted and grounded,
and that you might be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and height and width and depth of the love of Christ,
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
So we are in the midst of this prayer
where the apostle is praying for people that he dearly, dearly loves,
and he is praying for the most essential thing that they need.
It's the power of the Spirit in their life,
working in a believer that they might have Christ dwell in them.
So we have some questions that we want to ask ourselves
as we work our way through this passage,
and first of all, we need to recognize what this passage is not talking about.
You look at that statement there in verse 17, it says,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And we have to ask ourselves, well, what does that mean?
And we understand the Bible truth that we have been taught
and should have fairly established in our heart
that from the moment of salvation, the believer has what?
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And so I want to remind you of what we find over in Romans,
and let's turn there just for a moment
to remind ourselves of the truth
that genuine conversion transforms the believer
from being a child of Satan to being a child of God,
and along with that transformation comes the reality
that the believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by Christ.
Look there, if you will, at Romans 8, verse 9 and 10.
You may want to underline it.
You may want to study it later on your leisure,
but look at what it says there.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you,
anybody who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to Him.
You've ever bumped into people who say,
well, actually, the Spirit comes in subsequently.
Later time, there's a second work of grace.
There's a time where you have this spiritual kick,
and as a result, you have some dramatic outflow,
and, well, that's proof of the fact that you have the Spirit.
No, here's the truth.
From the moment of our conversion,
the Spirit of God comes and dwells in the believer,
and that is one of the distinct, undeniable blessings of salvation.
Verse 10,
But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And so we recognize that this Scripture makes it quite clear
that salvation brings Christ into our life as our Lord and Master.
And that's one of the reasons that we can expect genuine conversion
to result in change.
Our lives begin to change because there's a new life in us,
and there's a new person in control and working in our heart.
And as a result of that, over time,
we begin to see more and more of that change.
I have to tell you, I wish that it all took place instantaneously.
How many would join in saying,
I wish the moment I came to faith,
the whole matter of transformation was settled,
and I had no more problems with my anger or my lust or my covetousness,
my selfishness, my arrogance, whatever.
Wouldn't it be nice if it was all cured immediately?
But it's not.
But oh, what a privilege to know that we who have Christ in us
have the power of the Spirit of God working in us.
And since Christ is in the genuine believer,
we can say that He dwells in every Christian.
So what is Paul talking about here?
Look back, if you will, go to Ephesians again,
and it says,
so that Christ may dwell.
Well, hold it.
I thought He was there already.
He is.
But this is something that Paul wants us to think about carefully,
and he nuances or he kind of uses a word that helps us understand this.
What does dwelling mean?
I want you to recognize there's a difference between a guest and a homeowner.
The Greek word that is used here is a word that is actually talking about
the distinction between the two.
A guest is someone who is welcomed at the door and greeted and told that
you want them to feel as comfortable in your home as possible,
and we will spare no expense or effort to make you feel comfortable.
But let me tell you something.
The guest ought not to be in the fridge drinking milk from the jug.
When my children were growing up,
and I can tell this story safely because the individual's not present,
we often had some of the young people over to the house.
They were involved in various things,
and I'll never forget,
he is now a surgeon practicing somewhere within the 500-mile radius,
so you don't want to think too much about it.
But I remember Judith came to me and said,
what is he doing drinking out of the jug?
What?
I went in and said,
hey, listen, we're glad you're here, but stop.
You know, a guest is treated with courtesy.
But when they're sitting at the dinner table,
it's not their place to suggest the next menu.
Am I right?
I mean, they ought to limit themselves to saying,
man, this is the best meal I've had in a long time
and really appreciate you cooking, blah, blah, blah.
But don't bring up what you'd like to have for breakfast.
And top it all off when the guest needs a toothbrush.
Don't go in my bathroom, run hot water on mine,
and go ahead and use it.
You see, there really is a difference between a guest
and the owner of the home.
And the difference lies to a large degree
on the fact that the owner is the one
who has control and has authority.
And when Paul speaks of Christ dwelling in the believer's life,
he's speaking of Christ having practical control of our life
and being the center of it.
So I want you to think about that with me.
Christ being the one who has control
and directing our life rather than being someone who we...
Well, it's a good thing you're here,
and we're glad you're here, but no.
This word that says that Christ would dwell in your heart
means we consciously and deliberately confess his lordship
and his daily control in all that's taking place.
Let me have you turn to another passage
to maybe add a little bit of understanding,
insight to this matter.
Turn back to Romans 6, verse 11.
Romans 6, verse 11, it says,
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Jesus Christ.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body
to make you obey its passions.
Paul is talking to the believer,
and he is challenging the believer to live a life
that is no longer under the terrible mastery of sin.
How do we go about doing that?
Not by a mere fact of self-will,
and there's not a one of us here
that on one occasion or another
has not said,
All right, all right, I'm going to stop that.
It's done.
And what happens to our well-intentioned efforts
on our own to deal with sin problems?
How many of you discovered that when you go about
launching on your own just kind of arbitrarily,
I'm going to do that,
we end up often just actually having more problems
than we ever anticipated.
It's not just a matter of self-will.
There's more at work,
or should be more at work,
in the life of the believer
in dealing with indwelling sin.
And so, you see,
what Paul is drawing our attention to
here in this passage
is that sin no longer has authority
in the believer's life.
Prior to conversion,
follow me,
you couldn't help
but sin.
You were a slave
and under the mastery of sin,
and it was just as natural
for you to sin
as it is for a cat
to pounce on a mouse.
It was just hardwired.
Conversion delivered you
from that slavery
and has made it
an ability for you
to say no.
And we find in this passage
that Paul says,
you have to consciously
consider yourself dead to sin.
Now, what does that mean?
To reckon or to count the fact
that sin no longer has the right
to control you,
and you have the liberty of saying,
I'm not going to do that
because I am not under your domination
or your dominion.
The term that we find here,
the term consider,
is a legal or an accounting term,
and it's talking about
reckoning or accounting something
to be true
and then acting accordingly.
And so,
in the passage in Romans,
Paul is saying,
listen,
you have to recognize
the fact that you're no longer
in control of sin
or you're no longer controlled by sin,
and you have the right of saying no,
and so live accordingly.
By the same token,
what we have here
in the Ephesians passage,
and you go back there,
if you will,
with me,
to Ephesians 3,
verse 17,
Paul is telling us
that we have to live
according to the fact
of Christ being the one
who is in control of our life.
And the point that he is making
is this,
is that we are to live
as though Christ is most important
and the one whose interests
are in control of our life.
Now, think about that with me
just for a moment.
When we say,
when Paul is praying,
I want you to have the power
of the Spirit of God inside
so that Christ may dwell in your heart,
he is saying,
you need the Spirit's enabling
that Christ might be the one
who actually is supremely important
and the one whose interests
are actually in charge of your life.
It's understandable
why Paul would pray that way,
isn't it?
When you stop and think
about your own life,
you need the Holy Spirit's help.
You need the Holy Spirit's power
so that Christ would dwell within
and so that we might sense him
as being more than an invited guest
in a formal part of our domain.
Let me speak here in practical terms
of what this looks like
a little bit for us.
For one,
when Christ dwells within,
we're persuaded of his personal presence
and his supremacy.
We are persuaded of his personal presence
and his supremacy.
It's amazing how often
we find ourselves living
with kind of an absent sense
of the presence
and the significance of Christ
in our life,
and we all go through that.
We make decisions often,
and we don't think much about,
well, how does this affect Christ?
What does he think about it?
I use a comparison here.
One of the things
that I greatly appreciate
about a husband-wife relationship
is that that oneness means
that when a husband considers something,
guess what else he is considering?
How is this going to affect,
hello, my wife?
I know of one couple
where,
whether it is the husband
or is the wife,
when I have been involved
in asking a question,
would you think about doing such and so?
The first thing out of either of those,
that couple's mouth,
is this,
well, let me talk with my husband,
let me talk with my wife.
Perfect expression of oneness
where, hey,
we're together
and we ought to weigh this
and think about it carefully
in relationship
to how does it affect us.
And so if Christ is dwelling within,
there should be a sense
of his presence
and a sensitivity
to his presence
and a recognition of,
hey, you're here
and I don't want to do that.
Turn over in your Bible
just for a moment
to a classic illustration of that.
1 Corinthians 6,
verse 19.
Paul is writing
to the church at Corinth
and he is addressing
in this particular case
the matter of sexual immorality.
And now let me tell you something.
In the city of Corinth,
sexual immorality
was about as rampant
as it is here in our day.
Well, you think it couldn't get
any worse than it is today.
But it was no worse,
no better.
You didn't have the internet
where every time you fired up the thing
to look at MSN or CNN
or whatever else,
you have over on the side
the immediate temptations
that one click
can put you in spiritual trouble.
Am I right or wrong?
One click.
Well, in those days,
prostitution was formalized
as a religious issue.
Now, can you imagine
the culture that gets to the point
that you do spiritual good
by engaging with immorality
with a prostitute?
That's what Corinth was like.
And Paul writes to the church
and he says,
hey, listen,
you back up and think about this.
And so his argument
plays out in these verses,
but it comes to a head here
in verse 19.
Or do you not know
that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit within you
whom you have from God?
You're not your own.
Guess who is inside you?
Who?
The Spirit of God.
Christ dwells within me.
And the thought
that Paul is bringing
to the table here is,
what are you thinking about?
How do you think
the Spirit of God feels
when you engage
in looking at that pornography?
I know some individuals
who have said,
well, what I'm going to do
is I'm going to put my computer
in the family room.
That's probably not a bad idea
because in the family room,
you have a higher probability
of somebody walking in
and seeing something
if you're on the wrong place.
But let me tell you something.
There's someone more important
than your children
or your wife
who is always on sight.
Who is that?
It is Christ.
And He's within us.
And when it says,
let Christ dwell within,
it is saying, listen,
recognize that He
who is your Lord and Savior
abides within.
He's there to control.
I want you to recognize also
that when we think about
this matter of Christ within
and His presence
and the sensitivity
of His presence,
I want you to look
at another passage
in which we see this play out.
Turn over in your Bible
to probably one of the more commonly
lifted passages
out of context.
Now, I don't think
it does great harm
in its lifting,
but let me have you look
at Revelation 3, verse 20.
By the way,
who was Revelation written to?
And the answer is
to churches.
Verse 20 says,
Behold, I stand at the door
and knock.
If any man hears my voice
and opens the door,
I will come in to him
and eat with him
and he with me.
I don't think
there's a problem
using it to encourage people
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
but the predominant focus
of this passage
is written to believers
and saying,
hey, listen,
don't push Christ out.
Don't put Him
on the periphery,
on the margin.
What had happened
in the church there
is that they had
distanced themselves
from Christ
in their carnality
and there Christ
was appealing to them
that the intimacy
of their communion
would not be hindered
and He appeals to them,
hey, open the door,
let me in.
There are some of you
here this morning
that the truth
of the matter is
is you haven't sat down
with Jesus
and had sweet communion
for weeks and months
at a time.
Do you understand
what I'm saying?
The last time
you had devotions
that really meant anything
other than grabbing
a daily bread
and maybe taking a millisecond
to read one of the verses
and then I've done my part,
months have passed.
And Christ is saying,
listen,
we have this relationship.
What's happened?
I'm your Lord and Savior
and here you've pushed me out
and well,
I know I'm too busy, right?
Oh, try that with your wife
and see how long
your relationship endures
with that kind of abuse.
For Christ to dwell within
really means that you are living
with an intimate awareness
of His presence
and His supremacy.
Can I stress that again?
To have Christ dwell within
means that you are living
with an intimate awareness
of His presence
and His supremacy.
There's another thing
that goes with
Christ dwelling within
and that is that we are genuinely
affected by His Word.
We're genuinely affected
by His Word.
His Word is not just a set
of ramblings
of some ancient itinerant
guest lecturer in Palestine.
His Word is our life.
His Word is what we rely upon
for wisdom and counsel.
His Word is what corrects
the carnality of our flesh.
His Word is what brings
His encouragement in adversity.
His Word is what lifts us up
when our heart is struggling.
Oh, does our mind go
to places it shouldn't go?
And the answer is yes,
all the time.
I like the song we were singing.
Prone to wonder,
Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love.
Take my heart,
oh, take and seal it.
Do you know how He seals it?
Thy Word is a lamp
into my feet
and a light always.
Beloved,
if we are going to have
Christ dwell within,
there has to be something
happening with His Word
in our heart
that makes His Word
of more significance
than something peripheral
that we look at
on a very occasional basis.
turn over in your Bible,
if you would,
to Colossians.
We're in Philippians.
Well, we went to Revelation,
but just go to Colossians 3,
verse 16.
Colossians 3, verse 16,
it says this,
let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing
one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs
with thankfulness
in your hearts to God.
Let me have you think with me
just for a moment
about that little statement there.
Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly.
That's saying that
Christ's Word
is the occupying force
in your life.
and that Christ's Word
is the thing that dominates
and affects your thinking.
It governs where you look.
It governs how you respond
when you're put out.
It deals with the attitudes
of your heart
within the inner man.
How many of you realize
that Shakespeare had it right,
that one may smile and smile
and still be a villain?
And we are all fairly good
at smiling and smiling
and being pretty villainous
sometimes in our own thought life.
Am I right or wrong?
But beloved,
when Christ's Word
dwells within with richness,
it ends up dealing
with those errant,
aberrant thoughts quickly.
I like that.
I desperately need it.
Do you understand that?
my mind will go left of center
quicker than I can imagine.
But as I grow in the Lord
and as more and more
Scripture begins
to possess my heart,
then the Word of God
dwells in me richly
and begins to capture
those imaginations
and bring them into captivity
to the supremacy of Christ.
Do you understand that?
Paul says,
this is my prayer.
This is the thing
I'm praying to the Father for,
that the Spirit would
strengthen you
in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell
in your heart
by faith.
There's another piece in this
that I want you to think about.
when Christ is dwelling
in our heart,
it ends up
that we grow in our love.
That we grow in our love.
We, by nature,
are fairly adept.
We're good at loving one person.
Guess who that is?
Who is it?
I saw him in the mirror
this morning.
He recognized
that his hair
was in trouble
and so he actually
stooped to using spray
to hold it.
There are fewer and fewer
pieces to keep in place
and spray as more
and more desperate.
I looked at him.
I said,
dude,
what happened
to all that stuff?
That's who I love normally.
But when the Spirit of God
is at work in my heart,
there's something
that begins to happen
in terms of my relationship
with Christ
and with others.
Look over,
if you would,
to John chapter 17.
Oh, by the way,
let me throw this out.
This is a sidebar.
Do you know what a sidebar is?
It's a little discussion
on the side.
I am praying
about preaching on John.
I've started reading
through John
again and again
and that's usually a hint
that's where I'm going.
I'm thinking about it.
But, oh,
what a book.
I think it would be
my magnum opus.
By the way,
I didn't write it,
so if you're wondering
what I mean,
I have to go
to Charlotte's Web.
Here we go.
I'm sorry.
John 17,
verse 23,
here we are.
I in them
and they in me,
that they may become
perfectly one
so that the world
may know
that you sent me
and love them
even as you love me.
That the world
may know
that you sent me
and love them
even as you love me.
may be one,
may be with me
where I am
to see my glory
that you have given me
because you love me
before the foundation
of the world.
Then in verse 26,
it says,
I made known to them
your name
and I will continue
to make it known
that the love
with which you have loved me
may be in them
and I in them.
can I tell you something
about longevity
and ministry?
One of the undeniable
things you learn
when you stay around
for a while
is that
people
require
loving.
And
one of the things
I've learned
is that
at the end of the day
you're better served
to love those
who God has
in front of you
rather than wishing
that God would bring
someone else.
because when someone
leaves,
guess what?
The someone else
who shows up
is still just as much
of a person to love
as the person who left.
So it's best to love
the ones God gives you
and stay with it
and work at it.
And can I tell you
a little secret?
If marriage is
two sinners in a canoe,
then church is
lots of sinners
in a bigger canoe.
And the more
we get to know
each other,
which is God's plan
in relationship,
I want you to understand
that,
the more conscious
and intentional
must our
commitment
to love
become.
It's easier
just to kind of
walk in,
sit somewhere
towards the back,
kind of listen
to the music,
walk out.
That doesn't take
much love.
For anybody.
But buddy,
when you anchor in
and you become
invested
and you become
involved
and you become
spent for the
testimony of Christ
and ministry,
you're going to find
that the people
you're working with
are just downright
squirrely.
And you need
the grace of God.
They think that of you
too, by the way,
just in case you're
wondering.
And you're going to
need to have
Christ dwelling in you
or it's not going
to work.
Can I say that again?
You're going to need
Christ dwelling in you
or it's not going
to work.
And when you decide
you're going to
pack off and move
to another place,
the same kind of
people live there
as lived here.
I'll never forget
moving from
a small rural
church in
northeastern Ohio.
Ohio.
And I remember
actually moving
from Columbus.
I was a member
here at Maranatha
and I remember
going up there
to northeastern Ohio
and thinking,
you know,
this is a little
rural community
and I'm going
to imagine that
sin is not on
steroids out here
in the middle
of nowhere.
I'd been there
about three or four
months and one
dear lady decided
that she'd had
enough of her
husband's pornography
and she snuck up
behind him and
blew his brains
out with a revolver.
I could just go
on and tell you
one thing after
another and I
thought,
whoa.
And then I came
to Columbus and
guess what?
Nobody's here
shot anybody so
I'm going to have
the real thing
for that.
And don't think
I'm suggesting it.
But you know
what?
People are people.
How many of you
figured that one
out?
And we need
the ministry of
the Spirit of God
within us
that we would
love each other
the way Christ
wants us to
love each other.
It takes His
work in us.
And finally,
what part do we
have to play in
all of this?
I want you to
think.
Is Christ
really, and
this is a
profoundly
significant
question,
to you who
are believers
it ought to be
one that you
engage in
considering
periodically.
has your love
gone cold?
Can it do that?
And what's the
answer?
Oh yeah.
But how
significant
is Christ
to you
in a
personal
and very
real
sense?
Oh, I'm not
talking about the
fact you show up.
I'm not
talking about the
fact that you
may participate.
I'm talking about
the fact that
within the
inner man,
how
significant
is the
sweetness of
your relationship
with Christ?
So what do you
do?
Number one,
you pray.
here's Paul
in Ephesians
chapter 3
verse 14,
for this
cause I
bow
the knee.
And if
Paul prayed
for the
power of
the Spirit
of God
to work
in the
inner man
so that
Christ could
dwell in
the hearts
of believers
that he
loved,
it makes
sense for
you and
me to be
conscious
and deliberate
and persistent
in praying
about that
thing taking
place in our
life and
if you ask
yourself the
question this
morning,
so how am I
in love with
Jesus and is
my heart
affected by
his glory and
am I interested
in his person
and do I sense
his presence and
the answer comes
back,
I'm a little
cold,
then I would
plead with you
to get down on
your knee and
say Christ,
it's not to be
this way.
And I want you
to do,
here's the catch,
are you listening?
I want you to
do whatever you
think is best.
but get me
back to where
I need to
be.
Secondly,
I would
encourage you
to have
something to
do with
the right
perspective
and let
me just
recite a
passage in
Colossians
chapter 3,
just reference
it very
quickly here,
but in
Colossians
chapter 3,
it says,
if then you
be risen
with Christ,
can anybody
finish it
off for
me?
Set your
affections on
things which
are above.
love.
I am
struck by
an unbelieving
world.
Judith and I
are, my
honey is
actually going
to run a
5K.
I'm going to
be in a
deacon's
meeting,
so I
understand
that.
But she
says she's
going to
walk some
and run
some.
But we're
going all
around these
different parks,
and I've got to
tell you,
I am struck
by how
addicted our
culture is to
athletics.
I see
believers who
are at the
altar too.
Beloved,
set your
affections on
things that
are above
where Christ
dwells.
Third,
persistence.
Persistence.
Prayer,
perspective,
and persistence.
Can I tell you
something?
Something that is
really important
to you, you
will ask for
again and
again.
Isn't that
right?
If it's
important, we
will ask until
we wear out
the ear of
God.
Christ will
not dwell
comfortably in
the heart of
the believer that
can't find time
for communion and
prayer.
Christ will
not have much
influence in the
life that is
consumed by the
world and the
affections of this
world and things
that distract the
heart from the
things of God.
You ask yourself,
when was the last
time that I
honestly found
pleasure?
I'm talking about
pleasure in your
quiet time with the
Lord.
That's an indicator of
where your heart
really is at.
Do you understand
that?
I've said it so
many times that I
know it's redundant
but I get up way
before my wife does,
daughter does.
My wife, I have a
wonderful time with
the Lord but I also
like Judith and I
have all kinds of
little ways to make
her want to get out
of bed.
Do you know why I do
those things?
I like her.
I want her around.
And I don't mind
jacking up the
thermometer and
temperature to kind
of make the heater
go off and she's
sitting in there
sweating in bed and
she thinks, well,
okay, it's the hint.
And I drop the
blinds, you know,
because suddenly
light, that's the
thing I like about
the summertime,
you know, that it
gets lighter earlier.
It's harder to sleep
in.
You know, she,
make the room dark.
I said, no, the
room is light, you
know.
But it's because,
so, beloved, where's
your relationship
with Christ?
When was the last
time?
When was the last
time that you found
satisfaction in your
time with the living
God and Savior of
your life?
He does not deserve
to be treated with
just kind of some
functional duty that
you obligate yourself
to accomplish and
then move quickly on
because there are
other important
things to do.
persist in
pleading,
persist in
reading,
persist in
pursuing.
And you know
what?
Christ will dwell
in you,
in the inner man,
and satisfy you
far more than
any other
thing or
person in
this life.
Let's pray.
Without
anybody looking
around this
morning, I want
to ask you a
quiet question that
you think about in
your own heart.
where is your
love for Christ?
Is he of
preeminence?
Does he dwell as
the supreme and
significant one in
your heart and life?
Or is your heart and
the ambitions of your
soul consumed with
every other thing?
I would plead with
you this morning if
the Spirit of God is
convicting you that
you quietly attend to
that where you sit.
And if it would be of
help to you, I would
encourage you to raise
your hand and say,
Pastor, that's me.
I need to rededicate my
heart to pursuing
Christ and having him
dwell within.
And I put myself on
notice, yes, this
morning, yes, yes.
I want Christ to have
first place.
Yes.
Anybody else?
If you're here this
morning and you do not
know Christ as your
personal Savior, yes,
yes.
I would plead with you
that this morning is the
day to repent of your
sins and trust in the
living God who sent his
son, Jesus Christ, to be
your Savior.
And if that's the need
of your heart, you need
salvation this morning,
would you slip your hand
up where you are and
just say, I need Jesus
as my Savior and put your
hand back down.
Father, you know our
hearts.
You know our needs.
Do not let our arrogance
and our pride interfere
this morning with the
sweet blessing that comes
with humility.
rekindle our affections
for Christ.
We ask it in your
precious name.
Amen.
Thank you.