Am I Committed to Sanctification? | Who Am I

Well, I'm amazed about the power of the gospel, the power of God to transform individuals, communities, and even entire societies. This past week marked the 70th anniversary of the death of five missionaries. You can see them on your screen. You might not know them. That's okay. Five missionaries. You have Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCauley, Peter Fleming, and Roger Udarian. So they were killed trying to bring the gospel to an isolated tribe in the Amazon jungle of eastern Ecuador. So the Akka people, they were isolated from the world, lived deep in the rainforest, were known for their intense violence, their cycle of revenge. No one could get close to them. In fact, there were a few oil companies who were trying to, like, you know, penetrate their territory, and folks were killed. But these five missionaries felt passionate that Jesus died for them as well, and they needed to hear the gospel. So these missionaries spent a few months, in fact, years of training, learning the language, and then months trying to establish contact with this tribe, you know, circling around on an airplane, trying to like drop goodies and gifts, hoping to win favor. And they thought everything was going great. And so they decided that it was time that they finally made contact on land with them. And so when they did, They were speared to death on the riverbank. It's incredible, folks, all in their late 20s, early 30s, dead for the gospel. But most people thought that this was the end of the story, but it wasn't. After their deaths, Jim Elliott's wife, Elizabeth, and Rachel Saint, who was Nate Saint's sister, they continued on the work. They went back in. After years, they were able to establish contact. And then they were accepted into the community. They forgave the people who had killed their loved ones. They shared Jesus. They built real relationships. And the gospel brought about transformation in that community. The change was real. Murders dropped dramatically. A tribe that was once expected at any moment to just... engaged in a cycle of violence became a lot more peaceful because of the gospel. The gospel transforms societies and communities. And I'm sure you, if I were to ask you, you'd have examples of how the gospel has changed lives. I study mission history and just even seeing the impact of the gospel in various places in India and just the before and after is just unbelievable. And we can see it in our own lives, you know. I know a lot of your stories just... And when I hear it, I go, was that the same person? Our elder Dan Jones, you got to hear his story. 20 years ago of how he was an alcoholic, addicted to drugs, homeless, living in a car, almost on the verge of giving up. God meets him and today he's a completely different person. I remember the first time I heard his story, I go, what? That's the transformation the gospel can bring. Right? And this dates back to the Bible. You think of someone like Apostle Paul. This guy was so zealous for the faith, he goes and kills. People kill Stephen and then they lay his clothes at Paul's feet as a witness. Here is a murderer for the gospel. God meets him at Damascus while he's on the road to Damascus. And his life is completely changed and we get to read. The gospel changes everything. The gospel transforms life. And we have access to that as well. So we're in this message series called Who Am I? Where we're looking at foundational truths. Over the course of the next couple of months, we're going to focus on some really key foundationals. Fundamentals of the faith. The bedrock truths that undergird our faith. And ask ourselves where we stand in relation to that. So you might be a mature believer. You might know Jesus for 30 years. And this might just be a refreshing, you know, you're just refreshing your memory. And that's great. Or you might be a new believer wondering, oh, I don't know anything about this. It's great that you get to hear it, but we all ask ourselves the same question. So last week, Pastor Carl, he kicked us off with a sermon titled, Am I a Christian? And I just want to quickly go over some of his fundamental premise of his sermon. He goes... Being a Christian is not a label we claim, but it's an identity Christ gives. So Jesus doesn't invite admirers, consumers, or mere believers. He calls followers, which, you know, the word disciple at its very essence means a learner or a follower. So those who hear his voice leave the old life and walk after him. So being born again is not a prayer you repeat. It's a miracle God performs. New heart. A new nature. A new direction. You don't just believe new things. You become someone new. And you can know who you are not by perfection but by the direction we're going. A grown love for Christ. Obedience from the heart. Conviction over sin. And witness of the Spirit. So we're going to dig a little deeper into that, into this process of growing, the process of being transformed into the image of Jesus. The theological term for that is sanctification. So the title of my sermon and the question that we're going to ask ourselves today is this. Am I committed to sanctification? Am I committed to this process of transformation that every child of God goes through? And so here's my plan for today. Today is going to be less of a traditional sermon preaching and more of a biblical and a systematic theology analysis. So I'm asking you to stick with me because, you know, my staff, one of the staff looked at the slides and they go, do I get a certificate for completing a theology course or something? You know, that's what they were asking. But here's what I want you to do. Lean in. Lean in. Because my goal for you is not to take everything, not to take every information that's presented today because there's going to be a lot of scriptures. This is the most slides I've ever had for any sermon in my life. So there's going to be a lot of slides, a lot of scriptures. And if you're a note taker, you're going to be so frustrated today. So don't even take those notes. I'm happy to send you my slides after the sermon. But here's what I want you guys to take away from this sermon. understand just the macro framework of God is saying about sanctification. And so when we look at the macro view of it, we also understand the gravity of why this is so important to our lives. So again... Lean in. It's going to be a lot of scriptures. We're going to race past a lot of those slides. It's okay if you don't get all of it. If you do want these slides, I'm happy to send them to you. But just focus on what God says in his word about sanctification and what he's saying to you today. So let's go. First question. What is sanctification? Wayne Crudom, one of my favorite theologians, this is how he defines it. Sanctification is a progressive work of God and believers in believers that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives. So in simple terms, sanctification is God changing us over time to look more like Jesus and In real life. The goal of sanctification is Christ-likeness. So we become more and more like Jesus. So it's not just what we believe, what we think with our minds, but how we actually live. We become more and more like Jesus. So it's progressive, concrete transformation into the character of Christ. In Romans 8.29 it says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be confirmed to the image of his son. So you've been saved. God's foreknown you. God's predestined you. God's called you. So that the end goal of it is you would become more like Jesus. And that process is sanctification. Notice the definition of sanctification. We said sanctification is something for us. Believers. We're not expecting people in the world, those that don't know Jesus, to go through this process of sanctification. It's only those who have trusted in the saving grace of Jesus, which is completely His work, His doing, and we trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, and we're saved. We now go through this process of sanctification. So there's three aspects of sanctification if we look at it that helps us kind of understand all of it. as to what it means. Number one is positional sanctification, where this is a one-time act of God at salvation, where you're just freed from the power of sin, where God looks at you, and when you put your faith in Jesus and believe Him that He died for your sins on the cross, you are saved. And at that point, Jesus says that you have been sanctified. You are now clean. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11, Verse 9 and 10, you got to go back and read it. It's got an entire list of sins that people engaged in. And Paul goes, and such were some of you. Meaning you were all, you were all engaged in all of those sins. But he goes, but now you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. So you were washed. You are sanctified. You are washed. You have been justified. So when you receive Jesus into your heart, you are already clean. No wonder Paul, when he writes to the Corinthian church, it's one of the messiest churches that you can be in because if you read 1 Corinthians, the issues that they were dealing with it, guys, was crazy. But Paul says he addresses them as saints, calls them saints. So when you believe in Jesus, you are positionally sanctified. You are clean. But it doesn't stop there. There's a progressive aspect of sanctification where it's an ongoing work of God in your life. This is where most of our Christian life is lived. God continues to shape our desires, our habits, our attitudes, our words. And he has us throw away our sins, those weights that holds us back. This is where sanctification, our Christian life happens. And discipleship is the pathway of sanctification. So this is what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. On Sunday mornings in our 180 homes, our small groups, whatever we're doing. We're growing. In Christ's likeness, Philippians 2.12 goes, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. I want to direct your attention to the phrase that says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This is progressive sanctification. I want to be really clear about something. Our salvation is God's work. There's nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. When we trust in Jesus, when we believe in him and what he's done, We're justified. We are saved. But those who are saved, the fruit of it in our day-to-day life is we're now working out our salvation with fear and trembling. I think of it, you know, the way I think of this verse is, you know, in high school, 10th grade, you know, that's what we call it. We call it 10th, 11th, 12th. So we don't have junior, senior, you know, in our verbiage while I was growing up in India. We had to memorize a lot of these math theorems. Almost like 50 of them we had to memorize. And the thing was you already knew the answer. You already knew what it was. And what you had to do is you had to work out if this is this. And then you like go through these steps. And then finally you go, therefore, this equals this. So you're proving. something, right? A lot of it, I feel that's how it is when you're working out your salvation. You already know the end result. You already know the end goal, that we're saved, we're justified, and the goal is Christlikeness, and now God comes alongside with us to help us. Get there. That's progressive sanctification. In Romans 6.19 it goes, For just as you once presented your members, referring to our body, as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, sin, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. So just our life completely transforms, changes once we give ourselves to Him where now we're working out. Just as we presented our lives, our bodies as members of instruments of sin, now we're presenting ourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. And the final aspect of sanctification is ultimate sanctification. One day this process will be finished when we see Jesus face to face. Not on this earth. So that's why perfection is not the goal. Right? Ultimate sanctification happens when we meet Jesus at the end of our lives. In 1 John 3 verse 2, this is what it says. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears... We shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. Ultimate sanctification. So here's a graph from Grudem's book on systematic theology that kind of like maps out the sanctification process. So you start on the bottom left here. We're slaves to sin. We're non-believers, non-Christians, have nothing to do with God. And at one point now, we're converted. saved and so then we shoot right up into the Christian life that's number two and we're growing in holiness and look at it this is not one straight line that goes up vertically it's jagged you go you know you're growing in sanctification you fall down and then you go up you fall down right and then finally when we're dead Perfect holiness. Ultimate sanctification. Right? Well, the Bears are playing today, so I would be such a bad preacher, pastor, if I don't have one example from the Bears, right? This doesn't happen that often. So let me give you an example of sanctification from the Bears. We love a good offense, right? The goal is to get that ball down the field 100 yards and get that touchdown. And so how do we do that? 10 yards at a time. You get three downs. You can get a fourth down. And so what do you do? The goal is you're moving forward. It doesn't matter. You know, Caleb Williams throws the ball. The receiver drops it. The game's not over. It's just still first down, right? Just do whatever you can to get that first down and keep moving forward. That is the process of sanctification. Keep moving forward. It doesn't matter how many times you fall. With God's strength, we keep moving forward. And that's the journey that God wants us to be. I want to exegete just what is one of the foundational verses of sanctification. It's Titus 2, verse 12 to 14. Let me read this for you and then we'll break it down. It says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled lives. upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So let's break it down. Verse... For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. So saving grace. Our salvation is because of Jesus. It's by his grace. It's his work. Right? But a lot of times we just stop there. We think, we just say a prayer. Oh, we're done. We're now saved. We punch our ticket to heaven. And in some sense that's true, but in some sense it's not. Because even this verse continues on. It says, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. And then it goes, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Look at this. The same grace that saves us. It's the same grace that trains us. So sanctification is not just, it's not our work. It's still God's work in our lives. Training grace. And what does it train us to? It trains us to say no to some things. If we can go on. Training us to renounce ungodliness. And worldly passions. And godliness is a life lived without reference to God. Going on and living our lives as if God doesn't exist. Do whatever we want to do because we're the Lord of our own lives. And worldly passions, whatever we feel like, whatever appetites, sinful appetites that we might have, we just go and get it. We do it. Right? Right? But the scriptures say that the grace of God trains us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. And just as it says no to ungodly passions, there are stuff that we say yes to. It goes on to live self-controlled, upright lives. and godly lives in the present age. So we say yes to living a life of self-control, upright and godly. And when does this happen? In this present age. This happens now. So we say yes, we say no, through His grace now. This is the process of discipleship, the process of sanctification, the reason why we're at church, the reason why we read his scriptures, where God is working in us in the here and now. And there is a why behind it. There is a motivation for that as well. It goes on, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We do this because we have hope that Jesus is coming back and we're going to be like him. And then it talks about the fact that we're claimed, cleansed, and God wants us to be fruitful. I love this. It says, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness. So Jesus died for us to redeem us from all sin. Then it goes, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. claimed, cleansed, and fruitful. So those who are in this sanctification process, you're claimed, you're being cleansed, and you're being fruitful, right? So a couple of weeks ago while I was preparing for the sermon, I was, you know, for my own personal devotional reading, I was reading the letter of 1 John and And I was just blown away by how many references to sanctification was there in just this one short letter. So I was reading it, you know, while I was prepping. So like sanctification is at the forefront of my mind. And so I thought, you know, let's just look through the letter of 1 John to see what it says. about sanctification. So we're going to look at 1 John, sanctification according to 1 John. And the first point is, sanctification is living openly and righteously before God. 1 John chapter 1 goes like this. This is the message that we have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. So God is light, there's no darkness in Him. Then it goes on. If we say we have fellowship with him. In other words, if we say we're Christians, we're disciples of Jesus, we're in fellowship with Jesus. And then it goes, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Then it goes on. But if we walk in the light... As he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Again, straight from scripture. Right? Sanctification is walking in the light. Is living openly and righteously before God. You see this process where you're walking in the light. God knows what you do. He is aware. You go to Him in prayer. And then if you do fall, like we saw in that graph, we go to God. And then His blood cleanses us from all sin. And so sanctification is letting go of hiding and bringing every part of our lives to God for cleansing. So if we have fellowship with Him, we walk in the light. So it's living openly and righteously before God. Secondly, sanctification is evidenced By action. It's not just a doctrine. It's not just something that we believe. But it's actually seen in how we behave. It goes on. 1 John 2. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Sin. Scripture again. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate for the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation, a fancy word that just means substitute, for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And look at this, verse 3. And by this we know that we have come to know him. So by this we know that we know Jesus if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments, Wow, that's powerful. So it says, the way you know that you are a true Jesus follower is when you walk like how Jesus walked. And you obey his commands. And so sanctification is not just words. It's not just something that we think in our minds. But it's actually evidenced by action. Number three, sanctification works. reorders our priorities and affections. As we walk with Jesus, this is not something, you know, one of the biggest misconceptions about Jesus, about Christianity, is the fact that, oh, this is a book where it just tells us what we shouldn't do. And I think that we've done an injustice in promoting or the way we've expressed what Christianity is because that's not the heart of the gospel. That's not the heart of the scriptures. The Bible is not about what you can't do. In fact, you know, we're just going through the book of Proverbs as well. And one of the things about the concept of wisdom in Proverbs is wisdom is living life God's way. Wisdom is living life the way God has designed it, the way God has meant us to live. And a lot of times we want to take control of that. We think what's right because we're all pursuing something, right? We want happiness. We want joy. We want satisfaction. And we think we have the blueprint, the pathway to get there. But you know what? The person who does really have the pathway to get there is Jesus and he's given us his word. And so when we say, oh, you got to read your Bible. Oh, you got to do this. It's not because for us to learn what not to do. It's more of like how could we tap into the treasure of wisdom that God has in his scriptures that would help us to live the abundant life that God wants us. That's one of the things we truly believe here at 180, where our creed is come as you are. It doesn't matter who you are. We want you to come here and experience God. But then in the process of discipleship, the process of sanctification, you overcome what seems impossible and you live. as you've never imagined, right? And sanctification reorders as we work with God, as we join God, it reorders our priorities and our affections. 1 John 2.15 goes like this, it says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, in other words, lust, and the pride of life, pride in material possessions, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. It's very clear. Scriptures do not love the world or the things of the world. And as we work with God, sanctification reorders our priorities and affections. Number four, sanctification is incompatible With a life of persistent, unrepentant sin. 1 John chapter 3. Listen carefully to this section of scripture. It says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning. Operative word. Practice of sinning also practices lawlessness and Sin is lawlessness. You know that he, referring to Jesus, appeared in order to take away sins. And in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is off the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him. And he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So sanctification is incompatible with a lifestyle of sinning. Again, what I'm not talking about is perfection, right? Again, going back to our analogy of that jagged line. We're going to fall. We're going to sin. We cannot be sinless until we get to heaven. But it says when we have an unrepentant, persistent heart where we know that this is something that God does not want us to do, but we don't care. We keep on sinning. then we might have to take a hard look at our own lives. And it clearly says in that verse, this, do not be deceived. So it is a deception for us to think we can live the way that we want to live. And God's completely fine with that. What does the scriptures clearly say? No one who's born of God continues to practice sinning. So sanctification is incompatible with a life of persistent sin. This is not just in 1 John. There's a verse in 1 Corinthians 6. We actually read this, but I want to read that again for you guys. It says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And it goes, and such were some adulterers. Of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the spirit of God. Sanctification is incompatible with a life of persistent unrepentant sin. Number five, sanctification is inseparably connected to love God. For others, 1 John 3, 16, it says, By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let not... Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Then it goes on, 1 John 4. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love him. one another. So sanctification doesn't just manifest itself in inward change, but it flows out in our relationships with others as well. So it's connected to our love for others. And finally, sanctification is motivated by our glorious future. 1 John 3, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. We're already called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Right? Just sanctification from just one person. Small letter in the New Testament. So imagine if we were to go through verses of sanctification in the New Testament. Maybe we got to do a study on that sometime, but not today. So what does this mean for us today? Are we committed to sanctification? I want to just do a quick systematic analysis, just drawing from a few other verses from Scripture as to what it means for us. Number one, sanctification is God's will for your life. A lot of times we're like, what does God want me to do? What is God's will for my life? Here's the answer. In 1 Thessalonians 4, it says, for this is the will of God your life. sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality that each of each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God and then it goes for God has not called us for impurity but in holiness therefore whoever disregards this Disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Sanctification is God's will for your life. Secondly, sanctification is powered. By God. We already saw in Titus chapter 2 where the saving grace, training grace of God is the same. It's God who does his work in us. We don't have the ability to clean ourselves. We need God to do that. And God wants us to work. Together with him. It's powered by him. 1 Thessalonians 5.23. Paul prays this at the end of his letter. He goes, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may our whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord. Jesus Christ. So sanctification is powered by God. But number three, sanctification requires our participation. There's a bunch of verses, I'm not going to read all of it, but just a few, where it says in Romans 12, 1, it says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before God. And then Hebrews 12, 14 says, strive for peace with everyone and for holiness. Meaning strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Then it goes on, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, two great scriptures that you might want to read. It talks about, uses the imagery of putting on and putting off. So it says, put off slander, put off anger, put off corrupt words from your mouth. and put on kindness, gentleness, peace. That's what we participate in. That's what we join God in this process of sanctification. Number four, sanctification is a community project. God works in and through you, but he's got people around you to help in this journey of transformation. So when you are veering off the way, You want to be surrounded by people who call you out and you go, hey, that's not what the Scripture says. And they bring you on the right path. And then they stir you up to follow Jesus passionately. Hebrews 10, 24, this is what it says. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And then it goes on, not neglecting to meet together like we're doing today, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. And in 2 Timothy 2.22, this is what it says. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. It doesn't stop there. It doesn't say just do that. It says, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. I do have to say, a lot of times we are We're disillusioned with the church. We're disillusioned with the church because of a lot of the bad things that have been evident, right? But the church was still God's idea. Jesus was the one who instituted the church. And the concept of us, you know, we've heard a lot of people say, you know what? I don't need to go to church. I don't need to be surrounded by a community of believers. And again, by church, I'm not meaning a building. I'm not meaning, you know... Anything other than a community of believers. Us. Right? A lot of times you say, oh, it's just me and God. Well, that's not how the scriptures have designed it to be. And in all honesty, this is a lie that we in the Western world have kind of adopted. This is not something that I've ever heard in my time in India where someone would say, I don't need to go to church. It's just God and me. They just understand that It's community, right? You are now adopted into a family. So you have new brothers and sisters. In fact, Jesus says, you know, Jesus is preaching. And they go, hey, Jesus, your mother and your brothers are here. Jesus goes, who are my mother and brothers? Those who do the will of God are my brothers, sisters. And Jesus reconceptualizes what family is. And that's, and I mentioned this, one of the worst things that you could say in an Asian context where your entire identity is derived from who you are in relation to your family. Your last name means a lot. You being part of a family means a lot. And Jesus reconceptualizes and he goes, you know what? My family is those who do the will of God. So again, sanctification is a community project. So that's why you're here on a Sunday. That's why we serve together on Sundays on a day-to-day basis. Even when there's friction, we're growing in sanctification. That's why you're in small groups. You're in 180 homes. Because we're spurring each other on into Christ-likeness. Number five, sanctification involves the whole person. All of us. In the process of sanctification, we have a new nature. Colossians 3.10 says, and I put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge. After the image of its creator. So it's not just a new nature. Then we have a renewal of the mind. Romans 12.2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And then that goes on, not just mind, but even your thought life. 2 Corinthians 10.5, the end of it says, and take every thought captive. To obey Christ. And then it also encapsulates our physical body. 1 Peter 2.11. It says... So there's a battle between your flesh and your soul. And God is saying, I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh. And then all of our actions, this is all of the commands, you know, I don't have to read Ephesians 4.31 because the rest of the commands in the New Testament do talk about how this is evidence in our behavior. And then finally, even our will. Romans 12.2, do not be confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. that by testing you may discern what the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. My last point for today, I know it's been a lot, is sanctification liberates us from bondage to sin. Romans 6.12 says, Let it not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Nico, if you want to come up on stage. It says, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will not have dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. We're not going to do a song. We're just going to end it. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to moral lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Then it goes on, Romans 6. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. One of the lies that we often believe, especially in regards to things that we know is not what God wants from us, is because, you know what? I'm always... This is me. I'm always like this. I always get angry. This is just who I am. But that's not what the Scripture says, right? It doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter what our proclivities to sin are. It doesn't matter... what our struggles are. The scriptures say that we are not in bondage to sin. And in this process of sanctification, God freezes up, helps us overcome what seems impossible in our life so we can live as you've never imagined. Again, this is just, we've done a biblical and systematic analysis of what God's word says about sanctification. What does it mean for us? We call it why in the road here because we truly believe the transformation happens when we work with God, when we have Him, when we apply the truths that the word of God teaches us right that's the difference between a wise person and a foolish person according to Jesus the wise man who built his house on the rock heard the words of God and obeyed it but a foolish man heard the words of God and didn't do it I want to take a couple of moments we're not we're not going to do a song but I do want us to reflect and respond to what God is saying to us how committed are you to your sanctification What are you saying no to? What is God asking you to say no to? Those besetting sins that kick our tails. God's word is so clear. Sanctification is incompatible with a life of persistent, unrepentant sin. But what are you saying yes to as well? What is God saying to you? I'd love for us to just bow our heads for a couple of minutes. Just hear what God is asking you to do. This is His work. God, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you for your saving grace. Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for us so that we have life. We have eternal life, God. But we also want to thank you that we just don't have eternal life, but you want us to live in freedom in the here and now. You want us to Be like your son, Jesus. And even as we've seen your scriptures, your word, where you call us to sanctification. It's your will for us, God. We pray that you would help us to be engaged in this process of growth, this process of transformation. And even as the stories that we saw at the beginning of communities, societies being changed, of lives, individuals being transformed even here, represented here, God. We want to give ourselves to your transforming power so people can see your son in us. They go, wow, that was not the person that I knew. What's going on with you? And we can boldly say that it was your work in our hearts, your work in our lives. that's helping us to grow and to become more and more like you. And God, I just pray for every person who has committed their lives to you, who's been saved, who's been justified. and who's now in the sanctification journey, and who's also committed to this process, God, would you help them take that next step? Let them not hear condemnation, feel condemnation. That's not what you're calling us to. You're calling us to a life of freedom. And when we live life Your way, God, there's so much freedom that we can get to lean into. And God, I pray for every person who's here. I pray that You would clearly show them, search them, examine them, and show them what You want them to commit into Your hands. Those besetting sins, faulty thinking, a lifestyle that's in variance to your word, whatever it might be, God, I pray that you would show them and you would help them in your strength and your power to walk in the fullness of life that you have for us. Thank you for your word. We give you all glory, honor, and praise. In Jesus' name, we pray.