It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me, the hope of glory.

The great deterrent to victorious Christian living is the idea that once we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and believe that John 3:16 is all there is to it, our life now is on automatic pilot and we can just sit back and enjoy the ride.  This is the source of a great deal of disillusionment that leads to discouragement in the Christian life.

There is no such thing as automatic pilot in our Christian experience; every step is an operation of faith that will be fiercely contested by the enemy of our soul.  This kind of automatic pilot thinking leads to spiritual lethargy.  Breaking out from the tyranny of spiritual lethargy -- whatever the cost -- should be the number-one priority of every Christian.

Begin with your own shortcomings.  The first thing is to recognize the danger of spiritual lethargy.  If you do not know something is dangerous, you are not going to stay away from it.  Your attitude will be rather careless and indifferent, which is the perfect formula for a condition of spiritual lethargy.  The Holy Spirit is faithful in exposing your spiritual condition.  Your responsibility is to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow through on His action.

When the Holy Spirit begins to move in our life, we believe that we can change the Christian community.  As always, it backfires on us, allowing the community to change us and set our standards.  Mob psychology sometimes infests even the Christian community, which may explain all the dead churches in our country today.

You cannot change the community, but you can change yourself.  Or rather, you can allow the Holy Spirit to change you, and that change takes place at the very core of your life.  Then that inward change will slowly begin affecting the outside.  The right kind of change can affect everyone around you.  Spiritual awakening is not dependent on the community, but it can drastically affect the community.  Like a fire that starts small can inflame everything around it, the fire of spiritual awakening within can flow through us and touch everyone around us, in effect, changing our community.

I call this influence intentional Christian living.  By that, I mean we are living out the commands of Scripture, intentionally and purposefully.  Spiritual lethargy results in a Christian lifestyle that is haphazard and lazy.  We are not to look like or act like other people; rather, we are to look like and act like Christ.  We are to do the things that Christ would do in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are a separated people, separated from the world unto God.  Several things are important in maintaining an intentional Christian lifestyle.

Faith

Faith is not a magical formula or ritual, but rather it is a result of a consistent commitment to Bible reading and prayer.  Much is being said of faith these days that is not the focus of the Scriptures.  Faith is not some magical formula or wish that no matter who uses it, saved or unsaved, God has to act upon it.  Such is religious lunacy and borders on witchcraft.  True faith rises in the soul of the man or woman who will fall on his or her face before and open Bible and allow God to be God in any way He chooses.

Obedience and Surrender

In order to obey, you must hear the voice of God clearly.  Again, this is rooted in my relationship to the Word of God.  If we are to live a life of obedience, we must have "ears to hear." Along with this matter of obedience is surrender.  Surrender is a clear act of obedience to the Word of God.  Some would give God as much as 99 perfect of their life, but they want to hold on to the last 1 perfect.  Either God is the Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.  Our Father does not want a partial surrender.  He is jealous toward us -- all of us.

Purity

An important aspect of intentional Christian living is purity.  This purity is the absence of additives.  The evangelical church has become most ingenious in this area of additives.  The intentional Christian life is not diluted with elements of culture or religion.  The purity of our life is simply the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  As I intentionally live the Christian life, I am focused on His purity, and He is living His life through me unencumbered by other things or interests.

On the surface, this looks absolutely impossible to do.  And quite frankly, it is impossible in the flesh.  The more I try to live the Christian life, the more I am bogged down in exterior trappings.  When I put these aside and refuse to be affected or influenced by them, I then give way for God to work through me according to His agenda and His purpose.  The apostle Paul said it this way: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  It is no longer me; it is Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Enjoying God's Favor

Those of us who are utterly committed to living an intentional Christian life have one great advantage.  This advantage is the way God thinks about us.  God has our best in mind for the longest period of time.

What God is doing in your and my life today has implications for eternity.  When Christ was on the cross, we were on His mind.  The tears that flowed on Calvary were because of us.

The writer of Hebrews refers to the fact that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy before Him: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).  What was that joy?  It was all those who would put their faith and trust in Him and become part of the Bride of Christ.  We are always on His mind.

God desires to bring our lives into the full sunlight of His favor.  That requires not serving ourselves or pleasing others or ourselves, but giving ourselves completely, in absolute surrender, to God through the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.  The end result is living the intentional Christian life.

Tozer, A.W. "Living as an Intentional Christian" The Danger of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy, pg. 205-211

Preaching: A Sense of Inadequacy

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God....—2 Corinthians 3:5

I believe I had anticipated that it was going to be a pleasure to expound this beautiful and high soaring Gospel of John. However, I must confess that in my preparation and study a sense of inadequacy has come over me—a feeling of inadequacy so stunning, so almost paralyzing that I am not at this juncture able to call it a pleasure to preach.

Perhaps this will be God's way of reducing the flesh to a minimum and giving the Holy Spirit the best possible opportunity to do His eternal work. I fear that sometimes our own eloquence and our own concepts may get in the way, for the unlimited ability to talk endlessly about religion is a questionable blessing....

None of us can approach a serious study and consideration of the eternal nature and person of Jesus Christ without sensing and confessing our complete inadequacy in the face of the divine revelation. Christ the Eternal Son, 3,9.

"Lord, I've so often been at that place of total inadequacy. I've learned that that is so healthy, because then I step aside, I quit relying on my own 'eloquence,' and I allow the Holy Spirit to take over and do what only He can do anyway! Use me today in my weakness. Amen."

God answers prayer not because you are righteous.

So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 

Isaiah 6:5

Why does God answer prayer? Let's not imagine that it's because somebody was good. We Protestants think we don't believe in saints, but we do. We canonize them: we have Saint George Mueller, Saint C.H. Spurgeon, Saint D.L. Moody and Saint A.B. Simpson. We get the idea that God answered prayer for them because they were really good. They would deny that fervently if they were here.

Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. Having fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer, it's because God is good. From His goodness, His lovingkindness, His good-natured benevolence, God does it! That's the source of everything. The Attributes of God, pp. 46-47

but...

what about James 5:16?  "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  Yes, it's true.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective, but who is the righteous man?  It is the one justified by the righteousness of Christ.

"As it is written:  None is righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10)

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." (Romans 3:21)

"For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." (Romans 4:2-5)

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, 'Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down) or 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:4-9)

 "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." (Galatians 2:20-21)

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:8-9)

Thank You, God, that You are indeed good,

You are faithful,

You are gracious,

You are full of lovingkindness and benevolence.

Thank You that You do in fact answer prayer!

Amen.

The Precious Blood of Christ

Standing at the foot of the cross, we see hands, and feet, and side, all distilling crimson streams of precious blood.

It is "precious" because of its redeeming and atoning efficacy.

By it, the sins of Christ's people are atoned for;
   they are redeemed from under the law;
      they are reconciled to God, made one with him.

Christ's blood is also "precious" in its cleansing power;

it "cleanseth from all sin."
   "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

Through Jesus' blood there is not a spot left upon any believer, no wrinkle nor any such thing remains. O precious blood, which makes us clean, removing the stains of abundant iniquity, and permitting us to stand accepted in the Beloved, notwithstanding the many ways in which we have rebelled against our God.

The blood of Christ is likewise "precious" in its preserving power.  We are safe from the destroying angel under the sprinkled blood. Remember it is God's seeing the blood which is the true reason for our being spared. Here is comfort for us when the eye of faith is dim, for God's eye is still the same.

The blood of Christ is "precious" also in its sanctifying influence. The same blood which justifies by taking away sin, does in its after-action, quicken the new nature and lead it onward to subdue sin and to follow out the commands of God. There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus.

And "precious," unspeakably precious, is this blood, because it has an overcoming power. It is written, "They overcame through the blood of the Lamb." How could they do otherwise? He who fights with the precious blood of Jesus, fights with a weapon which cannot know defeat.

The blood of Jesus!
  sin dies at its presence,
    death ceases to be death:
      heaven's gates are opened.

The blood of Jesus!
  we shall march on,
    conquering and to conquer,
      so long as we can trust its power!

(C.H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Morning, April 16)

Prayer: Not Asking for Anything

I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.—Psalm 116:1-2

I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don't say one single word or ask for anything. Now God does answer and He does give us what we ask for. That's plain; nobody can deny that unless he denies the Scriptures. But that's only one aspect of prayer, and it's not even the important aspect. Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if you never answer another prayer while I live on this earth I will still worship you as long as I live and in the ages to come for what you have done already." God's already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for me.

We go to God as we send a boy to a grocery store with a long written list, "God, give me this, give me this, and give me this," and our gracious God often does give us what we want. But I think God is disappointed because we make Him to be no more than a source of what we want. Even our Lord Jesus is presented too often much as "Someone who will meet your need." That's the throbbing heart of modern evangelism. You're in need and Jesus will meet your need. He's the Need-meeter. Well, He is that indeed; but, ah, He's infinitely more than that. Worship: The Missing Jewel, pp. 24-25

"Father, forgive me for so often just coming to You with my grocery list. You've been so faithful; You've given me so much; You've blessed so richly. It's time I just come, realizing my incredible debt to You, and simply worship at Your feet. Amen."

Bearing the cross for and with Jesus

"On him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus."
Luke 23:26

We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.

But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry. When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus!

You carry the cross after him. You have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The mark of his blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. 'Tis his cross, and he goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. Take up your cross daily, and follow him.

Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of the cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the cross, Christ bore the heavier end.

And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it, count it very dear, when it works out for us "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

(C.H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Morning, April 5)

God Raised Your Great Shepherd from the Dead

God Raised Your Great Shepherd from the Dead from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Pastor John Piper's Farewell Sermon