LUKE: YEAR OF OUR LORD (WEEK 4) - PRIVATE PREPARATION

So here’s a question: is there anyone here who has been tempted? 

Here’s one of the things you can take to the bank: you will be tempted. It’s part of our humanity, it’s what we inherited in our sinful nature.

But you can also bank on the fact that, for those who trust in and follow Jesus, God is in the business of changing us, chipping away at that sinful nature, re-creating us through His Spirit in the image of Jesus. IOW, God accepts you for who you are - but His plan is to not LEAVE you like you are.

Last week we saw how there is preparation that is required in order for His Spirit to do the producing. The soil of our hearts must be prepared before the produce comes to fruition. This involves keeping in step with the Spirit, and surrendering more of our will to the Lord’s. The preparation, as we saw last week, sometimes is very public. Repentance and baptism are heart issues - but they are things that can be witnessed and seen by other people.

But what about the internal things that still trip us up? The things in our heart that no one can see, but that are still a mess? Don’t they need preparation as well?

How do you deal with private preparation? That’s what I want to look at this morning. Because, as a saved person, a forgiven person, I want to make sure that I’m doing what I can on the inside in order for God to bring about the change in my life that I need. That, folks, will always require DISCIPLINE.