So you may be asking, what is this study all about? It's about self-confrontation, or evaluating yourself, or applying the Bible to yourself, to your life, your thoughts, your words, and your actions. We need to examine ourselves biblically so we can learn how to live in a way that pleases God so we can live victoriously. And we need to be able to help others do that to some degree. Before we get started, I wanted to share with you three things that have been pivotal in my spiritual life, besides salvation, of course. So that would be four. But let's go with after salvation. And these are things that have helped me to apply the Bible to my life. And not that I have perfected this. Plenty of you in this room know that. But these things have changed my life dramatically. The first and most important thing that led to significant growth in my faith was reading through the Bible in one year, but not just for one year, for every year. I love God's word and I'm continually reading through it using different plans for different years. Last two years, I did the chronological plan, which to me was eye-opening because then when you got, especially in the Kings and Chronicles, you were getting the prophets drawn in who they were preaching to and what the situation was. So it was just like, wow, OK, I get that now. This year, I'm doing a plan by Robert Murray McShane, who was a Scottish preacher who only lived to 30, but was amazing. And it's very interesting because it's kind of chronological. So the first day, we read in Genesis, and we read in Matthew, which is kind of normal for a reading plan. And then in the evening, you read in Ezra and Acts. And I thought, OK, we get the beginning of the world. We get the beginning of Jesus' life in this world. Then we get the beginning of these people coming back to Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. And then we get the start of the church. It was like, that's genius. To me, it was just like, what a great plan for the new year. So I'm very excited. I'll let you know how that goes. But reading through the Bible has been life-changing for me. Without spending time in God's word, I wouldn't be up here teaching. And I may not even be out there sitting where you are. God has used his word to change my whole life. The next pivotal change for me was a commitment to take every opportunity to hear the word taught, to serve, to pray, to have biblical fellowship, especially with other Christian women. That's why we're promoting Titus 2. It's a great way for you to come and hear the word, learn how to apply it to your life, and have some biblical fellowship. And if you're really lucky, we might give you a chance to serve by bringing treats or something or cleaning up. But ladies, we are the body of Christ. You are not meant to live an isolated life as a Christian. You who are here in this room know this, at least to some degree, because you're here. But even women who can't be here in person on Wednesday morning need to make a commitment to be with others for Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and service. And I've seen many of you in this room living this out in the last year. And it's so wonderful to see how your countenance has changed as you show up, participate in studies, serve, and fellowship. I mean, there's so many of you in here who I just see so much more service, so much more engagement in the body in this past year. And I'm grateful for it. I mean, I think it's wonderful that you guys are doing that. So keep it up. And then the last pivotal thing that I wanted to share with you, and which is the basis for this study, was biblical counseling training using the self-confrontation manual. And this is it. This is it. I mean, it's packed full of stuff. It was a huge commitment of time. But I went to this class at Walnut Creek at North Creek Church, two hours a week for nine months. And the homework was like five or six hours a week. And I am not a morning person. And I was working then. And I would get up at 5.30 every morning to do my study before I got ready to go to work. But it was so important in my life. We're going to cover mainly the first eight chapters. There are 22 chapters in that manual. So we're going to cover mainly the first eight chapters. And then your homework manual, which is on the table and you'll get at table time, that has six lessons that relate some more than others to the eight chapters we'll be covering. And your homework is a follow-up to or a building onto what I'm going to present in class. So the reason I took self-confrontation training was not with the intention of becoming a biblical counselor. But God has allowed me to do some of that. And I took the class because I felt I was missing something. You know how if you were sick and you missed a day of school, and you went back and you're like, What happened? I don't have any idea what you're talking about. How could I have missed that whole thing in one day? I don't know if you guys felt that. I did. I was a junior in high school taking biology. I missed the one day they dissected frogs. I was kind of glad for it, but then when they were talking about, well, remember when we saw that, I'm like, No. Anyway, I was missing something. I wasn't understanding how to apply what I was reading and what I was hearing preached to my life. But I wanted to be a better person, to become more like Christ. And I was dealing with some issues that had been very challenging for a couple of years. And I wanted to know how to apply God's word to those issues so I could think rightly about those things. And I wanted to battle the anger that I was still feeling about those issues so I could live rightly. I wanted to be different, to be changed, to be better. The first time I went through the class was really profound for me. To see the reality of the great gulf between man's way, my way, and God's way was earth-shaking for me. But in a good way. It helped me to understand that I was confused because I had bought into the ways of the world, the ways of man. And that was wrong thinking. And I saw that those ways were not in alignment with what I was reading and hearing. So for me, it was like the last scales were falling off my eyes. I could see more clearly who God was, what God said, what God said about me, how I could and why I could change biblically, how I could and why I should change biblically, and how I could live more victoriously as a Christian. I was beginning to think rightly. And as John said when he recently was preaching through Ephesians chapter 4, right thinking leads to right living. And this is why I wanted to teach this class, because I want all of us to be able to apply God's word to our lives, to think rightly so that we can practice right living, which is victorious living to the glory of God. OK, so why is it called self-confrontation? The aim of this study is to teach you how to confront yourself or examine yourself Biblically, so that you can live in a way that pleases God, right thinking and right living. And when you learn how to do that, then you can help others, too. You will be able to use this material to help others, maybe not as a biblical counselor, but as a Bible-believing, God-honoring Christian woman who knows what it means to apply the Bible to all your life, including the trials, tests, and temptations. any problem you have. It will teach you how to approach circumstances, relationships, the situations of life from a biblical perspective and to experience victory and contentment in all of life's trials, tests, temptations, and problems. And again, that's right thinking and right living. So some of you may be thinking, self-confrontation? Isn't that like saying self-condemnation? Instead of confronting myself, shouldn't I be building up my self-esteem or my self-image? Don't I have to learn to love myself before I can love others? Don't I have to know how to forgive myself before I can have true peace and joy? Well, questions like these reflect the fact that many people are believing and following false teaching that has been present since the beginning of time, but has gained unprecedented popularity in the church today. not our church, but the church in general. It is the doctrine of self-exaltation and self-gratification. This preoccupation with self is based upon a misunderstanding of one's relationship with God, which is unbiblical and deters spiritual growth. Self-exaltation and self-gratification have always had devastating consequences. Self-focus was the basis for Satan's downfall. And it was also at the heart of the temptation of Adam and Eve, which we studied last semester, we'll call it. The focus of the temptation of Jesus by Satan was an unsuccessful appeal to self. Self-focus will reach its pinnacle when in these last days, scripture predicts, men are lovers of self. So instead of pleasing and exalting yourself, scripture tells you to examine or confront and humble yourself. Matthew 23, 12 says, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So that's God's way. And you must do this because your heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, and beyond full understanding. The first step of self-confrontation is to realize your own sinful, lost condition before God, and second, to turn to God as your only hope of eternal salvation. According to His mercy, God provides salvation through faith as a free gift of His grace. not because of any good thing in you, and not because any good work you could do would merit his love and favor. And you're going to memorize the verse that talks about that, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, this week. Self-confrontation must continue throughout your Christian walk if you are to avoid the hypocrisy of judging the failures of others without first examining your own life in a biblical manner. And that's what we opened with Matthew 7, 1 through 5. Right? If your brother has a speck in his eye, how are you going to help if you have a plank in your eye? You've got to take that out first. OK. Little sidebar here. We went to one of those weekend marriage things. I can't remember what it's called. But anyway. Anyway, so the guy who was talking about that, he gets out his guitar and he starts singing this song, log eye, log eye, and it was just so hilarious. I don't even remember the rest of the words, but I'll never forget log eye. You know, you've got this log in your eye. Okay, sorry. Most importantly, self-confrontation must be achieved in accordance with the word of God, which is our standard for life. So you may have heard the worldly encouragement to follow your heart, trust your heart. Or you may be like me and think, well, I'm always in the right. It must always be someone else's fault for what's happened to me or for how they have treated me, right? But in the years since I've studied biblical counseling and self-confrontation, I have taken to heart the deceitfulness of my heart. That was a little pun. So when I am faced with a trial or a test or a temptation, a problem, I confront myself now. I go to God and ask, am I thinking rightly about this? Where might I be deceived? What part do I play in this? My goal is to test my heart. Am I thinking and acting rightly in accordance with God's word? We all know that we can't change anyone else. The only person we can change is ourself. So that's where we have to look for sin and error. Oftentimes, I find that the answer is that I am the problem. How I've spoken, my words, my tone, or my volume, or how I've acted, dismissive, curt, angry, defensive, or how I have thought, I deserve, I expect, I have a right to. On the rare occasion when the conflict isn't because of me, I ask God to help me think rightly and respond rightly. Continually confronting myself honestly, acknowledging my sin and failures, yielding to God, repenting, and walking according to his principles changes me. It may not change my circumstances or relationships, but it helps me to live victoriously in those circumstances and relationships. Confronting yourself in a biblical manner is often difficult and sometimes may be a grievous experience. However, the Holy Spirit, our helper, will assist us to face our own sins, failures, and shortcomings. Then he will comfort you, teach you, and guide you into all truth so that your sorrow may be turned into everlasting joy. If there's a single emphasis that underlies this training, it's for you to determine biblically whether you are seeking to please yourself or to please God in all you think, say, and do. As I hope you'll soon discover, the objective of this course in self-confrontation, which you could also call personal discipleship, is not to learn how to save your life, instead how to lose it for Jesus' sake through the process of evaluating yourself biblically. Throughout history, in every culture, mankind has sought solutions to life's problems. Each generation offers new man-made philosophies and models, which we'll talk about more next week. But personal and interpersonal problems continue to plague us. Even in the body of Christ, there are unhappy and broken marriages, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, fear, worry, and many other problems resulting in distress, physical illness, and immobility. You can't move forward. The only complete source that identifies the causes and provides solutions to all of life's problems is the Bible. Written over a period of 16 centuries, it has endured another 1,900 years. The promises and authority of God in the Old and the New Testament offer the basis for a vital, abundant, and victorious life. The Bible contains solutions to every problem of attitude, relationships, communication, and behavior. This study presents essential biblical principles for living that can change your life. And I gave you that sheet, so you've got all of them. Well, all for this week. There's 100 and some, but we're not going to cover all of them. If you earnestly desire to overcome problems and to develop spiritual maturity, you must be willing to confront your failures and shortcomings and make appropriate changes according to biblical standards. If you do this, you will be able to grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ and be in a position to not only help your others, not only to help yourself, but to help others in a effective, and biblical manner. The biblical principles in this study form the foundation for lasting change in your life. The biblical principles that will be presented provide patterns for living a victorious and contented life and are applicable to all, young and older, poor and wealthy, healthy and ill, skilled and unskilled. These biblical principles apply to all of life's circumstances, in any culture and in every part of the world, regardless of the age in which one lives. So this was applicable in Jesus' time. It was applicable in the Middle Ages, when they didn't even really have any writings or anything. And it's applicable now. This study encourages you to rely on the word of God to discover God's sufficiency for every aspect of your life. And the message of the Bible is abundantly clear. We have all sinned against perfect and holy God. Because of our sin, we deserve to be eternally separated from God. Because of his love for us, God took on human form and died in our place, taking the punishment we deserve. God promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven to all who receive, by grace, through faith, Jesus Christ as Savior. So our first lesson is you can change biblically. And we're going to look first at biblical principle number one. So if you have that sheet in front of you, and let me just say as I read the principle, I'm going to ignore the scripture references. However, I would encourage you to spend some time in this next week or so looking up these scripture references that make up the principle so that you will know this comes directly from God's word. And for most of what I'll be teaching later today, I have similar scripture references that I won't be reading. But I can provide to you, if you just make yourself a note so you can tell me where it was, what subject it was on, and I can get you those references. Because like I said, five or six hours a week looking up all of these scriptures. It's a commitment, but it's so worth it. OK, so let's read. God's plan for you to change in a biblical way centers on his son, Jesus Christ. And principle one says, because God's standard is one of perfection, you cannot meet it by your own efforts. You cannot save yourself nor depend on any other human being to redeem you. You need to recognize your helplessness to meet God's standard and need to repent of your sin. By God's grace and mercy, you recognize your lost condition and believe wholeheartedly and sincerely on the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the gift of eternal life and forgiveness for your sins. The first step in changing biblically is dealing with your spiritual problem. And I'm going to go through this fairly quickly because we've talked about this a lot in most of our Bible studies. But if you have any questions about this, please talk to me or one of the table leaders about this. I don't want anyone to feel today like they missed that day in school where salvation was addressed. So if you have any question, you say, wait, I don't get that. Talk to me or talk to Tiff or Karen or Gina, any of the table leaders. We want to make sure you understand if you don't. So if you don't already have a genuine personal relationship with Christ, you have a spiritual problem that only God can solve. Without this relationship with Jesus, the Bible says you are hopelessly separated from God, spiritually dead in your own sin, hostile to God, blinded by Satan and held captive by him to do his will, powerless to overcome sin in your life, unable to understand the things of God, unable to please God or walk in his way. Without Christ, you have a spiritual problem that only God can solve. But God's answer to your spiritual problems is based on his character. God is just, so you face his wrath and judgment in your sinful state. But on the other hand, God is loving, and he doesn't want you to perish in your sin, so he draws you toward his Son, Jesus. The answer to your spiritual problem is found in God's Son, Jesus Christ. God, by his gracious and merciful love, gave his one and only begotten son, Jesus, as the only answer for your helpless spiritual condition. You could not do anything to earn or deserve God's favor and mercy. Since you couldn't save yourself, Jesus paid the full price for the penalty of your sin by dying on the cross. God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, signaling his acceptance and approval of his son's sacrificial death for your sin. Through relationship with Jesus, the Bible tells us you can be given many blessings. But for the focus of this study, we're going to talk about three. Or I'm going to tell you about three. Through Jesus, you can understand the things of God. Isn't that amazing? How many times have we read the Bible and said, I don't understand? But if we are God's child, we can understand. You can become a new person with the capability for living in a totally new manner. How many of us have heard someone who says they're a Christian say, well, that's just me. I can't change. That's a lie. That's a lie from Satan. And if you truly believe that, you have to question your salvation, right? You can be empowered to change. to mature into Christ-likeness, and then to have an increasingly intimate knowledge of God himself. I know when I first started reading the Bible, I was like, oh, God, I don't know anything at all about you. But God, a few other pivotal things. One was reading The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink. Totally just blew up my whole picture of who God was. So I totally recommend that book. It was amazing. And then we did a video series called Behold Your God. And it was just like being in front of God's throne and seeing who he was. These things will change your life if you allow it, if you do what you need to do. But you cannot choose God's solution to your spiritual problem until he empowers you to choose his solution. When he empowers you to recognize his love and accept his truth as revealed in Christ, God enables you through faith to believe in Jesus, who offered himself as a sacrifice for your sin. You're empowered to repent of your sin. You're empowered to receive forgiveness for your sin. And you're empowered to receive Christ into your life. And then as a new creation, to live in faithful, and loving obedience to God's word. This is indeed victorious living, right? In our culture today, we know many people who say they believe in God, and some even proclaim Jesus, but they want to continue living how they want to live. So they alter God's plan of salvation to accommodate their own wisdom, thoughts, and desires. Our own wisdom is foolish and inadequate to know God in his ways. Our own thoughts are contrary to God's thoughts and ways. And our own desires are contrary to the spirit of God. When you alter God's plan of salvation to accommodate your own wisdom, thoughts, and desires, you place yourself under God's condemnation, his reproof, his chastisement, and his curse. Be sure that you haven't made God in your own image and are worshiping a false god. So do not change anything in God's plan of salvation. By faith, you can take the first step of biblical change. If you have never taken this first step to change biblically, you can do it today. You can do it even right now. What you have to do is confess that you are a sinner and you need God's forgiveness of sin. You acknowledge to God that neither you nor anyone else but Jesus Christ can save you because he alone was worthy to and did pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead so that you can have a new life. By faith, you can receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and thank God for his grace and love to you through Jesus. And with a sincere and repentant heart, demonstrate your commitment to him by being obedient to his word. Now, we've all heard, just pray the prayer. So I just want to point out, just saying a prayer isn't in itself going to save you. It's not a magic oath, and you say it, and poof, you're saved. You are making a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ that you're going to make him Lord of your life. You are giving up control of your life. You're going to live how the Bible says to live. You are swearing allegiance to Christ and becoming a slave to him. You're giving up all rights to yourself, to your wisdom, your thoughts, and your desires to live under his wisdom, his thoughts, and his desires. And ladies, trust me, when we are saved, his wisdom, thoughts, and desires become our wisdom, thoughts, and desires, right? So that's what it's all about. So how do you know if you're saved? Some of us may have been here for years, and we're still like, I just don't know. I just don't know. So the first thing is you truly and continually believe in the gospel. 1 John 5, 11 through 13 says this. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. To you who believe, this is not a one-time event in the past. but a now, an ongoing action. So we can't just say, oh, yeah, I believed 20 years ago. No. Believe means we continue in that. We continue in it and truly believe it, right? So we can't just say, well, I believe that part, but I don't believe that part. No. That doesn't work. You have to believe all of God's word. The second thing is you understand and believe the Bible as God's word. You have to ask yourself, do you really believe God's word is authoritative? Do you read God's word and say, that's what God wants me to do? And then you do it. And the third thing you test yourself to know if you're safe, are you bearing fruit? Fruit is performing deeds in keeping with repentance. It's your actions. Are you loving, joyful, patient? Is the word transforming you? And I heard this phrase, a faith that hasn't changed you hasn't saved you. So if you accepted the Lord and nothing's changed, you probably aren't saved. Just saying. So make sure you evaluate yourself. But what if you don't feel saved? So maybe you can't pinpoint a specific time in your life when you were saved. I have that. I think Tiff had that. Probably others have had it. But you were converted or regenerated at a certain point in time. But you may not know that time. You don't have to worry if all of the above is true of you. You truly and continually believe the gospel. You understand and believe the Bible as God's word. And you're bearing fruit. Those are the responses of a saved soul. Or you might have unconfessed sin in your life. So you're thinking, am I saved? I don't know. Your communion with God can be broken by your sin, but your union isn't. God is not going to lose anyone who's his. Confess and repent. That's it. That's what we do when our sin is unconfessed. We confess it, we repent it, and we say what God says about sin, right? And we can move on. Or does God seem silent in the midst of your trials? This is a hard one, because I have a dear friend who struggled with this. And I know she's saved. And I know she knows God's word. And yet, he still felt distant to her. Sometimes we blame God for hiding himself from us. But often, we have been the ones to distance ourself from him with our failure to trust and obey. Or maybe it's just a feeling we have. And we have to preach God's word to ourself. His word is true, and you need to remind yourself of it. So when you're feeling like God has left you, you need to read his word and say what he says about that. He is faithful. He will never leave you or forsake you, even if it feels like it. And remember, the Bible says that Christians are known by their fruit, not by their feelings. So if you are saved and you have confessed and dealt with your sins, your feelings are not to guide or condemn you. They're just feelings. And there's going to be almost a whole lesson in that in the homework book, and we'll cover it in lessons too. But just wanted you to know that. To change biblically, you must understand that man's way of solving problems falls far short of God's solutions. Man's way typically deals with symptoms of the problem, whereas God's way goes to the heart of the problem, the source of the problem, sin. We just talked about salvation. Why would we start there? Because there's no substitute for God's plan of salvation. All of man's wisdom, philosophies, manipulations, and sincerity cannot save anyone. Any person claiming to have taken a different path to salvation, except through Christ, is likened in scripture to a thief and a robber. And the Bible says they will be rejected by Christ. Our problems are rooted in the sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden and cannot be solved with man's wisdom and philosophies, regardless of the futile or useless attempts to mix God's word with unregenerate and unrepentant suppositions and theories. The futility of these attempts is seen, especially when God's word claims total sufficiency to solve all problems. Man's wisdom, which merely deals superficially with the basic problems of rebellion and disobedience, seeks to reject God's will and his word and his plan of salvation. But God's word has been given to us as the only source for finding God's solutions to the problems that plague us. So we need to understand the difference between man's way and God's way in our search for a contented, joyful, peaceful, and victorious way of life. The primary difference between man's way and God's way is that man's way is oriented to self. to please self, to comfort self, to rely on self, to fulfill self, to forgive self, to exalt self, and to love self. Scripture refers to this as the old self nature or the old man. And we've been hearing about that in John's preaching, right? God's way is to regenerate and change you. So let's turn to Ephesians 4, 22 through 24, and we'll see how God does this. Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. Okay, Ephesians 4, 22. that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you may put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. So John preached this passage on December 4, 2022, for those on the recording. And it was the best exposition of this passage that I've ever heard. And I've heard quite a few of them, because this is a key passage in self-confrontation and biblical counseling. So I recommend you do go back and listen to it again. But in this particular passage, there are three actions that we want to look at. First, putting off from you the old nature, John said, that the old nature or man refers to everything that we were before we were rescued by Christ, when we were ruled by the evil desires and practices. So you have to get rid of everything and anything left from your old life that is rotting and putrid and holding you back. from living the life that God is calling you to. And the second action is renewing the spirit of your mind as part of your continual process of maturing in Christlikeness. That was be renewed in the spirit of your mind, right? Romans 12, 2, which I mentioned earlier, is so important. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. John said, this is key for us, because as a Christian, right thinking leads to right living. Sorry, got that backwards. Well, if you're living rightly, you're thinking rightly, too. So right thinking leads to right living. Throughout this study, I'm going to keep talking to you and pleading with you to think rightly. I don't know. Maybe somebody's keeping track of how many times I've said that, but I don't know. David Guzik, a commentator, said, our Christian life must go beyond head knowledge, but it absolutely must include head knowledge and influence our whole manner of thinking. This is not just in the sense of knowing facts, but the ability to set our minds on the right things. This is so fundamental to the Christian life that Christian growth can even be described as the renewing of our mind. The third action in this passage is putting on the new nature. So you can't just take something off or out of your life and think it's all good. God's word calls us to take off the old, the bad, the corrupt things, but replace them with new, good, holy things. God's, we are not to just stop doing something we shouldn't do. We need to replace that old conduct with new conduct that glorifies God. So God's way is to first regenerate and change you, and then God's way is to empower and mature you as you deny yourself and follow Jesus. Luke 9, 23, and 24, which is also a memory verse you're going to learn over this study. Then he, Jesus, said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. So he's talking here about giving up all of your life, right? We're going to give everything to him. He makes all the decisions. Well, we're making the decision, but under his guidance through his word, right? John MacArthur gave some descriptions of denial of self, dying to self. He said, self-denial becomes a life pattern. Now, what does it mean as a Christian? And I'm going to just give you two things. He had a whole list, but let me just give you two of them. When you are not forgiven by people, or neglected, or purposely set aside, and you feel that sting, that hurt with the insult or oversight, but your heart is happy and you're content to be counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that's dying to self. Or when you When your good is evil spoken of, your advice is disregarded, your opinions are ridiculed. But you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself. But take it all in patient, loyal silence. That is dying to self. Ladies, this is what it means to become a Christian. We give up living for ourselves. We give up all of our rights. and we live as Christ lived. God's way is to empower and strengthen you to mature as you deny yourself and follow Jesus, and as you lay aside or put off the old practices and walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, and as you please God in all things. That's what he gives us the power and the strength to do. Instead of man's ideologies with which focus on self, God's plan establishes your true position in Christ and gives provision for you to be forgiven of all your sins and become a new creation, a child and heir of God, a citizen of heaven, blessed with every spiritual blessing and fully complete in Christ Jesus. Transformed by the renewing of your mind, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, full of his peace, changed by the word of God, led by the spirit of God to understand the things of God. You are able to accomplish or endure anything in God's will for you through Christ, knowing that God is in total control of your life. Ladies, these are the blessings that God has provided for us. And this is just a sampling of his blessings. I mean, I could be here for another two or three hours if we went through them all. So you see, there is a great difference between Satan's way, man's way, and God's plan for your life. Satan's plan is to keep you oriented toward gratifying, pleasing, exalting, and esteeming yourself. God's plan emphasizes that you are to live for him. Your old self nature was crucified and buried with Christ so that you might walk in newness of life. Once a person is saved, change is expected. Again, faith that hasn't changed you hasn't saved you. If you are saved, you will change. The process of biblical change explained in God's word begins when you repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given you everything you need to make the changes in your life that will please him and lead to his blessings. As you continue to obey God's word, Biblical change toward maturity will occur in your life until you see Jesus face to face. Remember, biblical principle number one said God's plan for you to change in a biblical way centers on his son, Jesus Christ. So let's look at biblical principle number two. You are to establish a biblical pattern of life. You are to be rooted, built up, and established in the Lord Jesus Christ and are not to be conformed to the world. You must practice God's word to grow into maturity. So the process of lasting change begins when you're converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And God has given us a new relationship with him. You can change biblically because you have a different relationship with God and can have a different view of yourself others and your problems. You've been given the gift of eternal life and you have the certainty that God's work in you will continue until you are in his presence. You may have confidence that he will help you in any and all situations of life. You no longer need to be enslaved to sin, but you are to be a slave to righteousness. You have been set free to serve the Lord and others. and he will enable you to handle any problem that comes into your life. You no longer need to be defeated by any problem because God will not permit any difficulty in your life that can overwhelm you. And God uses trials and problems as opportunities for spiritual growth. And God has given us a new purpose in our life. This is this whole study in a nutshell. Man's way is completely oriented to self. Man's way is your old way of life. But God's way is completely oriented toward God and others. Christlikeness is our new goal. And there are two options on the table, pleasing God or pleasing self. This is really what it's all about, ladies. Either you're going to choose to please God or you're going to choose to please yourself. Instead of living for yourself, you can focus on learning to die to self. In following Christ, you are to lose yourself for God's, lose your life for the Lord's sake. This change in allegiance is demonstrated by practical expressions of loving God and loving others. God has given us a new purpose, moving towards Christ's likeness. And God has given us everything we need, all the resources we need to change biblically and live in a victorious life. So let's read. We'll skip principle three for right now. And we'll go down and read principle four, the Bible is adequate. Since God's Word is the only authority for faith and conduct and is the sole legitimate standard by which all aspects of living are evaluated, you are to rely on no other source. God's Word provides hope and gives direction for change in deeds, which are your thoughts, speech, and actions, and is adequate to equip you for every good work and to develop a Christlike attitude of servanthood within you. So in the lesson this week, it's going to give you a focus on the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. So I'm going to. Just kind of throw these at you, and then you can look up the scriptures that are in these biblical principles and do your homework, and you're going to get a fuller idea. But in the interest of time, we're going to skip over that. So let's read principle five. The Holy Spirit is necessary. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit are you able to live an abundant life. The Holy Spirit is fully divine and is identified as being equal with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. And we know that, right? But this whole study is to remind us of some things we know and then introduce us to how we can further that. And then principle number six, prayer is vital. Prayer is essential to a spirit-controlled life. You are to be devoted to prayer according to God's will and to bring everything and everyone unceasingly before the Lord." Just one thing I did want to mention in what God says about answering his prayers, his answering of your prayers. God will not give bad gifts as answer to your prayers. Even if to you it seems bad, God only gives good gifts. So you might need to reconsider your perception if you think God is giving bad gifts. So when we have a trial, the Bible says that is a gift from God. He promises us that, that we will have them, but they are his gift. So when you have that problem or trial and you think, why, why, why? Because he's going to do something good with it. It may not feel like it, but trust him. He will turn it to good. You may not see the good in this lifetime, but when you get to heaven, you're going to see, what did I worry about? God was using that, either in you personally or in people around you to glorify his name. So God does not give bad gifts. So just wanted to hit that up there. So we have truly been given everything we need to change biblically, God's word, his Holy Spirit, and prayer. And God has given us a new plan for changing biblically. So after your conversion to Christ, you can change biblically by obeying the biblical commands given to accomplish these changes. And we will be talking about these as we go through the whole lesson. Let me just give you three points in this section. Biblical change in you is sovereignly originated, sustained, and will be completed by God, but it's always linked to your full obedience to God's word. Your obedience to his word is a grateful response to God's love that is revealed in Christ Jesus. It is not dependent on circumstances your feelings, or other people. And we are to take all our thoughts and emotions captive. This includes any desires, feelings, lust. Our feelings are the caboose, not the engine. So we don't let them drive us or rule us, right? So remember that. And I think there's an illustration of that in the study book as well. And then finally, a commitment to please God begins with self-confrontation, which will enable you to develop and practice plans for change in your thoughts, words, and actions. In a few weeks, we're going to introduce a method where you can do this, where you can actually take one of your problems and make a biblical plan for change. So how you can overcome whatever that problem is. God has promised to change us. The Lord will continue to grow you until you're completely conformed to Christ. The Lord himself will grow you. And the Lord knows about every problem you will ever encounter, and he is merciful towards you, and he invites you to come confidently to him for grace to help in time of need. So I'm quickly going to talk about the process of change. It's also called sanctification, right? We've all heard about that. But the assumption we're making here, and this is an important assumption, is that from this point forward, we're talking about a genuine believer, a true Christian. So if you have not given your life to Christ and accepted him as Lord of your life, this is not going to apply to you, OK? That's a caveat there. So our position in Christ. And this is our positional sanctification. Before salvation, we were totally depraved. I'm going to read to you. I was going to have you turn, but we're running out of time. So Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." So this passage, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, states three facts that were true of you before salvation. You were dead in your sin, you were disobedient, and you were doomed. That's what being a child of wrath means. You are doomed. You have no hope. But after salvation, we're totally new. And Hebrews 10.10 says, by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. In verse 10, by that will, that's God's eternal will, we have been sanctified. And the Greek word translated sanctified is hagiazo. And it's a perfect passive participle, which means to be set apart. And it refers to a one-time action. We are set apart for God's own use at the point of salvation. That gives us our position with Christ. Our progress in Christ, so this is our ongoing or progressive sanctification, Hebrews 10, 14. So it's all in one passage, but there was some stuff in the middle that didn't apply to what we're talking about. It does apply, but it wasn't making the point. So Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one offering, he, Christ, has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. And hagiazo, as a present passive participle in this use, implies a continuous and repeated action. It's the state of being sanctified by the Spirit, but in cooperation with our faith. So God has a part, and we have a part in our progressive sanctification. God's part in progressive sanctification is He has the ability. He is able. He is working, and he wants to, and he will conform us to the image of Christ. He will transform our minds, and he will bring peace and contentment to the believer. And what's our part in sanctification? We must present ourselves to God as of a slave to a master. We must purge the sin out of our life, since that's our real problem. and make no provision for the faith. We must decide who will be our Lord, who our Lord will be. Is it going to be God, or is it going to be ourself? And we must continue in the faith. Remember, it's a continuing. And only death should stop us in that continuous sanctification, or progressive sanctification. We must practice our righteousness, and we must put our hope in God. So we talked about our position in Christ. God set us apart. And our progress in Christ, we are being sanctified or made holy. And then our responsibility to help Christ. Let's go back up now to principle three. And we'll run through this pretty quickly. Principle three, you are to prepare yourself to help others. Practicing God's word begins with judging yourself and removing sinful obstructions from your own life. Then you have the privilege and responsibility of restoring others to victorious living. So your responsibility in Christ is helping others change. And since this comes out of a biblical counseling training, I'm not expecting you to become biblical counselors. If you choose to, that would be great. We need more. But we all, to some degree, we do give advice to other Christians, right? People come to us and talk to us about their problems. We should not be saying, well, this is what I think. But we should be saying, this is what God says about your problem. And we don't just give them Tiff's number and say, call her, right? Or we don't say, well, call the office and talk to John or Dave. The paid people can't do it all. The leadership can't do it all. We're all called to counsel others. We do it anyway, right? So let's get trained through this to do that. We all have opportunities and responsibilities to help other believers by reminding them what God's word says and how it applies to their problems and then encouraging them to live worthy of the calling they have received. So I'm going to give you some quick practical ideas and then we'll go into table time and then we'll wrap up after table time. So first you want to know what you're trying to change. So it may be a specific sin issue, a trial, or a problem in your life. And sometimes they call those felt needs, but we don't really subscribe to that. Or it may be a total way of life change, the whole way you think about life. And this is kind of where I was. I needed to change my whole way of thinking. I was a Christian, but I wasn't making the connection between God's word and my life. You want to know why you are trying to change, not just because it's commanded, but also why is it commanded? What ought to be the motivation that drives our obedience? Why do we want to obey? So as you read through the Bible and come across a command, see if you can determine the purpose clauses. So here's a hint. They might be indicated by words such as for, so that, Therefore, or because it's telling us, why do I want to do this? Let me just give you one quick example. Ephesians 4, 28. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him in need. So the put off is don't steal. The put on is work. And the motivation or the why, why should I do this, is that you may have something to give to someone in need. So as you read through the Bible, try and pick those out. And whenever you see, so that, that's a reason why they've just told you what they've told you. So keep that in mind, OK? Another practical thing is to restructure your situation. And this helps you to put off what needs to be put off. The idea here is making no provision for the flesh and using the principle of radical amputation. We've heard if your hand causes you to steal, cut it off. That's a picture. So first of all, people. Avoid associating with those who can't teach wisdom. Think about who you spend your time with. Choose your friends carefully. And bad company corrupts good morals, period. This isn't talking about just knowing or working with someone. We all have contact with unbelievers or bad people. But this is talking about fellowship or intimacy. Bad company should not be part of your community. And then places. So parties. Some of us older ones, we don't go to parties much. But younger people, often you're invited to parties by friends or co-workers. And is that good? Is that profitable for you? And then there's certain kinds of entertainment. Could be movies, TV, music, books. Guard your mind. Don't let things into your mind that are going to be at cross purposes to what God's telling you. I used to like to listen to country music. And now I rarely do it, because it's all about drinking and cheating. And it's like, it's good music, but if you listen to the words, it's not so great. And then, of course, bars, nightclubs, regular hangouts. If your sin is caused by being in that environment, don't be in that environment. And then practices or priorities, you need to prioritize your schedule and find a wise balance. God, family, church, and others, right? This might include revising your hobbies, sports, work if you're doing a lot of unnecessary overtime, whatever keeps you from church events or being involved in the church family. You need to break the links in the chain of sin. So again, we've talked about dealing with confession, repentance, and receiving the forgiveness. But you also need to train your senses to know what's good or bad for you, to learn to discern between good and evil. And by teaching yourself to look to the word, We talked about 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is profitable. God provides solutions in the Bible, but you need to read it to find them. And then by teaching yourself to stop pondering, worrying, and go to God for understanding. Get out of your own head and go to the Lord. Get on your knees. Don't just keep mulling it over in your head. See what God says. And then train yourself. J. Adams, incompetent to counsel, said, encourage yourself to practice the good so faithfully that whenever occasions to sin arise, naturally and without deliberation, you must know what to do and do it with ease and expertness. You must be prepared to make good decisions and to have good reactions. Exercise yourself toward godliness. And then the last one is assimilate yourself with the rest of the church body. Go to church. Be with believers. Fellowship. You're coming here. That's great. That's a first step. Consider a faith group if you're not in one already. But just take the opportunity to be with God's people. And then serve and practice the one another's in. There's a whole list of one another's. Love one another. Serve one another. Bear one another's burdens. That's what we do as the church body. So that's the introduction to biblical change. And we're now going to go to the small groups. And your table leaders are going to introduce you to the book. And there might be another discussion, too.