wonderful music this morning. I believe it honored the Lord, blessed hearts. Maybe you just need to put a big hallelujah or amen out there on your emoji at that moment. I want to encourage you to continue to interact with the service. Don't let the devil defeat you. Hey, let's be a part of things today. Let God work in our hearts and lives. Well, turn in your Bibles if you would please to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. We've been preaching on the great words of the Bible and we've talked about the sweetest word in the Bible, the word grace. We talked about the costliest word in the Bible, the word redemption. We talked about the most paralyzing word in the Bible and that is the word fear. And then we talked about the most agonizing word in the Bible. That's the cross. And then we talked about the most joyous word in the Bible. That is risen. Aren't you glad that He's alive today? Friend, listen. We wouldn't have what we have if Jesus wasn't alive. What a blessing it is today to know that He's alive. And then last week we looked at the Bible word justification, the most fascinating word in the Bible. And now this morning I want us to key in on verse number 3. Look if you would please. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse number 3. For this is the will of God. Many times people say, Preacher, I just want to do God's will. I want God's will for my life. Well, here it is. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." And then he goes on to explain because that's the heart that Paul's talking about to this group of believers that you should abstain from fornication or sexual impurity. And he begins to talk about that in their own lives. And notice though, I want to draw our attention to the word sanctification. I have entitled today's message, The Strangest Word Let me tell you why in just a moment. The strangest word in the Bible, sanctification. Let's pray and ask God to help us this morning. Father, we sure thank You for Your goodness in our lives. Lord, I thank You for the great words of our salvation, the great words of the Bible. Lord, many times they're words that some of them we even have a hard time pronouncing, much less understand. But yet God, they're so simple. Lord, they're big words with simple meanings. Lord, they help us to understand what You want to do in our lives. Lord, I'm so glad that Your Word is so deep and so rich. Lord, we'll never mine its depths. We'll never fathom everything that You have for us. But I'm glad, Lord, that we can touch the hem of the garment. Lord, that we can learn of Your great work in our lives and what You wrought in Your Son at Calvary. Father, I pray You'll meet with us this morning. Do a deep work in our hearts. God, revive us again that we might rejoice in Thee. Lord, somebody might be listening today that they don't even know if they're saved. Lord, deep in their heart, they don't know if they'll go to heaven. I pray they'll come to Christ today and they'll believe on You and know what it is to be a child of God. Lord, that Christians would respond today to what You want to do in them. And Lord, we'll thank You for all that You do in our lives today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, oftentimes there seems to be a disconnect. A disconnect among Christians between what we believe and many times how we behave. As a matter of fact, somewhere along the way there can be a failure to recognize that what you and I believe should have an impact on how we live our lives as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me ask you a question. How did being a Christian affect your life this week? How did it affect your life? Being a Christian, how did it affect your life on the job if you're considered essential? Of course, I'm just going to go ahead and say every job's essential, and everybody's essential, and I'm not sure where we get this essential, non-essential stuff, but anyway, on the job, out in the community. Listen, our interactions, our attitude toward what's going on around us in life. Maybe how it affected you in your home as a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter. Listen, how did being a Christian, how did it impact our life or affect our life in our interactions with other people. See, I believe this matter of being a Christian is not just a Sunday thing. It's not just a once in a while thing. As a matter of fact, I'm a Christian. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. And friend, listen, how I believe, what I believe ought to affect how I behave. I just want to go ahead and say this morning it ought to be the heart's desire of every child of God to please their heavenly Father with their life. That ought to be your desire. That ought to be your passion in life. God, are you pleased with me? And I just want us to understand this morning that our ability to please God is wrapped up in this Bible word, sanctification. You see, right here, the Bible explicitly and implicitly teaches me that sanctification is God's will for my life. It's God's will for your life. It is God's will for every believer, every child of God to be sanctified. I hear this. Somebody will say, well, I'm saved, sealed, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost. And they say that and really don't even know what it means. I want to talk to you about the strangest word in the Bible. Preacher, why would you call sanctification the strangest word in the Bible? And I'm going to say this because many Christians are a stranger to God's work of sanctification in their lives. I mean, they know they're saved. They understand they're saved, but they don't understand that this aspect of salvation and what God's doing in their life, this matter called sanctification. you're going to find that the word sanctification is found both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sanctification, one of its derivatives, such as sanctify or sanctified, it's found over a thousand times in the Bible, 760 times in the Old Testament, 300 times in the New Testament. See, God is serious about this matter of your sanctification and my sanctification. Hey, I don't want to be a stranger to what God's doing in my life, do you? This word sanctification simply means, it's a big word, but it has a simple meaning. It simply means to be set apart. That's what it means. It involves setting something apart from something or someone to. So there is a set apart from and a set apart to. Actually, when you and I are set apart to God, it automatically sets us apart from sin and self and Satan and the world. Friend, I am sanctified. I am set apart from the world unto the Lord. I'm set apart. I'm sanctified from sin and self and Satan unto the Lord. That's what He's saying. You see, the moment I was saved, the moment you were saved, friend, we were set apart from sin, self, Satan, the world, into God. We became His special possession. We're to be used for His special purpose. Friend, listen, hey, we're bought with a price. I don't belong to me anymore. I'm His. And I've been set apart into God, and I'm holy unto the Lord. And dear friend, you're holy unto the Lord this morning. What has been sanctified, as I said a moment ago, is to be holy unto the Lord. In the Old Testament, the utensils of the tabernacle, the altar, the different furnishings, the tabernacle itself, the priesthood, His garments, all of that was said to be sanctified. It was set apart unto God. It belonged to Him. It was holy unto the Lord. And friend, I'm going to tell you, anytime God claims something for Himself. It's sanctified, friend. That means it belongs to Him. It's holy under the Lord. Let me sort of explain it to you this way. I'm reminded when Moses was out following the sheep in the wilderness of Sinai, and he happens as he goes along and he sees a bush suddenly ignite and it's burning with a flame of fire, but yet the bush isn't being consumed. He had seen many bushes catch on fire in that arid region, but this was different. He turns to see this new phenomenon, and as he does, God speaks to him out of the bush and he says, Moses, Moses, slip your shoes from off your feet, for the ground you're standing on is holy ground. Now let me ask you a question. What made that ground, that particular piece of ground, different from all the other ground around it? Was it somehow special? Was it somehow constituted out of something different than the other ground that Moses had been walking on? No, it was the same sand. It was the same rock. It was the same arid parched land as all the land around it. But what made that land different, that piece of ground different from all the other ground around it? Was that ground to have been sanctified? Friend, God said, hey, this ground's different, Moses. I've set it apart unto me. It is holy ground. And friend, let me just tell you something this morning. The moment you got saved, you became holy ground unto the Lord, so to speak. Set apart unto Him. As a matter of fact, I'm so excited I'm getting tongue-tied. Christian, let me just tell you something this morning. You have a high, heavenly, holy calling. We're a people that have been sanctified or set apart unto the Lord. You know, one of the most popular designations in the New Testament, and I know what we mean when we say this, we'll say, well, I'm just an old sinner saved by grace. And we'll shout hallelujah and amen. And that's good. Listen, I understand that. But do you know once you're saved, God never calls you a sinner again? Never does. Matter of fact, He'll call you a sheep, a soldier, a son, a servant. And you know what His favorite designation for His children is? Saint. Did you know that? God tells me that the moment we get saved, we're the saints of God. We're set-apart ones. Do you know that word saints comes from the same word sanctified or sanctification? No less than 61 times God calls us His saints. That means I'm Saint Kevin. Now, you know what? We sort of relate to that sinner saved by grace, but we don't relate to that saint very much, do we? You know why? Because we know there's times that we don't act very saintly. Isn't that right? We're His special possession. God has a special purpose, and that purpose is to please Him. Now, when we think about sanctification, I want to help us to understand the concept by sort of contrasting it to the word we talked about last week, justification, and understand these two different works in God's life, excuse me, that God does in our lives. Justification deals with our standing, our position before God. I'm justified. I'm declared righteous before God. I'm just as if I'd never sinned. My record is clear in heaven. That is my standing, my position. Sanctification deals with my state or my practice before God. Position never changes, but practice can. Justification is that which God does for me. Sanctification is that which God does in me. Justification is an act of God for us. Sanctification is a work of God in us. Justification is the means. Sanctification is the end. Justification makes us secure and safe in the Lord Jesus. Sanctification makes us sound in our lives for Him. Justification declares us righteous. Now get this, child of God. Sanctification makes us righteous in our daily lives. You see, I believe that there's two kinds of righteousness in the life of a Christian. There is an imputed righteousness. That's where God took the righteousness of Jesus Christ and He imputed it. He put it to my account in heaven. Friend, that's why I don't have a record. Friend, Jesus' record is my record. I'm righteous before God. Isn't that an amazing thing? But then there's the imparted righteousness. That's how I'm to live in my daily life. One's my standing. One's my position. The other is my state or my practice as I live. Now, as we think about this strangest word in the Bible, sanctification, I want you to jot this down. There are two facts every Christian needs to understand. Then I'm going to delve into the message itself, OK? Sort of a long runway. Sanctification involves the entire person. That means God is sanctifying every part of me. I want you to look over, if you would please, in 1 Thessalonians 5 and look if you would please in verse number 23. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse number 23. Would you turn there? Notice here that it involves the whole person, everything about us. Look what the Bible says. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that verse tells me? A man didn't write the Bible. You say, Preacher, how do you know that just from that verse? Because we would have inverted it. We would have said body, soul, and spirit. Because you know what? We spend a whole lot of time on this body. I mean, we'll make it look good. We'll make it look fresh. We exercise. We try to eat right. We do these different things to pamper and help our body. But can I tell you, the Bible said that bodily exercise profiteth a little when it comes to spiritual things. It didn't say it didn't profit at all. God didn't say don't take care of the house that you live in. He didn't say that. But what he's saying is, that ought not be my emphasis. That ought not be what I spend all of my time on, is the outward. No, God said, let me tell you something. There's something more important. And that's who you are inwardly. Because listen, Christianity, it's an inside job. God doesn't work His way from the outside in, friend. God starts deep inside of you and works His way out. Isn't that exciting? And notice he says here that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved. God said, I want to sanctify you wholly. Listen, God sanctifies us outwardly and inwardly and upwardly, but following the Scriptures it's upwardly, inwardly and outwardly. Did you see that? God's sanctifying us. Then I want you to jot this down, number two. Here's second fact you have to understand about this strange word. Sanctification will always lead to holiness. Look if you would in 1 Thessalonians 4 again. I want you to find another verse for me. Look at verse number 7. Verse number 7. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness. People tell me all the time, well, the outside doesn't matter. All that matters is the inside. Well, let me just tell you what God just said right here. That I'm to be holy unto Him. That is an inward matter that will be shown in an outward manner. God does care about the outside. God does care about the inside. God cares about every part of you and me. And God has not called us to unclean us. And that doesn't mean God said, I want you to take a bath, although that's a good thing to do. What God's saying here, I want you to live pure. I want you to live clean. I want you to live holy. I don't want you to be worldly. I don't want you to be fleshly. I don't want you to be spotted by the world. I want you to live holy unto me. That's what God's saying. You say, preacher, why is that? Because a dirty vessel will never please God. For honest, there are times that we're anything but heavenly and holy in our attitudes and our actions. Isn't that right? Our practice here on earth doesn't always match our position before God in heaven. And so, sanctification is God's work in us to make our practice like our position. Friend, I am holy unto the Lord. Therefore, now watch this. I'm to be holy in my daily life. That's sanctification. God at work in me to make me holy. So sanctification, here's a definition. Sanctification in a very practical sense is the process by which God makes us holy. God is at work in our lives to make us holy. Holy. I am already holy unto the Lord. I'm already set apart unto Him. Friend, that happened the moment I got saved. But God said, listen, I want your practice. I want how you live. I want what you believe to affect how you live as a Christian. I want you to please me. Now, let's talk about this matter of sanctification. Number one, jot this down. Sanctification involves a person. Look in your Bibles. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. Going to give you a moment to find it. I Corinthians chapter number 1. Sanctification involves a person. Now, you know what? I could easily put every verse up on the screen, but you know what that would do? That would take us out of our Bible. Friend, I'm going to tell you what. The most precious book you own is the Bible. And it is good to interact with your Bible, to turn in your Bible, to look into the Scriptures, alright? And be familiar with my Bible. How important that is. And look, if you would, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse number 30. But of him... That involves a person. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Do you know that Christ is our sanctification? Do you know that reminds me that sanctification is both a supernatural and spiritual work of God in our lives? Do you realize that God, that the Lord Jesus, the risen Christ, my great high priest who is seated in the heavenlies is at work in my life through the Holy Spirit who lives within me? The work of God in my hand to to practically sanctify me, to bring me into a place that I'm pleasing to God. He is working in me to make me what He had had me to be. Friend, He's at work in you right now. Every one of us could wear a sign around our neck that says, God at work as a Christian. Great preacher A.J. Gordon was walking through the World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois many, many years ago, many decades ago. This is the turn of the last century. The century before this one. And when he saw in the distance a man, what looked like a man vigorously pumping water. I mean, he's just going at it. And water was spewing all over the place and he kept walking toward it, looking at it, and as he got closer he discovered something. He discovered that what he thought was a man was actually the wooden figure of a man. And the water spewing out was actually an artesian well. And it wasn't a man pumping water, but it was water pumping the man. And friend, let me just help you understand. This matter of living the Christian life, it's not just difficult. Friend, in ourselves, it's impossible. The Christian life was never designed for me to live on my own. It's not me straining and striving to be holy, no. It's yielding to Jesus Christ. It's Jesus that makes me holy as I obey Him. It's Christ's life in us. It's Him living through us, friend. Christ's life in us enables us to become all that we should be, and all that we can be for Him. That's why the Bible doesn't work for an unsaved man. That's why I don't make any heads or tails. For listen, it's not a matter of conforming. It's a matter of being transformed as God works in our lives. You say, Preacher, why can't that man do that, an unsaved man? Because he doesn't have a new nature. He's not connected to the power source. And Christian, you are. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth 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. Friend, listen, get the secret of it. We can call it the secret of sanctification. It is Christ living in us. That's what it is. He lives His life through us. Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me. Sanctification is Himself in me. As we yield the very life of Christ in us, He sanctifies us. He works in us to mold us and shape us and direct us in what He'd have us to be. Hey, I just want to remind you this morning, He's the potter and we're the clay. Too often we get the idea that we're to figure our lives out. Somehow I'm to figure out what am I going to do with my life? How's my life going to matter? Could I tell us that it's not a matter of what I want for my life, it's a matter of what He wants for my life? That's what it is. Young person, can I just talk to you right now for just a moment as you're tuned in? Could I challenge you to not try to write the story of your life and let God write it? Could I challenge you not to try to figure out the outcome and the subject and the direction? Why don't you just right now at the end of this message, why don't you just bow and say, God, You saved me and I want to belong to You. And Lord, I don't want to live my life and then realize that You've got something better for me. I just want to live all of it right now. Friend, listen, it's better not to wait to the end of life. Why don't you just start at the beginning of life letting Him write the story. Amen? So sanctification involves a person. See, it's the Lord who saved us that sanctifies us as we yield our lives to Him. I'm going to talk about that in a different way, but yet the same concept in the epistles of John about this matter of fellowship and walking in light. Same concept. Secondly, jot this down. Sanctification involves a process. It involves a process. There are three aspects to sanctification. Alright? I want you to understand that. Now I'm going to deal mostly with the process because that's what we're living right now in our everyday life. But positional sanctification took place at salvation. We mentioned that. How that we are set apart from the world unto God. We are holy unto the Lord. That is my position before God. I'm holy before Him. But now wait a minute. I could be living unholy on earth. Alright? My practice doesn't change my position, it ought to match my position. See the difference? Perfect sanctification takes place when we're in heaven, whether it's the rapture, whether we go by way of the grave. When we reach heaven, we will be perfectly sanctified. That means we will be completely and forever set apart from sin, self, Satan, and the world. Friend, listen. One of these days, this robe of flesh, we're going to drop and rise and receive the everlasting prize And we will be saved to sin no more. Isn't that a wonderful day? For never again, listen, in heaven, never again will I have a bad thought. Never again will I have a bad impulse. Never again will I have a sinful temptation. Never again will I displease my heavenly Father. I long for that day, don't you? That word perfect sanctification or that aspect of it links to another great Bible word. We can't look at all of them. We'll be preaching for a year on great Bible words. But it's the word glorification or to be glorified. That's that moment, friend, when we're saved to sin no more. But sandwiched in between. Now watch this. Sandwiched in between positional sanctification and perfect sanctification is what we're talking about as the process of sanctification or progressive sanctification. That's what Paul was talking about. We won't turn back there. 1 Thessalonians 4 when he said, This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, even your sanctification. That's what he's talking about. That daily process of becoming more and more what I should be by becoming less and less. of what I shouldn't be. Every day of our lives ought to be less and less of what I am by nature and more and more of what God would want me to be in honoring Him. Progressive sanctification. I want you to see how it works. Turn your Bibles to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter number 2. Now you're not going to find the word sanctification in these verses, but yet the concept is here. Here is the nuts and bolts, so to speak, the instruction manual on letting God work in our lives to sanctify us or make us pleasing to Him. Alright? Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 12. You see, progressive sanctification, this process of God sanctifying us or making us holy, is the continuous work which God is presently carrying on in the lives of His people. It has to do with our growth in grace. It's a process in which the old sinful habits of our past life, before salvation, pre-cross, are being replaced with new ones. Alright, look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, not just while I'm with you, but now much more in my absence. He said, you're continuing to walk with God. But now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Now let me tell you what he didn't say. He didn't say work for it. We've already learned that salvation is not something I earn. It's a gift I receive. He's not talking about salvation. He's talking about sanctification. Those two words, work out, means to thoroughly develop. It means to work to full completion. It's not a matter of working for something, but a working out of that which one already has. Okay? How many of you... I remember one night, you know, we used to be up real late at Christmas time putting together toys. I sure don't miss that day. I was so glad when my children got old enough that I wasn't assembling until 4 a.m. and then opening at 7 a.m. And, you know, I will never forget one night, one Christmas, Emily wanted a Barbie house. She's a little girl and she wanted a Barbie house. Well, I'm thinking, you know, I'm looking at this Barbie house picture and we order it or go pick it up, I can't remember, and it's in this little box. And I'm looking at this big house and it's in this little box. That wasn't good. And then you open the box and you pour it and you're trying to figure out how does all this become that or this picture on the box. And so I had the house. It was mine. But it was all these little parts and instructions that nobody can understand. And I always have parts left over. Say amen right there dads and understand what I'm talking about moms. Always parts left over. I'm sure they just added extra. I'm sure. But it worked, okay? And so we're wee hours of the night, toothpicks, holding our eyes open, trying to put this thing together. I'll tell you what I want to do. I want to forget the Barbie house, throw it out the window and strike a match and burn it up. That's what I wanted to do. Aren't you glad God doesn't feel that way toward us? Sometimes I'm a mess just like that Barbie house. Sometimes I want to strike a match. I'm glad God never does. I'm glad He's patient with us, aren't you? But I had to work out all those parts, follow the instructions, follow the instructions, and let God help me put the life together like He wants it to be. It's experiencing and realizing the full potential of all that we have and all that we are in Jesus. See, when you got saved, you got the total package. You got everything. We ain't missing anything. There's not a second work of grace. There's not something else for when you got it ever bit. Let me give you a few verses. Colossians 2.10 tells me we're complete in Him. 2 Peter 1.3, God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 2 Peter 1.4, He's given to us exceeding great and precious promises. God has given us all that is necessary for living life successfully for Him. Our part is to open the box. and work out what God has worked in to follow the instructions, to yield our lives to the Lord, to obey His Word. Friend, listen, if you love Him, if we love Him, we'll obey Him. Love, when it comes as a matter of loving God, it's not this fuzzy feeling. It's not a warm feeling. I don't care how fuzzy and warm we feel. If we're disobedient, the Lord said, you're not loving me like I want you to love me. Love is manifested in obedience as a child of God. Listen, if I want to say to God, I love you, then I need to obey Him. That's working out. That's following the instruction manual of life. That's bringing my life into conformity to the Word of God. And as I do that, God is transforming me. He's building me. He's molding me in what He wants me to be. See, that's my part in the process. See, in salvation, I don't have a part. God did it all. I just believe and receive. But friend, when it comes to sanctification, I've got a responsibility to work out in my daily life all that God worked into me the day He saved me. See, a lot of people, as they get a little further down the Christian life, they think, well, when things aren't like they're... or maybe there's sin in life or something like that, maybe I'm not really saved. When really it's not an issue of being saved or lost, it's a matter of working out. It's a matter of sanctification. We're not obeying the instruction manual and letting God make us what He'd have us to be. We're not growing in grace. But not only do I have a part in the process, verse number 12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Working out what God worked in the day saved me. But verse 13, God's at work. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." That's where it's all at. It's God. God worked for me in salvation, justification, but He works in me in sanctification. This is the process. God is working in me as I work out what He's done for me. worketh in you." God's the one who's constantly putting forth the power in us. The power to accomplish His good pleasure, to be pleasing to Him. See, I can't please Him apart from Him. His good pleasure, His desire, His purposes, His plan for our lives. So as I work out, God works in and accomplishes His good pleasure. And notice in that verse both the desiring and the doing comes from God. Notice that word to will. Those words, excuse me, to will, to desire. God puts or works in us the desires to do His will. Let me just tell you something. One of the things about being saved is this. We don't want to be what we used to be. May not be what I ought to be, but I don't want to be what I used to be. And there's a desire to be what He wants me to be. What is His will, preacher? How about assembling in worship like we're doing this morning? God wants us to worship Him. God doesn't want us to get used to how we're doing it. One of the dangers as we keep going along is it gets real comfortable just to watch it on TV. When the doors open and the time comes that we can all assemble back, God wants us to come back when we're comfortable and that time is right to assemble as a church, to read the Bible, to pray, to share my faith, to give to Him, to serve in different capacities of life, to surrender to Him, to renounce sin, I don't want to be what I used to be. I don't want to think those wicked thoughts. I don't want to live. I don't want to talk that way. I don't want hateful words. No, I don't want that. I don't want to be angry. You see, all those things that come to our minds about what we are, I want to be, God, what You want me to be. That's what it is. great preacher F.B. Meyer is one of my favorite writers. I've never read anything that F.B. Meyer has written that I don't profit from it. I recommend him heavily. He'll not lead you astray. You want a good Bible writer, get away from some of these new writers and go grab a F.B. Meyer book. I'm telling you, he'll get a hold of you. Now there's some good guys and I'll give you some names if you want some people, but anything you read from F.B. Meyer is going to be good. Along the characters of the Bible, things about the Christian life. It's a little more meat and potatoes reading. But he sensed at a conference in England, he sensed that something wasn't right in his life. He knew his say, but something was missing. You ever felt like that? He realized through that conference that there were some things he was holding back from God in his life. There were some areas of his life that were unsurrendered. Things he were unwilling to give up and surrender to the Lord. Is there something like that in your life? Maybe a relationship? Maybe a friendship? Maybe an action, a habit, a hobby. I don't know. I'm not saying everything of those things are wrong in every instance. But can I tell you if there's something that's keeping you from the best things in life, God wants you to lay that aside and surrender it to Him. But he was unwilling to give those up. He struggled and wrestled with God until at the last he said, Lord, I'm willing to be made willing. Lord, would you just make me willing? At that moment he said the victory came. He said that's when God broke through in his life. Maybe you're struggling and wrestling with God over some things in your own life. Why don't you just right now bow and surrender and say with all your heart, Lord, I'm willing to be made willing. Friend, when you do that, the victory is going to come. And He works in us to will, to desire, and to do. As we surrender to His desires, as we say yes to Him, as we choose to obey His will, the power, the enablement to be and do all that God wants us to be and do comes from Him. See, in this same book you're going to move over to Philippians 3. And you know what He's going to say? I can do all things through Christ which strengtheth me. And you know what? That's what he's talking about. I can do God's will through Christ that strengthens me. Every day of our spiritual lives we're to be more and more set apart unto God. Well, let's get ready to land the plane. So sanctification involves a person. Sanctification, the strange work that God's doing in my life, involves a process. It shouldn't be a strange work, but oftentimes it is. Because we live our lives without cooperating with God, without thinking, without realizing God's doing something in me and I need to respond to it. And then there's a product. I want you to look back at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, the last verse we're going to turn to, and we're going to be done. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. Now, that doesn't mean the wheels have touched the runway. That just means we're coming in for the landing, okay? Look at 2 Corinthians 3 and verse number 18. But we all... Did you notice Paul includes himself right here? You know what Paul just said right there? I've not arrived. I'm not everything ought to be for God. There's areas of my life that doesn't please Him. Did you know He struggled just like you and I struggle? Doesn't that make you feel better? It does me that the great apostle Paul struggled. He writes about it in the book of Romans. He said, there's some things I'm doing I wish I wasn't doing. There's some things true about me I wish wasn't true. There's some things I ought to be doing I'm not doing. Oh, wretched man that I am. You ever feel like that wretched man that Paul talked about? But we all... Now watch this. With open face, that's an honest heart. That's when you look at a mirror, you're not hiding from the mirror. Now, this morning I got up, I sort of wanted to hide from the mirror. How many can say amen right there? Okay. That's what he said. We're not hiding from the mirror. It's an open, honest face. I'm taking an honest look. But we all with open face and honest look beholding as in a glass a mirror the glory of the Lord." You know what he's saying? Just like we go and look at a mirror honestly to see what needs to be worked on, what needs to be changed, what needs to be fixed, what needs to be addressed. So we should approach the mirror of God's Word with an open, honest heart saying, God, I'm open to whatever You want to show me. I'll change whatever You want me to change. God, I want to do away with whatever You want me to do away with. God, I want to be whatever You want me to be. God, I want to be honest. I want to be open. I want to be true. I want to be changed. That's what he's saying. Because this book is the glory of the Lord. It shows me what I ought to be as well as what I'm not. Notice these next two words. As we come there and we respond to the Lord, are changed. That's a word. We get our word metamorphosis from that word. It's the idea of being transformed. We're changed. Aren't you glad that when we get saved we're changed? But that's not the end of change. There is a practical ongoing change in my life through sanctification. Hey, the inside is coming out. Isn't that a blessing? changed into the same image from glory to glory, from one level of glory to another level of glory. Even as by the Spirit of the Lord, God's at work in me. Oh, it ought to humble us that God loves us so much He doesn't leave us like we are. He makes us different. He wants us to be like His Son. He wants us to reach the goal of what He did in our lives the day He saved us. One Sunday morning on their way home from church, a little girl tapped on her mommy's shoulder and she said, Mommy, the preacher's message this morning confused me. I hope my message isn't confusing you. The mother replied, Oh, honey, why is that? And the little girl, she said, Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true? And mommy said, Yes, that's true, honey. God's bigger than us. And he went on to say that He lives in us. Is that true, mommy? Yes, honey. That's right. He lives in us. Well, said the little girl, if God's bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through? Boy, I tell you what, in the words of babes, she got it. You see, sanctification is just the process where God, the God that's within our lives, is showing through our lives and people around us are seeing Him. I'm honored at times. I'll go places. Evidently I got this neon sign blinking on my head that says preacher, preacher, preacher. And people, are you a pastor? Are you a pastor? You just talk like a pastor. You look like a pastor. And that's not because I wear a coat and tie when I'm on my grass. That's not what he's talking about. Okay? I'm grateful. But you know what I want them to know? I want them to say he's a Christian. He's a Christian. You're a Christian. You're different. You're different. See, if we're like everybody else, how are they going to see Him? Friend, we just need to get out of the way and let Him show through. And friend, then the victory comes. Three times God spoke from heaven. The wheels are touching the runway. Three times God spoke from heaven during our Savior's earthly life. God the Father spoke audibly from heaven three times. In every instance He's expressing His pleasure in His Son. Here's what He said. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." What a wonderful statement. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Can I just say that the more God's Son is seen in our lives, the greater the Father's pleasure with our lives. That's a pretty good statement. The more God's Son is seen in our lives, the greater the Father's pleasure with our lives. Friend, let me ask you a question. Is God pleased with who and what you are right now? Or would you have to honestly say, as you've looked into the mirror of God's words today, there's some habits and some attitudes and some actions and there's some things in your life that doesn't look very saintly. And God's put His finger on it. And you know what you can do? You can cut the video off and stop right there. You could. But that's not what God wants you to do, is it? You can just dismiss it. But that's not what God wants you to do. God wants you to walk in the light. His Word has exposed something in your heart and He wants you in a moment to bow your head and confess that sin to Him and ask Him to change you and you begin to follow the instruction book to be what God wants you to be. Every day of your life, that ought to be your prayer. Every day of your life, that ought to be your desire. Every day of your life, every morning when we wake up, God, help me to please you today. God, work in me. Help me cooperate with me. Help me to be yielded to you. Help me to be obedient to you, God, so that you can do your work in me to make me more and more of what you want me to be and less and less of what I am by nature. You see, the world's seen enough of Kevin Broyhill. It needs to see more of Jesus Christ. God wants to be pleased with your spiritual life, your marital life, your family life, our recreational lives, our church life. God desires to be pleased with us. Let's be pleasing to Him as we respond to this strange word in the Bible, sanctification. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Right now where you are, would you make an altar? out of your living room, your kitchen table, wherever you're at? Would you get serious with God at this moment? Has God through this message