Trying vs. Training

Living a Jesus Kind of Life
Trying vs. Training

I. Introduction

A. Doing the right stuff is contingent on becoming the right kind of ! And we can’t into the right kind of person!

B. Exodus 3:13-14 (NLT) ¹³But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” ¹⁴God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.”

1. “”

C. John 8:56-57 (NLT) ⁵⁶“Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?”

D. John 8:58 (NAS) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

E. II Corinthians 5:17 (NAS) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

F. I Peter 2:1 (NAS) Put aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

G. II Corinthians 5:17 (NAS) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

1. I’m stuck with a “” in my life.

2. What do we do about that “”?

3. My task is to find out how to stay to —from one moment, to the next, to the next!

H. “Authentic spiritual transformation really is possible if we’re willing to arrange our lives around those practices that Jesus arranged His life around, so that we would continually be receiving life and love from the Father.” (Dallas Willard)

II. The Difference Between “” and “”

A. Romans 12-1-2 (NAS) ¹Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ²And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

B. Spiritual maturity is coming to believe—with our —that what Jesus said is true!

C. Acts 20:35 (NAS) ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

D. “The will is transformed by , not information.” (Dallas Willard)

E. “Arrange your life around certain that I arranged My life around. And you don’t even have to be good at them. You don’t even have to be a good disciple.”

1. Doing these things is just part of !

F. “Will I follow ’ way of life, or is there a way?”

III. Conclusion