What Makes Heart Detox Possible
Passage: Romans 6.1-11
Date: January 8, 2023
The focus of this sermon series, “Heart Detox,” is to allow the Spirit to empty our hearts of anything that is offensive to the Lord and detrimental to ourselves. When the Spirit detoxicates our hearts, we are then able to experience God's grace, power, and joy with greater depth so that we can love others accordingly.
But what hope do we have that we can experience this kind of transformation of our hearts? If our hearts are in need of detoxication, then we are grossly offensive to our holy God. If that is the case, then why would he bother to save us? This is where we must be reminded of the death, resurrection, and life of Jesus Christ. It is only because of the death of Christ that we have been completely forgiven of our sin; it is only because of the resurrection of Christ that we have a power to overcome our sinful habits; and it is only because of the life of Christ that we are being conformed to perfect obedience. Unfortunately, many of us have a distorted understanding of this, so this sermon will unpack the relevance that the death, resurrection, and life of Christ has on our lives.
When we reflect upon the certainty of what Christ has done for us, we frequently wonder: how come I still struggle with sin? To the question, the sermon will remind us of the ambiguous era that we all live: "The Already, Not Yet." Indeed, what Christ has already done is secure and fixed; at the same time, the full consummation of what Christ has done has not yet been complete.
Through this sermon series, we pray and hope that we can:
Have a greater appreciation for the relevance of the gospel of Christ
Understand the unique and powerful blessings that we have from the death, resurrection, and life of Christ
Experience instances where we are putting off our old, fleshly, sinful ways and putting on our new, Spirit-filled, Christ-conforming ways
Allow the Spirit to liberate us from sinful and destructive habits, attitudes, or ways of thinking
