Introduction
- Civil War can sidetrack sports teams, political campaigns, marriages, families, churches, even entire denominations.
- If you are waging a civil war against yourself, ultimately your life will fall apart.
- You cannot thrive as long as there is conflict in your personal life over what your values and priorities are.
- Example: Being in a committed relationship yet still wanting to have the “single” lifestyle.
- Example: Wanting to be successful in business yet still wanting to have a lot of free personal time.
- Example: Wanting to advance in one’s career, yet not wanting to put in the hours involved.
- Example: Having a desire to be more spiritual and to be closer to God, yet still following their own dreams life regardless of what the Word says.
- Can you think of other examples of conflicting purposes?
- Winning the inner civil war requires that we live with a focus.
- Your head and your heart have to be moving in the same direction, or else inner conflict will erupt.
- You can’t serve two masters.
- The word ‘Lord’ means ‘Boss’.
- Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Hindrances against living a focused, Christ-centered life:
1. Hanging on to the Past (v.1-8)
- When you make a decision to follow Christ, you are agreeing to leave behind the old way of life and begin living a whole new way.
- You say goodbye to sin.
- You leave behind your old way of life.
- It’s not a question of, “How many sins can I get away with and still go to Heaven?”
- It’s a matter of, “How can I completely eliminate sin from my life?”
- As long as you hang on to the past, you will never be able to win your civil war.
- We have a new way of thinking
- We have to say goodbye to the parts of our life that did not include Christ
- Colossians 2:20
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: - Colossians 3:1
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. - Colossians 3:3
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Do you have things or issues from your past that you have not yet fully committed to Christ?
2. Mixing up priorities (v.4)
- Do not forget what is really important
- Example: I love books, but that is not my life
- Example: I love chicken wings, but that is not my life
- Example: I love music, but that is not my life
- People who keep their priorities in order, keep their lives in order.
- Christ is your life, and all your priorities must revolve around Him.
- He is the source of life
- You can ask for whatever you want and whatever you need, and He will provide it according to His will.
- 1 John 5:14-15
14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. - What if you know you have to do something, but you don’t want to do it?
- Ask God to change your heart.
- Ask God to give you the strength to do right regardless of how you feel.
What are your priorities in life right now? How can you ensure that Christ is still at the centre of each of them
3. Underestimating the destructive power of sin (v.5-9)
- As long as you believe some sins can be overlooked, you will continue to lose the inner civil war.
- When it comes to sinning, there is no compromise; sin is sin, it is always destructive
- Read the list that Paul gave, the first ones are grave and obvious, but the next ones are treated in the same manner as well.
- “Losing our temper” or “telling a little white lie” are both as graves sins as the ones mentioned.
- If you hold yourself to a higher standard many of the inner conflicts you currently struggle with will simply disappear.
Do you always remember to present all your sins to God
Conclusion
- Set your heart and your mind on the things of God and experience the joy of a focused, Christ-centred life.
- He doesn’t want any obstacle to stand in the way of your ability to ultimately appear with Christ in glory.
- Set your heart and your mind on the things of God and experience the joy of a focused, Christ-centred life.