Honor in Action - Part 1

REAL CHANGE // TRADEMARK CHURCH

HONOR IN ACTION, PART 1

There are three steps we can take to become vessels of honor: offer our bodies, renew our minds, and surrender our wills.

1. Offer our bodies.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice— the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”—Romans 12:1

The body is the place where sin operates. We might sin by saying something with our mouths, looking at something with our eyes, or touching something with our hands. In Job 31:1, a righteous man says, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.” When we are intentional with our bodies, we are able to make conscious decisions to avoid sin. We will make great progress toward becoming a vessel of honor if we are willing to say each day, “Here I am Lord; clean me up. Take each member of my body and the things I have done and wash me. Take my appetites, my addictions, my habits, my tongue, and my attitudes, and consecrate them—change them into your thoughts, your words, your attitudes, and your actions.”

Underline the first word of each command in the following verses:

Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.—2 Timothy 2:22

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.—Romans 6:12–14

2. Renew our minds.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”—Romans 12:2

Though sin functions in the body, the mind controls the body. Sin actually begins in the mind, in the ideas we choose to think about.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”—2 Corinthians 10:3–5

In this passage, we see that spiritual warfare is an essential component of the Christian life. Many Christians love God but have no clue how to fight the enemy. If you want to have victory over the enemy’s attacks on your life, it is important to get equipped for battle, because the devil is scheming to destroy you.

Write 1 Peter 5:8

One of the ways we fight the enemy is by demolishing arguments and pretensions— false ideas that the enemy plants in your mind that are contrary to God’s thoughts. A lot of the ideas we’ve subscribed to, even about God, are simply wrong because they are contrary to Scripture.

Don’t listen to the voice of the enemy; listen to the Word of God. For example, when the Bible says, “By his wounds you are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), believe it! Warfare is exchanging the report of the world for the report of the Lord. Peace can reign and rule in ours hearts when we align our thoughts with the truth of God’s Word.

Here is the main question when it comes to spiritual warfare: Can the enemy get you to believe him? We must take thoughts captive and compare them to what the Bible says is true. Minimize your exposure to worldly thinking in entertainment, media, and unfortunately (or especially) even in the academic world, and saturate yourself with the Word of God. When you turn off the programming of the world, the voice of God will become clearer to you.