Change Begins in the Heart

• Distinguishing between the profane and the sacred

• Distinguishing between man’s holiness and God’s holiness

• Distinguishing between my power to save and Jesus’ power

Seeking the Things of God

Learning HOW to look

Act 2:33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing

and hearing.

Col 3:1-3 ¶If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died,

and your life is hidden with Christ in God

• Jhn 18:36• Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If

my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world

• His kingdom is not of this world

• Heb 13:14• For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city

that is to come.

• His kingdom is not of this world• His church has no earthly headquarters

• Gal 1:11-12 • ¶For I would have you know, brothers, that the

gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

• His kingdom is not of this world• His church has no earthly headquarters• His gospel is not a man made message

• Jhn 14:1-3• ¶“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in

God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also

• His kingdom is not of this world• His church has no earthly headquarters• His gospel is not a man made message• Jesus is right where He said He would bring us

Seekers need to know what they’re looking for

• There is a secular realm and a spiritual world

• Secular; Latin; saecularis.. Refers to the known visible world

• Secular is neither good nor bad, just of this world

• Secular things CAN become evil distractions

Luk 8:14And as for what fell among the thorns,

they are those who hear, but as they go

on their way they are choked by the

cares and riches and pleasures of life, and

their fruit does not mature.

Mat 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Rom 8:6-9 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for

it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You,

however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who

does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

1Jo 5:12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have

life

2Th 1:7-8 …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the

gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Seekers need to know what they’re looking for

• There is a secular realm and a spiritual world

• Secular; Latin; saecularis.. Refers to the known visible world

• Secular is neither good nor bad, just of this world

• Secular things CAN become evil distractions

• Death severs all ties with the secular world

Ecc 12:7 and the dust returns

to the earth as it was, and the spirit

returns to God who gave it.

Seekers need to know what they’re looking for

• There is a secular realm and a spiritual world

• Secular; Latin; saecularis.. Refers to the known visible world

• Secular is neither good nor bad, just of this world

• Secular things CAN become evil distractions

• Death severs all ties with the secular world

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the

judgment seat of Christ, so that each

one may receive what is due for what he has

done in the body, whether good or evil

Seekers need to know what they’re looking for

• The spiritual world is a nonphysical, invisible realm

• Called by the ancients “the third heaven”

• In which we participate deliberately through faith and obedience

2Co 12:2-4 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise… and heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,

but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Gal 5:24-25 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also

keep in step with the Spirit.

Living in the spiritual world while we live in the physical is a tough thing.

Living in the spiritual world while we live in the physical requires two things.

1. Keeping Gods word and commandments

1Jo 2:4-6 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Living in the spiritual world while we live in the physical requires two things.

1. Keeping Gods word and commandments

2. Making the spiritual life our priority

Mat 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Seekers need to know about false trails

1. Pledging allegiance to Jesus does not make Satan go away

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh

about, seeking whom he may devour:He pursues us directly

2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Or, He schemes to destroy us

Seekers need to know about false trails

1. Pledging allegiance to Jesus does not make Satan go away

2. The appearance of Satan’s victories does not make him victorious

• Col 1:15-18 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in

earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before

all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Jesus has been given first place in EVERYTHING

• Col 1:19-23 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Thru Jesus we have a relationship with the Father

Seekers need to know about false trails

1. Pledging allegiance to Jesus does not make Satan go away

2. The appearance of Satan’s victories does not make him victorious

3. There is no way to get along with the world

• 1Jo 4:4-5 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome

them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in

the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of

the world, and the world heareth them.

• Rom 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they

which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do

the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

• Jhn 15:18-20 ¶If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the

world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If

they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying,

they will keep yours also.

KNOW THIS ABOUT SEEKING GOD

1. God’s love is UNconditional, but his salvation is conditional

2. There will be NO regret or disappointment in seeking the spiritual life in faithfulness

3. We’ll not only escape the corruption of this world, we will see and be with God