Welcome to Sunday Fuel! This series of questions is designed to assist your personal reflection and fellowship with others about the sermon from this past Sunday.
Go to This Sunday’s Sermon (start at 22:34).
This sermon marks the introduction to this summer’s series on the fruit of the Spirit. Take some time to prepare for this series by turning our gaze and affections to Christ for the transformation of our desires through the help of the Holy Spirit.
Understanding Our Heart Desires
- What is one particular area of your life in this season that resists change, no matter how much you try to change it? Or is there someone you struggle to love as Christ calls us to love?
- Consider each of these aspects of love in the list describing the fruit of the Spirit and “grade” yourself honestly. Where do you see growth? What do you lack? Where do you need to grow?
- Pastor Kim explained that change happens as the Holy Spirit works to transform you at the level of our heart desires. What desires are you pursuing, protecting or feeding? Think of the people you struggle with. Why do I struggle with them? What do I desire that I am not getting? What works of my flesh tempt me?
Participating in the Transformation of our Desires Through Faith
- How might the Gospel reminder that you are HIs own generate a renewed affection for Christ? How might this be foundational for your movement in love towards others?
- Consider the desires that you mentioned earlier. How might faith in Christ allow you to rest in His care over all the desires you hold dear? Will you surrender, putting to death the desires you once were tempted to attain by your own power?
Turning to God in Prayer
In praise and thanksgiving:
- For the Gospel: Jesus entered our world to make us His own.
- God the Father has adopted us and has placed his love and affection on us.
- The Holy Spirit is in me right now to help me change and transform the desires of my heart; therefore, I can have hold courageously to the promise of change made possible by the Gospel.
- Thank God that He takes our transformation so seriously that He, in the person of the Holy Spirit, will change us.
In confession:
- Pray that you may see the Holy Spirit at work in your life, as He impresses on your heart how great your transgressions are, where you have rebelled against Him, where our desires for other lesser things enslave us still.
In petition: Suggested things to pray for
- Hope in His promise and protection from doubts that discourage you when progress is slow or imperceptible.
- A godly discontent, that I might desire to change.
- The grace of humility expressed in acknowledgement of weakness and dependence
- Faith to keep fighting the ongoing battle
- Focus in the right direction
- Trust in his faithfulness, though it does not seem like you’re changing.
- Transformation of our desires: purifying those tainted by sin, replacing sinful desires with godly ones, granting new desires I do not yet possess, that I may bear fruit that honors and glorifies Him.
- Commitment to enter the battle, to desire what Christ wants over what you want.
- Plead with Him that His greater mercy and grace may be impressed on our hearts, that we might love much.
- A faith that works itself out in loving fruit as you walk, live and keep in step with the Spirit.
In closing:
Thank God for how much you have been forgiven through Christ, that you are His—loved and cared for. Thank Him that He shadows over your life with His loving presence.
“Truth is not a passive state of mind. It is a vigorous act of the soul by which we choose to lay hold on the promises of God and cling to them despite the adversity that at times seeks to overwhelm us.”—Jerry Bridges
Reference:
Pastor David’s message from last week: Walk By the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-21)
