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Man's Way and God's Way: The Path to Discipleship · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. Today we're doing a deep dive
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  into some material you shared with us, and it's focused on a
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  really sharp contrast. It is.
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  It's a look at what the source is called man's way of living
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  versus God's truth. Right, this this deep
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  theological gulf between the two, especially when you think
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  about the self sin and where we look for solutions to life's
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  problems. And the argument presented here
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  is that human wisdom, well, it's constantly creating theories to
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  explain our actions, but it does so by sort of pushing divine
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  revelation aside. Which creates a huge problem.
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  Two, really First, these human systems tend to deny how serious
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  sin actually is, and second, they wind up twisting God's
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  standard for what's good and what's evil it.
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  Reminds me of what we see in Proverbs where it says fool's
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  mock at sin. It's like we build this whole
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  intellectual House of Cards on the idea that we're basically
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  OK. And our mission today is to
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  really walk through these contrasts in detail to see the
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  the confusion of worldly approaches compared to the
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  clarity of God's plan for life. OK, so where do we start?
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  The sources seem to build their whole argument on one specific
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  passage. They do.
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  It all comes back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
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  It's the key because it completely reframes the whole
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  conversation away from self help and personal strength.
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  What does it say? Paul writes not that we are
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  adequate in ourselves to consider anything is coming from
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  ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.
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  So our ability, our competency, it comes from God.
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  Right, It's not something we generate on our own, he
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  continues. Who also made us adequate as
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  servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the
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  Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
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  Spirit gives life. That verse really just
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  dismantles the whole idea of human sufficiency from the get
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  go. It does.
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  If our adequate is entirely derived from God, then any
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  attempt to find solutions or wisdom just within ourselves
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  apart from Him is. I was flawed before it even
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  starts. It's an exercise in futility.
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  And notice the contrast he makes.
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  We're servants of a new covenant.
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  The covenant of the Spirit, not the letter.
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  The Old Covenant. The law.
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  It was the letter. It was perfect for defining
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  God's standard and showing us where we fell short.
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  But it couldn't give life. It can only point out the
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  penalty for failure. Which is why he says the letter
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  kills. It reveals the transgression but
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  can't provide the remedy. The life has to come from
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  somewhere else. From the Spirit.
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  So how does the Spirit give life in this sense?
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  The spirit actually does the internal work, it's not just an
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  external list of rules anymore. He regenerates the heart and
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  lives within the believer, giving both the desire and the
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  actual ability to obey. So our adequacy is a complete
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  dependence on God's action inside of.
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  Us, that's the starting point for everything else we're going
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  to talk about today. It's a total reversal of any
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  system that demands self generated effort.
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  OK, so with that lens, this idea of divine adequacy, let's look
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  at what the sources call man's way.
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  It's described as futile. It has to be because we have
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  these deep shortcomings that we just can't fix on our own.
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  Romans 3 is pretty blunt about it.
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  There is none righteous, not even one.
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  There is none who seeks for God. The material we have boils down
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  the state of the natural man, the unregenerate person, to two
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  main characteristics. Right.
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  And they define his relationship, or lack thereof,
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  with God's standard. The first one is called
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  inadequacy, which means just by definition, you can't live up to
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  God's design using your own mind or your own strength.
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  And Proverbs 1412 is the classic warning here.
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  There is a way which seems right to a man, but it's end is the
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  way of death. It might seem logical,
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  productive, even moral by our standard.
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  But it leads to separation from God, and this inadequacy is tied
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  to our ability to even understand. 1st Corinthians 2
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  says the natural person doesn't get the things of the Spirit of
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  God. They just seem like foolishness.
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  So we don't even have the right framework to process God's
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  truth. We don't.
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  And that's why human philosophy, no matter how brilliant, is
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  always working from a faulty premise.
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  It rejects its own need for outside help.
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  So if inadequacy is the inability, what's the second
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  character? It's rebellion.
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  This is the act of refusal. The natural man is described as
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  being self-centered, putting his own will and desires up against
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  God's way and. This isn't just an occasional
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  mistake. No, the biblical view is that
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  rebellion is the default setting of the fallen human heart.
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  It goes all the way back to the Garden, when Adam and Eve chose
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  their own wisdom over God's clear command.
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  This leads to a point in the source material that I think is
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  really challenging for a lot of people.
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  It's this idea about partial obedience.
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  It's a tough one. Because we tend to think, you
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  know, mostly good is pretty good.
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  But the argument here is that partial obedience is just as
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  unacceptable to God as outright rebellion.
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  It is, and it forces you to think about obedience in terms
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  of sovereignty. The example is King Saul in
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  First Samuel. Right, he was told to destroy
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  the Amalekites completely. Completely.
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  But he spared the king and the best of the livestock, thinking
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  he was doing a good thing, you know, to sacrifice them to God.
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  And Samuel's response is just devastating.
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  It is to obey is better than sacrifice, for rebellion is as
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  the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity
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  and idolatry. That's an incredible comparison,
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  equating partial obedience with witchcraft and idolatry.
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  How are they the same? It all comes down to authority.
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  In idolatry, you're choosing your own God.
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  In divination, you're seeking knowledge from a forbidden
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  source, impartial obedience. You're putting yourself in the
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  judge's seat over God's command. You're deciding which parts are
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  valid and which parts you can ignore.
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  You become the selector, the editor of the law, which means
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  you're putting your judgement above the law giver.
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  You're creating a God who only asks for what you're willing to
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  give. So the hard attitude is the
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  same. It's rejecting God's absolute
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  authority and making yourself the final decider.
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  That's it. True acceptance of God means
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  yielding completely to what he's revealed.
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  Otherwise, even though the most religious looking actions are
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  just pretense. To really get a handle on this,
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  then we have to go back, back to the origin of this fallen
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  nature. We have to start with the
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  original standard mankind created in God's image, unique,
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  righteous, given dominion. That was the perfect starting
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  point. But then came the moment of
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  failure. The warning in Genesis was so
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  clear, and the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die.
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  And that spiritual death, that immediate separation from the
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  life of God, was catastrophic. Romans 5 then spells out the
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  universal result. Sin entered the world through
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  one man, and death spread to everyone.
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  Because we all inherit that same corrupted nature.
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  Exactly. The sources breakdown the
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  consequences of that one act into six different parts of
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  life. It shows how sin isn't just one
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  little thing, it affects everything.
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  Does it starts, of course, with the spiritual consequence.
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  Separation from God, the death that was promised, the loss of
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  that perfect communion. And that separation is the root
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  of every other problem which leads right into the physical
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  consequence. And this isn't just about dying
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  eventually, it's that immediate shift to being self focused.
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  Right, they eat the fruit and the first thing they realize is
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  that they're naked. So they try to fix it themselves
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  with fig leaves. It's the first act of
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  self-reliance, trying to solve a spiritual problem shame with a
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  physical man made solution. Then you see the mental
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  consequences. Fear, worry, anxiety, deception
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  all enter the picture for the first time.
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  They hide from God, Adam says. I was afraid.
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  That open, trusting mindset is just gone, replaced by guilt and
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  hiding. And that mental corruption
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  immediately spills over. Socially, this is.
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  The blame shifting. It is when God confronts Adam.
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  What does he do? He blames God and he blames Eve
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  woman you gave me. She gave me from the tree.
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  And then Eve turns and blames the serpent.
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  No one takes responsibility. That perfect unity is instantly
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  shattered by self preservation. That really set the broken model
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  for all human relationships. Didn't.
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  It it did, and the effects kept spreading, even environmentally.
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  The ground itself is cursed because of man's sin.
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  So creation itself becomes hostile, work becomes toil and
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  sweat. The whole cosmic order is
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  broken. And then you see the personally
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  and perpetually devastating results in the very next
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  generation generation with Cain. He shows that this fallen nature
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  is inherited. He refuses God's way of dealing
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  with his sin. And then murders his brother out
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  of jealousy. And even after that his response
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  isn't repentance, it's self pity.
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  My punishment is too great to bear.
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  He's more worried about his own comfort than the horror of his
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  sin. And all of this leads to the
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  final universal consequence. Everyone born after Adam is born
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  in his corrupted image. We all start life separated from
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  God, guilty, and with a nature that's inclined toward
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  rebellion. Understanding that whole model
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  of failure is it's the necessary first step to seeing why no
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  human centered solution can ever truly work.
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  It is. It shows that our deepest need
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  isn't for better therapy or a better self-image.
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  It's to be justified, declared righteous, and reconciled to a
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  holy God. Which brings us right to the big
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  conflict with so many modern philosophies.
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  Right. The world's wisdom today tells
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  you that fulfillment comes from believing in the inherent
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  goodness of yourself. Build yourself esteem, pursue
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  self actualization, find the good that's already inside you.
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  But the Bible's diagnosis is that this self focus is the
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  original disease, not the cure. Adam and Eve fell because they
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  put their own desires and their own judgement first.
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  They focus on, as first John puts it, the lust of the flesh,
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  the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
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  And that focus is what stripped them of their privileged status.
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  So the modern emphasis on self is just doubling down on the
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  very thing that caused the separation from God.
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  It seems like the whole framework of humanism is built
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  on rejecting the Bible's assessment of our condition.
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  It has to be. And when you reject that, you
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  inevitably replace God's authority with man's.
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  But Scripture is clear that nothing compares to God.
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  He alone should be exalted. And to make that point, the
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  Bible uses some, well, some very humbling comparisons for what
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  natural man is like compared to the Creator.
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  Very humbling. It's meant to strip away any
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  pretense of our own significance.
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  Apart from him, we're compared to dust.
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  Temporary. Fragile.
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  We're called a mere breath, a passing shadow.
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  Our entire lifetime is like nothing when you measure it
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  against eternity. We're like grass or a flower
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  that's here today and gone tomorrow, A vapor.
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  And in in the starkest terms, Isaiah says that all the nations
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  of the world are like nothing before him, less than
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  meaningless. Jeremiah even calls our natural
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  wisdom stupid. OK, so if that's our condition,
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  if we're dust and our wisdom is flawed, then trusting in
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  ourselves is just. It's illogical.
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  It's completely self defeating. Why?
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  Because the thing you're trusting in, it's fundamentally
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  corrupt. Jeremiah says the heart is
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  desperately wicked. Roman says nothing good dwells
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  in our flesh. And Jesus himself said apart
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  from me you can do nothing. Nothing of any lasting spiritual
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  value. You're completely dependent.
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  And on top of that, without Christ you're not even free.
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  You're a slave to sin. So trusting yourself is like
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  trusting a broken, rebellious and slave tool to fix itself.
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  It can't happen it. Can't.
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  Which is why we have to carefully dissect these modern
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  errors about the self that are so common in our culture.
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  The source material lists nine of them.
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  Let's walk through them. The first one is a big one.
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  Self worth. The idea that everyone has
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  inherent moral worth. The world says you must affirm
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  this to be healthy, but Scripture makes a distinction.
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  It grants us value. We're more valuable than
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  sparrows Christ died for. Us but value is different from
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  worthiness. Very different.
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  We're valuable because God our Creator values us, but we are
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  not morally worthy of His favor. In fact, what we've earned from
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  our sin is death. So when we're adopted into God's
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  family, our response should be praise for his grace.
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  Not an affirmation of our own merit.
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  To claim inherent self worth is to downplay the seriousness of
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  sin and the necessity of grace. OK, next on the list is self
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  assurance. This is believing that my
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  success comes from my own skill or my own hard work.
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  And Deuteronomy gives a really stark warning against this.
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  God tells Israel, when you become prosperous, do not say in
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  your heart My power and the strength of my hand have gained
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  me this wealth. He reminds them that he's the
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  one who gives the power to get wealth.
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  Right, so self assurance is really just pride.
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  And we know what Proverbs says about pride.
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  It comes before a fall. So the alternative is total
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  dependence on God, knowing he's the source of everything.
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  The next one. Self love is everywhere today.
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  The idea that you have to love yourself before you can love
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  anyone else. And the biblical response to
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  that is, well, pretty correct. The Bible never commands us to
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  develop self love, it assumes we already have it.
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  It says love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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  Right. It takes for granted that our
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  default setting is to care for our own needs and comfort.
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  In fact, in Second Timothy, when Paul lists the signs of people
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  turning away from the faith in the last days, the very first
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  thing he mentions is that they will be lovers of self.
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  So it's seen as a characteristic of sin, not a virtue to be
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  cultivated. Exactly next is self
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  assertiveness, the idea that you have to push your own will,
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  defend your rights and take charge to get ahead.
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  Which is the opposite of the Christian walk.
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  Completely. We're told to trust God's plan,
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  to minister as a servant, and, crucially, to esteem others as
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  more important than ourselves. Looking out for their interests,
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  not just our own. It's a call to humble
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  submission, not competitive pride, which is related to the
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  next error, self-confidence. Believe in your.
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  Right, but we're explicitly told not to put confidence in the
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  flesh. Our confidence is to be in the
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  Lord alone. Our adequacy is from God.
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  So any confidence in ourselves is just misplaced trust in a
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  broken system. Then there's self esteem, very
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  similar to self worth. And the critique is the same.
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  Our value isn't something we find inside ourselves, it's
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  found by being in Him. Our esteem comes from being the
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  object of God's incredible mercy, not from some internal
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  feeling of goodness. OK, what about self
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  righteousness? This is the belief that our good
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  works or our moral behavior can earn us a right standing with
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  God. Which is the core error the
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  Reformation fought against. It is, Titus is clear.
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  God saved us not because of righteous things we had done,
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  but because of his mercy. Isaiah says.
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  Even our best righteous acts are like filthy rags in His sight.
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  So true righteousness isn't something we produce, it's a
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  gift we receive through faith in Christ.
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  An alien righteousness as Luther called it.
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  It comes from outside of us and the final error is self
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  exaltation. Wanting to promote yourself most
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  about your achievements? Scripture says commending
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  yourself is worthless. Jesus warned that those who
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  exalt themselves will be humbled.
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  The only boasting that's allowed is boasting in the Lord, in the
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  cross, or even in our weaknesses, because that's where
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  His power is shown. So when you look at all nine of
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  these, the conclusion is pretty stark.
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  It is man's philosophies have to reject God's solutions in order
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  to put man on the throne. And this self focused worldview
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  is what the sources call materialistic humanism.
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  Which doesn't just mean loving stuff, no.
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  It means man is the measure of all things, that all solutions
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  have to be found in the physical or psychological realm with no
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  reference to a higher divine authority.
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  It's a religion of self worship. And you can't integrate that
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  with God's way. It's impossible.
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  They're moving in opposite directions.
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  So these two starting points, man is good and adequate or man
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  is fallen independent, naturally lead to completely different
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  ways of trying to solve personal problems.
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  Right. The source material lays out
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  four basic approaches that fall under man's way, and they all
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  stand in total contrast to God's way.
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  And what do these four have in common?
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  Their shared flaw is that they all try to find a solution that
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  doesn't require spiritual regeneration.
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  They are all ways of trying to manage or improve the old fallen
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  nature, not replace it with a new one.
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  OK, let's run through them. What's the first one?
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  The first is instinctual. This sees man as a creature
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  driven by natural urges. So the solution is to gratify
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  those instincts to prioritize personal pleasure.
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  The second is behavioral. This sees man as basically a
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  programmed machine. Your behavior is just a product
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  of your environment and conditioning.
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  So the fix is external reward and punishment to change the
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  behavior without ever touching the heart.
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  And the third is probably the most common 1 today.
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  Positive potential. This comes out of humanistic
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  psychology. It says man is inherently good
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  and all the answers are already locked up inside you.
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  You just need a therapist or guide to help you release that
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  potential. And the fourth.
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  Spiritist This view says man is a victim of outside spiritual
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  forces, demons, angry ancestors, bad karma.
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  The solution is some kind of ritual or charm to appease or
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  manipulate those forces. And what's obvious is that none
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  of them start with the idea of sin as rebellion against a holy
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  God. Not at all.
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  God's way, by contrast, starts with the reality of the Sinner.
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  St. that were fallen but in Christ were made new.
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  And the core solution isn't self discovery, it's heart
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  transformation. Create in me a clean heart, O
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  God. That's the prayer.
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  And God's promise in Ezekiel is that He will remove our heart of
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  stone and give us a heart of flesh and put his Spirit in us.
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  So if the core cure is different, the diagnosis of the
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  problems caused must be different too.
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  Completely man's way blames things like a blocked mind,
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  negative thinking, social structures, your parents.
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  The problem is always somewhere else.
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  But God's way says the cause is theological.
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  It's rebellion, unbelief, disobedience.
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  It's a moral choice against the Creator.
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  Which means the cure has to be theological too.
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  Man's way tries to recondition you or get you to release your
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  inner potential. It's just managing the old self.
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  Whereas God's way is justification then
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  sanctification. You have to be saved by grace
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  through faith first. And then you mature through
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  loving obedience to His Word with the help of the Holy
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  Spirit. It's about substitution and
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  transformation, not self effort. Even the practical techniques
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  are worlds apart. They are man's way uses things
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  like psychoanalysis, hypnosis, behavior modification,
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  horoscopes, visualization, all aimed at adjusting the fallen
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  person without God. God's Way uses discipleship,
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  listening, reproving, rebuking, exhorting, encouraging,
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  teaching, all designed to apply God's truth to a person's life
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  to bring about repentance. And that brings us to the most
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  critical difference, the ultimate goal, the core focus
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  for man's way. The goal is always.
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  Liberate self elevate. Self self actualization and that
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  is a polar opposite of what Jesus commands in Leap Chapter
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  9. If anyone wishes to follow me,
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  he must deny himself. The focus of God's way is deny
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  self, please God, and bless others through service.
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  The whole direction of life is flipped from inward to upward
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  and outward. Let's let's make this even more
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  practical. How does this massive contrast
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  play out in just day-to-day life?
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  We can start with the most basic premise, human nature itself.
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  Man's way says mankind is basically good.
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  Or I'm OK, you're OK? Which allows us to treat
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  failures as just mistakes, not sin.
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  Right, but God's way demands an honest look in the mirror.
• 19:18
  Jeremiah says the heart is desperately wicked.
• 19:21
  Roman says all have sinned. The only logical response then
• 19:25
  is to trust the Lord completely and not your own corrupt
• 19:28
  understanding. What about something like trust
• 19:31
  independence? Man's way pushes self-reliance.
• 19:34
  If I don't take care of myself, no one else will.
• 19:36
  Financial independence is the goal.
• 19:38
  But God's way completely reorients that.
• 19:41
  We're told to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
• 19:44
  And he promises to take care of our needs.
• 19:46
  Our hope is supposed to be in God, not in the uncertainty of
• 19:50
  money, because it all belongs to him anyway.
• 19:52
  It's a shift from self-reliance to God reliance.
• 19:55
  OK, what about freedom and rights?
• 19:56
  Our culture is obsessed with protecting personal rights.
• 19:59
  It is man's way sees authority as a contract that we can break
• 20:03
  if it infringes on our autonomy. But from the biblical view,
• 20:06
  apart from God, you're not actually free at all.
• 20:08
  You're a slave to sin. Exactly.
• 20:10
  True freedom is only found in submitting your will to Christ.
• 20:13
  In fact, Jesus says you find your life by losing it for his
• 20:16
  sake. And we're told to submit to
• 20:18
  authorities because God put them there.
• 20:20
  The focus shifts from demanding my rights to fulfilling my
• 20:23
  responsibilities. Let's talk about relationships,
• 20:26
  Marriage for instance. Man's Way often treats marriage
• 20:29
  as a contract of convenience. My partner is there to meet my
• 20:32
  needs. Love is conditional.
• 20:34
  It depends on how I feel and what I'm getting.
• 20:36
  God's way is sacrificial. The goal is to put your spouse's
• 20:39
  interests above your own, modeling how Christ loved the
• 20:42
  church. Love is defined by giving, not
• 20:46
  getting. And that sacrificial mindset has
• 20:48
  to apply to how we handle enemies and offenses, too.
• 20:51
  Our natural instinct, man's way, is to get even, to retaliate,
• 20:55
  defend our ego. God's way is so contrary to
• 20:58
  that. We're told to love our enemies,
• 21:00
  to pray for those who persecute us.
• 21:02
  When someone offends you, the first step is to examine
• 21:04
  yourself, die to yourself and return a blessing instead of an
• 21:07
  insult. What about just dealing with
• 21:09
  personal problems in general? Trials and conflicts.
• 21:12
  Man's ways to avoid them, make excuses or blame someone or
• 21:15
  something else. The problem is always out there.
• 21:19
  God's way tells us to see those trials as purposeful, as tools
• 21:24
  for our spiritual growth to show us what's really in our hearts.
• 21:28
  We're told to rejoice in them because they produce endurance
• 21:30
  and character. And finally, just our daily
• 21:33
  duties. Man's way is driven by feelings.
• 21:35
  I'll do it if I feel like it. God's way is driven by
• 21:38
  obedience. We do our responsibilities
• 21:40
  heartily, as if we're doing them for the Lord, whether we feel
• 21:43
  like it or not. God bless His faithfulness, not
• 21:46
  just our feelings. So we've established that sin
• 21:49
  messed up the image of God in us.
• 21:50
  The perfection was lost. How does God restore that?
• 21:54
  Only he can, and the restoration is completely centered on Jesus
• 21:57
  Christ. He is the perfect image, the
• 21:59
  exact representation of God's nature and the way we are
• 22:02
  restored is through the spiritual new birth.
• 22:04
  Where a person is regenerated by the Spirit and becomes a new
• 22:07
  creation. The old spiritual person is gone
• 22:10
  and a new one is alive, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
• 22:13
  And that new birth starts a lifelong process of
• 22:16
  sanctification. The corrupt old self, the one
• 22:19
  defined by inadequacy and rebellion, has been crucified
• 22:22
  with Christ. We're told to put it off.
• 22:26
  And if the old self is put off, then the new self has to be put
• 22:28
  on. Right.
• 22:29
  The new self that's created in righteousness and true holiness.
• 22:33
  This is the ongoing process of being conformed to the image of
• 22:36
  Christ. And living out this new identity
• 22:39
  requires specific daily action. It does.
• 22:42
  We have to actively put off the old practices, anger, lying,
• 22:46
  slander, and actively put on the new characteristics compassion,
• 22:50
  kindness, humility, patience, love.
• 22:52
  And the central action that reverses man's way is self
• 22:54
  denial. Self denial is the practical
• 22:57
  daily way we reject those human centered approaches.
• 23:00
  It means we choose to live as a servant like Christ did.
• 23:03
  Our goal becomes pleasing God, not ourselves, and we aim to
• 23:06
  give God glory in everything. The whole system is designed to
• 23:09
  conquer the self by dying to the self.
• 23:11
  And it's set up so that all the glory goes to God, not to us.
• 23:15
  Jesus is the ultimate model. He didn't seek his own glory.
• 23:18
  He emptied himself and was obedient all the way to the
• 23:20
  cross. The conclusion, then, is that
• 23:23
  man's philosophies have to be rejected because they keep man
• 23:25
  on the throne. And the only real, lasting
• 23:28
  solution for any of life's problems, even the really hard
• 23:31
  ones like depression or addiction, is found in dying to
• 23:34
  self and living for Christ, relying on the sufficiency of
• 23:37
  His Word. So since the world's
• 23:40
  philosophies are described as empty deception, how can we be
• 23:43
  sure we're actually on God's path and not getting pulled off
• 23:46
  course? The sources give three tests.
• 23:49
  The first is to test the spirits.
• 23:51
  Does this teacher, this philosophy, this counseling
• 23:53
  system, does it truly uphold the person and work of Jesus Christ,
• 23:57
  His deity, His sinless life, his substitutionary death, his
• 24:01
  resurrection? If it minimizes Christ, it's
• 24:04
  flawed. I'll.
• 24:05
  Get the second test. Check the foundation.
• 24:07
  Is the whole approach built on price?
• 24:09
  Does the cornerstone? Or is it built on human reason,
• 24:12
  self worship or some other worldly principle?
• 24:14
  We have to reject anything that tries to build a life apart from
• 24:17
  him and. The third way to tell the
• 24:18
  difference. Identify the source of
• 24:20
  authority. Where does the buck stop?
• 24:23
  Is it fallible human opinion or is it the infallible word of
• 24:26
  God? If Scripture isn't the final and
• 24:29
  absolute standard, then it belongs to Man's way.
• 24:31
  And following God's way matters so much because, well, because
• 24:35
  there's a judgement. There is we will all stand
• 24:38
  before the judgement seat of God, and we'll be judged by His
• 24:40
  eternal standard, not our own. To follow man's way is to
• 24:44
  prepare for an exam using the wrong textbook.
• 24:47
  But this isn't meant to be a path of just grim duty.
• 24:50
  Following God's way brings incredible hope and victory.
• 24:53
  The sources list some of these promises.
• 24:55
  The first promise is freedom over sin.
• 24:58
  Because our old self is crucified, we're no longer
• 25:00
  slaves to sins. Dominion.
• 25:02
  We still struggle, but we're not bound to it as our master
• 25:04
  anymore. We're also promised victory in
• 25:06
  any temptation or trial. God always provides a way of
• 25:09
  escape, so we're never tested beyond what He enables us to
• 25:12
  bear. We also have a constant advocate
• 25:14
  for every failure. When we do sin, Jesus Christ is
• 25:17
  our high priest, our advocate with the Father.
• 25:19
  We can approach God with confidence because we have
• 25:22
  perfect representation. And on a practical level, we
• 25:25
  know that God is controlling our circumstances for our good,
• 25:28
  using them to make us more like Christ.
• 25:30
  Our trials are not random, they have a purpose.
• 25:33
  And this leads to a peace and joy that don't depend on our
• 25:36
  circumstances. It's a fruit of the spirit.
• 25:39
  It's internal. It's not the conditional
• 25:41
  happiness the world chases after.
• 25:43
  We have the constant assurance that God Forgives our sins when
• 25:46
  we confess them. We're continually cleansed,
• 25:48
  which allows us to get back up and keep going without being
• 25:51
  crushed by guilt. And finally, God provides
• 25:53
  abundant life, and that life starts now.
• 25:56
  It's not just a future hope, it's a present reality of
• 26:00
  spiritual health and purpose that's available to us through
• 26:03
  Christ. So to bring this all to a close,
• 26:06
  this deep dive really clarifies the two paths.
• 26:09
  Man's way is self-centered. It leads to futility.
• 26:11
  It's all about self liberation. God's way is based on His work
• 26:15
  in Christ and it leaves to heart transformation, self denial, and
• 26:19
  a life aimed at pleasing Him. And the starting point for any
• 26:22
  real, lasting change is humility.
• 26:25
  It's the death blow to all those philosophies of self exaltation.
• 26:29
  It's recognizing you can't fix yourself and then committing to
• 26:32
  a life of loving obedience to His Word.
• 26:34
  Which leaves us with a final thought for you, the listener to
• 26:37
  take with you, since God is the one who is solely responsible
• 26:40
  for causing change in growth in other people's lives, not you,
• 26:43
  not your efforts as passages like Second Corinthians 3 and
• 26:46
  Philippians one confirm. How does knowing that change how
• 26:50
  you pray for and serve the people around you?
• 26:53
  If you can truly trust God with the outcome in their lives, how
• 26:56
  does that free you from the burden of trying to fix them?
• 26:59
  How does it enable you to focus purely and joyfully on the
• 27:01
  things He's actually called you to do, to teach, to encourage,
• 27:05
  to love, all with a spirit of dependence, trusting Him with
• 27:08
  the results. Something to ponder as you seek
• 27:10
  to walk in His way.