(Clip) Holiness Is Christ or It's Heresy
True holiness is not about human effort, but about yielding to God and allowing him to control our lives through the Holy Spirit.
This sermon emphasizes the transformative power of God's love, highlighting that true Christianity is not about following rules but yielding to God so His love can flow through us. It discusses how the fruit of the Spirit, particularly love, is evidence of the Holy Spirit's control in our lives. The message underscores that God's love, characterized by patience and kindness, can be expressed through us when we fully surrender to Him and rely on His grace. It challenges believers to allow God to control their lives completely, leading to Christ-likeness as seen in 1 Corinthians 13.
Full Transcript
The actual word is agape. Now how does God put a different word there? Because he knows you will never be anything but a failure until you let his love love through you. This is God's love.
Christianity is not you setting a whole lot of rules and thou shalt not trying to attain it by your own strength. Christianity, full stop, is to the degree you yield to God, and God through you lives. You see, the fruit of the Spirit literally means the evidence that the Holy Spirit is controlling you.
The evidence is love. It always starts with love. God's love is revealed through you, and God's love is this, not some definition you say of some sentimental little word.
It suffers, long, and is kind. God can do that through you to the degree you yield your life to him totally, and ask him for grace you don't have in a human capacity. Your love's not good enough for this, but God will do it through you.
The fruit of the Spirit is Christ. Holiness is Christ. Any other standard is total heresy if it replaces Christ.
You can only be like Christ, not by your attempts, but by your attempting to so yield your lives to God. You haven't been able to reveal this love before and to let him control your life. Being filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit totally.
There's nothing else. He's in you, brother, otherwise you're not saved. But is he in control? Have you yielded because to the degree you yielded to God totally, the evidence of a total yielding of God controlling your life by his Holy Spirit is spontaneously reacting with Christ-likeness, and that is 1 Corinthians 13.
Great preachers have seen this, where they say put in the place of love, charity, the word Christ, and that's the closest you'll come to what God is asking of you, not for you to attain this in your own strength. What's left of life you can do that. Don't let the past cripple the future.
Sermon Outline
- God's Love vs. Human Effort
- The Evidence of God's Love
- Holiness is Christ, Not Human Standard
- Being Filled with the Spirit
- Being controlled by the Spirit is the evidence of salvation
- Yielding to God totally is the key to Christ-likeness
Key Quotes
“Christianity is not you setting a whole lot of rules and thou shalt not trying to attain it by your own strength.” — Keith Daniel
“The fruit of the Spirit literally means the evidence that the Holy Spirit is controlling you.” — Keith Daniel
“You can only be like Christ, not by your attempts, but by your attempting to so yield your lives to God.” — Keith Daniel
Application Points
- We must yield to God and allow him to control our lives in order to be holy like Christ.
- The evidence of salvation is being controlled by the Holy Spirit.
- We can overcome our past and move forward by yielding to God and letting him control our lives.