The Danger of Unbelief---Big Ideas

  • Growing in love through greater joy

  • Pursuing holiness through a better treasure

  • Killing sin with a superior pleasure

Why are we focusing on love?

  • Matthew 22:37-40

    • Love God will all your heart, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.

    • The whole bible summed up by these commandments

  • Romans 13:8

    • Love is the only debt that we have to pay

  • 1 Corinthians 13

    • So now faith, hope, and love abide, the greatest of these is love.

  • 1 Corinthians 16:14

    • Let all that you do be done in love.

Why is love crucial for a Christian life?

  • Matthew 5:16

    • Let your light shine to others so that they may see your good works and give glory to God.

    • Good works = love

    • They may see your love and then give glory to the father

    • When we treat people better than they deserve, they see that behavior and wonder about the hope that is in us which is Christ

  • 1 John 3:14

    • Love is the sign/confirmation of our new birth through faith

    • If we do not love we will remain in death

    • For the glory of God and the good of our own souls, LOVE IS PARAMOUNT

Why Focus on Holiness?

  • 1 Peter 1:15-16

    • We should be holy because God is holy

    • In all of our conduct, we should try to be holy

    • God is holy and above

  • 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

    • May the Lord let us increase and abound in love so that we can establish our hearts as holy through blamelessness

    • At the heart of holiness is love

  • Hebrew 12:14

    • Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the lord

    • No holiness = no heaven

    • If you don’t love, you remain in death.

    • Love and holiness are essential to achieving eternal life

Why focus on sin-killing?

  • if you live according to the flesh you will die eternally

  • Romans 8:13

    • if by the spirit you put to death (kill) the deeds of the body (sin)

    • Big overall ideas for the whole session:

      • if you kill sin you will live

      • if you love, you show that you have been brought out of death to life

      • if you are holy you will see the lord

      • if you kill sin you will sin you will live

      • eternal life and the glory of God are at stake

BIG LAST QUESTION

  • If our eternal salvation depends on love and holiness and sin-killing, how do these relate to salvation by grace through faith?

    • It may sound to some people that when love, holiness, and sin-killing are essential to living, you are not actually saved by grace.

    • Not true, however, because faith produces love, holiness, and sin-killing