In this exhortation from the ministry chapel, Steve Gallagher challenged the men in the Residential Program to reject the outward forms of American Christianity for the real faith and trust in Jesus that saves and transforms lives.

From Genesis 17:1 he encourages us to live in God’s presence and be blameless.(From #359 - What Role Does Consecration Play in Freedom from Porn?)

I want to read something from Genesis 17.  Really, it's just one statement, but as I was meditating on it, I was thinking about that there are two different forms of Christianity. The easiest way to make it simple is to say that one is outward, and one is inward. That's the simplest way to say it; One is religious, and one is spiritual. One is taken up with the forms of Christianity, the rituals of Christianity, how you look to other people, the image involved; Doing the things that are expected by our Christian culture in America. An outward form of Christianity, there is that.

And all you men in the program came here from that culture. You did that thing, but something was wrong inside, right? Something was lacking inside. It was a spiritual life with God. All right, so just keep that in the back of your mind.

Let me just read these first two verses. “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.”

And I wish I could just somehow stamp that into your brain, that when you leave this place, that's all I care about right there. If you would just do that, I would be one happy man. Just live in the presence of God and live a blameless life. Never mind about all the religious stuff, all the outward trappings, how you look and, you know, making sure you dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s of the culture, the Christian culture of our day. Making sure everyone sees you in the way you want them to see you, and that no one could possibly criticize you. Throw that all away and just do this thing. Live in my presence and be blameless. That's it! That's all that God requires of you! Live in His presence and be blameless.

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His presence is there for the taking. You don't have to go home to a dead existence. Something is being put into you while you're here in this place. You are learning to humble yourself before the Lord, to seek Him with all your heart, and if you will live your life that way His presence will fill you inside, and you will take His presence with you when you go home. And then, living a blameless life will not be that difficult. It will be second nature to you, because you will have the Spirit of the Living God indwelling you and influencing you, having a tremendous influence inside of you. That will then translate into the way you live your life when no one else is watching.

Live in my presence and be blameless. Live in my presence and be blameless. That's what the Lord would say to you: Live in my presence and be blameless. Don't worry about all the other stuff. You do that, and you won't go wrong.

Lord I thank You that You are a mighty God. You could show up at any time. Abraham was ninety-nine years old and all of a sudden there You are. His eyes were opened, and he saw the Almighty. And You spoke with him. Then You promised a covenant with him. You promised to multiply him greatly. All you asked of him was to live in Your presence and be blameless.

Lord, as You know, we live in a time when we have allowed the culture to dominate us inwardly, to dominate our hearts and minds. We’ve allowed ourselves, our inward wife to be overrun by the spirit of this world, all the while keeping up a religious appearance to those around us.

Lord, I just pray that You will get it into us all, the importance of living in union with You in humility before you. Walking with You and conversing with You. Living in Your presence. Walking blamelessly before You. We just worship You, Lord. You are worthy of our worship. You are worthy to receive our praise. We honor you, Lord; we glorify you, in Jesus’ Name.

Marriage may seem like the very solution to a person’s struggle with pornography. But if that were true, why are so many marriages devastated by sexual addiction?

What many people find is that while marriage may alleviate the temptations for a time, a deeper stronghold lurks within the persons heart. Pornography addiction is only the tip of a greater root issue.

Fifty years ago, the idea of marrying someone addicted to porn would have been out of the question, especially for professing Christians. But sadly, in the days that we live in, it has become a concern for many women.

In this episode, Josh Bergstrom tells us his own story. It began with the same hope of freedom and the devastating pain when he discovered that marriage was not the cure. But through the years, the Lord has opened his eyes to truths that have set him free and many others just like him.

There is nothing easier than addiction. All we have to do is follow the trail of our desires. It all comes so naturally. In fact, it is so natural that one of our reasons for giving ourselves over to our desires is, “I am only human.” If God enters into our thinking, we suspect even he might be understanding and lenient because he created us this way. Look at the numbers: is there a sentient male who has not struggled with sexual sin? The problem seems to go much deeper than what we do. The problem is who we are.

Sexual addiction asks us to consider what it means to be truly human. When you read the biographies of the Old Testament, humanness seems to mean that we are constitutionally programmed to sin. Like a foe who is stronger, sexual sin will overtake us in the end. We might be able to escape it for a time, but defeat is inevitable. So, we put up a good effort, try to keep the really bad sexual sins at bay, recognize that we are going to be defeated, then, when we are, dust ourselves off and start all over again. There is, of course, some truth to this, but it isn’t the whole story.

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Then came THE man. Jesus is the one who revealed true humanness. Jesus showed us how we were intended to be, and, apparently, the way we deal with temptation is a critical feature of the way we were intended to be. Immediately after being formally proclaimed as the eternal son at his baptism, Jesus’ first act as recorded in Mark’s gospel was to go out into the wilderness for the very purpose of being tempted by Satan (Mark 1:9-13). He had some undoing to do. He was going to say “no” where we said “yes.”

The last bivouac into the wilderness by God’s people was a train wreck. It was a time of idolatry followed by a bacchanalian festival, complaining, rebellion against God and his appointed leaders, and essentially saying “yes” to Satan at every mile marker. It is with this failure in mind that Jesus voluntarily walked into the wilderness, said “no” to temptations that are stronger than anything we will experience, and, in so doing changed everything.

He didn’t change the fact that we will encounter Satan during our vulnerable times. On this side of heaven spiritual battle is the norm. The balance of power, however, has changed. The second Adam won, and we too will win as we are given his Spirit. True humanness is, to our surprise, not about giving in to temptation. Instead, we are created to say “no” to both Satan’s devices and our own desires that oppose the character of God.

What difference does this make? Try it and see. Try meditating on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Consider how he did it as our representative, succeeding where we had failed, and he did it as our example, revealing to us our true design. Notice how you find a certain satisfaction when you resist temptation. It isn’t easy, but it is good, right and natural. When we give ourselves to our desires we feel robotic, more akin to instinct-driven animals than liberated humans. When we say “yes” to Jesus and engage the battle with our entire being, we get tired but the fatigue is like the contentment of a good day’s work.

Sanctification is not understood by many Christians, but it is an essential part of our salvation. God desires not just to forgive our sins, but to make us holy so that we live holy and blameless lives. Sanctification plays a crucial role in freedom from sexual sin. (From #358 - What Role Does Sanctification Play in Freedom from Porn?)

Sanctification. It’s probably the biblical concept that is least understood among most Christians. Seldom preached any more, it is at the very heart of our salvation, and the work that God longs to do in the lives of His people.

So, let’s first define it. When the word appears in the OT, as in Exodus 13.12, it is the word QaDaSh. When it appears in the NT, as in John 17.17, it is the is word ‘agiadzo. Both of these words mean the same thing. The words mean to set apart, to regard as holy and to use for holy purposes; The word then came to mean to cleanse or purify, and to offer up and dedicate to God.

We translate the words differently and think of them differently depending on who is doing the action. When a man is sanctifying himself or something else, he is purifying or dedicating something to God. He is an imperfect man dedicating something to a perfect God and asking God to regard this offering as set apart for Him. And so offerings, temple furnishings, sacrifices and the like, and even people were sanctified to the LORD. When God does the sanctifying, He is a holy God declaring something as set apart to Him and declaring it to be holy. When God sanctifies the Christian believer, He declares him to be holy by the means of the blood of the Cross, but then engages him in the ongoing process of making him holy in his attitudes, words and behavior.

So there are two different sides to sanctification: there is the part that God does, that only He can do. And then there is the part that people do, that we all do, that only we can do. We’ll talk about God’s part first.

Because God alone is holy, set apart, and perfect in all His perfections, only He can declare something as holy. And only God has the power to make something holy. He has determined that He will have a people who not only are set apart for His own possession, who live as dedicated unto Him, who love Him unreservedly of their own will and seek to do His will in the earth, but who live morally blameless lives before Him in honor and obedience. God’s purpose from the beginning was to have a people who lived holy lives. This was true of Israel and today is true of the Church of Jesus Christ. This has always been His purpose.

This is made possible only through the Cross of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Cross is our sanctification. Jesus died there so that He might bear the weight of our sins and secure our forgiveness. His blood was the covering for our sins and the purchase price of our redemption. Because of the Cross God is able to freely justify us and grant us forgiveness for all our sins.

But salvation is more than just forgiveness. God intends to make us holy in our behavior. He really intends to deliver us out of our sins and conform our behavior into the likeness of Christ. He intends and expects our obedience and for us to live a blameless life. This is all part of our sanctification, the putting off of our old flesh with its sins, and the putting on of the new natures with the fruit of the Spirit. Thus, our sanctification is not a one-time event, but a lifelong process that begins when we are born again. God begins to make us new, and He continues that sanctification process daily for the rest of our lives. As we walk in faith and obedience, seeking His will, desiring His guidance, surrendering to His Lordship, He works to transform our minds and conform our behavior to the likeness of blameless Christ.

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What Role does Sanctification play in a man gaining freedom from sexual sin? It should be obvious that this is God’s will for every man. Every man must come to the Cross, repent of his sin, ask the Lord to take it from Him, seek the Lord to be rid of it, and then walk in obedience to Him as He takes this sin out of our lives. We’ll talk more about that in a few moments. Right now know that there is a work of sanctification that only God can do. He is the One who forgives, who cleanses, who declares as holy. He is the One who empowers a man with the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and to set a man free from slavery to sin. He is the One who sanctifies.

I began by talking about the work of sanctification that only God can do. But our conversation would not be complete without looking at the other side. There is the part of sanctification that is up to us to do. We have to cooperate in the work of God by being obedient.  

Many Christians are surprised anymore that someone still teaches holiness, as though it is a theme that is out of date; but God has not changed His Word or His mind on the matter. The Bible still says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world so that we should be holy and blameless in Him. Paul still tells us that God’s will for our lives is our sanctification, and specifically defines holiness as abstinence  from sexual sin. Peter still writes “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” And the writer to the Hebrews still has it that we are to “Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

Out part is to come out from among the world and be separate; to be in the world but not of the world. Our part is to seek every day to be rid of sin by repenting and forsaking it. Our part is to pursue holiness, to run hard after it, by desiring above all things to live a life pleasing to the Lord, and by only pursuing those things that are pleasing to Him and according to the will of Christ.

This is not average, cheap grace, American Christianity that insults God and comforts the wayward and backslidden in his sin with promises of God’s forgiveness. This is real, biblical Christianity that empowers a man to resist sin and walk in obedience, so that he not only wears the righteousness of Christ by faith, but actually walks in righteousness and faithfulness before God in his daily life.

Look at the biblical teaching about the mercy of God. See how God bestows great mercy on the repentant sinner, but requires the recipients of mercy to be merciful towards others.

Our Biblical Counselors discuss the transforming work God does in men's lives as they learn to be givers of mercy, and how mercy sets a man free from his sin.

Victory over the stronghold of sexual sin is possible and there are many testimonies of men who have found freedom from the hold that it had on their lives. But whether or not a person experiences true freedom is largely determined by whether or not they are sincere in their pursuit of freedom.

Those who are sincerely seeking freedom and have the hope of salvation within them will never stop striving to get the victory for the sake of their relationship with God. Those who are insincere will only do enough to fool themselves and those around them.

In this episode, biblical counselor Jim Lewis looks at some indicators of sincerity and insincerity to help a person determine whether or not they have had a genuine conversion experience.

Is it possible for a man who has truly been saved to still find himself battling with sexual sin?

That question cannot be answered without first looking at the Bible says about true salvation. The Apostle Paul himself wrote to professing Christians and admonished them to test themselves to see if they were truly in the faith. For those who struggle with sexual sin this is all the more vital. So how can a person know whether or not they are truly converted?

In this session biblical counselor Jim Lewis takes us through scripture and points out for us what true and false conversion really look like and gives us the litmus test of the Word of God in which to examine our own hearts and lives.

In this installment in our current series, we look at the role of consecration in men gaining freedom from habitual sexual sin.

Glenn Meldrum defines the term, describes where it appears in Scripture, and then makes application for men who need help. He shows how a life of surrender and dedication makes all the difference in a man getting free.

Above the door of the old Pure Life chapel hung a sign that read: “Sinners Only Allowed.” This short statement was a reminder to us to never to forget that we all are sinners in need of a Savior.

Only the Sick Need a Doctor

The Pharisees once got angry with Jesus because He was eating with sinners. Jesus made an extremely poignant statement that would behoove all of us to consider: “Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do. Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: `I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices.' For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.” (Matthew 9:12-13 NLT) The Pharisees were constantly attempting to convince themselves of their own righteousness. Many Christians unwittingly do the same.

When a believer loses sight of the fact that he is an unworthy sinner in the presence of a holy God, he invariably rises up in self-righteous pride. Amazingly, my experience—both personally and with the many men I have ministered to over the years—has been that people who have been deeply involved in sin can often become the worst of Pharisees! We are all unworthy of God’s love and grace and the more we can keep that in mind, the more intimate we will be with God. Those who consider themselves “good” people are in a terrible delusion. It is commendable if they have not given themselves over to outward sin, but they have a depraved nature the same as the rest of us.

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Acknowledging Our Sin, Acknowledges Our Savior

Knowing man’s natural tendency to avoid seeing himself in this light, Jesus told the following parable. Luke hit the nail on the head when he introduced the Lord’s reasoning: “And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:”

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:9-15)

People who are aware of their unworthiness before God constantly look to Him to supply the righteousness they need to live victoriously in a world of temptations. Those who attempt to maintain their own “goodness” through self-effort never know what it is means to have God’s imputed righteousness. Others who try to make it in the Christian life through a positive mental attitude are also attempting to mask the fact that they are sinners in constant need of God’s help.  It is only as we acknowledge the fact that we are sinners, that we know the forgiveness and freedom that comes with that reality. I will conclude this commentary with the following quote...

The Church is A Society of Sinners

“The church is not an organization of good people, it is an organization of sinners. It is the only organization in human society that takes sinners into its membership just because they are sinners. It is the only organization that keeps on saying week after week, year after year, age after age, ‘We have done those things that we ought not to have done and left undone those things that we ought to have done.’ No other organized body bears in its group consciousness the weight not only of its own members sins but the sins of the whole social order. This is the glory of the church, its uniqueness in human society, that it lives perpetually on the vitality and realism of its own repentance, its contrition, and its plea for God’s help and forgiveness. Let us not claim moral virtue for church members or for the church. Let us rather glory in the fact that the church is a society of sinners, who claim no virtue, but humbly rest their broken and burdened lives upon the grace which God has eternally revealed in Christ Jesus.”(1)

(1) Charles Clayton Morrison. (Stuber, Stanley I. and Clark, Thomas Curtis; “Treasury of the Christian Faith”; New York: Association Press, 1949, p 170-171)

Using Isaiah 6, Jordan Yoshimine talks about how God uses times of worship to transform lives. He teaches us that in worship, we can see the Lord, experience deep conviction for sin, receive cleansing, and then be commissioned by God for service. (From #357 - What Role Does Worship Play in Freedom from Porn?)

Jim: Jordan, I've asked you to come in today to talk to our listeners about the value of worship and the role that worship plays in helping a man gain freedom from addiction to pornography and to sexual sins. And you've been here Pure Life for some years now, and like all of our staff you came through the Residential Program as a student. You have your own testimony about how the Lord used worship in your life. Now you’re Assistant Director of Counseling. You see firsthand the changes in men's lives as they encounter God in worship and the lives of your own counselees. They tell you how God met them in worship services. Besides all that, your seat during worship services is on the platform, and so you have the distinct advantage of being able to see what's going on in the men during the worship services, and I think all this qualifies you in a unique way to speak about the role of worship in the lives of men seeking freedom from bondage to habitual sin. So talk to me, if you would please, about what you've experienced and what you regularly see. How does God use worship in the lives of our men?

Jordan: Yeah, it was an interesting topic when you emailed me about doing a podcast regarding worship. My immediate thoughts went to worship in the church, worship as evidenced in the church today, and I was grieved. My grief was based on what I had experienced in worship before I came to Pure Life, as far as worship was concerned.

Worship at Pure Life Ministries, I believe, is what the Lord really intended for worship to be. Our worship is the singing of praise, the testifying of different people, members of the body, during that service, and it really transformed my thinking about what singing praise songs and worship songs and testifying during services really means. It was a revelation to me.

Jim: Jordan, I see you've opened your Bible. Was there a passage of Scripture that you wanted to share with us today?

Jordan: We’re Biblical Counselors, and so we're going to preach from the Word. So if I did not use a scripture in defining what worship services are like at Pure Life, I would be doing the Lord a disservice and I wouldn't be anchoring it in anything. It would just be my own opinion, so I'm going to anchor it in the Word and then describe what I've seen, It’s Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Jordan: I mean, powerful, right? That passage really describes one of the aspects of what happens during worship and what I believe the church is really intended for. Music, worship in services; If you have a walk with God during the week, if you are seeking the Lord, as our students are, they're required to spend 15 minutes in the Word, 15 minutes in prayer, they have homework, they are in Bible studies, they are in prayer groups, and they’re at Pure Life, so the place itself is full of the presence of the Holy Spirit, so throughout the week they are immersed in the Word, they're immersed in prayer, they are practicing the presence of the Lord throughout the week. So when they come to service, their heart is… the pump is primed, so to speak. So when a song comes up that is, like this passage is saying, where they're being confronted with the holiness of the Lord,  we're singing songs about the holiness of the Lord, the Lord has a tremendous opportunity to use that song for a man to see “Wow, this is how holy the Lord is, and this is my condition, this is who I am before a holy God.” Man! Repentance! Just this undoing of the self-life! However, that would not be possible if the man was not inundating himself, immersing himself in the Word, in prayer, and all those things throughout the week. So, if you look at the church today, music and worship, praise songs have become entertainment. But that's not what the Lord intended.

Number one, He intended worship to glorify Himself to bring glory to Himself. But for us, in our Residential Program, we're seeing the effect that a godly life; someone who's walking with the Lord comes into service, sings a song, hears the song, the Holy Spirit comes through the song and does a deep, deep work in bringing a man to repentance, or shedding light on just how merciful the Lord is, or His holiness, or His lowliness, His character.

Jim: One of the things that we pray for, and I know that this is part of your testimony, I know you've seen it in the lives of your men: we pray all the time that men will get a sight of God; that men will get a sight of Jesus, that men will get a sight of the cross. Isaiah said, “I saw the Lord and we're always praying that men will get a heavenly sight. How have you seen this come true for you or for your men?

Jordan: I was taking notes, and I was thinking, interesting how the Lord will use something that happened while I was in the program, and it's just stored away, and I've shared it with a few people but really it was, I know where I was sitting in the chapel. I know the song: the song was called “Knowing You.” And as I was singing the song, and it says, “And I love you, Lord.” And I just started weeping, because for the first time in my life, that meant something. I could say without any hesitation that from the bottom of my heart that was true. I truly loved the Lord. And that was a revelation, it was a revelation of where I had been and where I was now in that moment. And now, every time I hear that song, I am reminded again how worship affects you. You sing some songs over a period of time and what has happened with that song now, what the Lord does with that song is a spirit of gratitude. I listen to that song, I sing that song and I'm so grateful for that moment in time where the Lord revealed Himself to me and said, “Jordan, you really do love Me!” This is actually true in your life, and you can actually sing this with deep conviction and love for Me.”

Worship is amazing, and when you are walking with the Lord, and singing in the Spirit, in an environment where the Holy Spirit is present, there is nothing like worship to the Lord. And then, what the Lord is doing inside of you and giving you that sight of who He is. His holiness, I think, is here in our chapel. We sing a lot about God, about His holiness, not what God does for us, but really, His character. And I really believe that those songs, the songs we choose, really allow the students to see His holiness. When we see God's holiness, we see ourselves before a holy God, we see ourselves rightly. And we're saying, “I am a man with unclean lips. I am a wretch. I am a sinner and in need of repentance.” And so a lot of times, during the worship service, you see men (because I'm up on the platform, as you said)  you see men become undone. They're singing a song, and they begin weeping. And then you see them, and the altar call comes, that same man comes up to the altar, again in tears, and you see him on campus the next week, the next month, and he's a different person. But it was that song again, all the stuff that led up to that service that happens throughout the week, and then God will use a song, or someone testifying as a form of worship, and the Lord uses all of that together, and the culmination is that song, that form of worship where he's singing… Music has that effect on people where He really does something. He goes into people, and they get a sight, and that's it, they're done.

Jim: One of the things that we teach, of course, right out of the Scripture, is that the conviction of the Holy Spirit leads to a godly sorrow, as opposed to the worldly sorrow that they came in with, and that godly sorrow leads to repentance. And repentance is the change that God is looking for. Now often, that happens in the context of a worship service and we get to see it unfold right before our eyes.

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Jordan: Yeah, it's I mean it really is an immense privilege. You know, Jim, you've been in ministry for many years, decades, and me growing up in the church. And not having witnessed this on a weekly basis, you know, we get to see that every week, twice a week services. And then Friday night services, some of our Bible studies, when we're playing worship music or whatever.  It is such a privilege to see men come to the end of themselves and into a walk with the Lord. And it's as simple as a song, and as simple as a phrase from a song, especially when we sing choruses and you sing them 2 or 3 times, that 3rd chorus, that's the one when the Spirit  really hits a person, and the reality of what that chorus says. You know, “You’re my all, You’re the best, You’re my joy. My righteousness, and I love You Lord. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing.” Right? I mean that, for me, just that did it, that undid me. You know, Revelation Song. There's just so many different songs that just… “In Christ alone.”  I mean, just have had a tremendous impact on me, and it is such a privilege to see men come into saving faith, through worship, through worship songs. Even before, I mean, honestly, our songs are before the sermon, and so it had nothing to do with what the pastor said. It's just the Holy Spirit, and using worship as a form of bringing a person into the Kingdom. Amazing!

Jim: Well, going back to our passage in Isaiah 6. He sees the Lord. In light of His Holiness, he is undone. He sees his uncleanness, his total depravity. But God didn't just show him his sin to leave him there. What happened after that?

Jordan: Isn't it amazing how God will use whatever means possible in order to bring us to a place where we surrender our lives to Him. And when we get a sight of the Lord, and here's the thing: we're just talking about one way that the Lord will do this. He does it in multiple other ways. Here at the ministry, and throughout the world, miracles or in the quietness of someone's room, He brings us all to that place, whatever the means, to a place where we see our depravity, and we see our need, and that's exactly what happened to Isaiah. “I am a man with unclean lips.” But God doesn't leave us there. He wants us to admit that, He requires us to admit we are sinners; we are destitute without You. But then He comes in in His mercy. And just says, “Ok. Here you are now cleansed.” And really for us, in the New Covenant, it’s the blood of the Lamb. And we're forgiven of our sins, as far as the east is from the west, so our transgressions are removed from us (2 Corinthians 5:17) We are new creation, the old has passed away; behold, a new creation has come. We're dead, we're dead to our old selves. John 3, Nicodemus, we are truly born again,

But it takes that sight of the Lord, that first part of Isaiah. We need to have that sight of the Lord and see who we are before a holy God. And that's exactly what happened to Isaiah. He saw God's perfect holiness and who he was before a holy God, and he was like, “I'm nothing! I'm a sinner! I don't even deserve to be in Your presence! I don't even deserve… and God, in His mercy, said yes (Wow, what an amazing God) I come and I'm offering you forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ, and forgiveness of sins. But now there's a responsibility. He's just not going to leave us there.

Jim: Alright, after his purification, after his sin was atoned for, he overheard God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Talk to me about Isaiah’s response.

Jordan: Yeah, we're called.  He asked us, “What are we going to do with that? What are you going to do with that?” The, it's the call. It's Matthew 28. It is in line with that, and He says, “Whom shall I send?” You've come into something. What are you going to do with it? And Isaiah said, “Here I am, send me.” And I think that was actually a theme for one of our conferences. But it is true; it is a call. “I've seen what you've done for me, Lord. Now I want to return that mercy that You've given to me and go out and make disciples of all nations, to multiply God's mercy.” God's saving faith is not ever for us alone. It's for us to multiply, to go out and do the same for others, in our homes, with our marriage, with our wives, with their children, with our churches, with our community, with our country, with this world.

And especially in these days and times, the call is going out, and I think, the focus in our ministry has always been discipleship, that has been in the benchmark or one of the pillars - but it's there's a sense of urgency. I think now, with the staff, that we are living in perilous times and – this isn't just about bringing a man into faith. It is this call. You know, talking to guys as they're getting ready to graduate, “You have a call on your life and a call to minister God's mercy to others, and so what does that look like?” I really do believe, more now than ever, God's call is shouting a little louder at Pure Life Ministries, for sure.

Jim: It’s a great passage of Scripture, but thank you for showing us how this happens in the lives of our men and how it happened in your life as well. Thanks for coming in today.

As we continue our current series, we discuss the two sides of the work of sanctification: the part only God can do, and our part in cooperating with His work in our lives.

We hear an impassioned plea for men to transition from living a life dedicated to pleasure to living a life dedicated to God, and a graduate shares his testimony of God's sanctifying work in his life.

In his previous post, Luke Gilkerson shared how the anonymity and accessibility of the Internet helped lead him into addiction and revealed who he really was and what he really wanted. Here's what he learned as he sought the radical change he desperately needed...

Performance is Empty

We need to be motivated to obedience, not to performance. These two are radically different activities, though they may look similar on the surface. Performance is when someone plays a part because it’s in the script, the written code, or the rules. Obedience is when someone submits and responds to another person.

There are many true followers of Christ who have developed the habit of performance: their lives are more about mimicking Christian social norms than they are about knowing God. Many Christians also suffer from acute double-mindedness: they sincerely seek to know God and yet simultaneously continue their pattern of outward performance. They feel the pull of the Spirit drawing them to Christ, but they also feel the pull of their sinful heart wanting to keep their “Christian” activities and convictions on the surface, in the realm of performance. These Christians are exposed for what they are when they have the opportunity to sin in secret.

Performance is merely another form of pride and control: we want to display Christian convictions so long as we don’t “sell out” to Jesus and become undying in our devotion to the living Christ. We enjoy the social benefits of a commitment to Christ, but we tell the Spirit, “This far and no farther. Deep down I want my life to be mine, not Yours.” This sin needs to be acknowledged, confessed to God and to our trusted Christian community, and hated as the evil it is.

That being said, real transformation will not happen simply because we have noticed that we are performing and not obeying. That acknowledgment is just the beginning, just the preparation for the real work that God will do.

Obedience is Responsive

For much of my Christian life I spent a good deal of my time trying to muster up the passion to obey God. I read about the lives of great saints, both in the Bible and in church history, and tried to mimic their passion and fervor. I measured my spirituality by how much positive, obedient emotion I could drum up within my heart. This, I believe, was motivated by godly devotion, but was nonetheless a wrong direction.

Obedience is a response. Even the English word “obey” comes from a Latin word for “listen.” Obedience is not something I should try to motivate by looking within myself, but something that I do as a response of looking to God, of listening to Him.

Our initial response to hearing the gospel should set the tone for the whole of our Christian lives, for a life of obedience, not of performance. When we first heard the Good News about Jesus, we understood that the offer of salvation was entirely based on something wonderful that God did, not something we do. With conviction of our sin and a delight in God’s love and power displayed in Jesus, we responded with faith. Thus, the rest of our lives are to follow this pattern: God reveals Himself; we respond.

Obedience is a response to a person, to the incredible God who has revealed Himself in Christ. For some of us, the word “obedience” is tainted in our minds, denoting a concept of cold or stoic action; but it is anything but all of that. Obedience is bringing a smile to the face of God, fully pleasing Him by growing in intimacy and knowledge of Him, patiently enduring in faith amidst the pressures of the world, and joyfully giving thanks at all times to the One who has delivered us from the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:9-14).

This is more than performance: this is the integrity of passion.

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Passion is God-Given

So what are we to do if we desire a life of obedience? We must not try to have a passion for God as much as we simply gaze upon God Himself and let that vision give us passion.

We must be as Moses on Mt. Sinai: we must have a hunger to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18). We must thirst for the same vision of God that filled the mind of Isaiah in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-8). We must have the hunger of the Greeks who came to Jerusalem for Passover: “We want to see Jesus” (John 12:21). We must have the desire and discipline of Mary of Bethany, who only desired to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear from Him (Luke 10:39). We must behold the mysteries of who He is, especially as He is revealed in His incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, and His second coming.

We cannot obey whom we do not know: only in knowing the living Christ are we changed. Then we are freed, not to live a life of performance, which is what the book of Hebrews calls “dead works” (9:14); instead, we are freed to serve the living God. No longer will we need to be motivated by simply performing to Christian social norms, but we can be free to live out a life of love and devotion to the One who died for us and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:15), whether in public or in secret. Our Father, who sees in secret, is eager to reward the one who earnestly seeks Him (Matthew 6:4,6,18; Hebrews 11:6).

Look on Him whom you have pierced (Zechariah 12:10), look at Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and gaze upon the crucified Christ, now risen, and search the mystery of His justice and love.