{"id":1187,"date":"2010-11-24T14:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T19:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/you-asked-for-it-followup-1\/"},"modified":"2022-09-11T18:36:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T22:36:23","slug":"you-asked-for-it-followup-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/you-asked-for-it-followup-1\/","title":{"rendered":"“You asked for it”, follow-up 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>

In November I taught a three-week series yesterday called \u201cYou Asked for It\u201d<\/a> at Oak Tree Community Church<\/a>. We asked our congregation to submit questions that they wanted me to answer during the series. Their questions could be about a Bible passage they don\u2019t understand, a Biblical topic they want more information about, or something in the culture they wonder if the Bible addresses.<\/p>

However, there were several questions I couldn\u2019t get to during the services, so I\u2019ll post answers here over the next couple of weeks. Here\u2019s a great place to start:<\/p>

I accepted God into my life, but I haven\u2019t really changed. How do I know I have salvation? I\u2019ve prayed over and over, but I still can\u2019t change. What am I doing wrong?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Salvation is really only the first step in a life-long process called sanctification<\/em>. The word means \u201cto be set apart.\u201d At salvation God forgives all of your sin, declares you to be completely perfect and righteous in your standing with him, and gives you a new built-in nature that wants to serve him; you\u2019re called a saint<\/em>. From then on he takes you through the process that actually turns you into that person.<\/p>

Unlike salvation \u2013 for which you can\u2019t do anything \u2013 sanctification has a lot to do with you. Your choices directly affect whether or not you become righteous, and praying \u201cover and over\u201d doesn\u2019t really accomplish anything. Like Andy Stanley said in his book, The Principle of the Path<\/em>, \u201cDirection, not intention<\/span>, determines destination.\u201d Praying for change, intending to change, but not actually doing anything to change will create no change.<\/p>

Paul\u2019s answer to the question is called the \u201cput off \/ put on principle.\u201d In Ephesians 4:22-24<\/a> he lays out the principle (\u201cget rid of the old self and replace it with the new self\u201d) and then gives four specific examples:<\/p>

  1. stop lying, but speak the truth<\/li>
  2. stop stealing, but work hard and give stuff away<\/li>
  3. stop using unwholesome words, but start building up people with your words<\/li>
  4. stop being bitter, but forgive others the way God forgave you<\/li><\/ol>

    In Romans 6 Paul teaches that you will serve one of your natures: your sinful nature that leads you away from God or your spiritual nature that leads you toward him. Romans 6:13<\/a> tells us that our choices of how we use our bodies will show who we\u2019re obeying.<\/p>

    Real change is possible only after salvation, then it requires a change of choices and a change of actions. You won\u2019t experience real change without both.<\/p>

    If you still have questions, we\u2019re still taking them. Just comment below or email them to questions@oaktreechurch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In November I taught a three-week series yesterday called \u201cYou Asked for It\u201d at Oak Tree Community Church. We asked our congregation to submit questions that they wanted me to answer during the series. Their questions could be about a Bible passage they don\u2019t understand, a Biblical topic they want more information about, or something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,118,35],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-ephesians","tag-otcc","tag-romans"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In November I taught a three-week series yesterday called \u201cYou Asked for It\u201d at Oak Tree Community Church. We asked our congregation to submit questions that they wanted me to answer during the series. Their questions could be about a Bible passage they don\u2019t understand, a Biblical topic they want more information about, or something…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}