1. Change

2. God Expects Us To Change “God loves us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Revelation 21:5 (NKJV) Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."

3. The Challenge Jeremiah 13:23 (NIV) Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

4. The Challenge Romans 7:18-20 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do ; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.…..24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death ?

5. The Battlefield Romans 7:25 (NIV) Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord ! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 8:6 (NIV) The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; Where is our battlefield?

6. The Strategy Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV) The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

7. The Strategy Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. But how?

8. The Strategy John 15:4 (NIV) Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

9. The Strategy 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

10. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His presence: through worship! We become like whom we worship! Psalms 135:15-18 (NKJV) The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. 16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 17 They have ears, but they do not hear; Nor is there any breath in their mouths. 18 Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.

11. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His Word: John 8:31 (NKJV) Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. How? In the mind! 2 John 1:9 (MSG) Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.

12. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His Word: How? In deeds! 1 John 2:6 (NKJV) He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 3:24 (NKJV) Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.

13. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His Spirit and anointing: 1 John 2:27 (NKJV) But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

14. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His Spirit and anointing: Romans 8:5-8 (NKJV) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

15. How to abide in Him: Abiding in His Grace: 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NKJV) 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

16. The Sign of Victory Matthew 12:33 (NIV) "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. Psalms 1:1-3 (NIV) Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.