What is this sermon about?
"The Expulsive Power" is the finale of Footprints Church's sermon series What You're Really After, teaching that lasting transformation comes not from resisting desire through willpower, but from a deeper affection for God displacing lesser loves, based on Romans 7:15, Colossians 3:1, and Psalm 34:8.
Most attempts at change rely on effort — try harder, set stricter rules — and Paul names why that approach eventually fails: "what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Romans 7:15). Pastor Ben Moore draws on Thomas Chalmers' concept of "the expulsive power of a new affection" to explain that old desires aren't defeated by condemnation, but by being outshone — set your heart on Christ (Colossians 3:1) and lesser loves naturally lose their grip. The message includes a guided "Desire Audit," a practical tool for tracing strong emotions back to their root desires, and closes the 8-week series by tying together its full arc: identity secured, honesty enabled, and desire finally rightly ordered.
Closing message of the 8-week series What You're Really After, exploring identity, honesty, and desire at Footprints Church, a Church of the Nazarene congregation in Ridgefield, WA.
