North America. Crossing family.
I am so glad that you are with us today.
I want to welcome you from all of our different locations.
Those of you joining us online and inside, and to, those of you
joining us for the first time, or the first time in a long
time, we are so glad you are here.
Because today, we are starting a brand new sermon series called
reclaim restoring what was lost and And fixing what's broken,
perhaps, some of you have parts of your home, decorated, with
reclaimed barn wood. Or some of you have found an old
piece of furniture at a thrift store or an estate auction that
you stripped of paint, sanded down and brought back to its
original Glory or maybe you gave it an updated trendy twist.
There's Something Beautiful about solid craftsmanship and
natural materials. The hard work.
Seems to be worth it when we know that it can be passed on to
Future Generations or at least Payments value and even increase
in value when the time comes for it to leave our homes contrast
that with the particle board pieces that litter our homes.
Today while we appreciate the convenience, they have no
longevity and are far from sturdy in conversations with
parents couples, grandparents and young adults.
It appears to me that many of us are wishing for something more.
Something better, something different.
Aunt and this sermon series, we're going to take a look at
the areas of Our Lives that we need to reclaim things that
we've lost along the way and things that are broken and long
overdue for a fix in order to reclaim what has been lost and
broken. We need to understand three
principles, its principal one. You reap.
What you sow? We see this in Galatians.
A man reaps what he sews whoever sews to please, their flesh.
From the flesh will reap destruction.
Whoever sews to please, the spirit from the spirit will reap
eternal life. Let us not.
Become weary in doing good throughout the proper time.
We will reap a harvest. If we do not give up.
Here's a question. I want you to ponder.
What do you want to reap? This is a question about Vision.
When you see yourself in the future, what do your
relationships with like with your kids?
What kind of marriage or friendships do you want to have?
How are you doing in the future financially, physically?
And even Spiritually. We are so busy in the day-to-day
hustle of life. That many of us have not stopped
long enough to make sure that we have a vision for our future.
Proverbs 29:18, says, where there is no Revelation, the
people cast off restraint is probably said best in the King
James version. Where there is no vision, the
people perish. Nobody has the vision of being
poor divorced and estranged from their kids.
Most people have hopes that one day they'll have money in the
bank less fighting in. Family, and closer and more
meaningful relationships. However, having a vision is not
enough. Once you have a vision, you have
to take steps to get there, you can have a vision for reaping a
harvest of corn, but if you don't ever buy the Seed, go out
and work the dirt, fertilize it spray for weeds and do the
maintenance on the combine. The chances of you reaping a
harvest plummets, furthermore you can have a vision for
harvesting corn, but if all you do is sow wheat, You will never
realize the vision you have. So many of us have visions that
are in direct contradiction to our daily activities.
We reap what we sow, not, what we intend to.
So vision is not enough. We need to implement our vision
which leads to principal to principal to everything has a
price. Jesus gives us a warning that we
must count the cost of following him and also of not following
him. He Likens it to a man who's
getting ready to build a tower. He says you should first sit
down and count the cost to see if you have enough to complete
it. Otherwise you'll simply lay a
foundation and be seen as a fool who did not have enough money to
finish the project. He also says the whoever loses
their life will save it and whoever tries to save their life
will lose it. Is always a cost choosing to
follow. Jesus has a cost, you will lose
your life. You turn your life over to him,
the choosing not to follow. Jesus also has a cost you keep
your life on your terms and save it for yourself.
However, in the end you will not enter into heaven because your
life was never placed. In the hands of Jesus, we end up
over estimating the cost of decisions today and under
estimating, the cost of decisions made tomorrow.
We tend to think that putting it off the life change.
Delaying the tough conversations and holding off on implementing
better practices. Will save us in the long run but
there is a cost to not working out regularly and there is a
cost to working out regularly. There is a cost to saving today
and there's a cost for not saving today.
There's a cost to having difficult conversations today
and there's a cost to not having difficult conversations today,
there's a cost to making life-changing decisions today
and there is a cost to know. Making life-changing decisions.
Today we end up buying more particle board Furniture because
in the moment it costs less. But in the long run we end up
spending so much more than we anticipated which leads me to
principle 3. We must feed the dog we want to
win. So I Married to guys, fat
Clayton and skinny clay careful. So sitting in front of the
television, eating a pizza, and then a bowl of cereal.
And then I have a bag of chips and then he gets mad that we're
out of ice cream. And all of a sudden, something
wakes up inside of him and he screams, hey, I gotta get out of
this chair. I'm gonna go look in the mirror.
They turned sideways. He's like, look, you're fat,
you're out of shape. Let's do something about it.
Something wakes up inside of him and he sees the world completely
differently. So, now skinny, Clayton, he
can't stand being fat. He has a different vocabulary.
Uses words like discipline exercise.
All right, put the cards down. He watches videos on YouTube of
workouts. He reads blogs, does research on
what types of shoes he's going to need.
He sets, workout goals, dietary regimens.
Gets up early to work out. Get that Fitbit and does jumping
jacks. Runs in place, so it gets his
steps in. He even begins to look down on
others. Who don't work out, the skinny,
Clayton, loses five pounds, then 10 pounds, then 15 pounds, then
he weighs in and sees no progress.
Next morning, he gets up to work out, look into rainy and cold so
he sleeps for an extra hour. Then on his way to work the
McDonald's, he has successfully driven by for the last three
weeks. Has no one in line.
Then it hits that Clayton is back and he's in charge, it's
sad, but it's true. The worst thing is it's not just
limited to that. That there's great spouse versus
selfish spouse. Great spouse says I'm sorry and
self-respect says, it's your fault.
The great one works at loving and the selfish one expects to
be loved one shows up, ready to serve in the other one expects
to be served. It shows up in parenting.
There's invested Clayton and there's absent.
Clayton invested Clayton, is involved absent.
Clayton is overcommitted invested.
Clayton has a plan absent. Clayton allows chaos.
Lee, Clayton, prioritises a relationship absent parent,
Clayton is all about rules. I interact with my kids when I'm
in my on good behavior and I ignore them and I'm on my cell
phone when I'm exhibiting my bad behavior, it shows up his good
friend and bad friend. Good friend says, I'm gonna go
say hi to everyone. Bad friend goes well they didn't
speak to me, they've got a problem.
Good friend, listens, bad, friend talks, good friend, gives
bad friend takes, then there's Clayton, who has a growing faith
in Clayton. You has a stagnant faith.
When I have a growing faith, I make a regular investment when I
have a stagnant faith. I'm just going through the
motions or I'm driven by my emotions when I'm invested.
I make it a priority, when sometimes it can just become
occasional. There are so many more of these.
There's the I want a new learn a new language versus.
I'm just going to speak slowly and louder when I travel to
foreign countries and my family knows this one, all too.
Well, There's a desire inside of me to be a great leader.
And there's also a desire in me to be a horrible boss.
There's a part of me that wants to be a great saver.
And then there's times when I'm a reckless spender, there's
times when I want to become a great cook, and there's other
times where I would just rather choose to go through the drive
through all of these personalities live inside of me
and I'm guessing they live inside of you two and these two
personalities do not like each other and only one of them can
be in charge. He reminds me of a story, maybe
you've heard it too of the dogs that there's this young boy
hanging out with his father and they're talking about this
desire to be good and then at the same time, these bad actions
that take place in his life. He's trying to talk to his
father and get some advice about how to navigate this and he and
his dad says look there are two dogs.
One wants to do good and be good and the other one is bad and
wants to be bad and the boy looks to his father and he says
well which dog will win. And the dad looks at him and
says whichever dog you feed what I love so much about this time
of year is that the version of ourselves?
We want to be tends to wake up and when he's in charge life is
exciting and full of potential. The problem is that violate
february-march the who we are dog, eats the who we want to be
dog and life returns to the old normal.
Paul in Galatians, gives these two dogs and name, one is the
Flesh. And one is the spirit every day.
We have a choice to feed the dog of the Flesh.
And if we do, we will reap destruction.
Or we can feed the dog of the spirit and reap a spiritual
Harvest. I'm hoping that by every single
one of us going on this journey together.
By embracing these principles, we will reap a spiritual
Harvest. We will ultimately reclaim we
will be able To redeem, the things that have been lost and
fix the things that are broken. Well, in order to reclaim in
order to redeem in order to fix what is broken?
We have to make a decision right now, which dog will we continue
to feed? I was drawn to the last
principle. I mean they went through three
but I want to focus primarily on the third principle.
I know they talked about sewing and what you reap and and
everything has a price but I want to focus on these two dogs.
I want to give a little more context Jennifer said it that
Galatians Paul actually Gives these two dogs and name and I
want you to see where it's found in.
Galatians chapter 5 starting in verse 16, it says this.
So I say let the holy spirit guide your lives.
There is the first dog. The spirit is, the one, and how
do we feed it? We're going to get to that in
just a little bit, then you won't be doing what your sinful
nature, craves, or you won't be doing what your flesh desires.
That's the second, dog. So you have the spirit and then
you have your flesh or your sinful nature.
And so here's Does the sinful nature, point-blank once to do
evil? Your flesh wants to do evil,
which is just opposite of what the spirit wants.
And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the
nature, spiritual nature, our sinful nature desires, but
here's what I want you to focus in on narrow in, on this, these
two forces are constantly fighting against each other, so
you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
Here's what you got to know that there is a dogfight happening.
There is these two dogs, the Flesh and the spirit going
head-to-head and everybody in this room and everybody watching
online, you need to know this, we all have different sinful
desire, some are similar but some are are very different.
And we all have these battles of the Flesh.
And you may Wonder, well hey, what happens, what happens if
I'm I'm not feeding the spear or what If I don't have the spirit,
what happens if I'm just feeding my sinful desires, what happens
when I'm just feeding the dog of My Flesh.
Well Galatians 5 says that it produces evil.
But what kind of evil he continues in verse 19.
Here's what he says. When you follow the desires of
your sinful nature, when you follow the desires of your
flesh, which again, is all of us in here.
There's that, that nature of us. The results are very clear when
you do that, here's what? Opens sexual immorality impurity
lust evil Pleasures idolatry sorcery or witchcraft hostility.
There's more there's a lot that happens when you feed into the
flesh. Quarreling jealousy.
Outburst of anger. Some of you've been there
selfish ambition. Dissension division happens.
Envy drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins.
Like these. There's too many to list but
he's like, let me just give you a list.
East. And I need to just stop right
there as you narrow in on this list as you focus on what the
flesh when you feed the flesh, when you feed your sinful
desires, you get this. And is there anything on there
that seems appealing to you? Do you wake up in the morning?
And you say, man today and I desire, I desire to be a little
hostile. I I desire to get in a little
fighting match with somebody or I desire to have the Outburst of
anger or all those things because I just don't think you
do. Here's the deal, they may seem
appealing, they may even bring some short-term enjoyment to
you. But when you are engaged with
those things, when you are feeding the Flesh, and those
results are taken place it leaves, you wanting more.
There are times I'm sure you've experienced this, where
something in your life, man? Just wasn't fair, or you
something some news, hits you and or maybe someone did
something sideways to you. And you let out an outburst of
anger. I don't, maybe it's just me.
But in my car that seems to happen where I will just let out
a scream, something will come out of my mind.
My Flesh and those moments. And in the moment I was like, I
felt alright if okay, but it leaves me wanting more.
I can't, I can't continue in that because listen, you will
never find fulfillment in the flesh.
You say it again. You will never find fulfillment
In the Flesh. I'm sure a lot of you can relate
to this based on the circles that I'm running in, my family
has been hit with sickness, all over it started.
Last week, with with me with strep throat.
It continued into this week, with my wife and the flu bug,
and I got to be completely transparent with you.
My flesh took over when I'm I'm sick, especially last week.
I will say this. I will admit it in front of all
of you. I'm a bit dramatic.
All right, I felt and when someone was texting me, when I
was down with strep throat and I was laying in bed and I just
couldn't get out of bed for two days and people were texting me.
The words I would use that would say, I feel like I'm on my
deathbed. I couldn't move my head hurt my
throat hurt. My body hurt.
Just everything. Didn't I felt like I could
literally slap you with what Was sticking out of my neck at that
time like it was bad and when I'm sick, I have these perceived
thoughts on how my wife should care for me.
Because I was down and I was out, it's not an excuse, I
should have done better, this is where I fell short, I fed much
more into my fleshly side. I wasn't I wasn't feeding the
spirit very much when I was down and out, I wasn't spending much
time in the word. I wasn't spending much time in
prayer and so my flesh came out of me.
And so my expectations of my wife were, she needs to be in my
room at every second of the day and she needs to be caring for
me and she needs to be asking, Honey, can I bring you some more
water honey? Can I get this for you?
And quite frankly she didn't now she checked in on me, she did
everything. She was supposed to do.
She's caring for four kids. She's continued to walk in her
calling in the Lord and doing a mighty, awesome job and her
calling but for some reason in my flesh sided took over, and
you don't my flesh said and you can probably relate to this.
I said Sweetie. I know you're going to get sick
next. And you.
Wait you wait and I will treat you exactly the way you treated
me. This that didn't work out very
well. Did it?
See my flesh came out and I took it out on her.
I took it out on my kids because I was I was feeding the wrong
dog. And that's why I meant my
friends. It's so important to feed the
spirit and here's a good news about having a relationship with
Jesus Christ. Is that you are not battling the
flesh by yourself. If you don't Have a relationship
with Jesus. You are battling it by yourself,
but Jesus says in his own words, I love this in John chapter 14,
The Gospel of John. He says, if you love me Jesus,
if you love me and you keep my commands and you obey my
commands Jesus, I will send, I will ask the father to send us
an advocate who will help us forever the spirit of Truth.
The spirit of God will come inside of us.
And you don't know why that's a big deal.
Do you want to know why? It's a big deal to have the
spirit of God living inside of us?
Because the results are quite opposite and what the flesh
provides. Here's what it says in verse 22,
as we continued in chapter 5 but the Fruit of the Spirit The
results of the spirit, when you feed the spirit, when you allow
the spirit to come take residence inside of you.
This is what it does. It provides love and joy and
peace and forbearance or or patience.
Kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control
against such things. There is no law.
Look at that list in contrast to the list that you're flush
provides. I wonder how many of your your
kids or your spouse or your family or your grandkids or fill
in the blank of the person in your circle.
If they were like mint, actually might this would be a bad thing
for my loved ones to have more joy to have more love to have
more patients to have more kindness to have more
self-control. Would they be like, no, no, no.
I dad actually I want a more hostile dad.
I want when I do something wrong.
I don't want a peaceful dad. I don't want a gentle dad, but
if I'm not careful this and this is just me speaking.
If I'm not careful. And I'm feeding the wrong dog,
those things on the other lists, tend to show themselves more
than this list. If I'm not feeding the spirit, I
don't know if any of the guys can relate to this to this next
part, but my wife, I love her so much, and she knows that she
just takes. So darn long to get ready when
we go to places, all right. Like a long time and maybe it's
not even that she she takes a long time to get ready.
She just seems to wait till the last moment to get ready.
So if like, for instance, we know it's, I'm going to give her
a Saturday when we're not working.
We're out of the office and we're at home, or enjoying time
with the family. And let's just say we have
somewhere to be at 6 p.m. she's doing nothing all day.
Besides caring for her kids and loving me.
She waits till 5:45 to get ready so then I think now's a good
time. Let's go get ready now.
I'm like we're supposed to leave at 5:45 and so this is what
happens. The flesh side of me, if I'm not
feeding the spirit, if I'm not in my word, if I'm not praying.
If I'm not being the man after God's heart that I'm supposed to
do what she gets, as she gets a more hostile husband, she gets a
little Outburst of anger, unfortunately, instead of this
patient in this kind in this loving and forgive me husband.
But listen, this is a reminder these things.
These these fruits of the spirit We don't produce those.
Some of you are gonna be like, well listen, I I'm a lot loving
person. I can be patient, I could be
kind but you can't produce that on your own.
It might be short term. You might produce evidence of
those things but you cannot produce the fruits of the spirit
without the spirit. And the spirit comes to you,
like I said, when you start that intimate personal relationship
with Jesus, when you say, I believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the son of the Living God, and I want him as my
personal savior in that moment, just Like Jesus says, when we do
that when we love them, when we obey him, he sends a spirit and
we're no longer alone, you can't produce it on your own.
When you have that relationship with Jesus, immediately
scripture is very clear that when you start that relationship
with Jesus, you should be obedient in the area of baptism.
And you start feeding the spirit, we have an obligation as
Christians, people who have called on the name of the Lord,
to start feeding the spirit. But listen, and I'm in this
boat, we spend way too much time sowing into our flesh and sowing
into the spirit. We know the right thing we
should do. But yet, we don't do it all the
time. It's Paul talks about this
battle. He has this inward battle to he
relates so well to us. He's like, man, these are things
I want to do, but I don't do them and then the things I don't
want to do. Those are the things I'm doing.
We keep returning to our sinful desires, our flesh, but we
shouldn't be surprised by this. Because scripture continues to
talk about this. This kind of this weird
phenomena and the Book of wisdom and the Book of Proverbs chapter
26, starting in verse 11. Here's what it says.
I love scripture. This part is, especially as a
dog returns to its vomit. So a fool repeats, his
foolishness. Some of you are just like, oh
okay, you have that picture. I used to be a dog owner, my
wife. And I used to be a dog owner and
this dog. He was crazy.
And his own and his own sorts, but during our time of being
with him, there were be there'd be moments where you can tell
something was about to come out. You guys are, you know, Talking
about like you, he's like he's gagging, like you like it's kind
of like and you're like, you kind of step back.
I won't go anymore because some of you guys are still got some
flu symptoms and that'll just like blah all over the
auditorium. But then all of a sudden, what
does he do? He releases the bad.
He gets too bad out and his vomit comes out on our floor,
which it was wood. Floors tile floors, praise God.
And after he did that, what he would do is he's a crazy dog.
He'd get the bad out and then all of a sudden he's all perky
and he's running. Around the house and he's going
outside. He's running around the yard.
Then he comes back inside and he jumps on your lap and he gets
really close to my face. I'm like, whoa, whoa whoa you
just vomited really like hang back hang back and then what
does he do? He goes back to the pile that I
haven't cleaned up yet. And he licks it up.
And it goes right back to where it came from.
Well, why is that important? Well, as a Christian, that's
what we tend to do quite a bit. There is this fleshly desires.
These sinful desires these things that were walking in
that, we know are not God, they're evil.
They're, they're all those results that we were just
reading and we're walking in them, but then we come to
realization as a Believer. I need to get away from those
things. I need to walk away.
I need to repent. I need to turn away, and I need
to go to the things of the spirit.
I need to lean in to God through prayer and through scripture and
through. The other believers and we do
that for a little bit. But then life gets comfortable.
Everything is going somewhat to plan.
You got a promotion? Your kids are not arguing as
much, your marriage is not great, but it's not like on the
Rocks anymore. And when we get too comfortable,
we tend to not feed the spirit as much and then we start going
right back to our pile of vomit, right back to our sinful
desires, right back to our flesh.
And I just need to tell you, man, I want to be a dad.
I want to be a husband. I want to be a pastor.
I want to be a friend. That says enough is enough, I
fall short every single day. It's important for you to
understand that because the same is true about you.
If you're listening to my voice we all tend to battle those
things. We all have these fleshly
desires and I tend to feed that dog of My Flesh more than I want
to, But I want to limit it. I want to pause that.
I want to stop returning to my flush.
I want to stop returning to that vomit.
I want to make a shift. I want to make a change and I
want to be a man and I think you want to be the person that's
committed to feeding the spirit. And so, during the sermon
series, I need you to hear this during this sermon series.
We are going to encourage you each and every single week.
Two. Dig deep to dig deeper than you
have ever dug before that when you come to this place, when you
enter into this room here at 48th Street, you make this
Gathering a priority especially over the next six weeks.
During this reclaim series that there's going to be moments.
I get it on Thursdays if that's your church day on Thursday
afternoon man. Satan's going to attack you,
he's going to create havoc in your life.
You're going to create he's going to create, things are
going to Happen inside your workplace, or inside your
classroom, or something with your friends or something,
inside your family, or your kids are going to be acting, right?
And you're gonna be like or you go home and you take your shoes
off and you're just like I don't need to go to church today.
I can watch online or I can maybe catch up on Sunday.
And what I'm telling you is you have to dig deep in those
moments and you have to declare. No, this this is important or or
Sunday mornings. You guys are here.
You made it today, but there's going to be days where you wake
up in the morning? You can be like, I don't feel
like it I think we'll just cook breakfast at home.
My kids are fighting or you and your spouse, get in the car and
you're automatically fighting right away, and you're just
like, should we go to church today?
I mean, we're fighting already, can the Lord do anything for us?
Maybe we should stay home. Maybe we watch online.
Maybe we should let people see the mess of life that we're
living in. And so you make a decision to
stay home but I'm telling you not, not not in this season not
in this series that we say enough's enough and we make this
a priority because listen every single week in this series.
We're going to be issuing different challenges.
Some are going to be fun. I'll be honest with you.
What we're starting to plan some of those things and getting some
experiences ready, and they're going to be fun, summer, going
to be easy, they're going to be as easy as you just saying, yes
and walking up and doing something, but some of these
challenges are going to be exactly what the word is, they
will be challenging. But here's what I want you to
do. I want you to sow into your
future. That is we do these challenges
together as my family in your families.
As we lean into these things together.
We want to take small steps today so we can put them into
motion for our future. And so as a staff As a team of
difference makers that love you and care for you.
We want you to know. Another big truth is that we
want to be in your corner. You're going to hear that Mantra
over and over and over this year.
It is true because we want you to know that we are with you.
We want to help you connect with Jesus on a much deeper and
intimate way, we want you to take steps that you've never
taken before we want you to connect with Jesus at a much
deeper level, we want to help cheer you on We want to help
encourage you. When you take your first step,
we want to help help you develop that vision for your family and
develop that vision for your future.
But we also want to be there when you need encouragement.
When you when you are turning to the world and they're just
saying you need to quit, you need to give up.
You need to just stop on that marriage, you need to stop on
that relationship. You need to just give up.
We want to be like, no, no, no, no, no.
Got has you. He's got this and he's with you
and we are right behind you. Some of us.
We may have to just give you a With kick or a little knee in
the back, but we will be there to help you.
We want to help you dig today. So others can drink tomorrow and
that statement is so much wider than just your family.
Of course, we want your whole family to drink tomorrow or even
drink. Today, we want your kids, your
grandkids, but we want your family, we want your co-workers.
We want your boss. That you having a disagreement
with. We went everybody in this world
to know that they can have this. Living Water.
This living water through Jesus. We will my friends.
We will reclaim. We can redeem, what's been lost
and we can fix the things that are broken, but it's not really
a we thing. It's a Jesus thing, Jesus can do
all those things, but he invites us to do it with him.
I want you to consider that as we moved to this time of
decision, Something that weighs heavily on my heart as I'm
speaking. There's there's one group of
people. That I think through there's one
group of people, my heart, just like leaps out of my chest, too.
It's that person or the group of people that have not started an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus.
You hear there's this battle between flesh and the spirit,
and you hear that. When you have the spirit, he's
with us. He's guiding us.
He provides those incredible fruits.
But in the flesh, we get all those results, those evil
results, all those things that follow us and I just need you to
know, my heart goes out to you because you're in this battle by
yourself. You're in this war all alone.
You are trying so hard. You trying so hard to accomplish
all these things by yourself? You, I know you're like, listen,
you think you can do it? But I want you to, I want you to
understand. I thought I could do it to a lot
of people thought they could do it on their own and then they
realized, why do we need to try so hard?
Jesus Paid the price, he paid the debt.
He rescued us from our sin and he wants to be there with you.
He wants to give you the spirit to empower you to live the life
that he's called you to live. You will never be the person.
You will never be the spouse. The parent, the friend, the
grandparent that you were created to be.
Without that relationship with Jesus in today.
And this moment in this time that we share together in this
space, you can start that relationship with Jesus.
Jesus Christ, he died on your behalf.
Not to make you better. He does make you better but he
didn't die on your behalf to make you better.
He died on your behalf to make. You knew your wife, your
husband, your kids, they don't need a better version of you,
your friends don't need a better version of you.
They need someone who's been made new by the power of Jesus.
Who has the spirit of God living inside of them.
They need someone who takes that step and says, yes, to Jesus,
who gets in the waters of baptism and now, Because you
have that relationship with Jesus.
You are now starting to feed your spirit rather than walking
your flesh. And so in, just a little bit, if
you have not started that relationship with Jesus, one of
our pastors will be right by the baptistry.
And they would love to help you walk through that.
Make that decision, answer any questions, you may have pray
over you But that is the single greatest decision you can make
in this moment. And I'm praying that you'll take
that before you leave this place.
Today, I want to share and wrap up Galatians 5 because it's just
so powerful. The, this chunk of scripture
were in and starting in verse 24 and 25.
It says, those who belong to Christ Jesus, those who have
that intimate personal relationship with Jesus, you
have nailed your passions and your desires of your sinful
nature to his cross and you crucified them there.
Your flesh. What Jesus does is you're taking
those things. When you belong to Christ, you
take your flesh, you take your sinful desires and you crucify
him on his cross and says, since you are living by the spirit,
let us follow the spirits leading and every part of our
Lives, my prayer is that you follow the spirits leading this
morning, For those of you in this room, there's a lot of you
that have relationship with Jesus.
You started it, some started a long time ago, some started as
maybe as often or as close to last week and looking at this
room, Panning, this room of faces and stories there.
So many stories filled Some, I got to see when Jesus made, you
knew I got to help walk you through that.
And it's been a great testimony what God is doing in your life.
But I want you to know If you're not in a battle right now, you
will be in one soon. You may be in a battle against
your flush, right now, the flush is winning against the spirit
because you're feeding the wrong dog.
And today, but we have to declare, we have to declare war
on our flesh and the way we declare war on our flesh.
Is we invite the spirit, we lean into the spirit, we feed the
spirit through prayer, through surrender and through obedience,
and that can happen in this moment that can happen.
This time of worship on these steps and over the next seven
weeks, what I want to help you do, as I want to help, you be
able to make a commitment, to feed the spirit versus the
Flesh. And so on the steps, there are
cards just littered on these front steps.
And then just a little bit, I'm going to ask all of you as
believers. Of Jesus, those who are walking
inside this relationship with Jesus.
Whether you are in a good place in your walk or whether you're
in a tough place or whether you feel like you're in an
impossible place that you would come up and you grab one of
these cards and you'd spend just a little bit of time just
getting on your knees or taking the card back to your seat.
Or if there's not enough room up here that you'd you'd flood the
aisles and you start praying God what step do I need to take
today over these next six weeks? How Can I focus so much on the
short-term, not not get lost in the long-term.
How can I draw close to you? Because every single week we
have 168 hours. How will you use that to draw
close to Jesus? How will you use that to feed
your spirit and not your flesh? And so in this time, If you're
kind of already making excuses, he's not talking to me.
This response isn't for me, I'll do that another time.
This is the first Challenge and I'm challenging every single
person including myself to come forward and wage war against our
flesh. Let's stand to our feet, let's
go to time of prayer time of decision, a time of movement,
God, which you do, what only you can do.
God, I pray that you your spirit right now.
Confirming, the hearts of Believers, Jesus.
The how they need to take a step where they need correction,
where they need to repent and turn away from their sinful
desires and Turn to You spirit. I pray that you continue to Just
Produce those fruits inside of us of love and joy, and peace.
Gentleness patience. Kindness just got self-control.
Would you just place it on our hearts?
God, I pray for that person. I pray for that group of people,
Lord, that is still battling on their own.
I pray today. They they can be released from
that bondage. They can be released from the
lies that they can defeat their flesh on their own and that they
can say yes to you. Jesus In This Moment, Holy
Spirit do what only you can do. I pray God, that you'll help us
respond. You'll help us posture.
Ourself in a posture of humility and allow us to make a
commitment In This Moment. God ultimately, I pray that you
help us. Whatever the circumstance, you
will turn it around. Jesus, we love you.
Praise your name. Amen, let's move Church.