How many of you were here last Wednesday night and heard the
message Amen, pass the cup. And this is obviously coming out
of John. Just to give a little quick
recap out of actually Matthew 26 and 39 when Jesus was in the
garden, Amen. And he said this and he went a
little beyond them. And he fell on his face and he
prayed, saying, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
me, but yet what? Not my will, but your will be
done. And so he knew he was getting
ready to be crucified and to have to sacrifice his life on
that cross. But the the thing that we
realized in reading that scripture is that he also went
on and talked about when you read in Matthew, Luke and John,
the fact about having to carry his cross.
And we said that his cross was his purpose.
He knew why he was born. He was born to be king of, and
he was born to fulfill what his father said that the Son needed
to fulfill, to put what humanity back in his place of dominion
and rule and authority. And so he knew he was going to
have to be the sacrifice. He knew what God's purpose and
what God's plan was and he had to take the response
responsibility to say not my will, but your will be done,
right? And we looked at this statement
where he says pass the cup and said that you could look at that
in two ways, right? You could say pass the cup or
you could say pass the cup. You could say pass the cup.
I'm going to drink that. I'm going to take up the Lord's
will for my life, or you could say pass the cup.
I'm not going to do it right. And so we talked about for us as
his disciples, a true follower of Christ.
It's so important that we recognize that we all, each and
every one of us through the Scriptures, see that He said, if
you want to follow me and be a disciple for me, you're going to
have to pick up your cross. Because we always say, aren't
you thankful that we didn't have to die on the cross?
I've heard so many people say that, but there is still a cross
that we have to die on. We don't have to physically do
it, but we have to make a decision and a choice to die on
that cross daily so that we can pick up and walk out the plan
and the purpose and the will of God for each and every one of
our lives. It wasn't just Jesus that had to
take that cross. We have a cross that we have to
carry as a true follower of Christ.
And you know, it's important that we remind ourselves as a
disciples that there's going to be things that we're going to
have to crucify daily. If we're going to walk out the
plan and the purposes and the will of God that he has for us,
we're going to have to say, I choose to take the cup to do His
will, Amen. We're going to have to choose to
say those things. When He's asking us to do
things, He's calling us to do things to help continue to
advance His Kingdom in the earth.
There's going to be things that is going to be our
responsibility that He has for us to do.
But are we going to pass the buck?
Because as I was sharing last week, we talked about when He
said pass, when I said pass the cup, I was reminded of that
term, pass the buck. Are we going to pass the buck on
somebody else? Meaning are we going to evade
our responsibility of what God's asking each and every one of us
to do to put it on other people to have to pick up and carry
what God intended for you to pick up and carry?
Are we going to evade it? Are we going to not do his will
and, and and then he's going to have to find somebody else that
will you see what we're saying. And so we went through lots of
scripture last week concerning that.
Each and every one of us have something that God is requiring
of us to do and we went through several scriptures about that
and and recognizing that there was some things that he had for
us to do. Let's read Matthew 1621 through
26 again. It says from that time on, Jesus
began to show his disciples clearly that he must go to
Jerusalem and endure many things at the hands of the elders and
the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and be
raised up from death to life on the third day.
And Peter took him aside to speak to him privately and began
to reprimand him, saying, May God forbid it, this will never
happen to you. But Jesus looked at him and
said, Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling
block to me. And then Jesus said to his
disciples, if anyone wishes to follow me as a true disciple, as
my disciple, he's going to have to what?
Deny himself, set aside the amplified self says selfish
interest, and take up his cross, expressing A willingness to
endure whatever may come and follow me, believing in me,
conforming to my example in living and if need be, suffering
or perhaps even dying because of faith in me.
So he let us know that if you're truly going to be a follower, if
you're truly going to be able to be a disciple of him, that
there's some things that you're going to have to set aside your
own interests, your own will, just like he had to set aside
his own will to do the will of the Father.
And we're going to have to possibly even to be able to pick
up our cross. We're may we may have to endure
some suffering so that we can do the will of the Father.
But I thought it interesting here that Peter said, may it
never be. Do you know you're going to
encounter people in your life that are going to try to talk
you out of the will of God for your life and you're going to
have to rise up just like Peter or Jesus did and you're going to
have to say get thee behind me, Satan.
Yes, because you're trying to get me off course.
You're trying to get me to not do the will of the Father,
You're trying to get me to a place to where I'm more
concerned about me than doing what God wants me to do.
And so we're all going to have those Peter moments.
We're we're going to have to tell people, I'm sorry, you
don't understand why I have to move from Florida to Oklahoma
with three kids to go to a Bible school, right?
To go do the will of God for my life.
I'm sorry you don't understand that.
And you need to get behind me basically because I must do what
the Father's wanting me to do, even though you don't understand
it. And I know your heart is you
don't want us to have to go without or, and I don't know
where we're going and I don't know what we're doing and I
don't know how how it's going to all manifest.
But what I do know is I must do the will of the Father, that He
has a purpose and He has a plan, and He has assignments for my
life. Amen.
And that's for each and every one of us.
He did not say it was just for the pastors, the evangelist, the
apostles, the teachers, the prophets.
No, He said each and every one of His followers, His disciples,
we're going to have to pick up our own cross.
The cross is the purpose that God has for your life and the
plans and the assignments. We're going to have to pick it
up, take the responsibility, and then start walking it out.
Just like Jesus had to carry his own cross to his death, we're
going to have to carry our own cross.
And there's going to be times that there is nobody there to
help you carry that cross but Jesus.
Hallelujah. And we're going to see that.
How can we carry our cross effectively?
We're going to get some answers tonight.
So here we see this great picture of what He clearly says
a true follower of His will do. They will have to deny
themselves. And in Scripture, we saw here in
Luke 9, just one more Scripture, because, you know, I realized
too, that pastor had just ministered not too long ago on
what a disciple looks like. And he went through all the
scriptures that I went through last Wednesday about doing the
will of the Father. This is how we know if you're
truly a true disciple, is that you're going to do His will.
You're going to do it. You're going to do whatever He
tells you to do. Just like Jesus said, I only do
what my Father tells me to do. I only say what my Father tells
me to say. And everything you see I do is
because the Father has told me to do it.
Our lives should be a representation of the will of
the Father so that when they see you, they see this person's
doing God's will. This person's doing exactly what
God's having them do. You can see evidence of it in
your life. And so Luke 9 says this, or let
me read Matthew 10 again. Matthew 1038.
We're going to get moving. Matthew 1038 and 39 says this.
And he who does not take up His cross and follow after me, what
did he say is not worthy of me? He's not worthy of me.
If you're unwilling to carry your cross, to do the plan, to
do the purpose, to do the assignment that God has for your
life, he says you're not worthy of me.
Now look at Luke 9, Luke 923 and 25.
It says this. And he was saying to them all,
if anyone wishes to follow me, this is Luke's account.
And I like the way Luke's account reads it in the
amplified. This is why I'm reading it the
same scripture and what he's saying it says, and he was
saying to all of them, If anyone wishes to follow me as my
disciple, He must deny himself, set aside selfish interest, take
up His cross. What Daily?
This is the key. This is the key daily.
This is not a one time event. It was a one time event for
Jesus after he said it was finished.
But daily we saw through the three years that he or the 33
years that he was on the earth walking it out, that he was
always doing the will of the Father.
So he was a perfect example of how he did it.
But he says to to his disciples, we're going to have to pick up
this cross daily, meaning there's going to be choices in
our life every day that we're going to encounter.
And we're going to have to choose because we're going to
see what it means in a minute to deny our self-interest, to deny
our flesh, to deny how we feel about a situation, to deny a lot
of things, to be able to daily choose.
I'm following him. I must pick up my cross in this
situation. I'm going to have to deny myself
in this situation. I What does that mean?
I'm going to deny how I want to respond or want to, what I want
to do in this scenario or how I would do it in this situation or
circumstance. So he says daily.
And what does it say? Expressing A willingness to
endure whatever may come. So when you're choosing daily to
pick up your cross and follow him, you are saying I am willing
to endure whatever is going to come from me having to choose to
deny myself in this situation that I have to endure.
I'm going to have to endure some things, OK.
And then he goes on to say and follow me, believing in me.
I love this conforming to me, 'cause everybody says, oh, I
believe in Jesus. But I don't see them picking up
their cross every day and doing the plan and doing the will and
doing what He's telling them to do in situations and in
scenarios and in circumstances that they're encountering every
day. Come on.
And they're not being conformed to Him, the example in living
and if need be, in suffering or perhaps even dying because of
faith in me. And as I was meditating on that
today, I was reminded of that one Columbine student.
How many of you remember Columbine, the shooting years
and years ago? I don't remember what year it
was. It was in the late 90s or early
2000s maybe. And the one girl that was a
believer and she, I mean, it was all over the news that he wanted
her to deny her faith in Jesus Christ and that he wouldn't
shoot her and kill her and she should.
She stood up and she said I will not deny Jesus Christ as my
Savior. And he shot her and killed her.
And we think that that doesn't happen in today's society.
This is a real time martyr right here in the USA because she as a
teenager stood up and say, I'm not going to deny Jesus Christ
as my Lord and my Savior. And she was killed.
So she endured even unto death, to be able to stand up and do
the will of the Father by saying, I'm a follower.
I'm not going to deny him. So what does it mean to be a
true follower? To pick up it said, for us to be
able to literally deny ourselves.
It means this that we may take hold and take up upon ourselves
the cross to claim it and to make it our own.
And Jesus made it his own. And he's a perfect example of
how we're to make it our own. And thank God that we do not
have to die as the sacrifice for humanity.
But there are things that must die if we're going to follow
Christ. OK.
And it means to what? Take possession of it, to reach
after it, to strive for it. That means there is a our cross
is something that he's saying if we're going to be a true
follower, we're going to have to take hold of it.
That is the purpose that he has for our life, the plans that he
has for our lives, because that was Jesus's purpose.
That was His plan, the cross. We're going to have to take hold
of it. We're going to have to put it on
ourselves and we're going to have to what?
We're going to have to carry it. We're going to have to claim it.
We're going to have to take possession of it.
We're going to have to reach after it.
We're going to have to strive after the purpose and the plan
and the assignment that He has for every single one of His
followers who say you're a disciple.
There's something that he is requiring, something that He has
for you as a true follower of Christ.
There's an assignment, there's a plan, there's a purpose of what
He has for you to be doing. And like I said, it may not be
he's not calling you into the five Fold ministry or he may not
be calling you to be a missionary.
And you know, Timbuktu, which I found out really is a real
place. I thought it was just a saying
for real. I wasn't good with geography or
any of that stuff. So anyway, but he has something
for each and every one of us to do every day, daily, picking up
our cross. And whatever that may be that
he's asking of you, we're going to have to choose to take hold
of it, reach after it, strive for it.
Amen. To be able to accomplish it.
It's not just going to be, oh, I'm a believer and there's no
other responsibility that I have just so just as pastor said, so
I'm good to go so that one day when I die, I get to go to
heaven. That's not reality.
Again, this is not the Magic Kingdom where all your wishes
come true, OK? This is the Kingdom of God.
Amen. And there's things that He has
for His children to do. So we're going to have to, when
He says take up our cross and take possession of it, it
literally means we're going to have to die to self.
Die to self? What is self?
Well, there's self preservation. You're doing whatever you can to
make sure that you're going to be in the best position, right?
There's self-interest like the scripture even says there's
things that you're interested in that you want to do, but God
saying, but I want you to do this.
So guess what's going to have to die?
That thing that's keeping you from actually saying, Lord, what
is it that you want me to do in this situation?
Right. So it literally means to utterly
disown, deny and forget yourself.
Say forget yourself. That's a good term.
Just for the next time I talk to somebody and I'm giving them
that advice, I'm just going to say just forget yourself.
It's good advice. Forget yourself in this
situation. Just forget yourself totally
disowned. Forget yourself and lose sight
of your own interest. That's what it means to deny, to
pick up your cross, to carry it out right.
And last week I gave you tons of scriptures on the fact that as a
disciple, he does have a plan. He has something for you to do.
I don't want to go through all those scriptures, but what I do
want to read is first John 217. It says the world is passing
away, and with its lust, the shameful pursuits and ungodly
longings. But the one who does the will of
God and carries, say, carries, carries your cross, carries out
his purposes, lives forever, lives forever.
So the world's passing away. And we know that there's the
lust of the flesh, the pride of life, all the things that the
world is pursuing, those shameful pursuits and ungodly
longings. But the one who's going to what?
Deny his self and all of those things is going to be able to
what? Be the one that's going to carry
out the will of God and the purpose of God for our life.
OK, now look at first Peter chapter 4 and verse 2.
Because we're going somewhere, it says, so that he can no
longer spend the rest of his natural life living for human
appetites and desires, but lives for the will and purpose of God.
Are you living for the will and the purposes and the plans and
the pursuits and the assignments of God, or are you pursuing the
natural life of human appetites and human desires, which has to
do with all the things of this world that it can offer you?
Because remember, in every one of those scriptures where he
talks about a true follower of mine is going to pick up his
cross. He also said in the very next
verse, whoever chooses to what lose his life, lose his life
and, and and one of them even goes into what does it profit to
gain the whole world. You're pursuing everything the
world has to offer, your 4-O1K, your retirement, the best at
the, you know, at your job, the best CEO of your company and all
these pursuits and all these things and yet what forfeit your
soul. So we're talking about the plans
and the purposes and the pursuits and the cross that God
has for each and every one of us to carry.
And it may be that he wants you straight up as ACEO of a multi
$1,000,000 company like Elon, Elon Musk, you may be the next
one. But let Him get you there,
pursuing the right things without self-interest, because
He can do it, because He can put you in the right place.
Those that what seek first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness. All things will be what added
unto you, and He'll add it with no sorrow, no sorrow.
So we see here the Scriptures letting us know that this
self-interest, this natural human desires is of the flesh.
And we're going to talk about this.
I want to remind you of a scripture because as I was
meditating on this this today, I was reminded of the scripture
that I used when we were doing the series on reigning faith.
How many of you were on Wednesday nights and went
through that series on reigning faith?
Well, there was one scripture that stood, that stood, not
stuck. It did stick stood out for me
and I read it multiple times during that series and I wanted
to reread it because it goes along with this.
In second Peter chapter 1 and verse 10 in the amplified it
says this. It says, therefore believers be
all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and
His choosing you be sure that your behavior reflects and
confirms your relationship with God for by doing these things
actively or we could also say daily actively developing these
virtues, you will never what stumble in your spiritual growth
and you will live a life that leads others away from sin.
So again, we know that Jesus picking up his cross following
after the will of the Father brought him to a place that the
whole world now can come into can choose him.
He displayed that doing the will of the Father brings what life
brings life, because without Him we wouldn't have life, right?
That's why He was raised from the dead, and we are raised up
with Him in the newness of life and seated with Him.
Not just raised up with him in the newness of life, but yet
we're now what? Seated with Him in heavenly
places far above. Come on, all principalities,
we're seated with him in Christ in heavenly places, because he
rose from the grave. But here he's saying, Listen,
you as believers, be more diligent to make certain about
his calling of you and His choosing of you.
That's what we should be more consumed with.
What is God asking of me every day?
Because there is a cross that I am responsible for to carry
while I'm sojourning in this life, in this earth, and I'm
going to be held accountable for it.
There's rewards that could be laid up for me in heaven because
I choose to do the will of the Father, because I choose to do
His purposes, because I choose to do His plans, because I
choose to do the assignments that He is asking of me.
But I have to do it by choosing daily to, to crucify
self-interest and to crucify the flesh.
OK, so how can we daily crucify the flesh?
Let's look at this because this is what he's saying.
For us to be able to deny ourselves, we're going to have
to choose that. I'm crucifying this self every
day. Every day I'm going to have to
choose to crucify myself to do what God is requiring of me and
asking of me In whatever situation and scenario He may
have for your life, there's something that you're going to
have to daily crucify. And this is what he's talking
about, picking up your cross and carrying it.
So it has to be a decisive, ongoing choice of your acts,
actions, following through with it.
You have to make a decision that in in this moment, I am not
going to worry about my desire or self-interest because he's
requiring and asking me to do something else.
And so I'm going to have to choose to pick up my cross.
I'm going to choose to crucify my flesh and walk it out.
And what's so good about being able to do that?
It's just as I was saying, the fact that Jesus rose from the
grave and is seated at the right hand of the Father and then told
us as believers we're seated with him, then that means we've
been given all authority, power, and dominion back to be able to
actually crucify this flesh every day, to crucify it every
day, and to say not my will, but your will be done in this
situation. Why is this important?
Because to be able to do what God is truly asking us to do as
believers, to live it out every day in front of people's lives
by choosing the right thing over the wrong thing.
See, people don't even think about that anymore.
Like they'll go through their job and do their their daily
activities as a Christian and get in a situation where they
should be doing something totally different according to
what the scripture says about this situation.
And they just override it every day in their response.
And so here we're going to have to choose to remind ourselves
that, listen, the reason that I can be able to choose what is
right in this situation and deny self and choose to do the will
of the father in this situation. It is not self effort.
It's not in our own power. And as I said with reigning
faith, it is not willpower. It is not willpower to choose to
pick up your cross. Do you know what it is?
It is the power of the Holy Ghost that raised Christ from
the dead on the third day that says now He dwells on the inside
of you. And so therefore, there is
nothing that I could be dealing with in a day that I can't tap
into that power to be able to choose to rise above it and do
the will of the father. There's no excuse as a believer
for us to think that we have to have willpower or we have to do
it in our own self effort. It is not doing it in your own
self. You can't do it in your own
self. And that's why we see so many
believers failing because they don't have the power of the Holy
Ghost living on the inside of them.
So Acts, I'm just going to read you what the Scripture says and
let the Scripture talk for itself.
And this is another thing that if we're going to choose to be
those that say every day I'm going to crucify my flesh and
I'm going to pick up my cross and things that God's asking me
to do, then I'm going to have to be full of the power of the Holy
Ghost. Then I'm going to have to be
full of the Word of God. I'm going to have to know what
the Word says so that when I encounter a situation, I'm not
responding in my flesh or in myself effort, but I'm
responding in the power and the authority of the Word of God and
the power of God that lives on the inside of me to be able to
do it right. So Acts 18 But you shall receive
what power, come on and ability. Look what he says power and
ability. You have no ability to be able
to do some of the things that God is asking you to do when
you're encountering a situation. But if you learn how to tap into
the power, he'll show you how you can do it.
He'll show you how you can. Come on.
We need to be reminded of the little train who knows it Say
it. I think I can.
I think we have so much doubt
and we have so much telling us, oh, I can't do that.
I can't do that. I mean, there's no way I can
keep my mouth shut about that. Oh, there's no way I can do
that. Oh, no, no, no.
Do you know what? That just happened to me.
There's no way I can't hold my fist back, right?
But I have the power and the ability to crucify my flesh and
to be able to tap into the Spirit of God.
It says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, Amen.
When He comes upon you and those that are filled with the Holy
Ghost, you have no excuse. Anytime you encounter a
situation, just start praying in the Holy Ghost.
One, it'll scare people away and then you won't have to deal with
them. But two, come on, He's going to
fill you up with power so you don't respond in your flesh.
OK? He's going to give you the
ability to stand in that moment. Amen.
Hallelujah. Look at first John 4/4.
It says you are from God, little children and have overcome them
because what greater is he that is in you than he that's in the
world? So we must replace and not just
resist. We must folk.
It says the focus is not just saying no, but putting off the
old and putting on the new self, replacing selfish desires with
the fruit of the Spirit. So we're going to have to say
greater is he that's in me and choose that I'm going to put on
the new self. I'm going to allow the power of
God within me to restrain me. Thank God we have a restraint,
because you see what the world looks like without it.
We have a restraint on the inside, the power of the Holy
Ghost, the greater One who lives on the inside of us.
Ephesians 316 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory
to be what? Strengthened and spiritually
energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self.
So this is how we're going to be able to crucify this flesh or
the the selfish desires and the things that you know, we want to
do instead of what God wants us to do.
We're only going to be able to do it through the power of God
on the inside of us. And us what?
Yielding to it? Yielding to it?
Ephesians 610 In conclusion, be strong in the Lord, draw your
strength from Him and be empowered through your union
with Him and in the power of His black boundless might.
So you have to draw on your union with him.
Draw on the strength of God, the power of God that's dwelling on
the inside of you. You have power, Dunamis working
power living on the inside of you to be able to crucify this
flesh daily and to pick up your cross and carry it in every
scenario, in every situation. But how many of us don't tap
into it and don't yield to it? We respond with our words, with
our mouth, with our actions, our behaviors.
I mean, it's sad day when you see adults acting like 2 year
olds, right? That say they're even believers
but they're having a meltdown like a 2 year old that has not
learned how to self govern their behavior.
And thank God we don't have to any longer self govern our
behavior, but we do have to learn how to yield to the Spirit
of God on the inside of us to be able to have self-control.
Amen. So look at Colossians, I'm just
reading you the scriptures of how much power you carry on the
inside of you Colossians chapter 1 and verse 11.
It says, we pray that you may be strengthened and invigorated
with all power according to his glorious might to attain every
kind of what? Endurance and patience and with
joy. So he's saying, listen there,
the Spirit of God is ready to strengthen you and to invigorate
you with power whenever you're encountering situations where
your flesh just wants to have an outburst, but he's asking you
crucify it. I want you to do this.
I don't want you to respond that way, right?
And look what he says here in Second Corinthians 12/9 and 10,
it says, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for my
loving kindness and mercy are more than enough, always
available regardless of the situation.
For my power is being perfected, and is completed, and shows
itself most effectively in your weakness.
Therefore I will all the more gladly boast in my weakness, so
that the power of Christ may completely listen to this enfold
me, and may dwell in me, so that I am well pleased with weakness,
with insults, and with distresses, persecutions, and
difficulties for the sake of Christ.
For when I am weak in my human strength, than what I am truly
strong and able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God's
strength. So when we start talking about
crucifying the flesh and being able to pick up your cross daily
and carry it, it's not anything about you having to do it.
It's about you yielding to the power of God that's readily
available for you in those moments, in your weakness, in
those moments when your flesh, when you want to rise up and
respond and say no, Lord, it's too hard, I'm not going to do it
that way. No, you yield to the Spirit of
God who's saying on the inside, yeah, you can do all things
through Christ who strengthens you.
You can do it. You can do it, whatever it is
that he's requiring of us. So look at some practical ways
that we have to crucify the flesh #1 we're going to have to
learn as believers, and we've taught this for years, that we
are to walk by the Spirit. We're to walk by the Spirit.
We cannot walk by our flesh and walk by our human natural.
We're going to have to walk by the Spirit.
And for us to walk by the Spirit, we are going to have to
abide in Christ daily, just like he says daily.
We're going to have to crucify the flesh.
This is why we say daily, you should be reading the Word,
abiding in the Word. Because if you're not in the
Word, guess what? Your flesh is going to rise up
first. Amen.
So we're going to have to be people that walk by the Spirit.
And the only way we can walk by the Spirit is by abiding in
Christ daily. And that is through us reading
our Word right through times of prayer daily, right?
And you know what? When we're in the Word and we're
full of the Spirit of God because we've been abiding, then
guess what? The Spirit of God is so full on
the inside of you. And when a situation comes, it's
easy to yield to it. It's easier to yield to the Word
and the Spirit in you instead of self-interest or all the flesh
and all the things that the flesh is telling you to do.
So we know what the Scripture says, John 15, that if we abide
in Him, then what His Word will abide in US 15-7 and eight says,
if you remain in me and my words remain in you, that is, if we
are vitally united and my message lives in your heart, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
My Father will be glorified and honored by this.
When you bear much fruit and prove yourselves to be what?
True disciples have fruit, not somebody that just says they're
a Christian and a believer. True disciples who have learned
how to pick up their cross every day will have proof in the
pudding. The fruit of the Spirit will be
evident within their life. It will be evident as a
disciple, a true disciple, a true follower of him.
I like what one minister said, Pastor Jack Myers, which we are
on his board down in Tampa. He, he, he had this statement a
long, long time ago. And the Holy Spirit reminded me
of it today because it went with this.
The fruit of the Spirit is grown because we're talking about
doing the will of the Father. The fruit of the Spirit is grown
and developed in the Garden of Obedience.
I like that. And the Holy Ghost reminded me
because I had had it in a note from over last year.
The fruit of the Spirit is grown and developed within you, the
Garden of Obedience because we're talking about we are to be
doing the will of the Father and that's what obeying him at
whatever he's saying for us to do whatever it is that God's
asking or requiring of us daily. And when we obey fruit, the
fruit of the Spirit of God is flourishing within our lives
when we're choosing to say not my will, your will in this
situation, I'm going to choose to obey your word because I've
been abiding in it because the Spirit of God is in me.
And I'm going to choose to truly prove that I am truly your
disciple because I'm going to allow the fruit of the Spirit
come on to be a part of my life in this situation.
Let's look at this in Galatians 516 through 25.
It says, but I say walk habitually in the Holy Spirit,
seek Him and be here. It is responsive to his
guidance. We have to respond.
The Holy Spirit is always speaking if you are in vital,
He's always speaking to those who are in vital union with Him.
But if you're not abiding, guess what the Word says, you're cut
off. So guess what?
There's a disconnect. There's a disconnect, so you're
not going to respond properly. You're not going to respond by
the Spirit if you're not in vital union with Him every day,
daily abiding, remaining in Him, reading His Word, praying in the
Spirit, listening to what He's telling you to do.
It says you'll be responsive to His guidance, and then you will
certainly not carry out the desires of the sinful nature.
This is the result of you choosing to respond to the
Spirit and abide within His Word every day, remaining in Him,
abiding in Him, dwelling in Him in His Word, and praying,
prayer, praying in the Spirit. It says the nature which
responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts.
You see that He lets us know how the sinful nature responds.
So you have to ask yourself if you're a believer and it lets
you know how the sinful nature responds.
It's letting you know that you're not walking by the
Spirit. It's evident if you're
responding the way the natural flesh wants you to respond.
OK, so he goes on to say verse 17.
For the sinful nature has its desire.
Which is what opposed to the Spirit and the desire of the
Spirit, opposes the sinful nature.
For these two, the sinful nature and the Spirit are in direct
opposition to each other continually in conflict.
We will not get rid of this conflict.
This is why He tells us daily we must die daily we must choose to
pick up our cross and crucify this flesh daily.
We are going to have to make a decision that this sinful nature
is not going to dominate me because I'm dead to it.
Because the Spirit of God living on the inside of me and me
vitally in union with Him, dwelling in the Word every day
is going to keep me from responding in that sinful nature
and those desires. This is why he says it's in
constant opposition to each other continually so that you as
believers do not always do whatever good things you want to
do. Verse 18.
But if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you are not subject
to the law. Now the practices of the sinful
nature, let me just show you are clearly evident.
They are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, total
irresponsibility, lack of self-control, idolatry, sorcery,
hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes,
dissensions, factions that promote heresies, envy,
drunkenness, pious behavior, and other things like these.
We could name a million things like these.
What is it? The things of this world, the
sinful nature, the lust of the flesh, the pride of light, the
lust of the eyes, all the things that as a believer we should not
be operating in. And if we're abiding in His Word
and the Spirit of God is dwelling on the inside of us, we
must learn to yield to the Spirit instead of yielding and
responding in the flesh. And these things, we're not
going to get rid of it. It's battling daily meaning,
self-interest, self desires, the things you want to do.
Well, I would rather go to the beach and, you know, do
whatever. That's a selfish interest.
There's nothing wrong with doing that.
But if it comes before God, then that's the problem.
There's nothing wrong with going and doing.
But if it comes before the desire to do what God wants you
to do, it is a selfish interest and a selfish desire.
And he tells us we have to crucify that to do the will of
the Father or to be obedient to him and what he's asking us to
do. I mean, this is just reality of
how it works. And it's a good thing because
everything that He wants for us is life and fullness and
abundance. He does not want us controlled
by our sinful nature and those desires because it's only going
to lead to one thing. And what is that death?
Those who sow to the flesh will reap destruction, but if you sow
to the spirit, you'll reap of the spirit life, and whatsoever
thing, if you sow, you shall reap.
It is a spiritual law in the Kingdom of God and you cannot
get rid of it just because we live in this generation in the
world. It is a spiritual principle and
This is why we see believers life still encountering all
kinds of problems in their life because they're sowing to the
wrong thing. So he said these people that are
practicing all of these sinful natures or fleshly desires will
not inherit the Kingdom of God. But then he goes on to let us
know what is the fruit of the Spirit?
What does it look like? It says the result of His
presence within us is love, unselfish concern for others,
joy, inner peace, patience. Not the ability to wait, but how
we act while we're waiting, kindness, goodness, what
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and against such
things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have
what there's this word crucifixion that we think is
only the cross that Jesus is on on your necklace.
No has crucified the what sinful nature, together with its
passions and its appetites. For if we claim to live by the
Holy Spirit, we must what, also walk by the Spirit with personal
integrity, godly character, moral courage, meaning we need
to stand up for what God says is good, what he says is evil.
We need to have moral courage to stand up in an hour and in a day
that all the world is trying to say, oh, it's that's, you know,
that's old religion or that's old school that you have to be
married or have be married before you can have sex.
No, we have to have moral courage to be able to say, no,
that's not right according to the Scripture, right?
And it's not what we say. It's what we live by, which is
the standard of the Word of God, the foundation of our faith.
It says our conduct would be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The next thing we have to do is starve the flesh.
We're going to have to cut some things off.
If we don't want selfish interest or our flesh to
dominate us, then we have to starve the flesh.
What does that mean? We have to cut some things out
of our life. We're going to have to cut off
Netflix, right? We're going to have to cut off
some of the the music that, you know, everybody just.
Oh, it's just words that don't affect you.
Oh, yes, it does. It gets in you to where now, 50
years later, you can still remember the words in in the
song when I haven't listened to it in 35 years.
But I can hear a song and know the words.
Yeah, it does affect you, right? It's getting in you.
And if it's vulgar and profanity and and lustful and sexual, why
do you think you're having such a hard time putting down your
flesh? No, it needs to be starved.
Things need to be cut out of your life.
And that's not old school. That's his school.
It's his school of thought. It's his school, and I choose to
be a disciple or a student or a pupil of his school.
And that's what he says. Amen.
So that's what I put my life upon.
So there's going to be things we're going to have to cut off
those cravings, avoiding situations like I'm not going to
get involved in people's drama. I mean, I'll be your friend, but
I I'll be your friend this long because I'm not going to listen
to a bunch of drama. I don't want it to affect me.
Not going to listen to drama, right?
Or or chaos. And you know this person that
always comes to you, they always have a problem and then you try
to give them the word for the answer and they never listen,
but then that problem starts getting on you.
Nope, done. Not going to do it.
I don't want to hear your drama. I've given you the answer,
right? I mean, there's nothing but why?
Because you don't want that stuff affecting your peace.
It will affect your life. It will affect your marriage.
If you start taking on your friend's thoughts about what
she's having a problem with with her husband, you'll start
looking at your husband with that thought.
So I'm not going to listen to that because I don't want it
affecting me, right? So there's things you have to
cut off so that it's not going to affect your flesh or rile you
up to where you're going to want to respond the way they're
responding about a situation. Romans 8/11/13 says this.
But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in
you. So then, brethren, we are under
no obligation to the flesh or to live according to the flesh.
Remember, the flesh and the Spirit are battling daily and
you have to say I am not obligated to this flesh any
longer. It's not going to rule me.
I'm not going to let this affect me, this selfish desire or this
response that I want to have. In the flesh I am.
I'm not obligated to it. It doesn't own me.
It doesn't rule me. And what does it say?
Not to live in the flesh, but live and not to live according
to the flesh. For you, if you are living
according to the flesh, you must die.
But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of
the body, what happens? You will live.
So there's some things, say I've got to die.
Yeah, yeah. Self has to die, Flesh has to
die. And we have to choose every day
to crucify it, because if you don't, you won't do what God's
asking you to do. You won't do the plans and the
purposes of God for your life. And you'll be 90 years old one
day if the Lord tarries. And you'll sit back and still be
asking the question that so many people ask on their deathbed.
Did I do what I was supposed to do while I lived in the earth?
Still on their deathbed, regretting that they didn't do
this or they didn't do that. And yet we have a moment still
left in the earth to say we are going to do what God is asking
us to do. We're going to pick up our cross
daily. We're going to pursue his plans,
his purposes, his pursuits for our life.
And we're going to choose to be true disciples and follow after
him and carry our own cross no matter what it takes.
Because I don't want to be on my deathbed if that trumpet don't
sound and be thinking, did I do everything that I should have?
That's all people think of is regrets they regret.
Did I do what I was supposed to do?
And how many lay there regretting that I gave all my
effort and all my energy to my job and my family is a mess.
People live with regret every day and God's saying I don't
want you to have to live with those regrets.
I want you to fulfill life and godliness and and do the things
in freedom that I'm asking you to do.
But you're going to have to choose to say no longer to
self-interest or self passions or the things that I want to do
because, you know, you only live one life and every one of those
that said it die thinking I could have done something
different. And so we want to be like Paul
that says, I poured out my life like a drink offering poured out
my life so that people could see the Kingdom of God and be
delivered from the tyrannical ruler of the enemy.
And death and disease and sickness and addiction come on.
And, and all the stuff that we see going on in people's lives
because we're going to pass the cup and choose not to say not my
will. Let somebody else do that.
That's the pastor's job. Oh, that's that, you know,
they're young, they're in their 20s, they have more energy.
That's their responsibility. No, it's not their
responsibility If God's asking you to do it and you'll be that
person on your bed that regretted thinking, did I do
everything? I mean, I'm getting ready to see
Jesus. Did I do, I mean, that's the
fear of the Lord. I'm not trying to put fear in
you. That's the fear of the Lord that
I'm getting ready to stand before the Holy One.
And did I really do what is being asked of me?
It's the fear of the Lord. It's not to put fear in you, but
to put the fear of God in you that we're all going to stand
before him. We're all going to stand before
him and we're and he's going to say, I had this, this and this.
I asked you to go over there and pray with that individual and
you said you were too busy. I asked you to go and help that
young mother, you know, and give her some advice on this horrible
parenting that's happening today.
But you said you were too busy. You had your own kids to take
care of. It's the it's the little things
that he's requiring of us as his followers daily.
Remember, it's daily picking up our cross, daily choosing to
crucify our flesh and saying not my will.
Whatever your will is, I'll do it.
I'll do it, Hallelujah. And we can do it.
We can do it because Christ has given us everything we need on
the inside of us. The power, the ability, the
strength, everything. If we will just abide in Him and
stay in union with Him, walk by His spirit and not by this
flesh, then we'll be able to do the things that He's asking each
and every one of us to do. Amen.
And we won't be 1 to say I'm going to pass the cup to
somebody else.