Let's finish the message we started last week.
You know, we talked about the opposition, which was really
just the flesh battles against the spirit.
Today I want to take us into that.
We are disciplined to conquer, OK?
Because the nature we have of the Kingdom of God, we are
disciplined to conquer and God disciplines us so that we always
conquer in everything that we face while we're on the earth
'cause I know ultimately that when I'm present with Him, I am
part of something that will never cease to exist.
And again, you know, I, I make a conscious choice, especially
once the Kingdom, the, the, the idea or the reality, the
revelation that the Kingdom of God is ever present right now,
although it's not physically present, it is ever present.
And the reality is, is that I've always been eternal.
It was just the quality of my eternity that was at that was
the question, was I eternally dead or am I eternally alive?
But we're all eternal. And so when I moved over to
eternal life, was I allowing the eternal life to dominate me?
Or was I knowing that I have life eternal, but I'm still
living temporary, making all my decisions based upon a small
sliver of time, instead of recognizing the decisions I make
now, now actually carrying me into eternity, their eternal
decisions. And I can make decisions from an
eternal perspective of life, not from a temporary perspective.
Hallelujah. And so when you do that, then it
keeps your focus more so and there's things that you begin to
drown out in your ears because you're living for something
beyond. And I think for me, once I
realized that when I die, I'm not going to be in heaven
forever, that was a change. And then I realized, well, when
I leave this earth, it's not the last time I'll encounter sin.
Now, now, I'm not saying that I will be subject to sin or that I
will do sin. I'm saying I will be around
those who are in sin because the millennial reign, those there
will still be humans on the earth that are like we are, but
Christ will be on the planet as well and we will be with him.
Now, when I realized that, I thought, wow, there's a lot
going on still before we get into this concept that, you
know, was just a part of my psyche for, you know, most of my
young life and then a young adult life of that, you know,
the man, I'm gone. I'm up there forever and I'm
never seeing sin again. I'm never dealing with the
planet again. And yet that wasn't even in the
Bible. So when you realize that, then
you're like, OK, I need to live different now.
And my focus is not about this, this time frame that will come
once I die. My focus is today.
And how I Live Today does carry over into the next life, the
next dispensation. We can say, OK, although we'll
be eternal, have our glorified body, there's there be no risk
for us sinning, OK? However we do are going to be
around those that are. We're going to be righteous
judges helping our King Jesus during that millennial reign
before he releases the devil after that time and then
ultimately cast him the lake of fire and then everyone else that
never called on his name. And then we get the eternal new
heaven and new earth. And it'll be awesome.
All right, so let's kick back into First Peter Chapter 2, our
beginning text last week. I'm not going to do a big
summary at all. I want to just kind of move into
where we want to go tonight. But First Peter, 29 through 11
again said this, that we were a chosen.
We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of
people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. OK.
For you weren't once, were not a people, but now you are the
people of God. You had not received mercy, but
now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens
and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust which wage war
against your soul. And when the Bible talks about
flesh, there's two ways that flesh are identified within
Scripture. One identification of flesh is
just your body. It's your skin suit.
It's what we call the body. It's what houses who we are with
our spirit and soul. It's our body.
So it'd be called the flesh. But then there's times when it
talks about being fleshly or another translation that says
carnal. Now when he talks about fleshly,
what there's what that is, is that's the old nature of sin.
And so when you're born of God, you're, you no longer are
subject to fleshly things anymore.
You can be tempted by fleshly things because you were an
expert in them at one time, right?
You enjoyed them and indulged in them, but they only, you know,
hurt you. And you came to that realization
the day Jesus let you know that this life that you're, you know,
trying to live to be right with him and all the guilt, shame,
and the different things that are associated with living by
the flesh that hurts you and hurts others, you want to be
delivered from. And he'll deliver you because
he's paid the price so you can come out of that.
And so that's, you know, as we talked about on Sunday, we threw
the garment down. And because we're not bringing
an old identity into a new Kingdom right now, so our spirit
man's made new, the fleshly things no longer dominates.
Our body is still here, meaning our body is not glorified.
It's not eternal, OK? It will put on immortality at
some juncture, OK? The things of the flesh are the
things that are always trying to pull you out of the will of God.
So here he says we are to abstain from fleshly lust.
He's not saying we are to abstain from being inside our
body, He's saying we are to abstain from things that were of
our own nature because those things are waging war against
our soul. In essence, it's in your mind
area that the the battle is formed and it dictates which
direction you go. Now the spirit that's alive in
Christ and the Holy Ghost that lives in you, they are
conquering spirits. OK?
The Holy Spirit is the Conqueror.
I mean he's they never lost all power.
He's the greater 1 And then our Spirit's been made in the
likeness of Christ who's never lost.
He's always won and dominated the the things of the flesh.
He never let the things of the flesh take him, control him, or
yield to them. He was tempted on all accounts,
yet he never sinned because he would not go against the will of
of his Father. He allowed the things of the
Spirit to dominate his mind. He would not set his mind.
He would always combat things that try to in his mind go
against the will of God. Again, give you a great example
when Peter he was talking to Peter and his disciples in
Matthew chapter 16. Remember he said, who do people
say that I am? And they give him a list of
prophets. And then he said, but who do you
say that I am? Or who do people say that I am?
They give a list of prophets. He said, but who do you say that
I am? And he they say, well, you're
Peter says you're the Christ, you're the son of the living
God. He said flesh and blood is not
revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
And then at that point, because you have this revelation on the
Christ, I'm going to give you a little insight and that is I'm
going to die. But on the third day, I'm going
to be raised from the dead. Now Peter, because he was
emotional, right? He was of the flesh.
He was not born again. His nature was still cut off
from God, although he wanted to follow God and he was living
righteous according to what God was saying.
But you know, he had an attachment to Jesus.
So when Jesus said he's going to die, he doesn't listen anymore
and he's like, I will stop this from happening.
You know, you have me. Aren't you glad I'm your #1 fan
and your friend because they got to go through me.
And you know, Peter later on, you know, almost demonstrated
that, right? I'll cut this guy right here.
I'll, I'll cut his head off, chopped his ear.
But you know, nonetheless, you know, he's going to be the
defender. Now that sounds noble.
The problem is it's not noble when it goes against God's will,
the Father's will. That's why Jesus then pulls
Peter and rebukes him and he says, and he says get thee
behind me, Satan, because he knows that voice is trying to
get me emotionally attached to this group of people that I'm
traveling with that I deeply care for.
And I want to see their lives different.
In fact, the what the lives they're living now.
My father never intended this. And the only way they can get
back into the lifestyle and an existence that God always had
for all of humans is that I'm going to have to pay that price.
And he was wondering if there's another way to do it.
Let it happen. Which means if the Lord could
have said, son, I know what I said concerning disobedience,
let's just act like it didn't happen.
You know what? I'll just not hold it to my
word. I'll just say forget about it.
If he could have done that, he could have done that, but he
couldn't because he says death is the wage for sin and there's
only one payment. It's the purity of your blood.
There is no other way. I have to pay the price because
what I have said has to come to pass and the only way people can
get out of it is your blood. So Jesus said not my will, but
your will be done, right? So Jesus in his mind would cast
down these thoughts that would be contrary.
Now if Jesus had to cast them down, you're, you will have to
do this. So this is this is not for now.
You know, we've we've tried to I don't want to say that try to be
nice. You know, we have peeled one
super thin layer of onion skin, you know, so thin that you can
see through it and said, well, you know, ask Jesus into your
heart so that when you die, you go to heaven and that's all that
matters. So the minute we accept that
alone, because Jesus did die for your sin and and when you do
accept him, you will be born again.
If you were to die right, then you would go to heaven, no
problem. But that's not the sum total of
what of the existence God wanted you to have.
But when we only accept this extremely paper, not even paper
thin, it's thinner than paper people.
It's super thin. Truth and only.
And there's still a whole onion of truth to discover, then you
know we don't live at the level God intended us to live.
And so, you know, Jesus wants us to function on the planet and
not be moved by the things of the enemy because he conquered
it. He said, now I'll put my spirit
in you, your spirits like mine, and then I'm going to put the
Holy Spirit in you. And then if you'll yield to him.
Now they it, it bombarded me and I was without sin, but I beat
it. So guess what?
So can you, you can conquer this.
It just requires you to discipline your mind and don't
let yourself go to emotions or, or you know, when I say
emotions, I mean reaction to a situation because you know, our,
our there, there's plenty of things going around.
I mean, if you watch, if you are watching any reality TV right
now, Oh my gosh, you may not recognize that some of it's
trying to tweak your emotional response because I'm almost
like, this is crazy. I mean, the first thing I
recognize when I get a glimpse, I'm like, these people have no
self-control at all. But yet we're we're the world is
painting to the world. This is normal responses.
So when you respond differently, they think something's wrong
with you. Well, there's nothing wrong with
you. You're actually living like God
and you're not given to these emotional whims because you're
responding based upon, you know, and, and, and we're talking even
justifiable. I, I mean, you may have been
wronged, but you don't respond to your emotions in the wrong.
You stop and say, wait a minute, I'm going to abstain from the
these, these things that wage war against my soul.
OK, so with that being said, let's move back over to real
quick Galatians 5. I'm just want to read 17 again
to remind you that the flesh and the spirit, they are against
each other. All right.
Remember it said this in verse 17 of the 5th chapter.
Galatians that are our flesh and our spirit, they are against
each other. Let me read some of the other
translations real quick. The amplified said the sinful
nature and its desire as opposed to the spirit and the desire of
the spirit opposed the sinful nature.
These two for these two, the sinful nature and the spirit are
in direct opposition to each other, continually in conflict
so that you as a believer do not always do whatever good things
you want to do, meaning you don't fall into the trap of it.
What seems right to you? Because the Bible says there's a
way that seems right to man, but in the end lies death.
There is a way that seems right in certain responses because
your, your, your emotional state when something occurs, it seems
right to respond that way. However, if you stop and say,
Lord, what do I do? Then you may find that it's a
totally different response, right?
And most of the time it is because again, if it's flesh, it
is a different response, period. It's a different response.
OK, again you can correct someone, but sometimes you
correct someone in in natural anger and not righteous anger
and you get a get over into an outburst of anger correction the
corrections right, but the way you correct is now wrong.
Whereas if you took a step back, you can still correct, but you
don't have that outburst of anger in it that now, even
though you're right, you're wrong, right?
And that's tough, especially when you're parenting, because
you can be right with your child, but wrong in how you're
doing it. And you have to own up to that.
You know, I've used this example before.
One time my oldest son, you know, did something in
disobedience and it really upset me.
And I responded in the flesh and he had this little bottle
collection of stuff and I took them all out of his room, threw
them away. And and then I had regret after
that. And I'm like, I shouldn't have
done that. So my correction was right.
My response in correcting was wrong.
And I had to go to him and say, forgive me, I should have never
done that. And I even told him, if you want
all that, but I'll find it at my own expense, You know, now, you
know, he was mature enough at that point that didn't matter.
And he was like, don't worry about it.
But you know, through the years I've come back and asked, I said
you don't have a problem with those bottles, do you?
Seriously. You know, cuz again, under my
roof. It's OK dad.
But you know, you couldn't maybe not.
It ain't OK now that you're grown man, in your own house
with your own children. You OK about them bottles?
Cuz if you're not, I'll run them down and make it right, OK?
Cuz it's it's not acceptable to be right in Word but be wrong in
demonstration. This is why he wages war against
your soul. And you have to be able to gain
access to that. You know, believers, you know,
fall into this. You know the world doesn't we do
because again, we know the right thing to do but it.
But when we know the right thing, if we don't do it in the
right attitude or with the right spirit, a right thing now
becomes wrong. More importantly, can become
damaging to the recipient if we don't come back and for and
repent and say our presentation was off.
OK, please forgive me. All right.
OK, so with that being said, let's go back to Ephesians 4.
This is the last verse we used last week.
Was this Ephesians 422 to 25 that in reference to your former
manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being
corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit?
And I'm going to be honest with you, these verses are not
happening a whole lot in our Christian world and what I'm
teaching is pretty elementary without application.
And I'm a back of that statement up here in a second.
You'll be like, you're right that in reference to your former
manner of life, you lay aside the old self which you being
corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be
renewed to the spirit of your mind and put on the new self
which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteous
wholeness and truth. Social media has created a
platform by which people will say because they're not going to
say now they'll say, but they're not going to, and they'll say
because then someone else's say and someone else's say.
And then we get the mob saying, but they would never come up and
say. And the thing they do is they're
not laying aside. Well, I'll just, I mean, again,
the Holy Spirit, if your brother is in sin, what does the
scripture say? Go to him in not on Instagram
message board and not even Iming them.
I mean if you care, go say to me be a man and woman of God and
show up face to face. Do this thing.
Don't hide behind something. Well, it's because again, we
want to be empowered. A flesh wants to make you feel
like you're empowered. When a person who's truly
correcting A believer don't feel like they're in power, they're
like trying to win their brother.
And they're doing this with fear and trepidation because they
realize the rest of that scripture.
Shall I read it to you? Shall I quote it?
Go to your brother in private, and if he repents, you've won
your brother. But if he doesn't?
Then you go with two or three more witnesses with the same
reason and heart and attitude for repentance.
If they do not take them before the church and if they still
don't repent, then it says treat them as if they're not even in
the house anymore, Which means the minute I go to my brother in
fear and trepidation because I know that I love this person.
And my gosh, I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a little, you know, I,
it's this is not who they are, but I'm going to have to bring
this up now. And now this may hinder our
relationship if they are not soft, but we don't even think
that when we're just using thumbs and all cat letters,
right? And then you get your bandwagon
people that don't even know half the people that you know,
someone's already jumped on something.
And then people make stuff up on top of that.
So, and then it gets spread around everywhere and then
everybody knows something that they don't even know.
That's not putting off the old self.
That's what the world does, right?
That's what the world does. Hallelujah.
Because even the world knows all these likes in these posts are
not the real people because they are posting fakeness about
themselves. They're not real, right?
And even when they act like they're real, they're not real.
OK, Hallelujah. So we need to put on the new
self, which means this is not the environment.
Listen, I don't care what technology is doing, the things
of Scripture are applicable in every process.
Now, Paul obviously had to do some correcting and letters
because he couldn't show up. But he's like, when I get there
and he was telling the pastors who were there, this is the
correction since you asked me, this is how you need to correct
it. So you go to them.
So he was telling them, you go face that, face them, and if
they have some kickback, tell them, I said this, right?
And those that were off, again, in the Corinthian letter, he
says, guys, I cannot believe what is being reported in the
church that I started with you, that you have a guy and they're
doing some stuff that the Gentiles don't even do.
And you're like hugging the guy and accepting it like it's no
big deal. This is horrible.
Now you need to confront this person.
If they're not going to repent of that, put them out.
They confronted and put them out.
However, in the second letter, that person who was put out, and
again, you're not putting out a person.
Please understand this. No one is ever putting out a
person. No one wants to put out a
person. No one is ever put out if a
person repents, it's not my standard, it's God's.
I mean, I can't look at Elliot and say, Elliot, you know, I'm
going to accept anything you do at whatever you do in your whole
life just because you asked Jesus.
I mean, he knows the standard. He knows.
I know the standard. And we can hold each other
accountable to that standard. And, and, and if the standard
isn't being lived, then we know, right?
Do we know Trevor? Do we know?
We know and it's and now if you're not living it, you can
blame and say they did this to me, but you know that's not
true. You know, you're the one who
didn't yield to God. You're not even yielding to me
anyway. Hallelujah.
So at the end of the day, when we get it right and this person
got it right and the Lord's like, put them back in, which
means you can't say, well, you were out, what are you doing
back? Well, when they repent,
everybody can be back and everybody wants to be back and
everybody wants to be back in fellowship because we just want
to have a relationship with the Lord.
Hallelujah. I mean, I don't decide it.
He does. And Paul wrote that by unction
of the Spirit, which tells us that was God's will.
And why did he do that? He wants them to repent.
He doesn't want them to stay in something that's going to
destroy their life at all because he never wants the
church to think this type of living is going to show up in
heaven. And you know, it's almost like
we've accepted this idea that the new self only occurs when we
go to heaven. The new self's now.
And you can put that on today. Hallelujah, again, I just want
to remind you, as one guest said to me when I met with them after
they had been to the church, he says you give a great invitation
for a person to live holy. So guilty as charged.
But if I remember correctly, Jesus said be holy as I'm holy.
So I'm only giving you an invitation to be like the one
you say is your Lord. And if he's your Lord, then
you're going to want to do that. And age is not a factor.
A young person should want to do this as much as an older person.
Everyone should just want to be holy as he is holy and in the
Spirit you are holy. He's already made you that way.
That's pretty amazing. So the other two parts can be
dominated. You have the power.
Say I have the power, right? You're not he man and masters of
the universe, but you do have the power of the Holy Ghost.
Hallelujah. Apparently that movie's coming
out all right. Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3 verses one through 10 says this.
It says therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, have
you been raised up with Christ? Come on, have you been raised up
with Christ? Then he says keep seeking the
things above that implies don't. If you stop that is can be a
problem to your soul. Keep seeking things above where
Christ is seated at the right hand.
Basically what he's saying. Let's read verse 2 and then I'll
explain. Set your mind on things above,
not on things that this earth. He's basically saying listen, if
you've been raised up with Christ, then anything going on,
seek there, keep your eyes there.
Go to him, ask him how to do it. Ask Him what to do because He's
going to give you the answer by the Spirit.
Not by the flesh, but by the Spirit.
Because if you don't keep yourself there, then you'll
start making decisions again and you'll start listening to things
that wage war against your soul, and you'll end up making
decisions that are outside your nature.
Verse 3-4. You have died and your life is
hidden with Christ in God. Oh ma'am, when Christ, who is
our life is revealed, then you will be revealed with Him in
glory. Therefore, consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immortality or immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to
idolatry. For it is because of these
things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of
disobedience. We're not sons of disobedience.
We're not sons and daughters that are disobeyed.
That's not our life. Our life is to obey, to live by
faith, to walk and live by the spirit.
But now verse 7 in them you also once walked when you were living
in them, but now say, but now you also put them all aside.
So who's putting them aside? You are That's that's the new
birth that is having the the Holy Spirit in you.
You put it aside. You can do this.
You have the power to put it aside.
You cannot say, man, I can't help myself.
That's not true. God has empowered you to put it
aside and he's talking to you to put it aside.
He'll say, what are you doing? Don't go there.
Quit saying that, quit thinking that right.
You have the power to put it aside.
So put aside all. Put all aside, anger, wrath,
malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you lay aside the old self with
its evil practices in verse 10 and put on the new self who is
being renewed in the true knowledge according to the image
of the one who created him. Now jump down to verse 12.
So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on
a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each
other. Whoever has a complaint against
anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also you should.
So again, the Bible is very clear here that now that we're
born of God, the devil is not our number one problem.
It's the things that wage war against our soul.
But yet he's given us the ability to conquer that, to live
a holy life and to change our pattern.
All right, to change our pattern.
So again, depending on how you grew up, where you grew up and
what you've gone through, you know God is he is, he is the
master at releasing you now He does this through the renewing
of your mind. And so you know, you get born
again, but yet sometimes you'll still do some things that you
don't. You're not even conscious
currently that they can hinder the progress of God in your
life. But when he's ready to deal with
it, he's going to deal with it. And let me just say this, not
everyone is at the same place. So when God's like dissecting
you #1 and the microscopes on you, don't turn and put the
microscope on your friend and those around you and say God's
on you. Know what, you could use this
too. You're not God and got to do
them and their timing. And so you don't want to get
somebody get going towards something that God's not even
ready to move them towards. I would love to say we could all
do it at the same pace, but it's just not true.
I mean, just like right now in the natural, if we all jumped
outside and say, OK, we're going to run around the mall one lap,
if we left together, we we'd all finish together say wow, we are
all in the same shape. This is amazing.
No, some of you we would have to pick up on the golf cart.
Just be honest. Is that true?
You know, that's true. That's not to shame you.
That's just that's the truth. That's where we're at.
But at least you get somewhere right now.
You may say, no, I won't the whole thing, but some may be
like, I'm not walking it because it's too cold anyway, whatever
the case may be. But yet if you start to train
yourself well, then even though you may never attain to someone
else's, and I'm just talking naturally speaking in the spirit
though, we can all arrive to a same place in Christ and being
able to control the flesh, we all can arrive to that.
But it does take discipline all right, It takes discipline.
So look at First Thessalonians 58 couple more passages and
we'll be done. First Thessalonians 58, you get
anything out of this again, I have no problem for some of you
saying some things you've already heard because it bears
repeating. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing from the word of God. And sometimes you know you've
heard something, you haven't heard it.
So while you in a while and you think you're actually doing well
at it, only to find out what you start preaching on your like,
you know what, I've not been doing as well as I could have.
I need to work on that again. I need to do some things.
On the other hand, some people, people are like, wow, I didn't
realize I had that much power. I just thought, you know, I'm a
Sinner saved by grace. You know, we're all just going
to be doing stuff we shouldn't be doing because some people
believe that. And again, they've just been
taught that you're right with God.
You're going to go to heaven when you die.
I mean, you didn't do anything to make it right.
So don't, don't be concerned when you make mistakes.
And but the Lord's like, yeah, but I'm here to help you to make
less mistakes. I've empowered you.
You're not having to be subject to that anymore.
All right, You know what I think some people do is because
there's such an encounter with God when you were full of sin,
right? While we were dead in our
trespasses and sin, Christ died for us.
And then we come to him only in that state and we we experience
his forgiveness. That is just, it's mind blowing.
And obviously then we associate that with his love and it is and
it's just like, wow, what? And we have this tangible
experience and, and touch from God.
I mean, and we've never had that before and guilt's gone, shame's
gone. I mean, this whole release, it's
like, this is so amazing. But what we don't realize,
especially if we're not taught, is that then we like a drug.
You start chasing that again. Well, the only way you had that
is because you were in sin. And then you it's like, man, I
I'm wrong. And you repent and then here
comes his forgiveness. And so all of a sudden we start
developing this relationship with God in Christ, how we first
encountered him. But the Lord's like, but my
relationship was not stuck to a first encounter.
You know how you felt when I first delivered you.
There's even a better feeling if you'll just walk in me.
But if you're not taught that, then you know, sinning is almost
a desirable because it's kind of like the married couple.
We argue just to make up because the makeups are so amazing.
Well, after a while, one day somebody's going to be I'm done
fighting and there is no more makeups, right?
Well, you understand, you'll give up before God because
you'll be so tired of doing it wrong so much.
You're like, well, I can't ever get it right anyway.
I might as well just stay over here now, right?
And God never wanted you back in that state anyway.
He wanted to pull you out, right?
And that's in a lot of things that sometimes people experience
God for the first time, they try to go back and repeat something
when God is like, hey, that was an experience, but let's go on.
And there's more to experience with God, OK?
Just like God falling under the power, you know, I just want to
fall under the power again. What's the purpose?
There's a purpose for God's presence, power, something.
And that's what he's trying to teach us, right?
Not the goosebumps or falling under the power or shaking
uncontrollably because I don't know how to.
All of those are manifestations that God can do.
There's no problem, but I don't seek any one of them, I just
seek Him and whatever comes, comes.
And then there's new experiences that I didn't even have before
because I'm progressively grown with God.
Y'all understand what I'm saying?
OK, First Thessalonians 58 says, But since we are of the day, let
us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love
and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
So again we're putting on. There's these things that we
live in the day. We are to be sober.
How are you know you're living sober and you're not intoxicated
is because you're putting these things on.
If you're not putting these things on which staying in the
word praying in the spirit right, reminding yourself I'm
saved from that. I've been delivered from that.
I've been redeemed from that that life is not my life
anymore. It is dead to me.
OK, You put those things on on a daily basis.
And when you do that, it keeps you sober.
You're in sobriety in the spirit, because if you don't,
you will get intoxicated in the things of the flesh.
And even though you're saved, you'll find yourself, you know,
under the influence. And then you'll be in a
conversation and you'll start responding fleshly instead of by
the Spirit because it's it's easier to release while you're
under the influence and he wants you to maintain sobriety.
So here's the last passage. Let's look at this in Hebrews
chapter 12 and we'll close Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3
through 11. So there's a little package
here. But again, we are we if if we
know that the Spirit in the flesh battle daily.
And they do because the Scripture tells us, although we
are of the Spirit, Hallelujah, we're of the spirit.
Glory to God, we're of the Spirit.
OK, So we're of the Spirit, and because we are of the Spirit, we
conquer the flesh. All right, We conquer it in
order to do that, though it comes based upon this passive
Scripture. Let's look at this, He said, For
consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners
against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart. Remember, Jesus suffered in the
flesh. Now that was his body, but again
he came to the earth, emptied himself of his glory, and now he
puts on a man's suit and he's tempted like man to obey God.
He never does Hallelujah, tempted on all accounts, never
does. And man, he was railed against.
Not only did he come against him personally, but others came
against him personally. The devil himself came against
him personally. I mean, he endured a lot of
hostility, all right. And he says if he endured it and
won and we have now his Spirit, He's telling us, don't grow
weary because then he goes on and says now, but yet you've not
resisted to the point of shedding blood and striving
against sin. Jesus shed blood and striving
against sin because the man who knew no sin became our sin.
And now his blood has made us as white as snow.
Glory to God. So we've not strive to the point
that we're having to lay down our lives to pay for somebody
else's sin. People, we're not doing that.
So we do not need to grow weary. He goes.
And have you forgotten the exhortation which is addressed
to you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly
the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by
Him for those whom the Lord loves.
He what does he do? He disciplines and He scourges
every son whom he receives. It says it is for discipline
that you endure. God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
But if you are without discipline, of which all have
become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not
sons. So again, if you're born again
and you're like, don't correct me, don't tell me I'm wrong,
don't, then you're basically saying I really don't want to be
a son of God because again, your spirit man has been made
righteous. It your spirit man.
Is alive to God. It cannot be any better.
Your mind, on the other hand, is being renewed and in order for
it to be renewed, God has to discipline you.
Really this is an this is how God disciplines.
The first thing is through instruction.
He's going to say by his spirit, hey, we don't do that.
Let me show you a new way to do this.
That's instruction. He's now discipline yourself.
Hold on, don't respond that way. Take this fruit.
Here it is. I'm handing it to you from the
spirit, little self-control. Bite on that in your mouth.
Chew on this a minute. OK, here, take the patients 1-2.
All right, fine. Take the long-suffering 1-2.
Eat all three of them real quick for me.
I need you to hold tight before you start spouting off.
And what's this doing? He's trying to teach us to have
discipline because if we will discipline ourselves to say
what's he saying, then we're going to have a right response.
They around us may not have the right response and may not
respond right after our right response.
That's irrelevant. We are only responsible for our
response. OK, So it goes on to say,
furthermore, we have had earthly fathers discipline us.
Obviously some have not, so they don't understand this.
We respected them. We obviously are living in a
different day and age that that's not the case.
But if they had, it would have been a natural example of
something that the father does. And the father is not a man that
he should lie. He could never be a bad father.
He's never been a bad father. So you can never look at your
natural father, especially if they were a bad father or an
absent father, that that's what the that Father God is Father
God is not that and he never will be that.
He never can be that it's against his nature.
He will not do that. OK, So he goes on.
We respected them. So there's a respect when
someone disciplines because that shows how much he cares about
you. He goes on, Shall we not much
rather be subject to the Father's spirits and live, for
they disciplined us for a short time as it seems best for them,
but He disciplines us for our what?
For our good, right for our good, so that we may share in
His. There it is again.
What's that word holiness of which God expects all of us to
arrive to in our full behavior, not just our Well, my spirits,
holy can't be any more holy. You're right.
Then why are you not letting it dominate your mind and your
body? Because if you're really
spiritually mature, then you would get the other two areas
together of which you are responsible to do.
God is not doing that for you. You put on the new man.
You put aside the old self. You take captive your thoughts.
Hallelujah. Because God's not bringing to
heaven robots. He's bringing people who freely
know how to exercise being yielded to the Spirit of God.
All discipline for a moment seems to not be never does
right. It never does.
However, it feels sorrowful, yet those who have been trained by
it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
And the Bible tells us that in these last days that and when it
comes to good and evil, you, you cannot even discern it unless
you've been trained in righteousness.
So you've been made righteous, but that doesn't mean you've
been trained in it. This is really important because
again, God places in you with the seed of his word and with
the Spirit that's been recreating and, and in Christ
all things pertaining to life and godliness.
We have to cultivate it through yielding and letting it grow and
being trained by it. Being trained by it is, I don't
feel like it, but I'm going to. Anyone who's ever done athletics
knows this. You know, you push yourself a
little bit harder mentally. You do not want to do it, but
you do it because you want to get better, right?
And you're like, we'll do another one.
And sometimes you can't even do it.
And it's the one spotting you says do another one.
And you're like, I can't. And they're like, I know, but do
what you can do. And I'm going to do the rest
because that little bit is taking you over to the next.
And so here they go. If it was the bench press, you
know, and you feel like wet noodles doing nothing.
And you're like, you're doing the whole thing.
Well, you're not. You're doing at least a pound of
this 315 LB bench right now, but you're doing something.
And that something is ultimately making you stronger because
you've pushed yourself to this point of growth.
And God's doing the same thing. He'll say you can do this.
I can't handle this, what these people are doing right now.
I can't handle this situation. I the Lord's like in your
weakness, So get that mental picture.
You've just done 10 reps of bench.
He says do one more. You know you're not going to get
it up, but in your weakness, he makes you strong.
You'll get it to the top every time because he's not going to
leave it on your chest. He's not going to do it.
And when those moments are coming along, you're like, man,
come on. He's like, I got you.
I got your spot. You're going to, you stay with
me. You're going to be way better at
the end of this deal because this will not be forever.
It's a passing moment and you're going to be trained by it and
you're going to be better. And these are the believers
God's God's looking to in the end.
So I would be remiss to not train you to be the ones who can
walk in holiness and truth so that you can combat the ones or
not be a part of the ones that are going to fall away.
But it creates A discipline. This is why we read the Bible
every year. This is why we say come to
prayer. This is why just coming to
church, just coming to church, it it it means something every
day. Let me I'll close with this
thought every day I I exercise. What do I mean?
I get up. I mean when I'm in the bed like
this, all right, and I do this. I just did 1/2 squat.
Now I'm walking and I'm working out my legs.
I am exercising. But if I only did that, I would
not actually grow in strength. It is exercise, but it doesn't
build so that I could do more. So you can be a believer and
hang out at the house and every once in a while, you know, flip
a page and read a scripture, read a little 15, you know,
minute devotion. Sure, you can say, oh Lord, it's
so good to be alive today. Sure, you could exercise your
faith, but that's nothing like coming to the gym because the
gym, you got to show up. And there's times I've gone to
the gym and I would say they would say, how was your workout?
I said, well, it was a discipline day because after the
first set, I was ready to leave the building.
I wasn't feeling it. Come on, any workout, people
know what I'm I wasn't feeling it.
I didn't want to be here. But I've done.
I might as well participate now that I've taken the time to
show. But but that's half the battle
is getting in the building because, you know, for those
who've worked out, you skip a day, you skip another day, then
it's a week, then it's a month. And then you find yourself six
years later, you're like, jeez, when's the last time I've been
to the gym? Then you get back to the gym
after six months and what's the first thing you do when you walk
out? This stunk.
Oh, I've lost so much. Yet you've been exercising every
day. Just get out of the bed, do
squats every time you have to use the bathroom a certain way.
I mean, there's exercise, but you know, it's not the same.
You know it's not the same, right?
It's not the same. So you should not let your gym
work out in the church. Go to the wayside and you need
to look at people say I didn't see at the gym today.
They'll look at you like what? You weren't at church.
You need to come to the gym because it's a better workout
and we come together. It makes us stronger because
again, well, I didn't feel it. You know what, I'll help you.
Call me 'cause I'll help you do your reps I'll pick you up, I'll
put you in your little seat, I'll carry you to your seat,
right? Just try to take people's
excuses away, right?