The title of the message tonight is Curing a Burdened Heart and
and, and my subtitle is sowing to the spirit.
When I was asking the Lord, you know, what direction to go in
tonight, knowing that I was ministering it, it seemed right.
And it and knowing, you know, obviously I'm familiar somewhat
with things in people's lives, but just sense that that there
there is an overall numbing and burdening happening in this last
day that's weighing people down. Whether it's reports that we've
gotten or things that are happening in our personal lives
or in our families, these things come to to weigh us down and to
to burden us. But the Lord doesn't want us to
be burdened. He wants us to know that we have
the victory and that the greater 1 is on the inside of us.
So let's jump in because I want you to leave here tonight with
just a another little pep in your step.
I want you to leave here tonight where you're just walking just a
little bit higher. I wore my tennis shoes just in
case I needed to kick or run or do something.
But I just want you to be quickened and strengthen and,
and lay everything down tonight. Amen.
So let's start in Romans chapter 13 and I'm going to start with
verse 8. It says, oh, no one anything
except to love one another. For he who loves another has
fulfilled the law for the commandments.
You shall not commit adultery. You should not murder, you shall
not steal. You should not bear false
witness. You shall not covet and if
there's any other commandment are all summed up in this
saying, namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no harm to a neighbor and therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law. And then it goes on to say in
verse 11, and do this knowing the time now I want you to to
heed that and do this knowing the time that now it is high
time. Look at your neighbor and say it
is high time. It is high time to awake out of
sleep. For now our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed. The night is far spent.
The day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and
drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, and not in strife and
envy, But verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no
provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
Make no provision, none. And we'll talk about that in
just a minute. But when it says awake out of
sleep, that word sleep means the slumbering state of your soul,
the slumbering state of your soul.
And so we're going to talk about how not to get in and stay in
that slumbering state of our soul, soul, and how to sow to
the spirit. Because if you're sowing to the
spirit, you're going to have peace and you're going to have
joy. And nothing's going to move you
off or out or off of your solid place because you know where
you're at, you know where you're seated.
So I'm asking you tonight, are you slumbered in your soul?
Are you dull? Are you heavy?
Are you clouded? Do we make provisions sometimes
for the flesh? And when I say that that can
mean carnality in your thinking, it can mean just consistently
sowing to natural thinking, just consistently being in what's
happening in your everyday life without acknowledging Him first.
So let's increase in our sowing to the Spirit and let's come out
tonight of any heaviness that we may have.
So the scripture that we just read said understand the time,
the pressure, the last days. Let's go to Luke chapter 21.
And if you read in Luke chapter 21, I'm not going to read it
all, but it talks about the signs of the end times, the last
days. And it talks about nation
against nation, family against family, natural disasters,
airplane crashes, talks about all kinds of stuff.
I threw that one in there. Verse 16 in in Luke 21 says you
will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and
friends, and they will put some of you to death and you'll be
hated by all for my namesake, but not a hair on your head will
be lost. So let me ask you this, you we,
I read that to you and and it may make you want to kind of
shrink down in your seat, but the scripture in multiple places
when he's warning us and telling us about the late last days,
he's saying, don't you worry, don't you lose heart.
Don't you be troubled not one bit.
So in the midst of all this that he just told us, and I didn't
even read all all of it, verse 19 says, and in your patience
possess ye your soul. Now is that not interesting?
I'm not going to highlight that for the majority of the message,
but is that not interesting that everything that he says that's
going to go down in these last days, he says now just right
smack dab in the middle of it now in your steadfastness,
because that's what that word, that word, patience is not a
passive word. It means in your steadfastness,
in your fight, you possess your soul.
Nobody's going to do it for you. You got to do it.
You got to possess your soul in the middle of all this.
It's your soul that is either going to keep you alive and in
peace or not. And it's up to you, your mind,
your will to make decisions and your emotions, your feelings.
And it's OK to have emotions. We have them, we all have them,
but they should not sit up on the throne.
They should not be the thing that are that is guiding you.
The Scripture says that the sons of God should be led by the
Spirit of God, by the Holy Ghost, by the unction on the
inside, not by our circumstances, not by our
feelings, not by our emotions, not by our disappointments, not
by anything else, but just by the Holy Ghost and the Word of
God. So in your patience, in your
steadfastness, in your active, constant endurance, we've got to
take possession of our soul. And then Luke 21 goes on to say
in verse 34, But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard
lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed, weighed down with
the giddiness and headache and nausea of self indulgence,
drunkenness and worldly worries and cares pertaining to the
busyness of this life. And lest that day come upon you
suddenly like a trap or a noose. Look at how he says do not let
your hearts be overburdened and depressed with the giddiness and
headache of the nausea of self indulgence, drunkenness and the
worries and cares of life. How he how he groups that with
drunkenness and other things. Did you know that drunkenness
and worry have the same effect on your heart?
Drunkenness and partying and sin and worry as a believer have the
same effect on your body, the same effect on your heart, no
different. And he's he's put them together
here so he can say to you, do not let your heart be burdened
down. Do not let it be troubled.
I want to read it to you in the in the 21st century, King James,
just verse 34. And take heed to yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged, overcharged.
That means burdened, heavy, overloaded.
And the Scripture admonishes us to wake up, wake up out of the
slumber, out of the fog, out of the weighing down the things
that weigh us down every day. If the enemy can get you weighed
down, if he can keep you burdened and keep your heart
overwhelmed, then he can keep you out of peace.
He can keep you out of joy. And essentially, you're not in
faith. And if you're not in faith, then
no mountains are going to be moving in your life.
And see, we got to make sure that our hearts are not
overburdened and overcharged and worrying and anxious about many
things. The Bible says we're not
ignorant of the devil's devices, right?
But even though we're not ignorant, are we resisting his
devices? You may know what they are, you
may be able to recognize what, you might be able to talk about
what they are, but that's way different than you actually
resisting them. Way different.
And the Bible says that you can extinguish all the fiery darts
of the evil 1. All of them.
Not just some of them, but all of them, if you're dressed
properly, if you have on the full armor of God.
I ran out of the house when I was younger without my shirt on.
And I'll never forget it because I was probably four or five, but
I ran out. I ran out and I forgot to put my
shirt on. And I noticed that I didn't have
a shirt on. And I'd screamed and I cried and
I ran back into the house and I was just four or five, but I was
naked. I was naked.
To me, I was naked. And you know, a lot of believers
are leaving the house naked. And I'm not talking about naked
spiritually where you're just burying your heart before God.
I'm talking about naked because we're not putting on the full
armor of God, naked because we're not putting on Christ.
We're not putting on who we are every single day.
Don't run out of the house naked.
Tell your neighbor that. Tell him good job, good job.
So he tells us to be on guard about this.
Now get the get, get it, Get that picture out of your mind.
Get it out. He tells us to be on guard about
this. He tells us that our heart will
be overwhelmed and overcharged if we don't take heed our own
heart. Take heed self indulgence.
And you know, do we live in this Society of self promotion?
And it's all about me and it's all about I.
And the Bible says that in the last days, people are believers
are going to become lovers of their own selves.
And there's a whole lot of that going on, whether it's on social
media, whether it's in the platform, whether it's in your
daily lives. Feeling this need to promote
ourselves and, and let everybody know what we're doing that that
is a work of the flesh. It's a work of the flesh.
So any addiction, drunkenness, any addiction or consistent
yielding of your life, of your mind to the flesh is going to
weary you. It's going to burden you.
Too much flesh activity, too much natural thinking, it will
suppress you and depress you. The cares of life, worry,
anxiety, losing their peace and joy.
You know, you can look at somebody, you can look out at
your neighbor and you can tell when somebody is not in faith,
when somebody is heavy, when somebody's overburdened because
there's no peace and there's no joy and there's no lightness of
their step about them. But they're heavy and they're
carrying the weight of it. And I'm just telling you, God
wants to set you free. But it's not a, it's not a thing
where you can just come up in here and just go, OK, Lord,
deliver me while I'm at church and go back home and live the
same way. And I'm always reminded how Saul
came, you know, was tormented and, you know, David came and
played for him and he got some relief and he got some victory.
And then when David would leave, he would just go right back into
that torment state that he was in.
And sometimes we do that. We, we sow to the flesh, we sow
to the natural, we sow to to our everyday lives.
And then we come up in here depleted and we want, you know,
just a fresh touch. And then we go out and we sow to
the flesh all week again. And we're not living in the
victory that God wants us to live in.
We're not living in this overcoming the greater 1 lives
on the inside of you. Everything's under your feet.
Nothing should be taking you down life.
But that needs to change for us. No matter what you're walking
through, no matter what you see, no matter what report comes
before you, whose report are we going to believe?
The report of the Lord? And it's your choice when you
wake up every day to go, which report am I going to believe
today? The Bible says, I've said
before, you life and death, choose life so that you can live
and prosper and be in health, or you can choose death.
And it doesn't mean you're going to die physically, but it means
you're going to be heavy. It means things are going to
take longer for you. It means things are going to be
more burdensome in your life. God doesn't want us to live that
way. Let's go to Second Timothy
chapter 3. Take heed, take heed to
yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and
drunkenness in the cares of life, Second Timothy 3 says.
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come,
for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful and holy. That was self-control.
For me to move past disobedience to parents, I'm thankful.
Unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders without self-control,
brutal despisers of good traitors, headstrong, haughty
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of
godliness but denying its power. Do you know how many people in
the church world have a form of godliness but deny the power
thereof? And I'm talking about they know
how to come to church. They know how to lift their
hands, but don't know how to allow the life changing,
transforming power of God to work in their everyday lives
because everybody feels good when they leave a church
service. You're in the corporate
anointing, you're getting the Word, you're getting to worship
the Lord. But it's what you do when you
walk outside. It's what you do right here in
your mind, in your soul realm. So it goes on to say, just
continue in what you know. If you keep reading in Second
Timothy 3, if you just continue in what you know and you've been
taught the word of God, it's inspired, it's alive, and it'll
deliver you. It'll set you free.
So take heed to yourself. It's high time that we take heed
to ourselves. Proverbs 4/23.
Proverbs 423. I'm going to read it to you in
three different translations. It says above every charge keep
thy heart, for out of it are the outgoings of life.
I want to read it in the new Living translation.
It says guard your heart above all else, for it determines your
course of life. And the amplified says keep your
heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life. So the scripture is telling us
here, above everything else you do guard your heart.
Above everything else you do guard your heart.
It ought to be something that you do every day, all the time,
consistently. Lord, search me, God, you see
me, you, you see my heart, You see my thoughts.
Search me and know me. See if there's any offensive way
in me, there's any anxious way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting. That's what we do as believers,
always keeping your heart with all diligence, because out of it
are the issues of life. So it's saying, keep your heart
above anything, above your money, above your attention to
your job, above your the uncertainties of life, the
disappointments of life above all else.
Keep your heart with all diligence because out of it are
the issues of life. Out of your heart is the source
of what your life will be. What if your, what your life
will look like if we go to the parable of the sower, and I'm
not going to read all of it, but I do want to read just the, the,
the part about the, the, the ground with thorns.
But you know, it talks about a wayside ground, a Stony ground,
a thorny ground and a good ground.
There's only one ground that's going to produce fruit. 75% of
the ground gets no results. So that would mean not to burst
your bubble, but that would mean that 75% of us may not be
getting results. So instead of you going, man,
that's me, go, that is not going to be me.
This is your life and death moment right here.
That is not going to be me. I'm going to be that good
ground. So the Scripture in Mark 419
says now these are the ones that are sown among the thorns.
They're the ones who hear the word and the cares of this
world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other
things entering in choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.
I want to read it to you in Luke 814.
Now the ones that fell among the thorns are those who, when
they've heard, they go out, and they're choked with cares,
riches, and the pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to
maturity. But the ones that fell on the
good ground are those who, having heard the Word with a
noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
So the ones that didn't bear fruit, I'm specifically talking
about the thorny ground, are the ones that just allowed the cares
of life to come in. And we know the Word of God is
all powerful, but this is the one thing that the Bible says
will choke the word out. Worry cares of life, being
anxious about things. It's the one thing that's going
to squash the power of the word of God in your life.
You might ought to do a little jig or something and go, OK, I'm
listening because I don't want anything to choke the word out
of my life. You ought to have such
discernment in your heart that when worry tries to come to you
that you're able to go, no, no, no, no, no.
I know where that comes from. I'm not going to be anxious
about nothing. Not one thing, not anything.
You got to have this fight in you.
It doesn't matter if you played sports or not.
It doesn't matter what you did growing up.
Doesn't matter if you were I I don't can't think of a good
example, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
You have the fight and the the, the tenacity of God, the
strength of God on the inside of you.
The Bible says the righteous are as bold as a lion, and that's
you, and that's me. There's something in you that's
got to go. I am not going to allow worry.
I'm not going to allow stress. I'm not going to allow anxiety
to come to me. I'm not going to let my heart be
burdened, not for one second, not for one minute.
And if you're watching social media and if you're watching the
news, if you're watching any of those things right now, it might
be easy for your heart to get a little heavy.
And so you got to be able to to turn that off.
It's OK to get an update, but turn that thing off and make
sure you're getting more of the word of God and more sowing to
the spirit, which we're going to talk about.
So, so worry we'll choke it. Be careful for nothing.
Philippians chapter 4, I want to read it to you in the amplified,
even though I just quoted part of it.
Rejoice in the Lord always, not sometimes, not just when you
come to church and you like the little song they're playing.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Delight in and take pleasure in
him. And again I'm going to say
rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit, your
graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience
be known to all people. The Lord is near, the Lord is
near, Say the Lord is near. Do not be anxious or worried
about anything, anything, but in everything, every circumstance
and situation, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving.
Continue to make your specific request.
Your specific request. Does he care about every hair on
your head? Does he know how many are there?
Yes, he does. Do you think he cares about your
finances? Do you think he cares about the
little struggles that you have on a daily basis?
Do you think he cares about your marriage?
Do you think he cares about your children and your jobs?
He does and the Scripture says in everything with prayer and
petition, with Thanksgiving, continue to make your specific
request known to God. And then the peace of God that
that peace that reassures the heart, that peace which
transcends all understanding, that peace which stands guard
over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus is yours.
It's yours. Finally, believers, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, worthy of respect, whatever is
right and confirmed by God's Word, whatever is pure and
wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is
admirable and have a good repute.
If there's anything excellent, if there's anything worthy of
praise, think continually on these things, center your mind
on them and implant them in your heart.
The things which you have learned and received and heard
and seen in me, practice these things in daily life and the God
who is the source of peace and well-being will be with you.
Rejoice always. Somebody needs to get in faith
and let go of fear tonight. Somebody needs to recognize I
have allowed a spirit of fear. I have allowed that and and I'm
not supposed to allow a spirit of fear in my life.
God did not give me or you a spirit of fear, but of power and
of love and of a sound mind. And something came up in me when
I was studying and I just since it would apply to probably a lot
of us that some of us don't, don't let ourselves get to that
place in the spirit where we can even get the victory because
we're too quick to take on the care.
And we're too quick to just begin meditating on and thinking
on what's going wrong. And we haven't tried the word
out. We haven't done those things in
our life. Once you taste, the Bible says
once you taste and see that the Lord is good, Oh, man, once you
taste, then you don't ever want to go back.
And so you start understanding that.
OK, yeah, I see that this mountain is trying to, to get a
hedge here. I see that there's a a worry
trying to get in here, but I've already tasted.
I already know what God will do. I already know how how he's
delivered me. I already know how he set me
free. I already know how he spent my
feet on solid rock. I already know that no matter
what I face, I have the victory. I already know that.
So it's easy for me. It's easy for me to just go.
Thank you, Lord, I got this, we got this.
It's easy for my husband and I to hook arms and and and grab
hands and say we've got the victory.
We're not going to worry one bit.
We're going to pray for our enemies or pray for this
situation, pray over this deal. And we know we've got the
victory. And once you do it and what had
come up in me as as you want to do it, but you haven't quite
tasted it yet. And so you're just still in this
habit of going to the flesh and sowing to the flesh, and you're
not sowing to the Spirit. So you're not ever getting that
victory. And God wants you to get to the
victory. So I'm just daring you tonight
to whatever you're facing right now, whatever, whatever
situation pops up in you tomorrow that you just go, OK,
I'm going to, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to trust God. What does the Bible say about
it? Let me let Pastor Angie said
this works, so let me do this and just go ahead and step out
in faith and watch God do something for you.
Give him place instead of the Bible says give no place to the
devil, give no foothold to the enemy.
Sometimes we give Him place because we worry and we fret
about many things. Psalm 5522, the battle is in
your mind, battles in your mind. Psalm 5522 says cast your burden
on the Lord and He shall sustain you.
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Do you believe that? Let me read it again.
Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you.
He will never, He will never permit the righteous to be
moved. You don't ever have to be moved.
You don't ever have to have total failure and disappointment
and things consistently stay in your life.
You don't ever have to be moved. Psalm 27 verse 13 and 14 says I
would have lost heart. I would have.
I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Do you know this is the land of the living?
I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage and He will strengthen
your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord, I would
have lost heart if I hadn't believed that I'd see the
goodness. Do you believe do you believe
that you're gonna and that you are seeing the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living. Listen, you guys have been
delivered and set free most of us in here.
God has transferred you out of the domain of darkness and
you're in the Kingdom of his Son and and you can acknowledge that
and you can say I, I've been delivered and I thank God for
that, but also the galactic, and this is the warning that we get
is, O foolish Galatians, how come you started this thing out
in the spirit and now you've just reverted back to the flesh
because we're all in danger of that.
So you got, you ought to not be that, O foolish Galatian, that
you're going to, you're going to stay in the spirit, maintain
your spirit man, strengthen your spirit man.
You understand when you're born again, you get a, you're a brand
new creature in Christ. You get a brand new spirit and
the Holy Ghost comes the living on the inside of your spirit.
But your spirit is either yielding to the word and the
Holy Ghost or not. And the Bible says the strong
spirit of a man can can overcome in Cygnus, sustain in Cygnus,
can take down a wall, can conquer a mountain, whatever the
strong spirit of the man. And so you've got to yield and
learn as a believer to be led by the Holy Ghost, yield to him on
the inside. James chapter 5, verses 7
through 11. It says.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter
rain. You also be patient.
And this right here is the part I want you to get.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Establish your heart. That means make your heart
stable. Make sure your heart is fixed
and your mind is set, because the coming of the Lord is at
hand. And if you keep reading, it
says, do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be
condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at
the door. My brethren, take the prophets
who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering
and patience. Indeed we count them blessed to
endure. One translation says, Indeed, we
count them happy who persevere. If you want to be blessed and
you want to be happy, you've got to learn to persevere.
You've got to learn to establish your heart.
So how do we keep our hearts from being weighed down and our
soul from staying in this weighed down slumber that we
tend to get in? Make no provision for the flesh.
Make no provision. So do the Spirit and and the
scripture we read at the beginning says, but put on the
Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to
fulfill its lust. No provision means I'm not even
going to consider it. I'm not even going to give my
flesh a chance. I'm not even going to give it a
thought. What my flesh is desiring.
I'm going to make no provision for it.
And that doesn't just mean outward fleshly actions.
That means carnal thinking. I'm not even going to give any
provision for just carnal natural thinking.
But I'm going to sow to the Spirit consistently,
consistently put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no
provision for the flesh. So it says to fulfill.
It's less. And that word less means any
craving or longing. Can this happen in your mind?
Can there be a craving or a longing or a desiring or
something that's overtaking you or dominating you or or ruling
your life, controlling you, Something you feel like you
can't live without? And one day years ago, the Lord
told me to to take a break from peanut butter.
And that was a very sad day for me.
And that was a very sad day for my flesh because I love peanut
butter and I love to lick, lick peanut butter off a spoon
anytime, all the time at night, in the morning, every time I
praise the Lord, I want to lick a peanut butter.
So, so back in the day, I don't remember what day it was, but
but I remember the Lord prompted me to take a little break from
peanut butter. And I was like, I don't
understand that. And what, what is the deal?
What, what, what is that going to do for me?
Like that's not going to do anything for me.
And it didn't matter what my justification was or my thought
process was about it. I needed to obey.
And so I did. And can I say what happened from
doing that? I can't really.
But what I can't say is that it made me strong in the Lord
because I was learning in my, in my early days of following God
and learning how to listen to the Holy Ghost, I was learning
to just yield to the promptings, just yield to the Spirit of God.
And, and when that happens in you, when you get that, that
little witness on the inside, quit thinking that it's just
you. Quit thinking that I just don't
have to do that and justifying it in your mind.
It's life and it's peace to you to actually yield to those
things. And I could tell you many
stories and many things over the years that the Lord has said,
OK, I want you to take a break from that, or I want you to do
this. Things that my flesh didn't want
to do, things that were hard for me to do, things that my
emotions didn't want to do. Why do you think the Lord tells
you to pray for your enemies? Because you think it just, well,
I'm just doing them such a favor because I am making power
available for them and they should, they really owe me a
whole lot for that. That's not why he does it.
You are making power available by praying for them, but he does
it for your heart. Because if you haven't noticed,
and maybe you haven't, because maybe you've never prayed for
one of your enemies, but you ought to start and, and your
enemy can be anybody that you have a conflict with.
The minute you start praying for them, the minute your heart
begins to soften. And I've used this example many
times when we've taught on, you know, marriage and different
stuff. But in the first years of our
marriage, I probably was not the most spiritual gal and pretty
carnal. I was born again and I was
filled the Holy Ghost, but I had a lot of emotions and still some
baggage that I was carrying. And so when I would get mad at
Pastor Mike, I wanted to be mad. And I and I knew how to hold on
to that for a little bit, you know, make him feel bad, rub it
in just a little bit. And, and he was not moved by me.
And so he would, he would, you know, come sit by me and, you
know, reach his hand out to hold my hand.
And I would give him my pinky and, you know, I'm like this,
you know, like being so carnal. And then and then after he would
start praying, I'd give him a few fingers.
And then when he continued to pray, the Bible says in Song of
Solomon, her bowels were moved. Has anybody ever had their
bowels move? OK, so, so when your when your
bowels move, what that means is the softening of, you know,
there's a difference. Let me not talk about bowels,
but but let's talk about your heart.
OK, Let's talk about your heart. Your heart can be softened and,
and moved and, and when he would just love me and pray for me and
not be moved, my heart would soften and I'd be like, fine.
And, and he that's how he always operated and it and that's how
it works with your enemies. You start praying for them and
your heart will be softened. And next thing you know, you're
going to want to hug them. You're going to want to bless
them. You're going to want to do
something for them. I'm not sure why I got off on
that, but somebody has an enemy in here.
I'm sure of it. So make no provision for the
flesh. None.
Let's get back to this. No provision, no thinking,
thinking about your money more, your lack, your husband, your
wife can't stop thinking about a frustration, can't stop thinking
about, you know, a disappointment in my life.
No, we've got to sow to the spirit.
So it takes says take heed that you don't yield or sow to the
flesh. Take heed that you don't do
that. You're either, just so you know,
you're either sowing to the flesh or the spirit daily, all
the time, all the time. I believe many are so entangled
with the cares of life that we're not hearing the Spirit of
God, that we're not yielding to the Holy Ghost, that we're not
building ourselves up in our most holy faith.
Let's go to Romans chapter 13 and I'm going to read verses 11
through 14. Romans chapter 13, verses 11
through 14 says, but make sure that you don't get so absorbed
and exhausted in taking care of all your day by day obligations.
Did somebody hear that? Make sure that you don't get so
absorbed and exhausted and taking care of your day by day
obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off.
Oblivious to God. And I put in here oblivious to
the Spirit of God. Oblivious to the Spirit of God.
The night is about over, dawn is about to break.
Be up and awake to what God is doing.
God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work He
began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a
minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in
frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around, in dissipation,
in bickering and grabbing everything inside.
Get out of bed and get dressed. Get out of bed and get dressed.
Don't loiter and linger waiting until the very last minute.
Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about.
Let me just remind you that says don't let all these things weigh
you down to where you are oblivious to the Spirit of God.
You know, the Bible says that the Holy Ghost can be quenched,
that the Holy Ghost can be grieved, that he can be lied to.
You do not want to be in a position where you're grieving
the Spirit of God where he's talking to you and he's
prompting you. And he's and I could just go to
the promptings of you need to get in church, you need to get
in that class, you need to spend more time in prayer.
Those promptings that he's doing, if we ignore those
promptings, our conscience becomes seared and it becomes
harder for us to hear what God is saying.
You know, in, in Scripture, I, I, there's something about
Romans chapter one that that always ignites me for some
reason. But in Romans chapter 1, it
talks about although they knew God, do we know God in here?
Although they knew God, they didn't honor him as God.
And we can say they didn't honor the, the, the Holy Ghost.
They didn't honor the Spirit of God on the inside, nor were they
thankful. Although they knew God, they
didn't honor him, nor were they thankful.
And so they were turned over to a depraved mind.
And that that doesn't happen overnight when people are in
failure, when things are happening in people's lives,
most likely it didn't just happen overnight.
Most of the time there was a prompting, there was a lack of
yielding to the Holy Ghost. He was talking.
We quenched it. We said we justified it.
We said we don't want to listen. And we went about our way.
And then we wonder why we're heavy, why we're broken, why
there's lack. It's there's a big, big
difference when a trial comes to you because you're in faith.
When a mountain comes to you, but you're in faith and you're
living in faith, then you can confidently look at that
mountain and say it has to be moved, has to be moved.
But there's another thing when, when people want to go around
and say no weapon formed against me shall prosper, but yet they
ain't live in it and he's not really Lord and they're not
yielding and he had, they haven't done the thing that he
told them to do 2 weeks ago, but they want to say no weapon
formed against me shall prosper. It doesn't work like that.
We've got to live this thing. So to the Spirit, make no
provision for the flesh. Galatians chapter 6 verse 7
says, Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked.
He will not allow himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with
contempt, nor allow his precepts to be scornfully set aside.
For whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will
reap. For whatever a man sows, this,
this and this only is what he will reap.
For the one who sows to his flesh will reap from the flesh
ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will
from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for
at the proper time we will reap if we do not give in.
When it says reap eternal life, that's not just talking about
you going to heaven, that's talking about the zoway life of
God, life and peace And deliverance from a definition is
deliverance from being molested from the enemy.
Deliverance in every part of your life, in your mind, in your
emotions, in your body and your finances, in every part of your
body. Deliverance.
If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap this eternal life.
John 663 says it is the Spirit who gives life and the flesh
profits nothing. The words that I speak to you,
they are spirit and they are life.
Zoe life, the absolute fullness of life, the glory of of God is
what Zoe life is. First Corinthians chapter 316
says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that
the Spirit of God dwells within you?
Do we not know? In Psalm 139, we, we, we, a lot
of us know that Psalm because it says you were fearfully and
wonderfully made. But it also says, where can I go
from your spirit and where could I flee from your presence?
If I if I make my bed in hell, you're there.
If I'm in heaven, you're there. Wherever where I go, there you
are. Where can you go from the Holy
Ghost? You know this is His time and
His dispensation, and what He's called to do is not only live
within you, but upon you and to be your Paraclete.
You're the one that's called alongside you to help you, to
help you in everything, to guide you in the truth, to lift you up
out of the miry clay. That's what He does.
That's what the Holy Ghost does. Romans 812 says.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to
live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the
flesh, you'll die. But if by the Spirit you put to
death the deeds of the body, you will live for as many as are led
by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.
But you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out,
ABBA, Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we're children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer
with him, that we may also be glorified together with him.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage.
Again to fear. The Bible says you are a Son of
God if you're led by the Spirit of God.
Solid food, the scripture says, is for the mature.
And let me just throw this in real quick.
In Galatians 516 it says if you walk in the spirit, you'll not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. And the Bible distinguishes
between a mature believer and a babe in Christ.
And the Bible says a mature one is one who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
So a mature believer ought to be able to to, when something comes
into their life, immediately discern this is good or this is
evil and operate properly and deal with it properly, take
authority of it. Recognize this is not a thought
from God. I am taking it and putting it up
underneath the obedience of Christ.
That's what the mature people do.
They're sowing to the Spirit on such a consistent basis that
when things come, they're able to see it, recognize it, and not
be moved, not be moved. Jude chapter 1 Jude here was,
was going to talk about the elements of salvation when you
started in the beginning of the chapter, he's like, I was going
to talk to you about, you know, the, the salvation and those
kind of things. But I, I, I'm, I'm feeling a
warning to talk to you about the end day, end times and end days.
And so he goes on to talk about the last days.
But in verse 20 he says, but you beloved, building yourselves up
on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And on some have compassion making a distinction, but on
others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating
even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.
So Jude goes through all these last day things that are going
to be happening. He's saying, but you.
But you, beloved, you build yourself up on your most holy
faith. And he says, and now to him
who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
can you say that you have exceeding joy right now?
Oh wow, y'all thought I just fell out of the tree or
something? I am looking at you.
I am seeing your faces. And it doesn't mean that you
need to be busting out laughing, you know, to to have joy, but
you know, if you have joy on the inside and, and the Scripture
says that he can present you if you'll sow to this, if you'll
build yourself up, brethren, on your most holy faith, if you'll
stay in the spirit, if you'll sow to the Spirit, then he can
present you faultless and he can present you before his presence
with exceeding joy, with exceeding joy.
You know, some of you need to get up in the morning and say
the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Joy is not a an emotion, it's not a feeling, it's a power.
It's a strength for your life. And it ought to be a confession
of yours that that that joy that God gives you is the strength of
your life. You ought to say that on a daily
basis. John 423 says But the hour is
coming and now is when the true worshippers we'll worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, for the for the Father is
seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.
If there's true worshippers then there's false worshippers.
If there's true worshippers, then there's non worshippers.
The scripture says the hour is coming and now is when true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Does that mean just when you come to church that means it's a
lifestyle? You live in the spirit, you sow
to the spirit, you're staying in the spirit.
It says you'll worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and truth. We're not going to be like Saul.
We have to come up in here and
get our joy. We've got to come up here and
get our peace. We've got to, you know, talk to
the pastor or come to church before we can get any kind of
relief. No.
We are true worshippers and we worship in spirit and in truth,
and we sow to the Spirit daily. Romans chapter 8 says there is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
who do what, who do not walk according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. You want to not walk in
condemnation? Then live in the Spirit.
There'll be no guilt, there'll be no condemnation in your life,
if you will live in the spirit, if you'll stay in the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who live according to the
spirit, the things of the spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. So how do you not fulfill sowing
to the flesh or the lusts of the flesh?
You replace it immediately with sowing to the Spirit.
And how do you do that on a daily basis?
It is not hard. The Bible says get back to the
simplicity of Christ. Get back to the simplicity of
who you are, where He sat you, where He's put you at the right
hand of the Father above all, rule and authority and power and
dominion and every name that's named, know where you're seated.
Get back to where you are and who you are, and it's as easy as
just making a decision on a daily basis.
It's that easy. And unfortunately, we allow
these cares of life to come in to weigh us down.
We get thinking about too much in the natural, our daily lists,
our daily concerns, our household things.
And we're not sowing in the Spirit.
We're not sowing to the Spirit. I want to end with a couple of
scriptures, Ephesians chapter 5. How do we do this?
I want you to cast your care today.
I want you to be able to lay it down here in a minute.
Verse 15 says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as
fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but
understand what the will of the Lord is.
Lord is and do not be drunk with wine and which is dissipation,
but be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord. And if you've been here any
length of time, you know, I love that part because it says that
we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. And I just picture us all
walking up to each other and saying, glory Hallelujah, I love
you, How are you? What's happening?
And just singing a Psalm? Or do we do that?
We don't really. But one day I'm going to walk up
to you and do that and you'll know.
You'll understand why I did it. Giving thanks always.
Somebody didn't hear that. Giving thanks always for all
things, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting to one another in the fear of God.
If you are filled worship team, you can come.
If you are full of the Holy Ghost, if you are filled with
the Spirit, you're going to be speaking, you're going to be
saying something. So I want to end with first
Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 9.
I want you to listen to this in the amplified.
Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that in due time He may exalt you, casting the whole of your
care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns,
once and for all. Let me read that part again,
casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your
worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him, because He
cares for you affectionately and He cares about you watchfully.
Be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind.
Be vigilant and cautious at all times, for that enemy of yours,
that enemy of yours, the devil, he roams around like a roaring
lion, the fierce hunger seeking someone to seize upon and
devour. Withstand him.
Be firm in the faith against his onset, rooted and established,
and strong and immovable and determined.
Knowing that the same identical sufferings are appointed to your
brotherhood, the whole body of Christians throughout the world.
It says Cast the whole of your care, all of it, all your
anxieties, all your care, all your concerns once and for all
because he cares about you affectionately and for you
watchfully. And I, I want to share
personally, the Lord has ministered to me in the past
month or so about how in Zephaniah, it says that he sings
over you, that God sings over you, that, you know, God has a,
a soul. And the Bible talks about that
he's, he's a spirit, but he, but he has a soul.
That's why we have a soul. And the Bible says that he sings
over you. And, and for me personally, I
just caught this glimpse of God singing and I never really
thought about it before. And for some reason in my
personal life, it really spoke to me.
It it really ministered to me that I could picture him singing
over me with love, because that's what the scripture says.