Transcript for:
Romans 8:5,13 -Spiritual Life- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-06-25

Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 13, would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. So Father, we thank you again. We thank you, we praise you, we worship you, we just applaud you. You're the great physician. Thank you for healing so many people this last few years. Thank you for protecting us. You had your protection about us. Lord, continue to protect our children, grandchildren, family members, Lord. And Lord, we lift up Michael. We lift up Gloria's husband, who's a wonderful caregiver while she was sick. But Lord, he doesn't know you. Lord, we pray that he would come to know you. We pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would save him, Lord. That Gloria would be able to see her husband with her in heaven one day. Lord, we pray that you'd save all of our unsaved loved ones, family and friends. We're getting to the nitty-gritty, Lord. And God, we pray that you move and work by the power of your Holy Spirit and draw them unto yourself, Lord. Illumine their hearts and minds. Save now, Lord. Save today. Bless your Word as we study it. Be our teacher. Strengthen us. Help us, Lord, to walk by faith, not by sight in these last days. Increase our faith, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? The emphasis in Romans 8 is upon the life of the Spirit. The word spirit is found 19 times in this chapter. If we contrast this with chapter 7, you've got I, my, and me. Paul saying, the things I do want to do, I don't do. The things I do want to do, you know. The things I do want to do, I don't. The things I don't want to do, I do. And that struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, the carnal part of who we are. So we as Christians, we're body, soul, and spirit. The unbeliever is just body and soul. What is the soul? The soul is the seed of the mind, the will, the emotion. Why only a dichotomy? Why only body and soul? Because Adam and Eve, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. So within the garden, the fall of man, when Adam and Eve died, when they fell from that place of finite perfection there within the garden, it's called the fall of man. So an endemic fallen nature took hold of every single human being thereafter. So all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so Jesus comes along, and He's the last Adam. He's our federal head. He's the one that's going to subdue the serpent, the usurper, the ones that usurp control over the planet. We use the word control loosely because God's on the throne. He's still in control. But the little G God of this world, the prince of the power of the air, has authority that Adam once possessed to take dominion over the earth, be fruitful, to multiply. And this endemic nature, you know, carries over from human to human to human to human. And God told a religious leader named Nicodemus, you must be born again, to be born of the Spirit. Now your body, soul, and spirit. Now you have the Holy Spirit living and dwelling within you. Now you have the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, it's expedient that I go to be with the Father because I'll send the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So we as Christians, we in the church, since Jesus was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit being given. And Jesus actually breathed on His disciples, the word spirit is pneuma, breathed on them, a mighty rushing wind, you know, in Acts 2. But breathed on them, said, receive you the Holy Spirit. And then later, the epiaxperience, the Holy Spirit coming upon the church, in and upon. And so within and upon, the Holy Spirit comes alongside with to convict of sin. So before we came to know the Lord, we were convicted of sin. We registered, it became apparent that, hey, I'm a sinner. And I'm drawn and I'm pushed into a corner with no way out. I can't be good enough. I'm bankrupt morally. The only way out is Jesus Christ. And as I look to Jesus and I respond to Him, and I learned that He didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And so last week we looked at it. There's now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And so we're in Christ Jesus. We're in the boat. We're in the ark. We're going to see, you know, the great white throne judgment where the wicked dead are bodily resurrected from the dead. And they're going to be judged at the end of the millennium of what they did while they're in their body, whether good or bad. But you and I, we're never going to face judgment because Jesus was judged. He was punished as a substitute in our place. And so God looks at you and I, and He imputes to us, and the counting term, into the ledger. There's no more debit anymore. There's credit. Jesus said to Talistai, paid in full, it is finished. All your sins, past, present, and future, have been paid for. But now we still have that old nature, that old fleshly nature still there, that we're having to carry around like a dead carcass. And that old nature wants to dominate. That old nature wants to take over. It's always fighting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, these two. And so Paul here is going to show us the secret of victory, how we can have victory, and what the spiritual life is like. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. So the abundant life of the Spirit. We don't need to live according to the flesh. We don't need to be dominated by the flesh. But we can choose if we want to to be dominated in that way. We give the devil permission. And so often we blame our sin upon the devil, but really it's the flesh, the greatest degree of our being. So body, soul, and flesh. Body, soul, and spirit. The bodily appetites. The devil will entice the bodily appetites as he did with Jesus. He tempted him where Jesus had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. And the very first thing the devil did was appeal to Jesus that he was hungry. Physiologically, he's the God-man. Fully God, fully man. And if contending, challenging the validity of the deity of Christ, that's always where you'll see the cults, understand the cults are always going to attack the deity of Christ that he is God. And so if you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. So an appeal to his desire for food. He hadn't eaten in 40 days. And Jesus used Scripture to combat the temptation. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds in the mouth of God. And so Satan tries a couple more times. And then Jesus said, be gone Satan. And he leaves. And thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. And him only shalt thou serve as he's shown to all the kingdoms of the world. Not going to bow down. No shortcut. I'm going to go by way of the cross. Father, if there's any way other than going to the cross to redeem these, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not as I will, but I will be done. And so with a strong crying and tears, Jesus agonizing, and the corpuscles in his forehead and everything, sweating as it were, great drops of blood, the agony and the olive press. And he that knew no sin would become sin, knowing that for the very first time in all of eternity that the Father would separate himself from his Son. Jesus' desire in John 17 is that he would be restored to that fellowship with the Father, and that we would enter into that oneness, that communion, that blessing of fellowship with the true and living God. Because Jesus was going to make the way. He was going to give us access. The veil of the temple was going to be rent in two. And we can boldly come before that throne of grace now, not a throne of judgment. So why would any of us want to live on the animal plane? Why would any of us want to live like animals, and profess that we're saved? Profess that we're Christians. Why would we live on a lower level when God saved us? Not just to save us, you know, so that we have eternal life, but that more abundantly that Jesus spoke of, the abundant life of the Spirit. Why? Eye is not seen or ear heard, neither is the hand or the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But he has revealed them unto us by his Spirit, the excitement, the joy, and the blessing, a living the life of the Spirit. And so the life of the Spirit is number one, a life of peace. Don't you want peace? Don't you want peace within? Do you know how many people in the church are filled with anxiety, and on medication, and self-medicating to just deal with one day as you read and you watch the news and stuff? Many people want to check out. They don't even want to, and I encourage you to don't watch all the lies, all the propaganda, that mainstream media news, but many people want to check out even the intro, even what I let you guys know about the Bank of International Settlements and COVID. And as J.D. says, the vaccine was not made for COVID, but COVID for the vaccine. They had to find a means, a way to scare people. Joseph Goebbels said, once you get them afraid, you can get them to do anything. And so it was the population reduction as the modus operandi. It's the, you know, genocide of people was what's in play. And so when we start talking about that stuff, Christians want to find a church that doesn't talk about it, that acts like it's not happening. I don't want to hear it. Why? Because you're in love with the world. You don't want to let go of the world. It's over. Put a fork in it. It's over. But you want to find a way to get the second coming of Trump. We can make it go a little bit longer, you know? Really? Really? The warp speed jab guy? Really? You really think he's, he's going to get the Republican nomination overwhelmingly. And that's where you're going to put your faith and hope in. That's what's going to keep you going. That's what's going to make it so you don't lose your mind is your hope in the orange man. It's a, it's a dog and pony show. They're on the same team. Absolutely on the same team. Republican, Democrat are the same team. It's over. But somehow we got to keep it going. It can't be over because you know what? What's coming next is it's so bad. Jesus is coming and he's going to set up his kingdom and I don't want that. I got more houses I want to buy. I want to go to the casino more. I want to, I want to indulge in more stuff. You know, I only came to Jesus so I don't go to hell, but I love the world and I want to indulge in everything the world has. I want America to be, build back better. You know, the greatness of America. I want bigger and better vacations and I want to own an island. They're selling an island and the San Juan's. I want that island. I'm going to win the lottery. I mean, we're delusional. We're talking, Jesus is coming. He's going to reverse the curse. He's going to set up his kingdom. Your kids are going to be safe. Not even, there isn't anybody going to be able to hurt the children. No more transgender. No more taking them. No more pedophilia and you're telling me you don't want that? You're telling me you want to trust the Biden and the Obama and the Trump to keep you safe? Really? How's that been working for you? You've been lied to over and over and over again. Been neutralized with lies. You don't know what to do. And now you want to go to church and you want to play Pollyanna? You want to act like it's not happening? You want to remove yourself because you have no peace. Because you're not filled with the Spirit. You're not being filled with the Holy Spirit. You can't handle it. You can't handle the truth, you know? So you flock out of here. You run over somewhere where they don't talk about any of this. And then they begin to embrace transgenderism and they begin to embrace all the other isms and all the stuff that's coming along. They take the PPV money. They shut the church down. They're trying so hard to be a friend of the world. We don't want to be the world's enemy. Somehow we can peacefully, you know, somehow we can negotiate with the men and women of Sodom. Maybe we've got to give up our two virgin daughters, but maybe they'll leave us alone. Maybe we'll get to go to the ballet one more time. Can you imagine men in tights in Sodom and Gomorrah? The ballet? You know, is that your thing? Really? People are what the things that people are into. It's just mind-boggling to me. Mind-boggling. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So who is they referring to? Believers or unbelievers? The context of chapter 7 into chapter 8 suggests believers. Carnal versus spiritual believers. So three types of people by way of review. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. First of all we have the natural man. We alluded to the natural man. The natural man is the fallen man, the unregenerate man. Unregenerate. He's not born again. So the natural man understands not the things of God. They're foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. The light bulb doesn't go on. He's just body and soul. Has a body, and the soul is the seed of the mind, the will, the emotions. No spirit. Then you have the spiritual man. That's 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10. Eye is not seen nor ear heard through your natural faculties. Eye is not seen nor ear heard. Neither has it entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. We stop there and we say, oh heaven, I can only imagine. Got to read the next verse. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit. God is revealing himself unto us. You are the spiritual person. You're the one that's born again. And then there's a third type of person. This is the Christian that's dominated by the Greek word sarkos, which is carnal, the carnality, the fleshly man. So you got two natures in Galatians 5. The flesh and the spirit. So if I walk in the spirit, I don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But if I try to feed the lusts of the flesh, the flesh becomes dominant. The flesh gets on the throne of my life. And now I'm a servant. I'm a slave once again to the flesh, the desires of the flesh, the likes of the flesh. But if I crucify the flesh, if I mortify, these are words pertaining to flesh. The only solution to the flesh is death. No rehab. There's no rehab for your flesh. There's no pill you can take. There's no way to change your behavior and make you a better fleshly person. Okay? You try to get rid of the demon, you're going to go out and get seven worse, right? So the carnal man is in 1 Corinthians 3, and he's one that's a babe in Christ. He's one that's on milk. He's one that can't handle solid food. And part of the way you know his behavior, he's always contentious and fighting over, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas. You know, it's Christ divided, and so the big green and all that. And Paul says, I couldn't feed you with solid food. You're just babes in Christ. You know, you're not growing. There's an arrested state of development. And that's where a lot of people in the church are. And they're dominated by the flesh. And they're dominated in such a way they're in love with the world and want everything that's in the world. And so Paul's describing that here. And they lack peace. Incredible discontentment. Incredible discontentment when the carnal fleshly Christian doesn't get their way. They get in to name it and claim it and blab it and grab it, and they begin to bark at God and tell God what he's got to do for them. And they begin to imagine that they just need more faith. The guys are telling them, you can have your best life now, and it's just an intense obsession with the things of the world. How much is enough? More and more and more and more. But godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world, it's certain we're going to carry nothing out. With food and raiment therewith be content. Imagine that. Imagine if our standard of living when the dollar crashes was food and raiment therewith be content. You know what food and raiment is? Food. We know that, right? Are we going to have good food? Are they going to demonize and make it illegal to have meat? Suitable food for us to eat? Are they going to give us bugs and all that? Nowhere in the Bible do I see Jesus sitting down and eating bugs. I see John the Baptist with locusts and wild honey, but hey, all the power to him. But that wasn't, you know, I don't know what kind of locust that was, but my grandkids have been catching bullfrogs in the pond, and they had frog legs the other day, and they said it tasted like lobster. Well, I'm not going to try it. They can have it all to themselves, you know. I'm not that hip and cool. But in any event, I trust them. But no crickets, no worms, none of that sort of thing. And so we're living in a time where, you know, up is down, down is up. Good is bad, evil is being called good and all. And so the carnal, fleshly person just, you know, just is dominated by those fleshly appetites and desires. And in the life of the Spirit, we can choose to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. We can choose to, with food and raiment, therewith be content. Raiment is clothing. So when you look at Jesus, birds of the air have nests. Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests. But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus has food, and he has raiment. He has clothing. Now some would interpret that raiment as shelter. You know, well, how much shelter do you need? Paul's saying, with food and raiment, therewith be content. Be content. You've got food and clothing. The writer of Hebrews is telling the persecuted Jews, you haven't resisted unto blood yet. What are you whining about? You haven't resisted. None of us have resisted unto blood. China and Iran, they're resisting unto blood, right? They're being killed for their faith. We don't have it so bad yet. Things are still pretty good. But boy, a whole lot of us have no peace. A whole lot of us are filled with such incredible anxiety. We can't even cope with the times we're in. And when we studied in Jeremiah 12, we reminded ourselves that, you know, Jeremiah, if you're wimping out in the time of the foot soldiers, what are you going to do when, you know, when the horses and the chariots come and the swelling of the Jordan? Jeremiah, I'm not backing off because you're afraid. I'm not backing off because you're a wimp. There's no place to hide, Jeremiah. The reality of judgment is coming against the nation of Israel. You need to get your big boy britches on. You need to get ready, because it's going to get worse. And Jeremiah's like, I'm checking out. I didn't sign up for this. Joel told me I didn't have my best life now, you know. This doesn't seem like my best, you know. And God says, you're going to do what I tell you to do. There's no way around it, Jeremiah. You're going to do what I've called you to do. And I've discovered when I do what God's called me to do, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to my flesh, that's the place where I have peace. Tremendous peace in just simply obeying the Lord to what He's called me to do. So too with you. God's called you to be a mother? Be a mother. God's called you to be a father? Be a father. But make sure male and female, okay. Understand that first, what a mom is, alright. Get that straight. You know what I'm saying. It's so bizarre today. But raising children, there isn't anything more important than raising children and getting them ready to receive Christ and enter into heaven. Nothing more important than making sure that the souls that the Lord entrusts to us and our families that they're ready to meet Jesus. That they meet Jesus early on. That He's with them the whole life long. There's nothing more important. So we don't minimize or degrade the role, the calling that God's placed upon each of us in our homes. The devil's trying to destroy our homes. And we're thinking if I make more money and have a bigger house, then there's going to bring contentment. Well, I'm greatly discontented with the thought that one of my daughters would go to hell. What's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or would a man give in exchange for his life? If my girls and my grandkids don't make it into heaven, man oh man oh man, what went wrong Lord? I can't force them. I can't make them. But I can dedicate my life to trying to get them to know the Lord. Get them thirsty enough. Curious enough. I can pray over them. I can live the life of the Spirit, not stumble them. Ultimately it's their choice. I understand that. There's no grandchildren in heaven. They can't get there because, you know, Grandpa's a pastor. Each and every one has to come as a child of God. And so they have to come and grab the manna on their own. I can't go grab six days of manna and bring it back home. Each and every one has to come out and receive the bread of life on their own. And so the context of chapter 7 and 8 would indicate that these are a battle between the carnal and the spiritual believers. He says, verse 6, For to be carnally minded is death, that where death means separation. So no fellowship with God. So I'm a believer. I have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we'll see in verse 9. If I don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit then I'm not a believer. I have to be born again. So I can profess that I know God but in works deny Him. I can profess that I know God and I can take Hillary Clinton and put lipstick on her and dress her up and send her to the Methodist women's meeting and all. And she can tell you how she's a Christian. And Bill, her husband, can tell you how he came to Christ at, you know, a Billy Graham crusade or whatever. And Obama can say that he was a Christian and Reverend Wright's church and all that. And Rick Warren can back it and they can all try to deceive American public to get the evangelical vote. But Jesus said, By their fruit you'll know them. What's the fruit of their lie? What's it look like? Well, when the cameras aren't on them, that pig that's got the lipstick on her face, all she can think of is going and finding a mud puddle, finding some children to pray upon, to exercise her pedophilia against little girls, little boys. That's the pig. That's the nature. Their nature is not changed. And we know their nature. We know they're unsaved, unregenerate, because the pig goes back to the wallowing in the mire and the dog back to its vomit. Because the nature hasn't been changed. Outwardly, they might have lipstick on their face. And they might carry a Bible. And they might have a publicity stunt to try and convince you that, Hey, I'm going to be interviewed with Rick Warren. And George Stephanopoulos, whatever his name is, he's interviewing you and you make a mistake and you say, Oh, my Muslim faith. And he says, Oh no, you mean your Christian faith, you know. Oh yeah, yeah, my Christian faith. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then later in the second term, doesn't even try to hide it anymore. No need to hide it. Not only not a Christian, but also a homosexual. Not only a homosexual, but making a joke of all of us in that I've got a transgendered wife or whatever you call that. A male acting like a female. And Michael, the linebacker for the Oregon Beavers, you know. No birth certificate. No citizenship. No vetting. Nobody even knows who this guy is and the Christians vote him in twice. And you think you have the solution to this system? Being played. Big time being played. And we don't have a clue how to fix it. Because the rule of law has failed and the anti-Christ is called the lawless one. And we're watching the whole entire erosion of our culture. The breakdown of our culture, including the church. Brendan Holthaus, he had a video that he did with Jan Markell a week or so ago. And he cited that he had 2,000 churches that signed up to be a part of his remnant churches. So what that means is you're looking for a church that teaches the Bible in Kitsap County and you can't find a church that teaches the Bible. Twenty years ago it was commonplace. All the denominations, everybody would have a Bible study. But nowadays it's very difficult. They're going woke, you know. They're going purpose driven. They're going social justice, community minded, you know. Missional and all that sort of thing. And so they're going to stop hunger. They're going to get clothing and housing and everything for all the poor and needy and such. And they're going to change the outward, which we agree with. But the most important thing is the person gets saved. If they don't get saved, there's no point. So we're not afraid of offending somebody that is a sinner, proud in their sin. And they come in here as a homosexual or a lesbian or an adulterer or a fornicator or a thief or a covetous whatever. We're not afraid of offending anybody. We teach the Bible. We let the Bible offend them. And they get mad at me, but that's okay because it's not my word, it's God's word. And so rather than trying to appease them in their anger and trying to appease them in their pride, we allow the Lord of God, the Word of God to say what it's saying. And if they get pricked in the heart, they have a chance to get saved or repent of their sin. Yeah, we use that word repent, but if they don't, you know, they can hit the door and find a place that makes them comfortable in their sin and have a false sense of security and go to hell. That's the reality. And so Brendan Holthaus, he, 2,000 of these pastors signed up and wanted to be in that database. But he took and he called them individually, began to interview them individually and asked them questions. What he found was that their statement of faith from the previous pastor remained the same. So they would look on paper as being orthodox, as being a Christian church. But as he began to interview them, he found that these new pastors that took over for the previous pastor, that they don't believe that the nation of Israel is in the land and eschatologically that God is going to restore the nation of Israel. They think the church has replaced Israel, so replacement theology. They don't teach prophecy. They don't teach a preacher of rapture, eschatologically that sort of thing. And so maybe a preterist view and all mill and all those other sorts of things. The deity of Christ, you know, is he God? Do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe in the Trinity? So a lot of different doctrinal, key doctrinal issues, you know, aren't there. And so he only had 700 out of the 2,000 that he actually was able to put on his database. And then this week, there's another guy that I watched in his interview, and I don't necessarily agree with him, but he was canceled from doing a presentation at a college, a Christian college. And he said the reason was because he made a statement against the Pride Month, against the whole wokeism of it, and one of the vice presidents of this college canceled his appointment because he did that, because he offended the woke mindset, the pride, the rainbow group of people and all. But interestingly, all of these colleges, just like those churches, continue to have a statement of faith, a belief system, on paper so that the people that are 60, 70 years old, 80 years old, can continue to donate and give to those colleges. But in practice, they don't continue to teach the Bible the way that their own statement of faith and bylaws and such would indicate. And so you have a whole lot of people that profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. One of the difficulties when you come across a carnal Christian is you don't know if they're saved or not. How do I know? If you say you're a Christian, but you're living with somebody outside of marriage, I have to say, I've got to take you to 1 Corinthians 6, and I've got to say, you know, be not deceived. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And I've got to go through the list that Paul lists there in 1 Corinthians 6. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves to mankind, nor thieves or drunkards, or, you know, he's got this whole list, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says, and such were some of you. In the past, that's how you live. Not in the present as a Christian, and such were some of you, but you've been washed. You've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. You've been sanctified. You've been justified, right? That's the transformation and the change that took place in your life. But if you continue to live like a worldling, how are we to know? How are we to know if you're truly saved or not? We don't. We have to wait and see if the Lord, according to Hebrews 12, if He spanks you. If the Lord doesn't spank you, whom the Lord loves, He chastens and He scourges every son or daughter. If there's no chastening from the hand of the Lord who loves you, in correcting you, not punitive, not destroying you, but to correct you and bring you back into fellowship, if any man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, lest ye also be tempted. So we're looking for correction. We're looking for a way from 1 Corinthians 5, this man that took his father's wife, his stepmom, and was living with her. The church thought it was really hip and cool. Hey, look, they love you. It's love, man. It's love. Paul says, oh, little Levin. Levin's a lump. That corruption's going to permeate the church and destroy the fellowship of the church. You're going to quench the Holy Spirit. You're going to grieve the Holy Spirit. You're going to lack power. There isn't going to be any power in your witness for Jesus, because you're living just like the world, and the world's going to say, what a joke you Christians are. You're no different than us. There's no transformation and change. So to be carnally minded is death, separation. There's no fellowship with God. You're living on the plane of the flesh. In Isaiah 48, 22, it says, there's no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked. No peace. You're miserable. The most miserable person on the planet is a backslidden Christian. When I was in the world, doing the worldly stuff, I had a blast. I didn't come to Jesus because I crashed and burned. The Bible says there's happiness in sin for a season. It was a blast, let me tell you. And you know it to be true, any of you that were as wicked as me. Stolen waters to the sweetest water. No, I wasn't a thief. But it was just a party. It's all I knew. It's all I knew. And I knew what my friends were doing, what we were doing, what we wanted to do, and we were doing it. But there's happiness in sin for a season. And my season was shortened by the Lord. He invaded my life. He arrested me. He stopped me. He opened my eyes to the truth of the gospel. And you know, ignorance is bliss. Had he not done that, I could have had fun a much longer, you know. Wouldn't have to be so boring as a Christian, you know. That's what you think. Oh, I've got to give up this. I've got to give up that. Yeah, you've got to give up passing out and throwing up on yourself. Yeah, you've got to give up that. Miserable drunk. But no, the Lord saves you. Then he shows you Bible studies. And he gives you new friends, new people to hang out with. And the one common denominator is Jesus. And you're born again. You're singing. You can't stop smiling. You're filled with the Spirit. And you've never had so much fun. The devil thought, you know, made us think that we had it made, but we really didn't. And it comes to an end. It comes to the point where you start to reap what you've sown. You start to reap the consequence of your actions because you're going against God. You're going against his laws, his spiritual moral laws. And it begins to take its toll upon you and your body and your family and such. And it's not a party anymore. Galatians 5.17 says, the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. The two natures are vying for control, control of the mind. And the body is at war. There's conflict. You ever seen a Christian that's in conflict? They're in conflict. And what is it? Is it unconfessed sin? What is it you're doing? Why are you so conflicted? Why are you so discontented? Why are you so agitated? Why don't you have any peace? Where's your peace? One of the greatest ways that I can gauge a person's spirituality is not how big their church is, not how popular they are, not how famous they are. The way that I gauge a person's spirituality is kind of like Job. What's he like when he's afflicted like you guys have been physically? Has he ever been sick? Has he ever lost everything? Has he ever gone through a terrible loss of a loved one? Or has everything been insulated and protected and, you know, it's kind of like the poster child for the best life now. Now I want to see him when he gets kicked in the teeth. Does he come back swinging? Does he come back fighting? Does he get back up? Does he have peace? Can he smile? Can he love? Is he bitter? Is he angry? Is he vindictive? That's all the flesh. Does he quit? Is he Christ-like? What comes out of his mouth? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. From the bunce of the heart, the mouth speaks. You don't know what the heart is until you get slapped, until you get hit, until something happens. And when that something happens, will you give up on Jesus? Will you quit on Jesus? Will you curse Jesus? And Job says, naked came I into the world, naked I'm going to go. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Is he talking like that? Is he saying, the Lord knows the way that I take, and when he tries me, I'm going to come forth as gold? Can he say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him? Those are the spiritual giants. Those are the ones that the flesh has been ripped on and hit and poked at and, you know, dead men don't whine. If I'm a whiner, it means that I'm not dead yet. Too much of Rick's still alive. Too much of Rick's still demanding what he wants. Rick's being exposed. He's whining. He's complaining. He's not surrendered to Jesus. He's not crucified with Christ. Too much of Rick's still there. So when you let your flesh control you, you die inside. You're lifeless. You're empty. There's an emptiness for the Christian that lives according to the world. When David sinned with Bathsheba, when David killed Uriah the Hittite, when David took Ahithophel, David's wise counselor, when he took his granddaughter, who was Bathsheba, it totally rocked Ahithophel. So much so that when Absalom later had this coup against David, Ahithophel sided with Absalom. He was so angry at David for seducing his granddaughter Bathsheba, for executing her husband, for murdering her husband and all. And David, when he was in sin, he tried to cover his sin. Whosoever tries to cover his sin as a Christian is not going to prosper. And you may have authority as a king, and you may be able to cover up all your sin and all that you're doing, but God in his love for you a year later is going to send Nathan the prophet. And Nathan the prophet is going to put his finger at you and say, David, you're the man. You know, you're not that man. You're the man that sinned against your neighbor. You took his one little lamb and you butchered it and fed everybody else around you. You had a harem of women around you, David. Why did you need Uriah's wife? Why would you take Uriah's wife unto you, David? David, you're not going to die, but your sin has consequences. The sword's not going to depart from your family. So you look at David, and David is so cool because the Lord didn't edit out David's sin. The Lord didn't edit out, like He did in Hebrews 11, He edits out all their failures in the hall of faith. It's by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. They conquered. They're more than conquerors. But in Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51, you get David crying out to God in the midst of being miserable, of being alienated from God. He has no peace. There's no peace in his heart. He says in Psalm 38, in his backslidden condition, he says, my iniquities are gone over my head. I'm drowning. I'm drowning because of my iniquities. As a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. And then you think of Jesus, come unto me, all you that are laden and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll give you peace. My yoke's easy, my burden's light. David's saying, my sin is so heavy, it's a heavy burden carrying the guilt, the weight of my sin. My wounds stink and are corrupt. So there's this aspect where David physiologically, physically became sick within. It affected him. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son. Sometimes we get sick, and I don't want to put a trip on you. There's no trip here, no trip. Sometimes though, I might get sick because it's the chastening hand of the Lord. I don't see anybody in here that's been sick because of the chastening hand of the Lord. So don't take that as something cruel that I'm saying. I see it more as a badge of honor in that the Lord has entrusted you with suffering, and he's used it to purify your heart, to cause the fragrance of Christ to emanate from you. That's how I see it. But, God in this love, he may take my prodigal son or daughter, and he may chasten them. And for me as a father, I've got to keep my nose out of it. I can't go into the foreign land and keep bailing them out, rescuing them and all. At a certain point, I've got to let the consequences of their actions correct them, even in a jail cell maybe. Sober them up, get them out of that. He says, I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. Man, it doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun being an adulterer and a murderer and a liar and being king and have a harem of women. You can't enjoy anything, because vertically you're not in fellowship with God. You're out of fellowship with God. He didn't lose his salvation, but he's certainly in a backslidden condition out of fellowship with God. The battlefield's the mind, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The devil knows this. That's why this intense brainwashing is taking place. The Madison Avenue, all of the different advertising that's taking place is trying to identify something that you might want that will bring you peace, that will bring you pleasure, that will bring you joy. So you're on the TV with the channel changer, buying, buying, buying, buying, buying, buying, because oh, it's going to make me feel good when that Prime truck, that Amazon truck pulls up. Oh, I've got another drink. Oh, yeah. Well, they know how to loop you in, huh? Can you live without that? Are you a hoarder? I am. Alright. She that lives in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And so just living for pleasure like we used to live, you're dead while you live. You're not really living. And in Proverbs 23, verse 7, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. So what consumes your thought life? Is your thoughts consumed with Jesus? Do you want fellowship with Jesus? Are your thoughts consumed with sexual activity, money, pleasure, the world, the things of the world? Are you consumed with things of the world? Jesus says in Matthew 631, now we need to wrap this around our head. If your bank accounts get stolen, if you can't get any money out of the ATM, if the central bank digital currency comes along and you have no access to your funds, how are you going to survive? What are you going to do? Are you going to barter, grow a garden, raise sheep, raise goats, raise chickens, have eggs, work as a community? How do you operate under the radar of a tyrannical global system that seeks to bring you into bondage? Are you going to compromise? Are you going to give in to the world? I'll probably give in as long as I don't have to worship the beast, you know. If that's the only way to exchange, then I'm trapped. But as soon as they want to put a mark on my right hand and my forehead, bets are off, you know. That's going to happen in the tribulation period. But in the interim, the leading up to it, we have cards now. We have debit cards. They're demonizing cash. So at a certain point I might have to get in there. But in this context in Matthew 631, Jesus is illustrating the contrast between the worldly person and the believer and his desire to take care of you and I. We don't have the answer to all the questions, so we're going to have to walk by faith. So Jesus said in Matthew 631, take no thought saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or what shall we be close. You start to worry already. It hasn't taken place yet, but we're already worrying. We're overwhelmed with anxiety, worrying about what am I going to do when they do the digital currency, you know. How can I prepare? How can I be a prepper? Can I buy enough gold, silver, ammo, guns? What am I going to do? Who's going to take care of me? Will I lose my job if I don't take the jab? Who's going to take care of me? He says take no thought. Don't even let it dominate your thoughts. Lose some sleep over it. What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall I wear? What shall I be clothed with? For all these things do the unbelievers are consumed with this. What am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? What am I going to wear? But you're different. You have a Heavenly Father and He closes the fields. And the fields are much more beautiful than Solomon in all of his glory. He provides for the birds, you know. He provides for the animal life. They have plenty of food and water and nourishment and all. How much more valuable are you? Oh, you have little faith, you know. Seek first the Kingdom of God, Matthew 6.33. As a priority of life, put Jesus first. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things be added unto you. So then Paul says in Philippians 4, be anxious for nothing. Are you anxious? Worried? Consumed with what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? What am I going to wear? You're like, yeah, hurry up. There's a tomahawk ribeye waiting for me at Maynard's. Would you shut up, you know? Of course I am, you carnal pastor. Don't you hear my stomach growling? I've been here two hours already. Yeah, your flesh is mad. I'm bolting. Next time he looks to the left, I'm out the door, you know. Well, I'm right behind you. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these other things, he says, are going to be added unto you. What's that mean? You're going to have to walk by faith. You're not going to be able to trust in the Biden. You're not going to be able to trust in the shipyard and banger and keyboard. All that hard work, everything you put into your Social Security, they're trying to tell you that Social Security isn't yours. That it's an entitlement. No, it's not. It's your money that they've been messing with. Your 401k, that's all yours. But Klaus says you're going to own nothing and be happy. How are you going to do that? How are you going to navigate that? How are you going to work that out? You're going to have to walk by faith. You're going to have to trust the Lord that righteousness will prevail, that the criminals will be put in jail, that you can slow them down a bit. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these other things will be added unto you. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, in everything, through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, that's a hard to do. Lord, I refused the job and I lost my job. Be anxious for nothing. But I got mortgages. I got kids. I got schooling. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, in all those trials, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, start to praise the Lord before the miracle happens. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And what happens? And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, because intellectually it doesn't make sense. I'm going down the tubes. It's over. This peace, this spiritual peace which surpasses all understanding, is going to guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. You're able to sing. You're able to actually go to church and focus on Jesus and sing with your whole heart. Because He's on the throne. He's in control. Lord, I don't know how you're going to pay these bills, but Lord, you promise you'll provide. You promise. If I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things be added unto me. You know my obligations. You're going to provide, Lord. I trust in You. And though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. I'm going to continue to trust. I'm not going to break my faith. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What are we looking at presently? What are we looking at? Jesus said in John 14, verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. Boy, there's a whole lot of troubled hearts. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, dwelling places. If it weren't so, I'd tell you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I'm going to come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Oh man, you're telling me I don't need to worry about my house? I don't need to be worried about all this because you've prepared a heavenly home for me? You're going to take me to your Father's home? You're going to grab hold of me, rapture me, harpozzo me, and take me with you? That's what I'm telling you. This world is corrupting. There's no fix. There's no reform. There's no fixing it. I'm going to burn it to the ground. I'm going to come with a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. That's the hope that we have, that King Jesus is coming. I'm going to meet with a guy this week that's a political guy, and he's going to educate me on what we can do. And you know I'm a political atheist, right? I'm a cynic. So I'm going to go. I'm going to smile. And I think locally, yeah, there's a lot we can do locally. Definitely a lot we can do locally. We can sign the petition there to stop that 5599, that 109 of taking the kids and hauling them away. There's a lot we can do. We can slow them down. On the federal level, put a fork in it. We're going global. They're taking the economy down. They're taking America down. Prophetically we know that's going to happen. When's it going to happen? I don't know. But my hope's in Jesus. Jesus said when you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up for your redemption draweth nigh. So here I am anxious. The world's perishing. America's perishing. What do I do? I'm filled with anxiety. God gives me a peace. He says, hey, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. Get your eyes off this world. Get your eyes off the things of this world. Remember that I said pray always that you be accounted worthy to escape these things that are coming upon the earth and stand before the Son of Man. Location, location, location. Where's Jesus? In heaven, at His Father's house, making homes for you and I. Do you believe that? If you believe that, there should be peace in your heart. If you don't believe that, then good luck. Look for a politician to take care of you. But I'm banking on Jesus. I'm banking on Him fulfilling all the prophecies that are being fulfilled, that's pointing the way to help me experience peace so that my heart's not troubled. He says in John 14, 27, He says, Peace I leave with you. Peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Right? Not as the world. Not as the world in John 16. He says, Not as the world gives. He's given us His peace. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but power of love and a sound mind. Don't allow your mind to be controlled by fear. Live the life of the Spirit. Trust in the Lord. In John 16, 33, Jesus said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me, not in Donald Trump, not in the Democratic Party, not in the Republican Party, not in the Constitution, not in America, not in the economy, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. Here's a promise for you. In the world you're going to have tribulation. He didn't edit it out. He's letting you know. Tribulation, not the tribulation. Tribulation is pressure. Do you feel the pressure? Is the pressure tightening? Is it getting worse? In the world you will experience tribulation. But be of good cheer. Be joyous. Because I've overcome the world. Jesus is the victor. He spoiled all principalities and powers. He triumphed over them in it. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So you learn to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Every thought, every idea, every brainwashing, every lie, every propaganda, you take that and you filter it through your biblical worldview. You filter it through the Word of God. And you establish, you determine what's true, what's not true. I mean, you can use science. I mean, it's ludicrous. X and Y, you know. It should be pretty basic in the beginning. He made them male and female. I mean, alright, use the Bible for that. But there's so much. Two plus two still equals four. It doesn't matter what they say. It doesn't change it. There's still laws of gravity, laws of nature, moral laws, spiritual laws, whole world violence. You take it all and you filter it through the Word of God. And you adhere to the Word of God. You get a word from the Lord that he's stealing is still wrong. Adultery is wrong. Fornication is wrong. Mutilating children's bodies is wrong. Pedophilia is wrong. It doesn't matter what laws they make to make it legal, so to speak. It's against God's law. John the Baptist came and said, Herod, you've got your brother Philip's wife that's against God's law. It wasn't against Roman law or Greek law. But he lost his head by telling the truth to the king. So too we, we don't give into it. Not going to give into it. So your child, you go camping and your child's lost. Somebody's abducted your child. The parents, if you've ever been in a store or anywhere and you're missing a child. Do you know that horror that fills your heart? Everybody's looking. And you know that time is crucial. Every minute, every minute's important. Parents feel dead. They feel dead. They feel so incredibly lost and dead while that child is lost. That child's not there. And then the child's found. And boy, what a transition. What a change of heart. What a huge emotion that comes over you when that child's finally found. So too the Holy Spirit is grieved, even quenched, until we again surrender, until we're found. We quench, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we wander away from Jesus. We quench the Holy Spirit when we kick Jesus out of the church and we're the Laodiceans. Do you know what Laodicea means? It means people rule. It means the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm and sippid, powerless church of Laodicea, kick Jesus out of the church. And he's saying, I still love you and I'm standing at the door knocking. If you open the door, I'll come in and sup with you and you with me. I want fellowship but you've kicked me out of my church. And you make me sick because you're neither hot nor cold. You're indifferent. And you're lying to yourself. You're saying, I'm rich and increased with goods and I'm in need of nothing. Hey, the economy's crashing. Can you hear me now? Yeah, you can get along in your obstinance for a period of time, but when it crashes, I'm counseling you to buy the true riches that no one can take from you. Store for yourselves in heaven where moth can't corrupt, where thieves can't break through and steal. What a fool saying, I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns. Your life's required of you now. Did you prepare for heaven? Did you prepare for eternity? What's your value system? Romans 5.1, being justified, we have peace with God. And then if spiritually minded, we have the peace of God. He says in Ephesians 4.22, put on your old, put off your old self. Put your old self off like a coat, put it off and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And so when we get to chapter 12, verse 2, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove was a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There's a transformation that takes place in our mind for us as Christians as we study God's word. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3.2. In Isaiah 26.3, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. So you got to, you want that perfect peace. You got to keep your mind on the Lord. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Peter, do you want to walk on water? Do you want to walk on water? Keep your eyes on me, Peter. Don't look at the wind and the waves. Don't look at the storm. Don't look at everything around. Keep your eyes on me. And people like, ah, Peter, he, he, he almost drowned. He sunk. And then he prayed this really long prayer and he drowned. No, it was real quick. Lord save me. Real quick prayer. Get in the boat. And I don't, I don't fault Peter for sinking. I don't fault Peter for looking at the winds and the waves. At least he got out of the boat. At least he tried. At least he went out there and walked on water a couple steps, you know. I mean, I like guys like that. I fail all the time. But I'm not sitting in the pew still. I'm not living for myself. You know what your calling is. You do what God's called you to do. Don't look for someone else to do what He's called you to do. He prompted Kathy and I to take that step of faith. To step out of our comfort zone. To trust Him. To go. And He's still, He's asking you the same thing. Verse 7, Because the carnal mind is enmity. The word enmity means he's an enemy against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So this enmity means you hate God. You're still a part of that old fallen nature that hates God. You're at enmity with God. You're opposed to God. You're not subject to. It's a military term. It means you're not subject to orders. In the present tense there's continued insubordination for you military guys. Continued insubordination if you're living the life of the flesh. You don't look at Jesus as Lord. As your commanding officer. The one giving the orders. You're the lay Decean. It's people rule. And that's where a lot of pastors get in trouble being like King Saul. Trying to be people pleasers. And I'd rather please the Lord. He's the only one that I have to please. I had a girl the other day say that, hey maybe me and my friend will come to your church there. And I said no, you don't want to come to our church. And why? Because it's like a power gym. It's not one of these commercial churches. It's not one of these Planet Fitnesses or Curves where the people are insipid and powerless and shallow. You're going to come in and you're going to hear that adultery is wrong. You're going to hear that fornicating is wrong. We're not going to pick on just homos and lesbians. We're going to call sin, sin. We're going to say the solution is to repent and turn to Jesus. And I don't think you're ready for that. I think you want to go hide somewhere in one of these commercial churches where you can sit there in your sin and feel good about yourself because you wrote a check for someone to have some water, drink some water somewhere. You can't handle it. So when you get serious, come back around. Because you're going to hate me, I told her. You're going to absolutely hate me. A lot of people hate me. She said what? Yeah, our church is really small. A lot of people hate me. I'm a nut job. So the life of the Spirit is a life of peace and secondly a life of purpose. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So the life dominated by the flesh is purposeless. The eyes of man are never satisfied. The eyes of the wicked are never satisfied. So think in terms of King Solomon. He didn't keep anything that he wanted from himself. Women, wine song, buildings, intellectual pursuits, extravagant cities, exotic animals, amusement, wisest man upon the planet. He had it all. He did it all. And yet he concluded vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. He wound up multiplying wives and horses and the wives, the foreign wives that he had, turned his heart away from God and he began to build idolatrous temples under their false deities and led the nation into idolatry thereafter. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. I can't get no satisfaction, discontented. What is man's purpose? In Ecclesiastes 12.13 he says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. Do you know what your purpose is, my purpose? Is God there to fulfill your purpose? Is he there to give you three wishes, the lottery numbers, whatever? In Revelation 4.11 we see the four and twenty elders bowing down before the Lord and singing out, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Your purpose in being created is to bring God pleasure. Can you imagine that? To live a life, and how does he have fellowship, I mean pleasure? He wants fellowship with you, that's all he wants. He wants you to know him that he might love you on into the ages to come. You're in the church age, and his intention is to love you on into the millennium. His intention is to love you on into eternity after the thousand year rule and reign of Christ. According to Ephesians 2 verse 7, to continue to show his kindness in the ages, plural, to come. You're the object of his love. He wants to lavish his love upon you. You're the bride of Christ. You're made for his pleasure. Without faith it's impossible to please God, isn't it? For they that come to him must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder for those who diligently seek him. Unbelief is probably the greatest sin we could commit, is that of unbelief. Not believing, not trusting in the Lord. There are many devices in man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord it shall stand. Notice verse 9, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. This word dwell means to be at home. Is the Holy Spirit at home in your heart? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you have not the Holy Spirit, you're none of his. If you're not born again, you're not his. Augustine, he said, love God and do as you like. If I'm in love with God, the things that I do, he's putting in me both the will and the do of his good pleasure. The Lord's putting his desires within me, and I'm acting out those desires that he placed there. Love God and do as you please. Well, if I love God, I'm not going to do things that I know that are displeasing to him. As Joseph said, how could I do this great evil against God? I'm not going to go engage with Potiphar's wife. Nobody would see me. Nobody would care, I guess, but no way. God's watching. I don't want to break God's heart. Love is the motivator, not the law. And so if you're loving God, you'll be living a life that's pleasing unto him. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So if you don't have the triunity of the Godhead living and dwelling within you, you're an unbeliever. You're not a believer in Jesus Christ. You're not a Christian. The life of the Spirit is a life of peace, a life of purpose, and thirdly and finally, a life of power. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life is something we live now in the midst of this dead body, not later. I'm living now. It's a quality of life that I didn't know of, that I had no understanding thereof. I didn't even have any adults or people modeling the Christian life. I came to the Lord not knowing a Christian. First time I heard the gospel, I responded. Then I began to observe so-called Christians, and a lot of them really inspired me and made me thirsty, wanting to know the Lord. And I got discipled and encouraged and sat in the pews the first eight years and served a little bit, but you have to first receive before you can give. And then you're trying to figure out what your calling is, what your purpose is, where do I fit within the body, and you're trying all other sorts of things, and you're not quite fulfilled, you're not quite content, you're struggling. And then the Lord has you teach a Sunday school class and it's the best day of your life. Just a Sunday school teacher. Two-year-olds. Kathy and I. So exciting. Then you get to teach fourth graders, fifth graders, sixth graders for four years. So exciting. It fits. Love it. Look forward to it. Love to invest in these kids. Many of them are getting saved and bearing fruit. It's just exciting. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you. So there's resurrection power. The same spirit that raised up Jesus, and notice he's using his human name here. Jesus in the Greek. God is salvation. Joshua in the Hebrew. He's the God-man. Fully God, fully man. Will presently lift you to a higher plane of living, empowering our dead fleshly body to live for God. So Abraham's body. Abraham was impotent. Sarah and him couldn't have children. And oh that Ishmael might live before you. And they went into Hagar and he had an Ishmael he produced. But later he's able to produce an Isaac. He's able to have children with Keturah. And so the bondage of the flesh was broken. There's power in my life not to drink alcohol. And you want power. We want power. We want that dunamis dynamic power. And many are overwhelmed with the power that brings them into bondage. And you and I get saved. And now the Lord's given us the power to not drink alcohol to excess. There's a greater power working in me than that of the flesh and the desire of the flesh that once pulled me down. The power to not do drugs. The power to love. For those of us that have a very difficult time loving others. Loving them like we love ourselves. To love your wife. To love your kids. To love your husband. You have the capacity, the power finally to love like Jesus loved. The power to serve. And one of the greatest powers I enjoy, you and I enjoy, is the power to forgive. To forgive those that have wronged us. The blessing of being forgiven by others. The blessing of watching people be merciful unto us. God changes lives. Unstable Simon becomes Peter the Rock. Saul of Tarsus becomes Paul the Apostle. Demon possessed men become fathers. Promiscuous harlots become mothers. Tax collectors become disciples. Religious leaders become born again. Nick, you must be born again. Wealthy men become poor. Poor men become rich. Men who once feared death, now they fear only God. What changed these people? William Carey, who was a missionary in India for 41 years, 700 people came to Christ as he was there. He was a cobbler. He fashioned shoes in England, making of shoes. He's quoted as saying, if you want to know God's will, open your Bible and open a map. That's what he did. He became a founder of a Baptist missionary group. He served for 41 years in India. His father said to him, what are you going to do? You have no formal training. You haven't been trained in any divinity school or whatever. You don't have the schooling, the intellect and such. And he said, I can plot. I can plot. And he went over and he plotted and he translated the Bible into 35 different dialects in India. He built colleges. He built schools. He trained children. He went there 41 years without a furlough, William Carey, from a shoe guy to one of the greatest missionaries ever that God would raise up. He says he began thinking of going to India as a pioneer missionary. His father pointed to him that he possessed no academic qualifications that would fit him for such a task. But Carey said, I can plot. D.O. Moody said you can never be too small for God to use, only too big. Too big for your britches. God uses plotters and intellectuals. Verse 12, Therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. We are debtors to the Spirit. So God has furnished us with the power to live to really live. Now I have to say something. This whole thing masculine thing, effeminate, feminist thing that's going on, I really don't want to grow a beard to show you how masculine I am. I can grow one. But there's this whole thing going on. And I'm not going to wear Peter Pan skinny jeans and be effeminate and all that. I'm just going to be myself. But I want you to understand that there's a whole lot of people out there parading as masculine men as these studs. And it's all an act. It's all an act. It's all marketing. It's all trying to swing the pendulum the other way to people that are fed up with the effeminate, no testosterone, you know, lack of leadership kind of guys. And so the strongest, most virile guys in our culture are gentlemen. And I'm not going to lie. Simply gentlemen. Guys that love, guys that lay down their lives, guys that serve. A guy that writes a book trying to show people how manly he is. And he writes a book on sex for Christians and begins to describe for young people, any people, whatever, how to sodomize their wives is not a man. He's not a masculine man. He's a fraud. He's a fraud. A guy that would brew beer and say, what would Jesus brew? And stumble people with alcohol and such in his position. A guy that would make jokes of sexual activity of young people on live prime TV to get a laugh is not a man. He's not a godly man. He's not a gentleman. So don't be fooled. The meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. Meekness is a horse, a powerful horse that's under the control of its master. That's a godly man. A powerful godly man that's controlled by his master. That can serve and lay down his life for his family and friends and be a gentleman. Kind, considerate. Not overbearing and bombastic. You know, it just so deeply grieves me to watch so many frauds, so many people out there playing people and not being held accountable for their, just the idiocy, the complete idiocy of what they've done to the body of Christ from the pulpit. And they prayed it. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. He says in verse 13, For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Philip's translation says, But if you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you're on your way to living, really living. In John 10, verse 10, The thief comes not but to steal, to kill and to destroy. But I've come that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. As the Scripture has said, He that believes in me shall have torrents of living water. You want to be powerful? Have a flow of the Holy Spirit come into your life and out of your life. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Be not drunk with wine, where is the excess, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit. In Exodus 17, the children of Israel are whining and complaining about not having any water. And God instructed Moses to smite the rock that water would come out from the rock. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4, Jesus is that rock that was there. Now also in chapter 17, Amalek, their enemy, was ripe for judgment. Time of Abraham they weren't ripe, but now they are ripened. And the Amalekites attacked the children of Israel there. And it's an illustration, Amalek, Egypt's a type of the world. Amalek is a type of the flesh. And so we are to live the life of the Spirit. So Amalek, a type of the flesh, attacked Israel, a type of the Spirit, flesh against the Spirit. And so the flesh wants to dominate your life, to take you captive, to quench the flow of water. So they wanted to quench the nation of Israel and destroy them right there. But Israel disconfitted Amalek, but doesn't destroy them because the Lord had indicated from generation to generation that the Amalekites would be like a thorn in the flesh to the nation of Israel, a type of the flesh that was always there from generation to generation. In Exodus 17, verse 5, Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with the Amalek from generation to generation, so a continual war. So the emphasis upon living by faith, dependent upon God for strength, you're always going to have the flesh warring against you. Your marriage is always going to have that flesh vying against the Spirit. You're always going to have who's on the throne of your life. Who's going to die? Who's going to submit? Who's going to love like Christ loved the church? Is Christ on the throne? Is he the head of your home? Is he the head of your marriage? Are you both of you in submission to God or one of you or both of you demanding your rights, demanding what you have to have? Or is there any yielding to the Holy Spirit? So Joshua, he uses the sword in this battle. Ephesians 6, 7, the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. So Joshua gets into this battle and he's using the sword. And Moses is there and his arms are raised. And as long as his arms are raised with the rod that he smote the rock with, they were having victory. So the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. That's one of the ways that you're going to be powerful and have the victory is the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Take the sword out. Don't boast about how sharp the blade is and have everybody come look at it. Take the sword out and use it. Take your Bible out and use it. Let the lion out of the cage. They'll fear you. Secondly, prayer. A praying church, a praying family, a praying husband, mother is a powerful weapon, a powerful arsenal against the kingdom of darkness. Be a man, a woman of prayer. So Aaron and Hur, they came and held Moses' arms up. As long as they held Moses' arms up, they had victory. When his arms went down, he fatigued, they lost. They were losing. So a picture in Acts 17 of prayer. And so Joshua the sword of the Spirit. We need to be men and women of the Word. Moses' hands lifted up. Men and women of prayer. Aaron and Hur helping. So we help one another. We pray. We intercede one for another. When one's weak, we come alongside and hold their arms up. And then in Numbers 20, the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock when the children of Israel needed water once again. And he was angry. And his sister Miriam had just died. Aaron's going to be dead in a few minutes. The Lord's going to have him go home to be gathered with his relatives and all. But Moses said, must we bring you water? Must we bring you water again? You know, you rebels and all. And so he broke the type. He ruined the type in that Jesus is smitten once. Hebrews 7, Hebrews 9. He's smitten once. He's crucified once. Not over and over and over again. So speak to the rock. So if you lack power, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. Ask, seek, knock. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. So as we take on the mind of Christ, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, we experience peace. Peace in your mind and your heart as a result of your thought life. Get rid of those fears, those doubts, those lies. Meditate upon God's Word. Allow the authority of God's Word to define what is true, what is false. And then exercise your will. Be in submission to God's Word and His peace that surpasses all understanding. When you choose to walk by faith, it's going to flood your heart and mind, guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. So then He floods us with desires and we live to please Him. We have purpose as He lives through us, empowering us to really live, to live the life of the Spirit. And the life of the Spirit is always superior to that of the life of the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. And so maybe we need revival. Maybe we need a personal revival. We're dead while we yet live. And the key is it's real simple. The Lord's a prayer away. If we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We just simply take the Christian bar of soap and admit to the Lord the conviction He's bringing. We say, Lord, You're right. I've been a divided heart, a double-minded man. I'm unstable in all my ways. Lord, I want to be a man of purpose. I want to be looking at You and vertically put You first. I want to seek first the kingdom of God and Your righteousness. I trust You that all these other things be added unto me. Lord, I want to enter into all that You have for me. I don't want to be a shallow Christian. I don't want to be an insipid, indifferent, powerless Christian. Lord, I want to overcome my anger. I want to overcome my bitterness. I want to overcome my unwillingness to forgive. Lord, I want a love like You have instructed me to love. Lord, I need the empowering of Your Holy Spirit to love. I need Your love to flood my home and my marriage. And from that foundation, our lives being built upon You, Lord, I pray that we bring forth much fruit. But we can't do it in the flesh, Lord. There's no pill. There's no program. There's no reformation. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? It's a who. He's a who. Jesus shall deliver me. Jesus is delivering me from this body of death as I yield to Him, as I walk in the power of the Spirit. Look to Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. And Lord, we ask that You would empower us. We pray that we wouldn't live on the fence. We wouldn't live in the foreign land. But Lord, we'd enter in. We'd boldly come before Your throne of grace that, Lord, You'd minister to us, that we'd enter into all that You have for us as Christians, that we wouldn't live outside of Your best. God, we want to enter in. We want to discover, Lord, what Your plans and purposes are for our lives. No matter what age we're at—20, 50, 90—Lord, You're not done using us. We want our lives to bear fruit for Your kingdom and Your glory. We want others to hear of Your wondrous love. We desire to see You save people, Lord. As William Carey labored for 41 years and only 700 people got saved, Lord, that's a long time in India with no furlough. But Lord, You say there's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents. Let that one sinner be my family member, someone I love, Lord. That's significant. That's important to me. That means a lot. Lord, help us to intercede, to never give up, to continue to pray, to intercede and lift those we love. Lift those that You brought into our life, to lift them up to You, that You might move and work by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that You might bring people into their lives that will sow and one man water, and You bring the increase in Your timing and Your way. Help our kids to be on fire for You, Lord. Our grandkids to be on fire for You. Our husbands, our wives, our family be on fire. Reconcile those who are estranged, those who have gone their own way. Lord, save now. Save them, Lord. Just as You took the demoniac, Lord, he was seated in clothing in his right mind. Deliver us, Lord. Deliver our loved ones from the sway and the power of the wicked one. Save now, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.