Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Okay, we're on the fourth part of the Holy Spirit series, and I've got to cover a lot today because we've got, like, four, I think we were saying there's four or five Sundays left, and then we're done for Sunday mornings. So I've got to cover quite a lot today. Right? So Romans, chapter eight.
[00:00:23] Okay, we're gonna be talking. This is titled in my book Life through the Spirit. So I'm going to read this, and then we'll get on with what we need to do this morning. Okay? So therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life, has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh. Flesh. Everyone say flesh.
[00:00:56] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is what death. But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. Are you getting the picture this morning?
[00:02:49] If you haven't got the Spirit of Christ in you, you're dead.
[00:02:55] But if the Spirit of Christ is in you, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave will also raise us from the grave. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear. Again, Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, abba. Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Wow. May God bless his word to us this morning.
[00:04:12] That's some reading, isn't it?
[00:04:17] That's some reading of the scriptures this morning. Okay, I'm going to try and pin it all together. First of all, I'm going to ask you a really important question, okay. But I want some response.
[00:04:28] All right? And what we're going to do, right, I just want you to go. I want you to do a Mexican way for me. Is that all right?
[00:04:34] Yeah. I feel like we need a bit of movement in church this morning. All right.
[00:04:40] If you really want the kingdom of heaven to come in Newton Abbot, and there are little bits of the kingdom coming already, make no mistake of that. If you really want the kingdom of heaven to come into Newton Abbott, I want you, when I shout on three, to stand up and do a massive Mexican wave from the front to the back. And if you want to kind of say, yes, absolutely, yes, you can do. All right, are you ready?
[00:05:14] 1, 2, 3.
[00:05:22] Okay, we'll leave it at that and go forward with the preach.
[00:05:26] You know, if we are. That was great. I love seeing you doing that. There's some. There's some things on TikTok, or I'm not on TikTok, but on Instagram, where people are asked to do things and they're all in a line. Have you seen it? And they're all in a line and they're saying, right, we're going to do this on three. But all the people in the line, except for the first person, know not to do it. So when the camera goes rolling, right, we've got to be a chicken after three. One, two, three. And the only person on the front row is the one going like this. And the rest are just laughing behind them. But don't worry, I didn't set you up for that. All right, I'm glad most of you are with me this morning. You know, if we are in Christ, that means we've accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. He's now living in us. If We've accepted Christ. We've got an incredible inheritance coming to us.
[00:06:13] An incredible inheritance that's ours coming.
[00:06:17] I think some of us don't realize how royal we are when we accept Christ. I don't think we realize that we are now labeled as sons and daughters who now share in the inheritance that Jesus will share in.
[00:06:33] Okay, we have an incredible inheritance coming to us.
[00:06:39] We have an extravagant life that goes beyond the grave. I think it's sad when somebody dies, right? It's tragic when somebody dies. But if you are in Christ, while there is a period of mourning, of course there is. We know it's not the end. We know that one day we will see them again. That is the hope we have beyond the grave. But it's only if you're in Christ Jesus.
[00:07:08] Have you ever, ever been at a funeral where somebody does not know Jesus Christ?
[00:07:18] But we have this extravagant and abundant life, not only now, but also way into eternity, forever and ever living with Jesus. It is a stunning. God is one day going to create a stunning new heaven and earth for us to live on where there will be no sickness, no rubbish, no evil, no people falling out, no wars.
[00:07:49] It will be pure perfection.
[00:07:54] If you find it hard living for Christ, focus on that.
[00:07:58] Because it is coming. It is coming and we are part of this. And it is an indescribable kingdom. I can't describe the kingdom we're part of this amazing kingdom that is a reality here and now. And the kingdom of God is quite funny because the kingdom of God is a future event that is coming. A real kingdom with a real king that is Jesus, that is coming.
[00:08:23] But also the kingdom is here as well. Because Jesus said the kingdom is within us.
[00:08:30] So if we are in Christ, we're now part of a kingdom that is in us. We carry the DNA, the culture, the ways, the will of the king who is Jesus.
[00:08:44] As we go around our days, okay, it's a kingdom that's not going to fade. It's a kingdom that's not going to over promise and under deliver.
[00:08:56] The kingdom of God is going to promise and then some.
[00:09:01] We're only getting a glimpse when we see people get saved, when we get a little glimpse of some people being delivered and healed. We know the kingdom of God is coming near.
[00:09:13] But this kingdom is not going to fade away. It's not going to spoil. No one can take it away from from us because it's an eternal kingdom.
[00:09:23] As long as we are putting our faith in Jesus Christ, who's the king of the kingdom where he reigns and he rules.
[00:09:29] And we inherit this, and we inherit the kingdom of God that's going to last and last and last long, long beyond the world.
[00:09:42] We inherit this when we become sons and daughters.
[00:09:46] How do we get the title of becoming a son and a daughter? Simply by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and giving your life to him. This morning I want to talk about two opposing kingdoms. And I've got a lot to go through, so apologies for this. I want to talk about two opposing kingdoms that are very, very real. And then I want to talk about two realms that are within us, the flesh and the spirit.
[00:10:13] Two opposing kingdoms that have been at war well before this world and you and I were created. Okay? The two opposing kingdoms are the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Now, today, there are a lot of wars going on. We have, you know, we remember those who fought in the war some 80 years ago for our free and our liberty. And there are wars now going on across the nations of the world. You could name them from Ukraine, Russia to wherever, okay? There are wars closer to home.
[00:10:50] There are communities that are at war with one another. There are neighbours who are at war with one another. There are religions fighting against other religions.
[00:11:02] Wars, wars, wars, wars, conflicts going on in the world. And it all boils down to this. We can try and label these wars as saying, well, there's some political issue there, well, there's some immoral issue going on there. Well, they were in the wrong and all this. And we can point out who is at fault, but the truth is there are two opposing kingdoms. The kingdom of light where Jesus reigns and rules. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of darkness where Satan and his demons, his wicked spirits reign and rule as well.
[00:11:47] Two opposing kingdoms, two opposing kingdoms. Matthew 12. Not got time to go into it. But here Jesus talks, maybe reference it down so you can go and look. So, you know, I'm not making this stuff up. Matthew 12:22 talks about. Jesus talks about the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus says, when I come and heal and set people free, you will know the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of light has come.
[00:12:18] The issue is, which one will we be united with in life? The kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness? Which one will we be united with? Let me just say quickly about Satan. Okay, some of you who don't know. So Satan was originally called Lucifer. And you can go back in Ezekiel. I think it's 20. Did I put it down? No, 28, I think it is. And Lucifer as his Name was then was created by God. And Lucifer was beautiful. He was a stunning angel, absolutely radiant and beautiful. But the thing is, with Lucifer, when he was with God, he wanted to be God.
[00:13:05] He tried to set himself up so that other angelic hosts would worship him.
[00:13:13] His ego, his pride came in.
[00:13:20] And what God did, God basically got rid of Lucifer.
[00:13:25] Lucifer was his name, means morning star. That's how beautiful he was. He set himself up to tower above God. But you and I know that no one can ever do that. It is not possible. There is God and there is no one else. There is no one as glorious as God. And so Lucifer tried to set himself up. Didn't work. He tried to get a third of angels with him to set themselves up to receive all the glory and all the honor. And God just goes and sends Lucifer packing with about a third of the angels, wicked spirits with him. And today their dominion, their realm, guess where it is, Is on the earth.
[00:14:11] The prince of demons and Satan, he roams on the earth. And I think sometimes as the church, we don't fully get that.
[00:14:20] Don't fully get it. And which one will we be united with? You know, all around us, good and evil is playing out. I imagine if we sat together this afternoon, we'd be able to categorize what we think is good and what we think is evil. I imagine we would start off with murder. We'd go, well, murder would definitely belong in the evil section. Well, what about lying?
[00:14:49] Yeah, maybe in the bad section, but isn't lying sometimes good?
[00:14:54] We would start to categorise good and evil around us, and most of us would be able to agree on what is good and what is evil.
[00:15:04] But in the last days, the Bible says in these last days upon the earth that Satan is going to ramp up his attacks on the earth because his time is short.
[00:15:19] Okay, we are in the last days.
[00:15:22] Bible says we're in the last days. These last days may last a couple of hundred years. They may last 500 years. We do not know. Return of Christ could come this afternoon. We do not know. But we are in the last days. And the Bible says that Satan is going to ramp up his attacks on the earth to deceive as many people as he can. He's out to deceive and lie to people because we know he's there to. He's a murderer, he's a thief, he's a liar. That's who he is. All right? And he wants to get as many people as he can to reject God's truth.
[00:16:00] But let Me tell you a day is coming for Satan.
[00:16:04] Sin. The sin issue, was dealt with on the cross. Hallelujah.
[00:16:08] The death issue, because sin was dealt with on the cross, has been sorted because Jesus is risen from the grave. Sorted.
[00:16:18] But Satan still roams upon the earth, looking to devour people, and especially the church. But a time is coming when he will. At the last of the last of the days, when Christ comes in all his glory. When the kingdom fully comes, Satan will be banished forever.
[00:16:41] Movies have been made about good and evil, haven't they?
[00:16:44] Do you remember the old Superman movies?
[00:16:48] Superman would come from another place to the earth and rescue humanity.
[00:16:55] But this isn't a movie Church. This is the truth.
[00:17:00] And we live in a society, the Church has got to be aware more than ever what the schemes of the enemy are. And we live in a society more than ever where we are moving far away from the word of God. We're moving away, dare I say it, over the decades, the church has moved away from the truth of God's word. We're diluting it to suit our own desires. That's what we've done. God help us. God forgive us. And what's happening is what is now what used to be classed as good is now evil.
[00:17:38] And what is now and what was once evil is classed as good on the face of the earth. I think of assisted suicide. It's about to be passed through Parliament. It's been seen as a good and loving thing to do, assisted suicide. Can I just help you to die in a loving way?
[00:18:00] And I don't want to get political here, but, you know, my heart.
[00:18:06] Aborting babies in the womb has now become a loving thing to do for the mother.
[00:18:18] Revenge, get revenge on somebody has now become a good thing to do.
[00:18:25] They upset you, go and get revenge. That's a good thing. Somebody's had an affair on you. Well, you go and have an affair on them. You hear it on the streets.
[00:18:36] I was with a bunch of school children a couple of weeks ago and this is what I was hearing. They were saying, well, I'm not going to respect my teacher because they don't respect me.
[00:18:50] And I thought, and I thought, this is not biblical. You might have heard that off TikTok and Instagram. But that's not biblical.
[00:19:02] It's not biblical.
[00:19:04] And so we've got to know, the church has got to know again what the word of God is saying. I want to say to us as well, we will be hated for loving the word of God. We will be hated if they Hated Jesus. They're going to hate us. Do not be surprised if people hate you. Don't be surprised if your family hate you for standing for the word of God. Okay? If you want to be loved by the world, and I'm serious now, because we all like to be liked, you really want to be loved by the world and you want to make it your life ambition to be loved and appreciated and adored by the world.
[00:19:43] I want to say to you, and you want to still be a Christian, I want to say to you, get the word of God and dilute it.
[00:19:53] Add a bit of your own opinions in here so that those who follow you and like you can then agree with you and they won't hate you as much.
[00:20:07] It'll certainly make them feel better for justifying what they're doing.
[00:20:12] Or we can stand on the word of God and we can stand firm to the end and pick up the crown of glory that is awaiting us for following Jesus Christ wholeheartedly with our lives. See, Satan is trying to replace the word of God. Satan is trying to replace God's righteous decrees, God's holiness, God's goodness.
[00:20:44] And the enemy is trying to come in with lies and deception so that people are confused about who they are, about what they believe. Tell you what, I'm not confused about what I believe.
[00:20:55] Do I understand all of it? No. But I'm accepting it because I know who he is and I know he has my best interests at heart. And I know he created me for a plan and a purpose. And I know he wants to spend the rest of his life and my life, which is forever and ever and ever with him.
[00:21:14] I don't understand it all. I go to Revelation and my mind's like, brr.
[00:21:20] But I trust him.
[00:21:23] I'm not going to debate it, because I trust him.
[00:21:26] I found in life that if you just accept it and follow him, goodness follows you, mercy follows you, provision follows you.
[00:21:41] It's why we exist in Newton Abbot.
[00:21:45] We were talking the other day with some of the leaders. Just our vision and what we see. We see hundreds of people who were once in darkness, living in the light. We see it every time I'm here on a Sunday. I don't look at what is. I look at what is going to be. I see the crowds coming in with their brokenness. Crowds coming in who can't really understand things. And suddenly God just lightens them. Can you just help me out a bit? Lightens them.
[00:22:17] Sorry. So we exist in Newton Abbott because we're going to take back what the enemy has stolen.
[00:22:26] Going to let the kingdom of God come.
[00:22:29] So two opposite. You still with me? There's a lot I've got to get through, so I'm trying.
[00:22:35] Two opposing kingdoms, light and darkness. Now, I want to say with all respect this morning, okay, if you choose the path of darkness, you're not going to win.
[00:22:46] Because the darkness cannot overcome the light. It can't.
[00:22:52] You won't win. You might be satisfied for a season.
[00:22:56] You might find some enjoyment out of living in the darkness because Satan wraps it up to make it look amazing for a bit.
[00:23:06] But then you come back to that void and that emptiness that is still there, that only God can fill. Only God can fill. In these last days.
[00:23:20] God even warns the church. Can we put Ephesians 6? I think we've got Ephesians 6. God even warns the church. He says, you need to be like an army. Don't be asleep, be like an army. And this is what he says. I'm just going to read it really quick to us, right? Ephesians 6 from verse 10.
[00:23:53] Just listen to these words again. I know some of us know this. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm. Then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up your shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. People, pray also for me. I love this, what Paul says, that whenever I speak, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. So here's a warning here for the church that we are to put the right armor on.
[00:25:27] Were to put the right Armor on. And the second thing, our struggle is not against each other. Look at your partner next to you, right? They are your mind, body, soul and spirit, but also flesh and bones.
[00:25:44] If you. If your neighbor has a body, a physical body, which I hope they do, okay. If you have a conflict with them, all right, the conflict really isn't with them.
[00:25:58] The conflict is this opposing kingdom that's going on. Kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.
[00:26:07] Okay, stay with me.
[00:26:10] When we retaliate, I'm talking about those who are in Christ now.
[00:26:15] Maybe you don't retaliate, maybe you don't do anything wrong.
[00:26:19] When we retaliate against a person who may have offended us, when we stay in unforgiveness instead of forgiving somebody that may have upset us or said something about us or gossiped about us, Can I tell you what happens? We are falling into the enemy's hands.
[00:26:47] The enemy loves it when we live with offence.
[00:26:52] The enemy loves it when we will not forgive other people. The enemy loves it when we backbite against somebody behind their back. Right? We fall into the enemy hands.
[00:27:08] But when we turn the other cheek, when we respect in kindness, when we answer with a soft word towards somebody who's upset us, we usher in the kingdom of light.
[00:27:27] In other words, we're pushing out the darkness.
[00:27:31] This is what I really want us to kind of bring home to us today.
[00:27:36] If we want to be a people that are going to usher in the kingdom of heaven, then some things have got to drop off us.
[00:27:45] The enemy hates it when we bless those who hurt us.
[00:27:52] And I want to say to some of us that we find it easier forgiving people in the world than we do with one another in the church.
[00:28:00] I'll tell you why. Because our expectation with people in the world isn't as high as expectations of people in the church.
[00:28:07] So we find it very difficult to forgive when somebody said something against us, or we've heard that somebody said this, or somebody treated us that way.
[00:28:24] And then it comes down to, we've got these two opposing kingdoms. And I haven't done it justice this morning because of time. We may have to come back to this. But then it comes back to there are two opposing natures in all of us. The flesh and the spirit. All right? The flesh realm and the spiritual realm.
[00:28:45] Romans 8 that we read earlier said, those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
[00:28:52] I know my own life when I've been in the realm of the flesh, because it has not mirrored with the word of God.
[00:28:59] It has not been in line with the word of God.
[00:29:03] Adam and Eve were in the realm of the flesh when they listened to the enemy. When they listened to Satan, they listened to a lie. They listened to somebody else instead of God.
[00:29:20] And so they came to be in the realm of the flesh. And we know then the story. Sin came. And because sin came, death came. This whole separation between us and God, they had stopped obeying God's ways. What does it mean to live in the flesh?
[00:29:37] The flesh isn't just our physical skin. The flesh is our ego. The flesh is the I, me, self.
[00:29:47] It is that unsubmissive part of us that just won't yield to God. I will yield some things that are easy, but I'm just not going to be submissive in that area because it hurts too much. It dents my pride. It dents my pride to go and say, sorry, I can't bend low, because it just dents my pride. But I'll turn up on Sunday and I'll worship and I'll turn up on Sunday and I'll pour some coffee.
[00:30:14] God's saying, if the church is going to usher in the kingdom of heaven, we've got to wake up, we've got to be different. The world is desperate to see a church and a people that are nothing like the world but have a different spirit operating in them. What does it mean to live in the flesh? Are you ready for this? It's painful. I'm going to hit us with it.
[00:30:45] First of all, it says, I'm doing things my way.
[00:30:50] I'm going to do things how I want to do them.
[00:30:54] I'm going to please myself.
[00:30:57] Ultimately, we're saying I'm going to play God.
[00:31:01] Let me read from Galatians 5. It hits hard, so I'm just going to prepare you now. You might want to put your crash helmets on or something. Are you ready?
[00:31:11] Okay. The works of the flesh are obvious. This is Galatians 5:19. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery. That's extreme indulgence in getting drunk and sexual activity, idolatry. That's hero worship, glorifying people and things above God. Witchcraft, the practice of sorcery, the use of spells, even manipulation is witchcraft.
[00:31:42] We try to manipulate for our own good. It's witchcraft, hatred, discord. That's fallouts and conflict, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions again, bickering, factions falling out, bickering, all this kind of stuff. Envy, drunkenness, orgies.
[00:32:03] It says at the end, I warn you that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[00:32:11] And then you read through that and you go, wow, who then is going to inherit the kingdom of God?
[00:32:18] Because I guess at times we've all hated.
[00:32:21] I guess at times we have all fallen out with somebody. Anyone ever sent that text, said that thing to somebody that you shouldn't have said, pulled somebody down, reacted in a really bad way.
[00:32:39] Phil says it's like spitting your dummy out.
[00:32:44] We all have. And as I was reading this this week, wow, we are so weak as humans. How far we have fallen from God's holiness, His purity, his loveliness, his godliness.
[00:33:00] But here's the good news, because you all look really sad after hitting you with the helmet. You can take it off now. Take your helmets off. The crash hats. The good news is Jesus knows how weak we are.
[00:33:14] Jesus knows how weak Esther Daniels is.
[00:33:19] And so God sent Jesus to take on my weakness.
[00:33:24] He took it all. My sin. All of those lists. Okay? Jesus took it all. He identified with us when he took on flesh.
[00:33:35] And he paid the price to set us free, to liberate us.
[00:33:41] And if we are in Christ.
[00:33:44] Ollie, will you come here a minute? Stand in front of me. If we are in Christ, when we accept Christ and we stand before God every single day of our lives, right, we are here and God sees his Son, Jesus, on our behalf.
[00:34:02] He doesn't see our sin. He sees us as he sees Jesus, his Son. Clean, forgiven, whole.
[00:34:12] A son and a daughter.
[00:34:15] Doesn't seem fair, does it? And let me tell you, we did nothing to deserve it. Absolutely nothing. Sit down, Holly. Thank you. Absolutely nothing.
[00:34:26] But what Jesus death did, it released us completely from shame, from guilt, from death. Released us completely. I'm getting to my point now. This morning, I've had to kind of lay a bit right now. That's the first bit. That is what we call salvation. Anyone thankful for salvation this morning? Yeah, we're thankful for salvation. Thank you, Jesus. You died on the cross. I'm forgiven. I'm free. Brilliant. I know. I've got an assurance in eternity with Christ. All right, so can I then just believe in Jesus and carry on doing what I'm doing? No.
[00:35:03] That's the first part of our salvation. The second part, again, this is down to discipleship. When a person accepts Jesus Christ, God comes and makes his home inside you and me.
[00:35:20] If you are in Christ, the life of Christ has come to live in you.
[00:35:26] You know where I'm going with this?
[00:35:28] God deposits that point of salvation. God deposits his spirit.
[00:35:36] The life of Christ in us, he deposits. Now remember what we said a few weeks ago. The Holy Spirit, he's a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
[00:35:51] He keeps us sure. He keeps us safe, okay? Because the Holy Spirit is in us and Christ is in us.
[00:36:00] We are going to a great eternity, right?
[00:36:05] He makes his home in us, right? So Jesus now not only comes to live in us and with us, and this is the point. He comes to live through us.
[00:36:21] Christ wants to live through your life.
[00:36:33] He brings about such a radical change that even a murderer who repents and turns to Christ can live like Christ on the earth.
[00:36:46] Completely sinless and cleansed and free.
[00:36:55] But here's the deal.
[00:36:58] It's not going to be easy.
[00:37:03] Every day we're going to have this war between the flesh and the Spirit every single day.
[00:37:09] But we can win it. But we can only win it with the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
[00:37:17] How do we do it? I'm going to wrap this up.
[00:37:25] The first thing. How do we live in step with the Holy Spirit?
[00:37:29] Let me just say, first of all, when the Holy Spirit comes to live with us, we cannot try to be good in ourselves.
[00:37:40] It is the Holy Spirit, that's why we desperately need him, that attaches us to the life of Christ and makes Christ known. We can't do it ourselves.
[00:37:54] We can try for a while, but we can't do it.
[00:37:58] That's why I truly believe forgiveness is a spiritual thing. It's a supernatural thing. Because naturally speaking, I don't think I could forgive somebody if I'm really honest. When somebody's offended me and upset me, I don't think I could do it naturally. I think it's such a hard thing to do.
[00:38:20] But I can do it if the life of Christ is living through me.
[00:38:26] And the only way the life of Christ is going to live through me is if I'm yielded to the Spirit of God in my life. Let me give you a few little things that have worked for me. First and foremost, fall in love with Jesus.
[00:38:41] Like fall in love with him. You will never live for him unless you fall in love with him. Make him your best friend. Say, Jesus, I am going to walk with you. I'm going to read about everything you did and I'm going to. I want to be as close to you, walk with you every single day that I live. Fall in love with him. Enjoy him. When was the last time we enjoyed hanging out with Jesus?
[00:39:09] Enjoy his presence.
[00:39:11] Make him your number one best friend. I prayed a simple prayer about 12 months ago. And this has been like A tremendous prayer that I prayed. I didn't realize it at the time. I just thought it was a nice little prayer to pray. And I prayed this. And I said, lord, increase my love for you.
[00:39:30] I actually didn't think he would answer.
[00:39:36] And suddenly, supernaturally, I started weeping. When songs about the resurrection and the hope and the joy of Christ, I just started weeping. And Phil will tell you I am not a crier. He's the emotional one. Honestly, I am not emotional.
[00:39:56] But I started welling up.
[00:40:00] And then after about a month, I'm like, lord, you're doing something in my heart.
[00:40:06] Will you continue to increase my hunger for you?
[00:40:10] And I believe the Holy Spirit heard that cry of my heart.
[00:40:16] Without that cry of my heart, honestly, I felt myself going cold.
[00:40:22] And I know I can go cold very quick because the world creeps in quick.
[00:40:28] I was finding myself getting cold. And then the Holy Spirit, I believe he loves prayers like that. And bit by bit, my heart started to get warm to the point that I found myself sobbing like a baby, just walking down the street, walking with the dogs. I was sobbing because of a revelation that came over me of how much I am loved, how much God loves me, how he loves that we're serving him and we lay our lives down for him.
[00:41:01] And he was just reassuring me. But I don't believe that would have happened unless the Holy Spirit connecting with the Spirit of God in me brought me alive. So fall in love with him. The second one. Listen to what God is saying.
[00:41:19] Grab hold of your Bibles, Church. Grab hold of your Bibles. If you're new to the church, if you're new to Christian faith, if you're young in the faith, just go through the New Testament. Devour the Word of God. Let the Word of God challenge you. I'm sorry, I'm going a bit over. You've been brilliant, by the way, but I just need to finish this up.
[00:41:39] Let the Word of God change us. Do you ever read the Word of God sometimes and you go, well, yeah, that was for them.
[00:41:50] Yeah, that bit. It was for them up there.
[00:41:54] No, no.
[00:41:55] Read the Word of God and say, lord, change me. If there's anything in me that needs to change, do it in me. And I'll tell you what, the Holy Spirit, he will start to change you and grow you into becoming more like Christ, you know, as we do as well. That emptiness that I spoke about before, those worldly things. We keep throwing worldly things into our lives, don't we? To try and satisfy our needs. It might be going out on the town for a beer, and there's nothing going out for a beer. I'm not saying there's anything wrong going out for a beer.
[00:42:33] But we try and satisfy the emptiness that we feel with all of the things that the world throws at us. And when we've tasted of those things, we always come back and go, do you know what I feel? Absolutely empty still.
[00:42:49] But when you fall in love with Jesus, he keeps filling you up. He fills you up. He satisfies you with wonderful things. You know what will happen as well when the Holy Spirit starts working in your life, there will be evidence.
[00:43:06] You'll start forgiving people a lot easier.
[00:43:10] Things won't offend you as much because you'll look at the person and you'll go, I'm going to pray for them.
[00:43:17] You know, people rub me up the wrong way. I've started now. You ask Phil. I've got this little book and I put their names down in a book.
[00:43:26] I bless them and I pray for them. And you watch what God does relationally when you start praying for those who wind you up the wrong way.
[00:43:37] When the Holy Spirit starts to work in us, what will happen is we will start to rely on Jesus. We will start to trust him to lead our lives. The self will start dropping off. We will start going from, I, I feel this and I feel this, and I need to do that to Jesus. Help me, Jesus, will you lead me? Jesus, will you show me what to do? What? It boils down to the Holy Spirit connecting us to the life of Jesus and the life of Jesus flowing through us. Don't you want to see a church where the life of Jesus is just oozing out of us, the kingdom of heaven coming? Because the church is just so full of Jesus and people are seeing it every day. But it's going to be hard. It is going to be hard.
[00:44:29] Some of us are negative, but we need the joy of Jesus in us.
[00:44:33] Some of us are selfish and the I has got to start dropping off a bit more.
[00:44:39] Instead of negativity, we will be filled with joy instead of jealousy and hate. We're going to love people. Hey, even if they don't deserve it. Oh, shock.
[00:44:50] Can you imagine loving somebody who doesn't love you back?
[00:44:55] I had to do it 15 years with a relative in my family, and I turned up with flowers, and I turned up with a smile. And this person, for the first hour of turning up in their home would not look at me, would not talk to me for 15 years. I did it and I kept turning loving and loving. And yes, I went home in the car sometimes the tears were flowing, but I kept doing it. And I think it was about five years ago that person on their knees in the living room embraced me.
[00:45:25] 15 years.
[00:45:30] Instead of selfishness and unforgiveness, kindness and gentleness will start to grow in us. These are the fruits of the spirit. Instead of gossip and smutty talk, there will be self control.
[00:45:44] Not going to be easy.
[00:45:46] See, what determines the way we live is not how great our attempts are to try and be good. It's who we are connected to. We can't do this. We need the life of Christ living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Classic John Piper quote. He said, when you are full to the brim, you will spill. When you are bumped, if you've got some tension in your life, if you're feeling a bit angry one morning somebody says something to you, do you go, ah, bless you, that's all right.
[00:46:27] If we're filled with negativity and anger and. And all of these things, when somebody bumps us, we're going to spill. Okay? And when we are bumped in life, are we going to spill out? Acid or grace? So, Bill, sorry, Bill Johnson, John Piper says, is it going to be acid or grace?
[00:46:52] If you are full of you, guess what? You is going to come out. If you are full of the life of Christ.
[00:47:01] Christ is going to be seen and known across this region right in our families. Some of you have wars in your families right now. Some of you. It's tense in your marriages, some of you relationally with partners, it's tense.
[00:47:16] I pray this morning that you will get before the Lord and say, lord, fill me with your spirit so that the life of Christ may be seen. Because I can't do this in my own strength. If people see me, it's going to be ugly.
[00:47:33] It is.
[00:47:36] God's taken a long time with a lot of patience to chip away at me, and I'll never be complete until I see Him.
[00:47:47] When we're made fully perfect, they're still chipping away to do, but thank God I wasn't or I am not what I was.
[00:47:57] Things are dropping off.
[00:48:00] We desperately need the Holy Spirit. Let me just finish up with Galatians 4. I think he'll come up. Where's Galatians? Galatians 4. Brilliant passage of scripture here. Galatians 4, verses 6 and 7.
[00:48:23] Esther, will you just come up?
[00:48:26] We just bow your heads, just posture your hearts. I've said a lot, a lot, a lot. And I've probably gone over time as well. Thank you for being gracious and patient with me this morning.
[00:48:39] Galatians 4 says this. It says when the set time had fully come, God sent his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship because you are his sons and that includes the daughters as well.
[00:49:04] God sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts.
[00:49:08] The Spirit who calls out abba, father, so you are no longer a slave, but God's child.
[00:49:17] And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Will you just stand with me this morning? Church as we wrap up this week, we have an amazing opportunity to go and be the church.
[00:49:39] An amazing opportunity to show Christ in our workplaces, in the playground, in Deo Gloria.
[00:49:56] I'm reading a book at the moment. Thank you Paul Brooks for giving me this book. And this book is about spiritual revivals across the United Kingdom as early as the 1600s, the John Wesley time. And it talked about the movements, the denominations, the church denominations. And it said what started in the Spirit has very quickly ended up in the flesh.
[00:50:21] The Quakers, it went about the Quakers. The Quakers were holy Spirit filled movement. They were seeing healings, deliverance and salvation.
[00:50:34] Today they are not that kind of movement.
[00:50:41] And it goes on with other denominations who have fallen far away from God's truth.
[00:50:55] What started in the Spirit has ended in the flesh.
[00:50:59] For us as a church to be known as a church that goes. I think Matt, you said it earlier in the prayer meeting that we would go from glory to glory.
[00:51:13] We would go from strength to strength in the power of the Holy Spirit.
