The Church of Eleven22 - Walk This Way: Be Free - Wk 12

Episode Date: June 23, 2024

You’ll never learn to be free until you learn to be honest with the Lord. Trying to fight the devil on your own is never going to work out. You need to take whatever it is that the enemy is trying to kill you with- that has been living and growing in the dark and drag into the light. Let Jesus do the work that He finished at the cross on that thing. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen, amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, we're going to be in Galatians chapter 5 for 12 weeks. We've been studying Galatians. We've got two more weeks, and the whole thing is about being free. And the reality is, is you'll never learn to be free until you learn to be honest. We've been saying this a lot, that you try to fight the devil in the dark, you can get your tail kicked. And what we're going to do, if it's your first time, we're going to have what we call a prayer and anointing service. It's a little anointing oil from Israel, so you know it's special.

And about 50 minutes from now, I'm going to ask you to take the thing that the enemy is trying to kill you with that has been living and growing in the dark and drag it into the light and let Jesus do the work that he finished at the cross on that thing. Because you'll never know how to be free until you know how to be honest, first and foremost with the Lord. And I am believing today that the Holy Spirit of God wants to change your life forever and my life too. because we're in this thing together, amen? This is what the book of Galatians is all about. We're going to eventually, I'll get to chapter 5, verse 7. Let me give you a little bit of a recap. The first four chapters, Paul wants us to know that justification is by grace through faith alone.

In chapters 5 and 6, he wants us to know that sanctification is also by grace through faith alone. My friend Matt Carter was here. Last week, he did an awesome job. He always does. He's a stud. He'll be back a lot. And he reminded us that the Apostle Paul plants the first. churches in Galatia. He preaches the gospel all over Galatia. And the men and women there received the

gospel freely, and they started out. Everything was awesome. And then this group of legalists, you ever met a legalist? They're called church people. They showed up. And they wanted to add on top of the gospel a set of rules that you had to abide by in order to be a Christian. They were called the Judaizers. What they were saying, because the people in Galatia were pagans and they're saying, no, no, no, you can't go straight from being a pagan to being a Christian. You've got to go by way of Judaism. Now there were 613 laws they could have chosen, and what they were saying is, and these laws they're talking about are the laws of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, which were given to the Israelites pre-Jesus so that they would understand that nobody can keep the law, and we need

a Savior. Jesus comes and fulfills the law perfectly, every promise, every prophecy on the cross, and when he says it is finished, it means that all of the law is finished, and the payment for your sin and mine is fully finished. So when you receive him, you receive his righteousness, a right standing with God, so you don't have to add anything to the law to have a right standing with God. And then a legalist comes along as like, well, actually, it's not quite enough. And the particular law that they were talking about was circumcision.

Now, if you're new to Bible study, you found your way to like Galatians or Romans, and you're like, what is up with circumcision? It seems like a weird thing. Well, imagine me. I have to talk about it every week during Galatian. So thanks. And so if you look back in the Old Testament, circumcision was a sign to represent and remind the people of God of a covenant that already existed. The covenant was not found in the act.

The circumcision was a reminder that the covenant already existed. And you'll remember, Pastor, Dr. Matt Carter last week explained why circumcision? Because it seems random, right? Like, why not just get your ears for ears or get a Jesus tattoo or something? Why circumcision? Well, here's why. because the bodily instrument that passed the sin seed of Adam from one generation to the next at circumcision was covered in blood, which means it was not only a picture of the altar,

it was a picture of what Christ would do on the cross, that Jesus takes on our sin, the sin of Adam, the seed of Adam, and sheds his blood to cover our sin so that we could be in right relationship with God. But because Jesus did that on the cross, we don't have to do this Old Testament act anymore. That's what he's saying. He goes on to say, so if you think obeying the law or being good enough gets you into heaven, you can't just pick one law. You've got to obey all 613.

And if you pulled that off, you wouldn't need a Savior because you would be perfect and perfect people don't need to be saved. Problem is, there are no perfect people, except one, his name is Jesus. and he lived in life for us that we could not live on our own, and he went to the cross to pay our sin debt that we couldn't pay for ourselves. And so, this is Ephesians 1, Chapter 1 through 4, and so by grace, follow Jesus. Don't put your faith in your good works, put your faith in the finished work of Christ, and experience the peace of sonship. Remember we spent a whole week on adoption, and stop walking in the burden of slavery.

And so what we're going to see here in chapter 5 is Paul, he's kind of yelling at his kids because he loves them. That's what he does, right? Kids, when we yell at you is because we love you. He's fussing at him. He's that, what's wrong with you? I'm perplexed who bewitched you, but you know who you get more mad at? The person that's tricking your kids. And so that's what you're going to see here.

So here's how he starts. Verse 7. He goes, you were running well. Like things started out so good. You received the gospel. Paul uses a lot of running imagery. And if you've ever been to a track meet and you'll see sprinters, they had their own lane, right?

And he was saying, when you receive the gospel, you were staying in your lane with your eyes fixed on Jesus. Then he asked this question. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Literally that word hindered means to cut in. I think he's making like a little Greek joke because he's talking about circumcision.

He's like, who cut in? You know, that's what he's saying, I think. I hope so. who hindered you from obeying the truth now let me ask you this question what's hindering you from following after jesus because here's what's crazy because of your generosity i could spend a full-time job plus studying this stuff so that i can preach this on the weekends got it so i read commentaries and listen to sermons and here's every commentary i read about this spends all the time talking about circumcision here's what i imagine i don't think any of you woke up this morning going

Dear God, I hope we cover circumcision, because that's what I've been struggling with. And that's all the commentary is all the talk about. The real question is, so in that day, what was hindering them was this set of legalism that was laid upon them. Let me ask you this. What hinders you? Like, if you're a follower of Jesus and something cuts in on your lane, somebody kind of edges you out of following Jesus, what is it that hinders you? Now, what most of us tend to do, we tend to fall in one of two directions. I love this old Scottish proverb.

For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. And so some of us tend to fall into the lane of legalism. And some people fall into the lane of licentiousness. Another way to say, some of us are more religious, some of us are more rebellious. Any of you more religious, if you're more on the religious side? See, they didn't move. They said it in their heart, though. One lady on the front rows is that.

Is this too much? I feel like it's too much. I'm sorry. Okay, good. In other words, some of us think, like, we have a tendency, if our car is out of the line, we let go of the wheel, it seems to go towards, I've got to do something to earn a right standing before God.

Then there's those of us that tend to be more rebellious. Anybody more rebellious? Yeah. All this time, woo! Just woke up. Meant to come to nine. Sorry. All right.

And what begins to happen there is when we get hindered, is we begin to abuse the grace of God and say, well, it doesn't matter anyway. I can do what I want. And so my question to you is, what hinders you? You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Because what God wants for you is not religion or rebellion. He wants relationship. That's what he wants. It's not about legalism and it's not about licentiousness. It's about liberty in the gospel. He's the goal. Then he says, this persuasion is not from him who calls you. In other words, when you were persuaded to either go towards legalism or licentiousness,

that is not the voice of the Heavenly Father in your mind. You know one of the worst things you can do is listen to you. You listen to you too much. You shouldn't listen to you because you're dumb and you're a liar. I mean, think of the terrible things you've told you before. And when you begin to hear the voices in your head going, you'll never be good enough. He can never love you.

You'll never live up to what you say you are. Does that sound like your Heavenly Father? Mm-mm. Because when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you were imputed with his righteousness of Christ. In other words, when God looks at you, he sees the perfection of his son, and you know what his words over his son are?

Well done, good and faithful servant, behold my son, and whom I am well pleased. That's what the Father says over you. Also, if you hear the words of, it don't matter, I can do whatever I want. That is not the words of the Heavenly Father either. that his words over you is life and sonship. This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

So you know what you need to do is quit listening to yourself so much and start speaking to yourself and make sure your words line up with the words of the Bible and preach the gospel to yourself over and over and over and that's how we stay in alignment. And then you think, well, I only do it a little bit. Well, a little leaven is the whole lump. like a little bit of legalism can screw the whole thing up. Not only your own life, but a little legalism can screw up the whole church. Do you understand why legalism is so dangerous?

In other words, adding Jesus plus your activity equals salvation. The moment you begin to do that, essentially what you were doing, is imagine walking up to Jesus on the cross, beaten, battered bruise, crucified, says, it is finished. And you go, well, almost. You just need a little bit of help from me. It's your crucifixion and resurrection plus my good work. That's what it takes to get saved.

What you think is you're going to get to heaven and go, we did it. No, we didn't do anything. The only thing you did in your salvation is bring the sin that required it. He did it all. A little 11. 11 is the whole lump. Verse 10, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view. and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. He's saying what he's told the Philippians in one six, he says,

I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. And if you are that person that is troubling the believer, God's going to take care of that one. Verse 11, but if I have brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I need you to know, I mean, I know we have crosses now as like jewelry, but the cross is the most offensive thing in the world.

It is. The gospel is offensive. Now, sometimes I try to be offensive just to wake you up because sometimes you fall asleep, I've got to wake you up and realize I'm talking to you. But the reason that the cross is so offensive is because first and foremost, the cross tells you you're a much bigger sinner

than you ever dream that you were. Ever think about that? Like, sin's a big deal, man. Sin is such a big deal that God Almighty had to send his son, to live a perfect life and die on the cross in order to cover that sin in your life and in my life. That's offensive. It's also offensive because no matter how bad you are or what you've done, nobody's outside the reach of the grace of Jesus Christ. There is more grace in him than sin in you.

And so the cross offends the rebellious person and the religious person. That's what he's saying. That the cross of Jesus Christ, you are more sinful than you ever knew. and more love than you could ever imagine. And so speaking of offense, again, he says in that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. And how about this for offensive? Look at verse 12.

Put it up on the screen, make sure everybody knows I ain't making this stuff up. Ready? I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. What? What does that mean? It means exactly what you think it means. He's talking about circumcision. So you've got a man and a knife.

You've got a man and a knife. And he's like, no, don't do it down. Go all the way. Just go ahead and take the whole thing off. That's a little offensive. Dude, if Paul was alive today, Twitter would kill him. They'd be like, oh, my God, that's spiritual abuse. I can't believe you said that.

Oh, triggered. Oh, that's triggering, is it not? I'm triggered right now. Strong words, is it not? Yeah, sometimes the church needs to stand and say some strong. words man you say what was actually happening is in the town next to the glacial the glacial area there was this there was this temple to this feminine goddess and what the priests would do in order to show their devotion is they would castrate themselves and that's how you knew like you were a covenant member of that place

and so what paul is saying is if you're going to try to distort the gospel in any way by trying to add works why don't you go ahead and just just emasculate yourself and why don't you just go be a pagan down there down the street in the pagan temple. That's what he's saying. And I'm telling you, people were offended. Yeah, sometimes people need to get offended. Sometimes it's time for churches, particularly men, to stand up, act like men, preach the truth of the gospel, and may people get offended. It's time for some strong words. Now, there's some things, listen, this is a very famous saying, but when I read these verses, it made me think of it. Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.

We've got some weak men and hard times right now. It's just true. And there's some things that should make you angry. And the Bible actually says be angry. And I wish it stopped right there. I'd be like, man, I'm crushing that part, babe. Look at that. Be angry, nailed it again.

Boo-ya, look at me. But it says be angry and don't sin. So there is a way to be angry and be true and be right and yet still not be sinful. Don't be arrogant. But be angry. I mean, Jesus got angry. Jesus walks into the temple, and they are abusing God's people using God's name. And the Bible says that Jesus made a whip, and Jesus was without sin.

Which means he did not react to the situation, but he responded with righteous anger. Which means, I don't know, have you ever made a whip? I don't know how long it takes, but he's over there fashioning a whip. The disabled is like, hey, boss, what you doing? He's like, I'm about to show you what I'm doing. And then he came in at. So he was angry, but he didn't sin. There's some things that should anger you, the things that break the heart of God ought to anger you and me, and we should do something about it.

And we live in dark times, man. Like the mutilation of children in the name of health care should anger you. The murder of innocent babies in the womb and being called a right should anger you. Crooked governments abusing their own people to line their own pocket should anger you. Boys and girls being trafficked all over the world and even in our own backyard should anger you. anytime an image bearer of God from womb to tomb is mistreated that should anger you. Anyone that conflates King Jesus with some politician trying to use you for their purposes instead of serve you for God's purposes should anger you.

And anytime any preacher that does not preach the explicit gospel of Jesus and leaves his or hurt people to hell because they teach another gospel, which is every mainline denomination in America right now, that should anger the church because it breaks the heart of God. Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times, times create weak men, weak men create hard times. Again, man, we have some hard times with some weak men, but the darker the night, the brighter the gospel shines. Church, we were made for this moment. This is the moment to preach the truth of the gospel. Verse 13, he keeps going, for you were called

to freedom brothers. Now he's going to shift gears a little bit. He's been hammering legalism. And you can't come out of the ditch of legalism and go all the way over to licentiousness and say, well, I can do whatever I want. Paul's like, who told you? that. That's got nothing to do with the gospel. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. This is very important. Grace is not freedom to sin. Grace is freedom from sin. I've said this all the time. I actually found the source this week. Dr. Billy Graham said this in 1969. I wasn't even alive yet, but somehow I heard it 40 years before I was born. He said,

said, we're not free to sin, we're free from sin. This means that we're free from the penalty of sin. We are being freed from the power of sin, and one day we will be freed from the very presence of sin. The theological terminology is we are justified, we are being sanctified, and one day we will be glorified. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are justified. It's just as if you've never sin according to God. That Jesus paid it all in full, therefore you don't have to pay for the sin because he pay for it on your behalf. And then you are being saved from the power of sin. This is called sanctification.

It means to separate you far from sin, to make you more like Jesus, that God uses the Holy Spirit in you and His Word like a hammer and a chisel to chisel away everything in your life that does not look like His son, Jesus Christ. Now it's called progressive sanctification because it takes a minute. Anybody think they'd be a little further along in their sanctification? they are right now? Yeah, me too. All right, it's just me and the liars. Right? That's just how it is.

Now, we don't all check the sanctification boxes at the same time, but it's a slow process. And you're not finished until you go be with him. If you think you're finished, you're finished. But for the rest of us, we are a work in progress. And then one day, when we breathe our last, if you're in Christ, you will be glorified, and we will be freed from the very presence of sin.

That means in heaven nobody walks with a swagger or a limp, Praise God, right? Because we are in His presence. And so, we are not free to sin. This does not mean that because of God's grace, I can do whatever I want. Listen, you can do whatever you want. You can. I mean, it's in America.

Basically, you could do what you want. But if you do what you want, then by definition, you are the Lord of your own life. Do you realize this? And you cannot simultaneously reject God and say, I don't care what your will is. I don't care what your word says. I do what I want. I mean, you can. That just means you have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I don't care how good you feel when you sing songs or what you believe. What it means to be a follower of Jesus is that you turn over the reins of your life to another master, and that is King Jesus. And it's not submission until you disagree. I hope you know that. So he says, for we were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another. Again, these guys were trying to lay the law of Moses over the gospel. And so he says, verse 14, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In fact, in the gospels, Jesus was hanging out, and some lawyers came up and tried to trick it. Because that's what lawyers do, right? They try to trick people. A lawyer just said, amen. Listen, you can be a lawyer and be a Christian. I know like two of them, all right? So they both come here.

I know like 100 doctors, I know like two lawyers anyway. And so what he was trying to do is trick them. And so these lawyers, there's 613 laws in the Old Testament. And they say, all right, Jesus. So what's the most important law in the whole Old Testament? Jesus goes back to Deuteronomy 6-4, and he goes to Leviticus 19, and he puts these two together. And he goes, all right, this is it. It all boils down to this.

Just love God, love people. You do that. That's the whole law. Why? Because if you love God, do you need laws? Like, think about the 10 commandments. You don't need the 10 commandments if you love God and love people. In fact, the 10 commandments, the first three are about how to love God. The fourth one is the hinge commandments so that you can love each other versus commandments five through 10.

If you love God, you won't worship idols. You won't use the Lord's name in vain. If you love people, you won't try to kill them, lie to them or sleep with their spouse. No, no, no, no. You actually don't have to command people to do things they love. Do you realize that? to love God you don't if you love him you love him

think about this this is jd greer's illustration so I borrowed it from him so if you don't like it you just look him up on the inner webs and text him okay it would be like his illustration it would be like if my stomach got a little upset right now gresson I went to three forks last night what we have steak and all the things okay and I threw up right here all the just I mean you know lobster mac and cheese

what is that three fork salad steak and it's just puke everywhere. Get it in your mind. Smell it. You know it's got that smell? Okay. Do you think then I would have to be like,

we have a new rule here at 1122. You were not allowed to come look up the vomit. Would anybody need a rule against that? No, because it's sick and you don't want to have anything to do with it, right? But what if it was bring a dog day to church? I don't know why dogs like to look up puke, but they do.

The Bible says as a dog returns to his vomit, so the fool to his folly, Because they do. They're like, oh, that looks so good. Look at that. Lobster, mac and cheese, half eating. I'll take a bounty of that. Right?

And so you have to actually restrain them. This is what he is saying. When Jesus fully and finally satisfied the law, the reason that we don't have to fulfill it doesn't mean that we don't do the things the law says to do, but we do them out of a place of inward love because we love God and because we love him and he first loves us, we can love him back. And that love overflows on one another. Then I'm not trying to do this outside.

in thing to prove myself right before God. It's an inside out, sanctifying thing with the help of the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Yeah, this is where legalism leads to. And sometimes that happens inside the church. And it's so sad. a bunch of you were a part of churches and things were going good for a long time. Everybody's focused on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith, everything's going along,

and then something happened, there was a division, and people began to bite and devour one another, and you got ate up in it. And praise God, not so much in this church. We try to just say, focus on the gospel. That's what we do. We're just a movement for all people

to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. You want to be a part of that? Here we are, and that's where we're going. We're not really going to do anything else. That's what we're going to do. but for sure it happens in our world with churches against churches. I mean, bite and devoured. The Hebrew word for that is social media.

I don't know if you knew that, that's what it is. I mean, can you imagine what if churches, the big C church, just churches that believe the Bible and love Jesus, what if we spent as much time praying for and encouraging one another instead of biting and devouring one another and trying to tell everybody how they're not doing it right? We could reach the, we could accomplish the great commission now. That's what this church is about.

And so you look at that and you'd be like, all right, Paul, so how do we pull that off? He goes, well, I'm glad you asked. Verse 16. But I say, here's his advice. Walk by the Spirit. All right, your Pentecostals, we're going to talk about what it means to walk by the Spirit. Get ready. You're going to love this.

But walk by the Spirit. You see, I think what he's saying here is, all right, when you first heard the gospel, you were so excited and you took off running. And you were running well, and now you're all jacked up. So let's just slow this thing down back to the ABCs of what we're doing. Let's just, I mean, what is walking? It's just one step at a time. Nobody can walk for you.

You've got to walk. But just walk by the spirit. A pretty good definition of what it means to be a disciple is just taking a step in the direction that the good Savior is calling you to. Or what is your next step of obedience that God is calling you to? And that's what he's saying.

Just do that. In fact, there's a bunch of people that and different religions are associated with different postures, like on your knees or bowing down or bowing to a certain direction. Some theologians say that the posture of Christianity is walking because it's very relational. If you think about it in the book of Genesis, when God created the very first man and woman and there was no sin to be in the way of their relationship, the Bible says that God would walk through the garden with Adam and Eve. Man, I love going to walk walk so my wife. She always walks so fast. I don't like that part. I'm like, slow down.

Why you walk so fast? You know? I'm like, babe, Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden. You're making me tired. Quit walking so fast. But anyway, she does. But what we do, I don't know where we're going. We just walking around.

You just talk about things. It's like a relational thing to do. And you just walk, one step in front of the other. In fact, a scientist named Brian Humerman, he says that, no, Andrew Huberman, he talks about what happens mentally when you go on a walk. When you voluntarily self-propell your body forward, what happens in the ocular nerve when it sees like scenery going by you, that fear in you decreases.

Don't work on a Peloton? A bunch of sinners. Doesn't work on a treadmill? You actually got to get outside, breathe oxygen. But it really is. It's the opposite of the flight where you would run away, but when you see things passing you this way, I love it when science catches up with the Bible.

You realize that? And so he says, just walk by the spirit. Think about the first invitation that Jesus makes to his disciples. It wasn't study stuff, it wouldn't do stuff. It was, follow me. So if you quit taking steps of obedience following after Jesus, by definition, you're not being his disciple anymore. So it's just one step at a time.

He says, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Please notice the order here. It's not, if you can quit sin in so much, then you can love Jesus more. It's the opposite of that. It's walked by the spirit. focus on your love and devotion and relationship with him. And the more that grows in your life, the things of this world grow strangely dim.

That's the order. For, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Has this been anybody else's experience? Like there's some things in the spirit that you want to do for the Lord, or there's some things that you don't want to do anymore.

And yet during the week, you find out this is a bit of a struggle. Anybody? I mean, you get all juiced up after a sermon and the last song, and you come down here like, dear God, I'm done with that, and I'm going to start doing this. And then by Tuesday, you're like, what is wrong with me? Anybody got some, what is wrong with me moments in your walk with Jesus? It's okay to raise your hand.

I work here. I'm actually like the pastor. My experience, it's a freaking war in here. I mean in here. It's a war. For me, it is a war against the flesh and against the spirit. You know who else talked about it that way? The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7,

you ever read Romans 7? One of the things is I was studying this and reading all the commentaries I could think of and listening to all the sermons and all the famous people, I couldn't find one pastor that talked about this being a struggle in their own life. And I'm telling you it is a freaking war in here. Maybe this is why you come to listen to me. Because you're like, I listen to that freak and I feel better at my own walk with Jesus.

So that's fine. I don't care. Whatever. I'm telling you, war is the only word I can come up with. If I could only live up to my own sermons, I'd be crushing it. Problem is, it's a war. It's a war. So Paul says in Romans 7, this is what he says.

after six chapters of laying out the gospel in the most eloquent, complete, and clear way in the history of humanity, when he gets to chapter seven, he says this, what is wrong with me? If you ever ask yourself, what is wrong with me? I got good news. You might make a great disciple. In fact, when you realize that you're spiritually bankrupt, Jesus says, blessed or the poor and spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is within grass. You think you've got it figured out? Watch yourself. God opposes the proud. You won't God to fight against you? Just look at him and be like, I got this. it's all figured out. You need help from him? Admit it. So that's what all of Romans 7 is. What is wrong with me? There's these good things that I want to do. I prayed about them. I even told my disciple group, hey, will you pray with this for me because we're two or three are gathered? That's not even what that verse means. I know you don't know that many verses is it. So you're taking out of the context, but you know, you're like, you want to do these things. And then when you get there, you can't pull it off. How is that everybody doing on their Bible reading plan? Pastor Adam challenged us

with. Anybody crushing it? That's what I thought. thought. Yeah, me too. I'm in Mark. We started in Mark. So, anyhow, I read my Bible all the time. I just can't stick to a plan. I get all, I'm like, I ain't a Pharisee telling me what I got to read. I read what the spirit. You know what I mean? What's wrong with me, man? So there's good things I want to do, capitolot. And then the things I promised I would never do again, these things I cannot stop doing. And then here's what Paul says. What a wretched man am I? Who would save a wretch like me? And then he answers his own question. Praise me to God for our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. That's who will save a wretch like you and me. And therefore now there is no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. See, there's a war between the flesh and the spirit. We're in the middle of this 10-10 life. The whole crux of it is that Jesus is the good shepherd. The good shepherd speaks to his sheep. When we hear the voice of the good shepherd and take steps of obedience in his direction, it leads to him and in him as abundant life. And when we stiff-armed a good shepherd, shepherd and go our own way, be it religion or rebellion, it leads to the path of the enemy, which is death and destruction. That's what it is. We ain't talking about right and wrong.

Right and wrong will never sustain you. We're talking about life and death. Because if you just try to do what is right and wrong, then what you will do is your inner lawyer will begin to justify why this may be wrong for everybody else, but it ain't wrong for you. Man, your inner lawyer never loses, does he? He's so good because he's a liar. But when we hear the voice of the good shepherd,

who speaks to us through his word, for sure, and we do what he says, it leads to life, abundant life. And here's the thing, especially when we don't understand. It's not submission until we disagree. Here, let's talk about two that you'll think are easy topics. Sex and money.

Those are fun. If you're new to church, if you're new to Christianity, if you're new to Bible study, and you roll up in here, you'd be like, what? What do you mean? I'm supposed to bring my first 10% to God? What are you talking about?

What? That's my money. I do what I want with my money. You can do whatever you want. You'll be the Lord of your life. But the Bible says that to direct your heart in the direction that he is first in your life, you don't bring leftovers. You bring him first and best.

And you go, I ain't doing that. You can do whatever you want. And this is how good the enemy is. Then you'll look at the end of the month and be like, see, I have more. No, though. It's got you. And you'll never know freedom. You'll never know.

the freedom that he owns it all and he wants to use you as a conduit because you think you want it all. Or let's talk about sex. See how nobody ever, amen is the money stuff, ever, ever, ever, thanks. Sex and sexuality. We live in a culture right now. It says, who in the world do you think, I mean, I believe you're for salvation, but who do you think you are to tell me who I get to sleep with? I don't know. The creator of the universe? Yeah, the one that thought you up. That's who. The one that created life. So he gets to make it up. And what begins to happen is you do it however you want to do it. Again, you can do that.

He's just not your Lord. It every single time leads away from the good shepherd and leads to a thief that only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. You see, there's this old, this ancient Native American proverb. This journalist goes into this tribe, and he's looking to interview a wise man, and they're like, all the wisest man who's ever lived is the chief. He goes and says to the chief, I hear you're such a good man. He's like, I'm not a good man.

The journalist says, everybody says you're a good man. He goes, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not a good man. But inside of me, every day is a battle between a good dog and a bad dog. And the journalist says, which one wins? And he says, the one that I feed. Inside of you, if you're a believer in Jesus, is the spirit and the flesh. And the one that's going to win is the one that you feed.

And how in the world can you feed your flesh all week long and thinking an hour and a half with me in here is going to do anything to change your life? It just won't, man. It's like a diet. I ain't going to talk too much about this, but you can't outrun your fork. I mean, you get a salad and a diet Coke at dinner in public, but don't ever eat anything else good. It ain't going to change your life. And so he's saying that the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. So you've got to feed one and starve the other one.

verse 18 but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law this is beach ball theology we've talked about this before some of you are taught that the bible teaches god is good you are bad try harder see you next week the god wants a relationship with you through jesus christ this is not about sin management if you think your life is defined by how good you are in your own strength that controlling your sin by white knuckles begrudging submission it's just not going to work I call it beach ball theology. Take a beach ball out to the ocean and try to hold it under the water.

How long can you do it? There's a bunch of swole guys here on the front. You guys could probably do it for a minute, all right? Congratulations. Don't skip leg day, all right, there they are. But eventually, I don't care how big you are, and you are big, so eventually. Your arms get tired, sunscreen on your hands,

wave in the face, eventually you let it go. And here's the thing, the beach ball never just lightly comes back to the top. Like, huh? No, it erupts in your face. That's what sin man is. to us because it'll wear you out. The gospel is not try harder to do better. The gospel is Jesus walks by with a pocket knife because he would have one and stabs your beach ball and sucks all of the

power out of it because he is the one to defeat sin and not you and me. But if we are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident and he's going to give a list. Here's the problem with the list in the Bible. Everybody's going to be like, am I on that list? Let's just see. Now the works of the, how about this? When we read your sin, just stand up. All right, ready? Sexual immorality. Why am I the only one standing up? Come on, man. The Greek word is pornao.

Sound familiar? It's like a junk drawer for sexual immorality. It's anything out of God's design for sex, which is for married people, which is a man and woman in the covenant under God for a lifetime. If you've ever objectified another human or commodified another human for your own desire,

that's this one. He could just stop there, and we're all done. But he keeps going. Impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger. That was me, right? It fits of me. Don't say amen over here in the front row.

Something to hit me this week. It's called a fit, you know, when you get all angry men. You know who throws fits? Children. Paul said when I was a child acting like a child. Now that I'm a man, I put childish ways behind me. You think he'd being tough. We're acting like toddlers.

That's the flesh, man. rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Just as case I can get you, where you're on the list is what he's saying. Here's the problem with the list, okay? So maybe you look at it and you'd be like, maybe you're not in orgies and sorcery right now. But jealousy and envy, you're on the list, okay? That's what he's saying. You're on the list.

These sins are spiritual, social, sexual sins. That's what they are. And he says, I warn you. as I did before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, if you've been paying attention for the last 12 weeks, you ought to get here and be like, wait, what? But I thought we couldn't do things to earn our salvation.

So if we do these things, these means like continually, habitually do these things and say, forget you God, I do what I want. You see, grace is not permission to sin. Grace is the power to overcome it and not live in. And anybody that changes the gospel to make room for themselves has not been changed by the gospel. Charles Furson says it this way. The grace that does not change my life will not save my life.

You see, grace frees us from the penalty, power, and one day presence of sin in our life. And what Paul is saying is like, I'm giving you a warning, man. There's a war going on inside of you, spirit and flesh. And the one you feed is what's going to. to win. And you can't even just ignore part of it. You got to cultivate part of it and kill the other part of it. In fact, I was at a pastor's conference about a month ago in Texas. I told you all about it. This is the one that I got to preach with Dr. John Piper. It was awesome, man. He touched me, and I feel like something happened. All right, I'm just telling you, I feel like if you think

the preaching has been better, it's because some of the Shikana got on me. Okay. Anyhow. But also, my friend Matt Chandler, he'll be here in September to preach. He preached the message out of Hebrews 12, and he's preaching to preachers. Because sometimes preachers can be the worst at this. I've told you before, man. You fight the devil in the dark, you're going to get your butt kick. And I got a bunch of buddies. Used to be in ministry.

Ain't any ministry anymore because they were so afraid to take the thing that they were wrestling with the devil on and bring it out into the light because they were embarrassed. And they elevated their ministry over their relationship with Jesus. And so he preached. It's basically the same sermon, but he did it out of Hebrews 12. says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race

that is set before us. He keeps going, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That there are really, there's like two things that we do, and one of them has two categories. The purest thing. would call this vivification and mortification. This is what Paul is talking about. Vivification means you do the things that stir your affections for the Lord. And guess what?

Congratulations. You're doing one of them right now. You go to worship together. I mean, for me, it stirs my affection to be in here and sing the songs and preach the sermons and pray the prayers. But that will never be enough. You continuously take steps of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd. Listen.

I'm not saying it's easy to be a Christian, but we have made it so simple around here. If you would get your phone out right now and download the 1122 app, if you haven't downloaded the app right now, get out your phone, skip Instagram, go to an app store, I don't see any person movie, okay? This is what's wrong with you people. Get your phone, download the app. At the bottom of the app, it says next steps. If you click that thing, there's going to be a picture of me up there, and I'm preaching what

we call the discipleship journey. This isn't difficult. If what it means to be a disciple is to take steps of obedience in the direction of Jesus, you do a couple of self-assessment questions, and then you just basically are saying, what is my next step of obedience? And guess what? If you put two steps together, you're walking. Walk by the spirit.

That's what this is. And listen, there's about 15 steps you could take. Don't take them all at one time. That's how people get burned out. It'll kill you. It's why you don't work out. Remember January? like, I'm going to get in shape.

You hadn't worked out since the Obama administration, went in and did everything. Next day, couldn't get off the toilet. You ain't doing that anymore. That's what happened. Okay, just pick one or two, just one step, one step at a time. And I'm always surprised. Those of us that work here were so surprised at people. We'll sit down with somebody, be discipling somebody.

Like, all right, man, do these things. Okay, just a couple things. Just start doing these things. Six days later, how are you doing? I'm just so dry. Did you do the things? No, I didn't do the things. Well, you're dumb.

What am I going to do, man? I can't disciple a demon and I can't cast out dumb. I don't know what to tell you. You've got to do. Some of you used to do the things and you quit doing them. This is going to be like God's word, God's people, time with God. It's going to be those three big categories. You do the things that stir your affections for the Lord.

That's what vivification is. The other side of it is mortification. That's from the Latin word mortifier to kill. And the writer of Hebrews gives this in two different categories. There's two things that need to be taken out. one he says lay aside every way i don't love the translation lay aside because it sounds like laundry and what he means is like get off me you know what i'm talking about that's what that means and these are things that are not necessarily in and of themselves sin but they are shrinking your

heart towards the lord you should get rid of those things this could be things like too much Netflix or you're consumed with a hobby at the expense of meaningful relationships or everything has to be your way like i you're idolizing your appearance or your clean house or the way your body looks, it could be that kind of thing, or way too much time scrolling or you're obsessed with cable news, whatever it is. But you know what I'm talking about. That morally neutral thing, but in your life it ain't a good thing. Maybe if that one drink turns into way too many drinks, you know what I'm talking about, self-medicating.

So he says, get those things off of you and sin, which clings so closely. You see, when it comes to sin, John Owen said, be killing sin or it'll be killing you. And most Christians don't take their sin serious enough. They just don't. And what you're supposed to do is not pet a sin, not tame a sin, but kill it. Chandler reminded us that sin is like an apex predator.

You've seen the show when animals attack, right? About the third one in, you go, not a good idea to pet the bear. They don't sell honey, they don't put out forest fires. They eat people. That's what they do. They eat meat, and you're just a big skeletal meat pole, and eventually that's what it's going to do.

I know you raised it and tamed it and called it fluffy. I don't care. It's an apex predator. It kills people. That's just what it does. If you put some nachos right here in front of me, I may not eat them now, but if you come back by two, the nachos are gone because I two them an apex predator, okay? That's what sin is like in your life, but we don't take it seriously enough.

years ago back in the 1900s when I was in college. I was broke like every good college kid should be. And I actually paid for my own college, so take that. So anyway. So I'm broke and I was going out with this girl. And I knew it I'm going to work. And she was missing a finger. Now listen, if you're missing a finger, I love you so much.

And we're moving for all people, even fingerless people. We love you. I'm sure you're having awesome. I'd love to hear it, but we ain't gonna date. Because she was missing this one finger over here, and she would, like, touch me with it, and I'd be like, oh, okay, no. And she would point with it.

And I was like, you have so many one with nails. Why would you use the one, you know? And so, and again, so anyway. So we would go to this place called Maymont Park, okay? And it was cheap. You'd get in for free or maybe a dollar or something, and they had a petting zoo. We'd like pet the goats.

They had goats. And in the petting zoo place, they had fainting goats. Have you seen a fainting goat? As soon as you walk in, it says, please, whatever you do, don't scare the goats. So that means to me, and they go, boom, bam. It's like they get tased. You're like, oh, my God, no, boom, every time.

And you think it gets old. It does not get old. It doesn't get old. You can do it forever. And so it was always full of college kids because we were broken like kindergartners there on their little field trip class, right? And so one day, for like a quarter, you could get goat food and you could feed the goats. And so we're down there feeding the goats, and I thought this would be good. and I go, oh no, the goat ate off her finger.

And she's like, what? And bro, the kids saw it, I'm like, ha, ha, and they're running like zombie apocalypse, and I'm laughing. And so she broke up with me and we got kicked out. And so that's how that went. It's fine. All right. I tell you that, because in St. John's County, I think it's still there.

I still, I hadn't been three services. I hadn't checked yet. I think there's still there's like a big cat place. Like, think Tiger King minus the crazy people. You know what I mean? And they have lions and tigers and things like that there. And my brother's a police officer for St. John's, and he told me that sometimes if there's roadkill,

like a deer gets hit by a car, they'll scoop it up and take it to the cat place. Because like my daddy says, there's always truck season. You know what I'm saying? So they scoop up. And so he's saying they get this dough one time and they go over and they throw it over the fence and there's the dough, dead dough, got hit by a car.

and they have this full-grown African male lion named Mufasa. And Mufasa comes walking out and he ain't playing around. And he's just like staring into your soul. And he lays down on the dough and like a peanut M&M just eats the head off and continues to eat the whole dough. And guess what never happens there? Nobody ever runs up and is like, He bit my finger.

No. Because you don't jack around with the lion because he could actually eat your whole head off. And we treat the enemy like he's a fainting goat. Amen. When he's prowling around like a roaring lion seeking to devour every single one of us. And you fight that enemy in the dark

and he'll kick you butt. That's why he's kicking your butt right now. And so you better, that kind of sin is not to be tamed. It's not to be belittled. it's to be taken out back and you put a hole in its head once in for all. You mortify that sin. You kill the sin or it'll be killing you. And you'll never learn to be free until you learn to be honest.

But when you walk in the spirit, something else happens. Paul says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These things are not manufactured from the outside end. If you see this as a list of things to try to do, then you're missing the whole point. If you take, if I nail an orange to a two by four, it does not make it an orange tree. It's so funny. I'm just trying to be patient. Think about, think about how ironic that is.

You know what, I want more than anything, just to be patient as fast as I can. You dummy? Oh, you can't disciple dumb. Okay, so listen. But what he says instead is, no, no, no, no, no. It's the fruit. In John 15, Jesus uses this gardening analysis. You want to walk in the spirit?

Here's what he says. John 15. He goes, come here. Like real close, come here. Abide in me and I'll abide in you. What do you mean abide, Jesus? Get close to me, I'll get close to you. How do I do that?

Abide in my word and I will abide in you. You see, I got good news. My dad's a gardener. And I am the vine. I am the source of life. And so instead of out there trying to manufacture fruit on your own, what you do instead is you do whatever it takes. you stir your affections for me.

You go to worship, you get in Bible study with people, you pray, you be honest, you do these things. You abide, you stay really, really close to me, and I will stay close to you. And my fruit will be produced in and through you. Now, my dad's a good gardener. In anybody that's ever garden, you can't simply feed the things you want.

You've got to take out the things that rob. So there are going to be some branches. There are going to be some weeds. and he loves you enough to uproot those things and get them out of there. And so the way that we are going to close our services, we're going to do a little pruning. The last verse, he says,

and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. For anybody that wants to be free, you've got to be honest. And so many, many people have been trying to fight the devil in the dark. And that's why you lose over and over and over and over and many, many people have been trying to fight the enemy in your own power. And Jesus says, no, no, bring that to me.

In fact, James, the brother of Jesus says this in James Chapter 5. He says, is anyone among you suffering? You know who's suffering? The Christian that is living in sin. Because it's miserable, man. Like you've been down that road before. It's making promises to you that it just can't fulfill. It's costing you way more than you ever thought it would cost you, and it hurts way worse.

than you ever dreamed it would hurt. And he says, is anyone among you suffering, let him praise? That's what we're going to do. Anyone cheerful, let him sing praise. So in just a minute, we're going to bring some prayers and some anointers up front. And then if you don't come down, then I need you singing these songs as a prayer over all other people that need the prayer. Is anyone among you sick?

Some of you are physically sick. Some of you are relationally sick. Some of you are mentally sick. Some of you are spiritually sick. In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs, hope deferred makes the heart sick. You ever have the same battle over and over and over and over that you've been trying to fight on your own? And you're thinking maybe one day out there I'll be able to find victory in this, man. That's hope deferred.

It'll make your heart sick. Does anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. This is why we're doing this. I am not a faith healer. I'm a Bible believer. That's it.

We're just going to do what the book says. and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed again so many of you have been fighting the devil in the dark and I dare you if you're serious if you want to walk by the spirit then to go grab that thing whatever that deep dark secret is whatever that thing is that addiction that broken relationship that sin that sin that that you've been petting instead of trying to take out, whatever it is. Or it may be a physical ailment. It gets all of your time, effort, and attention. It could be fear. It could be anger. It could be anxiety.

It could be pride. Nobody admits that one. And drag it out of the dark and drag it into the light and let Christus Victor, Christ the victor, do what he said he was going to do. Release the captives. Make the lame walk. Give sight to the blind. That he would declare God's favor.

over his people. So I'm going to invite you to stand. I want to invite all of our prayers and anointers to come forward. And for you are ready to do a little pruning in your life. Whether it's pray for God would give you the spirit-led ability to do the things that stir your affection, or there's some things in your life that you know by the power of the cross you need to be rooted out. Then may you confess and repent for these things.

And the Bible promises, not cures, but even big. than that, that you would be healed. I'm going to start praying. If you need prayer, I want you just go ahead and find somebody to pray for you right now. You can go ahead and start coming. I'm going to pray. The band's going to sing. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us.

And, God, I pray for victory, for your sons and your daughters. Lord, I pray that they would be able to walk by the Spirit. Lord, I pray that you would empower them, that they would believe your words over them. God, I pray that eyes would be open. God, I pray that chains of addiction would fall off. God, I pray that marriages would be healed. God, I pray that bodies would be made whole. More than anything else, God, I pray that we would not believe the lies of the enemy,

but we would believe the truth of you, that you love us, and you sent your son to pay the full price, that you are pleased with us because we are in him. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would do what only you could do. I pray that it is for freedom that we would be set free. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Won't you come?