His Story Affects our Life

let me invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Galatians Galatians chapter 5 this is message number three in a series on sharing his story last week we saw how his story affects our marriages and today we're talking about how his marriage affects our life this is a very tender message because I believe with all of my heart it really speaks to us as a whole about our struggles and our weaknesses I'm willing to acknowledge this morning that I have struggles and I have weaknesses here's a little note I read read this morning and then wrote down our strengths and abilities make us useful but it's our weakness that makes us usable we'll make sure you hear that our strengths and abilities make us useful but it's our weakness that makes us usable second Corinthians 12:9 the Bible says that in my weaknesses my strength is made perfect so I'm telling you if that encouraged me because I thought well I've got a few that I mentioned to the Lord about every day and so how encourage you to know that he can use my weaknesses and so we're gonna talk about struggles and what the Bible teaches about how we can be overcomers but just as much is there's no seniority in other areas of the Christian life really there's no seniority is in any area but there's no seniority than the area that you get to the point where you can honestly say well now thanks be unto God I'm beyond that I just don't struggle anymore there are struggles stand with me if you will as we honor the Lord and the reading of his word beginning at verse 16 what practical language I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh so there are times in my life I have to say I'll let the flesh have its way therefore I need to get on my knees and talk to Lord about being full of the spirit for the flesh lust or wars against the spirit the spirit against the flesh they're contrary to one another nerves there's a war going on with the old man the old flesh and now the new man the Spirit of God that lives in me there contrary to one another listen to this verse so that you do not do the things that you wish it's not just in Romans chapter 7 some have been so turned off by Paul acknowledging his weaknesses in Romans 7 that I've heard some try to theologically take the stand that he was not a Christian they're nonsense and he comes back in the book of Galatians and says it again he says so that you do not do the things that you wish any of you full of good intent but then there's a battle going on and the evil one won the flesh you gave in to your old self instead of letting Christ reign then he says but if you are led that is the leadership and guidance of your life is by the Spirit you're not under the law now the works of the flesh and I'm just going to read them quickly but he talks about the works of the flesh these are the deeds this is what it looks like when even in a Christians life when the Spirit of God is not in control the Bible says the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication uncleanness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentions jealousy notice he went from sensual sense to social sins if you read that slow you may think not doing bad not doing bad not doing bad help me Jesus help me Jesus and so he says outburst of wrath selfish ambitions dissensions heresies Envy murders drunkenness revellings and the likes of which I tell you beforehand just as I also told you in times fast but those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God now let me explain that before I read the rest of the text and pray for us when he says practice it means it's habitual now let me just talk to our church family for a moment pastor yeah my my son I'm grateful when he was 7 years old he he gave us life to Christ and as soon as he graduate from high school he's never looked back he's never been back in church and he's now 31 he has been in drugs he lies he stills he cheats and and by the way this has been going on in his life ever since he graduated 17 he's 31 now do the math pastor but we're just grateful that he's saved if they have a habit of life that is illustrated through this text it's not a Baptist doctrine it's not what Pastor Johnny Hunt says the Word of God absolute moral truth says they're not going to heaven it's not that they had something and lost it as much as you had hoped they never got it repentance is never temporary when you repent and believe the gospel it is everlasting and when you repent and believe the gospel if you start doing things that are contrary to the spirits leadership the same spirit now it hittin Johnny hunt being a mega voice up here it's the Holy Ghost inside and he can whisper and and and I'm to blow your ear plugs out and he is the voice inside and so if I can go and live in a certain way claiming to be a Christian and God the Holy Spirit never deals with me I've got trouble with Romans a movie with Hebrews 12:5 whom the Lord loves he chastens he disciplines every son he receives and if you be without discipline you are bastards and not children illegitimate children you don't belong God is not your father I want no one to leave here with a false hope that will send you to hell I'm willing to ruffle your feathers rub you the wrong way if it'll shake you into the reality of gospel truth the world the church is full of people I don't go to church but I got saved that and been there there's something about when you get saved 2nd Peter 1:4 says God's nature comes inside of you and what do you like it or not God likes to go to church now we'll continue our reading those who practice there's the word just a word practice continuous habitual such things will not inherit the kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit and notice it singular is love joy peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness let me just stop for a moment you mean all the time supposed to be but it's not in any of our lives because there's no seniority I I fall down we get up I'm not a fan of the view you didn't ask but but this week TobyMac was on and I'm a fan of token that and they want him to come on to sing we fall down but we get up everybody there seemed to be able to understand what he was saying if you are a believer there has been a time where you fell down your feet get dirty but the one who cleansed you all over washes your feet when you confess what your feet did so the Bible says gentleness self-control against such there is no law those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh and it's passions and desires and let's just see how far this word takes us because if you crucified it you put it to death hitting you can you literally just say that's it and stop right there you need to stay tuned we've we've put something that's not there the Bible says if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not become conceited provoking one another envying one another father speaking to our hearts for Jesus sake amen you may be seated please follow me I need this so bad I need to share it with us so bad because we're a family next week I'm speaking on relationships God willing how sharing his story has affected our relationships I'm just going to show you what Jesus said about how important it is for us to get together on a regular basis hang one another encourage one another support one another not be absentee body parts and so his story affects our life so here it is in light of our natural inclination to sin the only way to prevent us from totally unleashing our worst passions was to establish a system of laws that set boundaries on behavior and that carried penalties severe enough to promote conformity out of fear there's been times all of us have thought about doing something but it was not worth what it would cost us how do you know what it would cost you laws but laws will not keep you in check finally our prison systems are full of people that finally said flip on the law I'm gonna do it anyway and as a result the penalty is stiff so in contrast to the law the Apostle Paul speaks of being led by the spirit now he's my leadership I get on my knees God direct me today guide me living in the spirit that would be the same as abiding in Jesus John 15 walking in the spirit would be the same as being controlled by the spirit or walking in the word and then he refers to the evident of the fruit of the Spirit now the flesh is powerless to fulfill the law and the law is powerless to conquer the flesh now his story the cross affects life by not only guiding me but here's the key empowering me to live a life of victory we talked about it on Easter as the great exchange the Christian life is not difficult the Christian life is impossible I can't live this life Christ in you the hope of glory is Christ living his life through me listen how Paul put it in Romans 8 one of the best passages on this subject for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in flesh that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but walk according to the spirit so what he's saying is because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross and he condemned sin in the flesh and in His righteousness he fulfilled the law he becomes my victory as he overcame the law he overcomes it in my life as well and we don't walk according to the flesh but now because of what Christ did on the cross we're walking according to the spirit one of the great examples some of you have heard me say this I don't know that it's true today but when I started in ministry it was pilgrims progress used to be the number one read book apart from the Bible or should I say the number one purchase book apart from the Bible I had to read it first of all in English Lit in the Old English and all I can tell you is I had to sing my favorite hymn help me Rhonda I just couldn't understand it so I got a modern English then I got a video series then I got the children's series I think I've got it now but I've gone through that over and over again I was thinking this week it's time to read again but let me give you one of the favorite stories from pilgrims progress that illustrates how it's not trying to keep the law when somebody's you ask someone if they're Christian they say no but I try to do everything that's right and in the law you can't and if you offend it in one area you're guilty of all of it so it's a whole and so listen to pilgrims progress story it describes interpreters house which pilgrim entered during the course of his journey to the celestial city the poller of the house was completely covered in dust and when a man took a broom and started to sweep he and the others in the room began to choke for the great cloud of dust that was stirred up more vigorously he swept and the more suffocating the dust became the interpreter ordered a maid to sprinkle the room with water with which the dust was quickly washed away interpreter explained the pilgrim that the parlor represented the heart of the unsafe man the dust was the original sin and the the man with the broom was the law and all he can do is stir it up and the maid with the water was the gospel her point was that all that the law can do with sin is stir it up remind her maybe that's why we wanted Ten Commandments out of the courtroom all it does is stirs it up but only the gospel of Jesus Christ can wash it away and so what we're doing is we're just trying to be better we're making all kinds of commitment to our old self and all we're doing is stirring it up and becoming more frustrated all along and what we need is to gospel it affects our life now let me give you a few statements number one this may be the only one I deal with this morning the Spirit of God God's Holy Spirit he came to live in me abide in me promised he'd never leave me nor never forsake me he leads contrary to the flesh so here we are diametrically opposed here's the way I'm supposed to live and everything within me wants to live to the contrary of the way God and the Holy Spirit would want me to live so every believer now listen carefully to this theology every believer still has sin within them that has not been totally eradicated there's no such thing as a sinless person apart from Jesus Christ so you have sin dwelling in you let's let the Bible speak for itself Romans 7 let me pick up with verse 15 for what am i doing I do not understand for what I will to do or want to do that I do not practice but what I hate that I do if they're better time in your memory and sandwich to God I'd not done that I even hear some pity put it this way I just hate myself for doing that what is it it's yo flesh what happened it won the victory we gave in to it instead of letting the Spirit of God have this way if then I do what I will not do I agree with the law that it is good because this is the law that showed me I was wrong but now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me where where's the sin in us there's been so many volumes doctrines formed around whether once you get saved or not whether there's still sin there or not and we call it different things that I'm going to address that in just a moment he said for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells nothing good for the will is present I want to do what's right but how to perform what is good I do not find I've just not been able to do it for the good that I will to do I do not do but the evil I will not to do I practice it now if I do what I will not to do it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me I find in a law that evil is present with me and the one who wills to do good they're both there I've often said people don't like it but doggone did it helped me and I'm going to share it when I became a Christian they placed in my hand a simple little devotional book kind of like a disciples guide that was entitled survival kit that's the final kit so you just come out the poolroom you're lost you don't have a Bible you don't know anything about the gospel no one in your home goes to church and so they give me the survivor and what it taught me is this it said it's like two dogs living inside of you and they constantly fight and it said the one you feed the most wins and so it taught me to starve the one call it the flesh call it the old nature call it the old man call it yourself who gives a rip which one you call it what really matters is what are you gonna do with it starve that dude and feed the other and that's why so many people are not walking in victory they're feeding the old so there it is in Galatians 5:24 Paul speaks of the flesh being crucified now when somebody's crucified was put to death not only did Christ rise from the dead your flesh can be crucified and I've been doll going for a miracle to come take place up from the grave it arises and if somebody tells me that when your flesh was crucified it never lived again I've met you and you've met me those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh listen with all of its passions all of its desires if I take that to the point and I'm going to show you how to deal with the moment to say that is just it period it's gone it means I never have any desires or passions that aren't just spirit filled spirit lead spirit desired spirit followed see all persons who belong to Christ by faith in Him and his saving perfect work have crucified the flesh with its passions pastor Johnny has your flesh been crucified yes and I know what Paul meant when he said I'd die daily well I thought you already died give us this day Romans 6 says knowing this that the old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin done away with in still the greatest commentators out there translate that rendered inoperative God took something in my life and rendered it an operative I went and fixed it we're at work again Galatians says it these are the major passages Romans 6 Galatians 5 but listen Galatians 2 I've been crucified with Christ no longer I who live Christ lives in me the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Galatians 6 19 the other place only four places he talks about the old person being crucified it says but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I've been crucified to the world now let me deal with that in this passage Paul is teaching that at Salvation his old sinful unredeemed self was crucified and he was born a new person in Jesus Christ Galatians 6:14 minute says and crucified to the world he says the world has been crucified and is now dead to him so that it is no longer his master holding him in bondage he's now free to serve the Lord in none of these passages here's here's I thought it's clear a statement as we can get in none of these passages did Paul mean to imply that the crucifixion analogy carries the idea of total death in which all influences cease sin was still a reality in his life and so was the temptations of the world but there was a sense in which the power of the old self and the world was broken by Jesus Christ at the cross and these know these influences no longer dominated him what it means is do I ever lose my temper don't even look toward Janet when I ask these questions all right absolutely do you ever have wrong thoughts yes do you ever say a word you wish you could retrieve yes so do I sin yes but is that what dominates my life can I just back up and say thanks to Calvary in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that ought to be an exception to the rule that is not what dominates my life I don't want it to it doesn't have to and it doesn't have the power to no sir it does not my wife will tell you that I'm good most of the time that sounds like a silly illustration but that's the truth under God most of the time the reason we're so aggravated when we don't respond right is we know by the Word of God how to respond right and we have responded right we know the benefit of doing right and when we do wrong it overwhelms us with grief that's what happens when the Spirit of God is in you you're convicted it exposes the way you responded and God works in your heart for sin shall not have dominion over you you're not under law but you're under grace see the miracle of the Christ life is one of transformation you know the word transformation is is a word that really speaks of an inward change it's what God does deep down to reset so hard it's not conforming on the outside but transformation is God changing you on the inside we've used this first several times but it's the best 2nd Corinthians 3:18 but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the mirror being God's Word as we look into the mirror we see the fame and the renown of God and we were singing a moment ago and Scott was leading us and we one of the verses of the song we sang referred to God's renown and I thought that fits better with this song but what it really means is God's glory God's famed God's weightiness will find that in a moment so as I look into God's Word I see God's glory I see God's faithfulness I just see his tenderness I see his patience everything that can be said of the fruit of the Spirit is true of of Jesus Christ all of that was true in his life so we take our Bibles we were in Sunday school like word this morning and all I can say is if you're not in Sunday school you ought to be I'm telling you God's so ministered in my life this morning I was able to receive from several the members that spoke about what we were studying about the Good Samaritan but I was able to contribute just a little bit I mean it was just awesome it's that relationship that we're gonna talk about next week so we're behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord we're seeing everything about God all his attributes everything about him and the Bible says as we do this we're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory so why need corporate worship I need Sun Sunday school I need my own personal it's almost like somebody thinks you're gonna get too much of Jesus like well you know I study my Bible every morning I don't need to be in church well I'm just not as strong as you are I really need the corporate fellowship that's offered in the church that Jesus Christ died and established and I also need my personal time and I need the fellowship with others so I'm being transformed so God metamorphoses God is I'm bee holding him in his word others are speaking into it pastors are teaching it ministers administer my life the books that I read its ministering in to me and the Bible says I'm being transformed into the same image what image the image of the Lord I've become more and more like like Christ and so as a result I'm being led listen to us just as you are led by the Spirit of the Lord where the Bible just says that the Spirit of God is to guide you is to lead you you to live in the spirit and so God does this so as we're faithful to imitate Christ and follow lovingly and his steps the Holy Spirit does something through us that we by imitation could never do he manifests the actual life of Christ this is transformation like basically if you're watching somebody and somebody does something that ought to call for a a particular normal response but their response is just the opposite of what you thought it was going to be matter of fact their response was so much like Jesus guess what it was Jesus it was you were transformed and somebody says man I saw so-and-so get in so-and-so's face and I just knew they're gonna blow up and they were humble and and just walked away and it so spoke to me they were so much like Jesus it was Jesus when it when it is Jesus this is good this is good when it is Jesus you can't take credit for it and this is good and when it's you that respond you can't blame him for it that was good I didn't plan to say that no extra charge I'm serious I mean so so basically when Sonny says man I'm telling you what they did was such an active of Jesus it was Jesus let's give credit where credit's due that's how he's glorified he manifested himself through you and when he does you give him the credit so transformation is God's response to our striving to imitate Christ in the fruit of the Spirit and it's our crying for help from a deep sense of inadequacy in humility so God transforms us into the image of the object we're beholding God transforms us into the image of the object we're beholding so if we behold the world in this world becomes our home and this world captures our heart we become like the world when drugs becomes the the thing that captivates us we become like that which we are for taking in so when a person beholds Christ and they're desiring so much to imitate him God transforms you because he knows of our own inadequacies and when we bow before him humility he transforms us in the image of the object we're beholding the Lord Jesus Christ let me give you another way to Paul dealt with it when he went just a few other verses he made it perfectly clear in second Corinthians 4:11 the Bible says that the life of Jesus also might be manifested wait a minute we're at in my mortal flesh it means that Jesus Christ literally let's use the language of the new techni mortal flesh that Jesus is actually living through the individual many of you know that chuck Colson died this week he meant a great deal to me and the times I got to meet him to be in his church in Naples to speak for his pastor Hayes wicker and pray for them as he gives the ceremony this week in Washington it lots of people will be viewing but here's a man that was Richard Nixon's hatchet man and and what he did he wrote the book when I first got converted and titled born again I still remember my wife having the copy in that Yellow Jacket about when she worked for a little tourney's office when I started gardner-webb college when I was 23 years old and what he did he went to prison because he was the architect and part of the Watergate so went to prison but when he went to prison just before he went a man came by and picked him up shared with him in the car and led him to Christ shared the gospel and he invited Jesus Christ in his life his Lord and Savior and you know he did he gave us life to Prison Fellowship he created the largest prison ministry in the world got transformed him and and he began to want to reach the type people that he lived with and he began to say that the people in prison were no different in him that they were all created in the image of God and they needed Christ just like he needed Christ and so the life of Jesus may be manifested it was manifested in Chuck Colson's life and it should be in our life so here's the truth we've got to know here's the good part I've got to get to before I close this message that I'm 1/3 thrill of here it is transformation is not constant you don't get up one day and say hey how you doing glad you asked God transformed me this morning in a living on easy street now nothing bothers me I'm totally patient kind you ain't seen kindness like gonna imitate for my life now that that doesn't happen it is proportionate and proportional to our beholding which is often in terment at best so if we're not careful in our walk in the spirit we learn a few truths infield we have a handle on his life then the Bible gives this warning therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall see the transformation is not permanent as though we reached a future state after years of beholding I have been I was thinking about this morning with few exceptions very few exceptions every single morning of my life I start with Bible reading devotional reading prayer journaling and then prayer and I don't mean just a little time honest before God I hardly can work it in most mornings an hour and 15 hour and 30 minutes every morning of my life and even though I've been transformed by his word like that I tell you under God it's not permanent in fact I've been in church before and maybe somebody else was preaching and God used them to speak into my life the music was glorious I feel like I had just been under the spout where the glory comes out and before I could get the keys in the ignition of my car said something ugly about somebody we must deliberately abide in Christ for in this transformation Christ actually imparts to us his own life so this is real Christianity a spontaneous overflow of the life of Christ through us so as we're transformed and Christ's life is manifested through our life we can glorify God in display as glory we're gonna look at this text Lord willing next week we listen to this John 17 22 and the glory this is Jesus talking to God to father and the glory which you gave me the glory God gave God the Son I've given them who the disciples he gave us of his glory that they may be one just as we are one God desires for all of us to be one now the word glory is the word and we'll wrap it up with this the word glory is a word meaning heavy it's a word that came in the English modern English language to mean glory impressive impressive if a conversation is weighty it means is weight had made an impression on you but you said this before you would not believe the conversation I had with so-and-so Wow the impressive the weightiness of that conversation so the root of the word glory is to think so when we give God glory we're telling God what we think about him extolling his reputation worthiness so when I live in a way that my supreme passion is the glory of God the way I'm living because I've been transformed it's all Jesus it's all the cross it's all the gospel because of the way I'm living as a result of yielding to Christ and him living his life through me and transformed by his word and by Spirit God is glorified through my life God gets Loree through our lives so we'll give God glory we're telling him what we think about him we're extolling his reputation that's worth it so the word glory came to mean not only a telling fourth but a shining forth it's an outshining an outward visible manifestation of an inward reality I'm telling you folks this is who I am inside and if you're a Christian this is who you are inside now sometimes instead of letting that get out of us that old humanness our humaneness you my wife bought me that little thing from my my iPhone where I can click on and type any word in and it tells me how to pronounce it so I could start getting better and y'all not write any more songs about me and I typed in humanness and it didn't come up it didn't show as a word but it's on all of the writings out there so that's why I use both of them I'm gonna get it right y'all writing no more songs you gonna pick on somebody else but it's this manifestation of this outward reality let me illustrate it and then we're through do you remember the story in Exodus 33 where Moses asked God to show him his glory now think about that what if we got down today and we said God show you again and somebody says God appeared in my room and I look to him face-to-face liar liar pants on fire if you did you wouldn't be here to tell about it was consumed so Moses said God I got a special request and God grant his request let me read it to you and listen how it it turns out Moses saying God show me your glory all I've seen is this burning bush tis not consumed and I heard a voice come out of it said you're on holy ground god I want to see your glory I want to see those attribute show me yourself so listen to this here it is we're done he said please show me your glory then he said I will make all oh this is good God's glory Saul is it all of his goodness I will make all my goodness pass before you all this goodness is all his glory I will proclaim the name of the Lord the name of the Lord as his glory says characteristics this is Nate I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have a compassion on whom I will have compassion but he said you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live and the Lord said that's why Jesus laid down his glory when he came because when he was born in Bethlehem that morning of his conception I want you to know that when he was born nobody would have been able to look on the face of the Lord Jesus but he laid aside his glory and he went back to get back glory John 17 says and the Lord said here is a place by me you shall stand on a rock God's gonna hide him in the clevis of a rock and it says so it shall be while my glory passes by listen to this I will put you in the cleft of the rock here it is I will cover you with my hand while I pass by so God not only put him in the side of a mountain God took his hand the hand of God speaks of the power of God God protected him by his own power and then the glory of God passed by listeners he said and then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back but my face shall not be seen for the glory of God so God had said that no man can see him and live and so did Moses see God he saw what he asked to see the glory of God the outshining the visible the outward manifestation of the inward reality it is a smidgen just a smidgen of what took place on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus the Son of God manifest face begin to shine like the Sun that's gonna be something to see him one day isn't it so to walk in the spirit implies progress going from where one is to where you all to be and we won't be where we ought to be until we're with him but nonetheless I want to progress that's the spirit filled life spirit filled life is there's still room for further development I still fall down need to get up that's why the Bible teaches in the book of Ecclesiastes that it's almost like he says I feel sorry for the person who tries to do it alone because when he falls there's nobody there to help him up when he gets cold there's nobody to warm him up thank God for the times I've been in church and I've been cold and some of you were hot and the Lord Jesus lets you rub off on me and warm me up so the Spirit of God is the source and the believer cannot live the Christian life by his own resources any more than he can save himself by his own resources Satan said again you couldn't save yourself and you can't keep yourself here's a good way to say it I heard the gospel and got saved and I've been preaching the gospel to myself every day since I want to write a sermon soon i'ma write a sermon own Amazing Grace on the song it was grace that got me in through many dangers toils and snares I have already come anybody been through dangerous tolls snares have already come tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home I got in with grace continuing grace I'm gonna end in grace and when I leave grace at the grave I'll no glory so you can't live on your own here it is as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him how did I receive him in faith how did I receive him dependent how did I receive him desperate poverty stricken and just as I received him I must continue to realize I need him without Jesus I can do nothing

Channel: First Baptist Woodstock

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Keywords: first baptist woodstock, gospel, truth, praise, church

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Length: 39min 24sec (2364 seconds)

Published: Mon May 07 2012