Sunday Morning Worship | The Names of the Holy Spirit | The Fruit | 11.29.20

[Music] [Music] the kingdom agenda good morning everyone i want to welcome you to our worship service this morning at oak cliff bible fellowship no matter where you're watching from no matter where you're joining us from we're just excited to be with you as you are with us and we're just going to have a great worship service this morning so i hope you're ready we're going to worship god we're going to get into god's word which i'm excited about it gives you and i something to execute on a daily basis as we continue to play on the field of life you got to have that word from the playbook in order to do the right thing and so we're excited about what my dad is going to teach and remember we always remember the sacrifice that christ has made in communion in our intimate time with him and so we want to make sure you grab your water your juice i want to make sure you get your bread or your cracker right now so that you're ready for communion i'm standing in the hall of remembrance right now this is where we have all of our photos of the many years when we look back and we can see how far god has brought us from and we want to do that in communion with you we want to remember the sacrifice that christ has made and how far that sacrifice has brought us from and will bring us to and through in our lives and so we want to do that but right now let's get started with worship i'm excited to worship with him stand up on your feet in your house let's do it right now family let the braves begin like you're ready to worship this morning on this sunday morning father we love you jesus we bless you [Music] on one jesus leave all your problems on the outside to be consumed with the holy ghost and fire open up your mouth and take the name of jesus [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] somebody needs to hear this [Music] [Music] let me give you one he'll give you a brand new come on [Music] hallelujah thank you jesus [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] are you sick [Music] is [Music] [Music] but what you need to know is victory [Music] he's here he's here he's here he's here he's here right now come on somebody just magnify him come on somebody that just knows them say lord you're here you're here among us you're here in our house father we give you praise let me give you praise hallelujah just shout this with me shout out i believe come on clap your hands don't be afraid to dance right there now this song has a little island feel to it so i don't want you to be afraid to move all right right there in your seat pop your hand you can even dance if you want to [Music] come on [Music] sing right i trust [Music] i trust you [Music] of miracles [Music] you can go ahead and stand up on your feet i know that's it come on let's praise god [Music] i trust [Music] the god of miracles [Music] i believe [Music] as you can see this morning we've come for no other reason but to give god everything we have listen we believe in jesus christ and his sacrifice on calvary's cross and because of that sacrifice we can say so long to our trials so long to problems and adversity come on just dance a little bit [Music] yep [Music] listen hold on [Music] goodbye [Music] goodbye to your pain and to worry so long [Music] no more worry no more no more heartache no more doubt no no no no no no so long so long so long [Music] of miracles [Music] i believe give that praise in this house father right now we stand before you knowing that you are not inferior you are our great god and so father i pray that you would begin to enlarge yourself in our eyes and men's eyes as we magnify you we thank you jesus that we stand before you in your greatness though we declare today there is no god higher than our god we worship you jesus we worship you jesus come on somebody at home just throw those hands up as a sign of surrender to him thank you lord [Music] you bring light to the darkness you restore every heart that is it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise and pour out our [Music] god [Music] great [Music] [Music] it's your breath say it again [Music] is thank you jesus thank you jesus somebody just right now begin to breathe in somebody just get thankful for the air that he's given us father let our families breathe let our families let our homes let america go let america begin to breathe father god we thank you that you are a relief and we thank you jesus that you told us to look beyond the hills from where our health comes from we thank you that you're the god that heals us we give you praise for it this morning lord we give you praise for it come on open up your mouth this is your chance this is your chance to just honor god in this time thank you jesus thank you jesus it's your breath say it again it's your breath in our minds [Music] come on [Music] [Music] it is [Music] [Music] father you said in philippians chapter 2 that every knee shall bow every tongue will have to confess that you are lord and shalt bow at this great name and so father we proclaim that right now in our worship that all the earth will have to sing this all of the earth will have to bow come on i want you to say this with me say all the earth say all the earth [Music] our hearts will cry these bones will [Music] sing [Music] see it now great it's [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] just say that great are you lord come on team say that [Music] pray thank you jesus [Music] oh you're so great lord just one more time say it great thank you jesus i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord hello everybody and i sure hope you're glad you know i know a lot around us to these days can make us sad but you ought to be glad to be in worship you know why because the bible says heaven rules earth and just knowing that heaven's gonna have the last say so about all we're dealing with ought to make you glad to be in the house of the lord i know i am and i'm glad to be in the house of the lord with you now i know we're not all in this house but we're all in his house okay and so it's a joy to worship with you i trust that you and your loved ones are finding god's comfort and peace during this season and that you are loving on him because he is worthy in every season to receive our worship and i hope that you are worshiping that means singing and praising and praying not just sitting and listening because you're called to worship not to let other folk do the worshiping for you okay so it is a joy to come to you and to celebrate our great god and again stick with us as we go through the word and the scriptures we talk about review them so that you're living in the word and not just living on a human preacher because the word of god is what changes lives and also if you live in the metroplex of dallas fort worth we invite you to consider becoming a part of our church family if you want to become a kingdom disciple a visible verbal follower of christ if that's your goal and you need a church home then we invite you to go online ocbfchurch.org forward slash membership and find out how you can become a member we have a orientation that you go through and it's fairly simple but if you're serious about him we're serious about you because we all want to grow into a greater commitment to him and we need him more than ever before and so we'd love to hear from you if that's your desire and of course as always your faithful giving of your tithe the tenth that belongs to god and your offering that which is over and above the tithe that says god you are my source and i want you to know that i know you're my source that gives honor to god but it also fuels and facilitates ministry i mean uh just recently we helped feed uh over 2 000 families 2 000 families and that's just one of many things that we're doing here at our church and uh and along with other churches we're we're trying to make a difference we want the kingdom of god in the darkness all around us to be lit okay that's one of the contemporary words that things are lit okay we want to be lit we want to be very visible and practical and impactful during this time your tithes and offerings help that to happen our members are so faithful they keep us they keep us being able to do this ministry if you're not a part of our church please keep your church strong and if this ministry is a blessing to you over and above what you do for your church would you consider an offering so that we can keep doing god's business and keep you strong based on god's word well it's exciting to be able to serve the lord it's exciting to be able to love on you even during this time may you and your family grow in grace and in the knowledge of jesus christ as we continue giving him the glory that he alone deserves all things your constant grace real made [Music] again you cause your sun to shine in darkest nights jesus said jesus [Music] you are the one [Music] the orphans now [Music] [Applause] [Music] instead you took these rises [Music] for all that you don't we will pour out [Music] song we say jesus say jesus [Music] [Music] one more time everybody you are a heart to the father [Music] of jesus [Music] [Music] born out [Music] the hearts of jesus [Music] say it again jesus christ this morning [Music] is [Music] one of the things that i love to do growing up in baltimore and in fact still love to do is eat steamed crabs baltimore and all of maryland is known for crabs the chesapeake bay harvest millions and millions of crabs at crab parties crab feasts in maryland it is the delicacy of the state in fact people come from around the world to eat steamed well-seasoned crabs growing up whenever my father could afford it he would get us crabs on friday night and we would indulge ourselves endlessly because we all loved crabs now if you've ever seen crabs being steamed you will notice something that when the water begins to get hot they tried to escape they wanted to get out the heat they want to leave the boil but inevitably as one crab seeks to climb out of the pot another crab will grab it pull it down try to step or climb on top of that crab to get to the top because it wants out of the pot and out of the heat but inevitably another crab will see that crab grab it pull it down and instead of working together to hook claws together to help each other out the pot they all boil because they have become experts in destroying and devouring one another so that they all wind up in the same place of destruction so i can get my crabs paul was concerned about this crab mentality in the church at galatia he was concerned about christians devouring one another he says in galatians 5 13 for you are called to freedom brethren only do not use your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement you shall love your neighbor as yourself but if you bite and devour one another take care that you are not consumed by one another he was concerned that christians were destroying each other in the church instead of enabling serving helping building up and helping others to gain freedom they were pulling each other down like the crabs and he says you are devouring one another this problem we see all around us culturally racially class wise gender wise politically this devouring and while that may be true in the world it was not to be normative among the people of god because god wants us all out of the pot he wants us all to experience biblical freedom that is released from illegitimate bondage so that we can maximize our spiritual calling and spiritual potential and that's why this leads him into our next study about the person and work of the holy spirit because we're looking at how he's identified some of his names today i want to talk about his fruit the holy spirit and fruit because he says in chapter 5 verse 22 but the fruit of the spirit here the spirit of god is viewed as a fruit-bearing tree and off of this tree grows love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control against such there is no law the holy spirit is a fruit-bearing tree and it's set against the backdrop drop of this devouring one another in fact he ends this session and section in verse 26. let us not become boastful challenging one another envying one another you see the words one another he's concerned that the household of faith believers are in such discord that it is being destructive they are being destructive rather than being a healing agent they were a hurting agent you've seen it in your church we've seen it in our church where destruction is taking place now sandwich in between his concern about devouring beginning in verse 13 and his conclusion about the one another in verse 26 is his discussion about the spirit and the flesh the reason why whether it's in your family or in the family of god we've got bickering fighting endlessly is because people have not discovered the fruit of the spirit and the reason they have not discovered the fruit of the spirit is they don't understand what it is to walk in the spirit instead they have become we have become professionals in walking by means of the flesh and so if you want the fruit what the tree of the spirit produces which will address the problem of divisiveness in your life my life in our life as the family of god if you want this tree to grow up in your heart in your home and in god's house then we must be full of the spirit because we operate by the spirit which he calls walking in the spirit the crisis of division has a vaccine the vaccine to the calamity of chaos among people particularly among christians is the fruit of the spirit being made manifest because his people have learned to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh now this can be tall cotton because it's rich theology but i want to make it as simple as i can so that if you are not living like this you can begin the process of growing a fruit tree in your soul because if you're a believer you have the holy spirit because you are learning to walk in the spirit so let's back up to verse 16. but i say coming off of the context of your division walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law he says you have within you i have within me a civil war going on it's a civil war between the flesh and the spirit so let's get our terms straight the flesh is that desire to please oneself independently of god let me define that again the flesh is your desire my desire our desire to please ourselves independently of god in other words to please ourselves in a way that god doesn't want us to the spirit is the presence of christ within us that seeks to please god even when it's at the expense of pleasing ourselves he says the difference between these two is driven by desire he says that this civil war has to do with a desire a craving a burning within to be satisfied the spirit wants to satisfy god inside of us the flesh wants to satisfy ourselves without reference to god and that leads to a inner clash that every believer has to deal with before you were saved you only had the flesh to deal with you had in you i had in you a sin nature this nature is like a car factory okay a car factory general motors it produces cars it's what it does these cars are sold and then released onto the highway and the factory keeps making up more cars so the longer the factory operates the more cars it makes the more cars out on the highway so the sin factory produced sin on the highway of your life and it was called the factory it's called the sin nature when you accepted jesus christ into your life god shut down the factory the factory was closed because god gave you a new nature if any man is in christ second corinthians 5 says he is a brand new creation the factory was closed well you say but if the factory was closed why am i still battling with my flesh with my desire to please myself independently of god which leads to conflict because the factory has already produced the cause and the cars are already out on the road when a factory shuts down the cars don't stop driving on the highway that the factory produced when the sin nature was shut down it did not recall all the cars of sin that had left the factory and entered in out into our unredeemed humanity one of the reasons you either have to die before you go to heaven or god has to change you by the rapture as he lifts you up to heaven is because this body has become contaminated by the cars on the road that were produced by the sin factory that we all possess it has infiltrated our being so god's not going to try to fix this body he's going to give every believer a brand new body because of the contamination that we've all received from the old factory that produced the sin that is now operating on the road of our unredeemed humanity so you have sin operating within you and so do i and so does every believer in the flesh the highway is the flesh paul calls it the body of sin this contaminated thing that produces a struggle a battle in fact one of the ways you know you're spiritual is you're in the fight one of the ways you know you're growing is you're in the battle because he says the spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh wars against the spirit and the flesh welcomes the cars the highway of the flesh says cause of sin drive on me i have been built for you and so with the assistance of satan and with the assistance of the world which appeals to the flesh the world is that system headed by satan that leaves god out satan is the person who uses the system to leave god out the flesh is the desire to take advantage of what the system is now offering that's what temptation is it is an appeal to the desire of sin which has been embedded in the flesh which always leads to a desire to be satisfied independently of god which is naturally going to create conflict because if i want to please me and you want to please you and we're uh want to please each other differently than one another that we're naturally going to fight as husbands wives parents children's brothers and sisters in christ so this flesh has this desire and what this desire does is seek to rule us he says walk by the spirit in galatians 5 16 and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh so remember the flesh is driven by desire please don't misread this please don't read this too fast i want to be very um i want to be in a more teaching mode because uh didactic mode because i want you to grab this he does not say stop the desire of the flesh so you can walk in the spirit that's backwards he says walk in the spirit and you won't carry out the desire of the flesh so you don't beat the flesh by fixing the flesh guess why the flesh is unfixable you cannot keep your flesh from being fleshy because it has already been invaded by the cars have you ever noticed you know we have this uh i've got um i've got three great i got three great grandkids and i just heard recently a story about my about my grandkids my oldest great-grandkid likes to sneak food she likes to sneak food and she's been punished a number of times for sneaking food she snuck some ice cream and put it under her bed and hid it to eat it at a time when her parents didn't know that she was gonna eat it and she's just you know five years old or so lying hiding stealing and sneaking how can you be that bad that young her brother who's younger than her found out she hid the ice cream do you think he tried to deliver his sister from being caught judged and punished no he went and told on his sister to help get his sister in trouble for the sins she committed so at a young age we got all kind of stuff going on you know why because it's built into the flesh you're born in sin and shaped in iniquity that's why you don't have to teach your children how to lie how to steal how to cheat how to be bad how to disobey you don't have to instruct them you got to teach them not to do those things why because it's built in at birth okay so the flesh can't stop being the flesh so what people settle for is flesh management we know it's wrong we know we need to do something about it so we try to manage and for a while maybe it gets managed until something else shows up that's more appealing and then it gets unmanaged you know like the new year's resolutions that we make over and over again and for a while we manage it we haven't changed we've just kept it under cover for a minute so please don't start trying to fix the flesh let me tell you something else that's a mistake because we're all trying to get to this tree called the fruit another thing that's a mistake is trying to turn the flesh into this the spirit trying to reform the flesh let me help you out here you can't make the flesh less fleshy okay we have fat and we have muscle we try to lose fat we try to build muscle let me tell you what you can't do you can't turn fat in the muscle that is fat muscle is muscle you got to lose fat you got to build muscle but you can't change fat into muscle because there are two distinct realities in our physical frame the flesh and the spirit are distinct they're two distinct realities in the believer you were born with the flesh won't get rid of that till you die raptured but you receive the spirit when you accepted christ that's why these words in galatians 3 are so critical you foolish galatians he says in galatians 3 1 who has bewitched you you remember the tv show be which she did a little nose okay who has tricked you before whose eyes jesus christ was publicly portrayed as crucified this is the only thing i want to find out from you did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith are you so foolish having begun by the spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh he says you are foolish and you've been duped unfortunately many pulpits do people by preaching flesh management sermons instead of instead of fruit bearing sermons that are designed to show the work of the spirit that is not trying to change the flesh what is the spirit seeking to do to override the flesh let me say that again the goal of the spirit if you're going to see the fruit is to override the flesh not change the flesh from being fleshy because the cause of sin are already riding on the highways that are all throughout our humanity which is the flesh he says in verse 16 of chapter 5 he says walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh he does not say watch this that you won't have the desires of the flesh let me repeat that again he does not say the flesh will stop wanting to be fleshy that it will stop wanting to sin that it will stop wanting to be selfish that it will stop wanting to disobey no he says what the spirit does is override it in romans i'll refer to this a couple of times paul is struggling with his flesh i want you to read romans chapter 7 particularly beginning with verse 14 and he's battling he's got a he's got desires he can't control he doesn't tell us what his flesh issue is which is good news because now you can put your flesh issue in it all right whatever your flesh thing is that is independent of god you can put it in those verses in fact he gets to the point of despair he says verse 24 wretched man that i am who will set me free from the body of this death who's going to set me free because my body keeps wanting to do wrong then he comes to chapter 8 he says therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus for the law of the spirit of life in christ that's the fruit jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh god did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin he condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but walk according to the spirit so you see paul is saying the same thing if you want to overcome the flesh you do it by learning what it means to walk in the spirit which doesn't stop the desire of the flesh so stop feeling bad that your flesh wants to be fleshy that's not the problem the problem is yielding to it not having it okay having the desire is one thing yielding to it is another thing the flesh he says is overridden because there's another law okay there is a law of gravity it's the way reality is it's a non-negotiable law what goes up must come down that's the way the world works in our atmosphere it's a law you can count on it that law doesn't go anywhere but all of us knows what it is to fly on an airplane wait a minute what goes up must come down but when you get an airplane you go up but you don't come down until they ready to come down why if the law says what goes up must come down can an airplane take off and not come down until it wants to because there's another law and it's the law of aerodynamics when you move at a certain speed with a certain amount of thrust you do not cancel the law of gravity you override the law of gravity gravity's still there pulling stuff down but the power and the thrust of the plane takes you up and doesn't allow gravity to make the final decision so so it is with walking in the spirit when you and i walk in the spirit god now elevates us to override what the flesh is craving us to do which leads not only to self-centeredness within us but which also leads to conflict with others so you know the solution to our issues is learning to walk in the spirit because then the flesh no matter how much it desires won't have the last say so so the work of the holy spirit's fruit the tree of fruit can be expanded and expressed in our lives you remember grandma maybe great grandma now she had the old washing board right that's how she cleaned clothes she would get the washing board out go up and down and up and down because grandma wanted clothes to be clean and so she would work hard hard to get the clothes clean on her washing board but then we were introduced to the magnificent creation of the washing machine the magnificent creation of the washing machine what would you think about a mother today using a washboard when she got a washing machine you would have to tell her no no no no no no you don't need the board when you have the machine because there's power in the machine that you don't have in the board the board is totally dependent on your self effort you got to go up and down up and down up and down the machine is not dependent upon your effort because the machine has power built in and it's designed now grandma had she had the right idea she wanted clean clothes the uh washing machine has the right idea clean clothes both have clean clothes they just have two different rules of how it gets there the ten commandments one clean lives okay the holy spirit wants clean lives but they don't use the same method to get there one is human effort human struggle human stressing the other is holy spirit power and enablement okay you say well i want that how do i get that well he says you got to learn how to walk walk in the spirit let's get this straight there's going to be a clash because the moment you decide to walk in the spirit he says it's going to you are going to be opposed like a defensive line set up in football to keep you from moving forward in your spiritual progress so let me tell you now the flesh is not going to like you bringing the spirit into this equation and the flesh your desire to please self independently of god is going to set up shop and say no not here not now uh-uh this highway is filled with sin cars okay when the flesh lifts its head to block the rock the spirit the spirit is going to lift his head to resist the flesh that's why you're going to have the battle so don't don't feel bad that you have the battle in fact it's good news because that means the spirit is fighting the flesh in order to overrule the flesh so that raises the question if we're going to stop this conflict we're going to keep these divorces from happening because folk can't get a law we're going to stop churches christians fighting each other along class racial gender and all other kind of lines illegitimately well how many how are we going to get there how are we going to stop this anger and vitriol and insulting and dismissing and cursing and cussing and all the other ways that christians are an embarrassment to the kingdom of god he says oh you just need to learn how to walk so let me give you the ingredients of walking so that you and i we speaking to me too can start walking in the spirit and enjoy the victory of fruit because we're overriding the flesh because all the flesh produces you'll see in a moment are weeds doesn't produce food produces weeds first of all when you walk there is a destination in mind is it not in other words when you walk you're going somewhere you're walking to something or from something but you're moving so walking in the spirit is not passive you're not sitting down and waiting for a jolt from heaven you are doing the walking but the realm in which you are doing it is the spirit's realm okay have you ever caught a fish or seen a fish caught and brought up on a boat or a dock the fish is trying to swim it's jumping it's flipping it's flopping it's jerking it's not not trying to swim it's trying to do the same thing it would do if it was still in the water but it's trying to do it in the wrong environment in other words the fish is not in an environment consistent with the movements that it's making a lot of christians do a lot of activity but they do it in the wrong environment they think that simply by doing actions they are moving spiritually not at all you have to be in the realm of the spirit the fish has to be in water we have to be on land and christians have to be in the spirit walking okay what is the destination that you are to be in if you're going to be in the spirit here it is the will of god the will of god that's why in ephesians 5 it talks about moving in the will of god in chapter 5. he's concerned that you are concerned to move toward the will of god to walk in the will of god which is the realm of the spirit you have made a conscious decision that this is god's will and i am going toward it that means you have to know what god's will is based on god's word and you have to make movements toward that will once you do that you have flipped the switch the holy ghost switch you have invited the spirit into the activity of the atmosphere now if you're saved you have the spirit but you just like you have electricity but now you flip the switch on when you are now saying this is the will of god god i need your power washing machine to get there i'm going to move toward your will your will is my destination so you've got to have the right destination secondly walking is dependency when you walk what do you do you put one foot on top of another foot that means you're putting all your weight on that leg to take that step right in other words you're depending on your leg to get you to the destination so there is a destination but there also is a dependency i'm counting on my legs to get me there once you decide this is what god says about this this is what god wants and this is the direction i am going to go then you call on the holy spirit to enable and empower the movement you don't lean on your flesh to move because your flesh doesn't want to go your flesh wants to stay back and do the self-centered desire but once you say i'm going to do the will of god you then call on the holy spirit i'm often asked do you pray the holy spirit absolutely you call on him and depend on him to empower the destination which is the will of god so you should be bringing the holy spirit instead of your just your will your will you know your new year's resolution that's your will you're calling on your flesh to help your flesh to do what your flesh doesn't want to give up that's your will all right no no no this is calling on the holy spirit to govern your will and not the flesh so there is a dependency so there's a destination there's a dependency but then there's a third thing there is a dedication what do i mean if you're going somewhere you'll take one step you take step after step after step after step after step after step in other words walking is step after step it's not flying somewhere it's taking one step after another that's why the bible calls it walking by faith not leaping by faith jumping by faith walking by faith why because you are now moving in the area of your decision so you've decided on your destination you've asked the holy spirit to empower that decision and now you begin to take movements that demonstrate you're believing the holy spirit to do it god wants to see your faith now i hear you talk faith and i hear you mumble faith and i hear you uh pontificate faith you must now take steps that gives you validation of your faith faith is not a feeling you can be full of faith and have no feeling you can have plenty of feeling and have no faith because faith is demonstrated by the movements you take not the mouthing you make so when you now take steps because you're walking you now have the right destination you have the right dependency you're raking right movements and the holy spirit takes over have you ever been on a moving sidewalk at the airport now you can go from one gate to another gate just by walking on the path okay but then they have moving sidewalks these are empowered mechanisms empowered nets that take you from one gate to another gate you get on it and underneath you is an empowerment to move you along as you take your steps in other words you're taking your steps but it's not like if you were just on the side because now something underneath you is enabling your progress and you will see that the person who is walking on the moving sidewalk is going further with less effort because there is something underneath them empowering them as they move toward the gate the holy spirit is your moving sidewalk and he moves you along as a natural process as you depend on him he says when you get in the habit now let me let me let me help you with this because some of you may say well i'm not i don't know how to do that i'm not used to that well i told you i got three grandbabies right great grandbabies and just like with my kids they all had to learn to walk and when they first started walking they make it very far because they fell down they crawled then they got up then they fell do you think we as parents or grandparents or great-grandparents said oh well you're not gonna make it no we help them to get up and walk some more they had to get used to it see our problem is we're used to the flesh we're not used to walking in the spirit because we call on the spirit in emergencies we don't call on him in taking steps that is moving throughout the day because you walk wherever you go right so you're supposed to be walking as a lifestyle not walking as a special event okay we get all spiritual at church have you ever gone to a restaurant no cafeteria oh and they got the steak or the chicken or the ground beef or the meat loaf and the potatoes and greens and cabbage and you go and you get it and then you come to the desserts pies and cakes and puddings have you ever done this you go through and you get all that good stuff tray is full and packed stacked and then you come to the end and you get a diet coke you have you ever ever seen you have you ever done that i've done it you know what the diet coke is designed to do make us feel better about our failure about all that dessert we got it is designed to make us feel better about all the stuff we've taken in either for what it is or how much it is that we shouldn't be taken in so to soothe our guilt we get a diet coke which does absolutely nothing you know what people do on sunday they go to diet church they expect that service to overrule them living in the flesh all week long but i went to church and i got full of the spirit that's diet church that's leapfrog church he wants you walking in the spirit he wants you to operate spiritually again romans 8 puts it this way he says for those verse 5 who are according to the flesh that's how they operate set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit for the mind set on the flesh is death separation from god but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace life and peace he says if you have a walking problem it's because you got a mind problem you're not thinking right you're not thinking spiritually you're thinking fleshly humanly and what we have done is we have reversed the verse in chapter five what we have done is we've got the flesh blocking the spirit because we're not walking in the spirit which will override the flesh as a lifestyle that is you you and the spirit are interacting all day long whenever you bump into something whenever you're driven to something whenever you're tempted by something you're calling on the spirit all the time because you're walking in him it is a relationship thing it is not an event it is a relationship and the more you do it the better you gonna walk okay because you gotta practice walking what will happen he brings it home he says if you're led by the spirit you're not under the law have you ever seen a a dog owner holding a dog on a leash that's because they don't want the dog to run off so they they they manage the distance and the movement of the dog by the leash by the law called the leash but have you ever seen a person walking with their dog and the dog doesn't leave the side as they walk but there is no leash you know why because the relationship is so strong they're not going to run off see we've not developed such an intimate relationship with the holy spirit that's why we keep going to the law to hold people hostage that's why we got to come up with all kind of rules even outside of the bible to hold people hostage because we haven't taught them how to walk in the spirit because when you walk in relationship you're not held hostage by the leash of rules not because the rules are wrong but because the rules are being obeyed our relationship not out of leash holding he says the deeds of the flesh are always self-centered and he gives deeds that are sensual deeds he gives deeds that are superstitious deeds sorcery and enmity and he gives these that are relational deeds strife and jealousy outburst of anger and disputes you you get angry i'll tell you i just can't control my anger that's because you're not walking in the spirit that's why you can't control your anger you just say that's not you that's my personality no that's your sinful flesh that's what that is let's call it what it is because as long as you can call it your personality you can always excuse it and never use the spirit to override it or the strife you're always in conflict causing conflict he says drunkenness you can't control your liquor you say well yeah well that's just that's just me i i you can't control your drugs oh no he said no that's a flesh problem that's not that's not that's not don't blame that on alcohol jack daniels ain't controlling that your lack of walking in the spirit is controlling that he goes over carousing and such things which i forewarn you that you won't inherit the kingdom of god you will not get the benefits that god wants to accrue to you as a kingdom citizen if you don't learn to walk in the spirit but what is the spirit the spirit is full of fruit that's where we started that's where we in full of fruit but the fruit of the spirit is let me tell you something about the fruit notice the word fruit is singular even though he's going to list a whole list of fruit why because these are all unified meaning they come from the one tree the spirit called fruit that is he bursts these characteristics but you don't have to go looking for all these different things looking for love looking for peace looking for patience looking for kindness and so on and so forth ah all you gotta do is get the one tree in the garden because the tree is unified the tree is recognizable the tree is uh harmonious and it's full of life why because all these fruit all fruit is alive and you know what fruit does make other people want to take a bite out of your life apples don't eat apples people eat apples oranges don't eat oranges that's rotten fruit people eat oranges in other words instead of being a curse to other folk you're going to be a blessing to other folks why because you're changing they're gonna see they're gonna see you're growing you're changing you don't get as angry as you used to get you don't get as impatient as you used to get you're not as undisciplined as you used to be you're gonna find yourself changing why because there's a fruit tree growing in your soul the spirit called fruit that is that is this tree that's uprooting this new walk this new conduct this new orientation because you're operating in a new environment remember a lot of you remember that old movie called the blob you know it's like jello kind of thing and there's an old version and new version okay and it kept growing and growing because it kept it kept eating up people and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and nothing they could do could stop the blob i remember it went into a movie theater one time went behind the screen then oozed out from the screen and people are screaming and and it's it's it's just eating up people and consuming people it's getting bigger and bigger it's not that they didn't try to destroy it they tried but it would eat up the things trying to destroy it you know how they dealt with the blood they changed this environment they discovered the blob couldn't handle coal couldn't handle coal so they took it to this far away place that was cold all the time and they shifted an environment and the blob lost its power you and i have a blob within us called the flesh and depending on how long you've been sitting you've been sinful all your life but how much you've been sending that will determine how many cars you got riding and the kind of vehicles some have sensual vehicles others have attitudinal vehicles others have relational vehicles got stuff some of us have all kind of vehicles in the garage okay we don't even know which car we're driving today because stuff is going all over the place all right but there's a fruit tree the holy spirit and if he is allowed because we're walking in him to grow in our souls he will not negate the flesh but he will override it so that even when the flesh wants to raise its ugly head it won't be able to go very far because the spirit of god will overrule it and that's what god offers every believer now to have that you've got to be willing to have the spirit and you only have the spirit by accepting christ that's why the bible calls the holy spirit the spirit of christ because christ comes into your life by means of the holy spirit when you accept christ as your personal substitute your personal sin bearer you must receive him as your means of being accepted by a holy god god cannot accept sin and so your flesh can't enter heaven but what he will do is he will enter your life forgive your sin and give you eternal life when you accept his son as your personal savior would you go to jesus christ right now and acknowledge to him that you are a sinner and that you need a savior that you trust him as your substitute right now you receive jesus christ into your life to forgive your sins and give you eternal life did you trust him right now go to him in prayer he's ready to receive you and let us know that you've gone to him in prayer you've received christ we want to know about it so we can pray for you if you're a believer then you can thank god for the holy spirit now around communion in fact you can say lord i want to walk in the spirit all week long your will will be my destination and i'm going to depend on you and i'm going to move in the direction of that dependence by acting in concert with the destination the will of god to which i am headed you'll begin you may fall down until you get used to walking begin walking this week as you remember jesus christ died so you could have the spirit now you just need to walk in the spirit lord thank you for your body and blood that was given for us for our salvation and our empowerment we eat now this bread in remembrance of you [Music] thank you for the bloodshed on calvary which forgives our sin and gives us power over sin we drink together [Music] so lord we forget what's behind us and all the failures and we look toward what's ahead of us in the new victories because we're now growing a fruit tree in our soul the holy spirit as we walk underneath his power in jesus name amen wow what an awesome word and i just want to thank my dad and you continue to pray for him during this season as he continues to be consistent uh giving that word week in and week out giving us a good word that we can not only chew on but actually digest and apply uh in our lives on a day-to-day basis jesus would often say in his word he who has an ear let him hear well we all have ears but the question is are you really listening and we'll always know that not just by what you hear or by what you say but ultimately by what we do and so our job is to execute on the field of play the word that we just got from the playbook so i want to thank my dad for being consistent and continuously giving us that word each and every week for those of you who changed your life and you accepted jesus christ and or you're rededicating your life we want to contact you we want to be in touch with you you can contact us at ocbfchurch.org forward slash contact us ocbfchurch.org forward slash contact us so that we can grow together we don't want you to be alone during this season and during all of these lockdowns where many people feel alone and we want you to know that we are here for you we can't wait to worship with you again next week 10 a.m central standard time at ocbfchurch.org our website or our ocbf facebook or you can meet us on ocbf youtube okay 10 a.m central standard time can't wait to see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

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Id: 8Tff-qxmHfQ

Length: 84min 18sec (5058 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020