Who's In Control | John McIntyre | Full Service

good morning welcome to the online campus we're so glad that you decided to join us here this morning and i just want to give a special shout out to those of you who are joining for their very first time on a holiday weekend we're really glad that you decided to tune in and to all of you who maybe don't usually attend the online campus but you're out of town and you wanted to join in we're just really glad that you decided to join us this morning so here at the online campus the way that we engage throughout the message throughout the singing is that we join into the chat so there's actually hosts that are right there in the chat they love to hear your name and hear from you so go ahead and join in that conversation this morning we're going to be spending the next hour praising god just spending some time in his presence and we're going to be wrapping up our series called marked by and what we want to be marked by is the fruits of the spirit the fruits of god's spirit and when i say we i do mean adults and kids so if you have any kids that are joining you this morning we've got some awesome resources to help engage the kids in learning about the fruits of the spirit if you'd like to access those you can find them at the link that's on your screen so let's go ahead and just spend some time praising god together and enjoying his presence would you sing with me [Music] good morning northridge church go ahead and sing out these words with us he's coming on the clouds kings and kingdoms will bow down and every chain will break his broken hearts declare his praise for who can stop the lord almighty our god is the lion the lion of judah he's roaring with power and fighting a battle never knew about before him high god is the lamb the land that was slain for the sins of the world his blood breaks the chains and every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb every knee will bow before it [Music] so open up the gates make way before the king of kings the god who comes to save is here to set the captives for who can stop the lord alive our god is the light the lion of judah he's roaring with power and fighting [Music] the land that of the was his blood breaks the chains and every knee will bow before the lion never land oh every knee will thou be who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty who can stop [Music] who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty who can stop is [Music] [Music] his oh [Music] [Music] we've found all we need in jesus come on i searched the world and it couldn't fill me a man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough then you came along and you put me back together now every desire is now satisfied here [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord is nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you now i'm not afraid to show you my weakness my failures and flaws lord you've seen them all and you still call me friends the god of the mountain is with you it's the god of the valley and there's not a place your mercy and grace won't find me again oh there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you that there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing nothing you come on we've seen him work for our good [Music] he turns you turn morning to dancing you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one [Applause] [Applause] you turn shame into glory you're the only one you care you turn crazy [Music] you're the only one oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing nothing is better than you oh there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than you [Music] you turn crazy [Music] you're the only one you're the only one [Music] [Music] you give life you will love you bring life to the [Music] you darkness every heart that is [Music] it's your bread [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] it's your bread [Music] [Applause] [Music] is um [Music] all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing pray are the you will shout your grace our hearts will cry these bones [Music] our hearts will cry these bones [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] lord let that be the message that our life's in that you are great let us praise you in everything we do let our aim be to glorify you and you alone we're eating sleeping drinking breathing let it all be too clear thank you so much for singing with us thanks for making northridge part of your labor day weekend and maybe you're walking through something difficult and you need prayer maybe you have a question or maybe you just like to talk to someone we'd love to help and jumping into our chat is the easiest way for us to connect with you we've got hosts who would love a chance to personally welcome you and answer your questions you can also go to iwant.info on your web browser to ask for prayer or to tell us about your experience today for everyone new to our church who connects with us through iwant.info northridge will give five dollars to help strengthen families and poverty and seek justice in our community and around the world as we prepare for a new season this fall might be a great opportunity for you to explore a new rhythm in your life whether you're new to northridge or just beginning to reconnect we want to invite you to check out a community group if you want to grow in your relationship with jesus you need to have intentional relationships with people who have the same goal and community group is the ideal place just for that we have groups that meet all over rochester and online to pursue spiritual growth and healthy relationships you'll be encouraged to live out the truths you discover in the bible and encourage others if you've never been a part of a group before or it's been a while since you've connected with one we didn't encourage you to give it a try for one week or for our next nine week trimester to connect with a group or get more details visit i want that info for many of us the fall season means returning to school but what if this fall you had the opportunity to jump into a different type of a classroom we are excited to offer a number of classes this year to help you grow in your faith our first class is called the story of reality which will help us all prepare to answer tough questions in life questions like how did the world begin why is it the way that it is what role do humans play how will it end these are big questions that shape reality no matter where you fall in seeking answers to life's biggest questions we'd love to have you join us for our next equip class starting next week it'll be offered both online and here in person and you can go to iwant.info for more information again thanks for being here with sdf [Music] [Music] well hey a lot of great information there about what's coming here at northridge and one of the things you heard about was community group and we love community groups here at northridge we think they're so important and we want to encourage you in fact we can't encourage you strongly enough to be a part of your group whether you regularly join us here online or at one of our physical campuses because you know it's not enough to to just know about god's love or to even have personally experienced god's love no we all need to go another step and that is to share god's love with other people who follow christ even as they share their experience of god's love with us what happens when we don't do that what happens when we fail to experience god's love or share it with others well i think actually the story that we're going to hear in a couple minutes has the answer to that question what happens is we actually begin to chase after other loves other unhealthy desires that god doesn't intend for our lives and so i think that's why the writer of the bible book of hebrews tells us that we shouldn't neglect meeting together because there are some christians he writes that actually do neglect that and it's not healthy for them no he says instead spur one another on toward love and good deeds we think this is best accomplished when small groups of christians gather together and meet in those groups together on a regular basis if you'd like more information about our community groups you can simply go to iwant.info on any device we also want to give you today an opportunity to invest here financially in the ministry of northridge church and the easiest way to do that is to text the word give to the number on your screen right now and you can give a gift of any size there if you do well hey we're going to hear that story shane's going to tell us his powerful story of how god uh you know intersected his life and changed his life forever but before we do we're actually going to see shane not only tell his story but then be baptized follow christ in obedience that way and i want to remind you that there's an event coming up on october 24th called open baptism it's a big event here at northridge it's an opportunity for anyone who hasn't yet followed jesus command to be baptized if you're a christ follower and you've not yet been baptized we want to encourage you participate in this event on october 24th and you can find more information out by going to iwant.info well without further ado we want to share with you shane's story take a look [Music] my name's shane i grew up on a horse farm out in churchville i wasn't the good kid i guess i would always cause trouble before christ a lot of lonely days a lot of uh battling with the face of lust battling with nobody to be able to connect with going through a lot of my high school experience just depressed and down i would say that i looked at women in a certain way that i didn't respect them i used them in many aspects with my lustful adventures i knew it was destroying me it was making me depressed it was hurting my soul and i but i just lacked love so i just kept seeking that and so without christ i didn't have the strength to be able to get to know someone for them i just looked at them as an object that god moment for me was aaron hixson sent me a text saying he was praying for me and i knew of him from a year ago i went to his campus a couple times and then of course covet hit so i was disconnected from that church it was just like a calling to me to go back to church and just like he was like hey how can i pray for you and i was like okay i need to get back into it i don't know why like i have sundays free now like i need to do something i shouldn't be spending my time like anywhere but there i was learning that and going back to service my friend told me to start at the gospel and i started reading through and i came across the story of the lost sheep and it just really spoke to me like he doesn't want any of his children to perish he wants every single one so that was my moment where i knew i just wanted to continue to follow him and read the word so every single morning i read two chapters even three or four it depends on how like amped i am or how much time i have before work but i start the day every day with god and that's just how i live and breathe now it reminds me to be more like christ as i face every challenge in the day without christ i cannot battle lust by myself without christ i cannot wake up every morning and read scripture it's just a rewarding thing to have him as he is the love that i try to broadcast out like interacting with people at the laundromat out with my friends i try to preach the word as much as i possibly can of course not forcefully if someone doesn't want to accept it off the get-go i don't want to push but i just love talking about it and the more i surround myself with people that love to talk about it i see the joy the love the happiness the patience the kindness the goodness it's just it makes me happier to be able to surround myself with that and i know the challenges i face with like what i did face with lust and what i can do with christ is only with him being with me and without him i cannot today i'm getting baptized to remind the world what christ has done for me and that he is the leader of my life shane it's been great getting to know you in summer group this year um you have such a desire to know and to please god and it's been so encouraging to watch you make more and more decisions in your life based on what the bible says and i'm amped to see this spirit continue to do a work in you as you faithfully follow christ so now based on your faith in christ alone for your salvation i baptize you in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit [Applause] so cool in fact there was a bunch of friends over here to the left that were in here and we're visiting and we're celebrating with shane this morning it's so amazing to see god do a work in somebody's life in the midst of covid he used a care call from a staff member to connect with him well today we are bringing this is like this is like the last in our marked by series and um this is cleanup like your cleanup this is john mcintyre john is i've been at northridge for 16 years and john was here long before me he actually grew up at northridge church he is one of our lay elders he's on our oversight team he's an engineer at harris yeah he's the father of four daughters four daughters as am i so come on except i got twins he does have twins a round of applause he's got twins i do not so yeah let's let's give john a warm welcome can't wait to see what god is going to use you to to do and speak into all our lives so thanks for being a part and thanks for helping us this way thank you all campuses all campuses there you go awesome well thanks for being here um i know a lot of us are just meeting for the first time but i'm going to let you in on this anyways you never know when this might prove to be useful if you wanted to kill me and who knows by the end of the day some of you might if you wanted to kill me the easiest way to do it by far would be to poison a cookie i love cookies you could just hand it to me i will eat it you could leave it somewhere for me to find because if there's a cookie here i'm definitely going to find it i love cookies in fact i think you could even tell me it was poisoned and there's a good chance i'd eat it anyways i joked about this at work one time and a couple days later i came into my desk and sitting there was this a tupperware full of cookies with a note on and said poisoned and i was like ooh [Applause] there wasn't anybody around i was like uh man those look really good like this is a joke right this is this is because of the thing i said like well i i dove in i demolished the whole tub and they were good and i don't think they're poisoned because i'm still here talking about it probably the takeaway from this story though is that at least in terms of cookies i don't always have the best self-control but self-control is the last in the fruit list of the fruit of the spirit we find in galatians 5 22 and 23. but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control all right these are the things that a christian should be marked by what we should be able to look for in our lives is evidence that the holy spirit is working in us growing us from the inside out but if you've been here the past nine weeks or you're looking at this list and thinking man nothing in this list describes me i don't look like that at all that's okay this list isn't where you start off this is where over time through the spirit you end up self-control though that's kind of a weird thing to say i need more self-control alright raises some questions because if i'm not in control of myself who is or what is it feels that way though sometimes doesn't it that i'm not always in control like there's this other thing inside me fighting me that if i let con let go of the wheel for just a second would take my life careening into the weeds right in the cartoons right it used to be this angel and demon on your shoulder right like we're getting pulled in the middle between a right choice and a wrong choice the apostle peter talks about this inner battle in first peter 2 11 he says dear friends i urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul and peter what he's telling us here is that what we're really fighting is our desires that if we're not careful what we desire can begin to control us more than we have control over it and we don't we're not in the cartoons we don't have angels and demons on our shoulders but the battle we're in is real just the same right and peter said it's our soul that's at stake here and so self-control really is how we keep those desires in check right keep them from getting control over us jerry bridges in his book respectable sins he writes this about it self-control is a governance or prudent control of one's desires cravings impulses emotions and passions it's saying no when we should say no it's moderation and legitimate desires and activities and absolute restraint in areas that are clearly sinful that would involve for example moderation and watching television and absolute restraint in viewing internet pornography and moderation and good things absolute restraint and simple things i think sometimes for me anyways moderation's a lot harder than absolute restraint like i'm an all-or-nothing guy right finding a happy medium a slow simmer that's tough for me maybe maybe you guys can relate but i love that simple sentence that he's stuck in the middle of that that self-control is saying no when we should say no because it's hard to say no to ourselves right we can talk ourselves into absolutely anything right uh we cut ourselves all kinds of slack and say hey come on it's just one cookie right it's probably not poison you know what's the harm here you've been working hard you deserve this right go ahead right but deep down we know that choices that are sinful or aren't bad but taken to an excess right they hurt us over time they end up in regret and while we know this i think we don't always believe it at least in the moment right is one cookie really going to move the needle for me right but how how often is it just one cookie right when i was in uh youth group here growing up we had a rule uh at least as far as it came to oreos that if you started a row you finished that row of oreos all right one oreo is not going to have an impact on your health right a row of them maybe but how about a habit of them one drink isn't going to change the course of your life but four of them or a habit of them when i think about self-control i go right to food that's me okay but uh self-control encompasses a lot more than what we eat and i think a lot of the things we struggle with self-control with fall into two different categories one being the things we let in like food and drink and entertainment and the things we let out from ourselves like our money or our time our words and our affections i'm willing to bat there's uh a thing or two that might come to mind for you where you're like yeah i could use a little more self-control here and certainly there's areas of our life that we can master in our own strength at least for a while but doesn't it feel sometimes though that your arms are so full already that if you try to pick up one more thing get control over it as something else drops right maybe you've experienced this maybe you've given up smoking and picked up a frappuccino habit to replace it uh or about this you were doing uh trying to budget for the month and doing really really good not spending money but you ended up staying inside the whole time watching tv playing video games to the neglect of everything else in your life but hey at least you weren't going out and you saved money right that's not self-control that paul's talking about here that's not fruit of the spirit right the christ follower should be marked by self-control in every area of our lives oh wait wait a second come on every area really you know like that's impossible right i'm not one of those american ninja warrior type dudes all right like that's never gonna happen for me like what's the point of trying here well paul who wrote this letter to the galatians that paul was that guy right so if you're feeling despair in this you're not alone you're in good company see he was that guy who you just feel bad about when you think about him or you feel bad about yourself when you think about him because he's just got it together all the time never gives in he's like always on his game in fact he he writes this about himself in philippians 3 uh verses four to six if someone else thinks they have reason to put confidence in the flesh i have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of hebrews in regard to the law of pharisee as for zeal persecuting the church as for righteousness based on the law faultless faultless that law that he says he's faultless of was actually 613 individual commandments that he would have had to follow uh had to follow to be part of the jewish community to be righteous in the eyes of the lord if you're like me you're thinking oh great the guy who's telling me to have self-control here turns out he's actually a hebrew ninja warrior right like sure he's gonna say that but paul's uh pretty gracious though and he lets us behind the curtain uh in his letter to the romans he lets us in on his inner battle and maybe you can relate to this in romans 7 starting at verse 18 he writes for i have the desire to do what's good but i can't carry it out for i do not do the good i want to do but the evil i don't want to do this i keep on doing and now if i do what i do not want to do it's no longer i who do it but sin living in me that does it so i find this law at work that although i want to do good evil is right there with me and for in my inner being i delight in god's law but i see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin at work within me what a wretched man i am who will rescue me from this body that's subject to death do you feel like paul here have you ever been in this place a slave to sin trapped unable to stop making choices that you know you'll regret that you know are bad for you and will hurt you over time well it's nice that i'm not the only one that's ever felt like this but if the apostle paul right is struggling with this can't get it together like what hope is there for me here well he keeps writing verse 25 thanks be to god who delivers me through jesus christ our lord and therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus because through christ jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death and there is hope here in christ we're not in this battle by ourselves and through christ we've been set free from this law of sin and death in this freedom it really comes to us in two different ways and the first is the freedom from the punishment for sin and he said there's no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus we've been declared righteous even though we didn't live righteously and we call this justification this is the best news in the world right here right that the way to salvation isn't through hard work and rule keeping that's an impossible road that only leads to death no the way to salvation is to surrender to admit that you're not good enough on your own to put your trust in jesus and trust that he that he's good enough to make up for when you're not and then we follow him so if you've been feeling the weight of your past mistakes or you're laboring under the burden trying to be good enough to make god pleased with you then this freedom's for you and if you haven't taken this step in your life and you'd like to or you'd like more information about it you can go right now from any device to iwant.info and click i'd like more information about salvation but the story it gets even better though because when we come to him broken and surrendered he doesn't leave us there in that broken state he gives us his spirit he works in us and he grows us from the inside out and this process is called sanctification and it's freedom from the power of sin further down in romans 8 and verse 13 paul writes for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of your body you will live all right by the spirit we can put to death the misdeeds of our body we call those things sin all right his spirit gives us power over sin instead of sin having power over us so this is this is the key for us with self-control right because self-control really is spirit control jerry bridges he summarizes this again uh really well that's self-control is not control by oneself through one's own willpower but rather control of oneself through the power of the holy spirit and this makes sense right it has to be this way because it's my self that's out of control i need something stronger than myself outside myself to bring myself under control to rein myself in so in romans 8 13 we saw two options laid out before us right we can live according to the flesh and we'll die or by the spirit we can put to death the misdeeds of our body and we can live what could be easier life and death decision right but it's hard we know that because what we're really choosing is what is going to die me or my desires and this is hard right i want my desires i desire those things right as we live by the spirit though over time and we begin to say no to ourselves our desires they actually start to change as a result of obedience he rewards us by changing our hearts in renewing our minds right so that over time our desire for him increases and our desire for sinful things decreases right and by the spirit we can walk in that faith and faith that as we follow and obey him that he will change us right his spirit will produce this fruit of righteousness in our lives it's crazy though but sometimes i think it's a lot easier to believe that god will forgive me for my sins than it is to believe that he could actually change my heart to no longer love to sin and maybe if you've been struggling with something for a long time that's had control over you you need to ask yourself do i even believe that i can be changed or do you believe in a god who can bring his son back from the dead but he can't breathe new life into your heart well in philippians 1 6 paul writes this and gives us a promise and being confident of this he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of jesus christ right if you're a believer this is already begun he's growing you from the inside out and he will carry it on to completion that doesn't mean we just get to sit back and watch him work we have a very active role in this process as well right it requires us to say no to ourselves and say yes to what he's calling you to do and this isn't obedience to him to try to earn anything but it's obedience to him by faith a grace infused effort right empowered by the holy spirit that just because he says so i'm going to trust that his way is better even when it's hard even when the cost is high and even when it doesn't work out like we were expecting to we trust him with the results the results in our life here and now and the results for eternity and that means by the spirit we have to put to death our sinful desires we saw that in romans 8 13 but that's not the only time paul talks violently about this in galatians 5 24 this is actually the verse right after we find the fruit of the spirit listed he writes this that those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires crucified right nailed to the cross and this is where it gets real and this is where it gets hard and we've got to ask ourselves honestly what do i need to put to death right what in your life over time is going to take you to a place where you don't want your life to go and you you may be afraid to even think what it is in your life let alone speak it or write it down maybe you're thinking to yourself come on that thing that's no big deal you know that's not taking any taking me anywhere i do that because i want to do that not because i have to do that it doesn't have control over me i've got it handled with all that's at stake here is it really worth trying to handle something in your life that's trying to take control over you and trying to lead you to death paul he doesn't tell us to handle these desires he tells us to execute them right because right when you think you've got something handled in your life right right then in walks temptation right and maybe maybe you're not dumb enough to actually be tempted by a poison cookie like i am but there's something like this for all of us it comes in many forms it's whatever that thing for you that as soon as you see it you have to have it or as soon as you think it you've got to do it right there's something like that for all of us in first corinthians 10 13 we read no temptation has overtaken you except what's common to mankind and god is faithful he'll not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you're tempted not if but when he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it therefore my dear friends don't be afraid of temptation handle it without fear wait a second why doesn't it say that why does it say flee paul why why are you telling me to run from temptation you said there's going to be a way out you said that i've been set free from sin well god will provide a way out there's always a way out how do you know when that way out has already come and gone all right sometimes i think we expect it to look really obvious like somebody's going to come crashing through the window and drag me out of there before i can make a mess of my life right but sometimes it's really subtle you might have passed the way out on the way in so if the picture you've got in your mind of self-control is sitting there staring temptation in the face and sweating it out you're wrong it's fleeing it's finding the way out it's running and it's not just paul who says this jesus when he's teaching his followers how to pray this is in what we call the lord's prayer he doesn't tell people to pray for strength in the face of temptation like you might expect no he says this and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil he's telling us to pray that we don't even face temptation in the first place all right to quote jackie chan here the best fight is the one we avoid right so paul and jesus and maybe even jackie chan are all telling us the same thing right don't mess around with temptation all right fight the battle in your life before it begins put a safety barrier way back from the edge of the cliff and make the decisions when you're strong that protect you when you're weak all right so standing looking in the fridge for self-control that's too late right you you've got to start that fight at the store and maybe maybe you've got to cancel a credit card or go back to shopping only in brick and mortar stores to get your online spending habits reigned in and maybe you've got to take a different way to and from work so you don't pass by that sign or that store or that corner anymore maybe you've got to change the password on your computer and devices to something only your spouse has or put accountability software on there or you know what maybe you got to ditch your data plan and cut the internet right out of your house and maybe you've got to change jobs or change schools or pick up and move so that you don't even see that person anymore if you think i'm being extreme here get a load of what jesus says in the sermon on the mount in matthew 5 29-30 if your right eye causes you to stumble gouge it out and throw it away it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to stumble cut it off throw it away it's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell jesus isn't literally telling us here to gouge our eyes out but what he is saying is that there is no step that's too radical to root out to go after sin in your life because the stakes are high right so self-control isn't about building superhuman willpower it's about being willing to cut out right put to death the areas in our life that could take control over us and these aren't sacrifices right jesus doesn't just tell us to cut these parts of our life out but that it's better if we do it's better for us paul says this too in romans 8 6 the mind governed by the flesh is death that the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace who here today longs for a mind that's at peace because cutting things out of our life that take us where we don't want to go and these are the decisions we don't regret that bring us life and peace so what is it for you what do you need to put to death to cut out i'll tell you what it was for me i've been joking about cookies and food but honestly it's not that funny i've struggled with my weight since i was a very young kid my whole life it got to the point where after college i was more than a hundred pounds heavier than i am right now and uh i have a picture from back around in 2008 that was actually taken right here right about there it was at the groundbreaking for this auditorium here at the rochester campus and my wife allison happened to be snapped in this picture although she wasn't my wife at this time we weren't together i mean i had a huge crush on her but she still had several years to go of being very immune to my charms i wore her down eventually but at this point in my life and i had struggled with my weight for so long i had no hope of ever being any different and this was how i saw myself who i was in my mind but there came a point when i had to ask myself how can i believe that god can forgive me for my sins but he won't give me his promise to give me power over sin in my life to set me free and i realized a couple years after this picture was taken that the step he was calling me to take in my life that radical step really did involve surgery right two and a half years about 10 years ago i began the process to undergo weight loss surgery and that's not something you just go get one day it's months of working with doctors and dietitians to build a better lifestyle healthier habits in your life it's not a magic bullet and it's definitely not for everyone but it is a tool a tool that helps me to be forced in the short term into those healthier habits and helps maintain them over time and there's a cost associated with it there's foods i can never eat again things that make me sick and there's pills i gotta take every day for the rest of my life right but i ultimately lost over 140 pounds on that journey and it was the best decision i ever made but i wish i could end the story there and stand here at a buck 85 and a 34 inch waist but here i am right a work in progress you sometimes i think in our freedom from sin it's hard to remember that we're actually free and to believe that we're actually free and to live like we're actually free right over time it's easy to let go of the wheel to coast all right we think we've got this we're doing great and we stop praying for strength we stop praying to not be led into temptation right and before you know it we're walking in our own strength instead of walking by the spirit right and then and that's when life happens right things get hard your plate gets full and your job gets crazy i mean you're trying to make ends meet and maybe you're having kids now or you're having trouble having kids or in my case the kids start coming two by two you got people who depend on you maybe your parents are sick maybe they die and maybe you're in messes and circumstances that you can't see the way out of right then at that point in your life when temptation comes yeah maybe i will have that cookie or maybe i will go out to lunch instead of bringing a healthy one from home or how about this uh maybe you've had a hard day at work again so maybe you'll have that drink to unwind again or it's just texting right they're just a friend they make me feel better about myself and they get me i know my spouse doesn't need to know but hey what's the harm right this there's nothing wrong here right when we're walking by the flesh being led by our desires in an instant our life can end up in a place where we never thought it could be or worse it could end up back to a place where we swore we'd never be again and maybe the problem isn't that sin struggle in your life that you were trying to handle in your own strength but maybe it's all the rest of that stuff in your life that you were trying to carry on your own too you were living like the outcomes depended on you instead of walking by faith and humble obedience but trusting god with the results and so for me earlier this year 10 years after that surgery i found myself back to a weight in a clothing size i swore i would never be too again and so there's a part of my life here that i thought i had put to death right but it's taken back control over me so what do we do right means i've got to humble myself i started that weight loss journey again get back to healthier habits and ultimately that meant 10 years on getting a revision to that surgery that i had and yeah i'm giving up some freedom i'm submitting two restrictions in my life i'm cutting parts of my life that i desire out but these are the decisions we don't regret and the gospel is just as good today as the first day you accepted it we can keep coming back to him again and again and again for forgiveness for acceptance and for grace he takes you in right where you are but he loves you too much to leave you there so he gives you his spirit he sets you free from sin he helps you grow and the victory is already won and the price has already been paid on the cross so what is it for you right what part of your life do you need to cut out what's taking you where you don't want your life to go be honest with yourself right paul he calls us to crucify these passions and desires crucify nail them to the cross right so for you maybe it is that cookie maybe it is what you eat or how about this right are you valuing this or the things that this buys more than the people in your life more than your relationship with god now to the cross what about your entertainment is that taking you somewhere good the things you're taking in like television [Music] or video games or that's a little old school what about this what about your smartphone maybe you need to really evaluate uh if you're using this the right way in your life or if this should be in your life at all right is is having uh immediate access to all the people in your world and all the pictures in the world in your pocket at all times is that a good call for you [Music] [Applause] how much time and attention are these three things right here robbing from the people in your life [Music] maybe maybe it's smoking or nicotine maybe it's time to give this up and put this down for finally that the spirit enables us to do these things maybe maybe it's gambling time to be done with that [Music] or maybe you really need to question and evaluate honestly your relationship with alcohol [Music] [Music] i had you that would have been a mess we can nail this up there though crucify our sinful desires right the spirit enables us to do this you can put these things down in your life the things that are taking you where you don't want to go because these are the decisions we don't regret the ones that bring us life and peace all right through christ jesus the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death so be free live by the spirit but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law and those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires and since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit and that's my prayer for you today that you would live by the spirit and your lives would be marked by these fruit father god we thank you so much that you have set us free from sin you paid the penalty and declared the victory for us already on the cross help us walk in that faith faith that you are inside us working and can change us we're not in this battle by ourselves and give us the strength to put down the things in our lives you're calling us to and to walk closer to you we pray in your name amen i don't know if you've ever lost control of a vehicle while driving i have and i can tell you it's a scary feeling but you know i think there's a feeling far more scary than that and that's losing control of yourself right today we heard about the the importance of developing self-control and man to lose control of the ability to make wise choices that is a scary proposition to not be able to uh to properly control uh you know making healthy choices or keeping yourself from saying those unkind words or even developing those healthy abilities that you desire those commitments that you know you need to keep yourself to to to not be able to control yourself is is scary and dangerous and so the good news though is that we have help we have ultimately the help of the holy spirit within us as jesus followers and that's the the most important help that we can have but we also have the help of one another and as a church that's what we want to be for one another we want to be that help to you today to help you take that next step on your faith walk whatever that might look like for you we'd love to hear from you if you reach out to us at iwant.info there are opportunities there to see what's available here at northridge to help you on your faith walk there is an opportunity to share a prayer request with us we'd love to pray for you uh whatever it is you might need uh there's an opportunity to text with a real person we again would love to help you in whatever we can today well we hope that you have a tremendous rest of your labor day weekend and we look forward to having you right back here next week with us for another great time together

Channel: Northridge Church - Rochester

Views: 122

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: northridge, church, rochester, new york, Jesus, worship, community, bible, north, ridge, music, songs

Id: hrd3Coo2Fc8

Length: 60min 27sec (3627 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021