Life In The Spirit Series, Part 1

in the Spirit. Our text that will serve as our launching point for the next four weeks comes from Paul's letter to the church at Galatia in chapter 5 and verse 25. It says, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And Galatians 5, I might be a little bit partial, this over the last several years has become one of my favorite chapters. And while the the concept of life and the Spirit seems a little bit, for lack of a better term, mystical or beyond the tangible, I really think that it is much more practical than we often consider. And my desire tonight as we look to the Scripture is to endeavor to find that middle ground where, yes, we are spiritual but that God would give us practical understanding on how to be these kind of people. So some context or a foundation for us to launch into this tonight, we really have to go

all the way back to the Garden of Eden and consider this, what was the price of disobedience? He told them, thou shalt surely die. Now, on the surface, you could say, well, that's contradictory. Nobody physically died, no. But that death he spoke of was never intended to be interpreted as a physical death. It was spiritual. And the long outcome of spiritual death is that we and all humanity would now be subject to physical death. But the immediate application of which God was speaking to Adam and Eve was that this death was not physical but spiritual. And spiritual death is, it's just this, it's separation from God. And we see this because following their disobedience, when the Lord comes to the Garden as he had so many times before, the Bible says that Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. This distinguishes a separation between Adam and Eve and the presence of the Lord

that had never existed prior to that disobedience. Now, when you get to the New Testament, Paul many times in the book of Ephesians, the book of Colossians, he says things like this, he says that we have been quickened. That word quickened, it means to be made alive. He says that there was a time in your past that you were dead in the trespasses and sins. Being dead in your sins, he said, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, but you have been quickened together or made alive together with him. What's he saying? He said, there was a time that you were spiritually dead. You were dead in your sins, but you've been quickened or you have been made alive. Now, this is what Paul's saying in Galatians 5. If you live in the spirit, if you have been made alive in the spirit, then you should

also walk in the spirit. When you are born again, that is your beginning, not your ending. And so if you have been made alive in the spirit, he says you should also walk in the spirit. In other words, salvation ought to affect how you live your life. I'm glad that you can point to a moment in your past and say, on this day and in this place, I was baptized in Jesus' name for the remission of sins. I'm thankful that you can say, on this day, I received the gift of the Holy Ghost. That's wonderful. But if you have been made alive in the spirit, you should also be walking in the spirit. And I would tell you, this is just the foundation, that first point on your handout, to be alive in the spirit, you must be born again. If you have not been born again, then you

are still what the Scripture calls dead in your sins and trespasses. What does it mean to be born again? It's what Jesus told Nicodemus and John 3, except a man be born of water and of spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. It's what Peter said on the day of Pentecost when they asked the question, men and brethren, what shall we do? I feel compelled to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I understand he died, he was buried, and he rose again, but what do I personally have to do to make what he has done have effect in my life? Peter said, this is what you have to do. You need to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is what it means to be born again. And if you have

not experienced that, if somebody has not been obedient to the gospel in repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost, the Bible says they are still dead in their sin. But if you have been born again, if you live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Simply to walk in the Spirit means that you move when God moves. It's the yielding of your control to His. It's allowing God to have influence in your life. It's unique to me when you look at the early pages of Scripture, when we are introduced to God, the Bible says the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. So this is what we know. God is a God who moves. He's always moving. But then the first time the Scripture speaks to us of God moving in the context of humanity. He's created Adam and Eve. He comes to fellowship with them in the garden, and the Scripture

says that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking. And I think this is where Paul gets the basis of this revelation. His walking has always been used as this descriptive element to describe God's relationship or His movement in the context of humanity. If we're just talking about, you know, God, God's always moving in the world. I mean, God's presence, the Bible says He's omnipresent. But when we're talking about God personified, having a relationship with us, the Scripture described it as a walk. And so it's important we understand this. When we're talking about walking with God, what do we mean? We just mean that you have a relationship with Jesus. And Amos 3 asks this question, can two walk together except they be agreed? And I say, you cannot walk together unless you share in the same convictions and the same values. Now, perhaps you know this to be true

in your own life. It's difficult to maintain a relationship with those that you do not share values in. One of the most, you know, compared to the pain that some have lived in, maybe this seems small to you. One of the most painful things I've had to walk through in my relationship with the Lord was when my childhood best friend at 18 years told me he was not coming to my wedding. He was not in the church. He was phrased in a good Catholic family. And he wrote me a letter that said this. He said, we are living under the false pretense that the relationship we used to have still exists. Now, that hurt, but it was true. And his next statement said this, you are just not the same person you used to be. Now, that hurt, but it was true. I wasn't. I had submitted my life to God. I had

received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Lord radically transformed my life. Can two walk together except they be agreed? No. In the reality that 18 years of friendship, in spite of all the memories and all the shared experiences, we had very different convictions and very different value systems. Now, we've had some interaction since that time. It's been kind. It's been cordial. But that relationship is not what it was, nor will it ever be. You say that's sad. Yeah, well, a little bit, but God's filled my life with so many more great relationships. But they're with people that share in the same conviction and that have the same values. Now, we're not really here tonight to talk about friendship with others. We're talking about the Lord. So I would tell you, you cannot have a relationship with God, except you submit your life to live according to

His convictions and His values. Now, you can come to church. You can sit in the building. But if you do not surrender your life, if you do not yield control and surrender to the influence of His ways and His values on your life, I'm sorry. I'm glad you're in the building, but that does not mean you have a relationship with Jesus. You cannot walk with Him unless you share the same convictions and values. But there's something to consider here tonight, because when we look to the Scripture, we are reading so much of those who, they walked with Jesus in His humanity. And I know on the one hand we think, how amazing that must have been. But the reality is, is we get the privilege tonight to live in the fulfillment of what all of this existed for. But no doubt, you like I at some point have thought, oh, it

just, if I could have been there, if I could have seen it, and if I could say like John said that we have heard and we have handled the word of life, what it would have been like. Now, we don't get that privilege. We don't get the luxury of those first disciples. Now, even they, Jesus' first followers, struggle with the idea that they would have to continue to be faithful in His physical absence. This is the narrative of John 14. He tells them, look, I'm going somewhere that you cannot come. And they have a hard time receiving that, because these men have given up careers. They've walked away from family. They've walked away from relationships. They left security behind to follow this man, Jesus Christ. And now he starts telling them, look, I'm going somewhere and you can't come with me. Now, if I'm them, I have a hard time with that, because I didn't sign up to

follow anybody else. I signed up to follow you. So what am I supposed to do if you're leaving and I can't come with you? Well, he tells them. He says, don't worry, I'll pray and there will be another comforter that he may abide with you forever. It's John 14, 16. So they're grieving because they can't reconcile their willingness to follow him, but that he will not be present physically among them. And now the following verses give us insight as to what this other comforter is, John 14, 17. Even the spirit of truth from the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now, notice this change from the third person to the first person. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. So follow the

progression of thought here. Jesus says, look, I'm sorry, but I will not be with you physically any longer. They're having a hard time with that. And he says, but I don't want you to worry. There will be another comforter, and this comforter will be with you forever. And then he says, even the spirit of truth, meaning the comforter is the spirit of truth, but the world cannot receive the spirit of truth because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. He speaks this of himself. What he's saying is they will not receive the spirit of truth because they have not received me. And he says, but you know him for he dwelleth with you right now. He is among you physically, but he shall be in you. And this is why he switches to the first person. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to

you. What a beautiful revelation of the oneness of God. This is not a different person. No, it's it's the only wise God, the Almighty God, but no longer was he in that physical body or confined to the earthly tabernacle of his human body. But after he ascended into heaven, this is Acts chapter two, sits on the right hand, pours out the promise of the Father, which you now see in here. So now Jesus is not followed. We don't get this luxury. We're not following him in his humanity. We don't get to experience him in his humanity. Our only access, our only relationship with Jesus Christ is through the indwelling of his spirit. And Paul now keep in mind, many years have passed between John 14 and 1 Corinthians 17, or six and 17, but Paul writes of this exact same experience. He that is joined under the Lord is one spirit. He's talking about the

experience of you receiving the Holy Ghost. When you receive the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God joins itself to you. That verse 19, you've heard this before, what? No ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own. No longer is God's dwelling play. It's not the tabernacle of Moses. It's not the temple that Solomon built. It's not even the earthly body of Jesus Christ. The place that God dwells is now in us as we receive the gift of his spirit. It's important that you understand this because we cannot walk with Jesus in his humanity. None of us will ever get that privilege. We won't know what it's like to have followed him as those first disciples followed him. Our only way that we can follow him or

have access to relationship with God is by his spirit. This is what it means to have life in the spirit. We are following this same God but not in his earthly body. It's by the indwelling of his spirit. And so it is imperative. It is imperative. There is no alternative. If you are dead in your sin and trespasses, you must be made alive by your obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not get the luxury of seeing and following him in his humanity. It's if you've been born again as powerful of an experience as that might be. That is not the end of the journey. That's the starting point. And well, well, that experience is transformative and it is awesome and it's an amazing testimony. You will soon find out what Paul found out. You want to do good but you don't do good. And there's this

nature inside of you that in spite of the fact that you've been born again, you still have to deal with. This is the spiritual versus the carnal. Look at Romans 8 in your handout, reading from the NIV. Paul says the mind governed by the flesh is death. But the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. A carnal Christian. It's just a little bit of an oxymoron because Paul said to be carnal, to have a mind that is governed by the flesh, to be more influenced by our carnal desires and those earthly values. He said that brings death. It's hostile to God. It's that enmity is what the King James Version says. It literally fights against God. This

is why living for God can be a little bit of a struggle sometimes. But I would tell you anything good is worth fighting for. But sometimes you have to fight for it because there is a carnal nature still resident inside of you. Until you are in heaven and forever resting with the Lord, until you are in that glorified state, that carnal nature will forever exist in you. And this is why it is imperative that you learn how to live in the spirit. Because if you are not living in the spirit, then you are living in the flesh. And to live in the flesh works against, it literally fights, everything God is doing in your life. It doesn't submit to God's law. And how can two walk together except they be agreed? You can't. And so he said, those who are in the realm of the flesh, those who have a

carnal mind cannot please God. There is no kingdom productivity if you are carnal. God takes no pleasure in you if you are carnal. You cannot please Him. You say, well I'm here, I know and I'm glad you're here. I don't want you to misunderstand me. We ought to come to church. This ought to be a high priority in our lives. But if you've been made alive in the spirit, you also need to walk in the spirit. The reality of salvation has to be more than a time and a date in your life. How can two walk together except they be agreed? To be spiritually minded means you submit to God's law. You adopt his perspectives, his values. You become obedient to his word. This is what it means to be spiritual. Now I wish tonight that being filled with the spirit would have done away with the reality of the flesh,

but this is not so. And Paul writes at length in Romans 7 and 8 about this battle, this war that's going on within him that he wants to do right, but he doesn't in the struggle. What is this struggle? It's the struggle of the spiritual versus the carnal. You know what I'm talking about? You get busy at work. You don't eat lunch. You work late. You get home and you miss supper and you're not even hungry. You don't think twice about it. The pastor calls a fast. You roll out a bed at 7, have your coffee, and it's not even, you're not even to 10 a.m. break yet. And you're hungry and you're cranky. Why? Because you purpose to do something in the spirit for the spirit. And as soon as you set out to live in the spirit, that carnal nature rises up in you and now

you're, there's a war within you in whichever one you feed is the one that grows. And so I would say that it's imperative. We understand a little bit. I don't want to go way down this road, but I think this is pretty revelatory. And I think we have to understand this a little bit because if we don't, what happens is we find ourselves in a battle that we are not prepared for and we fight it at great disadvantage. So let's go back to the Garden of Eden for a minute. Take you to creation in Genesis 2 and 7. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Three things here I want you to notice. The first is he formed man. He gave him a body, a physical structure, bones,

organ, skeletal structure, skin. It's a body. He formed man. But that, it's just a lifeless structure. There's no expression of self. There's no will. There's no breath. And so there's no relationship. And God breathed, now in the Bible the word for breath and spirit is the same. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So God's spirit breathes life into that body. So now we have body and we have spirit. And then the scripture says he became a living soul. We have body, we have spirit, we have soul. Now the body's pretty self-explanatory. We can all recall funerals that we have been to where we see a body that is absent of a spirit. The structure is there. The skeletal makeup is there. The features remain yet there is no life because it's the spirit that brings life. And it is that spirit

that is eternal. The soul, there's a lot more educated people and there's books by the hundreds you could read. Let me just give you my definition. The soul is the place of your personality. It's what makes you you. And we all have a spirit, that's the eternal part of us. But each of us, our soul is what makes us unique. Now this is amazing because there's no doctor anywhere in the world that can put you in a machine and say, well, there's your soul. There's your spirit. Cat scan can't show you, MRI can't show you. Because these things exist beyond the realm of the natural. It's the unseen. It's where God exists and it's what God has created. So when God made man, it was comprised of these three things. Body, spirit, soul. And when that spiritual death happened, what was it? It was a separation of God's spirit from our spirit.

And that's why the Bible says, as I've already read, when you receive the spirit of God, what happens? You're joined back to the spirit of the Lord, Paul said in 1 Corinthians. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. This is what it means to be born again. So note this, body, spirit, soul. Now look at 1 Thessalonians 5 and 23. This is the Apostle Paul. The very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Note this spirit, soul, and body. Now Paul begins by saying, I pray in that the God of peace would sanctify you holy. So he's describing the whole work of God as it pertains to you and I. It's spirit, soul, and body. I would tell you tonight that when you walk with God, your relationship

with God should affect all three areas of your life. Now I think I've said this in the past, but I have observed over the course of my life people who try to do the right thing the wrong way. I have seen some churches. I've heard preachers with my own ears. I've been in conversations with people that call themselves Christians who would say things like this. You live however you want to live. Do whatever you want to do. No moral boundary, no self-restraint in their gossip, no consideration of their words, how they act, what they wear, my body, my choice. Oh is it? Because according to the scripture, the God of peace is supposed to be working the process of sanctification out in your body. Now I've also seen some people go to the other extreme and they're telling people who've never been born again or are babes in Christ who should be drinking on the

milk of the word and they're trying to shove meat down their throat. Where you've got people brand new who don't even know where the book of acts is. They haven't heard half the characters of the Bible. Abraham who? David what? Who's that? Moses arc and you're trying to tell them that this is what they have to wear and this is what they have to do. Listen, you may be telling them the right thing but there is a way in which God works and I would tell you tonight that yes, when you get in the scripture and yes, when you start walking in the spirit, he's going to meddle in your everyday life. He's going to start modifying your behavior but the goal is not just behavior modification. The goal is total heart transformation and Paul is showing us how God works that the God of peace would sanctify you holy spirit, soul and body.

If we really believe the scripture is inspired by God, the order matters because when you got the Holy Ghost and the spirit of the Lord came into your life, it didn't join itself with your mind. It didn't join itself to your finger or your biceps or your left foot. No, it joined itself to your spirit and this is how God works. He works from the inside out. This is why you have to learn to live in the spirit because if you don't live in the spirit, you will live based on the outside in constantly tossed to and fro based on circumstance and the perception of your five senses. Well, what you need to learn to do is live according to the spirit of God that is working from the inside out. The very God of peace sanctify you holy. Your whole spirit, when you get the Holy Ghost, that's where

the work starts. Your soul and all of a sudden, God starts working in your mind and changing your value system and all of a sudden, you see things differently and you have different opinions on things because the scripture is forming your thoughts and the spirit is renovating your mind and there's this sanctification process working out in your soul and your mind and you're taking on the mind of Christ and you're becoming more like him and now all of a sudden, you start making real life changes because it's not meant to just stop in your mind. You got to work it out in your body. The goal has always been the same that the word would be made flesh. Your direction matters. The air of the garden of Eden was they turned their back on the word and they walked in the direction of disobedience. Now some, they don't want to

talk about the process. They just want to take the person and try to polish them up and let them be the finished product. That's not how God works. God wants to get in the nitty gritty details of your heart and your life and make you over from the inside out. Isn't that not what happened to that prodigal son? The Bible said when he came to himself, he said, you know what? If I could just get back to my father's house and be as one of the hired servants, that would be better than where I am. So he gets a destination in his mind. I'm going to get back to my dad's house and the Bible says when his father sees him a fire off, he leaves the house and comes down and meets him on the road. This is powerful to me. I just preached this on the weekend,

so it's still kind of turning in my heart because that prodigal had a destination that he was trying to get to. But as soon as the father saw he was moving the right direction, he said, I'm not going to wait for you to get to the destination. I'll step out of the destination and come and meet you in the process. My God, this is the story of the gospel. I want to get you to heaven. I have a destination, but you can't get there by yourself. So I, God Almighty, will come out of the destination and get in the process. This is what salvation is. This is what sanctification is. It's God working in your life. It's the process. Now I'm not going to be like some preachers that lie to you. I'll stand here and tell you, yeah, there's a lot of things the Scripture says about how we live,

how we should talk, how we should treat people, what we should wear, principles that guide our media choices and the consumption, the content we partake of, so many things that we could talk about. But there's a process, and I would be wasting my time talking about that to somebody who's not even reading the Bible, taking time to pray, being faithful with those elementary principles of following Jesus, because it starts on the inside. But when the Word gets in me, the Word does what it always has done. It has to work out. The Word has to be made flesh. I have to live out the truth of Scripture. I'm glad you were baptized. I'm glad you got the Holy Ghost. But the only way you walk with Jesus is by His Spirit. And when His Spirit and His Word is getting in you and changing you and shaping you,

you have to demonstrate that in your life. So I say it's only by the Spirit that we can conquer the flesh. Romans 8.13, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. It's a powerful Scripture. But because the wrongful deeds of the body are always rooted in hearts that are wrong, it starts on the inside, not the outside. There's a Puritan, I said it over years ago, took a couple years and read a lot of the old Puritan writings that had come out of England some 350, 400 years ago. One of them is by a gentleman by the name of John Owen called the Mortification of Sin. It's 85 pages on this one verse of Scripture, Romans 8.13. How'd you like that for a Sunday sermon? If we were to say I'm mortified, here's what we would

mean. I'm embarrassed. That's not what the Scripture means. It literally means you have to put to death. So Paul says it's through the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body. In his book he says this, you, now it's a little old English, you be killing sin or sin will be killing you. So as we live in the Spirit, we do put to death the deeds of the body but it always starts with the Spirit. What does this mean practically? This is what it means. It means that you have to live your life in a manner that the Spirit of God, because this is the only way that we can have a relationship with Jesus. Live your life in a way that the Spirit is welcomed, that the Spirit is active, and that the Spirit is pleased with you. If you don't welcome him, he can't work. If you don't let him be active in your life,

there can be no change. And if you live in a manner that he is not pleased with you, you sever his influence. So how it works is this, God works, God speaks, and we respond. God moves and we move. God speaks, we obey. And in doing this, as we let the Spirit work in our lives, those sinful desires that used to control us, that carnal nature that has robbed us of the power and promises of God so many times, those sinful desires are eradicated from our lives. The activities that we used to do that stop the influence of the Spirit, we abandon those things because not only were we made alive, it just wasn't about being baptized. It wasn't just about getting the Holy Ghost. Thank God for that. But if you live in the Spirit, you must also walk in the Spirit, which brings us to this practical consideration tonight

is you have to identify your influence. No doubt you've heard it said, you become like those that you spend the most time with. And I would say tonight that wisdom would tell us that we must also consider the content we consume. Some variation of that quote, show me your friends and the company you keep and the books you read and I'll tell you what your life will look like in five or 10 years. The principle of this is just this, it's identifying your influence. Who are the voices? Who are the people? What are the value systems? What assumptions? What philosophies guide your life? I've learned that many times people live their life with assumptions they've never even considered. They just get caught in the current of culture, the busyness of life and they've never really stopped reflected and considered. What are my values? Why do I do what I do? The concept here is that

we may have to identify the influence in our lives. There are what we call sins of omission or sins of commission. This is meaning that there are sins, it's possible to sin towards God by what you omit or what you do not do. It's also possible to sin towards God by what you commit or what you do. So what you do or what you do not do has the ability to suffocate the influence of the Spirit of God in your life. We can't just live however we want because as Paul said, do you not know? Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. You were bought with a price. The Spirit of God has joined itself to you. You're not following him in your humanity anymore. You have a relationship with him by the indwelling of his Spirit. And because you've been made alive in the Spirit, you now have to walk in the Spirit. As I've already said tonight,

God works from the inside out. Let me tell you how the enemy works from the outside in. God fills you. He starts changing you from the inside, your value system, your thought process, the way you think. And all of a sudden you're not watching what you used to watch. You don't go where you used to go. Why? Because I'm walking with someone and he is the greater and I'm the lesser and I'm surrendering to his Word and I'm adopting his value system. It's the submission of my life to his Lordship. But the enemy doesn't work like this because in the same way that you experience the infilling of the Holy Ghost by the submission of your will in the seeking after the presence of the Lord, that's the only way the devil could ever possess somebody. And I know there's some wacky people in the world, but there ain't very many people going

around seeking to be possessed by the devil. So the devil says, well, okay, I have to be, as the scripture calls him, cunning. I really want to get on the inside of them. That's my ultimate goal to possess them and influence them and control them the same way Jesus is doing to his church. But because I can't work the way he works, he works from the outside in. What does this mean? This is the power of marketing. You'd never heard of that product. You didn't know anything about it, but you saw that advertisement on YouTube and you've been researching it for the last seven days, and you're willing to, only the Lord knows do what to get it. I mean, you are convinced against every obstacle. I need this. Why? Because you were influenced from the outside in. This is the power of media. You're probably guilty. I know I've been guilty this

a time or two. You're walking through a store. You didn't seek out that song. God knows you probably never would have sought it out on your own, but you were just in the grocery store. You were walking through Walmart, and you heard that song, and all of a sudden it subconsciously got lodged in your mind. Three days later, you're somewhere and something triggers in your mind, and you're humming a song. You're maybe even saying lyrics, and you stop yourself, and you wonder, where in the world did that come from? It's just something you picked up on the outside that started working its way towards the inside. This is why it matters how we live, because if we live according to the Spirit, we let God work through us. There is a power to resist, but if we live according to our carnal nature, we have no strength,

we have no submission, we have no spirit power, we are vulnerable to anything the enemy would throw at us. We become easily influenced. Now, our goal tonight is this. We're looking for spiritual impact. We are seeking kingdom productivity. God made it clear in the parable of the talents. He's expecting an increase on his investment, but I would tell you there is no spiritual result without spiritual investment. Paul said, be not deceived, God is not mock, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap from the flesh. If you sow to the Spirit, you'll reap from the Spirit. So, if we are serious about spiritual impact, if we are passionate about true kingdom productivity, if we're going to get behind the vision and we're going to see a thousand people, we're going to have a hundred Bible studies being

taught every week, and if the prayer room is going to be full of people praying, if there's going to be spiritual result, if there will be impact, there has to be investment. But all of this begs the question, what or who is our influence? Mark 4 is an amazing story. I know it may seem like a sharp turn from what we're talking about, but I think the principle is here. The disciples are on a boat with Jesus, and the storm arises. The Bible says he's in the hinder part of the ship asleep on the pillow, and the disciples awake him and say, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Jesus arose, he rebukes the wind and says to the sea, peace, be still. The wind ceased, and there was a great calm, and he said unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?

What happened here? What happened was they allowed what they perceived in the physical to pull them into a lower dimension. What they perceived through their five senses began to manipulate their emotions, their intellect, begin to cripple their minds with fear, and all of a sudden that sense of peace and security is robbed from them, and now their bodies are tense, and they're trembling with anxiety, and they seek for the Lord, and they find him sleeping, and they can't fathom. Why are you sleeping? We're about to die, and they wake him and ask this question. Master, do you even care that we're about to die? I have a question. Who told you that you were going to die? Wasn't Jesus? Because he already told them at the start of the story, let us get in this boat and go to the other side. He had already told them

what the end of the story would look like, but somewhere in that process, now the destination was known, but somewhere in that process, they began to become more influenced by their surroundings than the presence of the Lord that was with them. You said, well, I'm human though, that would be a little bit nerve wracking, of course it would, but what do you do in that moment? You have to live in the spirit. You have to take into consideration the spiritual reality that is always present, even though you can't see it, even though your hands cannot feel it. We really believe in this Jesus, and we really believe in the Scripture, there is an unseen, ever-present spiritual reality that must be considered. And their fear and the cause of it were stopped. I want you to notice this by talking to the Lord. Thank God they knew where to go and who to go to. So if life and trial and difficulty,

if unfortunate circumstances is tormenting you and you are battling, you have to know where to go. And thank God they knew who to look for. While that's good, I would tell you that they could have avoided much unnecessary trouble if they would have chosen to rest in the word that he had already spoken, because he told them we're going to the other side. And further to that, further than the consideration of the word that had already been spoken, if they would have looked at Jesus and saw him sound asleep on a pillow in the midst of a storm, one might safely conclude, if he's not bothered, I don't need to be bothered. If he's at peace, I can be at peace too. But they did not allow their soul, their thoughts, their minds to be formed by the word that was spoken or the presence of God among them. Instead, they were influenced by their

surroundings. I've watched this. I've watched people at sports games, even church sports games, lose the ability to control themselves when a group of guys or some teenagers are just trying to have a little fun. I've watched spirit-filled people lose control of their emotion and display un-Christ-like action because of a conflict at work, a tension that seemed too great to manage. What happened? They ceased to be influenced by the spirit and began to be influenced by their surroundings. And while I'm thankful, they knew where to go in the time of trouble. Look at the question. Do you even care? Their question is framed in an accusatory manner. They didn't come in faith. They came in fear. They had already determined we're going to die. This is it. All over. This is the end. Might as well just let the Lord know, yeah, thanks for caring

about us on the way out. No faith. All fear. Why? Because their perspective was formed by their surroundings and not the spirit. I'm telling you, I've seen it. I've seen Holy Ghost fill people. Jesus named people. Smother out the influence of the spirit because they didn't like a certain political leader. They didn't like this. They didn't like that. You said, well, can I not have an opinion? Sure, you can have an opinion. But I would say if your opinion destroys your witness, what's more important? Does the spirit entitle you to opinion? Or according to Acts 1 and 8, does the spirit give you power to witness? So any work of the flesh that suffocates the spirit's power to witness, which was the purpose of the gift, what happened? You became more influenced by your surroundings than the spirit. Now I were talking tonight about walking in the spirit,

living in the spirit. I'm glad you've been born again, but this is about more than a distant date in your past when you can tell me your sins were remitted. If you have been made alive in the spirit, it is incumbent upon us that we also walk in the spirit. So I ask you tonight, how is the spirit influencing your life? Your mind has to really be out of whack to come to a God. After all he has done, thousands of years of testimony, proving his unwavering faithfulness, and say to him, you don't care about me. I'll tell you where you been, not in the Bible. You ain't been in the spirit, because you wouldn't think like that. You sure wouldn't speak like that if you were walking in the spirit. Several times in Paul's epistles, he uses this phrase, heavenly places. Ephesians 2, he says that we are seated with Christ in this heavenly place.

And here again, we are introduced to the dichotomy of the spiritual and the carnal. Because on Wednesday, February the 5th at 7.25 p.m., you are seated in this sanctuary at 7849 Wabash Avenue. But according to the scripture, you are seated in heavenly places. So the question is, are you more influenced by where you are seated physically or where you are seated spiritually? Is it your physical surrounding? Is it what's happening in the world? Do you have any idea how many people don't have peace and don't have joy, because of all the things that are going on? Listen, I'd be miserable too if I'd never read my Bible, and I consumed everything CNN and Fox News and Newsmax and MSNBC. And if that's all I digested and all I heard was war, war, war, interest rate, interest rate, interest rate, this, this. And if that's all I digested, I'd be saying the same, God, where are you?

Why don't you care about me? And he's there and he's present, but you are not influenced by him. You have not done as the scripture has said and yielded your members as instruments of righteousness. And so next time you find yourself in that Mark 4, next time you feel at the mercy of circumstance and storm, and it's hard to make sense of where God is and what God's doing, just be careful what you say. Look at this though, Jesus does get up, looks at the storm and says, peace be still! Now what was he doing just a moment ago? Sleeping. It's the posture of peace. And now he gets up and he speaks what is in him, and the wind and the wave is no more, because this is how the Word of God works. The nature of the Word is always imparted when it is spoken.

That's why you have to be in the scripture. That's why you need to hear preaching and teaching. That's why Wednesday night Bible study matters. That's why church on Sunday morning matters, because when the Word of God is spoken, the inherent nature of that Word is imparted to whatever receives it. I know the wind is blowing. I know the waves are rocking this boat, but when the God of peace got up and said, peace be still, the peace that was resident in him went into nature. I'll tell you what you need. You need a Word from God, and it might be that you need a reema. You might need to get in prayer and get a specific Word, but more than anything, you need a Word from God. You need to get your Bible every day, open up the scripture and feast of the bread of life, and let the nature of this Word form your mind and form your life.

This is what it means to live in the Spirit. As I get ready to close, the last, well, I guess I got two more in your handout. To be people of the Spirit, we must be people who get in the Spirit. The Bible speaks to us of the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit. I want these things. I want the nine fruit of the Spirit being produced in my life. I want the nine gifts of the Spirit. I don't know about you, but the Bible says, desire the best gifts. I ask God, God, I want you to use me and the gifts of the Spirit. I don't care if anybody else knows, but I want to make myself available to be used. What is the best gift? Whatever is needed to meet the need at the present moment. If someone's sick and dying, and we need the working of miracles,

hey, I know you might think the gift of prophecy is exciting, but I'm sorry, we don't need a prophetic word. We need a working of miracles. The best gift is the gift that's needed to meet the need. I want the gifts in my life. I want the gifts in this church, but you don't get the things that are of the Spirit unless you are actually in the Spirit. The primary influence of our lives must be Jesus. Now, we don't get to walk with him in his humanity. It's only by his Spirit. So his Spirit working in our lives has to be the greatest influence we have. And this comes through his Spirit in our daily devotion, prayer in the Word. Jesus said in John 6, the words that I speak, they are Spirit and they are life. Paul said the Word of God was the sword of the Spirit. When we pray, he said in 1 Corinthians 14,

that you should pray with understanding. That means you need to learn how to pray. The way that I'm talking to you and you talk to each other and in your native tongue, you need to learn how to pray out loud, talk to God the way you would talk to anybody else. Pray with understanding. But you also, he said, there's times that I'm going to pray in the Spirit. There's a place for both. Pastor Shock will dig more into God connection next week, but I'll reiterate this as we close. The influence of Jesus' Spirit in our lives comes only as we fellowship with him in the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. Well, doesn't that mean that God does mystical things and spooky things happen? And it could. I could tell you some stories that kind of made my head shake, but can I be honest with you, they're few and far between. If I had to keep a checklist of every day

that I just read my Bible and talked to God compared to all the days that I could tell you those stories about, the scales would be pretty heavy toward monotony, routine, consistency, the simplicity of daily Bible reading. Not so I can check a list off, but so the word as it gets in my mind in my heart, it can shape me. It can form me into his image and likeness to have a relationship with Jesus in the Spirit comes only by his word, by prayer, by worship. I was substituting for one of the classes at Life Academy recently and the computer didn't work the way it was supposed to. It was algebra, so I was kind of glad the computer didn't work that day. Sorry, Sister Rigney, but so we just let the kids ask questions about the Bible for a few minutes. And one of the questions she said, I've always heard that

I feel like sometimes people criticize me because I don't have my devotion in the morning, but she said, I really feel like I get more out of it when I read the Bible at night. And what do you think about that? I was considering that. We talked about it then, but I was considering it again this afternoon, the past few days, and I'll leave you with this. This is the devotion concept I'll offer you. The Old Testament gives us this pattern that the Jews kept of the morning and the evening sacrifice. So there was a time which they would bring to the Lord both in the morning and the evening. So I think in some measure we ought to give God the first and the last of our day. Now I will tell you, I think it is most beneficial for you if you give God your morning. You can't serve God on a credit. You only withdraw

what you put in. You can't ask God to lead you through the day if you've not spent time getting alignment in the morning. You can't go to bed at 10 o'clock at night and say, God, lead me yesterday. It doesn't work that way. Time that is spent is not recovered. So I do think the strong scriptural precedent is we ought to give God our morning. But I would say in some measure you should give God the first and the last, the morning and the evening. I think you should have a time and a place. The Bible says Abraham came and he stood before the Lord at the time and the place that he had before. Jesus modeled this in his life, a place he retreated to in the mountains, a garden he went to in a time of prayer. I told her when she asked the question in algebra class that day, I said,

I would think of it like this. Vitamin supplements, probably okay. I'm not a nutritionist, but you're lacking a little something. Get you a little vitamin supplement. Take your vitamin C. Get you a little vitamin D. But if you think a few pills called a vitamin supplement are a substitute for a proper and nutritious diet, I'm sorry, you deceived yourself. You can't take enough vitamin pills to replace a proper nutritional diet. You can't read enough scriptures out of a bread box. You can't listen to enough worship music. There's not enough devotional booklets. All that might be a good additive. It might be a little vitamin supplement in your life, but there has to be a pattern established where you get in the word of God every day. And the nature of that word forms you and shapes you and where you meet with God in prayer every day because it is only through prayer in the

word. Only there is no other pattern through prayer in the word that we walk in the spirit. Let's stand together. So you say, what do I do? Well, the next time you're in a situation and frustration has overtaken your mind and you're about to speak out of your anger or your perception that God is absent. God is not working. Why is he allowing this to happen? Stop. Wait a minute. You are thinking and you are speaking and you are acting based of what your five senses are telling you on the condition of your surrounding. That's the carnal mind. But if you have been made alive in the spirit, you are seated in a heavenly place and you must choose in that moment that by the power of the spirit, I will resist. You don't have any power on yourself. Only by the spirit. It is in

buying through the spirit. So you make a choice in that moment, God. I really want to say this right now, but I need you to help restrain me. God, I'm asking this. We don't have it in ourselves. He's the vine. We are the branch. Where does the fruit come out? The end of the branch. But only so much as we are connected to the vine. This is what it means to walk in the spirit. Listen, you might get some of those wild spooky stories. But I've watched. I've watched in the last 10 years. I've watched guys get on platforms and when someone wants to tell a story about an angel and we think, oh my, they must be really powerful. Really? Because that is not the standard of spirituality of the scripture. And I'm not in any way denying the supernatural. I could tell you a story about it when I was 19 years old,

newly married, 20 years old, with my own eyes. I watched a teenage girl who had submitted her life to the devil, levitated midair. I've seen a few things, stuff that make you scratch your head thinking, what in the world? But that is not the trademark of spirituality. The trademark of godly spirituality to be people of the spirit. Yes, there are gifts. Yes, we should desire them. Yes, we should be used in them. But I think there's a reason. He gave nine gifts and nine fruit because the pursuit of gifts and power without an equal balance of character. This is godly spirituality. So I'm just saying tonight, we don't have a relationship with Jesus based on his humanity. I can't sit at a table and drink coffee with him. I can't break bread with him the way they did. The only way I have a relationship with him is by the indwelling of

his spirit. And so I must learn to live according to the spirit that never gets old to me. But on a lot of planes, sky's gray and the rain is pouring. It's a little bumpy, but it's only seven, eight, 10 minutes later. And you break through that cloud barrier and all of a sudden the sun is shining. The day is beautiful. But to get there, you need some instruments that are different than what's used down here. This is what prayer in the word are. They are our spiritual, this is all about God connection. Thank you, Lord. Let's lift our hands. Father, we love you. God, we need you. I pray that you would help us develop a sensitivity towards your spirit. That still small voice, the ever present help. I felt your presence so powerfully in this sanctuary many, many times. But I know that you are still with me, still

moving, desiring to walk with me when I go to work tomorrow morning in the middle of school days and family conflict, when people are stressed and the hour is late. Oh, God, there's so many things, so many elements that arise in our surroundings to distract us competing for this place of sovereign influence in our lives. And I pray tonight that you would help us develop that sensitivity as the old prophet prayed for the servant. I'm asking God that you would open our eyes that we may see. Help us perceive that unseen reality that is always around us. Help us to be a people of the spirit. Teach us how to get in and live in the spirit. I pray God that you would help us develop consistency, patterns of devotion, lifestyles of devotion. It's not just vain routine. It's not empty regiment. God, I want to be formed by

the word of the Lord. My mind, my will, my emotions. I want my soul, the expression of my personality to embody you, to show you. God, you know Dan McLeod lacks so many things, but I want to do my best to stay connected to the vine so people aren't getting Dan McLeod's lack of patience or this. I want them to get you, God. I want to walk in the spirit. I want to know you in the spirit. I pray this in Jesus' name. God, I'm asking you to help us. Help us to be people of the spirit. Help us exhibit that suppressous fruit of the spirit, powerful gifts of the spirit. We want it all. Everything you've made available, we want it, God. But I know we can't get it unless we're living, walking in the spirit. So I pray tonight the spirit of the Lord. I've tried to communicate your word, but God, I'm asking that you would open

the minds of people and by your spirit you would seal it into their hearts. Let it not return void. Let it accomplish everything you desire and that we may grow grace and knowledge of you. That our measure of kingdom productivity would be greater than it's ever been before. In Jesus' name.