Christian Growth and Spiritual Victory (Part 4)

Good. All right, let's go to Part 4

and let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

I don't intend to be real long tonight just because there is

not, you know, a lot of these we've already covered, but let

me give you a couple announcements while you're

turning over there to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

We have just a reminder about the Papa John's gift cards and

if you could share those. We've already put that up on the

church Facebook page and if you can share those with people, we

actually, I've mentioned this I think on Sunday, but we have the

capability to pay for those online.

And so if you have somebody that that you know, lives a little

farther away or doesn't go to church here but wants to pay for

one, then we can certainly give you 1.

You can either take it to them or send it to them or whatever,

but they can pay for that online too.

So just to make sure you take advantage of those.

And then, oh, I meant to mention this because Miss Vicki brought

up a good point. Just make sure that especially

especially on Wednesday nights, but when you leave to make sure

that everything is cleaned up off the floor, you know that

you've taken your stuff off the pews and everything else for the

people who are coming in to clean.

She mentioned that when we had our cleaning meeting and I keep

forgetting to, to announce that. So clean up those things around

your view and, and it really does help too.

If you you know, if you grab your bulletin and it doesn't,

it's not going to bother me if you throw it away because I know

you, you get one every week. So if you can throw that away

when you leave, I mean, anything that you can do to clean up your

area that that just helps when people come back through and

clean. So make sure you pull those out.

And then just a couple things that we have for the rest of

this week. Friday morning we have the men's

prayer meeting. I'll send out a text for that on

on Thursday to remind you lift on Friday morning as well at

10:30. And then Saturday is a family

Saturday. So we don't have any outreach

that day, but we will do our men's Zoom prayer meeting that

night. And I'll send out a reminder for

that too, just to reminds you that we have it in an hour or so

after we get close to that. So all right, Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

5 and these are the last four principles, if you will, of of

Christian growth and spiritual victory.

And the the ones that we've looked at so far, abiding in

Christ, putting off the old man and putting on the new,

confessing sin, pressing toward the mark and then last week

devouring the word, protecting the word, separation from the

world, separation from false teachers.

And so really three tonight, the 4th 1 is abiding in Christ,

which we'll, we'll talk about that again, why he mentioned it

first and last. But there's really three that we

want to talk about tonight. And, and really the main one

that I'm going to focus on is being filled with the Spirit.

That is a principle of Christian growth and spiritual victory.

And there's five principles that go along with that.

So let's read Ephesians chapter 5 and verse #18 the Bible says,

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled

with the Spirit. And of course, that's a very

important passage there. And so we're going to talk about

those different things. So spiritual victory in the

Christian life is through surrender to and yielding to the

indwelling Holy Spirit. Now I think the Pentecostals

probably especially have really hijacked this idea of being

filled with the Spirit and made it be something that it never

was intended, made it be something that the Bible doesn't

certainly doesn't back up, especially the to the extent to

which they've taken it. But I also think that for a lot

of Christians, we don't take advantage enough of the Holy

Spirit indwelling in us. So couple things here.

Number one, being filled with the Spirit means to be under the

Spirit's control. And of course, we're talking

about Ephesians 518 be not drunk with wine.

We're in his excess. And I think it's kind of funny

where the cloud is almost like having a conversation with

himself in this paragraph. But he says as a man is under

the control of wine when he's drunk, so the believer is under

of the spirit's control when he's filled with the spirit.

It is only in this one sense that being filled with the

spirit is like into being drunk with wine.

Then he almost changes and he says actually being filled with

the spirit is not like into being drunk with wine.

It's contrasted to being drunk with wine.

And that's exactly what it is. Don't be drunk with wine, be

filled with the spirit. It's, it's, it's the, it's kind

of the opposite of that, right? But but it could look the same

way, right? When somebody is drunk, when

somebody is under the influence, right?

That's what we say. You're under the influence of

alcohol. Why do you say that?

Because you are completely under the influence of whatever that

you, whatever you're drinking or smoking, right?

You're under that influence. It is, it is not predicting, but

it is, what's the word I'm thinking of your behavior.

It is, it is dictating your behavior.

Maybe I should say that it's, it's, it's almost telling you

what to think or, or not think, you know, and, and by the way,

that's one of the reasons why alcohol is wrong, right?

A lot of people say, well, if you just have a little sip of it

here and there or just one beer, you know, you're not really

drunk. That's OK.

Well, number one, you had to start somewhere because I can

promise you, I've never had a drink in my life.

I can promise you if I drank 1 beer, I'd probably be under the

influence, right? If I smoked 1, you know, one

joint of weed, I would be under the influence right now.

It doesn't take all that long to where you can get used to that,

right? And, and, and you can handle one

beer and not be drunk, but you had to be drunk at some point to

get to that point where you could handle it, right?

I, I had a guy and I won't even tell you what the relation is,

but I had a guy that told me one time he every time I saw him, he

had a beer in his hand every time I saw him.

And he said, you've never seen me drunk, though I always have a

beer, but you've never seen me drunk as he's, you know, eyes

are all floating around in his head and everything else.

He thought he wasn't drunk, but he was right.

And and that's, I mean, that's that's exactly what happens when

somebody is under the influence. And so we're, we're saying the

same thing here. Be not drunk with wine, wearing

his excess, but be filled with the spirit, be under the

influence of the spirit. Now, some charismatics teach

that spirit filling is to be drunk with the spirit, right?

What happens when somebody's drunk, complete loss of control.

They're stumbling around, they're slurring their speech,

they're doing crazy things, right?

Why do, why do people say that or, or why is that like a

colloquial expression? Hold my beer, right?

Because you're about ready to do something really stupid, right?

And that's what, and, and, and that's the reason why people use

that as an expression, because that's what happens when you're

under the influence. Trey acts like he's been there

before or something, but I don't know, maybe you said that once

or twice. I don't know, but hopefully not.

But anyway, let's let's go over to Acts chapter 2 because I want

Acts 2 · chapter mention

to contrast this very sharply with with what Paul is saying

here. I'm sorry, not Paul, but Peter.

Well, actually, Paul wrote the book of Acts that this is about

Peter, though, and Peter was actually the one speaking so.

But this is what happens, right, when somebody is under the

influence of alcohol. And that's what the charismatics

act like, OK, We should be under the control or under the

influence of the Holy Spirit the same way that somebody's under

the influence of alcohol. You have no control over it.

So the individual falls down and laughs and acts like a drunk.

But this is ridiculous and unscriptural.

When the disciples were filled with the Spirit on the day of

Pentecost, Peter plainly stated that they were not drunk.

Acts chapter 2 and verse #15 For these are not drunken as you

Acts 2 · chapter mention

suppose, seeing it is about the third hour of the day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

That shall come to pass in the last day.

I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.

Your sons and daughters shall prophecy, Your young men shall

see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

He's quoting, he's quoting the book of Joel, but basically he's

saying, he's saying they're not under the influence the same way

that somebody would be under the influence of alcohol.

They're not stumbling around and falling on the ground and

laughing hysterically, which I think I mentioned this, you

know, maybe last week, maybe the week before and we were talking

about it, but they have, there's been a lot of laughing revivals

or barking revivals, which it literally just just saying that

sounds ridiculous. But that's exactly just rolling

around on the floor laughing hysterically because we're under

the power and under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

I mean, and, and the same way that somebody does that when

they're drunk, we're under the influence.

Those things are all made-up. They're made-up, they're put on,

right? I mean, even even when it comes

to speaking in tongues and everything else, somebody who is

really honest about that knows that the very first time they

spoke in tongues, they did it on purpose, right?

And maybe they've gotten so comfortable with it now that it

just comes on them and they start speaking in tongues.

But it's the same thing with with alcohol, right?

You had to make yourself drink it the first time you took it.

I can't even stand the smell of it.

I don't know how anybody drinks alcohol.

This smell is enough to keep me away from it.

But you had to. You know what I've heard from a

lot of people who drink and who are, you know, who like beer and

everything else. A lot of them say it's an

acquired taste. You have to make yourself like

it, right? And I think it's exactly the

same thing that happens with the speaking in tongues crowd,

right? You have to make yourself speak

in tongues to the point where you're comfortable enough with

it. I, I was reading a book that

somebody was writing about this idea and, and one of the reasons

why they came to the conclusion that speaking in tongues was

wrong. He said, you know which, which

again, it just goes completely against the Bible.

The evidence of salvation is being able to speak in tongues.

So you can get saved. But if you go 2345 years until

you actually speak in tongues, you're not saved until you've

spoken in tongues because that's the evidence of salvation,

right? That's, I mean, it's just, it's

just ludicrous compared to the, to the, to the Bible and

actually what tongues in the Bible is.

But this guy said, I was in a Pentecostal church and I wanted

so badly to speak in tongues because I thought that was the

evidence of the Holy Spirit and I wanted that.

And he said I was with one of my friends and, and we were both

kind of in the same, you know, in the same boat.

And, and finally he told me we were on our way to church and he

said, I'm going to speak in tongues tonight.

I said, sure enough, he got up in the service and he started

speaking in tongues. He said that didn't, that wasn't

something that just happened. He finally decided this is the

night that I'm going to do it. And he made himself speak in

tongues and he said that was it for me.

I realized that it was all fake. There was nothing to it and I

got out of it as quickly as I could.

But that's what happens with some of these things is that,

you know, it's not falling around, stumbling on the ground,

laughing, barking like dogs and doing all these other kind of

things where you just have no control over your body because

you're under the power of the Holy Spirit.

No, to be spirit filled simply means to yield to God's control.

And you can underline this in your book because I think this

is this is this is kind of bringing everything together.

To be filled with the Spirit simply means to yield to God's

control in my life. That means to die to self will

and self desire and to live for Christ.

It's bringing my will under his will.

That's what being, that's what having the power of the Holy

Spirit, that's what being filled with the Spirit means.

My will is brought under his will, right?

It's exactly what happens. OK, if you want to talk about,

if you want to use that, that illustration of being drunk,

right? My will is under the will of

that alcohol because I don't have control over it anymore,

right, right. And, and the same thing.

Don't, don't be drunk with wine, wherein is excess.

Be filled with the Spirit. Your will become subservient to

God's will. And exactly what he says means

to start each day by surrendering myself to the Lord

for that day. And then as choices come my way,

I choose to do God's real will rather than my own.

When the believer does that, God gives him spiritual strength and

wisdom and guidance. That's walking in the Spirit.

That is being filled with the Spirit, right?

And and that's exactly what Ephesians chapter 5 and verse

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

#18 is talking about. Now we continue on with that and

you can go back over to Ephesians chapter 5 if you

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

turned away from it already. But #2 to be filled with the

Spirit is not a one time act or an experience.

It's a process, right? And again, it's kind of the same

thing. I got filled the Spirit.

I spoke in tongues tonight, right?

I spoke in tongues for the first time.

That was evidence of being filled.

And you know, no, it's not, it's not an experience, it's not

something that that happens to you.

It's a process. So the verb in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

5 and verse 18 and be not drunk with wine where it is excess,

but be filled with the spirit. That verb is in the continuous

tense. And again, this is where

studying comes in. You have to go back into, you

know, go into strong skin coordinates and look at what

word is being used and look at the tense that that word is

being that that word is being used in.

But but be filled with the Spirit is in the continuous

tense. It's not a matter of achieving a

state of perfection. It's a matter of growing in the

grace and knowledge of the Lord. The believer must not get

discouraged when he sins. He can be filled with the Spirit

anew by confessing his sins and by yielding to the Spirit's

leadership and control, right, which is why the Bible says and

grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto

the day of redemption. You can grieve the Spirit,

right? You can sin to the point where

you are grieving him. Well, how do you get that back?

You confess that sin. You get it right With Him.

You can be filled right now. The Holy Spirit indwells you at

salvation, and once he indwells you, he's not going to unindwell

you because he's sealed you, right.

The Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

But to be filled with the Spirit is exactly what we're talking

about here. That is something that that we

have to, we have to do every day.

We have to allow Him to to fill us every day, especially if

we've sinned. And we need to get those things

right with God and He can fill us anew and we can have that

power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit #3

then. And we're that right there in

Ephesians chapter 5, verse #19 says speaking to yourselves in

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

in your hearts to the Lord. Well, how do we know that those

things go hand in hand? Because punctuation matters,

right in the end of verse #18 is not a period, it's a semi colon.

So he's continually talking about this, right?

Be not drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with

the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns

and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to

the Lord. And it continues on because

that's another semi colon there. But this is the Third Point.

Observe that being filled with the Spirit is associated with

singing spiritual songs. There is power in psalms and

hymns and spiritual songs. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

describes that that called associated, sorry, the singing

of spiritual songs are being filled with the Holy Spirit.

You think about in first Samuel chapter 16 and verse 23.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

And we don't have to go back there and look at it because

most of you know the story. But Saul's spirit was troubled

and David came in and played the heart for him and it calmed his

spirit, right? The just as David songs calmed

the troubled king. Spiritual songs can feed,

encourage the believers, feed and encourage the believers.

Newman. So it's a good practice to

memorize hymns and spiritual songs so that they can be used

when trials come. Which, by the way, that's one of

the reasons why, you know, I know we have we have a nursery.

But that's one of the reasons why I want our kids in here

during the song service, you pick up on those, they pick up

on those things you do too, but they pick up on those things

from the time that they're little kids.

That's why from the from before our kids were born, we were

playing music for them at night. And every night when they go to

bed, they listen to music, right?

It's, it's, it's those things are, are things that they go to

sleep to because it's music that they're listening to that's

helping them to, to memorize those things.

And why do you think that, that most of our young kids, when

they, when we get in here and sing a song, they can sing at

least the chorus from memory. And a lot of times, a lot of

the, the verses from memory. How does that happen?

Because you sing them over and over and over and you hear them

played over and over and over, right.

And, and music is very powerful. You don't even have to listen to

that very many times for it to be burned into your memory,

right? You can, as you can walk into

Wawa and you can hear a song playing and you don't even know

who's singing or where it came from, but you're singing phrases

along with it because you heard it somewhere, right?

Music is very, very powerful. So if we're going to use music

in a powerful way, it should be music that is pleasing to the

Lord. It should be music that is

feeding our spirit, not the other way around.

So it's a good practice to memorize hymns and spiritual

songs so they can be used when trials come, right?

Right. There are so many songs that we

can sing that that, you know, his eyes on the Sparrow.

Brother George just sang that one on Sunday, right?

You get into a difficult spot. And man, God's watching the

sparrows. That's it.

That's a song that brings encouragement.

All right, there's a lot of a lot of times when we need songs.

He he mentioned this a godly woman told me that she went once

went through a hard trial during what she found it difficult to

pray or read her Bible, but she kept singing a simple spiritual

song over and over and the Lord gave her the victory.

And so that is one of the principles of victory in your

Christian life. And this I mean, he's he's

mentioning this year, but many of you that I've sat down with

that said, hey, I'm this is something that I'm struggling

with. What can I do?

Well, number one, you've got to replace that sin with something,

right? You, you can say, well, I'm not

going to do that anymore. Let's just say you have a

problem with listening to the wrong kind of music.

OK, well, I'm not going to listen to that wrong music

anymore. I'm going to get rid of it.

I'm not going to listen to it anymore.

Well, music is very powerful and we are musical beings, right?

So you can't just say I'm not going to listen to that.

You've got to replace it with something else, right?

Right. But here's another.

This is another principle of victory in your life when you're

struggling with something. I mean, it could be anything.

It could be a thought life. It could be, it could be an

issue with anger. It could be anything.

You get a song that really sticks in your mind.

And whenever you're tempted to look at the wrong things or

whenever you're tempted to listen to the wrong things, or

whenever you're tempted to get angry, you pull up that song and

you sing that song in your head. You have it as your go to.

It's got to be, you got to have, you can't just think, OK, all I

need to think of a song, it's probably not going to happen,

right? You have that song ready.

It's the song that you sing every time you face whatever

temptation that happens to be, right?

It could be the old Rugged Cross.

I mean, it could be, it could be anything.

It could be any song, right? But have that song ready, have

that song prepared so that when you face that temptation, you

can overcome by singing that song, whatever it happens to be

versus do the same thing. But but music is such a powerful

thing that many times when you sing a song, it's a lot easier

to to sing sometimes than it is a quote, especially when you're

in a, in a frame of mind. That's not great, right?

But this is also why then, OK, let's, let's let's go on to the

next page because this is this is a continuation of that same

thing. It's wise to build a library of

good sacred music and listen to it as as you have the

opportunity, personal music player in the car, in the home,

wherever it happens to be, right?

It's very difficult. It's very difficult for you to

do things that go against God's word when you're listening to

sacred music right here, you're listening to a song about the

old rugged Cross and you're sitting at your computer looking

at something that you shouldn't be looking at, right?

Most people are not going to do that.

You go turn the music off 1st and then you continue watching

what you're watching or you're just not going to do it right.

That's why it's, that's why it's so important to, to have those

things playing all the time as you have an opportunity to do

it. And, and you know, we have, we

have a huge library of music because before we, we have a

church Spotify playlist. And that's what plays before and

after church, which by the way, you can go on there Spotify, the

free Spotify account, you can still get to the church playlist

and there's hundreds of songs in that playlist.

But we used to, we, we have a huge library of songs that we

used to play just on the computers before the before

church. We had one giant playlist of all

of those songs that just played through the computer.

If you need some music, you can get music.

We have music in the bookstore. We have, we have, we have the,

the, like I said, the church Spotify playlist.

There's no excuse for you to not have good, godly, sacred music

playing all the time, right? But I'll tell you what happens

is people just replace it with whatever, right?

They'll, they'll, they don't have any problem putting.

I was going to say the name of a radio station, but I can't even

think of 1. I don't, I don't, I don't listen

to the, to the radio stations. But you know, the country music

station. Well, it's the easiest thing.

Just click on it and listen to that in the car, right?

I need to listen to something. So I'll just, I'll just go to

that and listen to it or, you know, have the TV on at home and

it's just constantly playing. Put some godly music on and let

that play right. That's what we have playing most

of the time in our house. Music is constantly playing in

our house because it, it adds to the atmosphere of everything,

calms everything down. It's, you know, many times we

already know the songs and we're singing along with the songs

and, and it and it, and it calms your spirit and, and that's what

it's designed to do. Speaking to yourselves in psalms

and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in

your hearts to the Lord. It's a great quote here.

And this comes from a book How to lose a child before he is

five years old. And I just, I just mentioned

that I just preached on that not too long ago.

In fact, I think Sunday night I brought it up.

But you know, your teenagers are, are pretty much who they're

going to be by the time they're 567 years old.

So how do you lose a kid before he's five years old?

Well, this is, that's obviously the whole book that he's

writing. But this is this is a quote from

that worldly music produces A worldly environment and creates

worldly attitudes. On the other hand, you can

program temperament and stability and peace and

quietness in your home. If you get good sacred Christian

music, You can play Bible stories in a room where a little

baby is sleeping and you're programming Bible stories into

his little mind. Now that's the thing.

And I said that we we've done that from from before Jackson

was born. We were playing music knowing

that they can hear it even inside the womb.

But from the time that they were babies, they, they, they don't

necessarily understand everything that's being said in

a patch the pirate, right? When they're six months old, but

they're going to sleep listening to it.

They're going to sleep listening to to that music because it's,

it's just, they're going to get it and they pick it up.

And, and, and I mean, it's certainly better than feeding

them the world's music from that early age, right?

Gives them an appetite for those things said.

You can play Bible stories in a room where a little baby is

sleeping and you're programming Bible stories in his little

mind. Kids don't have to learn things

formally. You just put it there and

they're like a blotter. They absorb it, put soothing,

Christ honoring, soul stirring Christian music on and just let

it play in your home and you're programming something of

security and tranquility and peace into the children's

hearts. And that's exactly what it is.

Why? That's why I don't want to get

into it all again when it comes to the music.

But that's why it's so important that you, that you listen to the

right kind of godly music, not just in your home, but what you

listen to, right? We must warn against the carnal

Christian music that's popular today.

The Bible says we must sing spiritual songs.

That's the opposite of worldly songs.

Spiritual music is the opposite of music that feeds the flesh.

Well, I mean, that's that's what makes rock music so enticing,

right? I mean, you want to tell me that

that that's not affecting a little kid, right?

The kid can barely walk and he's standing up on the couch and

some song comes on that has a beat in it, and he's doing this

to it, right? Nobody had to teach him how to

do that, right? It's because it's music that

feeds the flesh. And if you try to take the

world's music and put some Christian words to it, you're

just feeding the flesh. That's all you're doing.

It's not feeding the spirit, it's feeding the flesh.

Spiritual music is the opposite of music that feeds the flesh.

It's the opposite of the world's party music.

I've already seen that God forbids us to associate with the

evil things of the world. First John 215 through 17 love

not the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride

of life. They're not of the Father, It's

of the world, right? That's that is what most music

today is. So you have to be intentional

about making sure that you're playing good, godly Christ,

honoring music in your home and in your car and everywhere else

that you're at. So to go back to that point,

being filled with the Spirit is associated with singing

spiritual songs. Number 4.

Then being filled with the Spirit is associated with giving

thanks to God. And that's what I said.

Verse #20 is a continuation of verse #19 It's got a semi colon

there. If we have critical complaining

attitudes, I'm not filled with the Spirit because he's grieved

by those things, right? You go back to Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

Verse 30, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and

evil speaking. That all has to do with your

attitude, right? It all has to do with, with,

with your temperament. You can't be filled with the

Spirit when you have a complaining attitude.

You can't be filled with the Spirit when you have a, a bitter

spirit. Because he's grieved by those

things. And he says that get rid of

those things. That's part of putting off the

old man and putting on the new man.

That's, that's part of what that's all about #5 Then being

filled with the spirit is associated with godly

relationships. And again, I don't want to take

the time to go through all of this, but it talks about the

order in the home, the husband, the wife, the kids, right?

The husband is the head of the home.

God put that husband there in that leadership position.

He put the wife in the submission submission, the

submissive submission, however you want to say it, position,

right, to be a help to her husband.

And then he put the kids under the husband and the wife because

he said they should obey their parents.

And that's the only way that the home works, right?

You can't. You can't have a wife who is

trying to lead the home and tell me that she is under the control

of the Holy Spirit because you were literally going exactly

against what the Bible says. Your role is, right?

You can't have a kid who's rebellious against their parents

and then tell me that he's filled with the Spirit because

he's going exactly against the role that was given to him as a

child. You can't tell me that a husband

is filled with the Holy Spirit if he won't take the leadership

role in the home, right? Well, you know, I mean, I defer

to my wife on a lot of those things.

You can't be filled with the Spirit because you're not doing

what God wants you to do. You're not taking those godly

leadership roles. And so to be filled with the

Spirit requires obeying him. And He wants us to treat one

another in a godly manner. And again, same thing.

Spirit filled wives submit to their husbands.

Spirit filled husbands love their wives.

Spirit filled children obey and honor their parents.

Spirit filled fathers, here's a big one.

Do not provoke their children to wrath, right?

You can't be filled with the spirit if you're not bringing

your children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord,

if you're provoking your children to wrath, right?

Spirit filled servants are obedient to their masters.

Spirit filled masters treat their servants justly.

I don't. I mean, we could talk all night

about just that fifth point right there.

But the whole point being is being filled with the Spirit is

associated with godly relationships.

So it's very plain, right? It's, it's right there in

Ephesians chapter 5 and and really 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

And I guess you could go into into chapter 6, but being filled

with the spirit means to be under the Spirit's control.

To be filled with the Spirit is not a one time act or

experience. It's a process.

Being filled with the Spirit is associated with singing

spiritual songs. It's associated with giving

thanks, and it's associated with godly relationships.

All of those things are are part of being filled with the Spirit

and that's how you grow as a Christian.

That's how you have victory in your spiritual life.

You want to go forward for Christ instead of like like a

canoe going up, up, upstream and stopping and going backwards.

That's what you're, that's what you're doing.

If you're not filled with the Spirit, you cannot have

spiritual victory in your life if you do not have the power of

the Holy Spirit to do that. So that brings us then to the

second one for tonight #10 I guess you would say it is

establishing godly habits. And this is, boy, this is huge.

Let's let's go over to Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

This is our text verse for this point.

But I've, I've talked about this quite a lot in different

contexts and with different things, but Luke chapter 4 and

Luke 4 · chapter mention

verse #16 this is talking about Jesus, obviously.

And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the

Sabbath day and stood up for, to read.

I've been in that synagogue in Nazareth and I've seen, I can,

I'm picturing in my head right now.

But Jesus grew up in Nazareth. You know why he, you know why he

did that when he went back there?

Because it was a habit. He was going to be in the

synagogue and he was going to be reading the Scriptures, right?

Our lives are busy, and it's essential to establish godly

habits so that God is not crowded out.

We should establish a habit of daily Bible reading and

intercessory prayer, a habit of faithful church attendance, a

habit of participating in organized evangelism, a habit of

spending time with our families, and many such things.

And I'll, and that's what I'll say, you know, when you give

yourself a way out, you will always find it, right?

Well, I'll go to visitation on Saturday.

If I don't have anything else going on, guess what's going to

happen? You're going to find something

else that's going on. And you might make it out once

or twice, but you're going to find something else that go if

you don't give yourself, look, I was, I was thinking about this,

this idea this afternoon. If you're trying to lose weight

and you give yourself an option to cheat, guess what you're

going to do? You're going to cheat, right?

Well, I just, I'm trying to lose weight, so I'm trying to stay

away from cake, right? But if a piece jumps in front of

me, I guess I'll probably eat it, right?

Guess how many pieces are going to jump in front of you a lot

because you gave yourself a way out, right?

If you say, all right, no more, no more sugar, I'm trying to

lose weight. Well, then, then it becomes a

lot easier to say no because I said none, not just stay away

from it, right? Right.

If you give yourself the option, you're always going to take the

option, right? Same thing with church Sunday

night. You know, a lot of times things

come up on Sunday afternoons and I can't quite make it there.

Wednesday night's probably even a better.

You know, people have an excuse for Wednesday nights.

Even more often. If you give yourself the option,

you're going to find a way to take the option, right?

If it's a habit, well, we're going to be there Sunday

morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

We're going to be there for visitation.

I'm going to read my Bible. So other things have to go to

make these things happen, right? Then guess what?

You will find a way to make those things happen.

And the truth is, you'll probably find a way to do the

other things too, right? God, God wants you to do those

things. God, when I say those things,

I'm talking about going to church, reading your Bible,

having a prayer time. God wants you to do those

things, all right? So if you do those things, then

he'll probably work it out so you can do the other things that

you want to do as well. I don't think there's ever been

a time in growing up I didn't have the the option and now I

don't have the option because I'm the pastor.

But there's never been a time where I've said, I wonder if I'm

going to go to church today, right?

Because it's never been an option.

It is always I'm going to church today, right?

There's never been a thought in my mind.

Well, I wonder if I'm going to show up to go on visitation or

do do the outreach today because it's what we do, right?

And yes, I'm the pastor, but I mean, I can find excuses to get

around it and not be there, but I understand the importance of

it and, and we need to be there, right?

Bible reading. Is there a is there an excuse?

Well, I just if, if I get busy and I can't read, then I guess

that's what goes today. All right, No, get put a

checklist, have a checklist and make sure you check it off every

single day and you're not going to miss it, right?

Do you ever say, well, today was a little bit busy?

I guess I'm not going to brush my teeth today, right?

Hopefully you don't. All right, well, today was a

little bit busy. I guess I'm going to walk out

without combing my hair. Oh, you get in front of the

mirror and you make sure you look exactly the way that you

want to look and everything else, right.

That's that's the thing that gets me too.

You see people walking around and they look like they just

woke up. You know, their hair's all they

they did that in the mirror and they look exactly like they want

to look. You know, they want that sloppy

just woke up look and they probably got stuff in their hair

making it look that way. You know, people look exactly

how they want to look, as goofy as they look.

Sometimes they look exactly the way that they want to.

Because you're going to do those things, right?

It's a habit and that's what I'm saying.

These things, establishing these godly habits are things that

we've got to you've, we've got to do those.

So it doesn't mean that we only think of God and only serve God

during special times in the day and week.

We're to pray without ceasing. That's that's what 1st

Thessalonians 517 says, to always have a conscience void of

offense toward God, to always a bound in the work of the Lord to

give thanks always, to be ready always to give a testimony for

Christ. So, and it's not all right, got

my Bible reading done for the day.

I don't have to think about God anymore, right?

Or you know, I had it on my list that I was going to, you know,

give a track, one track of the day.

And I already gave my track today.

So I don't have to do that anymore.

You know, there's things that we do constantly, but we have to be

aware too, lest our spiritual habits become mere routine, lest

our form becomes formality. We keep our spiritual habits

fresh by staying in fellowship with Christ.

When you have the fellowship in with Christ that you should

have, then it's not just aw, man, I got to read my Bible

today. Stink.

I don't, man. I don't have time for that,

Right? No, you, you, you want to.

You'll make time for those things.

Aw, man, it's Sunday again. I don't have time for church

today. Whatever.

I guess I'll go. All right, man.

Wednesday night again, man. Visitation again.

Special meetings again, right? It's, it's it when it's, when

it's stemming out of a, out of a relationship with Christ and out

of a desire for fellowship with him.

You don't see it that way, right?

You don't see it that way. You're looking forward to that

opportunity. And I know, I mean, that's why I

try to be very conscious of your time, right?

I, I sit around all week waiting for Sunday to roll around.

So I don't have anything going on, but I know you do, right?

So I try to think about that. And when we have, when we have,

you know, full weeks and busy weeks and things, that's how I

try to put the calendar together, right?

I try to put the calendar together where we have a family

Saturday after we've had a really busy week.

So you have time to spend with your family because that's

important too, right? And if all you ever do is spend

all of your time at church and no time with your family, your,

your kids are going to grow up and they're not going to live

for the Lord. And then you're going to be left

holding the bag, right? So there is a balance, but

that's my job is to find that balance, right, and make sure

that that you have the family time that you need to have and

to make sure that, you know, we're not overdoing, which I

don't even know if you can, but not overdoing the time that you

spend at church. But that The thing is when you

have that fellowship with God, you want to be together with his

people. You want to be in his house.

You want to know more of his word.

You want to have more time and pray.

You want to have more prayer meetings, right?

That's that's what happens when you, when you have that

fellowship with God. So how do you keep, how do you

keep, you know, your Bible reading from just being

something that, well, I got to do this again today.

Let me get this done real quick so I can go on and finish

everything else. You have that fellowship with

him, right? Remember when you were dating?

It wasn't like, oh man, she's waiting for me again.

I got to go spend time with her so I can get that done today.

No, you're like, let me get everything else done so I can go

spend time with her, right? Oh, man, I got to, I got to

brush my teeth so I can go spend time with her.

Oh, man, I got to do that so I can go spend time with her,

right? That's, that's how it was.

And and that's how your relationship with Christ ought

to be. Oh, man, I got to go to work.

All right, Well, let me go do that real quick and then I can

go to church. You know that.

I mean, that's the way that it should be in our lives.

So establishing those godly habits and then this one is

very, very simple, but also profound as well.

Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 and 2 verses that are very

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

familiar to us, but really carry a lot of weight if you take him

to heart. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse #1

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Wherefore seeing we also are compass about was so great a

cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight

and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with

patience the race that is set before us.

And then verse #2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher

of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured

the cross, despising the shame in a set down at the right hand

of the throne of God. So keeping our eyes on Christ,

we must keep our eyes on Christ. He will never fail us.

He's never going to offend us. The believer stumbles when he

gets his eyes off Christ and on to anything else such as his own

sin, the world, difficulties in life, or other people.

Those who have their eyes on Christ and are serving Him with

an undivided heart don't stumble when they see other believers

commit sins or otherwise do things that offend.

And I think this is a great example.

When I was reading through this this this thought came to my

mind before I even finished reading his example.

But when churches have troubles, it soon becomes evident which of

the members are truly walking with Christ.

They continue to walk with Him regardless of what happens.

But those who are looking at man and following man become

discouraged and even quit when someone or something offends

them, right? Right.

It just proves that your eyes were on something other than

Christ. If you can get offended and it

makes you quit, your eyes were not on Christ, it was on people.

If somebody that's in a position of leadership fails and falls

and it causes you to quit, then your eyes were on the wrong

thing. Your eyes were on that man and

not on Christ, right? And and that's why I've said,

I've said this many times, if something happens and I am no

longer the pastor of this church, it should continue on as

if I was not even here. Yes, you need leadership and

yes, you should bring another pastor in that that has the same

goals and the same desires and everything else.

But your eyes are not on me. They're on Christ.

And if I was gone tomorrow, this church should continue on

exactly the same way that it is right now.

Or your eyes are on the wrong thing, right?

Your eyes should be on Christ. And if your eyes are on Christ,

and it doesn't matter what other people do, it doesn't matter

what other people say. It doesn't matter what, what you

know, what other people in Christianity do, your eyes

should be on Christ. And if they're on Christ, then

keep them there and keep going, right?

It's, it should be as simple as that.

And then the last thing is abiding in Christ.

And let's go over to Matthew Chapter 11 says we started with

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

this point and we'll end with it because the most important thing

the believer can do to grow spiritually and to have victory

is to walk in fellowship with the Lord and to trust Him at all

times. And so again, I'm not going to

take long on this because we did spend a decent amount of time on

it a few weeks ago when it was our point #1 But Matthew Chapter

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

11 and verse #28 come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy

laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn

of me. For I am meek and lowly in

heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Christian life is a personal relationship with Christ, the

eternal Son of God. It's a matter of receiving him

and serving him and learning of him.

That is the essence of true Christianity, and it is the way

of spiritual growth and victory. And honestly, the rest of

everything that we're going to talk about really is all

principles of spiritual growth and victory.

The next thing that we're moving on to is talking about prayer.

You cannot have spiritual growth and, and, and our Christian

growth and spiritual victory without prayer.

And it moves into the Bible and, and, and again, it's a principle

that we already talked about, but you know, faith, you know,

so many other things, the armor of God, a lot of these things

are all things that we're going to be talking about as we go

forward. But you cannot have those

things. You can't have spiritual growth

and you can't, you can't have Christian growth.

You can't have spiritual victory in your life without these

elements. And so to have these four

lessons where you have 12 things right there, 11 if you want to,

if you want to be technical, but 11 things that you have that can

help you to have growth in your spiritual walk with Christ, to

have victory in your daily life. Man, if, if we could focus on

those things right there, you could get out of any rut that

you're in spiritually, you can get past any sin that you're

dealing with. You can get you can, you can

move forward for Christ, You can accomplish a lot for him.

If you, if we could just get a hold of these principles.

They're, they're great principles and not the least of

which is just keeping our eyes on Christ.

If your eyes on Christ, you don't have time for the world,

you don't have time for the world's music, you don't have

time for the world's entertainment.

If your eyes are on Christ, boy, seeing Him in His glory makes

everything else look so worthless, right?

The things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of

His glory and grace. What do you think that means

when you're looking at Christ? Everything else just loses all

the luster, right? The commercials and the

billboards and all of those things that people have out

there to try to distract us and try to get us, you know, going

off after the, after the gold and the glitter and all those

things. When you see Christ for who he

really is, the, the things that the world has to offer, you can

tell it's fake, right? The same way that, that if you

find fool's gold, right, some kid might be like, oh, look at

that. It's gold.

And you're like, man, it's fake. It can tell the real thing

versus the fake thing, right? And that's exactly what it looks

like when you're when you put the world up to Christ, when

your eyes are on Christ, you can tell it's fake and it doesn't,

you don't get excited about it, right?

Oh, that's cool. All right, I might say that

about some of the things in the world.

Oh, that's cool. But it, it's just so, it's so

pale in comparison to Christ that you don't get excited about

it, right? Because it doesn't, it doesn't

have any value. And that's exactly the way that

we ought to look at these things.

These are principles that that are going to give our Christian

life the value that it needs to keep going for him.

You keep your eyes on Christ and you'll find out that everything

else just doesn't have the same luster that maybe it used to

have or maybe that it does now. Get rid of all those things, put

your eyes on him and just keep going forward, and you'll find

out that he's a whole lot more worth living for than everything

else that most people live their lives for.

So we're going to continue on with this next week.

Actually, I mentioned this already, but I'll be in Belize

for the mats, going to preach for us next week.

And so you come out here and egg him on, if you catch my drift.

But anyway, no, I'm sure it'll be a blessing and you know

you'll be here for it. So let's pray and then we'll

sing our song. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity

that we have to be in your house tonight.

Thank you for these principles. God, may you help us all to live

our lives in, in the victory through Christ.

And may we all continue to move forward in the same direction

with the desire for the heavenly things and not the things that

are earthly and temporal. And God, I pray that you'd help

us to be witnesses for you as well.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.