Pt. 2 Walking in the Spirit Like Jesus | Spirit of Jesus | 3.29.26

Welcome to the Journey Christian Church Podcast.

This week's episode is part two of the final sermon in the Spirit of Jesus Sermon Series.

It's called Walking in the Spirit Like Jesus, part two.

Ever since I turned 50, I've been having memory problems.

It just comes on like that, you know.

So as I've been going through this sermon series with you, it's been uh such a joy for me to study the way that Jesus interacted with the Holy Spirit and to really dive deep into it.

And we're concluding this series today, the Holy Spirit in Jesus, the Spirit of Christ.

And we're going to continue to look at what does a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit look like?

And of course, the answer is Jesus.

There's no one who walked by the Holy Spirit like Jesus.

And he demonstrated perfectly for us.

So there you can call two different things by the same name, but that doesn't make them the same.

For instance, in 1969, there was a gathering called Woodstock.

And this was a gathering of people that were proclaiming peace, living in harmony, shunning corporate greed, going back to nature.

The music was harmonious, and generally people had a very positive experience at Woodstock.

And I think one of the reasons the experience was positive was because that generation was raised on the scripture.

It was raised in church.

It was raised on Christian value.

Now that generation was by and large leaving the faith.

It was leaving church.

They were still looking for spiritual things, but not necessarily in the right places, but they still had the foundation of honesty, of kindness, of goodness, and those kinds of things.

But the problem that came with that generation is that they did not raise their kids with the same foundation.

And that's the problem with my generation.

My generation came along and they decided we want to have a Woodstock experience too.

And so they had Woodstock 99.

And this is what it looked like.

And the music was anarchy and promoted anarchy.

It did not promote love and limp biscuit does not promote love and harmony.

You can call two things by the same name, but that does not make them the same.

And in the same way, there are a lot of things that the Holy Spirit is given credit for or blame for that are different, that are even in conflict with each other.

And you can call things the same that are not necessarily the same.

The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit that's at work in this world, right?

I mean, there are also evil spirits that are at work in this world.

And we are told in 1 John chapter 4, verse 1, that we need to test all the spirits.

1 John 4:1

And then we are given some very clear tests that are easy to apply.

And the first test is this does it look like Jesus?

If a person's walking by the Spirit, they're going to look like Jesus.

The things they do are going to look like Jesus.

The second test is this does it look like the fruit of the Spirit?

Jesus said, We will know them by their fruit.

We test everything by the fruit of the Spirit.

And so it says in Galatians, just to refresh you, Galatians chapter 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

You're not going to see any law put on the books.

Don't be kind.

Don't be patient.

Don't love people.

If a person is walking in the Holy Spirit, this is what they will look like.

This is how they will interact with one another.

This is the test.

And so today we're going to continue going through the fruit of the Spirit and see how the fruit of the Spirit manifests in Jesus' life in all of his interactions with people.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for bringing us together today.

Lord, we we are so thankful that as we sang in that song, it's done.

The hard work is done.

Our sins have been forgiven.

They've been washed away.

We are running out the clock now, waiting for the return of the Lord.

The victory has been won.

The battle, it's over.

And now our whole role is to get as many people to the wedding feast as we can.

Doesn't matter if they're good or bad, the Bible says.

Just bring them to the wedding feast.

The invitations are out, and we are carriers of that invitation, Lord.

Help us, help us to remember the joyful task that we have.

Father, I pray that as we do that, as we live our lives and relate with our families and our friends and strangers, that Lord, you would help us to keep in step with your spirit in every one of those relationships.

And as you've described in Scripture, keeping in step with your spirit means relating in love, in joy, in peace, in patience, in goodness, in kindness, and gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Help us to walk like Jesus did, to look like Jesus did.

We love you, Lord, and I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Number one, and we're going to go through the last five fruit of the Spirit today.

Number one, Jesus was kind to the sick, refusing to make a spectacle of them.

I recently saw some videos of Benny Henn's ministry, and uh he would call a person on stage, announce to thousands of people whatever they're struggling with, doesn't matter how embarrassing their struggle was, he's going to announce it to thousands of people and then bring them up on stage and knock them down three or four times.

And I just watched that and think, can can you picture in your wildest dreams Jesus doing any of that?

Can you even imagine him doing that?

If it doesn't look like Jesus, it's not of Jesus.

And what we see with Jesus is that he refused to make a spectacle of people.

When he was healing people, he went to great effort to protect their dignity.

One example of this, that's really indicative of the way that Jesus interacted with people, is Mark chapter 7, starting in verse 31, the healing of a deaf man.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

It says, Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyree and went through Sidon down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.

There some people brought him, a man who had been deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.

After he took him aside, away from the crowd.

Notice that.

You know, this could be an emotional experience for him.

A difficult experience for him.

When finally the things that you have wanted all of your life, you finally receive those things.

I mean, most people would break down.

And so Jesus, in a desire to protect his dignity, took him aside.

Then Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears.

Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.

He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, Aphatha, which means be opened.

At this the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly.

He was kind.

Jesus was never going to exploit anyone.

It's not how he operated.

He protected the dignity of the people that he ministered to it.

He commands us to do the same thing.

There's a section of the Sermon of the Mount that is one of the most, I think, misinterpreted sections of the teachings of Jesus.

And it's where it says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

And a lot of people have taken that and said, well, that means that nobody should know what anybody else is giving in the church.

And if anybody shares with somebody else what they're giving in the church, then that is in disobedience to that scripture.

But he is not talking about giving to the church in that passage.

Now I'm not going to start announcing what everybody's giving.

And I don't know, and I don't want to know because I don't want to show favoritism to people.

But this is what he is actually talking about in Matthew chapter 6, verses 3 and 4.

Matthew 6:3

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

So that your giving may be in secret.

Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus would never bring a single mother on stage and say, our church is giving her$10,000.

I've seen that.

Have you seen that?

When giving to those in need, Jesus says, we never exploit.

We always are very, very careful to protect their dignity.

It is a difficult thing to receive help.

You've probably tried to help people, but no, no, I'm fine.

I'll take care of myself.

I'll do it on my own.

And maybe you're that way.

I have the tendency to be that way.

The people that were trying to help probably feel that way too.

And so kindness protects the dignity of others.

Kindness causes us to put myself in your shoes.

If this was happening to me or for me, how would I receive it?

How would I feel about it?

Number two, Jesus was faithful and good, never lying, cheating, or stealing.

Now, unfortunately, there have been ministries and there have been preachers who have gotten rich off of the kingdom of God.

They have fleeced the flock.

They had ulterior motives, and a lot of time that those ulterior motives were financial gain.

And Paul spoke very clearly about this in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

He actually calls them a name.

He says, These are men of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

Well, that's saying there is the belief that if I am good enough, God is going to really bless me financially.

This is a corruption in thinking.

This is people of corrupt mind.

Remember that Jesus said, the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

That the disciples that followed Jesus, Paul described them in 1 Corinthians as those that are at the end of the line, the refuge or the refuse of the earth.

And these guys, they were not getting rich off the gospel at all.

Jesus, on the other hand, he was faithful to the Father with no ulterior motives.

There have been those in the ministry who have been dishonest.

There have been those who have lived double lives.

The Bible tells us you will know them by their fruit.

What fruit?

Are they loving?

Are they patient?

Are they kind?

Are they gentle?

This is how we'll know.

Is somebody really speaking from God?

Is somebody really following the Lord?

Don't follow anybody that's not following the Lord.

They'll lead you down paths you don't want to go.

Jesus was extremely faithful.

So Jesus is 12 years old.

You know, that's the age when kids really start being submissive to their parents, right?

I mean, 12, that's when there's a shift and they think, you know, mom and dad, my parents are actually pretty cool.

No, it usually goes the other way.

And so Jesus at 12 years old, he gets separated from his parents.

His parents find him at the temple, they they uh collect him and they're taking him home.

And then it says something really interesting about Jesus' relationship with his parents after that point through his teenage years.

In Luke chapter 2, verse 51, it says, Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.

Luke 2:51

Jesus obeyed his mother and father.

It's one of the top ten, you know, the Ten Commandments.

It was a big deal to him.

And even through the teenage years, Jesus was obedient to his mom and dad.

Jesus was faithful in prayer.

Jesus was never so presumptuous as to think, well, I'm gonna make this life decision without consulting the Lord and saying, Lord, what do you think?

It's presumptuous to decide, you know, this is the person I'm gonna marry, and I'm not gonna ask the Lord about this.

It's presumptuous to decide this is the career that I'm going to take, and I'm not gonna ask the Lord what he wants me to do.

This is the house I want to buy, this is the place I want to move to without inquiring of the Lord.

Did you know that the Bible says that this was King Saul's downfall?

It says he stopped inquiring of the Lord.

But Jesus was not like that.

Jesus inquired of his heavenly Father before he did anything, before he said anything.

He was constantly seeking God's will, God's direction, and following him.

He was faithful in that.

He would often find solitary places where he could go and pray.

Jesus was faithful in weekly worship.

Jesus didn't miss weekly worship.

Jesus didn't go through a period in his 20s where he just decided, I don't think I'm gonna go to church.

I was raised, my parents forced me to go to church, and I think I'm gonna take a break from church.

I'm an adult now, I can make my own decisions.

Jesus never went through that phase.

It says in Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

In verse 16, he went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom.

It was his routine, it was a part of what he did.

He went and he was faithful in worship.

Um, our new mission statement Journey's mission is to make followers of Jesus who gather together and grow together and go together.

The uh gathering together is incredibly important.

First of all, it is when we gather together that we have a huge opportunity to love God, the greatest command, love God.

God is worthy of our worship, and we can express our adoration of our Heavenly Father together.

And we gather together to do that, but there are blessings and benefits of gathering together that we probably won't be aware of this side of heaven.

There was a famed preacher from the 20th century named Jay Wallace Hamilton, who talked about a college kid that was struggling with his faith and just didn't know if he believed or not, and didn't know if what he was told was actually true.

And one Sunday he decided to go to church anyway, even though he had these doubts that were nagging at him.

And he goes to church and sits through the worship service, and there came a part in the service, time in the service, where the church prayed together.

And he looked over across the row, across uh the aisle, and he saw his biology professor with his head bowed printing.

And he said to himself, if that man with his intellect can have faith in the Lord, then I can have faith in the Lord too.

And his life was changed, and it wasn't because of a powerful worship service, and it wasn't because of a great sermon, it was because of a man who went to church every week faithfully.

And he saw that example and it strengthened his own faith.

You know, one of the things I'm really excited about in heaven, there are ways that God is using us to make a difference that we're not even aware of.

You know, that biology professor probably never knew the impact that he made.

I'm excited to get to heaven and for God to show us while this was happening in your life, I was using you for this person over here.

While you were experiencing this and going through this, the point of that was to help this person and the way that you behaved through this time was a huge help to this person.

I mean, God is, He is a master orchestrator.

What's so amazing to me about um orchestra conductors is that you've got all of these different not magicians, musicians.

They do conjure some pretty cool sounds, musicians, and a good conductor can hear every individual one.

Even even if you got five violins playing the same part, a good conductor can hear every single one and can weave all of those sounds together beautifully.

Um our Heavenly Father is an incredible orchestrator, and he is weaving our lives together with the lives of everybody that's around us at all times.

And he's using us in ways that we cannot even comprehend at this point.

And if we are faithful in even the smallest things, that faithfulness is going to accomplish what God intends, whether we realize God's accomplished it or not.

And I can't wait to get to heaven to find out.

Jesus was faithful, he was good, it's just nobody better, upright moral character.

Um, and and of course, that came, we were talking in Bible study, men's Bible study this last week about um the way that Jesus was able to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit so consistently is that he crucified himself, died to himself every single day.

Every single day he gave up his desires, gave up his wants and his wishes.

And we were talking about the acts of the sinful nature.

What causes a person to do the acts of sinful nature?

And almost always it has to do with desire.

There's some desire behind the act of the sinful nature.

And as we crucify our desires and crucify ourselves, we feel this freedom from those acts of sinful nature and freedom to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.

And Jesus did that perfectly.

Number three, Jesus was gentle.

He and the Spirit deal with us as gentlemen.

He's always going to be gentle.

That's just the way.

This is how he described himself in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29.

Matthew 11:29

Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

He deals with us gently.

Now, like I said, the Holy Spirit, He is not the only spirit that is operating in our world.

There are all kinds of evil spirits that are operating in our world as well.

And the difference between the evil spirits and the Holy Spirits is that the evil spirits will force themselves upon you.

There's nothing gentle about evil spirit, but the Holy Spirit will never force himself.

He'll never force you against your will.

He is a gentleman.

The whole reason that hell exists is because God is a gentleman.

God is not going to force anybody to love him.

God is not going to force anybody into his presence.

Heaven is the presence of God.

And in the presence of God is love, joy, peace, goodness, and the others.

And separate from the presence of God, the absence of God is the absence of all of God's good characteristics.

All of everything that comes from God.

The nature of God does not exist in hell.

And again, he is not going to force anybody to be with him for eternity.

He's just not going to do it.

He's a gentleman.

He is not going to make that choice for you.

Evil spirits, however, they will come over a person and control everything about them.

1 Corinthians 4, verse 32.

Paul's talking to the Corinthians, and he says, you know, even when the Holy Spirit is working with somebody, they always have control of their faculties.

They always have control of their minds, their thoughts, their actions.

He says, even the prophets, the spirits of prophets, are subject to the control of the prophets.

For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.

The Corinthian church, this was a chaotic church.

And most of them were new Christians.

These guys, even though they didn't know Jesus before, they did worship other gods before.

And they would go to these temples, and these temples would be filled with people doing all kinds of chaotic things.

And so they brought a lot of their practices into the church.

And Paul says, guys, you have to understand there's a huge difference between the way evil spirits work and the Holy Spirit works.

Evil spirits work, they are chaotic and they work towards chaos.

The Holy Spirit works towards peace.

The Holy Spirit leaves the spirit of the prophet under the prophet's control because apparently some of the Corinthians were saying, man, when the Holy Spirit comes upon me, I just can't control what I do.

I can't control what I say.

I just, you know, I just lose all control and he takes over.

And Paul says, No, that is not how the Holy Spirit works.

He is gentle.

He is a gentleman.

The Corinthian church, these new Christians came out of Greek and Roman paganism.

And in both Greek and Roman paganism, there were prophets.

There have always been a lot of supernatural things that happened in pagan worship.

And of course, the prophets were not speaking of God in these pagan temples.

And the Greek and Roman worship practices, the theology in both forms of paganism, was that when a prophet prophesied, he would become manic and lose control.

And so they thought, the Corinthians thought, well, this is just how it works.

And again, Paul says that's not how the spirit works.

The Spirit is a gentleman.

And we who are growing in the Spirit, he wants to make us increasingly gentle.

Now, gentleness is not weakness, gentleness is strength under control.

Number four, Jesus always maintained self-control.

He lived his life self-control.

I mean, it's amazing the self-control that Jesus exhibited.

It's incredible.

And in every situation, everything he did, it was present.

And somebody might say, well, but what about the money changers?

You know, Jesus got a little bit out of control and turned over those tables and made that whip and whip people.

That whole thing was planned.

It was so planned, in fact, that as soon as he did it, the disciples realized the prophecy that was being fulfilled when he did it.

It was planned hundreds of years in advance.

And as soon as Jesus did it, he said, Oh yeah, I remember the Psalms.

Psalm 69 says, Zeal for my father's house will consume me.

And that's what Jesus was demonstrating.

There was never a time when Jesus was out of control.

And as we are entering into Holy Week, an amazing example of Jesus' self-control was while he was on trial.

He was being falsely accused.

People were lying about him.

And if you remember, throughout Jesus' ministry, people constantly were trying to trick him and trap him, and he would silence them, one after another, after another.

He would silence them.

And in fact, it came to the point where they stopped asking them questions because they just looked like fool.

Like fools.

I remember I was a friend with an older preacher, and he said when he was young, there was somebody of a different denomination that he decided that he was going to confront in public in front of a whole bunch of people and make a fool out of them.

And I never forget what he said.

He said, Well, a fool was made that day, and it was not the other guy.

But Jesus, man, you could not lose a battle of wits with Jesus.

You could not.

I mean, you couldn't win.

Couldn't win one.

That's bad.

You couldn't win a battle of wits with Jesus.

And yet, as all of these people at the end of his life, as they were accusing him, this is his response in Matthew chapter 7, verse 14.

Matthew 7:14

But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge.

To the great amazement of the governor.

Like, I know I'm going to die, and so let's just bring it on.

No, as we talked about last week, Jesus had fully surrendered himself to the truth that his times were in God's hands.

And that when it was his time, it was just his time.

Praise be to God.

And so we who are growing in the Holy Spirit.

Self-control is a big deal.

I know for myself, whenever I have lost control of my temper or um whatever, it has always been because you know I um had some kind of desire, something I wanted, something I wanted to happen a certain way, something that you know I was really, really looking forward to, and then it didn't come to fruition or or um you know something that I wanted to see done.

And if it didn't get done, I lost control.

And every time I've lost control, it's because I had not properly crucified myself that day.

And I had allowed my desires to survive.

And that day I was not living in not my will, but yours because pray together.