Let our life be a base of operations for God not the devil Galatians 5 13-15

You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

today. And if you need prayer for

healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about

Omega? Head to our website or Facebook

page through the links below. So now we will go into we

continue our study with the book of Galatians chapter 5, verse 13

Galatians 5:13

onwards. You my brothers, were called to

be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful

nature. Do you remember?

It is the same kind of a verse that he used in verse one.

What did he say there? It is for freedom that Christ

has set us free. Stand firm.

So he starts saying for freedom you have been set free.

So stand firm. That is verse one number one.

Now in verse 13 he says were called to be free.

Everybody say called to be free, you are called to be free.

But what does freedom mean to you?

Can we do whatever we like? Just because I am free, I can do

whatever I like. Can you do that?

I will tell you a story about two villages.

This is a fictional story. Basically.

What to drive home the point, I am just not trying to create any

aura around the story. There are two villages and they

had a wooden bridge and people who travel from this village to

that village and vice versa. And they had very good.

It was meeting their needs. Basically it was servicing both

the villages. But one day the government says

to the two villages, we want to set you free.

You are free. You don't have to pay taxes, you

can have your own government. We are not obligated to have any

rules. You know you are free.

So both the villagers celebrated it.

They are dancing and singing and they said oh, we are free, we

are free. Then very soon they started

misusing the freedom they had. What they did was they were

carrying heavy loads across the bridge because they want to sell

more stuff on that side and that village.

People also were trying to bring more heavier vehicles or loads.

And the wooden bridge, you know, has only certain limitation.

And some people were trying to, you know, do all kinds of

mischief. Freedom is, I will tell you what

they were doing. Farmers drove heavier carts

across the bridge to save time. Then merchants push their way

through to get to market. First I want to be first, you

know, into the market. So they are coming rushing.

They were just trying to use their freedom.

Before there was some kind of a restraint that somebody would

look at you and say, hey, be careful, you cannot drive like

that. But now nobody is there to ask.

So they are just rushing. Children played on it, shaking

the rails. That was it past time for the

children go push, pull. And some people thought I am

free to use the wood, go chop the bridge railings and things

like that, take it home for a firewood.

So what happens now after some time?

After some time the bridge was about to break.

The very purpose of the bridge was to make them give them

freedom. So they got freedom and now they

are using their freedom in a wrong way.

So now the bridge is going to collapse.

So elderly gentleman by name Elias, he gathered the people

around and he said to them, guys, one morning an elderly

Carpenter named Elias gathered all the villages.

He pointed to the splintered beams.

This bridge was strong enough for all of us, he said.

Until each of us used our freedom only for ourselves,

Freedom for only. Its like Mega make America great

again. You know, you say to yourself

Ramana is great again or somebody will say Rao will say

make Rao great again. You know stupid, very stupid

slogan and people are running after it and every country wants

to say the same thing. Brazil may say I want to make

Brazil look great again. You know that kind of a thing.

India will say make India great again.

No, no, no, it is globally. We are one human race.

You cannot be putting yourself above others.

Your interest above others is sinful.

That's what I am. I want us to understand

sometimes politics are good, but we have to distinguish bad

politics when you see it, that's the job of a Christian.

OK, now that I did not think of saying it before, you know I

didn't plan to say it. So now this man, he realized it

and using freedom selfishly, they are nearly destroyed.

Everything they connected them, so they build the bridge

together. Now both the various said now

let's make it strong again. So they brought wood and made it

strong. And this time they agreed.

We will use our freedom to serve one another, not to serve

myself. We will serve one another and

they rebuild the bridge and the bridge stood stronger than ever.

Now this story is very, very useful story because so many

times we are very self-centered selfish people.

I have something on slides on the drive I forgot to mention.

Can you please retrieve it for me?

Thank you. So there was 13 you, my brothers

were called to be free. But then what does he say?

But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.

Do not indulge to do whatever sinful nature is demanding.

That is a picture. I put it there to explain how

should a Christian be? What is special about that?

That photograph there, you know, it's just few trees in the open

land where this breeze, the breeze is very strong for

decades, 10/20, thirty, 4050 years, the wind is blowing and

blowing and blowing and the tree has been rooted so strong.

But the branches are not really cannot do much about it.

So branches were yielding to the wind and they are all blown in

One Direction. They are all blowing in One

Direction. Have you seen some trees like

that? Hey, that's good.

Down South, that is right. This is from New Zealand,

southern most part of New Zealand.

You have got a tree like this. There is one more.

Can you can we see the next one? That one?

How do you like the tree? It is completely, the wind has

done its damage in such a way, but the tree is very strong

still. All the leaves are intact,

branches are intact, but it is completely bent by the wind.

You know the sin also the wind of sin keeps blowing on every

Christian. But the question is where are

your roots? Are your roots strong enough to

withstand the wind? But the difference between a

Christian and a tree is the Christian will stand straight

after all the winds. He because his roots are in

Christ strong, he will stand straight, not bend like the

tree. Here are we together.

How are you handling the issue of sin and temptation?

This is very very important because in us we have got 2

natures. Those who do not know Jesus have

only one nature, sinful nature, but those who are saved by Jesus

Christ. You believe in Jesus, you have

imparted this spiritual life and you have become a living person

because a life of Christ has come to live in you.

The Holy Spirit comes to live in you.

So now you have two natures. 1 is demanding holiness and other

old nature is continuing to say do not worry just enjoy your

life use your freedom. So Paul says don't use your

freedom to indulge in sinful nature.

Now the word indulge in NIV is different words in different

translations. I think it is used as an

occasion. The word don't give occasion to

sin is King James and there is another word called opportunity

in few modern translation. Don't give opportunity for sin

to take root in your life. Why?

Because it is going to ruin your completely, is going to ruin you

completely. So he says the world actually is

a military world. You know, right now I'll give

you an example, modern example. You know, I want to keep it

modern. So the US is wanting to attack

Iran. How can they do it?

They need some base. So what they are trying to do is

they want to use the base from UAE, Oman, Qatar, you know all

those kind of countries. They say can we use your air

base? Can we keep off flights, land

there and take off? They said no, we don't allow you

to use our airspace or our airports to attack Iran.

Are we understanding here? So what is it demanding?

I want you to give me a base. Why he was attacked, Iran, When

you give base to Satan, by obeying sin, you are giving him

that base. And he will attack you more

strongly. He will attack you.

He will completely obliterate you.

I mean, it is not by accident that we are praying.

We pray for people, you know, all the time, every day we are

praying for someone or the other.

So I got a call from a different country, supposed to be a strong

Christian, very strong Christian, and I said what is

happening in your life? I do not believe God anymore.

I thought you are a very strong Christian and how come you have

now come to a point where God does not mean anything to you?

I got problems in marriage. So OK, how did you arrive there?

Because I did this. How did you do that?

Because I have done that other thing.

How did you do that? Because I did some other sin, so

it was just linked to 1 after the other and it was one of the

main things was pornography. That is the one that was

captured, the young man's heart. I said now for 15 years I am a

captive to it. That thing has opened the door

for the devil to come in. And when the devil comes in, you

are given a base for the devil to work in your heart.

And from there he destroys you. He destroys your faith, he

destroys your witness, he destroys your passion for God.

He takes away the desire to worship, desire to obey God, to

read the word. So I told him, OK, we, it is

possible to help, but you know The thing is you need to repent.

And then I said you read this book, I sent the book and I said

take time and confess the bed of Christ.

This is very simple thing. We do the same instruction to

everybody. If he follows it, he, that young

man will come out, his marriage will be saved.

This is very simple like that. So giving base is what it is all

about. You don't give base to the

devil, don't give him a room. It's like a springboard of

action. When you go for swimming, you

want to jump from a high and then they want to dive.

Then you got a springboard and you go jump, jump, jump, jump

into the air and dive. What you are doing is by

opening. When we practice in and we say I

love to do this thing, the devil comes into your life and uses

your life as a springboard. He enjoys jumping on it.

So I just want to make it very, very practically and simple way.

I want to say we don't play with sin just because we have

freedom. If we do that, we are going to

destroy the bridge. The very bridge that was making

life convenient and comfortable will be destroyed.

So that's the whole point of what Paul is saying here, is do

not indulge the sinful nature, do not give base for operations

of the devil in your life. Can I see a hand up if you are

understanding what I am saying? Yeah, that is good.

That is good. So we should be very careful not

to give room to the devil. And then if you do not want to

give room to the devil, how should we do it?

How should we live? We have one more next one.

What is the picture you see there?

It is a self indulgence. I put it there.

Self in your life is self-centered.

The center is all about you, all about me.

What is my breakfast? What is my lunch?

What is my dinner? What am I wearing when I walk

in? Does somebody appreciate my

clothing? Does somebody appreciate my new

haircut? Somebody is all about, you know,

someone talked about this self centeredness so much that one

man wished he were a dead man in a coffin.

So everybody will keep looking into the coffin.

How is that so? This is self-centered life.

Ultimately we will drive to that kind of a situation where you

are dead and in the coffin so people can come and look at you.

So that is the self-centered kind of a life.

Let us see one more picture. What do you see now?

You have two circles. In the previous one we had one

circle with a center dot to represent the center of the

circle. And unfortunately in in Google

Slides, you cannot draw a circle with a dot center.

It is. You had to create it.

I didn't have so much of time. I put a black dot there.

That is the center. But here on the left is your

life. Where is the center now?

Your neighbor. You care for them.

You look at their need. Oh, you have your you are not

Well, I see that you are not. I didn't see you come out of

your house for two days. So what is happening?

I am sick. OK.

Have you been to the doctor? No, there is no one to take me.

I am so sick. So you drive them and take them

to the clinic, take them to the hospital, whatever the what I

am. Usually you can call an

ambulance. These days that is a different

matter. But what I am trying to say is

you care for your neighbor and then you say, ah, you need help.

I am here to help. Now.

There are so many kinds of neighbors these days.

Some neighbors think I do not need your help.

You look at them and say, I think you need help.

No, no, no, no, I don't need your help.

How can you help them? It's very hard.

But in the Christian fellowship we are supposed to care for each

other. And when the center shifts from

your own life to the other person's life becomes your

center. And you say, I need to help you.

I, you want, I want to give you advice.

Maybe it will help you. And you speak kind words, good

words, words of wisdom. And if they do not want to take

it, that is their problem. But we have to keep doing that

until God has mercy on them and gives them an opportunity to

change their life. You know, that is very, very

important. But I was thinking, how is this

anything? Everything that we are talking

about is rooted in the nature of God, say rooted in the nature of

God. The law, the 10 commandments,

the book of Genesis until the book of Deuteronomy which is

called Torah, is a reflection of the nature of God.

It is an expression of the nature of God who is God.

Read the Bible, you will find out who God is because he does

not like sin. He is holy and he says love your

neighbor as yourself is not a new commandment that Paul is

trying to say oh now we are Christians so we have to love

each other. No, he is quoting from the Old

Testament book of Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18 and he says

Leviticus 19:18

they are the same words. Do not seek revenge or bear a

grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor

as yourself. Why I am the Lord?

Is he your Lord? If Jesus is your Lord, if Yahweh

is your Lord, if God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is

your Lord, you should not be able to have grudges against

your neighbor. You do not hate them, you love

them. Why?

Because He is God, and if you worship Him, if you have

allegiance to Him, you need to have the other people's life as

your center and their well-being as your center.

This is rooted in the nature of God, at least the same thing

Paul writes again in Romans 13/8.

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to

love one another. For whoever loves others has

fulfilled the law, has fulfilled the law.

But you know sometimes this looks very, very, very nice.

But I ultimately say one thing is you cannot earn your

salvation by doing good works. There are many people out in the

society who can do it. I will give an examples.

One example like that you know you in India you got more on the

road or three wheeled transport we call auto rickshaw.

It is a rickshaw which is mechanized.

So it carries people, two or three people it carries in it.

So there was there is one guy in Bangalore who goes around doing

his job, driving people, making money.

But when when he sees somebody who is helpless, dirty clothes,

unshaven face, dirty hair, he will go to that guy, put him in

the auto rickshaw, take him home, give him a bath and then

he will shave his hair, beard and give him a haircut, give him

new clothes and give him food. That is, he does it every day,

seven days a week. There is no day off for Him.

Will that kind of being out? I mean loving people take person

to salvation and give them salvation and go to heaven?

No, it is first you need to have a relationship with the living

God first. You have to believe in this, in

the one God the Father sent into the world as your Savior to die

in your place, to take your punishment.

You have to believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth 1st.

And the second thing is you will love your neighbor as yourself.

Then the salvation is complete. All the commandments are

fulfilled in one, he says. Actually, it can be summed up

into two. One, love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with

all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

These two commandments are the essence of the all of the law.

But why is it so? Because it is rooted in the

character of God, nature of God. God is, by by definition, the

uncreated Creator. He doesn't have a beginning and

He doesn't have an end and He is the one who brought everything

into existence, so we owe our existence to Him.

We exist because He exists and we need to make connection with

Him and believe in the One who came to reveal that Father,

invisible Father, in the person of Jesus Christ.

We have to believe in the name of Jesus 1st and secondly love

your neighbor as yourself. Whatever help they need, you

just spring up into action and do what is best for them because

that is what is Gods heart. You don't have to ask for a

revelation to help somebody. You don't have to ask for

revelation so many times. Some people say there was one

particular teacher who came who claims to be healing people,

raising people from the wheelchair.

So we had advertised it and we went around calling people who

were in the wheelchair, hey, come, this man is coming.

And that man came and never went and prayed for anybody who was

sitting in the wheelchair. We asked him why.

He said, oh, I only pray. If God shows me to pray, then

why do you want to advertise that you can raise people from

the wheelchair? AM I making sense here?

You don't ask God. Is it your will to raise this

man? Oh, God says yes, so I'm going

to pray for him. Jesus paid the price already.

He's not going to do anything more.

That is the fixed truth on which you operate and pray for

everybody and leave the healing to God.

We don't go down because we prayed and nothing happened.

Oh, I prayed for that man. He's not healed.

Oh, something is wrong with me or something is wrong with him.

Don't worry about those things. You've done your job.

You have prayed so many times. I say to God, after I prayed, I

have prayed in your name. My job is done now.

Release your Angel to heal the person.

Release your Angel, give them breakthrough, release your Angel

to solve their problem. Oh my God, I can't do more than

that. My ability is limited.

But in your name I have prayed. That is how I cover myself.

Can I keep on praying for somebody?

Some people when they call me and they say mostly from India

or US or anywhere, please keep praying for us.

I said do I have any other job? I am not trying to belittle

them. What I am trying to tell them is

you agree with me and receive your healing now.

Agree with me, receive your healing now.

That problem that means you are fixed.

Receive it now by faith and it will be yours very soon.

See, we pray for a guy who had no sense after an accident.

He had no sensation on his in his hand, from the shoulder down

into the hand, no sensation. You prick him, he feels nothing.

And somebody said, oh, there is my colleague and his son who has

this condition, can you please pray?

I said no problem. And one day he came on the phone

video call and I prayed in the name of Jesus command that

healing to happen now in Jesus name.

And he said, do you feel anything?

He said nothing, OK, do not, you do not have to feel anything but

look at your hand now, do you feel anything different?

See anything in your hand? And he moved only one finger

just like that a little. Ah, I said that finger is

moving. I said, what was it not moving

before? He said no, it was dead 19, 21

or 22. He had an accident.

Since then that hand has been dead, no movement at all.

I said OK, let's pray again a second time.

I prayed and then he was moving. 2 fingers are moving little more

than it ever moved. And then after three or four

hours, he sent me a video of fingers moving very, very

clearly. And then latest that I update I

got is that now the sensation is is now come into the hand.

He never had sensation before. Now the hand can feel the pain

and he can move the fingers. So he is continuing to do the

physiotherapy so he can improve more.

How long did it take? 5 minutes.

I must have given him 5 minutes. I said, you see, if you believe

like the lady who went and touched the hem of the garment

of Jesus, the bleeding that she suffered for 12 years stopped

instantly. It is not about me praying, it

is you have to believe, touch Jesus, rope now by faith and it

worked. So we have to do what we can,

but beyond that you cannot take responsibility for certain

things. That is what I am trying to say.

There are limitations for functioning, limitations for

loving people, but we have to love people unconditionally and

we have to demonstrate the love also in the same way.

Cool. So we had to be other center,

not your center. It's not me, me, me all the

time. It's about other people's

comfort, other people's betterment.

They, we should help them. That is how we should live.

Cool. So next thing that we see here

is I was looking at all these verses, you know that I see the

same thing spoken by Matthew, Mark, John, Paul to Corinthians,

Romans, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians.

Apostle John first episode talk so much about love, a surprise

and James talks about love. So what did these apostles who

were in touch with Jesus in the 1st century, what did they

grasp? They grasp that God is love and

we need to love each other, and if we don't love each other, we

don't know this God. It's very simple.

If somebody says I know God, do you love your neighbor?

Do you help anybody? No, I don't have time.

Then you don't know your God. It's very simple.

If you are saved, you must care for somebody else to be saved.

Open your mouth, share the gospel.

So these are the very, very important things.

So Paul is now saying, my brothers, you are called to be

free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful

nature rather so one another in love.

So he is giving you a problem and giving you a solution.

Do not indulge in sinful nature. So if you want to come out of

it, how do you do so one another?

That's the answer to that problem and answer and then he

says the entire law is summed up in a single command.

Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and

devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each

other. Now this is the Paul is now

giving you an animal kind of a behavior.

Have you seen any animal videos on YouTube how they try to kill

another one? In some cases they get killed

themselves. You know that is also funny to

me. The cruel nature in them is just

so cruel when it comes to killing the other animal.

But sometimes they underestimate the other opponent.

Example for example, you you think a bull may not be very

strong, but have you seen a bull killing a lion?

It does just puts his horns and flips into the air and and next

thing you see is that land force dead on the ground, the one

shot. So your strength can become a

weakness. But in Christian context, in the

Christian context, if you keep criticizing, if you keep biting

and devouring, we are going to destroy each other.

It's like 2 wild animals which are trying to have a breakfast

on the other one at the expense of other ones life.

So we should not feed ourselves, think of all breakfast, our

lunch, by looking at another Christian and destroying them.

Because it is going to decimate both.

It is going to make you useless. You are going to.

We lose our witness, we lose our power.

If you want to devour somebody else, you want to eat somebody

else, it's not right. So Paul is saying this is, see,

Paul is a very powerful writer. He is exemplifying what love is

by appealing to what cruelty is. What is cruelty is to kill

somebody. And Paul says, no, no, that's

not what it is. If you yield to it, you are

going to be dead one day. Somebody more powerful than you

will come and you will be dead. So that is how Paul is

exemplifying it. So now my time is almost

finished. Only three verses.

We are done. See the one of the other things

that he says here there was 16. I will give you a little one

minute introduction and leave it so we can carry on next week.

So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires

of the sinful nature. So he says the sinful nature is

there, how do you overcome it? He says you can do so by living

by the Spirit. You yield to the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, I know I am very angry.

Can you please take over my life now?

And when you desperately cry to God, that anger will leave you

towards the other person or you are unsettled about somebody,

something people have said against you who are backbiting

you, just say God, I am coming to you.

Can you please give me your grace?

Holy Spirit, take over my emotions, help me to control my

tongue and the whole Spirit will say, OK, I take over.

Yielding to the Holy Spirit is the way to overcome sinful

nature. So you can either yield to this

or you can yield to that. That is how it is very simple.

So someone was talking, this is not the best example, but one

simple example. He says, oh, there are two dogs

inside of me. One is white, one is black.

So who is winning? The dog you feed wins.

You feed the black dog, it's going to finish the white dog.

But if you feed the white dog, it's going to finish the black

dog. So this this tension is talked

about by Paul in Romans Chapter 7 and it is now talking further

Romans 7 · chapter mention

in this chapter, he talks about the what are the fruit?

I mean, how to identify the fruit of the flesh and fruit of

the Holy Spirit and he talks about it.

We will look at it hopefully next week.

Shall we bow our heads in prayer?

Father God, we thank you, we bless your name, we magnify your

name, we praise you because you are our godfather.

I pray deliver us from sinfulness, deliver us from

selfishness. And Lord Father, wherever there

are misunderstandings, wherever there are things that needs to

be clarified, help us to do so in love to the glory of your

name. And we worship you, we honor

you. Lord bless us as your children

that we may demonstrate your love to someone who deserves it,

someone who needs it to the glory of your name.

In Jesus mighty name we ask, Amen.

Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.

If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to

find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in

the links below.