Disciplined to Conquer - Kingdom Nature

Let's finish the message we started last week.

You know, we talked about the opposition, which was really

just the flesh battles against the spirit.

Today I want to take us into that.

We are disciplined to conquer, OK?

Because the nature we have of the Kingdom of God, we are

disciplined to conquer and God disciplines us so that we always

conquer in everything that we face while we're on the earth

'cause I know ultimately that when I'm present with Him, I am

part of something that will never cease to exist.

And again, you know, I, I make a conscious choice, especially

once the Kingdom, the, the, the idea or the reality, the

revelation that the Kingdom of God is ever present right now,

although it's not physically present, it is ever present.

And the reality is, is that I've always been eternal.

It was just the quality of my eternity that was at that was

the question, was I eternally dead or am I eternally alive?

But we're all eternal. And so when I moved over to

eternal life, was I allowing the eternal life to dominate me?

Or was I knowing that I have life eternal, but I'm still

living temporary, making all my decisions based upon a small

sliver of time, instead of recognizing the decisions I make

now, now actually carrying me into eternity, their eternal

decisions. And I can make decisions from an

eternal perspective of life, not from a temporary perspective.

Hallelujah. And so when you do that, then it

keeps your focus more so and there's things that you begin to

drown out in your ears because you're living for something

beyond. And I think for me, once I

realized that when I die, I'm not going to be in heaven

forever, that was a change. And then I realized, well, when

I leave this earth, it's not the last time I'll encounter sin.

Now, now, I'm not saying that I will be subject to sin or that I

will do sin. I'm saying I will be around

those who are in sin because the millennial reign, those there

will still be humans on the earth that are like we are, but

Christ will be on the planet as well and we will be with him.

Now, when I realized that, I thought, wow, there's a lot

going on still before we get into this concept that, you

know, was just a part of my psyche for, you know, most of my

young life and then a young adult life of that, you know,

the man, I'm gone. I'm up there forever and I'm

never seeing sin again. I'm never dealing with the

planet again. And yet that wasn't even in the

Bible. So when you realize that, then

you're like, OK, I need to live different now.

And my focus is not about this, this time frame that will come

once I die. My focus is today.

And how I Live Today does carry over into the next life, the

next dispensation. We can say, OK, although we'll

be eternal, have our glorified body, there's there be no risk

for us sinning, OK? However we do are going to be

around those that are. We're going to be righteous

judges helping our King Jesus during that millennial reign

before he releases the devil after that time and then

ultimately cast him the lake of fire and then everyone else that

never called on his name. And then we get the eternal new

heaven and new earth. And it'll be awesome.

All right, so let's kick back into First Peter Chapter 2, our

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

beginning text last week. I'm not going to do a big

summary at all. I want to just kind of move into

where we want to go tonight. But First Peter, 29 through 11

again said this, that we were a chosen.

We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of

people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the

excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his

marvelous light. OK.

For you weren't once, were not a people, but now you are the

people of God. You had not received mercy, but

now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens

and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust which wage war

against your soul. And when the Bible talks about

flesh, there's two ways that flesh are identified within

Scripture. One identification of flesh is

just your body. It's your skin suit.

It's what we call the body. It's what houses who we are with

our spirit and soul. It's our body.

So it'd be called the flesh. But then there's times when it

talks about being fleshly or another translation that says

carnal. Now when he talks about fleshly,

what there's what that is, is that's the old nature of sin.

And so when you're born of God, you're, you no longer are

subject to fleshly things anymore.

You can be tempted by fleshly things because you were an

expert in them at one time, right?

You enjoyed them and indulged in them, but they only, you know,

hurt you. And you came to that realization

the day Jesus let you know that this life that you're, you know,

trying to live to be right with him and all the guilt, shame,

and the different things that are associated with living by

the flesh that hurts you and hurts others, you want to be

delivered from. And he'll deliver you because

he's paid the price so you can come out of that.

And so that's, you know, as we talked about on Sunday, we threw

the garment down. And because we're not bringing

an old identity into a new Kingdom right now, so our spirit

man's made new, the fleshly things no longer dominates.

Our body is still here, meaning our body is not glorified.

It's not eternal, OK? It will put on immortality at

some juncture, OK? The things of the flesh are the

things that are always trying to pull you out of the will of God.

So here he says we are to abstain from fleshly lust.

He's not saying we are to abstain from being inside our

body, He's saying we are to abstain from things that were of

our own nature because those things are waging war against

our soul. In essence, it's in your mind

area that the the battle is formed and it dictates which

direction you go. Now the spirit that's alive in

Christ and the Holy Ghost that lives in you, they are

conquering spirits. OK?

The Holy Spirit is the Conqueror.

I mean he's they never lost all power.

He's the greater 1 And then our Spirit's been made in the

likeness of Christ who's never lost.

He's always won and dominated the the things of the flesh.

He never let the things of the flesh take him, control him, or

yield to them. He was tempted on all accounts,

yet he never sinned because he would not go against the will of

of his Father. He allowed the things of the

Spirit to dominate his mind. He would not set his mind.

He would always combat things that try to in his mind go

against the will of God. Again, give you a great example

when Peter he was talking to Peter and his disciples in

Matthew chapter 16. Remember he said, who do people

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

say that I am? And they give him a list of

prophets. And then he said, but who do you

say that I am? Or who do people say that I am?

They give a list of prophets. He said, but who do you say that

I am? And he they say, well, you're

Peter says you're the Christ, you're the son of the living

God. He said flesh and blood is not

revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

And then at that point, because you have this revelation on the

Christ, I'm going to give you a little insight and that is I'm

going to die. But on the third day, I'm going

to be raised from the dead. Now Peter, because he was

emotional, right? He was of the flesh.

He was not born again. His nature was still cut off

from God, although he wanted to follow God and he was living

righteous according to what God was saying.

But you know, he had an attachment to Jesus.

So when Jesus said he's going to die, he doesn't listen anymore

and he's like, I will stop this from happening.

You know, you have me. Aren't you glad I'm your #1 fan

and your friend because they got to go through me.

And you know, Peter later on, you know, almost demonstrated

that, right? I'll cut this guy right here.

I'll, I'll cut his head off, chopped his ear.

But you know, nonetheless, you know, he's going to be the

defender. Now that sounds noble.

The problem is it's not noble when it goes against God's will,

the Father's will. That's why Jesus then pulls

Peter and rebukes him and he says, and he says get thee

behind me, Satan, because he knows that voice is trying to

get me emotionally attached to this group of people that I'm

traveling with that I deeply care for.

And I want to see their lives different.

In fact, the what the lives they're living now.

My father never intended this. And the only way they can get

back into the lifestyle and an existence that God always had

for all of humans is that I'm going to have to pay that price.

And he was wondering if there's another way to do it.

Let it happen. Which means if the Lord could

have said, son, I know what I said concerning disobedience,

let's just act like it didn't happen.

You know what? I'll just not hold it to my

word. I'll just say forget about it.

If he could have done that, he could have done that, but he

couldn't because he says death is the wage for sin and there's

only one payment. It's the purity of your blood.

There is no other way. I have to pay the price because

what I have said has to come to pass and the only way people can

get out of it is your blood. So Jesus said not my will, but

your will be done, right? So Jesus in his mind would cast

down these thoughts that would be contrary.

Now if Jesus had to cast them down, you're, you will have to

do this. So this is this is not for now.

You know, we've we've tried to I don't want to say that try to be

nice. You know, we have peeled one

super thin layer of onion skin, you know, so thin that you can

see through it and said, well, you know, ask Jesus into your

heart so that when you die, you go to heaven and that's all that

matters. So the minute we accept that

alone, because Jesus did die for your sin and and when you do

accept him, you will be born again.

If you were to die right, then you would go to heaven, no

problem. But that's not the sum total of

what of the existence God wanted you to have.

But when we only accept this extremely paper, not even paper

thin, it's thinner than paper people.

It's super thin. Truth and only.

And there's still a whole onion of truth to discover, then you

know we don't live at the level God intended us to live.

And so, you know, Jesus wants us to function on the planet and

not be moved by the things of the enemy because he conquered

it. He said, now I'll put my spirit

in you, your spirits like mine, and then I'm going to put the

Holy Spirit in you. And then if you'll yield to him.

Now they it, it bombarded me and I was without sin, but I beat

it. So guess what?

So can you, you can conquer this.

It just requires you to discipline your mind and don't

let yourself go to emotions or, or you know, when I say

emotions, I mean reaction to a situation because you know, our,

our there, there's plenty of things going around.

I mean, if you watch, if you are watching any reality TV right

now, Oh my gosh, you may not recognize that some of it's

trying to tweak your emotional response because I'm almost

like, this is crazy. I mean, the first thing I

recognize when I get a glimpse, I'm like, these people have no

self-control at all. But yet we're we're the world is

painting to the world. This is normal responses.

So when you respond differently, they think something's wrong

with you. Well, there's nothing wrong with

you. You're actually living like God

and you're not given to these emotional whims because you're

responding based upon, you know, and, and, and we're talking even

justifiable. I, I mean, you may have been

wronged, but you don't respond to your emotions in the wrong.

You stop and say, wait a minute, I'm going to abstain from the

these, these things that wage war against my soul.

OK, so with that being said, let's move back over to real

quick Galatians 5. I'm just want to read 17 again

to remind you that the flesh and the spirit, they are against

each other. All right.

Remember it said this in verse 17 of the 5th chapter.

Galatians that are our flesh and our spirit, they are against

each other. Let me read some of the other

translations real quick. The amplified said the sinful

nature and its desire as opposed to the spirit and the desire of

the spirit opposed the sinful nature.

These two for these two, the sinful nature and the spirit are

in direct opposition to each other, continually in conflict

so that you as a believer do not always do whatever good things

you want to do, meaning you don't fall into the trap of it.

What seems right to you? Because the Bible says there's a

way that seems right to man, but in the end lies death.

There is a way that seems right in certain responses because

your, your, your emotional state when something occurs, it seems

right to respond that way. However, if you stop and say,

Lord, what do I do? Then you may find that it's a

totally different response, right?

And most of the time it is because again, if it's flesh, it

is a different response, period. It's a different response.

OK, again you can correct someone, but sometimes you

correct someone in in natural anger and not righteous anger

and you get a get over into an outburst of anger correction the

corrections right, but the way you correct is now wrong.

Whereas if you took a step back, you can still correct, but you

don't have that outburst of anger in it that now, even

though you're right, you're wrong, right?

And that's tough, especially when you're parenting, because

you can be right with your child, but wrong in how you're

doing it. And you have to own up to that.

You know, I've used this example before.

One time my oldest son, you know, did something in

disobedience and it really upset me.

And I responded in the flesh and he had this little bottle

collection of stuff and I took them all out of his room, threw

them away. And and then I had regret after

that. And I'm like, I shouldn't have

done that. So my correction was right.

My response in correcting was wrong.

And I had to go to him and say, forgive me, I should have never

done that. And I even told him, if you want

all that, but I'll find it at my own expense, You know, now, you

know, he was mature enough at that point that didn't matter.

And he was like, don't worry about it.

But you know, through the years I've come back and asked, I said

you don't have a problem with those bottles, do you?

Seriously. You know, cuz again, under my

roof. It's OK dad.

But you know, you couldn't maybe not.

It ain't OK now that you're grown man, in your own house

with your own children. You OK about them bottles?

Cuz if you're not, I'll run them down and make it right, OK?

Cuz it's it's not acceptable to be right in Word but be wrong in

demonstration. This is why he wages war against

your soul. And you have to be able to gain

access to that. You know, believers, you know,

fall into this. You know the world doesn't we do

because again, we know the right thing to do but it.

But when we know the right thing, if we don't do it in the

right attitude or with the right spirit, a right thing now

becomes wrong. More importantly, can become

damaging to the recipient if we don't come back and for and

repent and say our presentation was off.

OK, please forgive me. All right.

OK, so with that being said, let's go back to Ephesians 4.

This is the last verse we used last week.

Was this Ephesians 422 to 25 that in reference to your former

manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being

corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit?

And I'm going to be honest with you, these verses are not

happening a whole lot in our Christian world and what I'm

teaching is pretty elementary without application.

And I'm a back of that statement up here in a second.

You'll be like, you're right that in reference to your former

manner of life, you lay aside the old self which you being

corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be

renewed to the spirit of your mind and put on the new self

which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteous

wholeness and truth. Social media has created a

platform by which people will say because they're not going to

say now they'll say, but they're not going to, and they'll say

because then someone else's say and someone else's say.

And then we get the mob saying, but they would never come up and

say. And the thing they do is they're

not laying aside. Well, I'll just, I mean, again,

the Holy Spirit, if your brother is in sin, what does the

scripture say? Go to him in not on Instagram

message board and not even Iming them.

I mean if you care, go say to me be a man and woman of God and

show up face to face. Do this thing.

Don't hide behind something. Well, it's because again, we

want to be empowered. A flesh wants to make you feel

like you're empowered. When a person who's truly

correcting A believer don't feel like they're in power, they're

like trying to win their brother.

And they're doing this with fear and trepidation because they

realize the rest of that scripture.

Shall I read it to you? Shall I quote it?

Go to your brother in private, and if he repents, you've won

your brother. But if he doesn't?

Then you go with two or three more witnesses with the same

reason and heart and attitude for repentance.

If they do not take them before the church and if they still

don't repent, then it says treat them as if they're not even in

the house anymore, Which means the minute I go to my brother in

fear and trepidation because I know that I love this person.

And my gosh, I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a little, you know, I,

it's this is not who they are, but I'm going to have to bring

this up now. And now this may hinder our

relationship if they are not soft, but we don't even think

that when we're just using thumbs and all cat letters,

right? And then you get your bandwagon

people that don't even know half the people that you know,

someone's already jumped on something.

And then people make stuff up on top of that.

So, and then it gets spread around everywhere and then

everybody knows something that they don't even know.

That's not putting off the old self.

That's what the world does, right?

That's what the world does. Hallelujah.

Because even the world knows all these likes in these posts are

not the real people because they are posting fakeness about

themselves. They're not real, right?

And even when they act like they're real, they're not real.

OK, Hallelujah. So we need to put on the new

self, which means this is not the environment.

Listen, I don't care what technology is doing, the things

of Scripture are applicable in every process.

Now, Paul obviously had to do some correcting and letters

because he couldn't show up. But he's like, when I get there

and he was telling the pastors who were there, this is the

correction since you asked me, this is how you need to correct

it. So you go to them.

So he was telling them, you go face that, face them, and if

they have some kickback, tell them, I said this, right?

And those that were off, again, in the Corinthian letter, he

says, guys, I cannot believe what is being reported in the

church that I started with you, that you have a guy and they're

doing some stuff that the Gentiles don't even do.

And you're like hugging the guy and accepting it like it's no

big deal. This is horrible.

Now you need to confront this person.

If they're not going to repent of that, put them out.

They confronted and put them out.

However, in the second letter, that person who was put out, and

again, you're not putting out a person.

Please understand this. No one is ever putting out a

person. No one wants to put out a

person. No one is ever put out if a

person repents, it's not my standard, it's God's.

I mean, I can't look at Elliot and say, Elliot, you know, I'm

going to accept anything you do at whatever you do in your whole

life just because you asked Jesus.

I mean, he knows the standard. He knows.

I know the standard. And we can hold each other

accountable to that standard. And, and, and if the standard

isn't being lived, then we know, right?

Do we know Trevor? Do we know?

We know and it's and now if you're not living it, you can

blame and say they did this to me, but you know that's not

true. You know, you're the one who

didn't yield to God. You're not even yielding to me

anyway. Hallelujah.

So at the end of the day, when we get it right and this person

got it right and the Lord's like, put them back in, which

means you can't say, well, you were out, what are you doing

back? Well, when they repent,

everybody can be back and everybody wants to be back and

everybody wants to be back in fellowship because we just want

to have a relationship with the Lord.

Hallelujah. I mean, I don't decide it.

He does. And Paul wrote that by unction

of the Spirit, which tells us that was God's will.

And why did he do that? He wants them to repent.

He doesn't want them to stay in something that's going to

destroy their life at all because he never wants the

church to think this type of living is going to show up in

heaven. And you know, it's almost like

we've accepted this idea that the new self only occurs when we

go to heaven. The new self's now.

And you can put that on today. Hallelujah, again, I just want

to remind you, as one guest said to me when I met with them after

they had been to the church, he says you give a great invitation

for a person to live holy. So guilty as charged.

But if I remember correctly, Jesus said be holy as I'm holy.

So I'm only giving you an invitation to be like the one

you say is your Lord. And if he's your Lord, then

you're going to want to do that. And age is not a factor.

A young person should want to do this as much as an older person.

Everyone should just want to be holy as he is holy and in the

Spirit you are holy. He's already made you that way.

That's pretty amazing. So the other two parts can be

dominated. You have the power.

Say I have the power, right? You're not he man and masters of

the universe, but you do have the power of the Holy Ghost.

Hallelujah. Apparently that movie's coming

out all right. Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 3 verses one through 10 says this.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

It says therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, have

you been raised up with Christ? Come on, have you been raised up

with Christ? Then he says keep seeking the

things above that implies don't. If you stop that is can be a

problem to your soul. Keep seeking things above where

Christ is seated at the right hand.

Basically what he's saying. Let's read verse 2 and then I'll

explain. Set your mind on things above,

not on things that this earth. He's basically saying listen, if

you've been raised up with Christ, then anything going on,

seek there, keep your eyes there.

Go to him, ask him how to do it. Ask Him what to do because He's

going to give you the answer by the Spirit.

Not by the flesh, but by the Spirit.

Because if you don't keep yourself there, then you'll

start making decisions again and you'll start listening to things

that wage war against your soul, and you'll end up making

decisions that are outside your nature.

Verse 3-4. You have died and your life is

hidden with Christ in God. Oh ma'am, when Christ, who is

our life is revealed, then you will be revealed with Him in

glory. Therefore, consider the members

of your earthly body as dead to immortality or immorality,

impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to

idolatry. For it is because of these

things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of

disobedience. We're not sons of disobedience.

We're not sons and daughters that are disobeyed.

That's not our life. Our life is to obey, to live by

faith, to walk and live by the spirit.

But now verse 7 in them you also once walked when you were living

in them, but now say, but now you also put them all aside.

So who's putting them aside? You are That's that's the new

birth that is having the the Holy Spirit in you.

You put it aside. You can do this.

You have the power to put it aside.

You cannot say, man, I can't help myself.

That's not true. God has empowered you to put it

aside and he's talking to you to put it aside.

He'll say, what are you doing? Don't go there.

Quit saying that, quit thinking that right.

You have the power to put it aside.

So put aside all. Put all aside, anger, wrath,

malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you lay aside the old self with

its evil practices in verse 10 and put on the new self who is

being renewed in the true knowledge according to the image

of the one who created him. Now jump down to verse 12.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on

a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and

patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each

other. Whoever has a complaint against

anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also you should.

So again, the Bible is very clear here that now that we're

born of God, the devil is not our number one problem.

It's the things that wage war against our soul.

But yet he's given us the ability to conquer that, to live

a holy life and to change our pattern.

All right, to change our pattern.

So again, depending on how you grew up, where you grew up and

what you've gone through, you know God is he is, he is the

master at releasing you now He does this through the renewing

of your mind. And so you know, you get born

again, but yet sometimes you'll still do some things that you

don't. You're not even conscious

currently that they can hinder the progress of God in your

life. But when he's ready to deal with

it, he's going to deal with it. And let me just say this, not

everyone is at the same place. So when God's like dissecting

you #1 and the microscopes on you, don't turn and put the

microscope on your friend and those around you and say God's

on you. Know what, you could use this

too. You're not God and got to do

them and their timing. And so you don't want to get

somebody get going towards something that God's not even

ready to move them towards. I would love to say we could all

do it at the same pace, but it's just not true.

I mean, just like right now in the natural, if we all jumped

outside and say, OK, we're going to run around the mall one lap,

if we left together, we we'd all finish together say wow, we are

all in the same shape. This is amazing.

No, some of you we would have to pick up on the golf cart.

Just be honest. Is that true?

You know, that's true. That's not to shame you.

That's just that's the truth. That's where we're at.

But at least you get somewhere right now.

You may say, no, I won't the whole thing, but some may be

like, I'm not walking it because it's too cold anyway, whatever

the case may be. But yet if you start to train

yourself well, then even though you may never attain to someone

else's, and I'm just talking naturally speaking in the spirit

though, we can all arrive to a same place in Christ and being

able to control the flesh, we all can arrive to that.

But it does take discipline all right, It takes discipline.

So look at First Thessalonians 58 couple more passages and

we'll be done. First Thessalonians 58, you get

anything out of this again, I have no problem for some of you

saying some things you've already heard because it bears

repeating. Faith comes by hearing and

hearing from the word of God. And sometimes you know you've

heard something, you haven't heard it.

So while you in a while and you think you're actually doing well

at it, only to find out what you start preaching on your like,

you know what, I've not been doing as well as I could have.

I need to work on that again. I need to do some things.

On the other hand, some people, people are like, wow, I didn't

realize I had that much power. I just thought, you know, I'm a

Sinner saved by grace. You know, we're all just going

to be doing stuff we shouldn't be doing because some people

believe that. And again, they've just been

taught that you're right with God.

You're going to go to heaven when you die.

I mean, you didn't do anything to make it right.

So don't, don't be concerned when you make mistakes.

And but the Lord's like, yeah, but I'm here to help you to make

less mistakes. I've empowered you.

You're not having to be subject to that anymore.

All right, You know what I think some people do is because

there's such an encounter with God when you were full of sin,

right? While we were dead in our

trespasses and sin, Christ died for us.

And then we come to him only in that state and we we experience

his forgiveness. That is just, it's mind blowing.

And obviously then we associate that with his love and it is and

it's just like, wow, what? And we have this tangible

experience and, and touch from God.

I mean, and we've never had that before and guilt's gone, shame's

gone. I mean, this whole release, it's

like, this is so amazing. But what we don't realize,

especially if we're not taught, is that then we like a drug.

You start chasing that again. Well, the only way you had that

is because you were in sin. And then you it's like, man, I

I'm wrong. And you repent and then here

comes his forgiveness. And so all of a sudden we start

developing this relationship with God in Christ, how we first

encountered him. But the Lord's like, but my

relationship was not stuck to a first encounter.

You know how you felt when I first delivered you.

There's even a better feeling if you'll just walk in me.

But if you're not taught that, then you know, sinning is almost

a desirable because it's kind of like the married couple.

We argue just to make up because the makeups are so amazing.

Well, after a while, one day somebody's going to be I'm done

fighting and there is no more makeups, right?

Well, you understand, you'll give up before God because

you'll be so tired of doing it wrong so much.

You're like, well, I can't ever get it right anyway.

I might as well just stay over here now, right?

And God never wanted you back in that state anyway.

He wanted to pull you out, right?

And that's in a lot of things that sometimes people experience

God for the first time, they try to go back and repeat something

when God is like, hey, that was an experience, but let's go on.

And there's more to experience with God, OK?

Just like God falling under the power, you know, I just want to

fall under the power again. What's the purpose?

There's a purpose for God's presence, power, something.

And that's what he's trying to teach us, right?

Not the goosebumps or falling under the power or shaking

uncontrollably because I don't know how to.

All of those are manifestations that God can do.

There's no problem, but I don't seek any one of them, I just

seek Him and whatever comes, comes.

And then there's new experiences that I didn't even have before

because I'm progressively grown with God.

Y'all understand what I'm saying?

OK, First Thessalonians 58 says, But since we are of the day, let

us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love

and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

So again we're putting on. There's these things that we

live in the day. We are to be sober.

How are you know you're living sober and you're not intoxicated

is because you're putting these things on.

If you're not putting these things on which staying in the

word praying in the spirit right, reminding yourself I'm

saved from that. I've been delivered from that.

I've been redeemed from that that life is not my life

anymore. It is dead to me.

OK, You put those things on on a daily basis.

And when you do that, it keeps you sober.

You're in sobriety in the spirit, because if you don't,

you will get intoxicated in the things of the flesh.

And even though you're saved, you'll find yourself, you know,

under the influence. And then you'll be in a

conversation and you'll start responding fleshly instead of by

the Spirit because it's it's easier to release while you're

under the influence and he wants you to maintain sobriety.

So here's the last passage. Let's look at this in Hebrews

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 and we'll close Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3

Hebrews 12:3–11

through 11. So there's a little package

here. But again, we are we if if we

know that the Spirit in the flesh battle daily.

And they do because the Scripture tells us, although we

are of the Spirit, Hallelujah, we're of the spirit.

Glory to God, we're of the Spirit.

OK, So we're of the Spirit, and because we are of the Spirit, we

conquer the flesh. All right, We conquer it in

order to do that, though it comes based upon this passive

Scripture. Let's look at this, He said, For

consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners

against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose

heart. Remember, Jesus suffered in the

flesh. Now that was his body, but again

he came to the earth, emptied himself of his glory, and now he

puts on a man's suit and he's tempted like man to obey God.

He never does Hallelujah, tempted on all accounts, never

does. And man, he was railed against.

Not only did he come against him personally, but others came

against him personally. The devil himself came against

him personally. I mean, he endured a lot of

hostility, all right. And he says if he endured it and

won and we have now his Spirit, He's telling us, don't grow

weary because then he goes on and says now, but yet you've not

resisted to the point of shedding blood and striving

against sin. Jesus shed blood and striving

against sin because the man who knew no sin became our sin.

And now his blood has made us as white as snow.

Glory to God. So we've not strive to the point

that we're having to lay down our lives to pay for somebody

else's sin. People, we're not doing that.

So we do not need to grow weary. He goes.

And have you forgotten the exhortation which is addressed

to you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly

the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by

Him for those whom the Lord loves.

He what does he do? He disciplines and He scourges

every son whom he receives. It says it is for discipline

that you endure. God deals with you as with sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

But if you are without discipline, of which all have

become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not

sons. So again, if you're born again

and you're like, don't correct me, don't tell me I'm wrong,

don't, then you're basically saying I really don't want to be

a son of God because again, your spirit man has been made

righteous. It your spirit man.

Is alive to God. It cannot be any better.

Your mind, on the other hand, is being renewed and in order for

it to be renewed, God has to discipline you.

Really this is an this is how God disciplines.

The first thing is through instruction.

He's going to say by his spirit, hey, we don't do that.

Let me show you a new way to do this.

That's instruction. He's now discipline yourself.

Hold on, don't respond that way. Take this fruit.

Here it is. I'm handing it to you from the

spirit, little self-control. Bite on that in your mouth.

Chew on this a minute. OK, here, take the patients 1-2.

All right, fine. Take the long-suffering 1-2.

Eat all three of them real quick for me.

I need you to hold tight before you start spouting off.

And what's this doing? He's trying to teach us to have

discipline because if we will discipline ourselves to say

what's he saying, then we're going to have a right response.

They around us may not have the right response and may not

respond right after our right response.

That's irrelevant. We are only responsible for our

response. OK, So it goes on to say,

furthermore, we have had earthly fathers discipline us.

Obviously some have not, so they don't understand this.

We respected them. We obviously are living in a

different day and age that that's not the case.

But if they had, it would have been a natural example of

something that the father does. And the father is not a man that

he should lie. He could never be a bad father.

He's never been a bad father. So you can never look at your

natural father, especially if they were a bad father or an

absent father, that that's what the that Father God is Father

God is not that and he never will be that.

He never can be that it's against his nature.

He will not do that. OK, So he goes on.

We respected them. So there's a respect when

someone disciplines because that shows how much he cares about

you. He goes on, Shall we not much

rather be subject to the Father's spirits and live, for

they disciplined us for a short time as it seems best for them,

but He disciplines us for our what?

For our good, right for our good, so that we may share in

His. There it is again.

What's that word holiness of which God expects all of us to

arrive to in our full behavior, not just our Well, my spirits,

holy can't be any more holy. You're right.

Then why are you not letting it dominate your mind and your

body? Because if you're really

spiritually mature, then you would get the other two areas

together of which you are responsible to do.

God is not doing that for you. You put on the new man.

You put aside the old self. You take captive your thoughts.

Hallelujah. Because God's not bringing to

heaven robots. He's bringing people who freely

know how to exercise being yielded to the Spirit of God.

All discipline for a moment seems to not be never does

right. It never does.

However, it feels sorrowful, yet those who have been trained by

it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

And the Bible tells us that in these last days that and when it

comes to good and evil, you, you cannot even discern it unless

you've been trained in righteousness.

So you've been made righteous, but that doesn't mean you've

been trained in it. This is really important because

again, God places in you with the seed of his word and with

the Spirit that's been recreating and, and in Christ

all things pertaining to life and godliness.

We have to cultivate it through yielding and letting it grow and

being trained by it. Being trained by it is, I don't

feel like it, but I'm going to. Anyone who's ever done athletics

knows this. You know, you push yourself a

little bit harder mentally. You do not want to do it, but

you do it because you want to get better, right?

And you're like, we'll do another one.

And sometimes you can't even do it.

And it's the one spotting you says do another one.

And you're like, I can't. And they're like, I know, but do

what you can do. And I'm going to do the rest

because that little bit is taking you over to the next.

And so here they go. If it was the bench press, you

know, and you feel like wet noodles doing nothing.

And you're like, you're doing the whole thing.

Well, you're not. You're doing at least a pound of

this 315 LB bench right now, but you're doing something.

And that something is ultimately making you stronger because

you've pushed yourself to this point of growth.

And God's doing the same thing. He'll say you can do this.

I can't handle this, what these people are doing right now.

I can't handle this situation. I the Lord's like in your

weakness, So get that mental picture.

You've just done 10 reps of bench.

He says do one more. You know you're not going to get

it up, but in your weakness, he makes you strong.

You'll get it to the top every time because he's not going to

leave it on your chest. He's not going to do it.

And when those moments are coming along, you're like, man,

come on. He's like, I got you.

I got your spot. You're going to, you stay with

me. You're going to be way better at

the end of this deal because this will not be forever.

It's a passing moment and you're going to be trained by it and

you're going to be better. And these are the believers

God's God's looking to in the end.

So I would be remiss to not train you to be the ones who can

walk in holiness and truth so that you can combat the ones or

not be a part of the ones that are going to fall away.

But it creates A discipline. This is why we read the Bible

every year. This is why we say come to

prayer. This is why just coming to

church, just coming to church, it it it means something every

day. Let me I'll close with this

thought every day I I exercise. What do I mean?

I get up. I mean when I'm in the bed like

this, all right, and I do this. I just did 1/2 squat.

Now I'm walking and I'm working out my legs.

I am exercising. But if I only did that, I would

not actually grow in strength. It is exercise, but it doesn't

build so that I could do more. So you can be a believer and

hang out at the house and every once in a while, you know, flip

a page and read a scripture, read a little 15, you know,

minute devotion. Sure, you can say, oh Lord, it's

so good to be alive today. Sure, you could exercise your

faith, but that's nothing like coming to the gym because the

gym, you got to show up. And there's times I've gone to

the gym and I would say they would say, how was your workout?

I said, well, it was a discipline day because after the

first set, I was ready to leave the building.

I wasn't feeling it. Come on, any workout, people

know what I'm I wasn't feeling it.

I didn't want to be here. But I've done.

I might as well participate now that I've taken the time to

show. But but that's half the battle

is getting in the building because, you know, for those

who've worked out, you skip a day, you skip another day, then

it's a week, then it's a month. And then you find yourself six

years later, you're like, jeez, when's the last time I've been

to the gym? Then you get back to the gym

after six months and what's the first thing you do when you walk

out? This stunk.

Oh, I've lost so much. Yet you've been exercising every

day. Just get out of the bed, do

squats every time you have to use the bathroom a certain way.

I mean, there's exercise, but you know, it's not the same.

You know it's not the same, right?

It's not the same. So you should not let your gym

work out in the church. Go to the wayside and you need

to look at people say I didn't see at the gym today.

They'll look at you like what? You weren't at church.

You need to come to the gym because it's a better workout

and we come together. It makes us stronger because

again, well, I didn't feel it. You know what, I'll help you.

Call me 'cause I'll help you do your reps I'll pick you up, I'll

put you in your little seat, I'll carry you to your seat,

right? Just try to take people's

excuses away, right?