Sermon

Curing a Burdened Heart - Sowing to the Spirit with Pastor Angie Krulcik

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. The title of the message tonight is Curing a Burdened Heart and

  2. and, and my subtitle is sowing to the spirit.

  3. When I was asking the Lord, you know, what direction to go in

  4. tonight, knowing that I was ministering it, it seemed right.

  5. And it and knowing, you know, obviously I'm familiar somewhat

  6. with things in people's lives, but just sense that that there

  7. there is an overall numbing and burdening happening in this last

  8. day that's weighing people down. Whether it's reports that we've

  9. gotten or things that are happening in our personal lives

  10. or in our families, these things come to to weigh us down and to

  11. to burden us. But the Lord doesn't want us to

  12. be burdened. He wants us to know that we have

  13. the victory and that the greater 1 is on the inside of us.

  14. So let's jump in because I want you to leave here tonight with

  15. just a another little pep in your step.

  16. I want you to leave here tonight where you're just walking just a

  17. little bit higher. I wore my tennis shoes just in

  18. case I needed to kick or run or do something.

  19. But I just want you to be quickened and strengthen and,

  20. and lay everything down tonight. Amen.

  21. So let's start in Romans chapter 13 and I'm going to start with

    Romans 13 chapter mention

  22. verse 8. It says, oh, no one anything

  23. except to love one another. For he who loves another has

  24. fulfilled the law for the commandments.

  25. You shall not commit adultery. You should not murder, you shall

  26. not steal. You should not bear false

  27. witness. You shall not covet and if

  28. there's any other commandment are all summed up in this

  29. saying, namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

  30. Love does no harm to a neighbor and therefore love is the

  31. fulfillment of the law. And then it goes on to say in

  32. verse 11, and do this knowing the time now I want you to to

  33. heed that and do this knowing the time that now it is high

  34. time. Look at your neighbor and say it

  35. is high time. It is high time to awake out of

  36. sleep. For now our salvation is nearer

  37. than when we first believed. The night is far spent.

  38. The day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the

  39. works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

  40. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and

  41. drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, and not in strife and

  42. envy, But verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no

  43. provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.

  44. Make no provision, none. And we'll talk about that in

  45. just a minute. But when it says awake out of

  46. sleep, that word sleep means the slumbering state of your soul,

  47. the slumbering state of your soul.

  48. And so we're going to talk about how not to get in and stay in

  49. that slumbering state of our soul, soul, and how to sow to

  50. the spirit. Because if you're sowing to the

  51. spirit, you're going to have peace and you're going to have

  52. joy. And nothing's going to move you

  53. off or out or off of your solid place because you know where

  54. you're at, you know where you're seated.

  55. So I'm asking you tonight, are you slumbered in your soul?

  56. Are you dull? Are you heavy?

  57. Are you clouded? Do we make provisions sometimes

  58. for the flesh? And when I say that that can

  59. mean carnality in your thinking, it can mean just consistently

  60. sowing to natural thinking, just consistently being in what's

  61. happening in your everyday life without acknowledging Him first.

  62. So let's increase in our sowing to the Spirit and let's come out

  63. tonight of any heaviness that we may have.

  64. So the scripture that we just read said understand the time,

  65. the pressure, the last days. Let's go to Luke chapter 21.

    Luke 21 chapter mention

  66. And if you read in Luke chapter 21, I'm not going to read it

    Luke 21 chapter mention

  67. all, but it talks about the signs of the end times, the last

  68. days. And it talks about nation

  69. against nation, family against family, natural disasters,

  70. airplane crashes, talks about all kinds of stuff.

  71. I threw that one in there. Verse 16 in in Luke 21 says you

  72. will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and

  73. friends, and they will put some of you to death and you'll be

  74. hated by all for my namesake, but not a hair on your head will

  75. be lost. So let me ask you this, you we,

  76. I read that to you and and it may make you want to kind of

  77. shrink down in your seat, but the scripture in multiple places

  78. when he's warning us and telling us about the late last days,

  79. he's saying, don't you worry, don't you lose heart.

  80. Don't you be troubled not one bit.

  81. So in the midst of all this that he just told us, and I didn't

  82. even read all all of it, verse 19 says, and in your patience

  83. possess ye your soul. Now is that not interesting?

  84. I'm not going to highlight that for the majority of the message,

  85. but is that not interesting that everything that he says that's

  86. going to go down in these last days, he says now just right

  87. smack dab in the middle of it now in your steadfastness,

  88. because that's what that word, that word, patience is not a

  89. passive word. It means in your steadfastness,

  90. in your fight, you possess your soul.

  91. Nobody's going to do it for you. You got to do it.

  92. You got to possess your soul in the middle of all this.

  93. It's your soul that is either going to keep you alive and in

  94. peace or not. And it's up to you, your mind,

  95. your will to make decisions and your emotions, your feelings.

  96. And it's OK to have emotions. We have them, we all have them,

  97. but they should not sit up on the throne.

  98. They should not be the thing that are that is guiding you.

  99. The Scripture says that the sons of God should be led by the

  100. Spirit of God, by the Holy Ghost, by the unction on the

  101. inside, not by our circumstances, not by our

  102. feelings, not by our emotions, not by our disappointments, not

  103. by anything else, but just by the Holy Ghost and the Word of

  104. God. So in your patience, in your

  105. steadfastness, in your active, constant endurance, we've got to

  106. take possession of our soul. And then Luke 21 goes on to say

  107. in verse 34, But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard

  108. lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed, weighed down with

  109. the giddiness and headache and nausea of self indulgence,

  110. drunkenness and worldly worries and cares pertaining to the

  111. busyness of this life. And lest that day come upon you

  112. suddenly like a trap or a noose. Look at how he says do not let

  113. your hearts be overburdened and depressed with the giddiness and

  114. headache of the nausea of self indulgence, drunkenness and the

  115. worries and cares of life. How he how he groups that with

  116. drunkenness and other things. Did you know that drunkenness

  117. and worry have the same effect on your heart?

  118. Drunkenness and partying and sin and worry as a believer have the

  119. same effect on your body, the same effect on your heart, no

  120. different. And he's he's put them together

  121. here so he can say to you, do not let your heart be burdened

  122. down. Do not let it be troubled.

  123. I want to read it to you in the in the 21st century, King James,

  124. just verse 34. And take heed to yourselves,

  125. lest at any time your hearts be overcharged, overcharged.

  126. That means burdened, heavy, overloaded.

  127. And the Scripture admonishes us to wake up, wake up out of the

  128. slumber, out of the fog, out of the weighing down the things

  129. that weigh us down every day. If the enemy can get you weighed

  130. down, if he can keep you burdened and keep your heart

  131. overwhelmed, then he can keep you out of peace.

  132. He can keep you out of joy. And essentially, you're not in

  133. faith. And if you're not in faith, then

  134. no mountains are going to be moving in your life.

  135. And see, we got to make sure that our hearts are not

  136. overburdened and overcharged and worrying and anxious about many

  137. things. The Bible says we're not

  138. ignorant of the devil's devices, right?

  139. But even though we're not ignorant, are we resisting his

  140. devices? You may know what they are, you

  141. may be able to recognize what, you might be able to talk about

  142. what they are, but that's way different than you actually

  143. resisting them. Way different.

  144. And the Bible says that you can extinguish all the fiery darts

  145. of the evil 1. All of them.

  146. Not just some of them, but all of them, if you're dressed

  147. properly, if you have on the full armor of God.

  148. I ran out of the house when I was younger without my shirt on.

  149. And I'll never forget it because I was probably four or five, but

  150. I ran out. I ran out and I forgot to put my

  151. shirt on. And I noticed that I didn't have

  152. a shirt on. And I'd screamed and I cried and

  153. I ran back into the house and I was just four or five, but I was

  154. naked. I was naked.

  155. To me, I was naked. And you know, a lot of believers

  156. are leaving the house naked. And I'm not talking about naked

  157. spiritually where you're just burying your heart before God.

  158. I'm talking about naked because we're not putting on the full

  159. armor of God, naked because we're not putting on Christ.

  160. We're not putting on who we are every single day.

  161. Don't run out of the house naked.

  162. Tell your neighbor that. Tell him good job, good job.

  163. So he tells us to be on guard about this.

  164. Now get the get, get it, Get that picture out of your mind.

  165. Get it out. He tells us to be on guard about

  166. this. He tells us that our heart will

  167. be overwhelmed and overcharged if we don't take heed our own

  168. heart. Take heed self indulgence.

  169. And you know, do we live in this Society of self promotion?

  170. And it's all about me and it's all about I.

  171. And the Bible says that in the last days, people are believers

  172. are going to become lovers of their own selves.

  173. And there's a whole lot of that going on, whether it's on social

  174. media, whether it's in the platform, whether it's in your

  175. daily lives. Feeling this need to promote

  176. ourselves and, and let everybody know what we're doing that that

  177. is a work of the flesh. It's a work of the flesh.

  178. So any addiction, drunkenness, any addiction or consistent

  179. yielding of your life, of your mind to the flesh is going to

  180. weary you. It's going to burden you.

  181. Too much flesh activity, too much natural thinking, it will

  182. suppress you and depress you. The cares of life, worry,

  183. anxiety, losing their peace and joy.

  184. You know, you can look at somebody, you can look out at

  185. your neighbor and you can tell when somebody is not in faith,

  186. when somebody is heavy, when somebody's overburdened because

  187. there's no peace and there's no joy and there's no lightness of

  188. their step about them. But they're heavy and they're

  189. carrying the weight of it. And I'm just telling you, God

  190. wants to set you free. But it's not a, it's not a thing

  191. where you can just come up in here and just go, OK, Lord,

  192. deliver me while I'm at church and go back home and live the

  193. same way. And I'm always reminded how Saul

  194. came, you know, was tormented and, you know, David came and

  195. played for him and he got some relief and he got some victory.

  196. And then when David would leave, he would just go right back into

  197. that torment state that he was in.

  198. And sometimes we do that. We, we sow to the flesh, we sow

  199. to the natural, we sow to to our everyday lives.

  200. And then we come up in here depleted and we want, you know,

  201. just a fresh touch. And then we go out and we sow to

  202. the flesh all week again. And we're not living in the

  203. victory that God wants us to live in.

  204. We're not living in this overcoming the greater 1 lives

  205. on the inside of you. Everything's under your feet.

  206. Nothing should be taking you down life.

  207. But that needs to change for us. No matter what you're walking

  208. through, no matter what you see, no matter what report comes

  209. before you, whose report are we going to believe?

  210. The report of the Lord? And it's your choice when you

  211. wake up every day to go, which report am I going to believe

  212. today? The Bible says, I've said

  213. before, you life and death, choose life so that you can live

  214. and prosper and be in health, or you can choose death.

  215. And it doesn't mean you're going to die physically, but it means

  216. you're going to be heavy. It means things are going to

  217. take longer for you. It means things are going to be

  218. more burdensome in your life. God doesn't want us to live that

  219. way. Let's go to Second Timothy

    2 Timothy 3 chapter mention

  220. chapter 3. Take heed, take heed to

  221. yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and

  222. drunkenness in the cares of life, Second Timothy 3 says.

  223. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come,

  224. for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,

  225. boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents,

  226. unthankful and holy. That was self-control.

  227. For me to move past disobedience to parents, I'm thankful.

  228. Unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders without self-control,

  229. brutal despisers of good traitors, headstrong, haughty

  230. lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of

  231. godliness but denying its power. Do you know how many people in

  232. the church world have a form of godliness but deny the power

  233. thereof? And I'm talking about they know

  234. how to come to church. They know how to lift their

  235. hands, but don't know how to allow the life changing,

  236. transforming power of God to work in their everyday lives

  237. because everybody feels good when they leave a church

  238. service. You're in the corporate

  239. anointing, you're getting the Word, you're getting to worship

  240. the Lord. But it's what you do when you

  241. walk outside. It's what you do right here in

  242. your mind, in your soul realm. So it goes on to say, just

  243. continue in what you know. If you keep reading in Second

  244. Timothy 3, if you just continue in what you know and you've been

  245. taught the word of God, it's inspired, it's alive, and it'll

  246. deliver you. It'll set you free.

  247. So take heed to yourself. It's high time that we take heed

  248. to ourselves. Proverbs 4/23.

  249. Proverbs 423. I'm going to read it to you in

  250. three different translations. It says above every charge keep

  251. thy heart, for out of it are the outgoings of life.

  252. I want to read it in the new Living translation.

  253. It says guard your heart above all else, for it determines your

  254. course of life. And the amplified says keep your

  255. heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of

  256. life. So the scripture is telling us

  257. here, above everything else you do guard your heart.

  258. Above everything else you do guard your heart.

  259. It ought to be something that you do every day, all the time,

  260. consistently. Lord, search me, God, you see

  261. me, you, you see my heart, You see my thoughts.

  262. Search me and know me. See if there's any offensive way

  263. in me, there's any anxious way in me, and lead me in the way

  264. everlasting. That's what we do as believers,

  265. always keeping your heart with all diligence, because out of it

  266. are the issues of life. So it's saying, keep your heart

  267. above anything, above your money, above your attention to

  268. your job, above your the uncertainties of life, the

  269. disappointments of life above all else.

  270. Keep your heart with all diligence because out of it are

  271. the issues of life. Out of your heart is the source

  272. of what your life will be. What if your, what your life

  273. will look like if we go to the parable of the sower, and I'm

  274. not going to read all of it, but I do want to read just the, the,

  275. the part about the, the, the ground with thorns.

  276. But you know, it talks about a wayside ground, a Stony ground,

  277. a thorny ground and a good ground.

  278. There's only one ground that's going to produce fruit. 75% of

  279. the ground gets no results. So that would mean not to burst

  280. your bubble, but that would mean that 75% of us may not be

  281. getting results. So instead of you going, man,

  282. that's me, go, that is not going to be me.

  283. This is your life and death moment right here.

  284. That is not going to be me. I'm going to be that good

  285. ground. So the Scripture in Mark 419

  286. says now these are the ones that are sown among the thorns.

  287. They're the ones who hear the word and the cares of this

  288. world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other

  289. things entering in choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.

  290. I want to read it to you in Luke 814.

  291. Now the ones that fell among the thorns are those who, when

  292. they've heard, they go out, and they're choked with cares,

  293. riches, and the pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to

  294. maturity. But the ones that fell on the

  295. good ground are those who, having heard the Word with a

  296. noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

  297. So the ones that didn't bear fruit, I'm specifically talking

  298. about the thorny ground, are the ones that just allowed the cares

  299. of life to come in. And we know the Word of God is

  300. all powerful, but this is the one thing that the Bible says

  301. will choke the word out. Worry cares of life, being

  302. anxious about things. It's the one thing that's going

  303. to squash the power of the word of God in your life.

  304. You might ought to do a little jig or something and go, OK, I'm

  305. listening because I don't want anything to choke the word out

  306. of my life. You ought to have such

  307. discernment in your heart that when worry tries to come to you

  308. that you're able to go, no, no, no, no, no.

  309. I know where that comes from. I'm not going to be anxious

  310. about nothing. Not one thing, not anything.

  311. You got to have this fight in you.

  312. It doesn't matter if you played sports or not.

  313. It doesn't matter what you did growing up.

  314. Doesn't matter if you were I I don't can't think of a good

  315. example, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

  316. You have the fight and the the, the tenacity of God, the

  317. strength of God on the inside of you.

  318. The Bible says the righteous are as bold as a lion, and that's

  319. you, and that's me. There's something in you that's

  320. got to go. I am not going to allow worry.

  321. I'm not going to allow stress. I'm not going to allow anxiety

  322. to come to me. I'm not going to let my heart be

  323. burdened, not for one second, not for one minute.

  324. And if you're watching social media and if you're watching the

  325. news, if you're watching any of those things right now, it might

  326. be easy for your heart to get a little heavy.

  327. And so you got to be able to to turn that off.

  328. It's OK to get an update, but turn that thing off and make

  329. sure you're getting more of the word of God and more sowing to

  330. the spirit, which we're going to talk about.

  331. So, so worry we'll choke it. Be careful for nothing.

  332. Philippians chapter 4, I want to read it to you in the amplified,

    Philippians 4 chapter mention

  333. even though I just quoted part of it.

  334. Rejoice in the Lord always, not sometimes, not just when you

  335. come to church and you like the little song they're playing.

  336. Rejoice in the Lord always. Delight in and take pleasure in

  337. him. And again I'm going to say

  338. rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always.

  339. And again I say, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit, your

  340. graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience

  341. be known to all people. The Lord is near, the Lord is

  342. near, Say the Lord is near. Do not be anxious or worried

  343. about anything, anything, but in everything, every circumstance

  344. and situation, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving.

  345. Continue to make your specific request.

  346. Your specific request. Does he care about every hair on

  347. your head? Does he know how many are there?

  348. Yes, he does. Do you think he cares about your

  349. finances? Do you think he cares about the

  350. little struggles that you have on a daily basis?

  351. Do you think he cares about your marriage?

  352. Do you think he cares about your children and your jobs?

  353. He does and the Scripture says in everything with prayer and

  354. petition, with Thanksgiving, continue to make your specific

  355. request known to God. And then the peace of God that

  356. that peace that reassures the heart, that peace which

  357. transcends all understanding, that peace which stands guard

  358. over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus is yours.

  359. It's yours. Finally, believers, whatever is

  360. true, whatever is honorable, worthy of respect, whatever is

  361. right and confirmed by God's Word, whatever is pure and

  362. wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is

  363. admirable and have a good repute.

  364. If there's anything excellent, if there's anything worthy of

  365. praise, think continually on these things, center your mind

  366. on them and implant them in your heart.

  367. The things which you have learned and received and heard

  368. and seen in me, practice these things in daily life and the God

  369. who is the source of peace and well-being will be with you.

  370. Rejoice always. Somebody needs to get in faith

  371. and let go of fear tonight. Somebody needs to recognize I

  372. have allowed a spirit of fear. I have allowed that and and I'm

  373. not supposed to allow a spirit of fear in my life.

  374. God did not give me or you a spirit of fear, but of power and

  375. of love and of a sound mind. And something came up in me when

  376. I was studying and I just since it would apply to probably a lot

  377. of us that some of us don't, don't let ourselves get to that

  378. place in the spirit where we can even get the victory because

  379. we're too quick to take on the care.

  380. And we're too quick to just begin meditating on and thinking

  381. on what's going wrong. And we haven't tried the word

  382. out. We haven't done those things in

  383. our life. Once you taste, the Bible says

  384. once you taste and see that the Lord is good, Oh, man, once you

  385. taste, then you don't ever want to go back.

  386. And so you start understanding that.

  387. OK, yeah, I see that this mountain is trying to, to get a

  388. hedge here. I see that there's a a worry

  389. trying to get in here, but I've already tasted.

  390. I already know what God will do. I already know how how he's

  391. delivered me. I already know how he set me

  392. free. I already know how he spent my

  393. feet on solid rock. I already know that no matter

  394. what I face, I have the victory. I already know that.

  395. So it's easy for me. It's easy for me to just go.

  396. Thank you, Lord, I got this, we got this.

  397. It's easy for my husband and I to hook arms and and and grab

  398. hands and say we've got the victory.

  399. We're not going to worry one bit.

  400. We're going to pray for our enemies or pray for this

  401. situation, pray over this deal. And we know we've got the

  402. victory. And once you do it and what had

  403. come up in me as as you want to do it, but you haven't quite

  404. tasted it yet. And so you're just still in this

  405. habit of going to the flesh and sowing to the flesh, and you're

  406. not sowing to the Spirit. So you're not ever getting that

  407. victory. And God wants you to get to the

  408. victory. So I'm just daring you tonight

  409. to whatever you're facing right now, whatever, whatever

  410. situation pops up in you tomorrow that you just go, OK,

  411. I'm going to, I'm going to do this.

  412. I'm going to trust God. What does the Bible say about

  413. it? Let me let Pastor Angie said

  414. this works, so let me do this and just go ahead and step out

  415. in faith and watch God do something for you.

  416. Give him place instead of the Bible says give no place to the

  417. devil, give no foothold to the enemy.

  418. Sometimes we give Him place because we worry and we fret

  419. about many things. Psalm 5522, the battle is in

  420. your mind, battles in your mind. Psalm 5522 says cast your burden

  421. on the Lord and He shall sustain you.

  422. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

  423. Do you believe that? Let me read it again.

  424. Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you.

  425. He will never, He will never permit the righteous to be

  426. moved. You don't ever have to be moved.

  427. You don't ever have to have total failure and disappointment

  428. and things consistently stay in your life.

  429. You don't ever have to be moved. Psalm 27 verse 13 and 14 says I

    Psalms 27:13

  430. would have lost heart. I would have.

  431. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see

  432. the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

  433. Do you know this is the land of the living?

  434. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see

  435. the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

  436. Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage and He will strengthen

  437. your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord, I would

  438. have lost heart if I hadn't believed that I'd see the

  439. goodness. Do you believe do you believe

  440. that you're gonna and that you are seeing the goodness of the

  441. Lord in the land of the living. Listen, you guys have been

  442. delivered and set free most of us in here.

  443. God has transferred you out of the domain of darkness and

  444. you're in the Kingdom of his Son and and you can acknowledge that

  445. and you can say I, I've been delivered and I thank God for

  446. that, but also the galactic, and this is the warning that we get

  447. is, O foolish Galatians, how come you started this thing out

  448. in the spirit and now you've just reverted back to the flesh

  449. because we're all in danger of that.

  450. So you got, you ought to not be that, O foolish Galatian, that

  451. you're going to, you're going to stay in the spirit, maintain

  452. your spirit man, strengthen your spirit man.

  453. You understand when you're born again, you get a, you're a brand

  454. new creature in Christ. You get a brand new spirit and

  455. the Holy Ghost comes the living on the inside of your spirit.

  456. But your spirit is either yielding to the word and the

  457. Holy Ghost or not. And the Bible says the strong

  458. spirit of a man can can overcome in Cygnus, sustain in Cygnus,

  459. can take down a wall, can conquer a mountain, whatever the

  460. strong spirit of the man. And so you've got to yield and

  461. learn as a believer to be led by the Holy Ghost, yield to him on

  462. the inside. James chapter 5, verses 7

    James 5:7–11

  463. through 11. It says.

  464. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

  465. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,

  466. waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter

  467. rain. You also be patient.

  468. And this right here is the part I want you to get.

  469. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

  470. Establish your heart. That means make your heart

  471. stable. Make sure your heart is fixed

  472. and your mind is set, because the coming of the Lord is at

  473. hand. And if you keep reading, it

  474. says, do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be

  475. condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at

  476. the door. My brethren, take the prophets

  477. who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering

  478. and patience. Indeed we count them blessed to

  479. endure. One translation says, Indeed, we

  480. count them happy who persevere. If you want to be blessed and

  481. you want to be happy, you've got to learn to persevere.

  482. You've got to learn to establish your heart.

  483. So how do we keep our hearts from being weighed down and our

  484. soul from staying in this weighed down slumber that we

  485. tend to get in? Make no provision for the flesh.

  486. Make no provision. So do the Spirit and and the

  487. scripture we read at the beginning says, but put on the

  488. Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to

  489. fulfill its lust. No provision means I'm not even

  490. going to consider it. I'm not even going to give my

  491. flesh a chance. I'm not even going to give it a

  492. thought. What my flesh is desiring.

  493. I'm going to make no provision for it.

  494. And that doesn't just mean outward fleshly actions.

  495. That means carnal thinking. I'm not even going to give any

  496. provision for just carnal natural thinking.

  497. But I'm going to sow to the Spirit consistently,

  498. consistently put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no

  499. provision for the flesh. So it says to fulfill.

  500. It's less. And that word less means any

  501. craving or longing. Can this happen in your mind?

  502. Can there be a craving or a longing or a desiring or

  503. something that's overtaking you or dominating you or or ruling

  504. your life, controlling you, Something you feel like you

  505. can't live without? And one day years ago, the Lord

  506. told me to to take a break from peanut butter.

  507. And that was a very sad day for me.

  508. And that was a very sad day for my flesh because I love peanut

  509. butter and I love to lick, lick peanut butter off a spoon

  510. anytime, all the time at night, in the morning, every time I

  511. praise the Lord, I want to lick a peanut butter.

  512. So, so back in the day, I don't remember what day it was, but

  513. but I remember the Lord prompted me to take a little break from

  514. peanut butter. And I was like, I don't

  515. understand that. And what, what is the deal?

  516. What, what, what is that going to do for me?

  517. Like that's not going to do anything for me.

  518. And it didn't matter what my justification was or my thought

  519. process was about it. I needed to obey.

  520. And so I did. And can I say what happened from

  521. doing that? I can't really.

  522. But what I can't say is that it made me strong in the Lord

  523. because I was learning in my, in my early days of following God

  524. and learning how to listen to the Holy Ghost, I was learning

  525. to just yield to the promptings, just yield to the Spirit of God.

  526. And, and when that happens in you, when you get that, that

  527. little witness on the inside, quit thinking that it's just

  528. you. Quit thinking that I just don't

  529. have to do that and justifying it in your mind.

  530. It's life and it's peace to you to actually yield to those

  531. things. And I could tell you many

  532. stories and many things over the years that the Lord has said,

  533. OK, I want you to take a break from that, or I want you to do

  534. this. Things that my flesh didn't want

  535. to do, things that were hard for me to do, things that my

  536. emotions didn't want to do. Why do you think the Lord tells

  537. you to pray for your enemies? Because you think it just, well,

  538. I'm just doing them such a favor because I am making power

  539. available for them and they should, they really owe me a

  540. whole lot for that. That's not why he does it.

  541. You are making power available by praying for them, but he does

  542. it for your heart. Because if you haven't noticed,

  543. and maybe you haven't, because maybe you've never prayed for

  544. one of your enemies, but you ought to start and, and your

  545. enemy can be anybody that you have a conflict with.

  546. The minute you start praying for them, the minute your heart

  547. begins to soften. And I've used this example many

  548. times when we've taught on, you know, marriage and different

  549. stuff. But in the first years of our

  550. marriage, I probably was not the most spiritual gal and pretty

  551. carnal. I was born again and I was

  552. filled the Holy Ghost, but I had a lot of emotions and still some

  553. baggage that I was carrying. And so when I would get mad at

  554. Pastor Mike, I wanted to be mad. And I and I knew how to hold on

  555. to that for a little bit, you know, make him feel bad, rub it

  556. in just a little bit. And, and he was not moved by me.

  557. And so he would, he would, you know, come sit by me and, you

  558. know, reach his hand out to hold my hand.

  559. And I would give him my pinky and, you know, I'm like this,

  560. you know, like being so carnal. And then and then after he would

  561. start praying, I'd give him a few fingers.

  562. And then when he continued to pray, the Bible says in Song of

  563. Solomon, her bowels were moved. Has anybody ever had their

  564. bowels move? OK, so, so when your when your

  565. bowels move, what that means is the softening of, you know,

  566. there's a difference. Let me not talk about bowels,

  567. but but let's talk about your heart.

  568. OK, Let's talk about your heart. Your heart can be softened and,

  569. and moved and, and when he would just love me and pray for me and

  570. not be moved, my heart would soften and I'd be like, fine.

  571. And, and he that's how he always operated and it and that's how

  572. it works with your enemies. You start praying for them and

  573. your heart will be softened. And next thing you know, you're

  574. going to want to hug them. You're going to want to bless

  575. them. You're going to want to do

  576. something for them. I'm not sure why I got off on

  577. that, but somebody has an enemy in here.

  578. I'm sure of it. So make no provision for the

  579. flesh. None.

  580. Let's get back to this. No provision, no thinking,

  581. thinking about your money more, your lack, your husband, your

  582. wife can't stop thinking about a frustration, can't stop thinking

  583. about, you know, a disappointment in my life.

  584. No, we've got to sow to the spirit.

  585. So it takes says take heed that you don't yield or sow to the

  586. flesh. Take heed that you don't do

  587. that. You're either, just so you know,

  588. you're either sowing to the flesh or the spirit daily, all

  589. the time, all the time. I believe many are so entangled

  590. with the cares of life that we're not hearing the Spirit of

  591. God, that we're not yielding to the Holy Ghost, that we're not

  592. building ourselves up in our most holy faith.

  593. Let's go to Romans chapter 13 and I'm going to read verses 11

    Romans 13 chapter mention

  594. through 14. Romans chapter 13, verses 11

    Romans 13:11–14

  595. through 14 says, but make sure that you don't get so absorbed

  596. and exhausted in taking care of all your day by day obligations.

  597. Did somebody hear that? Make sure that you don't get so

  598. absorbed and exhausted and taking care of your day by day

  599. obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off.

  600. Oblivious to God. And I put in here oblivious to

  601. the Spirit of God. Oblivious to the Spirit of God.

  602. The night is about over, dawn is about to break.

  603. Be up and awake to what God is doing.

  604. God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work He

  605. began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a

  606. minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in

  607. frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around, in dissipation,

  608. in bickering and grabbing everything inside.

  609. Get out of bed and get dressed. Get out of bed and get dressed.

  610. Don't loiter and linger waiting until the very last minute.

  611. Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about.

  612. Let me just remind you that says don't let all these things weigh

  613. you down to where you are oblivious to the Spirit of God.

  614. You know, the Bible says that the Holy Ghost can be quenched,

  615. that the Holy Ghost can be grieved, that he can be lied to.

  616. You do not want to be in a position where you're grieving

  617. the Spirit of God where he's talking to you and he's

  618. prompting you. And he's and I could just go to

  619. the promptings of you need to get in church, you need to get

  620. in that class, you need to spend more time in prayer.

  621. Those promptings that he's doing, if we ignore those

  622. promptings, our conscience becomes seared and it becomes

  623. harder for us to hear what God is saying.

  624. You know, in, in Scripture, I, I, there's something about

  625. Romans chapter one that that always ignites me for some

  626. reason. But in Romans chapter 1, it

    Romans 1 chapter mention

  627. talks about although they knew God, do we know God in here?

  628. Although they knew God, they didn't honor him as God.

  629. And we can say they didn't honor the, the, the Holy Ghost.

  630. They didn't honor the Spirit of God on the inside, nor were they

  631. thankful. Although they knew God, they

  632. didn't honor him, nor were they thankful.

  633. And so they were turned over to a depraved mind.

  634. And that that doesn't happen overnight when people are in

  635. failure, when things are happening in people's lives,

  636. most likely it didn't just happen overnight.

  637. Most of the time there was a prompting, there was a lack of

  638. yielding to the Holy Ghost. He was talking.

  639. We quenched it. We said we justified it.

  640. We said we don't want to listen. And we went about our way.

  641. And then we wonder why we're heavy, why we're broken, why

  642. there's lack. It's there's a big, big

  643. difference when a trial comes to you because you're in faith.

  644. When a mountain comes to you, but you're in faith and you're

  645. living in faith, then you can confidently look at that

  646. mountain and say it has to be moved, has to be moved.

  647. But there's another thing when, when people want to go around

  648. and say no weapon formed against me shall prosper, but yet they

  649. ain't live in it and he's not really Lord and they're not

  650. yielding and he had, they haven't done the thing that he

  651. told them to do 2 weeks ago, but they want to say no weapon

  652. formed against me shall prosper. It doesn't work like that.

  653. We've got to live this thing. So to the Spirit, make no

  654. provision for the flesh. Galatians chapter 6 verse 7

    Galatians 6:7

  655. says, Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked.

  656. He will not allow himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with

  657. contempt, nor allow his precepts to be scornfully set aside.

  658. For whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will

  659. reap. For whatever a man sows, this,

  660. this and this only is what he will reap.

  661. For the one who sows to his flesh will reap from the flesh

  662. ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will

  663. from the Spirit reap eternal life.

  664. Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for

  665. at the proper time we will reap if we do not give in.

  666. When it says reap eternal life, that's not just talking about

  667. you going to heaven, that's talking about the zoway life of

  668. God, life and peace And deliverance from a definition is

  669. deliverance from being molested from the enemy.

  670. Deliverance in every part of your life, in your mind, in your

  671. emotions, in your body and your finances, in every part of your

  672. body. Deliverance.

  673. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap this eternal life.

  674. John 663 says it is the Spirit who gives life and the flesh

  675. profits nothing. The words that I speak to you,

  676. they are spirit and they are life.

  677. Zoe life, the absolute fullness of life, the glory of of God is

  678. what Zoe life is. First Corinthians chapter 316

  679. says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that

  680. the Spirit of God dwells within you?

  681. Do we not know? In Psalm 139, we, we, we, a lot

  682. of us know that Psalm because it says you were fearfully and

  683. wonderfully made. But it also says, where can I go

  684. from your spirit and where could I flee from your presence?

  685. If I if I make my bed in hell, you're there.

  686. If I'm in heaven, you're there. Wherever where I go, there you

  687. are. Where can you go from the Holy

  688. Ghost? You know this is His time and

  689. His dispensation, and what He's called to do is not only live

  690. within you, but upon you and to be your Paraclete.

  691. You're the one that's called alongside you to help you, to

  692. help you in everything, to guide you in the truth, to lift you up

  693. out of the miry clay. That's what He does.

  694. That's what the Holy Ghost does. Romans 812 says.

  695. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to

  696. live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the

  697. flesh, you'll die. But if by the Spirit you put to

  698. death the deeds of the body, you will live for as many as are led

  699. by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God.

  700. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.

  701. But you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out,

  702. ABBA, Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

  703. that we're children of God. And if children, then heirs,

  704. heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer

  705. with him, that we may also be glorified together with him.

  706. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage.

  707. Again to fear. The Bible says you are a Son of

  708. God if you're led by the Spirit of God.

  709. Solid food, the scripture says, is for the mature.

  710. And let me just throw this in real quick.

  711. In Galatians 516 it says if you walk in the spirit, you'll not

  712. fulfill the lust of the flesh. And the Bible distinguishes

  713. between a mature believer and a babe in Christ.

  714. And the Bible says a mature one is one who by reason of use have

  715. their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

  716. So a mature believer ought to be able to to, when something comes

  717. into their life, immediately discern this is good or this is

  718. evil and operate properly and deal with it properly, take

  719. authority of it. Recognize this is not a thought

  720. from God. I am taking it and putting it up

  721. underneath the obedience of Christ.

  722. That's what the mature people do.

  723. They're sowing to the Spirit on such a consistent basis that

  724. when things come, they're able to see it, recognize it, and not

  725. be moved, not be moved. Jude chapter 1 Jude here was,

    Jude 1 chapter mention

  726. was going to talk about the elements of salvation when you

  727. started in the beginning of the chapter, he's like, I was going

  728. to talk to you about, you know, the, the salvation and those

  729. kind of things. But I, I, I'm, I'm feeling a

  730. warning to talk to you about the end day, end times and end days.

  731. And so he goes on to talk about the last days.

  732. But in verse 20 he says, but you beloved, building yourselves up

  733. on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep

  734. yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our

  735. Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

  736. And on some have compassion making a distinction, but on

  737. others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating

  738. even the garment defiled by the flesh.

  739. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

  740. So Jude goes through all these last day things that are going

  741. to be happening. He's saying, but you.

  742. But you, beloved, you build yourself up on your most holy

  743. faith. And he says, and now to him

  744. who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you

  745. faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

  746. can you say that you have exceeding joy right now?

  747. Oh wow, y'all thought I just fell out of the tree or

  748. something? I am looking at you.

  749. I am seeing your faces. And it doesn't mean that you

  750. need to be busting out laughing, you know, to to have joy, but

  751. you know, if you have joy on the inside and, and the Scripture

  752. says that he can present you if you'll sow to this, if you'll

  753. build yourself up, brethren, on your most holy faith, if you'll

  754. stay in the spirit, if you'll sow to the Spirit, then he can

  755. present you faultless and he can present you before his presence

  756. with exceeding joy, with exceeding joy.

  757. You know, some of you need to get up in the morning and say

  758. the joy of the Lord is my strength.

  759. Joy is not a an emotion, it's not a feeling, it's a power.

  760. It's a strength for your life. And it ought to be a confession

  761. of yours that that that joy that God gives you is the strength of

  762. your life. You ought to say that on a daily

  763. basis. John 423 says But the hour is

  764. coming and now is when the true worshippers we'll worship the

  765. Father in spirit and in truth, for the for the Father is

  766. seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who

  767. worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.

  768. If there's true worshippers then there's false worshippers.

  769. If there's true worshippers, then there's non worshippers.

  770. The scripture says the hour is coming and now is when true

  771. worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

  772. Does that mean just when you come to church that means it's a

  773. lifestyle? You live in the spirit, you sow

  774. to the spirit, you're staying in the spirit.

  775. It says you'll worship the Father in spirit and truth, for

  776. the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

  777. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in

  778. spirit and truth. We're not going to be like Saul.

  779. We're not going to be like Saul. We have to come up in here and

  780. get our joy. We've got to come up here and

  781. get our peace. We've got to, you know, talk to

  782. the pastor or come to church before we can get any kind of

  783. relief. No.

  784. We are true worshippers and we worship in spirit and in truth,

  785. and we sow to the Spirit daily. Romans chapter 8 says there is

    Romans 8 chapter mention

  786. therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus

  787. who do what, who do not walk according to the flesh, but

  788. according to the Spirit. You want to not walk in

  789. condemnation? Then live in the Spirit.

  790. There'll be no guilt, there'll be no condemnation in your life,

  791. if you will live in the spirit, if you'll stay in the spirit.

  792. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the

  793. things of the flesh, but those who live according to the

  794. spirit, the things of the spirit.

  795. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually

  796. minded is life and peace. To be spiritually minded is life

  797. and peace. So how do you not fulfill sowing

  798. to the flesh or the lusts of the flesh?

  799. You replace it immediately with sowing to the Spirit.

  800. And how do you do that on a daily basis?

  801. It is not hard. The Bible says get back to the

  802. simplicity of Christ. Get back to the simplicity of

  803. who you are, where He sat you, where He's put you at the right

  804. hand of the Father above all, rule and authority and power and

  805. dominion and every name that's named, know where you're seated.

  806. Get back to where you are and who you are, and it's as easy as

  807. just making a decision on a daily basis.

  808. It's that easy. And unfortunately, we allow

  809. these cares of life to come in to weigh us down.

  810. We get thinking about too much in the natural, our daily lists,

  811. our daily concerns, our household things.

  812. And we're not sowing in the Spirit.

  813. We're not sowing to the Spirit. I want to end with a couple of

  814. scriptures, Ephesians chapter 5. How do we do this?

    Ephesians 5 chapter mention

  815. I want you to cast your care today.

  816. I want you to be able to lay it down here in a minute.

  817. Verse 15 says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as

  818. fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are

  819. evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but

  820. understand what the will of the Lord is.

  821. Lord is and do not be drunk with wine and which is dissipation,

  822. but be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in

  823. psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

  824. in your heart to the Lord. And if you've been here any

  825. length of time, you know, I love that part because it says that

  826. we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual

  827. songs. And I just picture us all

  828. walking up to each other and saying, glory Hallelujah, I love

  829. you, How are you? What's happening?

  830. And just singing a Psalm? Or do we do that?

  831. We don't really. But one day I'm going to walk up

  832. to you and do that and you'll know.

  833. You'll understand why I did it. Giving thanks always.

  834. Somebody didn't hear that. Giving thanks always for all

  835. things, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in

  836. the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  837. Submitting to one another in the fear of God.

  838. If you are filled worship team, you can come.

  839. If you are full of the Holy Ghost, if you are filled with

  840. the Spirit, you're going to be speaking, you're going to be

  841. saying something. So I want to end with first

    1 Peter 5:6–9

  842. Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 9.

  843. I want you to listen to this in the amplified.

  844. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

  845. that in due time He may exalt you, casting the whole of your

  846. care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns,

  847. once and for all. Let me read that part again,

  848. casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your

  849. worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him, because He

  850. cares for you affectionately and He cares about you watchfully.

  851. Be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind.

  852. Be vigilant and cautious at all times, for that enemy of yours,

  853. that enemy of yours, the devil, he roams around like a roaring

  854. lion, the fierce hunger seeking someone to seize upon and

  855. devour. Withstand him.

  856. Be firm in the faith against his onset, rooted and established,

  857. and strong and immovable and determined.

  858. Knowing that the same identical sufferings are appointed to your

  859. brotherhood, the whole body of Christians throughout the world.

  860. It says Cast the whole of your care, all of it, all your

  861. anxieties, all your care, all your concerns once and for all

  862. because he cares about you affectionately and for you

  863. watchfully. And I, I want to share

  864. personally, the Lord has ministered to me in the past

  865. month or so about how in Zephaniah, it says that he sings

  866. over you, that God sings over you, that, you know, God has a,

  867. a soul. And the Bible talks about that

  868. he's, he's a spirit, but he, but he has a soul.

  869. That's why we have a soul. And the Bible says that he sings

  870. over you. And, and for me personally, I

  871. just caught this glimpse of God singing and I never really

  872. thought about it before. And for some reason in my

  873. personal life, it really spoke to me.

  874. It it really ministered to me that I could picture him singing

  875. over me with love, because that's what the scripture says.