A Vision For Your Family and Future

North America. Crossing family.

I am so glad that you are with us today.

I want to welcome you from all of our different locations.

Those of you joining us online and inside, and to, those of you

joining us for the first time, or the first time in a long

time, we are so glad you are here.

Because today, we are starting a brand new sermon series called

reclaim restoring what was lost and And fixing what's broken,

perhaps, some of you have parts of your home, decorated, with

reclaimed barn wood. Or some of you have found an old

piece of furniture at a thrift store or an estate auction that

you stripped of paint, sanded down and brought back to its

original Glory or maybe you gave it an updated trendy twist.

There's Something Beautiful about solid craftsmanship and

natural materials. The hard work.

Seems to be worth it when we know that it can be passed on to

Future Generations or at least Payments value and even increase

in value when the time comes for it to leave our homes contrast

that with the particle board pieces that litter our homes.

Today while we appreciate the convenience, they have no

longevity and are far from sturdy in conversations with

parents couples, grandparents and young adults.

It appears to me that many of us are wishing for something more.

Something better, something different.

Aunt and this sermon series, we're going to take a look at

the areas of Our Lives that we need to reclaim things that

we've lost along the way and things that are broken and long

overdue for a fix in order to reclaim what has been lost and

broken. We need to understand three

principles, its principal one. You reap.

What you sow? We see this in Galatians.

A man reaps what he sews whoever sews to please, their flesh.

From the flesh will reap destruction.

Whoever sews to please, the spirit from the spirit will reap

eternal life. Let us not.

Become weary in doing good throughout the proper time.

We will reap a harvest. If we do not give up.

Here's a question. I want you to ponder.

What do you want to reap? This is a question about Vision.

When you see yourself in the future, what do your

relationships with like with your kids?

What kind of marriage or friendships do you want to have?

How are you doing in the future financially, physically?

And even Spiritually. We are so busy in the day-to-day

hustle of life. That many of us have not stopped

long enough to make sure that we have a vision for our future.

Proverbs 29:18, says, where there is no Revelation, the

Proverbs 29:18

people cast off restraint is probably said best in the King

James version. Where there is no vision, the

people perish. Nobody has the vision of being

poor divorced and estranged from their kids.

Most people have hopes that one day they'll have money in the

bank less fighting in. Family, and closer and more

meaningful relationships. However, having a vision is not

enough. Once you have a vision, you have

to take steps to get there, you can have a vision for reaping a

harvest of corn, but if you don't ever buy the Seed, go out

and work the dirt, fertilize it spray for weeds and do the

maintenance on the combine. The chances of you reaping a

harvest plummets, furthermore you can have a vision for

harvesting corn, but if all you do is sow wheat, You will never

realize the vision you have. So many of us have visions that

are in direct contradiction to our daily activities.

We reap what we sow, not, what we intend to.

So vision is not enough. We need to implement our vision

which leads to principal to principal to everything has a

price. Jesus gives us a warning that we

must count the cost of following him and also of not following

him. He Likens it to a man who's

getting ready to build a tower. He says you should first sit

down and count the cost to see if you have enough to complete

it. Otherwise you'll simply lay a

foundation and be seen as a fool who did not have enough money to

finish the project. He also says the whoever loses

their life will save it and whoever tries to save their life

will lose it. Is always a cost choosing to

follow. Jesus has a cost, you will lose

your life. You turn your life over to him,

the choosing not to follow. Jesus also has a cost you keep

your life on your terms and save it for yourself.

However, in the end you will not enter into heaven because your

life was never placed. In the hands of Jesus, we end up

over estimating the cost of decisions today and under

estimating, the cost of decisions made tomorrow.

We tend to think that putting it off the life change.

Delaying the tough conversations and holding off on implementing

better practices. Will save us in the long run but

there is a cost to not working out regularly and there is a

cost to working out regularly. There is a cost to saving today

and there's a cost for not saving today.

There's a cost to having difficult conversations today

and there's a cost to not having difficult conversations today,

there's a cost to making life-changing decisions today

and there is a cost to know. Making life-changing decisions.

Today we end up buying more particle board Furniture because

in the moment it costs less. But in the long run we end up

spending so much more than we anticipated which leads me to

principle 3. We must feed the dog we want to

win. So I Married to guys, fat

Clayton and skinny clay careful. So sitting in front of the

television, eating a pizza, and then a bowl of cereal.

And then I have a bag of chips and then he gets mad that we're

out of ice cream. And all of a sudden, something

wakes up inside of him and he screams, hey, I gotta get out of

this chair. I'm gonna go look in the mirror.

They turned sideways. He's like, look, you're fat,

you're out of shape. Let's do something about it.

Something wakes up inside of him and he sees the world completely

differently. So, now skinny, Clayton, he

can't stand being fat. He has a different vocabulary.

Uses words like discipline exercise.

All right, put the cards down. He watches videos on YouTube of

workouts. He reads blogs, does research on

what types of shoes he's going to need.

He sets, workout goals, dietary regimens.

Gets up early to work out. Get that Fitbit and does jumping

jacks. Runs in place, so it gets his

steps in. He even begins to look down on

others. Who don't work out, the skinny,

Clayton, loses five pounds, then 10 pounds, then 15 pounds, then

he weighs in and sees no progress.

Next morning, he gets up to work out, look into rainy and cold so

he sleeps for an extra hour. Then on his way to work the

McDonald's, he has successfully driven by for the last three

weeks. Has no one in line.

Then it hits that Clayton is back and he's in charge, it's

sad, but it's true. The worst thing is it's not just

limited to that. That there's great spouse versus

selfish spouse. Great spouse says I'm sorry and

self-respect says, it's your fault.

The great one works at loving and the selfish one expects to

be loved one shows up, ready to serve in the other one expects

to be served. It shows up in parenting.

There's invested Clayton and there's absent.

Clayton invested Clayton, is involved absent.

Clayton is overcommitted invested.

Clayton has a plan absent. Clayton allows chaos.

Lee, Clayton, prioritises a relationship absent parent,

Clayton is all about rules. I interact with my kids when I'm

in my on good behavior and I ignore them and I'm on my cell

phone when I'm exhibiting my bad behavior, it shows up his good

friend and bad friend. Good friend says, I'm gonna go

say hi to everyone. Bad friend goes well they didn't

speak to me, they've got a problem.

Good friend, listens, bad, friend talks, good friend, gives

bad friend takes, then there's Clayton, who has a growing faith

in Clayton. You has a stagnant faith.

When I have a growing faith, I make a regular investment when I

have a stagnant faith. I'm just going through the

motions or I'm driven by my emotions when I'm invested.

I make it a priority, when sometimes it can just become

occasional. There are so many more of these.

There's the I want a new learn a new language versus.

I'm just going to speak slowly and louder when I travel to

foreign countries and my family knows this one, all too.

Well, There's a desire inside of me to be a great leader.

And there's also a desire in me to be a horrible boss.

There's a part of me that wants to be a great saver.

And then there's times when I'm a reckless spender, there's

times when I want to become a great cook, and there's other

times where I would just rather choose to go through the drive

through all of these personalities live inside of me

and I'm guessing they live inside of you two and these two

personalities do not like each other and only one of them can

be in charge. He reminds me of a story, maybe

you've heard it too of the dogs that there's this young boy

hanging out with his father and they're talking about this

desire to be good and then at the same time, these bad actions

that take place in his life. He's trying to talk to his

father and get some advice about how to navigate this and he and

his dad says look there are two dogs.

One wants to do good and be good and the other one is bad and

wants to be bad and the boy looks to his father and he says

well which dog will win. And the dad looks at him and

says whichever dog you feed what I love so much about this time

of year is that the version of ourselves?

We want to be tends to wake up and when he's in charge life is

exciting and full of potential. The problem is that violate

february-march the who we are dog, eats the who we want to be

dog and life returns to the old normal.

Paul in Galatians, gives these two dogs and name, one is the

Flesh. And one is the spirit every day.

We have a choice to feed the dog of the Flesh.

And if we do, we will reap destruction.

Or we can feed the dog of the spirit and reap a spiritual

Harvest. I'm hoping that by every single

one of us going on this journey together.

By embracing these principles, we will reap a spiritual

Harvest. We will ultimately reclaim we

will be able To redeem, the things that have been lost and

fix the things that are broken. Well, in order to reclaim in

order to redeem in order to fix what is broken?

We have to make a decision right now, which dog will we continue

to feed? I was drawn to the last

principle. I mean they went through three

but I want to focus primarily on the third principle.

I know they talked about sewing and what you reap and and

everything has a price but I want to focus on these two dogs.

I want to give a little more context Jennifer said it that

Galatians Paul actually Gives these two dogs and name and I

want you to see where it's found in.

Galatians chapter 5 starting in verse 16, it says this.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

So I say let the holy spirit guide your lives.

There is the first dog. The spirit is, the one, and how

do we feed it? We're going to get to that in

just a little bit, then you won't be doing what your sinful

nature, craves, or you won't be doing what your flesh desires.

That's the second, dog. So you have the spirit and then

you have your flesh or your sinful nature.

And so here's Does the sinful nature, point-blank once to do

evil? Your flesh wants to do evil,

which is just opposite of what the spirit wants.

And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the

nature, spiritual nature, our sinful nature desires, but

here's what I want you to focus in on narrow in, on this, these

two forces are constantly fighting against each other, so

you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

Here's what you got to know that there is a dogfight happening.

There is these two dogs, the Flesh and the spirit going

head-to-head and everybody in this room and everybody watching

online, you need to know this, we all have different sinful

desire, some are similar but some are are very different.

And we all have these battles of the Flesh.

And you may Wonder, well hey, what happens, what happens if

I'm I'm not feeding the spear or what If I don't have the spirit,

what happens if I'm just feeding my sinful desires, what happens

when I'm just feeding the dog of My Flesh.

Well Galatians 5 says that it produces evil.

But what kind of evil he continues in verse 19.

Here's what he says. When you follow the desires of

your sinful nature, when you follow the desires of your

flesh, which again, is all of us in here.

There's that, that nature of us. The results are very clear when

you do that, here's what? Opens sexual immorality impurity

lust evil Pleasures idolatry sorcery or witchcraft hostility.

There's more there's a lot that happens when you feed into the

flesh. Quarreling jealousy.

Outburst of anger. Some of you've been there

selfish ambition. Dissension division happens.

Envy drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins.

Like these. There's too many to list but

he's like, let me just give you a list.

East. And I need to just stop right

there as you narrow in on this list as you focus on what the

flesh when you feed the flesh, when you feed your sinful

desires, you get this. And is there anything on there

that seems appealing to you? Do you wake up in the morning?

And you say, man today and I desire, I desire to be a little

hostile. I I desire to get in a little

fighting match with somebody or I desire to have the Outburst of

anger or all those things because I just don't think you

do. Here's the deal, they may seem

appealing, they may even bring some short-term enjoyment to

you. But when you are engaged with

those things, when you are feeding the Flesh, and those

results are taken place it leaves, you wanting more.

There are times I'm sure you've experienced this, where

something in your life, man? Just wasn't fair, or you

something some news, hits you and or maybe someone did

something sideways to you. And you let out an outburst of

anger. I don't, maybe it's just me.

But in my car that seems to happen where I will just let out

a scream, something will come out of my mind.

My Flesh and those moments. And in the moment I was like, I

felt alright if okay, but it leaves me wanting more.

I can't, I can't continue in that because listen, you will

never find fulfillment in the flesh.

You say it again. You will never find fulfillment

In the Flesh. I'm sure a lot of you can relate

to this based on the circles that I'm running in, my family

has been hit with sickness, all over it started.

Last week, with with me with strep throat.

It continued into this week, with my wife and the flu bug,

and I got to be completely transparent with you.

My flesh took over when I'm I'm sick, especially last week.

I will say this. I will admit it in front of all

of you. I'm a bit dramatic.

All right, I felt and when someone was texting me, when I

was down with strep throat and I was laying in bed and I just

couldn't get out of bed for two days and people were texting me.

The words I would use that would say, I feel like I'm on my

deathbed. I couldn't move my head hurt my

throat hurt. My body hurt.

Just everything. Didn't I felt like I could

literally slap you with what Was sticking out of my neck at that

time like it was bad and when I'm sick, I have these perceived

thoughts on how my wife should care for me.

Because I was down and I was out, it's not an excuse, I

should have done better, this is where I fell short, I fed much

more into my fleshly side. I wasn't I wasn't feeding the

spirit very much when I was down and out, I wasn't spending much

time in the word. I wasn't spending much time in

prayer and so my flesh came out of me.

And so my expectations of my wife were, she needs to be in my

room at every second of the day and she needs to be caring for

me and she needs to be asking, Honey, can I bring you some more

water honey? Can I get this for you?

And quite frankly she didn't now she checked in on me, she did

everything. She was supposed to do.

She's caring for four kids. She's continued to walk in her

calling in the Lord and doing a mighty, awesome job and her

calling but for some reason in my flesh sided took over, and

you don't my flesh said and you can probably relate to this.

I said Sweetie. I know you're going to get sick

next. And you.

Wait you wait and I will treat you exactly the way you treated

me. This that didn't work out very

well. Did it?

See my flesh came out and I took it out on her.

I took it out on my kids because I was I was feeding the wrong

dog. And that's why I meant my

friends. It's so important to feed the

spirit and here's a good news about having a relationship with

Jesus Christ. Is that you are not battling the

flesh by yourself. If you don't Have a relationship

with Jesus. You are battling it by yourself,

but Jesus says in his own words, I love this in John chapter 14,

John 14 · chapter mention

The Gospel of John. He says, if you love me Jesus,

if you love me and you keep my commands and you obey my

commands Jesus, I will send, I will ask the father to send us

an advocate who will help us forever the spirit of Truth.

The spirit of God will come inside of us.

And you don't know why that's a big deal.

Do you want to know why? It's a big deal to have the

spirit of God living inside of us?

Because the results are quite opposite and what the flesh

provides. Here's what it says in verse 22,

as we continued in chapter 5 but the Fruit of the Spirit The

results of the spirit, when you feed the spirit, when you allow

the spirit to come take residence inside of you.

This is what it does. It provides love and joy and

peace and forbearance or or patience.

Kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control

against such things. There is no law.

Look at that list in contrast to the list that you're flush

provides. I wonder how many of your your

kids or your spouse or your family or your grandkids or fill

in the blank of the person in your circle.

If they were like mint, actually might this would be a bad thing

for my loved ones to have more joy to have more love to have

more patients to have more kindness to have more

self-control. Would they be like, no, no, no.

I dad actually I want a more hostile dad.

I want when I do something wrong.

I don't want a peaceful dad. I don't want a gentle dad, but

if I'm not careful this and this is just me speaking.

If I'm not careful. And I'm feeding the wrong dog,

those things on the other lists, tend to show themselves more

than this list. If I'm not feeding the spirit, I

don't know if any of the guys can relate to this to this next

part, but my wife, I love her so much, and she knows that she

just takes. So darn long to get ready when

we go to places, all right. Like a long time and maybe it's

not even that she she takes a long time to get ready.

She just seems to wait till the last moment to get ready.

So if like, for instance, we know it's, I'm going to give her

a Saturday when we're not working.

We're out of the office and we're at home, or enjoying time

with the family. And let's just say we have

somewhere to be at 6 p.m. she's doing nothing all day.

Besides caring for her kids and loving me.

She waits till 5:45 to get ready so then I think now's a good

time. Let's go get ready now.

I'm like we're supposed to leave at 5:45 and so this is what

happens. The flesh side of me, if I'm not

feeding the spirit, if I'm not in my word, if I'm not praying.

If I'm not being the man after God's heart that I'm supposed to

do what she gets, as she gets a more hostile husband, she gets a

little Outburst of anger, unfortunately, instead of this

patient in this kind in this loving and forgive me husband.

But listen, this is a reminder these things.

These these fruits of the spirit We don't produce those.

Some of you are gonna be like, well listen, I I'm a lot loving

person. I can be patient, I could be

kind but you can't produce that on your own.

It might be short term. You might produce evidence of

those things but you cannot produce the fruits of the spirit

without the spirit. And the spirit comes to you,

like I said, when you start that intimate personal relationship

with Jesus, when you say, I believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of the Living God, and I want him as my

personal savior in that moment, just Like Jesus says, when we do

that when we love them, when we obey him, he sends a spirit and

we're no longer alone, you can't produce it on your own.

When you have that relationship with Jesus, immediately

scripture is very clear that when you start that relationship

with Jesus, you should be obedient in the area of baptism.

And you start feeding the spirit, we have an obligation as

Christians, people who have called on the name of the Lord,

to start feeding the spirit. But listen, and I'm in this

boat, we spend way too much time sowing into our flesh and sowing

into the spirit. We know the right thing we

should do. But yet, we don't do it all the

time. It's Paul talks about this

battle. He has this inward battle to he

relates so well to us. He's like, man, these are things

I want to do, but I don't do them and then the things I don't

want to do. Those are the things I'm doing.

We keep returning to our sinful desires, our flesh, but we

shouldn't be surprised by this. Because scripture continues to

talk about this. This kind of this weird

phenomena and the Book of wisdom and the Book of Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 26 · chapter mention

26, starting in verse 11. Here's what it says.

I love scripture. This part is, especially as a

dog returns to its vomit. So a fool repeats, his

foolishness. Some of you are just like, oh

okay, you have that picture. I used to be a dog owner, my

wife. And I used to be a dog owner and

this dog. He was crazy.

And his own and his own sorts, but during our time of being

with him, there were be there'd be moments where you can tell

something was about to come out. You guys are, you know, Talking

about like you, he's like he's gagging, like you like it's kind

of like and you're like, you kind of step back.

I won't go anymore because some of you guys are still got some

flu symptoms and that'll just like blah all over the

auditorium. But then all of a sudden, what

does he do? He releases the bad.

He gets too bad out and his vomit comes out on our floor,

which it was wood. Floors tile floors, praise God.

And after he did that, what he would do is he's a crazy dog.

He'd get the bad out and then all of a sudden he's all perky

and he's running. Around the house and he's going

outside. He's running around the yard.

Then he comes back inside and he jumps on your lap and he gets

really close to my face. I'm like, whoa, whoa whoa you

just vomited really like hang back hang back and then what

does he do? He goes back to the pile that I

haven't cleaned up yet. And he licks it up.

And it goes right back to where it came from.

Well, why is that important? Well, as a Christian, that's

what we tend to do quite a bit. There is this fleshly desires.

These sinful desires these things that were walking in

that, we know are not God, they're evil.

They're, they're all those results that we were just

reading and we're walking in them, but then we come to

realization as a Believer. I need to get away from those

things. I need to walk away.

I need to repent. I need to turn away, and I need

to go to the things of the spirit.

I need to lean in to God through prayer and through scripture and

through. The other believers and we do

that for a little bit. But then life gets comfortable.

Everything is going somewhat to plan.

You got a promotion? Your kids are not arguing as

much, your marriage is not great, but it's not like on the

Rocks anymore. And when we get too comfortable,

we tend to not feed the spirit as much and then we start going

right back to our pile of vomit, right back to our sinful

desires, right back to our flesh.

And I just need to tell you, man, I want to be a dad.

I want to be a husband. I want to be a pastor.

I want to be a friend. That says enough is enough, I

fall short every single day. It's important for you to

understand that because the same is true about you.

If you're listening to my voice we all tend to battle those

things. We all have these fleshly

desires and I tend to feed that dog of My Flesh more than I want

to, But I want to limit it. I want to pause that.

I want to stop returning to my flush.

I want to stop returning to that vomit.

I want to make a shift. I want to make a change and I

want to be a man and I think you want to be the person that's

committed to feeding the spirit. And so, during the sermon

series, I need you to hear this during this sermon series.

We are going to encourage you each and every single week.

Two. Dig deep to dig deeper than you

have ever dug before that when you come to this place, when you

enter into this room here at 48th Street, you make this

Gathering a priority especially over the next six weeks.

During this reclaim series that there's going to be moments.

I get it on Thursdays if that's your church day on Thursday

afternoon man. Satan's going to attack you,

he's going to create havoc in your life.

You're going to create he's going to create, things are

going to Happen inside your workplace, or inside your

classroom, or something with your friends or something,

inside your family, or your kids are going to be acting, right?

And you're gonna be like or you go home and you take your shoes

off and you're just like I don't need to go to church today.

I can watch online or I can maybe catch up on Sunday.

And what I'm telling you is you have to dig deep in those

moments and you have to declare. No, this this is important or or

Sunday mornings. You guys are here.

You made it today, but there's going to be days where you wake

up in the morning? You can be like, I don't feel

like it I think we'll just cook breakfast at home.

My kids are fighting or you and your spouse, get in the car and

you're automatically fighting right away, and you're just

like, should we go to church today?

I mean, we're fighting already, can the Lord do anything for us?

Maybe we should stay home. Maybe we watch online.

Maybe we should let people see the mess of life that we're

living in. And so you make a decision to

stay home but I'm telling you not, not not in this season not

in this series that we say enough's enough and we make this

a priority because listen every single week in this series.

We're going to be issuing different challenges.

Some are going to be fun. I'll be honest with you.

What we're starting to plan some of those things and getting some

experiences ready, and they're going to be fun, summer, going

to be easy, they're going to be as easy as you just saying, yes

and walking up and doing something, but some of these

challenges are going to be exactly what the word is, they

will be challenging. But here's what I want you to

do. I want you to sow into your

future. That is we do these challenges

together as my family in your families.

As we lean into these things together.

We want to take small steps today so we can put them into

motion for our future. And so as a staff As a team of

difference makers that love you and care for you.

We want you to know. Another big truth is that we

want to be in your corner. You're going to hear that Mantra

over and over and over this year.

It is true because we want you to know that we are with you.

We want to help you connect with Jesus on a much deeper and

intimate way, we want you to take steps that you've never

taken before we want you to connect with Jesus at a much

deeper level, we want to help cheer you on We want to help

encourage you. When you take your first step,

we want to help help you develop that vision for your family and

develop that vision for your future.

But we also want to be there when you need encouragement.

When you when you are turning to the world and they're just

saying you need to quit, you need to give up.

You need to just stop on that marriage, you need to stop on

that relationship. You need to just give up.

We want to be like, no, no, no, no, no.

Got has you. He's got this and he's with you

and we are right behind you. Some of us.

We may have to just give you a With kick or a little knee in

the back, but we will be there to help you.

We want to help you dig today. So others can drink tomorrow and

that statement is so much wider than just your family.

Of course, we want your whole family to drink tomorrow or even

drink. Today, we want your kids, your

grandkids, but we want your family, we want your co-workers.

We want your boss. That you having a disagreement

with. We went everybody in this world

to know that they can have this. Living Water.

This living water through Jesus. We will my friends.

We will reclaim. We can redeem, what's been lost

and we can fix the things that are broken, but it's not really

a we thing. It's a Jesus thing, Jesus can do

all those things, but he invites us to do it with him.

I want you to consider that as we moved to this time of

decision, Something that weighs heavily on my heart as I'm

speaking. There's there's one group of

people. That I think through there's one

group of people, my heart, just like leaps out of my chest, too.

It's that person or the group of people that have not started an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus.

You hear there's this battle between flesh and the spirit,

and you hear that. When you have the spirit, he's

with us. He's guiding us.

He provides those incredible fruits.

But in the flesh, we get all those results, those evil

results, all those things that follow us and I just need you to

know, my heart goes out to you because you're in this battle by

yourself. You're in this war all alone.

You are trying so hard. You trying so hard to accomplish

all these things by yourself? You, I know you're like, listen,

you think you can do it? But I want you to, I want you to

understand. I thought I could do it to a lot

of people thought they could do it on their own and then they

realized, why do we need to try so hard?

Jesus Paid the price, he paid the debt.

He rescued us from our sin and he wants to be there with you.

He wants to give you the spirit to empower you to live the life

that he's called you to live. You will never be the person.

You will never be the spouse. The parent, the friend, the

grandparent that you were created to be.

Without that relationship with Jesus in today.

And this moment in this time that we share together in this

space, you can start that relationship with Jesus.

Jesus Christ, he died on your behalf.

Not to make you better. He does make you better but he

didn't die on your behalf to make you better.

He died on your behalf to make. You knew your wife, your

husband, your kids, they don't need a better version of you,

your friends don't need a better version of you.

They need someone who's been made new by the power of Jesus.

Who has the spirit of God living inside of them.

They need someone who takes that step and says, yes, to Jesus,

who gets in the waters of baptism and now, Because you

have that relationship with Jesus.

You are now starting to feed your spirit rather than walking

your flesh. And so in, just a little bit, if

you have not started that relationship with Jesus, one of

our pastors will be right by the baptistry.

And they would love to help you walk through that.

Make that decision, answer any questions, you may have pray

over you But that is the single greatest decision you can make

in this moment. And I'm praying that you'll take

that before you leave this place.

Today, I want to share and wrap up Galatians 5 because it's just

so powerful. The, this chunk of scripture

were in and starting in verse 24 and 25.

It says, those who belong to Christ Jesus, those who have

that intimate personal relationship with Jesus, you

have nailed your passions and your desires of your sinful

nature to his cross and you crucified them there.

Your flesh. What Jesus does is you're taking

those things. When you belong to Christ, you

take your flesh, you take your sinful desires and you crucify

him on his cross and says, since you are living by the spirit,

let us follow the spirits leading and every part of our

Lives, my prayer is that you follow the spirits leading this

morning, For those of you in this room, there's a lot of you

that have relationship with Jesus.

You started it, some started a long time ago, some started as

maybe as often or as close to last week and looking at this

room, Panning, this room of faces and stories there.

So many stories filled Some, I got to see when Jesus made, you

knew I got to help walk you through that.

And it's been a great testimony what God is doing in your life.

But I want you to know If you're not in a battle right now, you

will be in one soon. You may be in a battle against

your flush, right now, the flush is winning against the spirit

because you're feeding the wrong dog.

And today, but we have to declare, we have to declare war

on our flesh and the way we declare war on our flesh.

Is we invite the spirit, we lean into the spirit, we feed the

spirit through prayer, through surrender and through obedience,

and that can happen in this moment that can happen.

This time of worship on these steps and over the next seven

weeks, what I want to help you do, as I want to help, you be

able to make a commitment, to feed the spirit versus the

Flesh. And so on the steps, there are

cards just littered on these front steps.

And then just a little bit, I'm going to ask all of you as

believers. Of Jesus, those who are walking

inside this relationship with Jesus.

Whether you are in a good place in your walk or whether you're

in a tough place or whether you feel like you're in an

impossible place that you would come up and you grab one of

these cards and you'd spend just a little bit of time just

getting on your knees or taking the card back to your seat.

Or if there's not enough room up here that you'd you'd flood the

aisles and you start praying God what step do I need to take

today over these next six weeks? How Can I focus so much on the

short-term, not not get lost in the long-term.

How can I draw close to you? Because every single week we

have 168 hours. How will you use that to draw

close to Jesus? How will you use that to feed

your spirit and not your flesh? And so in this time, If you're

kind of already making excuses, he's not talking to me.

This response isn't for me, I'll do that another time.

This is the first Challenge and I'm challenging every single

person including myself to come forward and wage war against our

flesh. Let's stand to our feet, let's

go to time of prayer time of decision, a time of movement,

God, which you do, what only you can do.

God, I pray that you your spirit right now.

Confirming, the hearts of Believers, Jesus.

The how they need to take a step where they need correction,

where they need to repent and turn away from their sinful

desires and Turn to You spirit. I pray that you continue to Just

Produce those fruits inside of us of love and joy, and peace.

Gentleness patience. Kindness just got self-control.

Would you just place it on our hearts?

God, I pray for that person. I pray for that group of people,

Lord, that is still battling on their own.

I pray today. They they can be released from

that bondage. They can be released from the

lies that they can defeat their flesh on their own and that they

can say yes to you. Jesus In This Moment, Holy

Spirit do what only you can do. I pray God, that you'll help us

respond. You'll help us posture.

Ourself in a posture of humility and allow us to make a

commitment In This Moment. God ultimately, I pray that you

help us. Whatever the circumstance, you

will turn it around. Jesus, we love you.

Praise your name. Amen, let's move Church.