Refreshed By The Spirit Of God - Session 2 | 21 March 2026

Christ by faith in Christ. This

afternoon we're talking about okay what

what does that look like?

It's a great promise

but often we find it to be a challenging

reality. A great promise but a

challenging reality. Okay. How how does

this work?

Um, in the gospel primmer, there's this

quote that says, "Many Christians are

grateful for the gospel, but have

difficulty applying the gospel to their

lives."

That's what we're talking about this

afternoon. This morning, we were talking

about the gospel.

Now, we we take the gospel and begin to

apply it to our lives. There's a great

promise in Galatians 5:16 that says if

Galatians 5:16

you are led of the spirit you will not

fulfill the lust of the sinful nature.

It doesn't say if you don't fulfill the

lust of the sinful nature then you'll be

led of the spirit. It doesn't say that.

It says if you are led of the spirit you

will not fulfill the lust of the sinful

nature. So, one of the most important

things that a Christian can ever do,

there's I think there's two. One, learn

how to feed yourself from God's word.

And two, learn what is involved in being

led of the spirit.

If if you're led of the spirit, you will

not fulfill the less of sinful nature.

Okay? So, what's involved in being led

of a spirit? A little bit further in

Galatians 5, it says the fruit of the

spirit and love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle

self-control. Okay. Um,

one of my mentors who's long since

passed away, um, Dr. Henry Brandt, he

was a counselor for a mission.

If there was problems on the mission

field, he would come. He come and he he

came and stayed with us for a while.

Seemed there was problems. You know,

where there's people, there's problems.

And he he wrote a book called The Heart

of the Problem. In the heart of the

problem is the problem of the heart.

He was a man who had

earned master's and doctorate in

clinical psychology and came to the

conclusion

that the problem of the heart is the

issue and the word of God is the answer.

He asked the question

love, joy, peace, patience.

Who would turn

their back on such a wonderful way to

live?

Ain't that a great question? Yeah. Who

would turn their back on such a

wonderful way to live? I remember when I

read that and in comparing my life now

understand I was a Bible college

graduate uh ordained

pastor commissioned missionary

but when I compared

the way I was living my life

to the fruit of the spirit

I couldn't say that it was consistently

the fruit of the spirit oh when things

are going well you know yeah but when

trouble shows up,

right? When when you don't get what you

want. Uh, now you find out, right? Now

you find out.

I came to the conclusion that a possible

reason that people don't aren't led of a

spirit, that people do turn their back

on such a wonderful way to live is that

they lack a plan.

They lack knowing how to go about it. By

the way, I I believe that the most

effective missionary strategy for

reaching Ireland for Christ is that the

people who are in Christ

would live a spiritfilled life because

there is nothing more contagious than

joy.

The world looks for joy,

tries to manufacture it.

But the fruit of the the fruit of the

spirit is so attractive

when lived out, particularly in

difficult situations

that it stirs questions in the people

around them.

So if passage bible sorry I'm from

millville bible church you know I used

to if passage baptist church was filled

with people who day after day were

living out the fruit of the spirit

that would be a very attractive group of

people

right so this is actually a missions

conference that we're in right now okay

it's but this is this is the Lord's

mission. Um, so

my plan

in four words,

my plan for if you ask me what Todd,

what is your strategy for living out the

fruit of the spirit day by day in your

life? That's what I'm going to share

with you in four words. I try to remind

myself of these four words every day.

I gave you one this morning. What day is

it? It's today. Okay. I'm going to

rejoice and be glad. And I have a number

of these kinds of things I try to

practice every day. I actually learned

that from the Puritans that they would

have a number of different things that

they would remind themselves every day.

First word, no KN. Okay. Uh it's it's

it's mentioned that that Romans 6:1-10.

Romans 6:1–10

It's a very deep dive. We're not going

to take a very deep dive. We're just

going to hit one word. It's actually

three different Greek words, but it's

one word that is in English translation.

But first of all, we talk about how not

to be led of a spirit. Verses one and

two. Uh if you think that

following Christ means well I've been

saved by grace so it makes no difference

whatso whatsoever what in the way you

live. Well that is how not to live by

the spirit. That is a way to according

to Hebrews outrage the spirit of grace

in your life. Uh so so don't think those

ways but do think this way. Verse three

says, "Do you not know?" It's one of the

three Greek words that's used. Do you

not know? Are you unaware

of the fact that Christ, you've

identified with Christ in his death, his

burial, and his resurrection. That's

what baptism is, right? Baptism is

identifying with, right? You identify

with Jesus in his death, his burial, and

his resurrection.

Do you not know?

Do you not know that you've identified

with Christ in his death,

his burial,

and his resurrection?

Many, many times people identify with

Christ in his death. He died for my sins

is buried but they don't take the step

of identifying with him in his

resurrection. He raised to never die

again.

Right?

So he takes it a bit further in verse

six. Here we know Ganosco we know that

our old self was crucified with him. If

you look in verse six,

so that the body of sin might be brought

to nothing,

rendered powerless.

If you rightly understand the gospel,

the power of sin has been broken in your

life. It's not just the penalty of sin

that has been broken in your life. The

power of sin has been broken in your

life. And stay with me. Well, we're

going to get there. This is concept

first. This is knowledge first. Do you

not know?

Look at verse nine.

We know that Christ being raised from

the dead will never die again. Death no

longer has dominion over him. For the

death he died, he died to sin once for

all. But the life he lives, he lives to

God.

Are you living your life right now? Or

are you living Christ's life?

Are you living life on your own? Or are

you hidden with Christ in God?

How do you see yourself?

Where do you look for power?

I I remember, you know, I I have several

people to thank for things from this

message. They say if you have if you

quote one author that's plagiarism. If

you quote several authors that's

research, right? This is this is this is

research. Okay. There's Dr. Brandt. Um,

a person I I learned a lot from is he's

not Catholic, but his name is Randy

Pope,

but he he's the one that really put me

on to some of this of, you know, you

have to know things about the gospel

for in order to live right. You have to

know these things.

But you won't stop there.

You can't possibly live right without

knowing the gospel.

But just knowing the gospel is not

enough. You need to learn how to apply

it. So the first word is known. And I

actually have it written in my Bible

right there on those 10 verses. And this

particular section of scripture, I would

say to you, study it often because

there's a lot inside it. And I'm just

scratching the surface because we need

to get on to the next word. First word.

What? What was the first word?

>> Okay. Okay.

So, every morning when I wake up, I

rehearse the gospel to myself.

I have died with Christ. I've been

buried with Christ. I've been raised to

newness of life in Christ. And today,

I'm going to live out of the power of

Christ's resurrection. It's you know how

long does that take? 15 seconds right

now the depth of it you can study and

study and study but the next word is

consider.

So you must consider yourselves dead to

sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

How do you think about yourself?

This is telling you telling me how I

need to think about myself.

This the the first no is knowledge to

acquire,

right?

This is a command.

It's a command. It's it's not an option.

It's a present imperative. Do this

continually. Cons, count, reckon,

consider. It's a really important word

in scripture.

Think about yourself this way. Engage

yourself in the process. Many people

they think wrong about themselves. Well,

I'm just a sinner, you know. I I can't

do any better. Hey, you're right. You

can't.

You can't.

Can Christ do this through you?

Or are you so consumed with yourself,

you won't let him work in you because

you don't consider it, you don't think

right about it. You're still thinking

your way instead of being willing to

think God's way.

God's way is telling you how to think

about yourself.

Consider yourself dead to sin and alive

to God.

Oh, the first words no. No. Identify

with Christ in his death, burial,

resurrection. He's raised to newness of

life, never to die again. His

resurrection power is mine.

According to God, I am dead to sin and

alive to God because sin has been

rendered powerless through the res

death, burial, and resurrection of

Christ. That's how I going to think

about myself. Second word, right? First

word was.

>> Second word was

>> okay. Okay. No. Consider pray for the

third word. Third word is a very very

important word and we're going to come

back and visit it again tomorrow. The

third word is present.

Let not sin therefore reign in your

mortal body to make you obey its

passion. Do not present your members to

sin as instruments for unrighteousness,

but present yourselves to God as those

who've been brought from death to life

and your members to God as instruments

for righteousness. There's a concept in

scripture that's called put off and put

on. Very important concept to

understand. There's things you need to

put off and there's things you need to

put on. Well, put off presenting the

members of your body to sin as

instruments of unrighteousness.

I'm a very practical thinker.

Lord, these eyes,

I'm not going to have them

see things the wrong way today. I'm

presenting them to you as instruments of

righteousness.

Lord, this tongue

tongue can be an instrument of

unrighteousness

or an instrument of righteousness.

Father, today I present my tongue to you

that my words might be words of life and

not words of death.

Father, these feet I present them to you

today.

They need to take me walking in paths of

righteousness and not going into things

I know I shouldn't be doing.

You see how practical that is? You start

thinking through your day and you start

thinking through your tendencies. Lord,

I I want to use these hands to protect,

to build, not to tear down.

Right? Present the members of your body

to God as instruments of righteousness.

First word was.

>> Second word was.

>> Third word was.

>> Okay, we're on to the fourth word.

I I Randy Poke did not teach me this

fourth word. My professor from Romans

way back in Bible college taught me this

one. Is one of the amazing promises in

all of the Bible.

Sin will not have dominion over you

because you are not under law but under

grace.

My fourth word is claim. Claim the

promise.

In any

situation, you do not have to sin.

Do you realize that

as a follower of Christ,

there is never a situation

where you say, "I had no choice but to

sin.

Sin shall not have dominion over you

because you're not under law, you're

under grace."

For many Christians, the issue is this.

They're trying to live out the gospel by

law.

They're trying to live out the gospel by

some sort of performance.

It's what Romans 7 talks about.

When you try to live out the Christian

life by law, you will find it extremely

frustrating.

But when you learn to live out the

Christian life by grace, that undeserved

help of God

in any and every situation,

you do not have to sin. Sin shall not be

master over you. It has been rendered

powerless at the cross.

Claim four words.

Now, let's think about this. You wake up

in the morning and sister Amanda, you

say, "What day is it?"

>> Today, I'm going to rejoice and be glad

in it. No matter what is coming my way.

Well, how in the world am I going to do

that? Well, the first thing is

I'm going to rehearse the gospel.

I I'm going to remind myself of the

truth of the gospel. And those 10

verses, I would encourage you, study

them, and study them, and just make them

part of your life because it talks

about,

you know, the word know, three different

words there. I'm not unpacking that for

us now, but it has to do with being

aware, you know, are you are you unaware

of these things? Are you aware of these

things? Are you convinced of these

things? Really rehearsing the gospel day

after day after day and just reminding

yourself of the gospel. You know, I I'm

identified with Christ. You know, all

that wicked stuff in my past and and

anything yesterday and you know, I

confess it to you and he cleanses me

from all unrighteousness.

and his power is being made available to

me. That resurrection power of Christ is

available to me. Now, how in the world

am I going to get that? Well, I'm going

to, you know, I'm going to consider

myself as dead to sin and alive to God.

I am not going to go into this day

thinking, oh, well, you know, I'm going

to fail for sure. No, I'm going to

consider myself dead to sin and alive to

God.

And then it's not just a thought, it's

an action, right? It's an action. Now

I'm I'm gonna think about my day, gonna

pray through my day, going to pray

through and particularly those areas

where I know I'm tempted,

right? If you know you have particular

temptations

and maybe you need to use technology,

but you know there's particular

temptations there. Well, let's let's get

that to the Lord. You know, you know,

there's difficult conversations, you

know, you need to have. Let's get those

to the Lord. And I want my tongue to be

an instrument of righteousness. I I want

my demeanor,

how I present myself in a situation,

right? There there's so much in this to

really think about,

but then this, you know, just standing

on the promises of God that

Sin's not going to be my master today,

right? Not because of me, but because of

the powerful resurrection of Jesus

Christ that is mine today.

So, I'm going to testify to you that

over the years

of doing this

has been absolutely lifechanging to me.

I'm not going to stand before you and

say, 'Well, I never have any struggles

with sin. I'm not going to say that at

all. But I'm going to say it is lifech

changing

just having simple practices that are

part of my daily life.

As I was thinking about this, you know,

in the body of Christ, there's many

people. And you know, there's some here,

there's many in the world. Um,

you can't know all of them. Some of them

you know a bit. There ought to be a few

that are really close,

right? If you're going to be healthy in

the body of Christ, there are to be a

few that are really close. I mean,

friends, family. I've got two guys right

now that uh we normally are serve

together today uh at a retreat. One of

them's doing a funeral. I'm here and the

other one's leading that. We're we're

praying for each other. We're texting

back and forth. They're really close. My

wife really close. I'm going to say to

you, the same is true with the word of

God.

It I don't know if you notice this is

really big, thick book. And it's kind of

hard to have it all memorized. It's kind

of hard to have it all close. And you

know, you want to walk around and be

familiar with all of it.

Keep some things close.

Keep some things from the word of God

close so that day after day you're going

back and visiting these things and those

things that really help you. This is one

of the things that really helps me.

I I have about 15

things on my list of things that really

help me.

You know, it's take and I'm old, you

know, right? You know, I didn't start

out with 15 the first year I was saved,

you know, but there's about 15 things

that

really really helped me, you know, that

that, you know, waking up in the

morning, this is the day the Lord has

made, I'm going to rejoice and be glad

in that is a really helpful way to start

a day. you know, just many times before

I even get out of bed, just rehearsing,

Jesus, I'm so thankful you died for me

and I'm identified with you in your

death, in your burial, but in your

resurrection, too. And your resurrection

power,

you're telling me is available to me

today. So, I'm going to lean into that.

And so, I'm going to consider myself

dead, sin, alive to God. And I'm

presenting my members to you. And I'm

claiming this promise. I'm living on

this promise in every situation. I don't

have to sin

because of grace.

Not because I live so well,

but because of this undeserved help of

God. That's what grace is, right?

Undeserved help of God. It's in in

salvation. It's the cross.

In Christian living, it's that

undeserved help of God. That undeserved

help of God that says, "Don't let any

bitterness, don't let any root of

bitterness spring up and defile many,

lest you miss the grace of God. Lest you

miss the undeserved help of God."

Do you understand grace that way? Grace

is not just in salvation. Grace is in

sanctification. Grace is there for

helping us to live day by day. That's

his undeserved grace.

Four words.

I always thought of Romans 6 as very

complicated.

There's a lot in there.

These four words at least help to unpack

it some. Right? If you think about it,

the true knowledge of God is

authenticated by a transformed life.

If people want to know

whether God's really true,

it's got to show up in our lives. It

just does.

In some ways, we've been studying this

passage of scripture, a way of studying

a scripture. knowledge to acquire,

right? Okay. Things we know, commands to

obey.

Consider yourself dead to sin, lied to

God. Present. These are commands. And

then promise to claim sin shall not be

your master. You're not under law, but

you're under grace.

Four words.

I'm trusting the Lord that they will in

some way to some of you be helpful.

They have been incredibly helpful to me.

Let's pray. Father,

I believe you more greatly desire to us

to experience the fruit of the spirit

than we are willing to put in the work

to know how it is that this happens. But

I pray as we grow in the grace and

knowledge of you that we will develop

ways to

not go from to go from hope so to oh

yeah if if these things are regularly in

my life I I see change happening.

And so, Father, I submit these thoughts

to you

and pray it will provide grace to the

hearers and glory to you. I pray in

Jesus name. Amen.