Spirit-Led Living | Duane Calvin

Will you stand to your

Feet?

It's A good get good day to give God praise today.

And every day, Psalm 34 says,

I will bless the Lord at all times.

He said, I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

Let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me

and let us exalt his name together.

Church. That's what we're here to do,

to exalt the name of Jesus.

So put your hands together and don't

Hold back tonight.

Praise his name.

A song

day, the elder

creatures the lamb.

There's a sound of rising to the king.

Resound your children.

Hallelujah,

Won't hold back.

Magnifi

All magnifi,

all

Is the lamb.

Who the alpha omega

and on now forever.

Sing what we.

Praise. Praise.

We're honored. You're here today.

Go ahead and take a minute and say

hi to somebody around you.

I love you, Lord.

Your mercy never fails me.

All my days I've been inhale in your hands.

From the moment that I wake up to,

I lay my head oh

of the goodness of

in all my life.

You have been so, so

Good With every breath

of the goodness of God.

You have

I known you, I've known

in the goodness of

Goodness is after, It's

Running after

me. Your goodness

Is After, it's running after me

Laid Surrender, I

Your Goodness is running.

It's running after me. Come

after me,

after it's running after me,

My Surrender

after it, after

My life.

You have, do you believe that?

And all my life, you have been so, so

Good With every breath

that I'm,

Oh, I'm gonna sing

of the goodness of God.

So,

Oh, come on. Lift your voice

in Christ ing

Oh Christ, be magnified.

Let Christ be magnified.

Oh, come on singing.

Oh Christ, be magnified.

Human

Be magnifi.

C

cries

Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus.

And

is true cross of

with you is the

Resurrection And I

Suffering join you when you rise.

And when you return in glory with all

heart,

be magnified.

Let

sing.

Oh, come on your prayer,

magnified the

The name of Jesus.

Be lifted,

Be lifted.

You paid the ultimate sacrifice for me

so I could be free.

How could I not sing you praise?

How could I not sing

so thankful?

Praise the one who me free

death has lost its grip on me.

You have broken salvation.

Jesus Christ, my living

Home Who be magnified

Jesus, you're living

Home

Grip

salvation, Jesus Christ.

And then came

to

declare has no on me.

Oh, come on. That's good news. Oh, come on.

That's good news.

The

free

you

King Jesus.

Father, we thank you for your presence

and we thank you that we get to enter into that.

And God, I pray that we wouldn't leave

that without being changed.

God, as your word is open, as it's spoken of our lives

change our hearts as we leave this place.

We love you. It's our joy

and honor to worship you in your whole and we pray, amen.

Church, you can go ahead and grab a seat.

Amen. Hallelujah.

To the king of kings, Jesus Christ,

who is seated at the right hand

with the Father right now, and he is alive.

Amen man. What a great time of worship together.

My name is Jean

and I'm the Northwest Kerry campus Pastor, it's an honor

to be here with you, uh, today, and I wanna welcome you.

And for those of you who are new,

I wanna extend a special welcome to you

and say thank you for being here.

If you're in the room, we have an area

outside these doors called next steps.

We would love to meet you there.

If you're online, there's a a button that will pop up

and you can click on that and someone will reach

out and say hello to you.

Today we have, uh, our very own Dwayne Calvin, uh,

bringing the word preaching.

Yeah. And, uh, he is gonna be walking us

through what it looks like, uh, to walk in the spirit.

How we doing? Hope. Great.

Well, it is good to see you all. My name's Dwayne.

Uh, I'm one of the pastors here.

I'm excited to spend this time together today.

Uh, now if you are new to hope, I do want to say welcome.

We're glad that you're here today.

We're glad that the Lord led you to this place.

And today, uh,

you are stepping into the final message in

our series that we've been calling.

Now what? And man, it's been a good series,

can I get some amens around the room?

It's been a good series, praise God.

And for the past few weeks, uh, ever since Easter time,

we have been talking about the resurrection of Jesus

and what it means for us.

And we have been talking about like, man,

every time we talk about the resurrection,

there is something that comes with that.

It's the question, now what,

because of the resurrection now, what

should we be living our lives differently

as a result of the resurrection?

Now, what, uh, should we know certain truths

about how we live?

Now what I mean, that question is a big question

now that Jesus has risen from the grave.

What is the actual difference that it makes in

how I live my every day life?

And we've been talking about a lot

of things when it comes down to the now what?

Because there are a lot of things associated

with that very question.

We've talked about how Jesus meets us in the

middle of our disappointment.

So if you have ever been disappointed, the now what

of the resurrection is that Jesus meets us there

and gives us new hope, right?

We've been talking about how now, uh,

because of the resurrection, we have a new purpose

and a new mission in how we live our lives.

We've talked about the fact that now what,

since the resurrection has happened,

since it actually occurred,

and Jesus is alive, we are never, ever, ever alone.

Because Jesus has said in his word in Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

that he will walk with us.

We have the presence of the living God with us.

And not just that we have a Christian community called the

church that walks alongside of us.

And today we learn on a question that every single follower

of Jesus has probably asked in their lives,

and it's associated with the now what.

And sometimes we ask the question quietly,

but sometimes we ask it desperately when we are in need,

when we are walking on the journey

and we don't know what to do.

And here's the question, how do I live in a way

that actually pleases God?

It's a tough question. Uh, like as far as questions go,

this is like an enigma wrapped in a riddle, uh,

because it's nested in a whole host of other questions.

Uh, like for instance, if I look at the question,

how do I live in a way that pleases God?

The first question I probably has to ask is,

do I actually want a life where God is pleased?

Like, do I actually care to live that way?

Uh, this is the question of my will versus the will of God.

I mean, you ever just feel like in your life you wanna rebel

against God because man, you don't even know if you want

to actually live a life that is pleasing to him or not.

And then there's this second question like,

can I even please God, can I actually do it?

Uh, this is the feeling of not being able to get there.

Uh, it often just kind of causes us to quit,

to throw in the towel and go, you know what?

This is too hard. I can't do it.

And then there's this other question,

what happens if I try?

What happens if I try

and I fail again?

What then? And this is the feeling of being defeated,

and I think that these are like really tough

questions, right?

And this, this might be a Sunday kind of environment,

but if we're honest, if we're honest,

these are like Monday kind of questions

because they hit us exactly where we live.

These are questions that we feel at the head level,

but they quickly penetrate to the heart level

because trying to please God is something that most

of us have at least tried to do

at different points in our lives.

We try to live that way.

And when we've tried, most

of the time we've tried in our own power, and we've tried

and we've tried and we've tried

and we've realized like, man,

this seems like an impossible task.

I mean, if you've tried to please God in your own power,

you know that it's a trap.

And the trap leads us down these two roads.

And the first one is the road

that I call the perfection trap.

And man, we try in the perfection trap really,

really hard to please God.

And we try to be perfect.

And so we hide our real issues from God.

And even oftentimes we hide our real issues from ourselves,

but we certainly hide our real issues

from everybody around us.

And we try to look perfect. I I got it all together.

Everything's going great, so I'm just gonna try

to be perfect and everything will be fine

and God will be pleased with my life when he sees

how perfect everything is.

And then there's this other trap that we fall into

that I call the performance trap.

And that's where we try to do a number of tasks.

We go about trying to do everything.

And what it actually ends up being is a whole lot

of nothing at the end of it.

It's a bunch of empty activity,

even if it's empty Christian activity,

because we try to perform or we try to live perfect.

And ultimately what it leads to is a life

where we're fuzzy at best about whether God is actually

pleased with our lives.

And it's this existence of exhaustion where we are trying

to keep our heads above water.

We're trying to keep up the facade

of performance or perfection.

And, and here's what we end up doing.

We just run ourselves to a place of fatigue.

We're really tired and really confused,

and we still have the same question.

How do we please God? Now, fortunately for us, the word

of God has a lot to say about a life

that is pleasing to God.

And one of the greatest implications of the resurrection

of Jesus Christ is that we can indeed live lives

that please God.

Now, here's the spoiler alert, though we can't do it

apart from God's spirit.

Oh, oh, yeah. It's the spirit that gives us the power

to actually live a life that is pleasing to God.

And that's exactly what we're gonna talk about today.

Uh, a life that's pleasing to God is possible,

but man, you can't do it without God's spirit.

And so when we want to know how to do that well, how

to actually live by God's spirit,

the best place we can go is to the word of God.

So if you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to open them

with me and we're gonna find some answers to the questions

of pleasing God with our lives.

And today we're gonna be looking at Romans chapter eight.

And now Romans chapter eight is a strong, strong text.

It is so strong that a few months back,

we did a whole series on the chapter, uh, of Romans eight.

I mean, it's like 25 sermons in one passage.

But today we're gonna look at just a small part of it.

Uh, Romans chapter eight, verses one through 11.

Again, if you have your Bibles,

go ahead and turn over there.

It's a strong text.

Romans has actually been called by some commentators,

the Mount Everest of the Bible.

Some have said that it is the strongest

chapter in the Bible.

It's Paul's strongest letter.

And man, it gives this summary of Paul's theology

that is strong.

So today, that's the passage we're gonna look at.

And this message is simple,

but this message is actually contrary to much

of our own humanly thoughts about God.

Now, let me give you again another spoiler alert.

Romans chapter eight declares this,

that if you are in Christ, if you're in Christ,

you are not condemned.

It declares that if you are in Christ, you are not alone.

It also declares that if you are in Christ

that you are not powerless, but you have great power

because you've been given God's spirit.

And these three truths reframe

how we think about pleasing God

because no longer is it about our power,

it's about God's power.

And when you read Romans eight, you quickly realize

that it's not performance,

and it's not perfection that pleases God.

It's the pursuit of living life by his spirit.

So let's look at Romans eight and let's read together.

Uh, Romans chapter eight, verse one says this, that there is

therefore now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit

of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law

of sin and death.

Verse three, for God has done what the law weakened

by the flesh could not do

by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order

that the righteous requirement

of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according

to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh,

set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the spirit,

set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death.

But to set the mind on the spirit is life

and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile

to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

It indeed it cannot, for those who are in the flesh

cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh,

but in the Spirit, if in fact the spirit

of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit

of Christ, does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, if he is in you,

although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit of life

because of righteousness is in you.

And if the spirit of God who him

who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he

who raise Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life

to your mortal bodies through his spirit

dwells in you.

I told you it was a powerful text.

You know, when you look at this text, man, it is

so much richness in it.

It is so full.

Like again, you could preach 400 sermons from

this, just this very passage.

And I want to kind of start at the end with the end in mind

because I believe the end sets the foundation for us

to completely, fully understand the text.

So let's look at verse 11. Here's what verse 11 says.

It says that if the spirit of him

who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,

he will also give life to your mortal bodies

through his spirit who dwells in you.

Now, let's just pause right here for a moment

because I wanna acknowledge something like this, this just,

this passage by itself, all the rest of is good.

But listen, church, this is good news.

I mean, like, this is really good news.

Uh, this just gets, I read this a lot as I was preparing

for this message, and this just gets gooder

and gooder all the time.

Like, like this is like, I had a lot of news this week,

but this is the goodest news I had all week long.

Like, this is good. And I can read good too.

My mother says I'm getting gooder at it all the time.

But this is good news because,

because here's what Paul is declaring Declar, he's declaring

that if you me, if anyone is in Christ,

if we trusted in the death and the burial

and the resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness

of our sins, then the same spirit, listen, the same spirit

that raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.

And I feel like I need to make a distinction here

because the Holy Spirit is not just with us.

The Holy Spirit is not just available

to us even though those things are true.

No, what Paul is declaring here is

that the Holy Spirit listen is in us.

And that's good news because that means

that we are not alone.

And more than that, it it means that we're not powerless.

But instead we are powerful above anything

that we could ever imagine.

And because it's not our own power, it's God's power, man,

we are powerful beyond, beyond measure.

And God's power is different than our power

because God's power is not concerned

with street feats of strength.

Uh, God's power is not power just to demonstrate power.

His power is to show us how to live in a way

that is Christlike and ultimately pleasing to God.

You know, I love the way that David Gar

and the great commentator talks about God's power

and God's spirit and how when it comes into our

lives, it changes things.

He says these words that the Spirit puts an end to the works

of the flesh and empowers believers

to manifest Christlike qualities.

And if we want to grow in christlikeness, which is the goal

of every Christian,

and the only way we can do it is by God's spirit.

So it's not performance, it's not perfection,

it's the pursuit of God's spirit.

It is not just doing better that gets us there.

It's not just behaving better.

No, it's not behavior modification that gets us there.

It is spiritual transformation that gets us there.

And this power doesn't come from grit. It comes from grace.

Amen. It's not something that we earned.

It's not something that we deserve.

It's something that we receive because of his resurrection.

And it's a power that reminds us that if you are in Christ,

you don't have to perform or be perfect

because you've been given the ultimate helper that dwells

in you.

And that's good news. That power gives us great potential,

and it's the potential that allows us to please God.

It stops us from trying to please God under our own power,

but instead to to move by the spirit, not

by the flesh, but by the spirit.

Lemme show you what I mean. If you keep reading in verse

five, the apostle Paul continues by saying these words.

He says, those who live according to the flesh,

set their minds on things of the flesh.

But those who live according

to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

And so he takes this just a step further.

And when you look at verse eight, he kind

of concludes this idea.

He says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

That if you live in the flesh, you can't do it.

This is really important

because Paul draws a clear contrast here.

And he's drawing a contrast between two mindsets,

two different ways of living.

He's talking about two different avenues that all

of us choose to pursue.

And it's not something that you just make

a decision on one time.

It, it's the way that we live every day,

every day we are all involved in a battle.

And the battle is between flesh and spirit.

And oftentimes we choose flesh.

And the difference between those isn't just our behavior.

The flesh is our self-centered mindset.

It's a sin dominated nature that we have.

And the flesh always seeks to gratify itself.

It is always trying to scratch the itch in our lives.

You name the itch, our flesh is trying to scratch it.

You ever see a kid go to bed without getting dinner?

You can watch that flesh just well up.

They start crying. They get upset

because the flesh wants that itch to be scratched it.

So the flesh is something that we always want.

It's always our thing. It's always our desire.

It's always, always what we want to fulfill.

But then the spirit is the opposite of that.

You see, the spirit is God centered, not us centered.

And it reflects Christ

even in the midst of difficult times,

even in the midst of our wilderness moments.

You know, those hard times.

The spirit is of God,

and it demonstrates a relationship with God.

And again, the difference between those two things is not

just our behavior, it it's our mindset.

It it's our heart posture.

It's about what captures our imagination,

what captures our attention, what captures our desires.

It is the things that we set our minds and our hearts on.

And our minds are a tricky thing

because they can get set on something pretty quickly.

You know, I love the way the great author

Tim Keller says it.

He says that to set the mind means to focus intently, to be

preoccupied, to have our imagination

captured by something.

Church, can I just ask right now,

as you look at your life, what has your imagination,

what do you think about?

What do you spend most

of your time thinking

What has your imagination, uh, what are you living by?

Are are you living by things that are eternal,

that are Christ-centered?

Because those are the things that the spirit

or are you, uh, seeking

to scratch whatever the next itch is?

Because those are the things that are of our flesh.

There's a lot of things that capture our imagination.

Uh, let me just give you a few,

and what I'm talking about, maybe these will sound familiar

in your life, is your mind captured by success?

Has success really become the thing

that you pursue at all costs?

And it doesn't matter who gets in your way,

you're gonna move 'em out because success has become the

most important thing to you.

Uh, that's the flesh. Uh, is it security?

Uh, do you seek to have security at all costs?

So you try to control every situation in your life,

because if you can do that, then everything will be safe

and secure and it'll be great.

That's the flesh. Is it comfort?

Uh, do you seek to live a perpetual state of vacation?

That's Comfort. That's the flesh too.

Is your mind and your imagination set on control?

And so you try to control everything in everybody

In Your life?

Or is it Christ? Is your mind set on Christ?

Is it set on pleasing God?

Uh, because what I know is that one

of these things is not like the other.

Uh, as a matter of fact, Colossians chapter three,

verse two tells us that if you set your mind on the things

that are above, then you won't set your mind on

the things that are on earth.

Because our minds are always in drive.

They never go into neutral.

And either we are pursuing the things of the flesh,

we're pursuing the things of the spirit.

There is no InBetween.

It's a hundred percent, a hundred percent.

You know how you know the difference on whether you're

pursuing flesh or spirit?

Uh, it is because the things of the spirit reflect the fruit

of the spirit, and they bear spirit fruit.

Like, like if you look at Galatians chapter five, verse 22

and 23, the Apostle Paul writes these words

about the fruit of the spirit.

He says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,

forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness and self-control.

And self-control and self-control.

You are living by the spirit.

Or are you living by the flesh?

You know, when you live life, when you live like this,

you start to truly please God.

When you live and the fruits

of the spirit are evident in your lives, you start

to really please God.

And, and ultimately that's the life that we wanna pursue.

And we start to understand that, that when we live that kind

of life, we are no longer limited by our past.

We're no longer stuck in our old habits,

but instead we are full of God's presence and God's power.

And that power brings a sense of real freedom

and knowing that we are now living lives

that pre please God.

And it's a different kind of freedom that happens with that.

It's not this silent kind of freedom.

It's a freedom that screams out loud.

You know, I love the movie Braveheart, this kind of freedom.

This is a William Wallace Braveheart kind of freedom

that just makes you wanna scream

because it's freedom in Christ

and you just wanna be like freedom.

Y'all know what I'm saying? Right?

That's a different kind of freedom.

It's spirit feel freedom.

It is a freedom that makes you wanna proclaim out loud.

It's the freedom that isn't performative.

It is a freedom that isn't perfect.

Uh, let's look at verses one and two

because it talks about this kind of freedom.

Verse one says this, it says, there is

therefore now no condemnation for those

who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life has set you free.

You've been set free.

You are no longer condemned.

You know, when I started looking this word up, the idea

of condemnation, uh,

in our culture is most closely associated

with like buildings, right?

So when you hear the word, it's been condemned.

It's usually talking about construction

or some kind of building site.

And that typically happens when a property has some sort

of a defect or a problem, and they condemn it

because they say nothing can touch it,

nothing can go near it.

It no longer has any use.

It's a building that's dead.

Well, likewise, when we talk about being condemned

spiritually, it's the same kind of mindset.

It's the idea of being completely separated from God.

It's the final verdict, it's the penalty.

In other words, when we get to that kind of place

where we are condemned

and we are separated from God for all of eternity,

the Greek word for that kama,

it means finality.

It means the end.

It means no longer used for any good.

And I don't think we need to dwell

in the meaning here for too long.

Because what Paul is saying here, listen,

Is That you are not condemned.

If you are in Christ, you are not condemned.

And I need you to listen. Like, like,

like if you weren't paying attention, pay attention.

Now listen, if you're in the back of the room

or if you're in the front of the room,

or if you're on the left of the room

or the right of the room, or if you are watching at Get Hope

tv or if somebody sent this to you as an Instagram reel,

I need you to pay attention right now.

Listen, if you are in Christ, hear this clearly, you are not

condemned because

of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You are not condemned, not on your worst day,

not on your best day, not when you fail,

not when you fall short.

You have been set free by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Come on church, right now would be a good time to say amen.

You are free, you're free.

Paul says that there is a new law at work.

Uh, there is a new principle at work.

Uh, the law could expose sin, but the law couldn't save us.

But Jesus did what the law couldn't do.

He broke sins grip,

and he did that through his death, burial and resurrection.

And you are now free, not just free from something,

but you have been set free for something.

You've been set free to live a life that is pleasing to God.

And I want to draw a distinction here

because I think when we throw around the word freedom,

we need to draw some boundaries on what the idea

of freedom is supposed to be about.

And why? Because our current, our current culture,

when we talk about freedom, it is usually in the vein

of being able to do whatever I want.

So when we say culturally that somebody is free,

we are talking about being able to have this life.

We do whatever we feel like.

But when the Bible talks about freedom,

it's not talking about that kind of freedom.

What it's talking about is freedom from sin,

not freedom to sin.

It is always freedom from something,

not freedom to something.

So we've not been given freedom to do whatever we want.

It's not freedom. It's for freedom's sake.

It's freedom to live a spirit-filled life

empowered by God's spirit.

Lemme show you what I mean by that.

A few years back, I watched, uh, a Disney reboot

of the movie Pinocchio, uh, and it was starring Tom Hanks.

If you don't know Tom Hanks, it's the dude

that did movie with the volleyball.

Um, that dude, right?

So there was this movie

that was a live action version of Pinocchio.

And can I just say like, I think we're all done

with live action movies, amen.

Like, I think we've had, it's okay. It's okay.

But this was a good one. This was actually a good one.

Like, uh, it was pretty good. And so I watched it.

I was was like, let me just check it out.

And then when you start looking at the story of Pinocchio,

you see this story of a boy who was a wooden puppet.

He was made by his maker.

Jato Jato was the character

that Tom Hanks played in the movie.

And so he makes this little puppet.

This puppet wants to be a real boy.

And he wanted it so badly

that he cut his strings from his maker.

He separated himself from his maker,

and they sing a song about it.

Ain't no strings on me, I'm free.

He cuts his strings, he rejects all of the lessons

that his maker gives him.

He says, I'm good. I'm gonna kind of do my own thing.

And then he chases his own version of freedom.

And, and y'all know what it's like to do that.

He lures himself, he gets lured over

to this place called Pleasure Island.

Now everybody has a different pleasure island,

but you know it when you see it.

Some of y'all was at Pleasure Island

yesterday, you know what I'm talking about?

And he's lured over the pleasure island

and everybody knows what it looks like

because here's what pleasure island has in common.

Uh, there's no rules, there's no responsibility,

there's no accountability.

And by your own standards, you get to do whatever you want.

So he goes over to Pleasure Island and he does his own thing

and he believes it's freedom.

And pretty soon he finds himself and enslaved

and turned into a donkey.

And so what he thought was freedom

quickly becomes bondage.

And I think matter of fact, I know

that's exactly what happens to us

when we pursue freedom apart from God,

when we pursue freedom apart from his spirit.

Uh, the freedom that comes from the spirit is a freedom.

Remember, it's always from sin

and death, not a freedom to do whatever we want.

And I love that story Pinocchio because man, he goes

after this thing and he finds out

that there's no freedom at all.

But right in the middle of that,

he calls out for his father.

He needs help. He needs help, he needs a change.

And so he calls out for his father

and his father rescues him.

He comes to get him. He risked everything to find him.

Listen, church, God did that for us.

The resurrection is the story of

how he rescued us through Jesus.

He, he sent Jesus on our behalf and he didn't stop there.

As a matter of fact, he brought us home in the same way

that Pinocchio was brought home,

and he made us home in the same way

that Pinocchio was made whole.

And he gave us a new, a new nature,

a new mission, a new hope.

And it gave us his spirit.

And his spirit lives in us,

a church who the sun sets free,

His Free indeed.

I love how second Corinthians in verse chapter,

chapter three, verse 17 says that where the spirit

of the Lord is there is freedom

because it's real freedom.

It's not the freedom to do whatever we want.

It's the freedom to live in a way

by God's spirit that pleases

Him.

Now, here's what I know, Even as I've had all

of this conversation about how we can live a life

that's pleasing to God, uh, what I know is

that our week is coming and,

and typically when we get to Monday morning

and we begin to calculate all of the things

that have happened in our lives, uh,

this still might feel like a hard sale.

Why do I even want to try to please God?

Like why would I even want to do it?

Where Romans chapter 15, verse two says this, that let each

Romans 15 · chapter mention

of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up

for Christ did not please him self.

Listen, here's why.

Because Jesus lived not to please himself.

He pleased he lived to rescue us.

And in rescuing us through the cross,

and through that resurrection moment of that kind

of love sent a message to all of us.

It it should give us great gratitude.

And gratitude leads to obedience on obedience left to a life

of following Jesus.

When we followed Jesus, his spirit

Is In us, we begin

to understand that we are filled by his spirit.

Uh, we understand that we are no longer condemned, right,

and that we have new life in Christ.

We begin to realize that we have freedom

of freedom from sin,

and that we also have hope to live for Christ.

And that a life that's pleasing to God is possible,

not in our own mic, not in our own strength,

but only by His spirit.

So What do we do with that? Well, let me leave you

with a few questions to carry into this questions that

You have.

And the first one is this, right now,

are you trying to please God in your own strength?

Or are you living by the power of his spirit?

You know, a good indication that you have been trying

to please God by the flesh

and not by the Spirit is

as you look at your life right now, you're exhausted.

Are you trying to please God in your own strength

by the power of His spirit?

Uh, question number two. Uh,

what right now is actually shaping your mind?

What do you think about more often than not?

Like, like, what's consuming your mind?

Is it flesh that seeks to gratify itself

or is it spirit that seeks

to live a life that's pleasing to God?

It's like the table of life and the table of death.

When we live by the flesh, we eat from the table of death.

But when we live by the spirit, we eat from the table

that brings new life in Christ,

we ask another question.

Are you living in freedom or are you living in guilt?

Because freedom says that there's no condemnation for those

who earn Christ Jesus.

Nothing you've ever done is too big for God.

And what I know is that the sins that you have committed,

the sins that you're committing right now,

and the sins that will be committed, and if your faith

and trust and hope is in Jesus Christ

that he has washed you clean,

are you ready to stop performing?

Are you ready to stop trying to be perfect?

Are you ready to pursue the

spirit of the living God?

Because the resurrection has given us

good news that there is no

condemnation in Jesus Christ.

He rose so that we could live into our now what?

And he rose so that we wouldn't

walk in fear, but in freedom.

And if we place our trust in Jesus today,

you're not only forgiven, but you're filled with his spirit

and you're free from condemnation.

And we are all empowered to live a life

that pleases God.

Church, if you haven't placed your trust in Christ,

don't leave here today without doing so.

He's not asking you for perfection,

and he's not asking you for performance.

He's asking for you to pursue him with your whole heart,

to allow his spirit to transform you from the inside out.

How do we live a life that's pleasing to God?

Well, it's not by my might, it's never by my power.

It's only By his spirit. Come on, let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the day.

Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy.

We thank you for your spirit that lives in us

and that teaches us how to live a life

that is pleasing to you.

Father, would you keep us near you?

Would you help us when we're wrestling with the decision

between gratifying the flesh or living by the Spirit?

And there may be some of us who are here today

who have never placed their trust in you.

Would you help us today to trust you as Lord

and Savior over our lives?

Because it's then

and only then that we step into freedom in Christ

and that we're enabled to live by the indwelling

of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And as that spirit grows, we grow into more

and more the image that you have for us, an image

that reflects you and that ultimately pleases you.

It's the only way that we can do it.

Father, we pray for that kind of conviction

to settle into our hearts

and for response that leads to worship

In you.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. God bless you.

Amen. What a word. Praise God. Thank you, Dwayne.

You know this, uh, this weekend we are, uh,

celebrating baptisms again.

And, um, you know, we have a couple of baptisms.

This, this week at Northwest Kerry.

It's always you, this,

this super exciting time when people decide to step out

and, uh, in obedience

and, uh, step into new life, um, publicly in this way.

And this is actually something that Jesus, uh,

asks us to do.

It's a part of our walk with him.

So if, if you have accepted Jesus

and you have not been baptized, uh, I want

to encourage you, uh, to do that.

Uh, you can go to get hope.net/baptism.

Um, you can also talk to myself or Dwayne

or any of the pastors here.

You can also go to next steps and talk to somebody.

Um, but I just want to encourage you, uh, to take that step

of faith and to be baptized.

Uh, next week we are starting a new series, uh,

and we're gonna be going through the book of Titus.

It's called, uh, field Notes.

And you know, the book of Titus is in, in the New Testament.

And it's just a small little book, few chapters,

but it is power packed, it's jam packed, um, with truth

and what it looks like to walk

and follow Jesus in lots of practical ways.

So I'm super excited for that.

I would love to see you guys here for that, uh, next week.

And, um, before we go, I just wanna take a moment, um,

on Monday, um, is is Memorial Day.

And, um, we wanted to take a moment today to, uh,

thank those who, um,

sacrificed their life, uh, for our freedom.

And I know for some of you, uh,

that may carry a weight, uh, and a loss.

And so I just wanted to take a moment

and pray together, um, as a church, can we bow our heads?

Uh, father, thank you for, uh, freedom

and thank you for those who have, um, sacrificed their lives

and given their lives, um, for that freedom.

I pray for, uh, the families, um, that have lost.

And I pray that you would just be with them

and that they would, uh, seek your peace

and your comfort, uh,

and that you would continue, uh,

to work in and through them.

We are so thankful for who you are.

Uh, we pray all these things in the powerful name of Jesus.

Amen. Church, it's been great worshiping

with you, so thankful for you all.

We love you and we will see you next week.