The Spirit-Powered Life: Living Relaxed

Well, good morning.

It is such an honor and such a pleasure to be with you guys.

Of course, we at Trinity Fellowship in Amarlow, Kim and I have been there 25 years, and we have just loved seeing what God's doing at Gateway Church.

I actually remember when we were there 25 years ago when the elders gathered around Pastor Robert with Pastor Jimmy Evans and laid hands on him and the team and sent them out.

And then of course, we've been so blessed by you guys over the years, and we just so appreciate Pastor Robert and Debbie.

In fact, part of the reason that we're in ministry came out of business seven years ago and went into ministry was because of a word that Pastor Robert gave to us during our presbytery in 2002, talking about that transition that God had for us and then just all of the ministry along the way.

I remember at the South Lace campus, right over here at conference about two years ago, Glower just totally impacted me, saved my life in ministry.

So I just come and just say, it's such an honor and such a pleasure to be with you guys.

We we feel like family, and you guys feel like family.

So we just love you so much, and it's great to be with you.

I want to introduce my family that's here.

This is my wife, Kim, and she is with us here.

We've been married 30 years, and then we got our my two boys that are with me, Jazz and Blaze, and just love these guys.

And so it's just awesome to be together with y'all.

So love being here, and I just I love what God is doing at Gateway Church.

You guys don't even realize how you are impacting the world.

I actually do some work with the Apostolic Ministry, and we are changing as a church, changing the world, literally impacting millions of lives all over the world.

So you guys are amazing.

All right, well, we're gonna get into the word today.

If you have your Bibles, would you go to John chapter 3 and Matthew chapter 6?

John 3 · chapter mention Matthew 6 · chapter mention

You can turn, or if you're like me, click over to those and uh and we can look at that.

And here's what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about the spirit-powered life.

The spirit-powered life, and specifically living relaxed.

Living relaxed.

There's something in our society that is driving us towards stressed, right?

There's this force that seems to be moving us, pushing us, driving us to feel like we have to do more, we have to do faster, we have to work harder, you know.

And I'm uh we have to be diligent and we have to put our hand to the plow.

I get that.

But there's something about taking it to the extreme that our society is putting on us that causes us to live in a life of stress.

And Jesus came and the Holy Spirit is here so that we don't have to live stressed out.

The Lord told me this several years ago.

I was doing something and I was reading the verse, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You guys know that verse?

And Jesus brought that to mind.

And he said, Jimmy, here's the thing.

If you're doing life and it's hard, you're doing it wrong.

If it's hard, you're doing it wrong.

Now that doesn't mean we're not going to have tribulation and trials and difficulties and things to overcome.

But if it's hard, if it's weighty, if it's something that is that is really worrying you, we're doing it wrong.

We're not doing it Jesus' way.

You know, we we think about, I've I've heard moms talking to each other, and when they're there, they feel like it's their job, you're not loving your kids if you're not worried about them.

And if your kids are doing good, you'll worry about their friends' kids.

You'll just worry, you'll find some kids to worry about.

Because we feel like we got to be worried about something or we're not being good at being a parent.

And then I know there's times when I was in business, I've probably been to over a thousand business dinners, and you can almost guarantee that at some point during a lull in the conversation at the business dinner, somebody's gonna ask this question at the table.

What is it that keeps you up at night?

How many of you have heard that question at a dinner somewhere?

Yeah, what is it that keeps you up at night?

What are they asking?

What are you worried about?

And our answer should be, well, nothing.

Jesus got it.

I'm not, I don't, I don't, I sleep like a baby.

There's nothing that's got, you know, nothing that's keeping me up at night.

Because this stress that the world wants to put on us is something that Jesus doesn't want for us.

It's something that we put around, it's the enemy trying to bring us down.

And especially in this season, when we're thinking about moving into the holidays and things, this can be a very stressful time.

It's a time to recognize this is not how Jesus wanted us to live.

So let's get into our text.

Let's get into Matthew chapter 3, or I'm sorry, John chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

And this is where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus.

Now, if we go to chapter, or the verse 1 here, Nicodemus, we we learn, is a Pharisee.

He's one of the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

And Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night.

And so Nicodemus knows, he knows all of the scripture.

He's a Pharisee, he's got most of the first five books memorized.

I mean, he knows the scripture.

And he comes to Jesus at night because he doesn't want his friends or the people to know that he's there, right?

He doesn't want somebody to snap a selfie of him walking into Jesus' house and then to learn that the religious leader was going to see Jesus.

So he kind of sneaks in at night and he comes into Jesus and he says, Jesus, we see that God is with you because nobody could be doing the crazy stuff you're doing if God wasn't with him.

But how are you doing it?

I mean, we're Pharisees, we're living a hard life, we're obeying all the laws, we're working hard, we're tithing of our spices, we're really focused, we're reading the word every day, we're praying publicly, we're fasting all the time.

I mean, we are working hard at being good Jews.

We're working hard at serving the Lord.

And you, you're coming around with your little ragtab group of friends, and you guys are kind of going around and you go out to the garden and you pray in the morning, and then you go and you're doing miracles.

You guys are living totally different than we're living, and God seems to be blessing what you're doing.

What are you doing?

What what's what's happening?

What is it about you and your relationship with God that is so different from us and the religious leaders that you're that God is with you and He's not doing the same things with us?

What's up?

What's the secret?

And so Jesus begins to unpack for Nicodemus the secret of what it is to live a spirit-empowered life.

All right, so here's what Jesus said.

So Jesus answers Nicodemus' question, and he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now we got to stop right here for just a minute, because if we don't capture this idea of the kingdom of God, we miss everything else that Jesus is about to say.

What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is he's saying, you guys are striving hard out there in the world trying to get God to pay attention to you.

But if you would just let yourself be born again, you could see the kingdom of heaven.

Notice he doesn't say if you're born again, you get to go to heaven.

Now that is certainly true.

When we are born again, we have access to heaven when we die.

But that's not what Jesus is talking about.

Jesus is talking about a place, a condition of life that can exist right here, right now.

The kingdom of heaven.

Jesus began his mission saying the kingdom of heaven is near.

He told his disciples, go and preach, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus was trying to introduce a concept to us that was we don't have to die to go to heaven.

We have heaven right here.

We can step into it at any time, but you've got to be born again to even see it, to be able to exist in the kingdom of heaven.

All right, let's keep going.

Nicodemus, of course, is confused about this whole born-again subject.

And so he says, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's room?

And Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless he is one is born of water, that simply means you had a mom, right?

How many of you had a mom?

Right?

Okay, that's you.

You were born of water.

Unless you were born of water and the spirit.

And every time in Scripture you see a capital S in the New Testament, it's talking about Holy Spirit.

So unless you were born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Now we see this is a whole separate thing.

Now Jesus is saying, if you get born again, you can see it, but not only can you see it, you can actually enter into the kingdom of God.

There's this place that you can step into that is totally different than what you've been experiencing.

And that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Now, Jesus ends, and I love the way John captures this story, because Jesus ends this segment with this crazy statement about wind, right?

He says, the wind, you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

So it is one who is born of the Spirit.

And he's talking about living in this place of the kingdom of God.

Now, I'm actually a subject matter expert on wind.

You may not know that, but I'm an expert on wind simply because I've grown up in Amarla, Texas.

And Amarlo, Texas is the windiest city in the United States.

You can Google it.

All right, it's the windiest city.

All of our trees grow a certain direction because the wind's always blowing out of one out of one direction.

A lot of people think Chicago is the windy city, but they they call it the windy city because of their politics, because their politicians are always talking all the time.

The actual windiest city is Amarla, Texas.

And the wind blows.

And our average sustained wind is 12 miles an hour.

I think it's like 12.4 miles per hour throughout the year.

That means the day that the wind's not blowing, it's got to be blowing 24 miles an hour the rest of the time.

And in the spring is when it blows the most.

It's usually 20 to 35 mile an hour winds, straight line winds, especially in the afternoon when it starts warming up.

All right, now I ran track when I was in high school.

And I ran the quarter, so I ran all the way around the track, 400 meters.

And when you were in high school in Amarillo, Texas, and the wind is blowing 35 miles an hour and you're running the quarter, there's a very interesting phenomenon that happens.

When you're running that first 200 meters, you are an Olympic athlete.

I mean, you really just have to just jump up in the air and just get a little altitude, and it's just pushing you, you know, pushing you down.

And then you come around the corner to the other side and it's like cartoons.

Your legs are moving, but nothing's happening, right?

I mean, the wind is blowing.

You don't know where it's coming from or where it's going, but you can feel its effect, right?

I mean, it has an effect on us.

You can feel what it's doing to you, you can feel what's happening with you.

And that's what Jesus is saying about being born again and literally living in the kingdom of God.

He says, when you move into the kingdom of God, there's a wind of the spirit that is blowing in this place that wants to guide you, it wants to direct you, it wants to empower you.

And in this place of being sensitive to the wind of the Holy Spirit and letting it empower you, it's where you can just relax.

You can get into this place and let the power of God move in your life.

And he's telling Nicodemus, remember, this is what's different about me.

This is what's different about me and my disciples in our life.

This is what you're seeing that's different.

When you find the wind of the Holy Spirit, you enter into my kingdom, and you find the wind of the Holy Spirit, you find that all you got to do is let the Holy Spirit do all the work.

And all you got to do is go along for the ride.

And this is what it means to step in and to live in the kingdom of God and to have the Spirit of God empowering our lives.

So I want to ask you a question.

And I want you to think about this.

I want you to think about where you are in your life, in your condition, the things that are going on.

And here's a question I want to ask you.

And that is this are you rowing in your own strength, or are you sailing with Holy Spirit?

In other words, in your life, are you relaxed with your sails up, catching the Holy Spirit, letting the Holy Spirit do the work, letting Holy Spirit move you in life, or are you striving?

I mean, are you sitting in that rowboat, grabbing the oars, going, we are gonna get that kid through college, right?

I mean, I I'm just I'm just you know, this is going to happen.

No one is taking this away from me, you know?

Or I am gonna make this relationship work, or I've got to get this job to go on, or I've got to get this kid back into the kingdom, or I've got to get this relationship resolved.

And we're just rowing as hard as we can, and and Jesus is going, hey, just put up your sail.

If you'll just put up your sail and and catch the wind of the Holy Spirit, you can sail.

You'll let me push you through.

And we're like, no, we're gonna grab this oar.

And here's the funny thing about rowing.

You know, when you're rowing and other people try to get close to you, you just hit them with the oars, right?

Because we're like, hey, leave me alone.

I'm focused.

Uh you know, I'm gonna get somewhere.

And we're just white knuckling it trying to get through life, and Jesus is going, that's not what I want you to do.

I want you to let go and be empowered with my Holy Spirit so that you can just let the wind of God, let God take care of it.

See, this is why Jesus could say, My yoke is easy and my burden is light, because he created us to be a sailboat, not a rowboat.

He created us to be in a place where we just get in front of him and we begin to experience his direction, his empowerment, and his guiding in our life.

And all we have to do is focus on positioning ourselves correctly, and once we get positioned, the power then begins to come in our life.

I had this incredible story.

God really showed me this in a magnificent way this summer.

Our son Jass here is getting married December 31st, right?

So we're gonna have first wedding in the witcher household, and uh, we're so excited about that.

Sweet gal that he's been dating since the eighth grade, so we know her and her family real well.

And uh and so Kayla invited my wife and my daughter and all of us to come down to the DFW area because they were gonna go wedding dress shopping this last July.

And praise the Lord, they didn't let us boys go.

Um, I've I've seen Say Yes to the Dress, you know, I've watched it with Kim before.

I don't need that experience in my life.

I'm uh my life would be complete without that without that experience.

So we had an afternoon to kill while the girls were off dress shopping, and so we uh Blaise, my youngest, said, Hey Dad, let's go do that indoor skydiving thing.

And I just thought, no.

There's lots of reasons.

Number one, it's fairly expensive, and number two, dad's not a big fan of heights, right?

So put those two things together, and and but Blaze was insistent, he's like, let's go do this thing, and I'm like, okay.

And uh so we went over to Hearst and we went to this indoor skydiving place, and and sure enough, it was fairly expensive.

You know, you paid.

And so the whole time I'm thinking, okay, I'm gonna do this for four minutes.

This is what we're paying, this is how much we're paying per second.

You know, I'm doing all this math in my head and uh and thinking this is kind of crazy.

And so then we go and and uh we get in there, and what you have to do before you go fly is you have to go to what they call flight school.

Because apparently, me watching a three-minute video and having some guy talk to me for two minutes qualifies me to do this.

And uh, and so we watch our safety video about the dumb things you can do, don't do it.

And uh and then the trainer comes in, or the instructor, and he says, Okay, there's some things you gotta know.

Because here's the thing when you're in a wind tunnel that's you know over a hundred miles an hour of wind, you can't talk.

I mean, there's no communication that can take place.

All you hear is shh.

I mean, there's nothing else.

I mean, and in fact, I tried to open my mouth once and it was just like you know, like that.

So there's no you can't talk.

And so he says, here's some sign language that is gonna help us when we get into the wind tunnel.

And he says, here's what we're gonna do.

First of all, here's your first sign that you need to learn.

And it's legs out, legs in, legs out, legs in.

Because here's what they're trying to do.

We have to match the surface area of our body with the friction of the air coming by.

When you get that in perfect balance, you just hover there in the air.

When your wind resistance matches the force of the wind coming, you act, that's how you fly.

And so what he's doing is he's trying to get you to straighten out your legs and bring them in just a little bit so he can get what they call a stable flight position, right?

So that you're in control in the air.

So legs out, legs in.

The second thing that he said is you gotta keep your chin up.

Keep your chin up, get your head up.

Got it, you gotta, you gotta look up.

Because here's what happens when you get into something and you're flying and you look down, that's where you go, right?

You just go dive right into the ground.

And uh, and so they don't want you to do that, so keep your chin up.

And then the third, and this one is the one that really surprised me, is they said, and then the third one, and this is so important, and you won't be able to fly unless you do it, you gotta relax.

You gotta relax.

So give somebody a shaka, right?

Give somebody a relax symbol.

This is this is how we relax, you gotta relax.

You just gotta relax.

Get it, get in there and relax.

And uh, and and I'm like, and that's it.

He's like, yeah, that's it.

So we left, put on our flight suit, and then we go into this wind tunnel, and there's kind of these two chambers, so you're sitting in the outside, and then there's this thing, and sure enough, it's as horrible as I thought it was gonna be.

So we get up to it, and um, and it's a 20-foot drop straight down to the bottom with this little screen that is pointless, right?

I know it's pointless because it's so little that just separates you from the bottom.

So it goes about 20 feet down, and then it's 30 feet straight up.

And somewhere in this contraption, I know our fan blades that can turn me into a slushie.

So I know, I know how this thing works, right?

So I know there's something bad there.

And uh, and so we we get in there and we got our gear on and our helmets and you know, uh, goggles and all that stuff.

And the first person goes and you go in there with the instructor, and they're trying to achieve their stable flat position, and it's like legs out, legs in, legs out, legs in, you know, and this person's flopping around like this, and the instructor's holding them, and the instructor's flopping around like this, you know.

I'm thinking, we're paying for this.

This is awesome.

And they're they're bouncing around everywhere, and and then so his time's up.

The next one gets in there, and he's flying like this.

You know, this is not a stable flying position.

So he's flying like this, and same thing, you know, he's wobbling all over, and I'm thinking, this is this is gonna be impossible.

And uh, and so the next thing he knows, he points at me.

And so I come up to the front, and uh, and and the way you get into this thing, by the way, is you put both your hands straight up in the air and fall face forward.

You don't step into it, you have to keep your legs locked, and you fall face forward so that the instructor can grab you and get you in your stable flying position.

So I get up there, not a big fan of heights, 20 feet down, grinder over my head, and I fall face down, and Jesus shows up.

And it was the most amazing thing ever.

And uh, and so he did this a little bit, legs out, legs in, you know, just a little bit, and then he let go of me.

In about 15 seconds, I had found my stable flight position, and then he let go of me, and I'm flying.

And I'm thinking, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, this is the best thing I've ever done.

I'm crying, tears are running down my face, you know, straight up my face as the wind is pushing it back.

And like, this is so amazing.

And so after about 30 seconds of me just, you know, flying, the guy walks up and taps on my glasses and and uh and he goes like this.

And I go, This was not one of our symbols.

So I shoot back to him, the only thing that I know, I I think he's saying, You're doing pretty good, you know?

And uh and I shoot back to him, okay, you know, and uh and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, and he rolls his eyes out and he grabs my hands and he get and he moves my hands like this, and I'm like, Oh, you want me to do that?

So I get back into my stable flying position, and then have you have you ever stuck your hand out the window and done this?

Yeah, and you know how that feels?

Okay, just imagine you're flying and you do this, right?

You you you start moving.

And I was doing this, and you can go back and forth, back and forth.

And then, you know, I thought, okay, let's see what this thing can really do.

And I just cranked it.

I mean, I'm spinning like this, I'm stopping it, I'm spinning back this way.

You know, I'm just doing loops, you know, and that guy's dodging my feet as I'm coming by.

And I was just, it was just the most amazing thing ever.

And so I finish and I get out of there, and I'm just like, I mean, I'm it's the best day of my life, and I'm high-fiving everybody, and you know, it's awesome.

And uh, and I love that, but I actually told you that story so I can tell you a second one.

About three weeks later, two or three weeks later, Kim and I are home and we're having a marital discussion.

Have y'all ever had a marital discussion?

Y'all know what I'm talking about, and I I don't remember exactly what the marital discussion was about, but here's what I know Kim did not like the way my attitude was affecting our relationship, and she was talking to me about it, which was not helping my attitude.

And um, and so she finally got tired of it, and so we have a thing in our family where it's like, okay, I'm done, right?

I'm done talking to you about this.

And she went and got my journal and a pen and said, You're gonna talk to God about this, and then you're gonna tell me what he said.

And uh, so she gave me my journal.

She was much nicer than that.

This is how I remember it.

And um, and uh, so I got my journal and I start writing.

And this is this is what God told me.

God said, Jimmy, you remember a couple weeks ago when we were doing that flying thing?

And I said, Oh yeah, that was awesome, thank you for that.

And he goes, Well, you know you weren't good at it because you're awesome.

He said, You were good at it because I need you to learn something, and I need you to learn it right now.

And I'm like, What?

And then he took me to John chapter 3 and verse 8.

John 3 · chapter mention

And he said, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

And really, this is where this message came from.

Because what I was in my life is I was in a place of sitting in my rowboat, grabbing my oars and rowing for everything that I had.

See, I'm a I'm a classic leader type type A personality, and I feel like I need to be responsible.

I mean, I took over the church from Jimmy Evans, for heaven's sake, right?

So I've got to preach good.

I mean, and Jimmy's a pretty good preacher, isn't he, Pastor Jimmy?

That's pretty awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So for me, I feel like, okay, he's got like size 87 shoes that I'm trying to step into, and you know, and I'm feeling this pressure, I gotta do this, and I gotta lead these people, and I gotta do this stuff, and and and I'm just grinding it out.

And I actually, when when some people tell me that the Lord's when Jesus says, My yoke is easy, my burden is light, I kind of scoff at that and go, that's not how it feels to me.

And Jesus says, Well, that's because you're not doing it this way.

And he took me back to that feeling.

He goes, Jimmy, all I want you to do is I want you to get your chin up off of your problems, get your eyes off of your worries, get your eyes off of the things that are stressing you up, get your eyes off of the things that you think you have to be in control of and relax and get in my spirit and fly with my wind.

Because see, this is all about Jesus.

And if we can get our eyes off of the things that want to distract us, get our heads up from the things that are pulling us down into our worries and our concern and our stress, and we can begin to focus on Jesus, and then we get in our stable flight position, we just let Holy Spirit move us.

And he just begins to guide us and direct us and empower us.

And in that place, we can go through any challenge, any difficulty with ease because it's the Holy Spirit doing the work, not us.

And that's what God wants for us.

Amen.

So I want to just spend a few minutes that we have left together, and I want to talk about three areas where the enemy tries to come in.

And all see, when we get born again and we step into the kingdom of God, we're we're we can fly.

But what the enemy wants to do is get us to get our heads and our faces off of Jesus, get our eyes off Jesus, start looking down in our own problems, because then he can drag us from a sailing position back into a rowing position and get us into working.

So I just want to look at three areas very quickly where the enemy tries to get us to get back into the rowing position.

And the first one is this is your relationship with God centered on shame and condemnation?

Right?

This is a question that I have for you.

Is your relationship with God centered on shame and condemnation?

Because, see, this is what the enemy wants to do.

The enemy wants to bring us to make us think that our relationship with God God is all about our performance.

This is exactly what Dick and Demus and all of his buddies were struggling with.

They thought that it was about their performance, that it was about what they did.

It was about how good they were, how their relationship with God was.

And if the enemy can get us to think about that, especially if he can get us to think about our failures, what that does is that pulls us back and thinking, okay, I got to do better.

I got to break this addiction.

I got to get out of this sin habit.

I got to get done.

I gotta get through this.

And it gets us back into that rowing position.

But this is what this is what God says.

This is the Apostle Paul.

And he says, so now, because of what Jesus did on the cross, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit, Holy Spirit, has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

See, if you want to break off your addictions, if you want to get out of your bad habits, if you want to get out of the things that are pulling you away from God, the way to stop sinning is not to get in the rowboat and say, I'm never going to do that again.

I'm never going to do that again.

I'm not going to sin.

The way to stop sinning is to put up your sail, to step into the kingdom of God and go, Holy Spirit, I can't do this except with you.

Because it's the power of the life-giving spirit that frees us from sin.

It's that power.

We need Holy Spirit's power to break that stuff off of us.

And here's what I really believe.

There are some of us today, you have addictions in your life that you want to see broken off.

And I'm telling you, the shame that the enemy wants to put on you is keeping you from coming into God's presence.

But if you will drop that and get into God's presence, get your head up and recognize there's no condemnation, this power of God is there to break that thing off of your life.

And for some of you, generationally.

It's a generational breakthrough for you.

So there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus, but the power of the Spirit frees us from sin.

Here's the second question, and this one is a very common one for all of us.

Is your life marked by worry?

Is it marked by worry?

In other words, is worrying a normal part of your life?

I mean, worrying about kids, worrying about relationships, worrying about work, worrying about responsibilities.

Is worry a normal part of your life?

And here's one of the things that I think is a real concern for us as a society.

We have raised up worry to be a value, right?

I mean, it's almost treated like a value.

I even know our kids that went to college.

When you're a freshman in college, they send you to classes on how to deal with the stress of college.

You know, when we look at at our interactions with folks, we're talking with each other about what's we expect other people to be living in stress.

And sometimes if we're living stress-free, we actually feel guilty about it because everybody around us is stressed.

So this idea that we have to be stressed is totally a demonic society idea.

It's not a God, it's not God's idea.

And so if your life is marked by worry, that's a place where the enemy is taking your chin and getting you to look at your circumstances, to look at your problems instead of allowing you to look up and look at Jesus.

This is what God says about worry.

This is in Matthew, this is Jesus talking now.

He says, so don't worry, do not worry about everyday life, saying, what will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear.

These things, look at this, dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

Now, isn't it surprising that the folks we work with and go to school with and hang out with that are unbelievers and they're not, they're not, they don't understand what it means to step into the kingdom of God.

It's not surprising that they're worried about things.

That's what Jesus is saying.

It's that unbelievers, this is where how unbelievers think.

But as believers, we're supposed to think differently.

But your heavenly Father, God already knows all that your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God.

When he's saying seek the kingdom of God, that's what we've been talking about.

Seek moving yourself into the kingdom of God, moving yourself in to this place where the wind of the Holy Spirit blows.

Above all else, seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything that you need.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

And there's one more thing in here that the enemy tries to do is to get you to worry about tomorrow, to thinking about what tomorrow is gonna bring.

And that's because you do you realize you don't have the grace for tomorrow yet?

God only gives you the grace that you have for today.

He doesn't give you the grace for tomorrow.

So if you're worried about tomorrow, don't worry about tomorrow.

The grace for tomorrow is gonna be in tomorrow.

It's already stored up for you, it's already laying up there.

That's what this is saying.

The grace for tomorrow is already there.

Deal with what you have today.

God's given you the grace for today.

He hasn't given us the grace for tomorrow.

And then here's the third question that I would have you process is are you intimidated by fear?

Are you intimidated?

In other words, fear is fear coming against you.

You're afraid.

There is something.

I'm not talking about you're afraid to jump into a wind tunnel, right?

That's normal, right?

I I think that's right.

Hopefully that's right.

I'm talking about fear, fear of losing your job.

But you haven't done anything wrong.

Fear of wondering about a relationship's gonna fall apart, fear of death, fear, these things, these fears that come.

See, there's anything about fear.

Fear is not a feeling, fear is a spirit in this in this context.

This is what Paul said to Timothy.

He said, For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Now, implied in this statement here is God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit, the Holy Spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.

We have the Holy Spirit.

We have a spirit of power that can guide us and direct us, and we don't have to deal with the spirit of fear.

Spirit of fear is broken off when we step in to the wind tunnel of God.

See, literally, when you assume a stable flight position in God's presence and your head's up and your eyes are focused on Jesus and you're relaxing in that place, the wind of the Holy Spirit just blows that demon of fear right off of you.

It just can't stand in your life because you're not looking at fear, your chin's not down looking at fear, your eyes are up looking at Jesus, and fear has no place in that position.

When you get into that position, there's no place for fear to have in your life.

And so let me just give you four quick things.

And I and you know that I'm a disciple of Jimmy Evans because I have a lot of points, right?

So, and you guys have heard Pastor, he's he's awesome.

And so when we when we look at this, I want to leave you with four keys to sailing with Holy Spirit, four keys to entering in to his wind tunnel and his direction.

Number one is talk to him regularly.

Now, I know this sounds so simple, but this is one of the fundamental keys for entering in to the wind that God has, the direction that God has.

Just talk to him on a regular basis.

The difference between the Pharisees and Jesus is the Pharisees studied the scripture to see how they could be better.

Jesus entered God's presence and he prayed and he did those things so that he could come into contact and know God even more.

See, when we pursue God, it's great to read the word, it's great to pray, it's great to fast.

All those are awesome disciplines, but their purpose should be to move us to knowing God more, not just knowing more about God.

And so as we engage with him and we begin to talk to him regularly, we wake up in the morning, just take, if you're not doing it, take five minutes, have a cup of coffee and just talk to God.

And you begin to enter in.

And what you're saying is, God, I want to enter into your kingdom, I want to get my chin up, my eyes off of my issues, and I want to focus about being in your presence and I want to engage in your spirit.

And the second one is really a part of that, and that's pray in the spirit, praying in tongues.

If you if you don't know how to pray in the spirit or you don't know about that, I encourage you.

Uh, after the service, just talk to one of the leaders down front and they'll explain it to you.

But the gift of praying in the spirit is an amazing gift because literally its sole purpose is to move us into the wind of the Holy Spirit.

It is the one gift that God gives us that allows us to step out.

You can't pray in the spirit for five minutes and not just have all of your worries go, your chin come up, and you have to relax.

You just can't do it.

It's incompatible with that spiritual gift.

So praying in the spirit moves us into that place and gets us into a flying position, a stable flying position with Holy Spirit.

Number three is make decisions that are based in faith.

You know, so many times we we do what-ifs.

Well, what if this happens and what if we go this direction and we're constantly second guessing ourselves?

When we're we're constantly second guessing ourselves, that's a spirit of fear that's filling with our life, trying to get our chin down to worry about our decisions.

Instead, we ask God, God, where do you want us to go?

You want us to go left or go right?

Do you want us to buy this house or that house?

This car or that car.

Where do you want my kids to go to school?

And we make those decisions in faith.

When we make them in faith, what we're trusting is that the wind of the Holy Spirit will guide us, even if we're wrong, but we make a decision in faith, the Holy Spirit will guide us and direct us into the right place.

So we just listen to Him and we make a decision.

And then here's the last thing, and this is I I think one of the most important, and it's this keep your head up and relax.

Keep your head up and relax.

When you feel that things are weighing you down and God's weighing you down, or that, or that the world is weighing you down, get your head up off of the world.

Quit looking at what's what's causing you to row.

Get your eyes on Jesus and just go, Holy Spirit, come.

I relax.

I let go of the oars and I reach up and I grab a hold of the sail.

And I raise my hands and surrender and I say, Guide me, direct me, and lead me.

Let me pray for you.

Father, we're just so thankful for you.

We're thankful for your grace, we're thankful for your love.

We're thankful for the passion that you have for us.

And God, I just pray for every individual right now that has been rowing, that we would let go of the oars, that we would let go of the worry, that we would let go of the condemnation, we would let go of the fear, and we get our eyes on you.

And I just want to encourage you, if that's been something that you've been wrestling with, just in every in every room, with every head bowed, would you just raise, and I'm you don't have to raise them up high, but raise your hand.

And I'm actually going to encourage you this time to raise two hands, right?

The stable flying position is a position of surrender, it's a position of letting go of control.

So, Father, we release control, we raise our hands and surrender to you.

We receive your love, we receive your direction, we receive your power.

And we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.