Walking in the Spirit - Ps Rob Urban

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church Podcast, where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

It's a time of worship, praise God.

It's an honor to be able to be involved with you guys in the praise and worship.

It's such a wonderful thing.

And I was speaking to a pastor just this week, and he was saying to me that there was this

young child that went to a church service and went up to the pastor and pulled on his

arm and he said, I see a lot of people up there as well, all wearing white gowns.

And he said, really?

He said, what do they look like?

And he explained it to them.

And he realized that they were angels.

And he said, what are they doing?

He said, they're doing exactly the same as what the congregation are doing, raising their

hands and in worship.

And although we may not see them, we had the pleasure a few weeks ago to experience this,

but although in general we may not see them, never discount the fact that they are there

and they're there worshiping with us.

Amen.

Praise be to God.

Pastor Paul, I just happen to see you there with your family, complete and entire now

from Pakistan.

We just want to thank you.

We welcome you and your wife and your young child.

Would you?

Praise God.

I don't have a microphone up here, but maybe if your wife is well, thank you Lord.

Oh, they're going to the Sunday school?

Fresh from Pakistan back to Australia.

Hello, little one.

I've heard all about you and I've heard all about you.

Hello.

Welcome.

Thank you and just God's doing a wonderful work in your lives and we just want to bless

you and can we pray for you right now?

Absolutely.

Yeah?

Come on, let's have our hands here together.

Church, can you stretch your hands forward?

Father, we thank you.

The Lord that what you're doing in this family is just so special and we thank you Father

God for the ministry call.

Father, right now we pray that every sickness that had come against them in the name of

Jesus, that as a church in the name of Jesus we break the power of it and Lord we speak

the healing power of God into their bodies.

But Father, right now we thank you.

Lord that when families are together, I know you're happy Lord God and so are we.

So we ask that you bless them in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Hello, little one.

You're giving me a really good check out there.

Thank you so much Church for praying for us and thank you for your support through difficult

times.

Thank you.

Amen.

God bless you.

Hallelujah.

God is just so good.

You know, over the, I'm just going to flow with the Holy Ghost this morning.

Obviously, there may be reasons for that but I just feel that's what the Lord desires this

morning and I've been sharing for a little while now about the born again experience

and you know, we go through the water baptisms and we get filled with the Holy Ghost and

it is such an incredible privilege that has been given to us freely by Jesus himself.

You know, when I speak about being born again, being made right before a Holy God, it is

such a privilege that we as people like before I came to Christ, when I didn't know Him,

I was in darkness and I did not know the things that I was doing was so really wrong as such

but I knew, always knew that there was more and I think we all knew that, that even in

creation the Bible says is that we can look and see that there is God, there is a creator

and then when we got saved, when Christ saved us, He forgave us of all of our sins and what

a blessing that is and accepted into the family of God and so whatever things we had done

in life, when we came to Christ and confessed it all to Him, He completely forgave us and

we were justified as if we had never sinned once in our life and I think that that is

something as Christians we should meditate on from time to time giving thanks to God

that once we were lost.

In fact, Steve ministered at the men's breakfast yesterday, great ministry and you know, once

I was lost but now I'm fine, once I was blind but now I see, once I was in darkness but

now I'm in the light.

I mean that's the gospel and thank you Eleanor for communion that you know what you shared

about being right with God and the opportunity to be right with God is important but this

is my point, I do have one actually this morning.

So, we get born again, great wonderful work of God, we water-baptized, we go through the

water baptism, wonderful and for many of us we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

what an incredible encounter that is and if you're here today or you're watching online

and you have not yet received this wonderful blessing, if you're here today present physically,

just ask, we'll pray for you and online get in touch with us, we'd like to get in touch

with you as well if we can and to meet with you to lead you through the baptism of the

Holy Spirit.

Now, why is it so important the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

It's incredibly important because when we were born again, the Spirit of God made us

alive with God.

Our spirit man that was dead to God was made alive to him and it's there that we being

alive with God are accepted by God and adopted into his family as his own child.

You know, when you got saved, God accepted you as his own child, how good is that?

But see it doesn't stop there because in this world there are two kingdoms, there's the

kingdom of darkness and there is a kingdom of light and each kingdom has a king as a

ruler and the ruler of the kingdom of darkness is Satan and we see his work whenever you

turn the television set on these days or read the news, you see a lot of the work of Satan,

what he's doing, killing, stealing, destroying, breaking families.

But the other kingdom, the kingdom of light also has a ruler and his name is Jesus.

And Jesus said, he's very different to Satan, Jesus actually said that I have come to give

you life and life in its abundance.

So when we get saved, we receive this life in abundance.

But then when we walk this walk of Christianity, we soon learn that we are up against a very

determined enemy, that just because we're born again and you know, filled with the Spirit

doesn't mean that the devil says, okay, I lost them, I'll just go get somebody else,

we'll just leave you be.

So there'll always be an assignment, there'll always be something that the devil wants to

do to stop you, to discourage you, to hinder you in your walk with God.

I've been sharing too about the infilling of the Holy Spirit that you will receive power

from on high.

In other words, it actually means to be clothed with power from on high.

And this power, this dunamis power that we receive empowers the Christian on various

different levels, but one of them is to walk and live a holy life.

We also are empowered to, when it says about lay hands on the sick and they will recover,

there's the power gifts that flow as well.

There's so much and so many blessings that we receive with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And all this is wonderful and all this is great, but it's all for a purpose.

Today I'm going to just briefly speak on walking in the Spirit.

You see, being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit are two separate things.

So we can be empowered from on high and we feel that that day that we receive the infilling

of the Holy Spirit, what an incredible, incredible moment, right?

Who here has received that blessing?

The hands everywhere.

We have received that and it's incredible.

We don't know what it is until we experience it.

But we've been empowered for a reason, like I said, and I think one of the ones is that

so that our walk as a Christian from the time of conversion and infilling is to walk just

as Jesus walked.

And so to walk in the Spirit, it's speaking about a very natural physical walk.

I remember when I was studying this years ago, I had this thought about before I was

a Christian about spiritual things that it would be a ghost or, you know, when you're

born again Christian, reading about walking in the Spirit, I had this concept that it

was so spiritual that you just float in the air.

Just float around.

I'm a Christian now and I'm filled with the Spirit and I'm spiritual and I can float around

in the Spirit and I'm just so spiritual that I don't, my feet don't even touch the ground.

I'll never wear out a pair of shoes ever again.

And so with that kind of thinking, we can become so heavenly minded where we're of no

earthly use because walking in the Spirit is a natural walk.

It's about the life that we live, the life that we are living and the call of God on

your life that we have been shown and led to walk, a natural walk, but with the supernatural

divine power that resides within.

And it's important.

And I'm going to read from Romans chapter 8 from verse 1.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Now I'm going to read a little bit here so please try not to nod off.

And if you see your neighbour nod off, give him a shove and just tell him, hey, he hasn't

finished yet, wake up.

Okay, Romans chapter 8 and verse 1.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not

walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Notice it's a capital S and referring to the Holy Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin

and death.

So what is this saying?

There are two different walks that we can walk.

Apostle Paul addressing the church at Rome, the Christians there, and he's just saying

to them, guys, you know, you've had your life up until you got saved walking in the flesh,

walking in the way that in our old nature before we got saved, the old Adamic nature,

that sin nature.

But he's trying to explain and express in verse 2 that there's a law of the Spirit of

life and there is a law of the Spirit of death.

There is a law, it's just like the law of gravity is defied by the law of aerodynamics.

So you can get an airplane and when that airplane, it starts its engines and lifts its flaps

to whatever it's got to do and it thrusts off that there's a different law that comes

into play that in a different level, on a different dynamic altogether, that that aircraft

begins to lift and defy the law of gravity.

Now if the engines cut out, we know that it's coming back down.

But here it's speaking about the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me,

has made us free from the law of sin and death.

And this all comes about because we as children of the living God made a choice.

We can choose every morning when we wake up, you know I'm going to walk in the flesh today.

I'm just going to do that, I've had enough of everything else.

Or we can just say after we've eaten our cornflakes and downed our coffee and just say, no I'm

going to walk in the Spirit today.

You see, walking in the Spirit is a choice.

It's something we choose to do.

Now we may be empowered, which we are, to walk a very powerful spiritual life, but it

still comes down to our choice.

So how do we handle it if somebody cuts you off at a roundabout or runs a red light?

Effectively there we have a choice to respond in the Spirit or respond in the flesh.

Amen?

Amen.

And I see some of us here today saying, you're prophesying brother.

But see there's no condemnation to those who walk in the Spirit.

And I want to emphasize a little bit more of this a bit later on.

Now verse 14 of chapter 8 says, for as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the

sons of God.

Sons here meaning the sonship.

It's not defining male only, it's speaking sonship.

So ladies, you're part of the sonship.

You understand that?

So we're not excluding ladies here.

But listen to this, for as many are as led by the Spirit, this means then that the Spirit

of God is leading.

So that means then that we must be following, not leading.

So when we are being led by the Spirit of God, that means then by default that we are

following.

You got that?

Okay.

So when somebody gives you a hard time, the Spirit of God is always going to lead you

and me in the way that He would want us to go.

Because remember I said before about how the devil comes but to steal, to kill and to destroy.

That Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life in its abundance.

Well the Spirit of God is going to lead us in the path of the life and an abundance of

life, even in the middle of some of your toughest tests and trials.

But the devil's quite different.

He wants to lead you into the ways of the old nature.

Roll up your sleeve.

I'll give them what I'll let them know what I think of that.

Some of us are thinking he's prophesying again.

But when we got saved, it's a process and sanctification.

It's when the Spirit of God is working in us and leading us in the right way so that

the old ways and old thoughts that we used to have and things that we used to do are

behind us because we're now following the Spirit of God.

See walking in the Spirit, if we walk in the Spirit, we've been born again, accepted by

God, baptized in water, we've been filled with the Holy Ghost, powered and endured with

power from on high, we're clothed with power.

But church it doesn't stop there.

Now we have a walk to walk in the same Spirit.

And if we walk in the power of that same Spirit, we're not going to fulfill the lusts of the

flesh.

So here is the thing.

Why is it so important that God wants us to walk in the Spirit?

Well in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, it makes it very clear.

Ephesians 4:30

It says, and do not grieve the Spirit of God by whom you were...

Why does it go again that you were sealed for the day of redemption?

Now forgive me, but this is not speaking to unsaved people.

Is that right?

This is speaking to born again Christians to not grieve the Holy Spirit for whom you

were sealed for the day of redemption, on that day that you are sealed.

So grieving the Holy Spirit is a possible thing.

First Thessalonians chapter 5, I think it's verse 19, it says about, do not quench the

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Holy Spirit.

And quenching the Holy Spirit is like, you know I remember one time we had a campfire,

we were out west and it had been raining and we had a lot of wet firewood but we managed

to get this little fire going and we were trying to build it up so dry out all the wet

timber and you know the process.

And what happened was, back in the day, one of the people that were with us was drinking

heavily and decided to throw as a joke a bucket of water over the fire and it wasn't a good

deal.

We know it gets really cold out there and especially when it's wet and yeah, and I

won't share with you what happened after that but it got in the flesh really bad.

But that fire was totally extinguished.

There was possibly a bit of a slight warmness in there and to get that rekindle would have

taken a lot of work.

It's not impossible but it's unnecessary.

So to not quench the Holy Spirit is a very important thing and that's why the Bible mentions

so often about walking the Spirit and you're not going to quench the Spirit.

Walk in the Spirit, we're not going to respond in the flesh and then quench the Spirit.

Now why is this so important?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

Because we read about in 1 Corinthians 12, in that chapter there, I believe it's from

verse 1 to around verse 11, it speaks about the gifts of the Spirit and the gifts of the

Spirit are given as the Spirit wills.

And so there are incredible gifts, there are power gifts, there are utterance gifts and

there are so many gifts involved in here and if I could narrow it down to something very

simple here this morning, the gifts of the Spirit expose the plans of the devil and have

the power to destroy them.

Amen?

Christ had always wanted for His church to be moving in the gifts of the Spirit.

The utterances, the power gifts, the revelation gifts and so this has always been very important

and so the devil's not stupid.

So what he knows he has to do is simply this.

If I can lead people my way and not the Spirit way, then I can lead them into the flesh and

there if I can lead them into the flesh and get them to do or say something that will

quench the Spirit of God and then the same Spirit that has been quenched is the same

Spirit who is the giver of the gifts of the Spirit and there the devil's like, ha ha,

I got you.

Amen?

Amen.

You know Ephesians chapter 6, we know the popular passage of Scripture there about the

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

armour of God and it speaks about be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,

depending on the whole armour of God and it goes into all the detail.

The key here is not to be strong with the Lord, the word says to be strong in the Lord.

So that means that we're in Christ, that we are in the Spirit, that we are Spirit people

walking in God's power.

Amen?

So hold on to that.

But here is I think, now what I'm about to share if you have held on to this teaching

and I upset you today, it is not my intention but I have seen the wrong understanding of

this Scripture lead people astray or lead them into a false hope.

What it says about to put on the whole armour of God, speaking about that in that day you'll

be able to stand, putting on the whole armour of God is not something we verbally say and

enact.

I wake up in the morning and then I put on the breastplate of righteousness, you know,

pretend I'm doing that.

I used to do it until I had the revelation, you know, and I put on the belt of truth and

I put on the helmet of salvation, put on the shoes of the gospel of peace and then I take

the shield of faith and I get out there and then live just like I did before I was a Christian.

So it's done nothing.

You see, enacting it is not what Apostle Paul was meaning.

The same Apostle, he actually said to put on Christ in other Scriptures, to put him

on.

In other words, it was a choice that in our life we choose to live like Jesus.

Putting on the armour of God when it speaks about the breastplate of righteousness, this

is not the righteousness of God that we receive by Christ Jesus, this is now the effects of

God's righteousness in our life that we choose now to live righteously.

That's what that means.

So we can't put that on like as a ritual every morning, like years ago at this church I was

at this couple rolled up and they got to the door and I was greeting them and they took

off and I said, where are you going?

They said, we forgot to put our armour on this morning.

It was like life and death.

So they went back home and I didn't see them until the night service and so what I'm trying

to say, I want to emphasise this.

If we think that putting it, like enacting it is what it's about, we've missed it because

it's about our choices that we make as a Christian.

That's our armour.

That is our armour.

Our armour is Christ-likeness.

Our armour is Christ-like character that we choose in the morning to say, Lord, I'm aware

of the armour that I have and today I'm going to choose to the best of my ability to walk

righteously.

My belt, I'm going to choose to walk in truth.

I'm not going to lie, I'm just going to tell the truth and be truthful.

I'm going to live the truth and accept the truth and so on.

You see, this is all about walking in the Spirit and if we walk in the Spirit, remember

it's a very natural walk, you and I as physical people, been empowered by God to walk a very

supernatural life so naturally here on earth.

Does that make sense?

Makes a lot of sense.

So the born again, water-baptised, filled with the Holy Ghost and then the next step

is now we need to walk as Christians in the power of God and be so naturally spiritual

and spiritually natural.

Not fruit loops, not these space cadets that, you know, just natural, natural people walking

in such a natural way and it's there that when we are pleasing God, the Holy Ghost begins

to move upon His people and where there's a setting of the people of God where they

love each other and they are walking in the Spirit meaning that they're so aware not to

offend or to aggravate and to build unity amongst each other in love and the works of love.

The Holy Spirit is drawn to that atmosphere and when He's drawn to that atmosphere, He

can't help but bestow upon those people gifts and power and blessing and it's there that

people, those people, when they've cultivated this relationship amongst each other, walking

in the Spirit, that it's there that God uses these people to do great signs and wonders

for Him in the name of Jesus.

You see, unity is a very powerful thing.

Unity, you can have, let me say this, unity is not conformity.

Unity is not if you do everything that I say then we can all get along.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

You see, when there is a dispute or where there are disagreements or whatever, people

can have different mindsets and different ideas and different whatever, but when there

is a disagreement, it should never ever be about who's right and who's wrong.

In the Christian setting, the focus should always be on what is right, not who is right

and there is a big difference.

And so the unifier within a disagreement is truth.

So it's not who's right, it's what is right.

So both people leave their post to come to the unifying core, which would be truth, and

find out, hey, maybe we're both wrong.

You see, walking in the Spirit has everything to do about relationships.

The Gospel involves relationships from top to bottom, left to right, because God desires

that we all live in right relationship.

Now that doesn't mean that some relationships are strained at times, but when we walk in

the Spirit and we maintain that walk in the Spirit best that we can, it doesn't take

long for that relationship to be restored.

It doesn't take long.

I'd like to go to Galatians chapter 5, and we may finish there.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Galatians chapter 5, some powerful principles in the Word of God as we all know.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

I'm going to read from verse 16, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil

the lust of the flesh.

Here it is again.

A decision to walk in God's ways, and if we do that, we're not going to fulfil the lust

of the flesh.

Listen to this.

This is explained so simply that even I can understand it.

For the flesh, and the flesh is meaning, you know, we might be thinking of this physical

flesh, it's actually meaning our old nature before we were born again, that there was

the old nature, our old person that did not know God and probably didn't want to know

God at the time.

But it's saying that the old person, the lust against the Spirit, sorry, the lust against

the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

And these two are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you

wish.

So let's look at this.

The Spirit and the flesh are opponents.

They do not make deals.

The Spirit and the flesh do not make a deal to say that, okay, the flesh says to the Spirit,

well, they were at church Sunday, I want them from Monday to Wednesday, maybe Thursday,

but you can have them Friday to Sunday because they've got to be right at the church again.

There are no such deals that are cut like that, none whatsoever.

They're opposing.

They don't agree at all.

And verse 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law, you're not under

that binding law of the death.

But here it is again, if you are led, are we following the Spirit?

Now verse 19, it explains what it is to what the works of the flesh are.

And this is what the works of the flesh will lead us to.

Are you ready for this?

Sounds quite horrible, I know, but it's truth.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,

heresies, envy, murders.

Oh, this sounds horrible, doesn't it?

Drunkenness, revelries and of the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also

told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of

God.

Okay, just let me stop there for a sec because I want to address something that is taught

around about that is so wrong and so misleading.

Jesus said that the thief comes but to steal, kill and destroy, right?

Jesus said, I've come to give life and life in its abundance.

We previously read in Romans 8 about how if we walk in the Spirit, we will not be under

that condemnation, but if we walk in the flesh, it speaks about the law of the Spirit of life

and there's a law of the Spirit of death.

If someone walks and follows the works of the flesh, the Bible says here, I told you

in times past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is what in the modern gospel, if you like, today is being taught.

It's not meaning that you forfeit your salvation.

Oh no, no, God would never, ever, ever do that and God wouldn't.

We do it.

Hello.

I say you just lose your benefits and you lose your blessings here on earth and you

may not get that big mansion in the sky that you've been wanting.

Where they get that from, I will never know, but I'll tell you something.

It sounds very attractive, especially for young people today.

Incredibly attractive.

Do you want to know what it means here?

That those who practice, that's an habitual practice, lifestyle, such things will not

inherit.

So the key word here to understand it is inherit.

And what does inherit mean?

I wouldn't even begin to try and pronounce it in Greek, but the Strong's number is 2816.

If you're taking notes, write it down and if you go to your Strong's concordance, you

will find that what I'm saying is the absolute truth.

So what does this word inherit mean in the Greek?

Listen to this.

I didn't write it.

This is exactly what it means.

To inherit means to...now remember it says will not inherit.

The word inherit means to partake of eternal salvation in the Messiah's kingdom.

Can I share that again?

To partake of eternal salvation in the Messiah's kingdom.

So Apostle Paul says that anyone who practice these things will not partake of eternal salvation

in the Messiah's kingdom.

That's serious business.

But I like verse 22 says but.

But here is an action shift now.

So we just heard that the flesh and the spirit, they just don't get along.

The flesh wants to take you in the ways of righteousness, sorry the spirit wants to take

you in the way of righteousness.

The flesh wants to take you in the path of unrighteousness.

The flesh wants to take you into all the works of the flesh and its mission is to take you

to hell, to destroy your life.

That's its mission.

Verse 22 but, but the fruit of the spirit or the correct translation I believe is the

evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life who walks according to the spirit is

love, joy, peace, long suffering, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control against there is no law.

In other words that if we as children of the living God allow the spirit of God to lead

us verse 18 but if you are led by the spirit of God you are not under the law, you're not

under the judgment of those things.

Now I dare say that some of us when we came to Christ may have practiced either one of

those things and some of us may be more and definitely I raised my hand in that there

but when we got saved here is the good news.

When you and I came to Christ we were given a new nature.

The nature of sin was dealt a mortal blow by the blood of Jesus that when you and I

got saved we made a claim on the blood of Jesus that is in the eternals right now where

Jesus when he was raised from the dead went and presented his own blood in that mercy

seat in heaven in Hebrews chapter 9 and it's there that when you came to Christ and when

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

I came to Christ because of the blood, the eternal blood that is in that place on the

mercy seat in heaven making peace for the sin of the world, atonement for the sin of

the world, when we came to that place and asked Christ to save us we made a claim on

the blood of Jesus and there we were accepted, we weren't denied, we were accepted into the

family of God and we were forgiven of all of our sin and all of the ways of the works

of the flesh and then we went through the water baptism and then we got filled with

the Holy Ghost and then we started experiencing a new life led by the Spirit, a life filled

with love, love for one another and we started experiencing a joy, a joy in this world that

many don't seem to have much of and then we're looking at the peace of God, we started experiencing

the day that I received Christ, I'm sure you did too, this incredible supernatural peace

came on my life, I knew like I knew that everything would be alright no matter what comes, floods,

fire, no matter what, I just knew that everything's alright, I knew that my future was sealed

and I know you do too and so when we have this peace, when the Prince of Peace comes

into our life and he saves us and he's standing with you saying folks I'm with you, everything

will be okay, you're going to go through some trials but it's going to be okay, it'll all

be okay and so then we're focusing now, we're mindful of the things, we're mindful of the

ways of the Spirit, our thoughts now are the ways of the Spirit, we're not longer thinking

about the ways of the flesh but if we do, whatever we put our mind to or our thoughts

to, will end up going there.

So why not change it to the ways of the Spirit, the thoughts of God, the Word of God, the

ways of God are so important, being led by the Spirit of God, being drawn into righteousness

and so there we receive this long suffering, fellas I'm sure there were times before you

came to Christ that you'd be in a setting that you'd get into a scuffle and you know

a good old scrap but now that you're a Christian you have the power and the ability to walk

away from those things, to long suffer, you know that to allow before, who had a real

fiery short hot temper before they got saved, come on be honest and all the rest of you

I pray for later they didn't put up your hand but there's long suffering, you know that

God is long suffering, He was long suffering for me and for you, for all of us, He's a

good God, long suffering, this kindness, being kind.

I remember a guy when he got saved, he was one of the meanest people I'd ever met and

I tried witnessing to him without much success, probably because I knew him really well and

I heard some people saying, do you remember old Jaco?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, well he's a Christian now, I said, oh you're right, you're a witness

to them right?

He said, no, no he is and he's got to be one of the kindest people you'll ever meet now

and I'm planning to go and meet him sometime soon but this kindness, it's motivated by

love, another word for kindness is benevolence, that when you see a brother in need or a sister

in need and they don't have and you have, we just go, hey I can't bear the fact or the

thought that you're doing without and I have and hear, that's the ways of the Spirit, I

tell you what, it's a good old test for Polish blood, let me tell you.

Goodness, goodness, we started experiencing this goodness, the goodness of God and when

we become saturated in this goodness, when you squeeze us, what comes out?

Goodness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

We're living in a world that it seems to be out of control but self-control to me is something

that people see because we could say to people, I love you, we can say to people, I have joy

and I have peace but one day the test will come, the test to test your self-control and

that folks is obvious to everybody, self-control, against there is no law, this is why I believe

God's so strong in the area that we as His children walk, choose to walk in the Spirit,

choose to walk being led by the Spirit of God's influence to make right choices, that's

what it's about.

You know, Christianity you hear some people say, oh, they want to lose born again mob,

I used to be one of those people that would say that until one day I was in need and then

one of those born again mob come and help me.

The thing is that we are a living witness of Christ and if people don't identify us

any different from the world, we're not going to have a positive impact but it's when they

see you and they say there's something different about you.

They begin to see that something that they like that they don't have.

The times that people have said to others, what is it about you, you're different.

That's when you have an open door to share this marvelous gospel of Christ and you can

share from your heart because they open the door for you but it was your walking in the

Spirit just being a Christian.

What they noticed, they noticed it and today I want to extend this invitation to everybody

here if you do not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ.

He I tell you, He's the nicest, kindest person you would ever meet.

Jesus is all good, He's all light, He's all truth, He's all powerful, He is absolute holy.

There is no lie in Him at all and there's no darkness in Him at all and there was nothing

that He would ever do to hurt you.

And so being found in Christ is a very safe place and it's a very fulfilling place.

The reality is at the end of the day when it's all said and done, when you and I draw

our last breath and we leave this physical body, the question is where are you going?

Because the body dies but the Spirit is eternal and if that Spirit person has not yet been

encountered the life giving from the Savior, the life, that zoe life, if that person had

rejected Christ, they're not in a very good place.

If you're here today and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm going to

give you an opportunity to do so.

It will be the best decision you will ever make in your entire life because a day will

come when we go out of this body, we're faced with decisions, did we accept or deny Christ?

You see today we are going to make a decision either way, do I accept Christ or do I deny

Him?

And if we accept Christ, we have been given the very blessings of heaven, an assurance

that when you draw your last breath that the angels of God will come and receive you into

glory, into a place where there is no suffering, there is no pain, it doesn't exist.

A place of absolute joy, love and the very fulfillment and conclusion of life is what

God has for us is to be with Him.

And I know that for me for many years I tried to live the best life that I could but it

never measured up to what God required, when Christ saves us, empowers us, suddenly things

change.

Now I'm going to pray a very simple prayer and if you have not yet received Christ as

your Lord and Savior, I'd really encourage you to follow me in this prayer because it'll

be the most amazing thing that you'll ever do in your life.

I did this some 30 years ago and you know I'll be honest with you, I was drinking all

day and smoking things that I shouldn't be smoking when I got saved and I'm not saying

that to go and do that.

Amen.

I'm not encouraging you to do that, I'm just sharing my testimony what happened to me because

I was searching, I knew there was more.

But when Christ saved me, it was an experience that words cannot express and it's still

the same to this day, some 30 years later.

Can I encourage you to follow me in prayer?

Would you repeat after me, Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.

I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you, Jesus, are the Son of God,

you died for me, God, you raised him from the dead.

This day I ask you Lord to forgive me of all the things I've done wrong and to receive

me into your kingdom.

Amen.

Now if you've prayed that prayer for the first time, would you just do something very quickly,

would you just raise your hand and just acknowledge that you accepted Christ this morning?

Are there any other hands?

Praise the Lord.

I see those two hands there, they're young people as well.

Is there anybody else?

Is there anyone else here this morning?

Praise God if you're watching online and you've made a decision to follow Christ, why don't

you get in contact with us, the information will be on the screen and we'd love to hear

from you.

But what I'd like to do with the hands that were raised, I see your hand there too, so

that you can put your hand down now if you like.

Would you like to come out?

We want to pray for you, is that okay?

Is that okay, can we do that?

Just thinking, oh no, I didn't think that far ahead.

Come on.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.