Walking With Jesus | Elder Peng Hoe

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who are new, some are visiting, some have not come

for a while, and you're back and we really really

are glad to see you here with us again. Today,

I want to very quickly, I'm going to be continuing

on my series uh preaching and teaching from Efficients, and

so we have arrived at Ephesians five. Previously I preached

from Ephicients one to four. Of course, the last message

that I talked on or I taught on, was from

Efficients for talking about the practice and the principles of

unity in the church. I'm not sure if you remember.

If you don't remember, I think you can download the

Spotify and listen to it again. Today we're gonna move

on and I'm going to be talking sharing from Efficients five. Okay,

Emphysians chapter five, and I've simply entitled walking with Jesus.

Walking with Jesus. I will explain it as I read

the scriptures thereafter, and then we're going to break down

the scriptures line by line.

Okay, is that gonna be? Okay?

Stay with me, let's let's do this, okay. I'm going

to be reading verses one to twenty from chapter five

of Emphesions, reading from the New Living Translation, and he

says this imitate God. Therefore, in everything you do, because

you are His dear children, live a life filled with love.

Following the example of Christ.

I want you all to take note whenever you see

that word live a life, or that phrase live alife.

Some translations just translate that as walk okay, that means

walk within love if it's lived a life.

Filled with love.

Some translations who say walk in love okay, take note

of that. And then, reading on, he says he loved

us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a

pleasing aroma to God. Verse three, Let there be no sexual, immorality, impurity,

or greed among you. Such sins have no place among

God's people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and cause jokes. These

are not for you. Instead, let that be thankfulness to God.

You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy

person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God.

For a greedy person is an idolator worshiping the things

of this world. Don't be fooled by those who try

to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will

fall on all who disobey him. Don't participate in the

things these people do. For once you were full of darkness,

but now you have light from the Lord. So live

as people of light again. Live as people as light

means walk as people of light, for this light within

you produces only what is good and right and true

verse ten. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no

part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness instate,

expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the

things that ungodly people do in secret.

But their evil.

Intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them.

For the light makes everything visible. This is why it

is said, awake, old sleeper, rise up from the day,

and Christ will give you light verse fifteen. So be

careful how you live again, be careful how you walk.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you

to do. Don't be drunk with wine, because that will

ruin your life instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among themselves, and

making music to the Lord in your hearts. I told

the first service, this is where we get that song,

making melodies in your heart.

The scripture is here.

Okay, and give thanks for everything to God the Father

in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Lord

blessed the reading of his words.

Amen. Okay.

When a baby is born, okay, imagine me when a

baby is born. There are some milestones that parents usually

look forward to. What are some of these milestones? Can

any of your just shout out?

Crawling? Okay? Yeah? What else? First words?

Talking, summer or the Daniel you say something speaking? Yeah,

talking or Daniel?

Okay.

Then he's still single but thinking about his future. Yeah okay,

I prophesied, what happened?

Okay? Anything else? Teating? Okay? Or no one mentioned one

of the big milestones. Walking?

Yeah, walking is one of the big milestones, don't you

think so? H Their first few steps is usually one

of those things that parents are really really excited about.

Most parents actually remember remember when your children took the

first few steps, and so walking is something that we

look forward to whenever we have a child. We have

a baby, we are training the child to walk, and

that's something that is important. And it's the same for

spiritual babies. Ever thought about it from that angle, because

isn't it so? I mean, we are always so trill. Okay,

we're always trull when there's a newborn. Okay, there is

a physical newborn baby and everyone's like, oh, cheering, hallelujah,

praise a lot. But even when someone responds, responds to

God and gives and commits his life to Jesus, the

whole church, in fact, the whole heavens rejoice because we

are celebrating the birth of.

A new born.

But you know what's even more trilling is when you

see this new on believer start to learn how to

walk in the faith. Basically, what does it mean by walking?

Walking just means to take one step after another in

the right direction.

And it's as simple as that. Okay, that's how we

look at what walking is. Walking.

It's not it's not spectacular. Okay, it's not one of

those things. You don't have extreme spots walk version, you know,

you know, walking is so exciting, it's you know, walk

a man walk though I used to do that in

the school where you used to collect building funds and

et cetera.

But it's not spectacular.

But yet, at the same time, how many of you

all agree that we can walk much further than we

can ever run. And that's that's that's the truth. And

if we walk, we are doing something that's good for us. Actually,

walking is a really healthy, healthy lifestyle to maintain. I

know I run, I'm someone who runs daily, but I

don't think I'll be able to run forever until I'm

really old. I think at some point, well, it does

feel like the needs are lacking glucosamine and stuff like

that even right now. But I hope and I pray

that I'll be able to keep walking, carry on walking

no matter how old I am. That's really my hope

and my prayer. And so we know that walking is

something that's good for us. And this word walk actually

occurs three times in the passages. In the passage that

we just read, verse two, it says walk in love.

Verse eight, it says walk as children of the line.

Verse fifteen, it says walk not as unwise men, but

as wise men. And so I'm going to be breaking

down the scriptures line by line, and I hope that

you see something from what Paul is trying.

To share and encourage us with.

But let's first be one about two temptations in life.

In a life where walking is essential. Okay, walking, we

know is an essential part of our lives, and it's

very important in our Christian life as well. But let's

be reminded of these two.

Warnings. Okay.

The first one is this, many times when we become

a Christian, when we become a believer in Christ, a

lot of us we experience God in the heavenly places,

or we love it. We sit with Him in his presence,

and he feels like all is well, and sometimes we

are very tempted to go on sitting and doing nothing more.

I think that's very dangerous because when you sit and

just enjoy the presence and do nothing more, then you

will get nowhere. You'll never make progress. So that is

the first thing that we should always be careful of.

But there is another temptation that a lot of young

believers sometimes fall into, and that is that we want

to run before.

We can walk.

Okay, somethings we see kids baby is doing that, and

he's quite funny because the running and then you know,

you know, the kid will tumble at some point. We

want to do the amazing and the spectacular. Yet God

just wants us to learn how to walk, just learn

how to move forward steadily in the right direction. And

so what we must do is learn how to walk first.

Amen.

Okay, we got two warnings in our in our minds.

Let's look at three things here that Paul has highlighted,

and he says, you will need to learn these three

things if you are going to walk the Christian life

very important. What are these three things? These three principles?

The first one and I'm just plucking out from the scriptures,

and I'm grateful for some of the materials in which

I've read before, and how some commentators have compartmentalized it.

It's easy to see. The first principle is there is

the principle of imitation. Okay, and I'm not making this up.

The verse it self starts, then imitate God. Right, what

did they say? Imitate God? Therefore in everything you do, amen,

Halley lujah. The second principle is the principle of illumination.

And I'm sure you already have taken note that you

read quite a few times. There was some mention about light, okay,

And the third principle is the principle of intoxication.

I'll get to that. I know.

It's how you're like, ooh, that's exciting. How can I

apply that in my life since I'm ready applying it?

Just kidding, But all three leads to a good walk

in the.

Lord or a good walk with the Lord. Amen. So

let's start off.

The first one is this imitation, the principle of imitation.

So most of the things we learn in life, I

think we can agree that we learn through imitating others,

and most habits we pick up from other people.

When we are young, there's always this pressure.

To imitate other people, to go to the crowd to

see what everyone else is doing. We always have this

sense of pressure in our life. Little children they will

imitate their older, their elders. Teenagers will usually imitate your contemporaries. True,

but we are all imitating now. It's not a bad thing,

provided all of us are imitating the right person, and

so that's important. See the Greek word that Paul uses

here is.

The word mimic.

It translates to the word mimic and Therefore it says,

be mimics of God. Somebody say that Christians should actually

be practicing to be God. Actually, that's how our life

should be. Don't don't look at it from a blessphemous

point of view. Okay, we can't, we can't be God literally,

but let's practice to.

Be more like him.

And that's why Paul says, don't imitate other people, but

be imitators of God. And the sad thing is that

if you imitate other people, you are imitating those whom

Paul actually calls them children of disobedience or sons of

this obedience.

You see that in the scripture.

And if you imitate other people, sooner or later, you'll

find yourself disobeying God, because this is what other people

do as well. And so let's look at some of

the words used in this scripture that we must be

very cautious about. Because when Paul was talking about imitation

or imitating, he mentioned some words, a bunch of words,

a cluster of words. The first three words that he

talks about is immorality, impurity, and converrteousness. And so the

warning is if you imitate others, sooner or later, you

will or you may end up doing these things.

What does immorality mean?

Well, actually, the word simply translates into the meaning as

sex outside marriage. That's what immorality here actually means. But

the root meaning is to sell. It means to treat

people as things. It means to treat people as commodities. Basically,

you look at everyone as all. This one is. There's

surprise to it, can buy and sell the basic meaning

of immorality is to basically treat people like things.

And so often it turns.

Out that we actually do treat people like things and

not people as persons.

To be loved and to be cant for.

That is something that sometimes if we are not careful,

it can end up being like that. The second word

is well, it just means dirt, okay, impurity, something that's dirty,

it's something that's not clean. The third word is convirteousness.

It just translates as grabbing anything you want, or the

each to get your hands on something that does not

belong to us, get your hands on something that belongs

to other people. That's why you have that commandment that

was not covered your neighbor's wife. You know that that

commandment is one in which Paul openly acknowledges that if

else to keep because Jews are people who make a

lot of money, and they are constantly one thing more

money as well as so Paul actually says, no other

that don't cover your neighbor's property. That one I can

openly say, I really don't know I feel in that

site in that sense of it. But that's what converteousness means.

Why did Paul link together immorality, impurity and converteousness. And

the answer is actually quite simple. Because all three of

them are self indulgent. That means all three of them

are sell fish. All three of them are living to grab,

living to get, living to.

Be greedy for what I want.

And that is a thread that ties those three things together.

And then he doesn't just stop that. He goes on

and introduces another group of three words, filthiness, silly talk,

and crude jokes. Okay, however you want to translate it

different translations, we are translated differently by the reason he

goes on to say this is also simple. He knows

that most of us begin not by doing something. We

actually begin an action by speaking about it, talking about something,

And if you allow something to creep into your speech.

If you allow something to creep into your daily conversations,

it will be a matter of time before it translates

into your deeds, into your actions.

You find that time and time again.

That's why gossip is such a poisonous thing, not just

in the church, but anywhere. Any form of gossip is

not healthy. It destroys relationships. You start off by just

whispering something into someone's ear, and before you know it

is destructive in nature.

But that is the truth. You know.

The things always start off with the things that we

are saying.

So that's why we need to guard no filthy.

Conversation, silly talk, crude jokes some people call it dirty

stores foul to cruel jokes are however you want to

describe it. And the two areas of our lives are

directly affected by these things are basically our future and

our relationship with our father. That's what the scripture says

is strong. It is worded in a very strong manner.

So don't let anyone fool you when they say, I

don't worry.

Lie.

You will never lose your future, you will never lose

your inheritance. You can do whatever you want you can

say whatever you want and your future will not be affected. No,

the scripture actually tells us that our future can be affected.

In fact, the scripture goes on to.

Say that our relationship with God the Father can be

affected because it is these things that stirs up the

anger of God when his children are disobedient in that sense.

And so we've got to be mindful of these warnings.

But what is the alternative. The alternative is actually to

say this, I'm not going to imitate other people. I'm

going to imitate God. I'm going to copy God. I'm

going to model my life after God's life. What will

happen when that takes place, Well, instead of disobedience, your

life will be a life of love. That is why

the scripture says, be imitators of God and walk in love.

And so if we are following God again, we are

walking in his ways. And walking is not spectacular. Say

this time and time again. It will be just one

step at a time. You know, love is concerned not

with your grand and big gestures, the big things that

you're doing. Love is actually concerned with one step after another.

Step that you take in loving people is as straightforward

and as simple as that. Remember I've told you that

the thing that ties together immorality, impurity, and co righteousness

is the desire to grab and to get. We want this,

we take this, we want this. But if you imitate God,

your desire will be the opposite. Because God's desire is

never to grab and to give. His desire is always

to be to give. Our desire is to grab and

to get. God's desire is to give. And that's why

we always teach in any form of relationships, In any

form of friendships, human relationship, even pre marital counseling, we

will tell couples, look, when you go into a relationship,

don't go into it thinking what's in it for me?

What can I stand to gain from this relationship. Oh,

I've got so many things lacking in my life, and

I'm looking for someone who will fill my void. So

I'm going to look for someone who I can take

from That's not the way in which you go into

a relationship, any form of relationship, go into it giving

what can I give to that person?

What can I contribute?

Because if you look at it from a relationship a

marital standpoint, if husband gives and then wife also gives,

who gets. Everyone gets, husband and wife gets. And so

that is the principle in which God is reminding us

right here.

God never grabs, He only gives.

And then you notice that Paul says, be imitators of

God as beloved children. And I will tell you this,

the more a child is love, the more that child

will imitate the one who loves them.

It's just how it is.

Teachers will not their head because they deal with children

every day. We see in schools, we see in our

young people. If you are loved by someone, if you

are loved by your parents, you want to be like

them and you want to follow their pattern of life.

Without realizing it, you begin to mimic your parents. A

lot of things that we do, we do it because

we have seen someone else done it before. And that's

why it's so important that God actually reminds us in

the scriptures here that if you walk in love, then

just like Christ, you will be to God a fragrant perfume,

a sweet smelling aroma is what the scripture says. God

has a sense of smell, and he loves a sweet smell.

He and really.

Anything that is good smelling to the Lord is something

that he accepts. Amen, Let's move on to the next principle,

and I'll see I'll try to tie it all together

so that we can see in totality. The next principle

is the principle of illumination. And the principle is this. Now,

if you're going to walk properly, you need to walk

in the light, or you need to walk in light.

You need to see where you're going, because we all

know that if the path a hit of us is dark,

it is usually dangerous for us as those who are walking.

In fact, they say that if.

You want in the dark, sorry, if you want in

the dark, chances are you'll walk around in circles most

of the time. If there's nothing, you just walk in

the open space and dark. They say that you go

around because something about your feet, one being stronger than

the other, and so somehow you end up just going

round and round and round if you're walking in the dark.

So Paul simply teaches and wants here about darkness, and

he says, you cannot walk straight in the darkness.

Amen.

So Paul tells us that there is an association between

good and light and evil and darkness. It is interesting

that most sin is committed at night. Most vices are

committed when it's dark. No one openly flows the law

in the open when it's broad daylight or unless yeah,

they're very brave, or usually they're quite stupid. So it

depends on how you look anybody. But that's the truth, right.

Things are normally done in the dark, hidden cleandest tine.

They say, you know, always under the radar. And Paul

does not say this. No, he doesn't say you used

to be in the dark. He said you used to

be darkness. He doesn't say you are now in the light.

He says you are now light. And so that means

every one of us is either making the world a

darker place or we are making the world a brighter place.

And that is a reminder that we are not We

are not thermometers. We are not gauged to gauge the

level of brightness. Basically, we are like thermostats. We set

you either set the temperature, always set the brightness like

a damer for the lights. You see that, And then

he goes on to say two things we can see

from darkness. The first thing that you'll notice about darkness

is that it's usually unfruitful. Anything done in darkness is

unfruit unfruitful because darkness ever produces things, even plans.

You know, I've sharing with this morning service.

I've got a big, nice, big tree outside my house

in the garden.

But the thing is it provides me shade. I love

the shade, but.

There's grass under need that usually won't grow because there's

no light that gets to the soil on that path,

and no matter what I do. Also, it is tough.

So it's a choice between shad or full grass. Yeah,

so I chose shade. But anyway, you'll get the You

get the point right. If things don't receive light, it

usually remains negative because darkness kills light produces.

The next thing is this.

Darkness is usually associated with something that is not mentioned.

No one wants to mention things. It's unmentionable.

We don't like to talk about it because it's embarrassing

to talk body. They become things that we rather hide,

things that we don't want to be part of our conversation.

That is what darkness. Usually there's no one openly goes

out and let me tell you about what I did

last night, all the naughty things. It's not something that

we do it openly and are proud of. And that

is the truth. So the basic question is this, what

does light do about darkness? And there are two things

mentioned here, one that must not be done and one

that must be done. So let's make it clear. The

first thing is this. It says, do not associate with

those in darkness. That's what the scripture tells us. I

know sometimes when we see that I don't associate with

those in darkness, that means I don't have any contact

with them at all, no contact with them. How are

we going to fulfill our team for this year that

all may know? You see, the word associate means to

have regular company with and First Corinthians, Chapter fifteen, it

says do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.

Nothing could be clearer. A Christian cannot afford to be

associated in regular company with those in darkness, even if

he may do it with the best motives in the world.

So again take note. Contact.

Yes, the scriptures doesn't say don't be in contact.

With anyone in darkness.

No, how we're going to reach out, How we're going

to be light and salt to the world if we

have no contact? Contact yes, company, no, So don't associate

yourself by having regular company, because in the long run

you will be influenced. That's why the warning is there.

So that's the first thing that we need to not do.

Do not associate. The next thing is this, don't associate

bad expose Oh strong words, and Paul tells us quite

definitely that it is not up to earth to judge

other people.

God will judge them. We are just to expose.

You see, Paul is talking about light, and light comes

to the eyes rather than to the year.

So that's a simple fact.

Don't go around talking and gossiping, just go around shining.

Switch the light of your life on and it will

expose other things. That is essentially what is being said here,

because Jesus himself says, let your light shine before men,

that they may see, or they may know, not here,

but that they may see in their eyes. How can

you let your light shine? Well, the answer is we

have no light of our own. But light has an

interesting quality. Everything that light strikes becomes light, and that

is what Paul is saying here. You know, when anything

is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, it becomes light.

It's the same thing for the moon, the moon or

by its own is just a lump of material that

has got no light. But when the sun shines on

the moon, even in the darkest night, the moonlight can

actually brighten the whole place up.

And we give thanks for the moon.

There are some days no when there's no moon and

it's completely dark, but thank God that we have the

moon and night especially, and that's how the moon functions.

And it is the same thing because from the Sun,

the moon gets is light. From God, we get out light.

And so how can you let your light shine? Well,

you do that by seeking to learn what is pleasing

to the Lord.

That is what Paul is saying. So every decision.

That we make, that is an important question that we

need to ask ourselves. God, is this pleasing to you?

When I am executing something, when I'm carrying out something,

is this going to be pleased? Because trust me, if

it's pleasing unto the law, you will shine. And when

you shine, you will expose. And you are not exposing

to embarrass, You're exposing so that the truth can be

made known and lives can be changed from that. That's

what light does. Light changes an environment. It brings people

out from darkness into a marvelous place. And so don't

try to please yourself, don't even try to please others,

because we never will, but seek to please the Lord.

I really don't think we need more Christians shouting and

saying things. I think we need more Christians shining. That

is what is needed in our Christian world. Amen, let's

move on to the third principle. And I'm aware of time,

and it just is the one on intoxication. A lot

of us like, oh okay, yeah, let's see what el

there as we say about this. Well, if you want

to walk straight, the scripture says you need to get intoxicated,

not with alcohol, but with God. So he says, don't

get drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.

So that's the funny thing.

Right to be intoxicated, we've got we can walk straight.

Usually in this world, when we're intoxicated, we can't walk straight.

That's how we feel the breathalyzer tests. But the thing

is man needs to be filled with something otherwise he's

just full of air, and we need to be filled

with something good. But this is also why so many

people fill their lives with substances that are not helpful.

That's the truth.

Because you know, there's always the emptiness in us, and

if we don't feel it with the right thing, we

end up being more destructive. You know, some people think

the best solution or the quickest way out of a

miserable situation is just to get drunk.

It's the truth.

That's why people drown themselves so that they can forget

their sorrows momentarily. It's not the right way to do it,

because it's actually wasteful when we do that, when we

partic and when we consume alcohol, when we take drugs

just to fill that void. But it's wastefulness, it's careless,

it's foolish. That's what the scripture tells us. It's the

same word that you see in Luke chapter fifteen, when

the prodigal Sun went to the far away land and

wasted his life away. The scriptures here tell us let's

be careful not to waste our lives away. And Paul

is saying, be wise, be guided, and be feeled, and

realize that you have got to rescue each day for good,

otherwise it will just be evil and wasted and lost.

Believe in a tainted world, in a world that is stained,

and we need to be able to be filled with

the Holy Spirit, so that we can differentiate.

We can tell what is right and what is wrong.

And so we are the ones given the responsibility to

redeem the time. We are given the responsibility to seize

the opportunity. And that is what a wise man does, right.

Someone who is wise doesn't let an opportunity go to waste.

As believers, we have the opportunity right now to make

a difference, to shine onto a situation. What is the

right thing to do, to seek the will of God

and to find out what we should do in his

plan and he his purpose. Because God has planned our

lives out, he knows what you can do with it.

He has a plan for you that is just right

for the length of your life. I believe that with

all my heart. Basically, your life is just long enough

to fulfill His plan. But it's too short to waste

any of it away. Let's be rem minded of them.

You will live God's will when you do what pleases him.

A lot of times we want to know what God's

will is, God, what is your will for my life? Well,

I want you to know when you do what pleases him,

you are fulfilling God's will in your life. And finally,

it says, is to be feeled. A church of believers

is to be a public house basically filled with people

who are drunk with God, and then their tongues become

loose and their feelings are released and songs start to

come up.

You know what.

The public another word for public house is actually pub.

So if you go to Europe, you go to UK,

especially UK big in pups perhaps is a happening space.

The idea is supposed to be similar to what the

church should be.

Actually, of course they fill it.

Up with the wrong substance in the pups, But the

reality is a pup is a place where people come.

People come, and people come and relax. People come to

be felled so that they are in a relaxed state

they can continue doing what they are called to do.

And you know, of course the world fills themselves with alcohol,

but the Church is us and reminded to be filled

with the Holy Spirit, be intoxicated with God and keep

on walking straight.

That is what we are called to do. You know.

John Wesley said this once, I want a bunch of

God intoxicated men, and I can turn England upside down.

I believe John Wesley had a bunch of god intoxicated

men with him because we know the Methodist Church has

done great things for the advancement of God's kingdom. And

so it says, be filled with the spirit and sing

and make melodies in your heart.

There are three sorts of songs that are highlighted here.

I'm not gonna go into it too much, but you say,

when you're filled with the spirit, you're saying psalms, you're

saying hymns, You'll sing spiritual songs and every day give

thanks for everything. Wow, that's a great reminder, right, because really,

if your mind is full of thanksgiving, filled with gratefulness,

you will never run out of things to sing unto

the Lord.

If your lips are.

Filled with thanksgiving, you will never ever run short of

anything to say unto the Lord.

Because that is who we are.

We should be creatures who are eternally grateful to what

God has done for us. Okay, I'm not gonna take

it too long, because there is I will continue another

part and another time, but I'm gonna invite a band up,

and I want us to know this. I want us

to realize this. If we do not receive the Holy

Spirit in our lives. We are actually putting ourselves in

a very vulner perable state. Because God's power and God's

purity are essential to a clean walk through a dirty world.

And we all know that this world in which we

live in is not a clean world. Everywhere you go,

everywhere you turn, there are a lot of things that

are happening, which really, I believe God is unhappy about.

But that is why us believers, those who are in

the know, those whose lives have been touched by God,

we need the Holy Spirit because we need the power

of the Holy Spirit to overcome. We need the purity

of the Holy Spirit to cleanse. That is what is

needed because when we go through this world, there will

be a lot of challenging situations, and there will be

times it's almost like we are walking through a coal

mine and it's almost impossible not to get yourself tainted.

But when that happens, you know, when you get stains everywhere.

We need the Holy Spirit. Christians need to be constantly

reminded of the need to grow and mature. We cannot

remain spiritual babies all our lives.

We can't.

I say this time and time again, even for physical children.

You all don't want to remain as babies. You want

to grow, you want to mature. But maturity comes from

walking in the spirit, not just clapping and jumping and

dancing in the spirit.

It's not that. It comes when we walk in the spirit.

Day by day you see the fruit of the spirit.

What is the fruit of the spirit, Well, it can

be evident through our daily walk.

We've got.

It's a single fruit, actually with nine flavors if you

look at it, if you look at the exact word

that is used is in the singular fruit of the spirit.

You see nine flavors love, joy.

Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. The fruit

of the spirit can be evident in our lives when

we walk with God. But how many of you all

know that fruit don't just appear overnight, no matter what

kind of superpower fertilizer you use.

It weren't just bad fruit like that. It takes time.

But we have time as believers, right, but we need

to make That's why we need to seize the opportunity,

seize the time in which we have. No time should

be wasted, and that's why we are not to be

intoxicated with things of this world. We are to be

intoxicated with the presence of God in our lives. That's

where we don't waste it away. That's where when we walk,

step by step by step, we are growing, we are maturing.

Our lives starts to shine. You don't have to say much.

People will see how you live your life, and every

step that you take becomes a light that shines onto

the path of others and onto the lives of others

so that they can be exposed. But it comes with

that first, the exposure must take place before the repentance

ever happens. And with that it's the reminder for us

to follow after God, follow Jesus. We walk as individuals.

We can't walk for each other. We can only walk responsibly.

And that's why the next part of this teaching is

basically about responsibility. It's what is our responsibility because this

world has come to a place where we are constantly

talking about rights is right. I have a right to

do this, I have a right to do that, and

I will share the next part. It's about responsibility. When

you understand responsibility, you step into God's plan and purpose.

When you let go of your responsibility, you technically step

out of God's plan and God's purpose because God has

given us all responsibilities. Whether it's a husband a wife,

whether it's a subject matter or a king, or a

governor or a government, whether it's children and parents, whether

it's employer and employee. They're all talking about responsibility. And

so I pray. I prayed that as we understand what

walking with Jesus means, it means walking into your responsibilities

and carrying in out responsibility just means the ability to respond.

A lot of us sometimes think that we don't have

the ability to respond.

That's not true.

All of us have the ability to respond, and all

of us have the ability to make choices. Can we

learn to make the right choice for the Lord. Amen,

let's stand, let me pray for all of us, and

then I'm going to get Pastor John to lead us

and a response him. Hallelujah, Father, Father, Father, Father, we

thank you for your word. Your word that is a

reminder of Lord God that there is nothing in this

world that you have offered to us that we need

to require our own strength to do it. Lord, even walking, Lord,

you have not ever asked us to walk by our

own strength. And by our own understanding. You have ask

us to walk in your spirit, walk in love, so

that we know, Lord God, where we are going, so

that we know we are following the right path, So

that we know that indeed our lives are shining rightly

for you, so that we know that we can only

do it when the Spirit of God.

Feels us and fills our lives.

And so Holy Spirit, I pray Lord, that you will

continue to feel your people. Lord, I pray that there

will be the desire for every individual here, Lord, there

will be the desire to be intoxicated with the spirit

of God. Maybe be filled with the spirit of God,

because I believe when we are filled with the Holy Spirit,

we will have the power and the purity to walk

through this world, Lord God, and turn it right side

up for the glory of your kingdom. Lord, bless your people,

watch over each and every one of them. Lord, I pray,

maybe continue to look to you, Maybe we continue to

look heavenward. Maybe we continue to trust in your ways

and lean on in our own understanding. And may you

be indeed the one that lights our path, so that

we know where we should be walking, and we are

walking in the right direct in Jesus' name, we ask

and we pray.

Amen.

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this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you.

God bless