Dying to live | Jason Martin

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself,

take up his cross daily, and follow me. So, if

we are called to be disciples according to Jesus' standard, right,

we have to do three things.

We have to deny ourselves.

We have to pick up our cross daily, not once,

not once when you say your salvation prayer daily, and

then follow me so more. That is the conviction that

I have. I had when I was preparing this as well.

So God was asking me, you want the power of

the Holy Spirit. Are you doing this daily? Because if

you're doing this daily, what does deny means? Deny means

any thing of the flesh, any of your desires. You

put it aside early in the morning. First first thing

you do in the morning, you wake up. You're doing

your devotion right. It's like, okay, God, today I want

to deny my flesh. The second thing is take up

my cross daily. Take up my cross. The cross speaks

about putting to death. Putting to death. What do you

put to death? You put to death your will? Not

my will be done, but your will be done right

our Father in heaven, Hello be their name. Die, Kingdom, come,

die will be done, not my kingdom, Come, My will

be done.

Okay. So that's the second part.

And once we do that, then we can openly there

will be nothing stopping us from doing the third part,

which is following Jesus. When we do this, then the

power of the Holy Spirit will be able to move freely.

In our lives. Okay. So next light.

So this was the other verse which I shed. Why

do we need to put to death our will? Why

do we need to crucify our will? Why do we

need to deny our flesh. It's because our flesh and

the spirit our opposite ends of the spectrum. The flesh

is you see, walk in the spirit, and you will

not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh

lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

These are contrary to one another, so that you do

not do the.

Things that you wish.

So if you do not put to death your flesh

and you follow the flesh, it will be doing exactly

the opposite of what the spirit wants you to do.

But if you follow the spirit, you'll be doing exactly

the opposite of what the flesh wants you to do.

So that's why we have to wake up daily, deny ourselves, crucify,

take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus. Then the

spirit will be able to freely move. There will be

nothing stopping the Spirit to move mightily in our lives

and to use us. Okay, all right, So that was

the recap of what I shared previously. Next, so today

is led by the spirit, led by the Spirit.

Okay.

So this is a picture of the the Exodus, the

pillow of Cloud and the Israelites following. So they were

being led by God, led by the Spirit. Right next life,

So this is the verse for today. For as many

as are led by the Spirit of God, these are

sons of God.

Okay. So it says here.

In Romans, as many as are led by the Spirit

of God, these are sons of God. So it means

if we are not being led by the Spirit of God,

we are not sons of God because we are not following,

you know. And on the flip side, it also means

that anyone who follows Jesus or follows the Spirit of God,

it is open to everyone.

It is not open to a select few.

So being led is not an experienced reserve for spiritual giants.

It doesn't mean that only Graham or say Pasta Canada

or big names in the faith are being led by

the spirit.

All of us.

The Holy Spirit dwells in us. The Holy Spirit will

lead us as well. It's only whether we want to

follow or not. Okay, So next slide, So this was

a question if you were in homes. This was a

question that we were discussing. What do you think are

the biggest things in our lives, in our culture that

prevent us from genuinely hearing God? So how many of

y'all were in homes? So any any thoughts? What is

the thing that is genuinely preventing us from hearing from God?

And he thought all of y'all are hearing from God

right now, so you know from yeah, like tuning in,

it is clear the phone, okay, phone is preventing us

from hearing from God. Someone chat, GPT your agenda, okay,

anything else? Business, Yeah, different priorities, children, wife, Okay, I

will not go into dangerous territory right now. But but

you can see right, you can see that right now

there it is becoming even more and more difficult to

tune into God to hear from God, you know, and

all these reasons, if you look at it, they are

they are real reasons. They are real reasons. You know,

your phone, definitely, your business, different priorities and stuff like that.

And one of the things is also is your agenda.

So your agenda. Some of us we intentionally don't want

to hear from God because you know, God will tell you,

you know what God, you know, you do, you do

a jonah, you do a jonah, you hear from God

and then you decide to like, hey, let's not do that,

let's do ighting. You know, so you intentionally don't want to.

But if you are not hearing from God, how can

you go where he leads you? Right, if you don't

hear from the GPS, you will not and you don't

see it. Right, If you can't see it, most of

the time, you're not looking at the GPS low because

you have to drive as well, so you're listening to

the navigation prompts as well. Right, if you don't hear it,

you won't know where to go. How many of you

all have played the game where you're blindfolded and then

somebody from across the room has to give you instructions

to get to the other side. Right when you're blindfolded,

suddenly your hearing is heightened, right because all your other

senses are taken away. Right now, God has given us

five senses, and all the senses might be distracting us

from hearing Him. So I hope that God doesn't have

to take away my senses for him for me to

suddenly like be aware to hear him.

You know.

But what I'm trying to say is that right now,

in this day and age, right there's another thing that

is distracting us from hearing God. And one of that

thing is it's called AI, Artificial intelligence.

Okay, it's it's a real thing. You know.

AI is omnipresent, is everywhere. AI is available twenty four seven.

AI is very polite. A I will tell you what

to do or a I will will never contradict you.

You say one plus what you say? My wife say

one plus one is too Oh your wife is right.

You know.

They will not like they will never like maybe my

data is wrong. They will be like very polite and

stuff like that.

Right.

I wanted to show you a picture next gay, So

AI is this mushroom edible, yes, and then after that right,

you're right, the mushroom was poisonous because the guy died. Really,

you know, I'm sorry for the confusion. Would you like

to learn more about poisonous mushrooms?

And this is AI right in terms of it.

So, but people are now they are looking more to

the world. AI is just one thing, but they are

looking to the world because they want answers faster. They

want worldly wisdom or world godly wisdom. We are not

willing to wait. We are not willing to sit in uncertainty.

You know. We want the answers now, and we probably

want what is the track record? If he has been

done before? I think, what what? How have other people

that dealt with it before? I will trust their experience

and all these things.

If we are not.

Careful, it is causing us not to hear from God

and then not to be led by the spirit. That's

even as I was preparing this, I was like, how

am I going to use SO I use? Yeah, I

use AI, or use toolslot. All these are tools. But

I have to check my heart and see whether a

so I I came up with probably uh an indicator

UH checked indicator to see whether I'm using it correct.

Does this draw me closer to God or further from God.

If it draws me closer to God, then I'm using

it the right way. If it draws me further away

from God and more independence instead of being dependent on Him,

then I have to check my heart. So that's a

gauge that I think God spoke to me about this.

Isla all right, So this coming back to being led

by the spirit. If we want to be led by

the spirit, we had to hear Okay, next, so we

have to hear the shepherd's voice. The shepherd's voice. The

shepherd is the one that will be leading the sheep.

So from John ten twenty seven, My sheep hear my voice,

and I know them, and they follow me. The sheep

they recognize the voice, they hear it, and that's why

they follow the shepherd. So the spirit is always speaking.

Spiritual maturity is learning the language well enough to hear

what was always being said. So an example, right is

how I mean. I might be jumping a few points,

but we have to be able to recognize the voice

the sheep. Right. Even you' all have a pet dog

or cats will not listen to you.

All right, forget about cats. Cats, they won't listen to you.

But dogs. When you get a puppy, uh, and.

The if you'll call his name and you call it,

you will start recognizing the master's voice and come, okay,

we may not be very familiar with sheep, so I'm

giving you a more, giving you a puppy as an example.

Same as our children, Same as our children. You're all

same as your spouse. When you pick up your phone,

if you're talking to your spouser, if suddenly just called me, hi,

I'm jess, you'll be like, what what's wrong with you?

Are you kidnapped? Or are you have a ransom or

whatever it is, she'll be, hey, you pick up the kids?

Really not real, you know, don't have to don't have

to do validation KYC check icy when you last meet

your credit card payment noon, because you recognize they recognize

the voice immediately.

Right, and the same way.

The only way you can do that is by having

frequent exposure. Right, you talk to this person over and

over again until you can recognize the voice. You can

recognize the style. Sometimes you recognize the voice, but the

style the words coming out.

Hey, this one.

Looks that you're reading from a script. Is somebody holding

a gun to your head and asking you to say

something like this? You know, but you're able to recognize

the voice. You're able to recognize the tone and the

articulation and stuff like that.

And the same goes to God.

At the start, we may not be able to recognize

his voice very clearly, but we have to constantly draw

close to him, speak to him, and tune our years

to him, and over time we will get more and

more familiar and we will get we will be able

to understand what he's saying and be led by him. Okay, next,

so now this is another question. This was another question

that during Holmes I think Elie and Jed who is

in ex Kids, was sharing their testimony. So Jed had

a very interesting testimony where God spoke to him six

times in the middle of the night at two am,

right or something like the Samuel story, you know, and

the different things which God spoke to him was quite like.

One of the things was asking him to go and

take a bath at like three am or something. So

if you want to know the full story, you can

go and find out from him.

But anyway, when when when.

They were sharing this testimony, right, and then Ellie h

Jed was telling asking Eliah, asking the mom how do

I know whether it's God's voice or it's my voice,

or it's somebody else's voice. It's a legit question, right,

It's a legit question because this is a question that

that usually comes up.

Hey, we want to be led by God. So I

have to hear.

But now I hear, but I don't know whose voice.

So how do I know where there is God's voice

or my voice, or the devil's voice or somebody else's voice. Okay,

So I just want to give you a few points. Again,

it's not exhaustive, but these are some checkpoints that we

can use to validate. Okay, let me Okay, So when

it comes to the Spirit of God, you know that

God is good. First of all, you have to understand

the before this, like, go go back.

It is just this.

So the spirit of God is God is good. God

is good. We know that he's good. He wants the

best for us, He has a plan, he has a

purpose for us. So you have to know the character

of the three voices.

First, who are they? Who are they?

You know that God is good? Okay, So the spirit

of God is good. So whenever he speaks, he is

gentle and he is persistent. Right, his voice is gentle.

He will never he'll never, will never be super in

your face. He'll be gentle, He'll be persistent. He is

always consistent with scripture. He's always consistent with scripture. Whatever

is said in the Bible. That is what the spirit

of God will be prompting you. The next thing is

he always builds others up and points them to Christ.

So God will never ask us to tear somebody down

because God wants us to build people up and then

to point them towards Christ. Another thing is he will

produce when God speaks to us, if we can be

in the midst of the storm, but suddenly, when he

speaks to us.

There is peace.

Have you experienced that before you the situation didn't change,

nothing changed in the toughest of situations. But suddenly when

you hear this voice and says to you something comforting,

it gives you peace. And then it calls us to

be obedient specific sometimes very specific, and asks us to

be obedient, and obedient is usually meaning we have to

die to self.

Right.

It's very easy for a kid to obey if it's

what they want to do. Right, When you always tell

your kids, hey, obey, la means they are not obeying, right.

So the Holy Spirit is asking us to obey.

It's probably because we there's a struggle within us because

we don't want to, okay, and so that is the spirit. Okay,

how about the flesh. So the flesh is you know,

the flesh. We are always looking out for ourself, self preservation,

self preservation. I'm not sure if y'all have watched movies

or whatever it is, right, like when it comes to

no need movies.

Let's take COVID nineteen.

Like the during MCO time, During MCO time, right, suddenly, everybody,

end of the world, what do we do? Stock up

on toilet paper. I have no idea how that happens,

how that helps end of the world. But suddenly, right,

self preservation, you stock up on toilet paper, on bread,

on eggs. Whether you can finish it or not, you

don't care. And that is the flesh. Because you're always

putting yourself first. So if the thought comes to your

mind and says that, hey, put yourself first, don't care

who you have to backstep to get to the top.

That is the flesh speaking, okay, and usually you can

justify it.

It's okay.

One everyone will be doing this. Everyone is doing this.

So that is usually the flesh, okay, And it produced

pride or shame, you know, as a result of doing that.

Why do you have to justify? Because you know in

your heart of hearts that is not the right thing.

But then you decide to justify and you rationalize. I

share this before you know, you know what, it's rationalized,

rational lies. You know who you are trying to lie

to yourself and you can convince yourself and yeah, you

will easily convince yourself. So there's the flesh. And how

about the enemy, the devil? When the devil speaks is

to cast you into fear, into doubt, into anxiety, and

to ask you and say that a. You are not

worthy of God, God, you are sinner. God will not

help you.

You know. Is to put you in condemnation.

And if you hear those kind of voices, you know

it's the enemy because he is here to tear you down.

So again the spirit, next line, the spirit. If I

summarize it, the spirit draws us closer and transforms us

to become more like Jesus. So if you get those thoughts,

evaluate does this draw me and make me closer to

become more like Jesus.

If it is, it's the spirit of God.

Second, if it drives us to us self preservation and comfort,

you know, the flesh is comfort. You put comfort over conviction,

then it is the flesh and the enemy drives us

into fear, confusion, shame, guilt, and drives us into isolation.

Don't go to church. You are not worthy, you know,

and that is to draw you away from God. So

this is one way that we can evaluate those thoughts

in our head.

Okay, all right, So the.

So coming back to hearing God's voice, right I shed

previously or so in the previous element. There are probably

four stages where we can draw be led by God

and draw closer to him.

So next, So this.

Is the cycle of sensitivity. We become more and more

sensitive to God the more we listen to him, just

like a puppy becomes more and more sensitive to the

master's voice. We are the sheep to the shepherd's voice.

We will become more sensitive the more we listen. So

the first one is obeyed prompting. Second one is sensitive

when we obey the prompting, you'll be prompted.

Okay.

When we obey that prompting, then our sensitivity increases, okay,

because we listen. And then because we listen, now we

hear more and more of God leading us. And we

when we hear more and more God leading us, we

are where he wants us to be more often than not.

So he's he will the more we listen to him.

In summary, the more we listen to him, the more

he will use us, and the more he will position

we are. We will be where he wants us to be.

And that's when you will experience the power of the

Holy Spirit. Okay, so if you listen to him less

the inverse down there, Holy Spirit prompts you.

You ignore.

When you ignore, then you know, like like kids are

you know, like kids? Right, you call them one time,

they ignore, Then the mom keep on calling her suddenly

cannot hear, you know, really can really cannot hear the

voice because it's ignored prompting, ignored prom thing, you know.

And then when ignored prompting, and then right suddenly spiritual dryness,

like there will be a gap, you know, suddenly the

mom doesn't feel appreciated. Uh, there is there's a communication barrier, okay,

and because of that, it's powerless Christianity. So because the

parent is always calling the child and trying to guide

the child to be, every parent wants the child to

become the best that he or she can be. But

if the child continue usually does not listen, the child

will not be where the parents aspire the kids to

be because they decide to listen to other voices, which

is probably the flash, you know, in terms of it.

Okay.

So it's the same that applies to us as well

as Christians. So I wanted to give you an example

of these four stages, a real life story from the

Bible about this guy who followed these four stages. And

then subsequently I'll give you another example of a guy

who followed the inverse.

And what happened.

Okay, all right, so let's go. So the first one

is next life.

Okay.

Stage one is obey the prompting. So who am I

talking about is Peter? So if Peter, Peter is somebody

that all of us can resonate with, right, Peter was imperfect,

but Peter loved God and Peter still wanted to do

his best.

Okay. So let's let's take.

A lesson out of the life of Peter. So from

Matthew fourteen twenty eight to twenty nine, right, Peter walks

on water. Peter was in the boat he saw Jesus

walking on water. Instead of saying it's a ghost, He's like, Lord,

if it is, you, command me to come to you

on the water. And Jesus said come. So Jesus prompted

and said come. How many of us would have stepped

out of the boat, like, are you sure? I don't

think so. My shoes not waterproof, you know. But Peter

he obeyed that prompting. It was scary. Was he scary?

There was no precedent of people walking on water before that.

There was no precedent. The only precedent was Jesus walking

on water. I didn't know that there was no precedent.

But because Jesus is come, I say, okay.

I'll follow the prompting. I will go.

So when you ask Ai, sometimes right, AI is just

taking the collective intelligence of what has been done. But

God wants you to do more. God ways are higher.

God's ways are better, and God has a different plan,

you know. So if we are not careful and we

don't listen to his prompting just because he hasn't done before.

We don't do it, then we will miss out on

God's miracles. The first thing, there was no precedent. Second thing,

remember when he stepped out of the boat, then suddenly

he started sinking. So it doesn't mean that we don't

make mistakes. We do make mistakes. Although he followed Jesus,

he made mistakes, but Jesus.

Still redeemed him.

Jesus still said he discovered the voice that held his way.

So Peter discovered that if Jesus says come, I will

come because I know his voice carries my weight. And

then when he started sinking, Jesus just pulled him up. Right,

Jesus didn't connect me, but Jesus just pulled him up.

So this was the first part, followed the prompting. Okay,

obey the prompting. So this was Matthew fourteen. Okay, next,

so now you go to Matthew sixteen. So you know

that Peter is already familiar with the voice of Jesus

and voice of the spirit because when Jesus was on

water and he says come, he listened, So he knows

how the voice of Jesus sounds like.

And then Jesus.

Remember Jesus was asking people saying that Jesus was a prophet,

He was Elijah, he was one of the prophets of old.

But then Jesus asked Peter, who do you say I am?

And then Peter answered, you are the Christ, the son

of the Living God. So Peter had a revelation that

Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God.

And what did Jesus reply, Flash and blood has not

revealed this to you, but my father, who is in heaven.

So as you become more sensitive to the prompting, God.

Will reveal more and more to you that other people

have no idea.

Suddenly people were like, wow, how come this guy when

he opened her so wise on.

Where he gets this from?

Wish tool? You using who you asking? You know, paid ocean,

you say pro version. This is like the ultimate version,

the paid on the cross version. So this, this revelation

will only come the more and more we are in

line with God and we are hearing his prompting.

So this is the second stage, next stage. So when

you're more and you hear.

More prompting, right, God suddenly becomes a daily conversation with

you already it's a daily conversation. So this was in

the Book of Acts. So the Book of Acts. Peter

was on the rooftop. He was spraying, and suddenly there

was a vision. He had a vision, and in the

vision there were lots of animals, and the angel told

him to get up, kill and eat. But a lot

of the animals there are non kosher. Non kosher means

not halal for the juice la.

At that time, you know. And then Peter was like,

are you sure you know?

But because he knew the voice, he knew that this

was the Spirit telling him. And then when he woke up,

the spirit said that the whole three men are seeking

you arise. Therefore go down, go with them, doubting nothing,

for I have sent them. Okay, if three people come

to your house and suddenly say follow me, if God

didn't tell you to follow them, don't follow them.

Okay, just but this one Peter was very clear because

he was sensitive.

To the leading of the Holy Spirit. He recognized God's voice.

So when God says, follow them, don't doubt.

He went.

And because he went, the Holy Spirit came upon the gentiles,

and God was glorified in the gentles. So suddenly God

was using Peter to do mighty things because from.

Stage one.

To listening and then obeying, and then now God is

speaking to him more and more because God knows that

he recognizes boys. And then the last stage next powerful Christianity.

So this in acts chapter ten, verse forty four. While

Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on those

who heard the word.

Imagine this because probably Peter was speaking.

Exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted him to speak, because

he heard from the Holy Spirit, and he was speaking

exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted to speak. And because

of that, the Holy Spirit moved mightily and he just

came across everyone. And then you see x five, verse fifteen.

They carried the sick into the streets so that even

Peter's shadow might fall on them as he passed. He

didn't even have the lay hand his shadow. His shadow

healed the sick. Isn't that powerful? And his shadow helled

sick because that's what the Holy Spirit wanted him to do.

Holy Spirit, Peter probably didn't know that his shadow was

healing people. All he did is the Holy Spirit say

go and walk this road. And he decided to walk

this road and along the way. Because the sun was decided,

probably the shadow fell on different.

Ones people got healed. It's not because Peter. It was

not the power of Peter.

But it's because of the obedience of Peter, the Holy

Spirit was able to move. So if we want the

power of the Holy Spirit, we have to be able

to listen to his prompting. Obey, and then God will

speak more and more to us. And because he speaks

more and more to us, we are going where He

wants us to go. And because of that He will

be glorified, and then our lives will be a testimony. Right,

So this is the four stages. I want to show

you the inverse right. The next The next was Samson.

So Samson was also had the spirit of God on

him from birth. He was a nasal, right, he was

a priest. He was a priest, you know.

But you see it. He slowly.

If you threw out the Book of Judges, right, you

will see that Samson gradually went, gradually went further and

further from God. The first one he ignored the prompting.

So the parents asked him to find someone, find a

Jew and get married, but he insisted said, no, I

want to marry somebody else. Unmarry somebody else, you know,

probably somebody that God has not chosen for him.

So he ignored.

Once he ignored, and then you know he had multiple

women and stuff like that and finally ended up with Delilah. Right,

so you ignore the prompting stage two, you'll become less

sensitive in Delilah arms. How many times did Delilah had

to try and coax him to give the real answer?

Three times around there, three four times. If you have

the Holy Spirit in you, you'll.

Know it's a trap. It's a trap.

But because you're not sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you're

turning yourself off the prompting like it's okay. One the

flash you give into the flesh because you want the lighter,

you want the forbidden fruit. You want something that God

has not intended for you. So why the question which

I asked earlier, right, why are you not hearing the

voice of God? Is because you don't want to, because

it's not what you want to hear. So he started ignoring,

and because he started ignoring, reduced sensitive. Right then he

said in Judges sixteen he cannot see it, or will

not he will that he could not see that it

was a trap or he just decided that it will

it was not a trap, you know. And then after that,

right in stage three, you because you are first you

stop listening to God, your spiritman starts.

To die and then he's like, God, where are you?

But he didn't realize it because he did not know

that God had departed from him. When Delilah cut his hair,

the spirit of God departed from him, and he did

not even realize. He did not even realize. He just

woke up and he thought he's still strong. But suddenly

he just found out he can't do it. So you

won't even realize that you're far from God.

And then.

He got caught, he got blinded, and he became a

grinder in the prison, you know.

So it was also a gradual process.

So that's why I told you the spirit and the

flesh at two opposite ends of the spectrum.

If you start following one, you will follow one all

the way on towards the end.

Okay, But there is a saving grace in Samson's story.

The mercy of God was still on him because the

hair on his head began to grow again in Samson,

and that was the the That was how God shows

showed that he was still with Samson. And then he

Samson turned to God and said, God, if you are

with me one more time, you know, and then he

took down the whole temple and he killed more enemies in.

His death than when he was alive.

So it does not mean that once we reached states,

for there's no coming back. We at any stage, we

can always you turn at any stage. God is still good.

All we have to do is say God, I need

to turn back to you, speak to me and slowly

tune your years more to.

Him than the world. Okay, right, next, So.

Even as I am drawing to as a close right

Galatians five twenty five, if we live in the spirit,

let us also walk in the spirit. So do you

know that living in the spirit does not necessarily mean

you're walking in the spirit. Living in the spirit is

one thing. We also have to walk in the spirit.

And the only way we can walk in the spirit

is be able to hear the leading of the Spirit

and then he will direct us. So, like what is

mentioned here, Paul distinguishes living in the spirit from walking

in the spirit. You can have life without doing the

walk and Because of that, then you will have.

A powerless Christian life.

Which comes back to the question which I first asked,

If I have the Holy Spirit in me, why don't

I have the power of the Holy Spirit in me.

It's because I'm not walking where he wants me to go.

I'm not following his leading, all right, Probably get the

band up next slide. So this morning, Church, even as

I draw to a close, this is the last light.

This is the call to action. The call to action

is that the Holy Spirit is in us. Have we

given him the authority to lead us?

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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for you. God bless