Walking in Victory Seminar Part 1

Able to make it.

There's there's a few that were not going to be able to make it until okay, I'll move over.

Um yeah.

I think that'll work though.

Yeah.

No, I I think that'll work though.

So yeah, there's a few of them that weren't gonna be able to make it um until tomorrow, but but I'm glad that that you're all able to be here and get the get the first session in.

Um if you were able to get the get all the um household stuff, uh there's water back there, there's coffee back there, um, restrooms, there's uh the there's uh notebooks there.

And the reason for the notebooks, um, pretty s pretty simple.

Um a lot of people like to take notes.

I don't do notes, but the other reason for for having the notebooks is for questions, okay?

This this is gonna be more of a teaching session, but I totally want you guys to engage and ask questions and and comment and uh interject, just don't argue.

No, but want you to be, I want you to feel free to to add to the class here.

And um, but the the the question thing is if we get to a question, we wanna we want to take time for it.

But if we are needing to move along, then we'll that's what that's for, is write it down and uh let's let's get together afterwards and we'll we'll try to come to a uh a conclusion on the question.

One thing that somebody said to me one time that really stuck with me, and it seems to be true, and that's that whenever we hear a question, we stop listening because we're we're processing the question.

We hear a question something comes up, something is said, and it raises a question in our mind, and we quit listening to what the speaker's saying, and because we're thinking about what he just said, and we have a question about that, and and it causes us to disengage.

And so I don't want that to happen.

So if you have a question, let's let's let's uh put it out there, let's find out what the question is.

If we need to, we can write it down, come back to it later, but that way we can stay engaged in what's in what the what the session is about.

And uh it is it is really helpful to to do that.

So that's that's one um the two reasons that I have the notebooks there.

So if you take notes, great.

Um the idea of walking in victory, um that was something that um the Lord had brought to Janine and I as we uh a desire he had put in our hearts to be able to just share with people um just simple things that God had had um helped us in uh in our walk.

Um my testimony is not the same as everybody else's testimony.

Um my testimony is that of I I dealt with pornography for a number of years.

And I was there's no way around saying it, I was bound by pornography.

I um I didn't want to be, I didn't ask to be.

In fact, I would I grew up in uh in a youth group that that they were a really good youth group.

They didn't they they weren't the type to be pushing that kind of stuff, putting it out there.

It's just something that that uh I stumbled onto and I didn't even realize what I was getting into.

It but it it happened.

And I had a lot of a lot of bad advice given to me.

And um not blaming people, but um, I mean I was I was listening to a pastor that said, you know, if you're dealing, if you're a man and you're dealing with pornography, um that just means you're made like you should be.

You know, you you got the right drive.

And if you didn't have that drive, you'd be you'd be dealing with something else.

Well, that's not at all the way God created us.

And so I want to just put that out there right now.

And and so you may that may not be your story, but walking in victory, what does that mean?

To me, what it meant was I was tired of the pain that I was causing those around me.

I was tired of the frustration that I was dealing with because I was trying to get free from it.

Um I was I I was felt I felt like I was spinning my wheels, and I just wanted to get back to a normal life.

That's not walking in victory, okay.

Um did you guys hear about the fly Dubai flight that was about hijacked here a couple weeks ago?

Had to had the chance to listen to an interview that they did with the pilot, but this interview was done um about a year ago.

And they asked the pilot, they said, so if you had the choice between um an on-time arrival or a smooth landing, which one would you choose?

And he said, Well, safe landing.

He said that that's that's the only choice.

He said, I'm a pilot, why would I be worried about on time?

He said, they pay other people to worry about scheduling.

He said, My job is to get people there on time.

He had an objective in mind, and he and he ended by saying, you know, if if we happen to get there on time and smoothly, that's just a bonus.

But safety is the objective.

Well, this weekend we have an objective, okay?

Bottom line is if you are walking in the spirit, none of this is going to be a problem, okay?

And so that's not condemning, it's just truth.

One thing that we want to that we want to understand as we go through this these sessions is truth is our friend, okay?

Truth never condemns.

When when we're presented with truth, sometimes we feel condemned, but truth doesn't condemn.

Truth only reveals, truth only shows us what where where the issue is.

Jesus um he kind of uh commented to this point when he was talking with the people, he said, listen, he said, if you if you obey me, you won't be condemned.

Well, keep in mind he was truth.

I mean, there there was no truth without him.

So just him speaking was the truth.

He said, if you obey me, you won't be condemned.

But if you don't obey me, you're already condemned.

In other words, what he was saying is he was coming to a condemned people with truth.

Now, if they chose to receive the truth, they could be set free.

But if they chose not to, they were already in a condemned state, and that's where they would stay.

And that's that's the thing that's the thing with truth.

So we're gonna we're gonna look at some things here.

There may be some things that we get to that that uh kind of gets us in the gut a little bit, maybe.

That's okay.

Okay, um, God's word is truth, and um truth isn't condemning.

Um, Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world, but I came to set it free.

So that's what we have is God's word.

Now, the other thing with with that we want to we want to come to grips with here is the fact that God's word is final authority.

I think I don't think there's anybody here that would that would argue that.

I think we all accept that, we all believe that, we all we all would say that.

Um the problem is we don't always show that.

And that was that was true with my life in my life.

I could see what God's word said, and then I could reason around it based on circumstances, on past experiences, on the experiences my grandfather had, or my uncle had, or whoever, I could I could sit there and take truth, God's word, it's final authority, and I had all kinds of excuses why not to make it final authority.

For instance, Jesus gave the promise.

He said, Listen, I peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

It goes on to say, not as the world gave, you know, but he made this statement: my peace I'm leaving with you.

Okay?

Now, we can approach a situation, we can say, I know your word is final authority, and I know your word says, peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

But I don't have peace right now.

Why don't I have peace?

I I am I am I just don't have peace in this situation, and and then we fall apart because we just don't have peace.

Really, what we're saying is we don't feel peace.

When we're in a situation like that, um uh just a simple method to a technique that I've used is to just flip-flop it, okay?

And to go into the situation and say, Father, I don't feel peace at all.

Um, this is not a peaceful situation, I don't feel it.

But your word is final authority, and you said that you have given us peace.

So thank you, Father, for the peace that you have given.

Didn't change the fact I still don't feel it.

But I'm not basing my understanding on a on a feeling now.

I'm basing it on the final authority, which is God's word, that says his peace is here.

So I don't feel it.

That's okay.

That's not the important thing.

My feelings will come along eventually.

But what I need to what I need to be anchored in is what God's word says, the final authority.

Back to the back to the question I raised, why walk in victory?

So as you can see, what my dilemma was, and like I said, your your situation may be different.

Maybe you're dealing with with um, you know, it could be all kinds of things, it could be depression, could be anger, could be um frustration with with a situation, could be um could be all kinds of things, but so often we want to walk in victory.

The reason we want to walk in victory is because we're tired of the the problems it's causing.

Me, I was I was tired of the pain that I was causing.

I um I was causing pain to my wife because of my situation, because I wasn't I wasn't growing in it.

And that's another thing that you know just to put that out there, is the fact that at the time I was a I was a pastor, and you know, arguably even an effective pastor.

Why?

Because the word of God works, okay?

Even if I'm not where I need to be.

So I was preaching the word of God, and people were people were being positively affected.

But I couldn't touch that passage.

I couldn't touch this, I couldn't bring freedom here.

You can you can't you can't bring someone else to freedom in an area that you're not walking in freedom.

And so I wanted to I wanted to get out of this, but my reasoning was all wrong.

I wanted to get out of it because of what it was causing.

It was all selfish.

And we're not we weren't created for self.

We were created for his image, we were created for for his for manifesting him in a situation.

And so all of my reasoning for walking in victory was self-motivation.

And anywhere, I mean, anywhere where there's there's uh self-motivation, there's there's absolutely no love.

But the flip side of that is when you have the love that 1 Corinthians 13 talks about, there's absolutely no self-motivation.

You go through that passage and you find anything that is self-motivated or self-centered, it doesn't seek its own, it isn't easily provoked, it doesn't take offense, it doesn't think evil.

I mean, there is not an ounce of self in any of that passage.

But you put an ounce of self in there, and there's absolutely no love anywhere because it's all self.

And so even in our even in our striving to walk in victory, we have to we have to cut we have to understand what does that really mean.

What does it mean to walk in victory?

I want to look at um Philippians 1 verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

I thought this verse here did a good job of of, and we'll probably refer to this a lot.

I um God kind of gave me the title of walking in victory.

We talked about it, Janine and I did, and we said, yeah, that's that's a that's really a a good a good title for what we're trying to trying to bring across.

And so I want to keep that, but as I was, as I was you know, studying into it, looking into it, I was seeing a lot of this this area that I was being self-motivated.

And um this verse here, it says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else I am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Um he goes on and says, and in nothing terrified by your adversary, which is to them an evident token of perd, but to you of salvation.

Actually, I'm trying to think if that's uh so yeah, the ver the first part of verse 27 there.

Only let your conversation, in other words, let your walk, let let the let your let your um trying to think of the other word that that is used there, but but the the way you conduct yourself, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

That um you've you've heard that saying before.

Well, what does that mean?

Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Well, what is the gospel?

Well, just real quick, we often think, well, the gospel is Jesus came to save us of our from our sins so we could go to heaven.

That's not the gospel.

Um, he did do that.

We are on our way to heaven, that's all true.

But the gospel is Jesus came to redeem what was lost.

What was lost?

Well, our image.

We had lost the image of God.

We had um we were created in his image, and the minute that Adam and Eve ate of the tree, a couple things happened.

The first thing that God had told him was, You're gonna die.

The day you eat of the tree, you'll die.

Well, they didn't fall over dead, but what happened, and we'll we're gonna look at this probably tomorrow morning a little bit more, but what happened is they they were separated from God, not because God pulled away from them, but in their minds, they knew that they had done something that they were they had guilt, and then there was shame.

And because of the guilt and the shame, it says in Colossians 1, it says that they were alienated and enemies in their mind because of their evil work.

So because of their sin, they had this understanding, oh no, we have sinned, we're we're ashamed.

You see that coming out, and they hid.

God didn't draw back from them.

In fact, if you read the story, God came into the garden looking for them.

So what we see there is God wanted to continue that relationship, but there was something there that couldn't, that wouldn't allow us as mankind to continue that.

There was sin.

So God said, Well, what if I take sin away and we go back to what was original?

What was original?

An an innocence, okay?

A conscience free from sin.

And that that there, we're gonna talk about that in session three, but that's actually what we're what we're after this whole weekend is we want to get to where our conscience, based on the word of God, is totally free.

Because if we don't have a conscience free from sin, we'll never go into his presence.

We'll have all kinds of reasons why we shouldn't.

But if we have a conscience that's totally free from sin, he said we should be as a little child.

Little child can walk into a room, and if they're small enough, innocent enough, they can break the most priceless thing in the room and be totally oblivious to what they just did.

Why?

Because they're innocent.

Their conscience is totally free of what they've just done.

The minute we do something, there's guilt, there's shame, there's all kinds of things that we we need to work through.

But what he wants us to get to is that conscience free from sin.

What that doesn't mean that he's making it possible for us to do all kinds of um sin and then still have a conscience free from sin.

That doesn't work that way.

Because a conscience free from sin is the understanding that Christ has taken that sin and paid the price for that.

We'll look at all of that later.

So, what is it to walk in victory?

To walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

The gospel of Christ is Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Christ came so that his spirit could be in us.

You think about what Christ did here on the earth.

He came as a man, he was God, okay?

And I don't think we really grasp what he did in doing this.

Because he didn't just say, okay, I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna take care of the sin problem, I'll be back, we'll reign forever.

He continues to be equal with God.

But what he did is he is he took that right, laid it down, came to earth, and didn't pick that right up.

He could have come down here and said, listen, I'm the son of God, you gotta obey me, you got, or I'm gonna wipe you out.

He never used his deity as a means to accomplish anything.

He did everything that he did on this earth as a man.

Does that mean he wasn't God?

Absolutely not.

He was God 100%, okay?

But he did what he did as a man.

And right now, right now, it says that he stands as a man making intercession on our behalf.

So that sacrifice wasn't just a sacrifice on the cross.

That sacrifice is for eternity.

He stands forever as a man.

Is he still God?

Absolutely.

Don't hear what I'm not saying, okay?

He's God.

But he's as a man, he's standing there making intercession on our behalf.

Why?

Because he wants us to know what it looks like for a man to have the Spirit of God in him on this earth.

Every time you want to know how to operate in something, it's all it's always consider him.

Look to Jesus.

Always pointing us to Christ.

Why?

Because he's our example.

He's not just our example, but that's one of the roles that he played is if we have any question about how to conduct ourselves in a situation, we look to Christ.

How did Christ conduct himself?

That's a little tough.

In Hebrews 2, I think it is, it talks a little bit there about how God made man a little lower than the angels, crowned him with all kinds of glory, gave to him authority on the earth.

And he actually says, gave him all authority.

Well, let's just turn to it so I don't misquote it.

Hebrews 2, I think it's Hebrews 2, 9.

Okay.

It's actually a little bit before this.

In verse 6, it says, But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him?

Or the Son of Man that thou visitest him?

Thou matest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownest him with the glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

Did you catch that?

He has put all things in subjection under our feet.

Okay?

Now, keep that in mind, okay, because you're gonna come up with some things that you don't see there.

And he he puts he points that out.

He says, For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.

So there's not anything on this earth that hasn't been placed under us.

And we'll look at that more later on.

But I mean, what what he's what he's showing us is what Ephesians 1 says, God was or God placed Christ um in seated Christ was seated in heavenly places far above all principality and powers and rulers.

And then the next chapter, it picks up the believer and it says, and we have been put with Christ in heavenly places.

So if he's in heavenly places far above anything, and we have been seated with him, guess where we are?

Far above every anything.

That's our spirit being.

But what does the very next verse say?

We come up with all kinds of reasons why it didn't happen, okay?

Well, it wasn't meant to be, God didn't want it to happen right now.

There's God's timing.

There's um we got have all kinds of reasons why it didn't happen.

But the writer here gives another reason.

He says, but we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, and he goes right down through that whole list of things again, describes Jesus exactly like he just described you and I.

Now, if Jesus were put into that situation, would the mountain move?

Absolutely.

If Jesus were put into that situation, would the person be healed?

Absolutely.

We have no doubt in our minds if Jesus said be healed, what would happen?

So when we say that and we don't see that happen, don't be discouraged.

Because we're encouraged to still speak that, to still believe that.

And we'll i i'm hoping to get into a little bit more of that understanding later on, but but what I'm trying to establish here is God wants us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Do we really understand what that gospel is?

That gospel is Christ in me, the hope of glory, the hope of his manifestation.

When we talk about the glory of God, we're talking about a manifestation of his image.

So Christ in me, the hope that the whole world would see him manifest.

So when I am when I'm in a situation, when I'm bumped, what hat what comes out, what gets spilled.

If you bump into a five-gallon bucket full of water, oil, whatever, if you bump into it, you can tell pretty quick what was in the bucket because of what gets spilled out.

If somebody bumps into me, is it pretty easy to tell what I'm what I'm filled with?

Probably.

Because what's in me will come out.

And so that's not, that's a truth, okay?

And a truth isn't condemning, a truth is revealing.

So when we hear a truth and we see, oh, that doesn't line up with what with what he's called me to, we're not condemned in that.

We've been given a direction to head.

It's not that we are uh put in condemnation for it.

Like I said before, the the goal for the weekend here is is that we would be able to have a deeper, more intimate fellowship with Holy Spirit.

Now, I have the privilege to know everybody here, okay?

I've I've been uh I've been able to uh meet all of you, spend time with all of you.

And so the the nice thing about that is I don't even have to doubt.

I've seen the Holy Spirit come out of each one of you.

So I don't, I'm not saying that because I don't think the Holy Spirit is in you.

Um in fact, I'll be so bold as to say that if that offends you, if someone says, Listen, I want to see the Holy Spirit um you, I want to see you have a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, and that offends you, that's a pretty good indication that you're walking in the flesh.

But if you're walking in the spirit and someone says, I want to see you have a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, you're like, you're right, man, let's let's have it.

Bring it on.

I want that.

And so it again, you want to you want to see these gauges as um gauges of truth.

Where is it showing that I'm at?

There's no condemnation.

He he is not bringing any condemnation, all he's bringing is truth.

Why?

So we can see where to go, so we can see which direction to head, so we can see the light.

There was a um a psychologist.

Well, there was a guy that that had he had a psychologist friend, and he went went golfing with his with his buddy, and um they were they golfed maybe two holes.

And his buddy said, Okay, so what's wrong?

What's what's up?

He goes, Well, what do you mean what's up?

He said, something's bothering you.

What do you mean something's bothering me?

He goes, come on.

I'm a psychologist.

I I can tell when something is up.

I I I can read that.

I something's something's bothering you.

He said, Ah, it's something.

And he said, no, if it's bothering you to the point where people are seeing it, then it is something.

And the guy said, okay, he said, well, he said, it's really dumb, but he said, I just started having this fear of of monsters under my bed.

And the psychologist said, That's not dumb.

He said, You'd be surprised how many people in the US have a fear of something under their bed.

He said, That's that's something that a lot of people deal with.

He goes, tell you what, he said, come to my office.

He said, We'll go through a couple sessions.

He said, be about$320, but we'll we'll get it figured out.

And yeah, we'll it's something that we can we can totally address this.

Well, several weeks went by and they didn't really see each other.

And finally they bumped into each other, and the guy, the psychologist, he said, Hey, he said, What's up?

He said, You're you're yeah, he said, You're different.

He said, Well, what what what happened?

He said, Oh, he said, My neighbor, he said he could help me, and if I gave him 20 bucks, he'd help me with my problem.

And the guy's like, What did he do for 20 bucks?

He said, Oh, he cut the legs off my bed.

So, so the it's a it's a comical story, but the point is sometimes when we're dealing with being trapped in in some kind of uh um bondage situation, we spend so much time fighting the monsters.

And we're battling these monsters and going after these monsters.

And sometimes it's just as easy to just cut the legs off the bed and not have room for the monsters.

And that's what John talks about in 1 John.

He's there is where he's he's describing God.

He said, God is light, in him is no darkness.

Okay?

So if God is light and there's no darkness in him, he says it's pretty simple.

He said, if you're walking with God, you're not walking in darkness.

It's not it's not a huge math problem here.

If you're walking in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

That's what Paul said to the Galatians.

Again, it's not condemning, it's just revealing.

So if I'm if I find myself in a situation that I put myself in, that's a pretty good indication that I just need to find another walking partner, right?

Because I'm not walking with the Father, I'm not walking with the Spirit, I'm fulfilling the flesh.

And that's it's just simple.

But it's not that simple to take care of, right?

I mean, we find ourselves, we find ourselves battling, trying to walk in the spirit of instead of walking in the flesh.

And we know it's it sounds simple, just just do this.

So one of the one of the things that I've that I've discovered is to walk in victory, to walk in the spirit, um, to walk victorious, has less to do with what we what we take on than it does to what we take off.

Okay.

So when we remove self from the from the arena, it's a whole lot easier to walk with the spirit.

So we have to we have to start thinking about about these things in terms of how much self is is in this, okay?

John there again, he says, if if you walk in the in the light as he's in the light, and you have love for your brother, there's no occasion for stumbling.

Well, I use the illustration before.

If I were to take, if I were to take a bunch of chairs and scatter them down through this this aisleway, and then turn the light off, and have you start up here, and you try to get all the way to the other end in the dark without without bumping into a chair.

You might be able to over time memorize how many steps to take, where to move, how to do it to where you can get through.

Not me, I don't have that kind of memory, but some people do.

They would be able to memorize how to do that, possibly, might not be totally 100% free, but they could do a pretty good job.

Or we could turn the light on, and then there's no reason for stumbling.

There's no reason for running into a chair.

So often we're we're so intent on removing things, um, knowing where the pitfall is.

We are so focused on sin so that we can avoid it instead of simply focusing on walking in the light, staying in a relationship with the Holy Spirit, trusting the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us.

We're gonna look more throughout the weekend at the different um the different ways to to do that because guilt and shame, they're real, they're real things that that hinder us from coming into fellowship with the Father.

And we want to look at what what he did to make it possible that we can actually walk in the light as he is in the light.

Now, don't miss those extra statements, those are huge.

Do you even think it's possible to walk in light just as Christ walks in the light, just as God is in the light.

He wouldn't tell us to do this if it wasn't possible.

Jesus said, if you're gonna follow me, if you're gonna do the things I do, if you're gonna go the places I go, if you're gonna see the results that I see, there's one thing you got to do.

You gotta deny self.

You gotta totally deny self.

In Matthew and Luke both, I think he he uses the uses the, I think Luke talks it a little bit stronger, I think, where it says, unless we um hate our father and mother, um we can't, we're we're not worthy of of the kingdom.

What he's simply saying there, that and and people smarter than me have determined this, so it's don't just take my word for it.

But what they've what they've determined is that that that word hate there is simply to love less.

Okay?

So unless we love less, and then he puts a whole list of things father, mother, uh, brother, sister, son, daughter, you know, house, land, yes, even our own life.

Unless we love less, that we will never be fit for the kingdom.

What he's saying there is those things will always, unless we love, unless we have them lower on the scale than Christ, those things will always have the opportunity to steer us clear of Christ.

Now, as a parent, as someone that's married, you know, we we understand what he's saying here, the magnitude of it, because you can do anything you want to me.

I'll take it.

But don't touch my family, don't touch my kids, don't touch my wife, don't touch anything.

You can touch me, you can go for it.

But the thing is, the thing we have to understand is we will never I will never be able to love my wife the way that I need to unless I love Christ first.

Unless I have received his love, my love for her will just be what I can offer.

And it won't be enough.

Because I I run out, but guess what?

God is love, he's the source.

And if I receive his love, it's only then that I can love her because truth is, um, you can look at it.

Uh, I think it's in 1 Corinthians, he talks about, I might have that wrong, but anyhow, he talks about the there's nothing that we have that we haven't received, right?

So I can't give something that I haven't been given.

If I haven't received forgiveness, in other words, if I'm still beating myself up over what I did to our family, I can't and I haven't received that forgiveness, I haven't I don't have forgiveness to give.

If I haven't received his love, I don't have love to give, because I'm still trying to produce that.

And so it's very important that we understand when Jesus said, if you want to go, if you want to follow me, if you want to do the things I'm doing, if you want to go the places I'm going, where did he go?

Well, he left glory to come to earth.

He didn't do that because he was self-motivated.

Love was the key was the key.

First Timothy, it tells us that the goal of our instruction is love.

And we're gonna look at look at that a little bit, I think, in the third session there.

Um, because we have to understand that if we want pure love, it has to come from a conscience free from sin.

These things are all tied together.

And unless we have that conscience free from sin, then we won't have that pure love.

We'll never go into the presence of God.

We'll never be able to fellowship like He created us to fellowship.

Says we kind of got pulled away from it, but back in the garden, he said, He said there, he's um He said, The day you eat of that tree, you'll surely die.

Well, they didn't fall over dead, but the definition of death is separation from life.

So guess what happened?

God was a source of life, they were separated.

So the only thing that Adam and Eve had to offer was what they could produce.

And so, guess what?

You have a stream that has that has a river connected to it.

That stream can run all day.

It can provide all day, it can provide tributaries and all kinds of things.

But the minute that that river gets shut, that gets cut off from the stream, that stream has nothing to offer.

Suddenly it's dry, cracked, and it's in need of what it's supposed to be offering to those around.

That's how we are without Christ.

If we're not connected to Christ.

If we're not receiving from him, if we're in a position where we're so ashamed and so guilty of our sin that we can't receive forgiveness and we can't receive the love, we'll never be able to present it.

We'll never be able to offer it.

So it's so important that we understand what we're what we're looking at this weekend and in the fact that what we want is to get to a point where conscience free from sin, walking in complete fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and it's amazing what will come out of that.

Um, yeah, it's uh God has just really been impacting me with uh what he's able to do with somebody that is willing to allow themselves to be used.

I think it was uh D.L.

Moody that said uh the world has yet to see what one man totally committed to God looks like.

Um not arguing with him, but if we look at Christ, we see that.

That is the picture of a one man totally given.

He said, There isn't anything that I do that I don't do because God told me to do it.

He was totally reliant on the Spirit of God.

He's in Acts it says that he did the things that he did because the Spirit of God was upon him.

If he was God, why did the Spirit have to be on him?

Because he was man and God.

He was God, but he was operating as a man so we can see what it looks like.

There's a reason for that.

He wants us, he doesn't want us to just take this trip to glory and uh be glad that we're we're gonna make it.

He has he wants his name to be to be made known.

He said to children of Israel, he said, I put you out there to make my name known.

He said, and what you what you did is you just profaned my name.

He said, but he said, I'm gonna do it again, okay?

And I'm gonna I'm gonna take out your stony hearts of and and put hearts of flesh in there.

I'm gonna I'm gonna put a put new commandments in that, write them on that on those hearts.

He goes, and I'm gonna remember your sins no more.

And this time, I'm not gonna do it for your sake.

I'm gonna do it for my name's sake.

And John, in uh 1 John, it says that our sins have been forgiven for his name's sake.

Here I thought he forgave my sins for my sake.

Well, it benefits me, but his sins or my sins were forgiven for his sake, that he could be made known.

In the last session, we're gonna be looking at righteousness.

Uh, there's who all here is is uh knows what read what the three R's are, okay?

You ever hear the three R's?

Makes absolutely no sense, but it's there.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Um I did find out if you if you're the younger generation, it's reuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle or something like that.

So so there is another three R's out there that actually there are actually three R's, but reading, writing, arithmetic.

That was always what I heard is the three Rs.

Well, when I was looking at this, I kept coming up with four Rs.

And I thought, well, that's that's interesting because I mean I I can I can use it, I can remember that.

So I thought I'd share it.

Hopefully it'll stick with you guys.

But the four R's are reconcile, redeem, restore, and righteous.

Okay.

Reconcile, redeem, restore, and righteous, okay?

Now, the first two, and we're gonna look at this probably more tomorrow than we will tonight anymore.

But the first two we have absolutely no choice in, believe it or not.

And we'll look at that, okay?

But it's very clear that while we were sinners, we were reconciled.

While we were sinners, Christ redeemed us, bought us back.

That's that's a huge thing to understand when we when we're dealing with those around us.

Because it's easy for me to say, and I've heard this said before, well, yeah, but you have to you have to accept his forgiveness.

It's true, we need to accept it, okay?

It's true we need to repent.

So many times you hear you hear this this claim that, well, you just don't believe in repentance.

No, repentance is necessary.

And so that's that, but that is down the road a little bit, okay?

God did all of this while we were yet sinners.

He reconciled himself to us, he redeemed us.

Then the next two is where the choices come in.

Restore.

That's up to us.

If we want to take advantage of the reconciliation and the redemption, we can be restored and then made righteous.

The last one, that's the huge one, okay?

And the reason it is so critical is unless we understand and we are able to walk in righteousness, Holy Spirit can't do his work.

Think about that.

The Holy Spirit was given, and there were three things that got that Jesus said, I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit for, and we're gonna look at them later.

But one of them was that he could convict the world of righteousness.

And he does that because they're able to look and see righteousness, and Christ is no longer here.

And we'll look at that, it explains it in the scripture.

There's they're seeing people that are, they're they're seeing righteousness, and Christ isn't on the earth anymore.

Another reason that Christ said it's it's important for me to go, because the world can't know these things unless, you know, sure they can say, well, Jesus did it.

Jesus was righteous, Jesus was this, Jesus was that, but all of a sudden they're looking around and say, Whoa, we're seeing people walking free from sin.

We're seeing people walking in righteousness, and he's not here anymore.

Maybe what he said about putting his spirit in mankind is really true.

Maybe it's really possible to follow Christ, to be like Christ.

You know, it's not it's not an ego thing to say, I'm gonna be like Christ.

If Christ said, be like me.

He wants us to have that understanding, that confidence that He is that Him in us reconciled Himself with us for a reason.

Him in us shows the world him.

And that's what he wants the that's what he wants the world to see.

So we'll look at some of that later on.

Um turn to Philippians 3 real quick.

We're gonna I I wanted to get to this.

This was actually the second point on my on my few notes that I do have.

And uh I didn't I kind of skipped over it, but Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

The reason I wanted to um wanted to look at this is just just the understanding that you know I want I want us to be encouraged in this, okay?

I'm not I'm not here um because I've got it all figured out, but God showed me some things that that are amazing, that have allowed me to walk in victory, to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

And that's what I'm supposed to do.

I'm supposed to share that.

Um Peter, he said, he said, listen, he said, I want, as long as I'm on this earth, I find it needful for me to tell you these things and to encourage you in these things, even though you're established in them, okay?

So me talking to you about walking in the spirit isn't saying I you're not walking in the spirit.

No, even though you are walking in the spirit, even though you are um walking in victory, this is this is to encourage you to keep on doing that.

I'm not talking to a to a room that doesn't know what it's like to speak to the Holy Spirit.

But sometimes life can can distract us.

And we need to be encouraged.

Paul said, he said, uh, I you know, I find you know, I don't find it tedious to to write these things to you again.

You know, he he was saying these things over and over.

Um, I've had people say, well, why don't you get on a different topic?

You know, and I feel like Paul when in Rome is there, he said, listen, he said, the the gospel, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

I'm not afraid to talk about it five times in a row.

Why?

Because it's the power of God unto salvation.

And guess what?

Somebody else might hear that hasn't really understood.

And so, yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm not afraid, I'm not ashamed of it.

I'm gonna keep talking about it.

Um, don't hesitate to encourage someone.

Um, just just a simple thing.

Um just tell somebody that that you're praying they have a good day.

You know, ask them if you can pray for them, ask them if there's anything that they would like prayer for, but just strike up a conversation that leads to Christ.

But here in Philippians chapter 3, he said, um, see where I wanted to start.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

So in verse 10, he says, and this is keep in mind, this is Paul.

He says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.

This is the apostle Paul.

He said, Oh man, if I could just know him.

We're like, Paul, I mean, you're the one that that said, follow me as I follow Christ.

I mean, we're you're the one we're following, and you're still saying, if I could just know him, and be made conformable unto his death.

But he goes on and says, if in verse 11, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, why does he want to be made conformable to the death?

And we're going to look at this more tomorrow, too.

Because it leads to resurrection.

That's the thing.

It's not just dying, it's new life.

That's the thing that we need to stay focused on is what did the cross lead to?

It led to new life.

He says, I'll, yeah, if I can, if I can be made you know conformable unto his death, so that by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

And then verse 12, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

So I want you to know that's that's where I'm at, okay?

It's not like I've already attained a certain level, but guess what I'm after?

More.

You know, I've heard it said, you know, I've I've seen way too much to stop.

I've not seen enough to not keep going, but I've seen way too much to stop.

And that's that's that's what Paul was saying.

He's listening I'm I'm gonna keep pushing on.

And he says, that I may apprehend that for which Christ Jesus apprehended me.

Did you ever stop to think why Christ laid his hands on you?

So most times, I mean, growing up, my idea was the only reason Christ came after me is because I was a sinner in need of a savior.

I was indebted to him.

But scripture says there was a purpose that he laid his hands on.

He was redeeming what was lost.

We had a purpose.

We were created for the manifestation of God, we were created for his image, we were created for his glory, and it got lost.

It got damaged, it got it got messed up.

He redeemed what was lost.

Our purpose was brought back.

He didn't die on the cross because we were sinners, he died on the cross because we were his creation that was created for a purpose that got lost, got messed up, and he wanted to restore the purpose.

That's why he apprehended us.

He said, Brethren, I count I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Um I'm gonna speed through this here.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.

In other words, if if you're in a good situation, have this understanding that you're gonna press on, you're gonna keep going, you're gonna reach for the prize.

He said, If in anything you be otherwise minded, God's gonna reveal even this to you, okay?

So there is no other thing that God wants you wants us to understand.

Nevertheless, in verse 6, nevertheless, where whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

In other words, wherever you're at on that ladder, if you feel like you're where where you think Paul was, if you think you're where Zacchaeus was when he climbed up in the tree, wherever you're at on that ladder, the same rule applies.

Press toward what he paid for.

That's what he wants us to do.

And just a kind of a statement in closing.

Um, I heard a pastor, he said, you know, I um I haven't arrived, but I have left.

You know, it's important for us to have this understanding that, you know, we're pretty good with, well, I'm not there yet.

Well, I'm not there yet.

Did you leave?

Did you head in the direction?

Okay, I'm not at the airport yet.

Well, did you leave to go to the airport?

You won't get to the airport unless you leave and head to the airport.

You're not going to get there unless you have left and are headed in that direction.

So don't just say, well, that I'm not there yet.

And 20 years later, well, I'm not there yet, and we find out that we're at the same place 20 years later that we were 20 years earlier, and nothing changed.

That's not good.

That's not what Paul was saying.

Paul was saying, listen, I've seen a lot, haven't seen enough, I'm gonna keep pressing on.

I'm not even sure if I want to.

I'm trying to make up my mind if I should stay or if I should go.

That's a tough, that's a that's a huge one.

I mean, think about that.

Paul was trying to decide, should I stay or should I just go on into eternity?

If I if for me to die is gain, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.

But I think, I think for your sake, I'm gonna stick around for a while.

You know, he understood what righteousness was, and we'll look at that a little bit more later on, but he understood that righteousness meant sin was gone.

Guess what else was gone?

Don't have to worry about death.

I'm not thinking about death anymore.

Why?

Because death was the payment for sin.

If sin is gone, why am I worried about death?

If I um if if you would uh Tim, you're from North Augusta, okay?

I'm gonna pick up pick on you a little bit, okay?

We have a piggly wiggly here in town, okay?

If you would get a paycheck from the piggly wiggly here in town, would you kind of be shocked?

Why?

You don't work there, right?

So why are we why are we so concerned about the paycheck if the job's gone?

If sin, if the paycheck for sin is death, then sin's gone.

Something to think about till tomorrow, because we're gonna look at some of that stuff.

If I forget, because there's a lot of stuff to cover, don't don't hesitate to bring bring it to mind.

But um that's that's more actually gonna be the the last session in right when we talk about righteousness, but it is it is it's really good to understand what it means to walk in righteousness.

Abraham, um man, I mean, think of what he did because he understood what it meant to walk blameless before God.

He understood the freedom that he had.

Uh, any thoughts, any comments, any questions?

And don't hesitate to, you know, if you get if you have a question or something that you want to ask later on, I'll be sticking around a little bit.

And but I appreciate each of you coming.

Um this is this class comes at a bit of a cost.

We don't charge for the class, but the cost is um you're expected to to go out and and share these things.

I mean, this is this is God's word, and it's gonna impact your life.

If you put these things to practice, if you implement these things, it will change your life.

And so I won't have to encourage you because you're gonna be excited about it.

If I if I were to tell you, you know, I have a class that can guarantee that your that your in that um your retirement fund will be doubled if you follow these four steps.

Would you at least listen to the class?

Uh probably.

Now, I have this here, it's not my class, but if you follow these truths, I guarantee you will more than double your relationship with Holy Spirit.

Guarantee it.

It's not it's not my guidelines, it's not my recipe, but it works.

And so, um, yeah, don't hesitate to to share with others what what uh Christ is doing in your life.

Any any thoughts before we close?