Our world today is so topsy-turvy sometimes it’s
hard to tell if we’re coming or going.
On the one hand many freedoms; things that were previously taken for
granted are being taken away while on the other hand morals and standards are
so lowered that the moral fabric of our society will soon be a thing of the
past. The church, not the body of
Christ, has become infected with worldly standards and has openly invited it
into the place dedicated to the worship of our Lord and Savior. How do we – the body of Christ – the believers
of God remain above the fray and not succumb to what has become the norms of
this world? Apostle Paul tells us to walk
in the Spirit, and let the Spirit bring order to our life.
This I say then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so
that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Galatians
5:16-17
It’s
only in this manner – walking in the spirit – that we won’t fulfill the lust of
our flesh. When I read the epistles, I
tell you; it seems as if we are actually living out the bible. The struggles that the body of Christ went
through to be righteous, the perverseness that existed back then; the sin that
had crept into the church; we see it now.
I think about apostle Paul while he is addressing the Roman church. He puts to rest the ideology that one can do
whatever they please and then rely on the grace of God to cover them. He asked them: Is it good to persist
in a life of sin so that grace may multiply even more? He comes back with
this response: Absolutely not! [Romans 6:1-2]
That’s
not to say that He doesn’t extend grace, because He does. We thank God, I know I thank, God for the
grace that He extends unto us. Just think:
even in biblical times sin grew and grew; but
wherever sin grew and spread, God’s grace was there in fuller, greater measure.
No matter how much sin crept in, there was always more grace. [Romans 5:20] In the
same way that sin reigned, now grace reigns through God’s justice – because of
His love for us – by the work of the cross through Jesus.
I
said that to say, don’t get me wrong, God does cover us in grace but not for us
to take it lightly or for granted. One
reason God gives us grace is for us to express self-control; let our free will
choose what is right, that choice that will align or keep us aligned in the
Kingdom of God. It’s hard to imagine believers, anticipating the soon coming of
the anointed one, who doesn’t strive for continual and resolute self-discipline,
meaning those who allow their passions, tastes and desires uninhibited freedom
to express themselves. Even though God has granted us free will, it wasn’t
intended that we go after every shiny object we see, think about or feel. That’s what the world does!
The
world has gone absolutely wild without any constraints. It reminds me of the scripture where Apostle
Paul tells Timothy:
® the world
will be filled with narcissistic, money-grubbing, pretentious, arrogant, and
abusive people.
® They’ll
rebel against their parents and will be ungrateful, unholy, uncaring,
coldhearted, accusing, without restraint, savage, and haters of anything good.
® Expect
them to be treacherous, reckless, swollen with self-importance, and given to
loving pleasure more than they love God. 2 Timothy
3:2-4
And
when we witness such a demonstration of any of these things in the church, it
gives strong evidence that the person is not fully converted. If we act in the
same manner, how are we the light? Blind
passion is not meant to be our guide. Apostle Paul tells us that there
are some things that should not even be named among us: any kind of immorality, any demoralizing behaviors are
inappropriate acts or topics of conversation for those set apart as God’s
people. [Ephesians
5:3] Even our thought processes have to be pure. This helps us to keep our self control intact
so our free-will can make good, right choices.
If
we, as believers, live guided by our animal passions, we’ll be bereft of the
kingdom of God’s triple A assurance:
Activation, Alignment, and Authority.
Apostle
Paul reminds us of a wonderful truth of God; he lets us know that God has
placed a powerful gift inside of us that exceeds the power of anything we may
come against! He told Timothy:
Wherefore
I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee
by the putting on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6
And
further, John enforces our confidence when he reminds us:
Ye
are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that
is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4
There are times when we seem to consist of a whole mob of
desires, like week-old babies, blind of eye with mouths open, crying to be
satisfied. It’s as if two voices are in us, arguing, "You shall, you shall
not. You ought, you ought not."
But it’s God’s desire that we set our will:
® against those appetites that can’t be
bribed,
® towards a reason that can’t be deceived
and
® above a
conscience that will be true to God and His standards.
We either control ourselves using the courage, power and love
of God's Spirit, or we’ll fall to pieces; giving in to the free will of our
wants and desires.
Adam and Eve established the pattern for mankind in the Garden
of Eden. All of us have followed it at one time or another, and then,
conscience-smitten, we chafe under feelings of weakness. They – Adam and Eve –
were tempted by the persuasions of Satan and the appeals of their own appetites
for forbidden fruit; fruit that looked good to them. They succumbed, and they
sinned, bringing upon themselves the death penalty and the birth of sin into
the world.
Ponder this: what is
the use of appealing to men who can’t govern themselves, whose very disease is
that they can’t, (we call it the ‘can’t help its)? The conscience cries out both before and
after they’ve done wrong: "Who
shall deliver me from this body of death?" It’s useless to tell a king
whose subjects have overthrown him to rule his kingdom. His kingdom is in full
revolt, and he has no soldiers behind him. He’s a king with no power. This should never be the way of the believer!
Someone said, "If conscience had power, as it has
authority, it would govern the world." Authority without power is
nothing but vanity. Conscience has the authority to guide or accuse, but what
good is it if our will is so feeble-minded that our passions and desires
trample our conscience allowing our free will to race headlong on a collision
course straight into the ditch?
Apostle Paul lets us know this truth of God:
He did not give us a cowardly spirit but a
powerful, loving, and disciplined spirit. [2 Timothy 1:6-7]
The solution to this dilemma lies in our relationship with
Christ. We’re told to:
. . .Continue to work
out your salvation, with great fear and trembling, 13 because God is energizing
you so that you will desire and do what always pleases Him. [Philippians 2:12-13]
This is the only thing that gives us complete self-control and
allows us to make the right choice with the free will granted us by God, and it
will not fail. Jesus makes this
wonderful promise of strength to those who trust Him:
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him! Luke
11:13
Trust Jesus Christ, and ask Him to govern your life. Allow the
Holy Spirit free reign in your life. Ask
Him for more of His Holy Spirit, so that you have the self-control necessary
again, to make the right choice. Remember, this is a major reason that God
gives us His Spirit. He will not fail in what He has promised because the
request fits perfectly into God's purpose of creating sons in His image:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind. 2
Timothy 1:7
If we will only go to Him and trust Him with ourselves, living
in true communion with Him while we patiently exercise the gifts that He gives,
our lives will be in step with what Apostle Paul experienced through his
"thorn in the flesh":
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
Apostle Paul recounts a few of the deeds of the heroes of
faith in ages past, He says:
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Hebrews 11:32-34
God's love for us will fan His Spirit in us into responding in
courage, strength, love and self-control. Our will becomes His will. We won’t be on a topsy-turvy roller-coaster
ride with our flesh, the world and the enemy.
He who brought quietness and tranquility to
the raging maniac—the man in the tomb; the one that chains couldn’t hold—[Mark
5:1-15] will give us power over the one city which we must govern, which
is ourselves.
We must not allow self-control to be belittled in our minds or
to be of minor importance just because we are persuaded that "Christ did
it all for us." Nor can we allow such a deprecation to lead us to abuse
God's grace and His mercy.
Self-control is an attribute of our Creator that Jesus
exemplified in His life and that Apostle Paul strongly exhorts us to exercise
in ours. If we are to be made in our Father's image and take full advantage of
the Kingdom’s triple A assurance:
activation, alignment, authority, we’ll yield our foot-loose, fancy-
free will to God to glorify Him with our moderation in all things and with rigid
resistance to sin.
Having knowledge of God without the practical experience of
self-responsibility is not enough for entrance into the Kingdom. But with the
help of God's divine power, self-mastery is produced. We’re able to freely submit our will to God’s
will.
The last fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5 closes the list of the fruit of the Spirit, just as
drunkenness and reveling close the list of the works of the flesh (verse 21).
The flesh and the spirit are contrary to one another (verse 17). Self-control is not gained by just
suppressing, but by controlling the lusts of the flesh. Those who are "led
by the Spirit" (verse 18), who "live in the Spirit" and
"also walk in the Spirit" (verses 24-25) attain self-control and are
on their way to fruitful growth in God's character and spiritual success. We have activated the kingdom within us, we
are in alignment with the patterns and principles of the kingdom and we have
the authority to walk out the kingdom within us! Remember,
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians
5:24-25
(Sermonette)
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