Know Your Power

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Well, good morning, would you help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us this morning. >> [APPLAUSE] >> So great to be with all of you. As a reminder, tomorrow we start our 21 days of prayer that we do every single fall. If you have not picked up one of these books, you can do so on your way out today. You can also get them online on our website at brave.org. It's called one by one. I think we even have bracelets that you can wear during this 21 days. And really what we're doing is we're fighting for the lost in prayer. It's one by one because God saves one soul at a time. He uses one witness at a time and God himself is the one who does the saving. So for these 21 days of prayer, what you're going to do every single day is write the name, the same name down for 21 days, who you're going to be praying for. Encourage you to pray with your spouse or in your cadre, with a group of people somewhere. You'll get more out of this if you're doing it with a group and then if you're doing it by yourself. So encourage you to do that. And then every day there's a QR code if you want to tune in. And I will have a short little video message just to encourage you and how we're praying together and doing this as well. So looking forward to it, I believe is a church when you seek the face of the Lord for the lost and go after that and look for opportunities to share the gospel. God does amazing things because we're praying according to His will, amen. So encourage you to be part of that. We're a praying church. Look forward to doing that with that. Let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and pray as we get ready to hear His word.

Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise today for all that you're doing. What a privilege it is to gather in your house to sing praises to you, with your people. And Lord, we're looking forward to hearing from your living and active word this morning because we as a people believe every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you who will believe what He tells you and who will by faith put into practice what He shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. We've been in this series. This is our fifth week now of no mercy and we talked from the get-go that we want to be merciful to people but we want to be merciless with our sin. And so we've talked and just to give you a highlight of the series, we talked about know your enemy. You've had three different enemies, you have the devil, the world in your sinful self, but we spent the majority of the time talking about even after you're converted, you have sin in your life that wants to lead you astray. And it doesn't go away until you meet the Lord Jesus Christ. So then we talked about how you have to know your identity, you have to know who you are in Christ. And when you're a born again believer, old things have passed away, behold, all things have been made new and you have to live from your identity rather than from what you see in the mirror and what your behaviors look like. And then we talked about the idea of knowing your master that every single day when you wake up, who are you going to present yourself to? Are you going to be instruments of righteousness by presenting yourself to the Lord and letting Him do things with your life that He wants or you're going to present yourselves to the things of this world and to sin and live for it?

And then last week we talked about know your weakness. We really talked about the blind spot that you have, that as a believer there's this tendency to go back to the law thinking that the law can fix us. And while the law is good and holy and righteous and there's nothing wrong with the law, it can't do anything for you. Just like a bathroom scale can take a measurement, but it can't fix you. Just like an MRI can take pictures, but it can't fix you. The law of God shows you the holiness of God shows you your sin and points you to the one who can save you. So if you've been tracking through this series there comes this idea like what can I do and how can I live my life for the Lord? A number of years ago I bought a motorcycle and I lived in Central Illinois. I had to drive to Chicago to pick it up and I had my neighbor drive me up there and I picked up the motorcycle and we started to cruise back together. He was driving a little bit ahead of me and sure enough I'm looking at my gas gauge and realizing I need to pull over here pretty soon, but I couldn't flag him down. About that time, I ran out of gas. And I couldn't see him anymore, so I pulled off the side of the road. I started to call him, and he's not answering his phone because he was out of cell service. And I started to panic thinking, what am I gonna do? I don't wanna leave my new bike on the side of the road and walk a couple miles. And so I just kind of waited, and then I said, I'm not gonna sit here all day. And so I hitchhiked. And some guy came and picked me up, took me to a gas station.

I paid for a tank of gas and took it back to my motorcycle and filled it up and said, you can keep the can. I'm just gonna leave it on the side of the road. And it was about that time that my friend called me. It was about an hour later, and he said, what did you need? I'm like, I don't need you now. (audience laughs) I said, I ran out of gas. And I said, I told him everything I've been doing. He's like, well, why didn't you just move the petcock valve? And I was like, what? He's like, there's a petcock valve. It's just a little lever, it's down underneath the fuel. If you hit that, you already had enough fuel. It was in your tank, you just had to hit that lever and you would have been fine. So I sure enough, I look underneath and there's this little lever there. And sure enough, all the time in the world, I had plenty of gas to make it to the gas station. I just didn't know that it was in the tank. Roman seven is like that. Paul ends Roman seven by saying, who's gonna rescue me from this body of death? What can I do? And says, thanks be to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, who's given us the victory. Many of us as Christians live like Roman sevens Christians and say, well, there's just no way, there's no hope,

that's just the way it is. Not realizing the power accessible to us through the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. So today I wanna talk about the power that you have and knowing your power so that you can overcome sin and live a life of peace and joy and hope in the Lord Jesus. And to do that, we're gonna be in Romans chapter eight today. If you turn your Bibles to Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight is a great chapter in the Bible, arguably one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible. But as we're looking at it today, understand this. Paul, where we started the series, we started at the end of Romans, and Paul said, man, I'm just, I can't figure it out. I don't know what I'm doing. 'Cause even as a Christian, when I wanna do good, I don't do the good, I often wanna do, but I do the evil that I don't wanna do. And even when I do the evil that I don't wanna do, it proves that I wanted to do good 'cause I feel bad about what I should have done. Like, this is a mess. And every Christian can identify with that. Being born again, I wanna live for the Lord. I wanna do everything for the Lord. But I haven't done everything for the Lord. And now I feel miserable that I haven't done everything but Lord, but why couldn't I do everything for the Lord? 'Cause I wanted to do everything for the Lord. It's just not working.

And a lot of Christians feel that way. And I want you to, I'm gonna give you four truths today about knowing your power so that you can walk in the fullness of the spirit. And the first is this, stand in your verdict. Listen to Romans eight, chapter one. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I'm gonna read it again. I wanted this to wash over you this morning. I want you to hear it with your ears and your soul. For you that are born again, who have repented of your sin, trusted Jesus Christ's death alone, his resurrection from the dead, to forgive you and set you free. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen? (congregation applauding) That's the verdict. Before you were saved, you're condemned. Now the verdict is, you're not condemned. You're set free, okay? For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. Well, what's the law of the spirit of Christ? It's the principle that when you're born again and you're indwelled with his spirit, you have life and you have life in his name. The gospel is not making bad people good or good people better.

The gospel is taking dead people and making them alive. And the only way you can be made alive is to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That is the law of life. He's the giver of life. Without Christ, no life, you're dead. With Christ, you have life 'cause you have the Holy Spirit who's resident in you. Listen, listen, listen. It's one of the greatest truths of the Christian faith. There's no other religion I'm even aware of that makes this claim that when you follow Jesus, he comes to live inside of you. It's the mystery of the gospel. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. How does he do that? Through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. So not only are you forgiven, not only are your sins completely washed away, but God says you can't live this life without me. So I'm gonna come live inside of you. You're a temple for my Holy Spirit. I'm gonna work my life in and through your life. That's the law of the spirit of Christ, which sets you free from the law of sin and death. Means you're no longer bound to sin. Sin always leads to death. The wages of sin is death. So you're no longer bound by that, which means, listen, Christian,

As a Christian, you're not a victim. You've been set free from the bondage and chains of sin so that you don't have to live in it any longer. Which means this. Think about the sin in your life. You can't just say, "Well, that's just the way I am or I can't seem to get over it." You don't have to stay in it. That's what he's saying. He goes on to say, "For what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh." We talked about the law. Nothing wrong with the law. The law is good. Holy righteous and true. That's a good reflection of who we are. The law is an excellent understanding of who God is, but it can't do anything for us. It's powerless because our flesh seems to think when we read the law, either one of two things, "I can do this. I'm really good. I'll show you. I'll commit." Or, "I'll never be able to do all that. The demands of Christianity are too high. I'm done. Forget it. At least I'm forgiven." One of those two things will happen because of your flesh, because the law can't change you. And so what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.

Let me make a couple of points here. His son came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not come in sinful flesh. Came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He wore the same flesh you and I wore. He still wears the same flesh you and I wear, but it was sinless. He had no deceit. There was no sin in him. He never sinned. He never spoke a sin. He never did a sin. He was sinless. So he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was tempted in every way. We are yet without sin. So he came in the likeness of sinful flesh and in his sinful flesh as fully God and fully man, he died on the cross. He died on the cross. Why? So that it would be an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. How do you do that? Verse 4 tells us, "So the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." So how do we meet the righteous requirement of the law by believing in Jesus? By believing in Jesus. We meet the righteous requirement of the law. The only way I can be righteous is through Christ. There's no such thing as an unsaved righteous person. They're unrighteous.

They're wicked according to the Bible. You're either dead in your sins and wicked or you've been made alive by the spirit in your righteous and there is no middle ground. You are clothed in the righteousness of Christ from the moment that you believe. And what the law could not do, the law could not make you righteous. God made you righteous by sending his son Jesus who died on the cross for all your sins, who rose from the dead, who offered life to anyone who would repent and turn him. And when you do, there is no condemnation for you. You're righteous in your standing and that's the verdict. The verdict is, I paid it in full. The verdict is, it's been paid. The verdict is not guilty. The verdict is, go free, amen? John chapter 5 verse 24 says it this way, "Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death and into life." Isaiah 53, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was wounded for our iniquities and by his scourgings we are healed." Galatians 3, 13 says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." 2 Corinthians 5, 21, "He who had no sin became sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." I mean, He did all the work. You didn't do any of it and the verdict is not guilty. Now, if you go to court and you're on trial and the judge declares you're not guilty, you don't have to worry about rehearsing the story for the media. You don't have to worry about convincing people you're not guilty. It's already been said you're not guilty. As a believer, you don't need to go around and convince other people you're not guilty. You just celebrate the fact that through the gospel you've been set free from the law of

sin and death. Amen? It's who you are. It's your identity. It's what God says about you, so stand in your verdict. It's like a lightning rod. When a lightning rod is there, it receives the strike that would otherwise hit the structure beneath it. At the cross, that's exactly what Jesus Christ did. He took the judgment for all our sin, everything that we deserved came upon Christ. All the wrath of God came upon Christ. And when we repent and believe, all that wrath is on Christ. There's no more wrath left for me. Jesus Christ paid it all. Amen? It's incredible. Here's the problem. You have an enemy that's an accuser. So even after you become a believer and you sin, and the law shows you your sin, which Which is a good thing, by the way. You have an enemy, and one of the titles for our enemy is the accuser of the brethren. And as soon as you sin, he starts to accuse you. See, you call yourself a Christian, but you don't live like one, and a lot of other people in church seem to get this thing right, but you don't. And maybe this Christian thing isn't taking for you, and maybe you just don't understand. And then what happens is we try to over commit.

Like I'm gonna read my Bible a lot, I'm gonna pray a lot, I'm gonna get super, super serious about this, I'm gonna really get better. And then when we don't, see, now you're even trying, you're worse than you were before, you even got saved. I mean, that's the accuser of the brethren, he never stops talking about how awful you are. But that's why I gotta go back to the Word of God. 'Cause any time he opens his mouth, you can say back to the Word of God, therefore there is now no condemnation for me because I'm in Christ Jesus. Amen, that's good news. In our judicial system, there's something called double jeopardy, and once a person's acquitted, they can't be tried for the same crime twice. Even if when they're declared not guilty, they walk out of the courtroom, and the very moment they walk out of the courtroom, all the evidence shows they were indeed guilty, they can never be tried again for that crime, right? Friends, once you've trusted in Jesus Christ, it's over. It's over. If you're truly born again, you're his, not just now, but for all eternity, and nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Amen? I mean, that's just great news this morning if you've been born again. Amen?

Can we give God praise for that news? (congregation applauds) You don't have to be approving yourself to prove you're a Christian. That's not the right motivation. You stand in the verdict that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and he was raised according to the Scriptures. Then you do this. Number two is you set your mind on the spirit. You set your mind on the spirit, the Holy Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, he says. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace because the mindset on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So he's showing this dichotomy that happens and how you have to set your mind on the spirit, 'cause if you're in the flesh, you set your mind on the flesh, but if you're in the spirit, you set your mind on the spirit, and if you set your mind on the flesh, it's death. Meaning, after you come to Christ, you can still wake up during the day

and set your mind on all sorts of sinful things. You can set your mind and focus on all the temptations. You can focus on all the pleasures of what you think sin would be like. You can focus on all the things of this world and all that you can have. You can focus your attention on wealth, you can focus your attention on health, you can focus your attention on, I don't know what, I mean, everything, your influence and who you are and all the different things, or you can focus your mind on the spirit of God. You say, well, how do I focus my mind on the spirit of God? Well, one way is through the word of God. The word of God will always tell you God's mind 'cause the spirit of God wrote the book. So if you wanna know what God thinks, read the word, right? The more you train your mind in the word and you know what the spirit's saying, the more when the accuser talks, you won't listen to them. It took me years to do this. Romans eight ones huge in my life because for the first five or six years of my Christian walk, it was back to the law, I gotta try harder, I'm not doing, I gotta commit better, those Christians are doing it better than me, dang it, I messed up again and I gotta work harder and I gotta do this and dang it. And finally, I was just like, there's no condemnation for me anymore.

I'm done running back. Jesus, I'm just staying by you and I need you to change me and I need you to make me like that 'cause you know and I know we both know I can't become what you want me to become, help. And by doing that, things in my life begin to change. Amen? And so not only if to stand in your verdict and say, I'm not guilty, I'm free. It's assured to me that I will meet Jesus and be transformed into his glorious image. Not because of anything I've done but the Spirit of God tells me that, amen? So I have to set my mind on the Spirit 'cause I can set my mind on this world and on what I want and on the vacations I'm gonna take and the sports I'm gonna play and the things I'm gonna, all sorts of good things, bad things and different things or I can first and foremost set my mind on the Spirit of God and what he wants for my life. What do you have to say to me, Lord? What do you want for me? How do I practice that today? And as we read in Colossians chapter three, a few weeks ago, Colossians chapter three verses one to four really tells us how to do that. Colossians chapter three, verse one says, therefore if you have been raised with Christ. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with

Him in glory. What's it telling you? It's telling you, focus on Jesus, focus on God. Where's your life? I want to live the life. As a Christian, let me tell you where your life is. It's writing Christ Jesus. Everything you're yearning for in here, it's all in Christ. So seek Christ. Spend time with Christ. Present yourself to Christ. Open His word and say you want to do things like Christ. Let Him be the first thought that you have, the last thought that you have, and every thought that you have throughout the day. Focus on Him. If you feed the Spirit, it will change the way you focus on other things. It's like the analogy of two animals that fight. If you feed one and starve the other over time, the one that's being fed will win. And the same is true in your life. What you feed your mind with has potential to change your life. It's like social media algorithms. You know how it works? You click on one thing once and you get all this information about it again. And again, and again, and again. And you have different algorithms than I have because you click on different things than I do. But once you click on them, your whole system goes that way. And the same is true with Christ. If your habit is to get up when you wake up in the morning and seek Christ, if your habit is to read His word, if your habit is to pray to Him and seek His face, if your habit is to present yourself to Him, that's different than if your habit is, here's all the things I got to do today and I got to get this done. I got to go to Jesus. You're important too, but I got to get all this stuff. It's a different mindset. So set your mind on Christ. In Hebrews, chapter 12, 2 says, "Fix our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith." It's where you're going to turn your mind to. You know, it's like all of our phones, they have default settings, all devices have default settings. The default setting just means this is what's going to happen unless you change the default setting. This is how it's going to ring. This is how loud it's going to ring. This is how your texts are going to be received. This is what this is a default setting. Now you can change your default settings. Your spiritual life is just like that. Prior to coming to Christ, if you came to Christ at 17, you had 17 years of default settings. If you came to Christ at 55, you have 55 years of default settings. If you came to Christ at 72, you have 72 years of default settings, you have to change your default settings. You can no longer say that's just the way I am. You can say that's what I was but God and now, right? You have to change the settings because if you don't change the settings, you can't change. And for many people who come to Christ, they think, "Oh, if God wants me to change, he'll change me." God does want you to change, but you've got to

partner with him so that he can make the changes in and through you. You've got to reset your focus, you have to reset your mind, you have to reset your disciplines on the things to allow the spirit of God to have his work in and through you. Second Corinthians 10 tells us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I want to tell you, it's totally possible for you to live a spirit-filled God-honoring life and you do not have to stay in your sin. I mean, in the Old Testament, in Psalm 1 19, verse starting in verse 11, he says, "How can a young man keep his way pure?" In other words, is it possible? Is it possible for young men to be pure? How can a young man keep his way pure? "By living is according to your word." I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Let me pray these things. If you're here first Tuesday in Inglewood, we prayed through Psalm chapter 1, that's 6 verses. It took us, I think about 40 plus minutes to preach through all those. You want to try Psalm 1 19? It has 176 verses, it may take a little longer. But at the end of the day, the Word of God tells us all the time we don't have to stay where we are if we set our mind on the Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit of God indwells us. When we say, "I can't," or, "I'm stuck," or, "That's just the way I am," here's what you're saying, "I do not believe in the power of God." That's all it is. I don't believe that. That's just the way it is. That's just the way I am. God's going to have to just accept me for who I am. Now, there's no condemnation for you and your identity. You are dearly loved, but you're not living the fullness of what He's called you to be. And you're the one that doesn't benefit from it. Because a life in the Spirit is peace, but a life in the flesh is death. Amen? He says in verse 6, "For the mind and the flesh is death. The wages of sin is death, and there's no sin that leads to any place good." So when you're aware of sin in your life, you don't want to stay in it. You want to confess it and get out of it as quick as you can. So stand in your verdict and set your mind on the Spirit. Let me give you a third. Live from the the Spirit's presence. This is true about every single born-again believer. Notice what he says. However, he says the flesh cannot please God. Let me just pause real quick. If you're not a Christian, there's no way to please God. You can be a kind of a good person. The world can think you're great, but you are not pleasing to God. Only born-again believers that are living by faith are pleasing to God, period.

That's what the Bible teaches. So there's no non-believer that's pleasing to God. God's disgusted with their sin and their abomination every single moment. Now God desires that all would repent and come to the knowledge of him so he could clothe them in his righteousness, but staying in your sin is not something God enjoys as a non-believer and as a believer when you're no longer that, but you're still trying to live that way. That's not pleasing to God either. And yes, he loves you with an eternal love, and yes, sure he is unconditionally. Get that. But don't forget the Christian life is not about just you making it to heaven. The Christian life is about pleasing God until you get there. And if you're living to please God until you get there, there's joy and peace in your life that you otherwise would not have. So he says, "Those who live in the flesh cannot please God." The end of verse eight. However, verse nine, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. This is a pause. Listen, if you're born again, you have the Spirit of God living inside of you. If you've repented of your sins and you believe that the God-man Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, the only life, you've repented of your sins and you want God to save you and you believe he died for your sins and rose from the dead, you're his. And the moment you become his, the Holy Spirit indwells you. The Holy Spirit marks you with the purpose. The Holy Spirit begins to fill you. The Holy Spirit regenerated your life. How do you know if the Holy Spirit's in your life? You believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's how. You may get emotional when that happens. You may not. You may cry tears. You may not. Here's the facts. The facts are, if you're truly born again, the Holy Spirit is in you. And if the Holy Spirit is in you and resident in you, experientially you'll start to notice things that you used to do that aren't nearly as fun. You'll start to feel conviction about things you never felt conviction about before. You might start reading the Bible and it speaks to you in a new way. You might start praying and it means something. You might do a certain behavior and say, I can't do that anymore. That just feels awful. I know that's wrong. I don't even know why that's wrong. It just doesn't feel good anymore. Right? That's an evidence that the Holy Spirit said, but the way you know the Holy Spirit's there is because you believe in Jesus.

And I'm telling you, search the world over. Search it over. Check any religion you want. There's nobody that claims that their God comes to live inside of them. And here's why, because there are no other gods, number one. And number two, they don't. Amen? (Applause) So every other faith in the world is all about what you must do to get to heaven. I remember one time when I didn't show this for a service. I remember one time when I was in seminary, we had to go to a different faith-based type of thing. And I went to a mosque. I called the person in charge there, asked if I could come, told him what I was doing and all this stuff. And I walked in, and I was the only person dressed the way I was. They had us take off our shoes. I did. They walked us into this room. I didn't understand anything that was going on. Right? And I just noticed people get down their knees and bow and do all that. I didn't do that. I just stood there with my friend. We were the only two people standing there and we looked really awkward. And I did this for like 45 minutes or something. Afterwards, I was talking to the guy and he was the nicest guy in the world. He's like, "You're welcome back here anytime." I'm like, "I don't even understand what we did." And I said, "But I do have a few questions for you." I said, "You're Muslim." He said, "Yeah." I said, "How does a Muslim get to heaven?" He goes, "Well, that's up to Allah." And I said, "Well, how do you know what Allah is going to say?" He goes, "You don't." And I said, "Well, what if you meet Allah someday?" And Allah says, "You weren't good enough." He goes, "That's just the way it is, I guess." And yeah, here's a group of people five times a day. They come together and bow down to a God that doesn't even exist. Right? I mean, the living God, if you're born again, lives inside you. Amen? I mean, that's not just, wouldn't that be cool? That is unbelievable. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's fact. And it's fact of every single born again believer. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells inside of you, which means

he goes everywhere you go. You go worship, he's worshiping with you. You go sin, you're bringing him on the sinful journey. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If the Holy Spirit's not in you, it's because you're not born again. And if you're not born again, you don't have the Holy Spirit. And that's why church feels hard and religion seems stupid because you can't measure up to what God's requirements are apart from the spirit of God indwelling you. And the only way to have that is to repent of your sins and trust Jesus. So every born again Christian, the Holy Spirit is living inside of you. Whether you know it or not, he's there and he's not going anywhere. Amen? And he says this in verse 10, "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." So the body was crucified with Christ. But now you have the spirit of God who lives in you, who is righteous, and so you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, now listen to this, how powerful is the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead? I mean, how powerful is that kind of power? I mean, that power is overcoming impossible odds, power. It took the dead God man Jesus and raised him from the dead. And if that spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Where am I going to get this power? Where am I going to get this life? The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you. Amen? He took that which seemed impossible to the world and changed things, which is why I tell you as a born again believer, if you have a sin pattern in your life, it's your choice that you're continuing the sin pattern. You're not a victim and it's nobody else's problem but yours. Why? Because if you are born again and have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you have access to power to not live that way any longer. Amen? It's just a fact. Now here's the truth and this is where we got to be really careful in church because we make the assumption that everybody comes to church is born again and not all of you all are born again. There has to be a moment in your life where you repent of your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and you have to have that in order to have the Holy Spirit so that you can live out what God requires. Amen? And so if you haven't trusted Jesus Christ right where you're sitting right now say I need you Jesus, come into my life. I believe you died for me. I believe you rose from me. I'm done with my sin. I want you. That's what happens and the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells you and here's what I want you to know.

Born again believer. When you sin and you're accused by the accuser of the brethren, there's no condemnation for you. The Spirit of God has not left you. I get Psalm 51 when David sinned with Bathsheba. One of the things he prayed is take not your Holy Spirit from me. And so the enemy will even use the word of God and twist it and be like yeah see the Holy Spirit may have left you now because you did really really bad. In that dispensation what we see in the Old Testament is the Holy Spirit came on people to do a task and then left people. What we see in the New Testament at Pentecost onward is the Holy Spirit comes into every new believer and stays with them forever. So here's what I want you to know as a born again believer when you wake up and you find yourself in a place where I've sinned and this is wrong and this is not right you're feeling conviction and weight and guilt and the Holy Spirit hasn't left you. That's evidence that he's still there. He's not in and out and in and out and in and he's there. He's a person. He comes fully immediately and he stays there forever. Amen? So don't believe the lie like maybe you got it wrong maybe the Holy Spirit left you. Maybe the Holy Spirit does not leave born again believers, okay? You've been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 says he gives a pledge of our inheritance it's a down payment. 2 Corinthians 1, 22 says he marks us or sets his seal upon us as a pledge of what's to come. I mean Jesus promised the Holy Spirit was coming and John 14 when he was talking to his disciples starting in verse 16 and 17. Here's what he said after he died and was resurrected he said I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. So he's abiding with him at the time and many of you that grew up in the church or around Christian thing you felt the Holy Spirit around you maybe he was guiding you into it but when you're born again he comes to live in you. And Jesus said he was going to ask the Father when he got to heaven to send the Holy Spirit. So it tells me this he made it to heaven after he ascended because he sent the Holy Spirit he's interceding for you for you from heaven right now and he gave the Holy Spirit in your life to empower your life so that you can live out what's required of you. Amen. So it's possible to live the Christian life and it's exciting. you. The Christian life is not your commitment, it's not about your efforts. It's about allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way in and through you, amen?

And this is what we need to understand. I mean, it's like you're his, it's like an engagement ring being like the tangible proof that the real thing's coming. It's like when you put a down payment on the home, if you don't pay for the whole thing, you put a down payment down. And when you put the down payment down, it's guaranteed that you're going to end up paying the rest over time. I mean, Jesus already holds the deed to your life. The Holy Spirit's already marked you. He already indwells you. It's as good as done. And here's why you can bank on it because Jesus Christ is always true to His word. Amen? That's how we know. So live from the Spirit's presence. This is the reality because what the enemy will do is he'll lie to you. And I know that we've all dealt with this because I deal with this and every Christian deals with this. When you sin and the accuser starts speaking to you, there's this tendency to go one of two ways. Like, I got to overcorrect. I got to be better. I know I can't go to church just yet because I got to get right and I'm going to read my Bible every single day for the next seven days. I'm going to pray really, really hard. And then once I feel a little better, I'll go to church and I'll be accepted. Here's the deal. When you sin, just run to Jesus right now. It saves so much time. Just kind of come right in because He'll welcome you.

There's no condemnation for you. Come on home. Let's get this thing fixed, okay? Or the second thing that will end up happening is if you don't go that way, it'll be the other way, which is like, you know, I'm just tired of trying. I've tried too much. I mean, I've been doing this. It's the same sin. I sin. I say I'm sick of it. I cry about it and I'm going back to it. So I guess I'll just never get over it. I'm just going to wallow in it and I'll be the victim. And that's not true either. You need to run back to Jesus too. You need to see what His Word says because what you're struggling with and what you're dealing with are the very things He came to set you free from. Amen? Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Amen? And so here's the truth. I mean, when you see a flag flying over an embassy, I was out in Washington DC recently and you see all the different embassies there. You know, it's all in America, but wherever that flag of that foreign nation is flying, yes, that's soil from their nation. That's their territory. That's their turf. All the rules of their land apply under that flag, right? When you belong to Christ, you're His, you're His ambassador, all of His kingdom, all of His rulership, all of His authority, that's over you wherever you go, even though you're

on foreign soil here. Even though the world can't see the Holy Spirit, even though the world doesn't understand the Holy Spirit, even though the world gets upset when you live obediently to the Holy Spirit, is a Holy Spirit? And let me just tell you the purpose of the Holy Spirit. What's the purpose of the Holy Spirit? The purpose of the Holy Spirit, what does His ministry to make Jesus look good? Everything He did, He's that creation waiting for Jesus to speak and Jesus speaks and everything gets created. I'll do whatever you say. What do we see in His earthly ministry? He's with Jesus ministering to Him in the wilderness. He's always speaking through Him. He's telling people what's going on. He's always making Jesus look good. What's the Holy Spirit's job in your life? What's His primary ministry? To make Jesus look really good in and through you. So when people see you as a man, woman, boy, or girl, they say, "I see something different. I see the way you love different. I see the way you forgive different. I see the way you go after God different. I see the way you care different. I see the way you show mercy different. There's something different about you. What is it? The Holy Spirit's Christ in me, the hope of glory." That's what He's trying to do. He's trying to get you to let Him lead your life. He's not trying to make you a better person.

Do you know that you can become a better person without Jesus? If you're a drunk, you can become not a drunk and do it without Jesus. If you take drugs, you can stop taking drugs without Jesus. If you're fat, you can be skinny without Jesus. If you're skinny, you can be fat with Jesus. I mean, I'm telling you, it just works in a way. My point is that's not God's purpose in your life is to help you accomplish all your goals. The purpose in your life is to make Jesus look good in and through you. To live from His presence, quit running back to the law, other than, "Okay, God, I want to see Your standard on this? Oh, that's so good. I love that You're that way. I'm totally not. I've got to spend time with You because You've got to make me like that." And that's how the law is fulfilled in us, is through the Holy Spirit. Amen? Let me give you the final point, and this is really, really important. If you can, standing in your verdict that you're not guilty, if you can set your mind on the Spirit and live from the Spirit's presence, then do this fourth one. It's super important. You need to kill sin in your life by the Spirit. You need to kill sin in your life. You need to put it to death. So then, brethren, verse 12, we are not under obligation to the flesh to live according You do not have to keep on sinning. I've struggled with this for 20 years. You don't have to struggle with it for 21. Like you can be done with it now, right? You don't have to do that. For if you are living according to the flesh,

you must die, right? Here's the truth. Every non-believer that dies, dies apart from Christ in their sin and goes to hell. It's true of everybody. But as a believer, if you're living according to the flesh, like your life is gonna be full of the stench of death. Like you're not gonna be living with the likeness of Christ. It's not gonna be an enjoyable life. It's not gonna be fun, but notice what he says. But if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So put sin to death. Why? Because as we talked about in the first message, sin has a way of creeping up and being enticing in your life. And I'm gonna tell you, this is where the title comes from. No mercy. We're called to be merciful to sinners. Did you know that? 'Cause Jesus says, "We're called to be merciless with our sin." With your own personal sin, don't coddle it. Don't put it on life support. Don't pet it. Don't invite it into your home. Kill it. Kill it, right? Galatians 5.16 says if you walk by the spirit

you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. And he goes on to saying Galatians 5.24, those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Hebrews 12.1 tells us to lay aside every hindrance in the sin that so easily entangles. Colossians 3.5 says consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. I mean, here's the reality. You have to kill it or it spreads. It's like pulling weeds. You can't just get a few. And you can't just cut off the tops. You have to pull those suckers out from the root. You have to go down and grab them and be gone with them. And then you have to put chemicals all over your yard so they don't creep up again. 'Cause you don't want them around, amen? I mean, a surgeon would not be a good surgeon if you had cancer. And the cancer was gonna kill you if the surgeon said you have a lot of cancer. So I really don't wanna get all of it. I just wanna get some of it out of you. Would that be okay? No, I want it all gone. Get it all out of me now. And then give me chemo or give me other things and kill everything that has any remote cancer

'cause I don't want any cancer in my life. Sin's worse than cancer. People can survive cancer. You cannot survive sin, right? So you have to kill it. You have to partner with the spirit to kill sin in your life. Now, let me give you four ways to do that this morning. This is gonna be really important for you. And this is the point in the sermon where you're not gonna call your friend and say you should have been here. This was for you. This is for you. All right? I mean, John Owen, the great Puritan pastor, said be killing sin or it will kill you. And he had seven points. I've kinda combined some of those and made them my own. But the first thing you need to do is you need to name it. You need to name the sin. You need to diagnose the specific sin and its triggers not in the abstract. I've been a Christian for 37 years. We are great at defining sin as a struggle in the abstract. What's going on, man? I've kinda been lazy. What's been going on in your life? Kinda been immoral a little bit. Call it what it is, like what is it?

Like what is the sin? What would God call the sin that you're sinning? So let's just talk about one, this general today, but it's very applicable in the church. I think it's the number one sin in the church more than any other sin. So let's just talk about gossip. Let's talk about gossip. Gossip's a sin. Gossip's a horrendous sin. It's listed with homosexuality. It kills relationships. It kills churches. It kills families. It kills cadre's. When you gossip about somebody, when you speak about somebody in a way that's undesirable or slanderous towards them when they're not in your present, you're gossip. If you listen to somebody who tells you stuff like that and you don't tell them to stop or walk away, you're a gossip. God hates gossip. You need to be merciless with gossip. You need to know what it is. You need to call it by its name. And then you need to ask yourself some questions. Why do I gossip? 'Cause there's a variety of reasons people gossip. Some people gossip 'cause they're insecure.

Some people gossip 'cause they can't celebrate others. Some people gossip 'cause they're jealous. Some people gossip 'cause it makes them feel good 'cause they don't feel good on the inside. I mean, there's all sorts of reasons. And then you need to ask yourself, what triggers me to feel that way and why do I gossip? So before I do any of this stuff and even name it, here's a great way to pray. Pray Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. Lord, search me and know my anxious heart. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Now here's the truth. If you pray to God and ask the Holy Spirit, I'm not sure there is, but if there is, would you show it to me? It will happen fast based on experience. And there's seasons in your life where you may pray that prayer, and the Holy Spirit's not bringing anything up, and there's seasons in your life where you may pray that prayer and immediately, bam, there's three things. But you need to name it specifically, and ask yourself, when does it happen? Does it happen in morning, noon, or night? Does it happen every day, or just sometimes? What triggers that? Is it people that I'm around,

or is it the way I feel in a certain way, or what is it? Lord, why do I do that? You need to name it, you need to name it. Secondly, is this, you need to own it. You need to own it. You need to stop deflecting, okay? I'm just gonna say this 'cause I can. You can disagree with me, but I'm right. (congregation laughing) Our culture is very soft when it comes to telling the truth. It's just very soft. It's kind of offensive to say truth in a culture of lies. (congregation clapping) So what we tend to do is we blame our circumstances, we blame our mom, we blame our dad, we blame our coach, we blame our upbringing, we blame our socioeconomic condition, we blame the color of our skin, we blame whatever you wanna blame. We blame shift everything so that we don't have to take ownership that, yeah, I'm a gossip, it's me. And this is why I do it 'cause I'm insecure. And I really don't like the way my life's gone, and I really don't like the way theirs is gone, so I like dragging them down so I feel better about myself. And this always happens when I'm around these three people. And the reason it happens is because I have unforgiveness in my heart towards something that happened in me a long time.

I mean, you understand what I'm saying? I'm just making this stuff up, but it's true how the Lord works in your life. So you have to own it. And don't ever say this, please don't ever say this. When you're in a cadre and somebody points out truth from the Scripture, it's just to be loving to you. Don't say things like this. Well, that may be true, I'm just not convicted about that yet. Like if you're born again, you're convicted about it. Again, it's not like, I mean, if you can sin the way an unbeliever sins and you don't feel conviction, how would question whether you're saved? That may be examine yourself, see if you're in the faith. Just make sure, because if the Holy Spirit is in you and you're dragging the Holy Spirit into a sin pattern that the Holy Spirit doesn't want, you will feel conviction, you sometimes will feel guilt, you'll sometimes feel shame, and those aren't good things to remain, but they're God's gift to you to say, "Don't stay where you're at." Amen? So you need to name it and you need to own it. Now, why is that so important? 'Cause I've counseled people for 37 years and I've had people counsel me, and here's what I know. When I'm counseling somebody and I want them to change more than they wanna change, they're never gonna change.

Well, as soon as you change my husband, I'll get right, nope, never gonna happen. As soon as you change my wife, nope, never gonna happen. And guys, can I just say this just to be totally honest, 'cause there's so many lies that you believed. Okay, when it comes to morality, you can live moral and upright in this present age. You do not have to look at porn. It's not natural. God didn't create you for it. So if you're doing that all the time, quit telling people that you're struggle with that. Call yourself what you are. Call yourself a pornographer. Call it by name, and then Asilor, when did this start? And why do I do that? And is it because I'm too scared to get married and invest in somebody else, and I'm so selfish, I just wanna please me? I mean, call it for what, and what does this happen? Does it happen at night? Does it happen in the morning? Does it happen during the day? Is it because of what my eyes look at? Is it because I'm what I'm watching? I'm on it, 'cause I'm so sick and tired of being in cadre's with guys that don't wanna change. I have mercy to the guys that say, I hate this, help, let the Holy Spirit help, he can help you.

But quit lying to yourself, and everybody else, just so you have a bunch of brothers helping you out with your sin, quit coddling your sin. Please don't tell me it's normal, that's normal for every guy, it is not normal, it is abnormal for a born-again Christian man. (audience applauding) And if it's not, then what a tragedy it is to become a Christian. Because before you become a Christian, you don't struggle with immorality, after you become a Christian, then you see what God's standards are, but now you can't keep the standards, so now you have the same standards you had before, but you feel guilty all the time, what a waste that would be. God gives you the shame and guilt and condemnation, so you don't have to stay there, but you can run to Jesus and say, help, I don't even know how to get out of it, but you don't want me to stay here, and I want to do it your way, and I wanna do it right, so help me, and he can change you, I'm a living proof, he can change you, amen, he can change you. (audience applauding) And you can say, Mary guys, well I'm just looking, I'm not touching, ask your wife, if she enjoys you looking.

I mean, let's just be honest, let's call sin what it is, it's killing you, it's killing you, and for those of you guys, I don't know what I'm talking about, let's say, God must want me to say this, It's going to kill your future marriage or it will keep you from getting married. Stop. And you can't stop with your commitment. You can only stop by naming it, owning it, and then doing number three, face it, face it. You need to meditate on God's holiness and turn to Christ specifically. It's his blood that covers that over. It's his blood that washes you clean. It's his blood that makes you new. His cross died so that sin would no longer have dominion in your life. Does that mean that everybody that goes to brave will never sin anymore? May it never be, it would never happen. But should I be growing in the holiness of God increasingly? Should I have a hatred of sin that's growing increasingly, 100 percent? Should I be merciful to people who are wanting to grow but haven't got there yet, 100 percent? There's no sin here that God can't forgive. But if you're just going to play games and you're not going to name it, you're not going to own it, you're not going to face it, you're not going to stand before the Lord in it, it really doesn't even help us to talk about it because it's more honest to say to you, you just want to live in your sin and you have no desire to live for Christ. So I'd question whether you're even born again. That's a fact, right? And then you do this. After you name it and you own it and you face it, you kill it. At the first stirring, you kill it.

Before it speaks or acts, you kill it. And you got to ask yourself, what's the trigger? Like for some of you, it's your phone. So don't have a smartphone. For some of you, it's an internet. So get rid of the internet. Some of you, it's television. Like, what is it you need to get rid of so you can live holy? Well, that's a lot. I mean, that's changing my whole life. Yeah, it's changing your whole life so you can live holy before the Lord. What's the big deal? See if you're saying I'm not willing to change anything, then here's what you're saying. God, I really like my sin. If you want to change me, you go ahead and change me. Otherwise, I'm still going to live in my sin and I'll call myself a Christian and we got so much of that in the church all across our nation and it's no wonder nobody wants to be a part of what we're doing. Because they're not watching anybody be delivered from what they were and being set free with peace, joy, and hope in their life. Instead, they're watching a bunch of bound Christians all still sinning, faking it and pretending that they're good when they're really not. You have to kill the sin. I recently heard a speaker. Her name's Rosario Butterfield. Some of you may read her book and her testimony. She's a former lesbian who was led to the Lord by a pastor and his family when she got invited into community and over time saw the way they loved and forgave and all these different things and she was converted. She killed the sin in her life.

She ended up marrying a different pastor. She's the wife of a pastor now and here's what she would say, that's her and her speak. You have to kill that. When you wake up in the morning, drive a thousand nails in whatever sin God shows you, then have breakfast, then drive a thousand more nails in that sin. Like that's how serious we need to take it. Like if sin's killing you, why wouldn't you want to put it to death? And even in our cadre's, I'm going to encourage you, be totally merciful with people. Always be merciful with people. God wants us to be, He's merciful with us, we can be merciful with them. But don't be merciful to sin. You're not helping them. You're not loving them. You can love somebody and speak truth even if they don't like it and that's still showing kindness to them, amen? And so we have to kill our sin. It's like this. If you're cooking in your kitchen in a grease fire started, you would immediately put it out. You wouldn't say, hmm, I got to get the kids to practice, I'll deal with this later. Because if you did and you got back home, the whole house would be burned down. And what we tend to do is like, yeah, that's not a big deal. I'm not really one of those bad sinners like Pastor Jeff was talking about. There's just a few little weeds in my life, yank those suckers out by the roots now, by the power of the spirit, not by your commitment, not by, I'm going to try harder before next week. Oh, and don't do this. So, you know, I did it this many times this week, next week I'm going to try to make it more days without, and then I'm going to try to make, that's so stupid. How about just go to Jesus and hang out with him and it doesn't matter how many times you

do it or do it again, just hang with him and say, I never want to do it again. And if I do, I'm going to tell you, I'm sorry, but I don't really want to do it anymore. Just change my heart and God will start changing your heart. And for some of you, it's the people you hang out with. Some of it's your work environment, some of it's where you go to school, some of it's wherever, and you need to reorient yourself with different groups of people or different friends or you need to make a geographic move out of your job or somewhere. You do whatever it takes so you can live wholly before the Lord. And when you do, God will go to the greatest links in the world to empower you to get that done. Some of you need to break up with who you're dating. I'm just praying and seeing what God's gonna say. He already told you no like six months ago. (congregation laughs) Be done, all right? So what is it? And whatever the Lord shows you it is, your flesh will fight it, your flesh will fight. You'll be so mad. How come I have to do that? Nobody else in the church has to do that. It's because that's the thing that's killing you. And do you wanna honor the Lord? Or do you just wanna kinda get by? And here's what we've lost in the church. We have lost the fear of the Lord. We've taught people correctly that you're forgiven as a believer no matter what, but we haven't taught people you're still gonna stand before the Lord and give an account for your life.

And it should terrify you. It should terrify you. People tell me a lot. Pastor Jeff, I love the way you preach 'cause you're not afraid to share the truth. Can I tell you why? Because I'm terrified of the Lord if I don't. I don't wanna stand in the line with a group of pastors that were apologizing for the word of God. I wanna be able to say to him to the best of my ability because you're so incredible, awesome, and good, and everything about you is beautiful. I wanted to tell people the truth so they had an opportunity to see you for who you are, right? And God says this, here's what I want you to hear. (congregation applauding) Here's what I want you to hear. You can live the spirit filled life. It's not easy though, it's not easy. Because oftentimes, the Lord takes you through people that you need to forgive and people you need to show mercy to and things that you need to do that you don't wanna do, but we don't do it because we feel like it. We do it because we honor the living God, amen? And that's what God has for you. So whatever you're struggling with, you don't need to be ashamed. That shame that you feel, the guilt that you feel, that God's gift to you to say you don't have to remain where you are, you don't have to stay in that.

There's a way out and it comes through being honest and being clear and you name it and you own it and you face it and you kill it by the power of the spirit who's living in you. And when you mess up or you stumble, there's grace for all that. And you keep hanging out with Jesus and you're honest and you name it and you own, I mean, my whole life is that and it's never changed. There's still times I pray and I'm like, I feel like I'm doing it right. There's other times I'm not expecting anything and I pray and it's like this, this, this. I don't know what it is for you, but here's the truth, God wants you to live free and He wants you to live with peace, He wants you to live with joy and He wants you to live with hope. So be killing sin so that it's not killing you. Amen, amen, would you stand? Our Father in Heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. We thank you for your word, Lord, that we can put to death the deeds of our body. Lord, all of us are sinners who've all fallen short of the grace of God and yet all of us who are born again have you, help us walk that out. And Lord, I pray for those who are here today who may never have given their lives to Jesus Christ, that have thought it's a religious thing

or a big hoop to jump through. If that's you here today, here's how you can pray. Lord, save me. I wanna turn from my sin and I want you to come in to my life and be my Lord. Lord, I just pray that you would do a work here today in each and every one of us and that we would walk out the truths of the gospel in every way. We give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen, and amen. Can we give God praise for His word? (congregation applauding)