What Grows When The Spirit Leads | Tyrone P Jones | No Other Gospel | Full Service

Good morning church, good morning to the online campus and to the prison campus. My name is Nya and I'm so happy that you've joined us this morning. If you're in the house and there's empty space in the middle of your rows, I just want to ask and encourage you to move to the middle of your rows so that we can make some space on the ends for the people who are coming in. If you're not already standing, would you just stand with me as we open with the word? I'm reading from Psalms 103, two through three, and it says, bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases. I'm so thankful that we serve a God who is a healing God and exactly what this scripture says is what we're going to do this morning. We're going to praise him. We're going to bless him and then we're going to receive all that he has for us. So would you guys just bow your heads and pray with me? Thank you Lord for this morning. I just thank you for everybody that you've brought to the house, God. I thank you that you have a specific thing to tell each person here this morning. Nobody's here by coincidence and I pray that they know that, Jesus. I thank you for open hearts, Lord, as we just hear your word, God, and in your name we pray, amen. This morning, we get to start off by celebrating somebody with the water baptism. So would you guys just turn your attention to the screen as somebody goes public with their faith? My name is Dorothy. When I started attending Church for the City in Yuma a few years ago, I told Pastor Tyrone Jones that I had already been baptized. After attending an open house, I could see that this church recommends baptism by immersion. So I met with Pastor Jones and told him that my father was an Episcopal minister, that I had been baptized at the age of three months, confirmed at the age of 12, and when I was 33, I asked for and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I believed that if I denied my baptism as an infant and denied receiving the Holy Spirit,

I was in effect denying all that the Holy Spirit had been doing in my life thus far. The church I grew up in teaches that the amount of water used in baptism isn't important because it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual faith. So I was convinced that when the bishop poured a little water on my head and said, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I became a Christian. Fast forward to Pastor Jones' sermon on October 5, 2025, when he ended his sermon with the demonstration of wanting a cucumber to become a pickle. It had to be totally immersed in vinegar. This made perfect sense to me. My prayers for clarity had been answered. I immediately knew that I was living my Christian life with only one-third of the Holy Trinity empowering me. Pastor Jones told us that baptism is the way we put on Christ. If the cucumber isn't totally immersed in the vinegar, it doesn't become a pickle. And if I'm only working with one-third of the Holy Trinity, I am missing out on receiving the fullness of Christ as I walk in the Spirit. I want to put on all of God, not just part of Him. So I am making my confession of faith before all of you, and I can't wait to fulfill all that God has planned for me as a full-fledged Christian. Today I am going public with my faith. And because you are a disciple of Christ and have been one for many years proving your faithfulness and teaching and ministry It's been so fruitful Today, I want to baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ For the remission of your sins and the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit I'll live to be shot of praise today. So very well said let's continue to worship I Believe Jesus Why she's wet in snow? I believe that the power of the gospel still makes a broken whole

I believe that the curse of sin was broken when they robed away that soul I believe I believe I believe As I bow before you Lord I will rise in confidence I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in No matter where I go No matter where I'll be I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in I believe that the walls will start falling When we fall down on our knees I believe that the lake will call And the blind ain't gonna see I believe that the gates of hell will tremble When the church begins to sing I believe I believe I believe As I bow before you Lord I will rise in confidence I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in No matter where I go No matter where I'll be I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in Sing it to the daughters Sing it to the sons Every generation Look at what the Lord has done for us Sing it to the darkness

That the light has come Sing it to the nations Look at what the Lord has done for us Sing it to the daughters Sing it to the sons Every generation Look at what the Lord has done Sing it to the darkness That the light has come Sing it to the nations Look at what the Lord has done Look at what the Lord has done As I bow before you Lord I will rise in confidence I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in No matter where I go No matter where I'll be I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in As I bow before you Lord I will rise in confidence I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in No matter where I go No matter where I'll be I will see your goodness and love in the land I'm living in I will see the goodness of the Lord in the room. Did you come to exalt Jesus this morning? Let's lift them up today. There was a moment when the lights went out, when death had claimed its victory. The king of love had given up his life. The darkest day in history. They're on a cross. They're on a cross they made for sinners. For every curse his blood atoned.

Final breath. One final breath and it was finished. But not the end they could have known. For the earth began to shake and the river was full. A sacrifice was made as the heavens rolled. Sing all hail. All hail King Jesus. Pour it out. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus. All hail the savior of the world. All hail. Come on let's lift it up today. There was a moment. There was a moment when the sky lit up. The flesh of life breaking through. When all was lost he crossed eternity. The king of life was on the move. For in a dark hole too. Where our Lord was laid. A miraculous parade. It would forever change. All hail. All hail King Jesus. All hail. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail Jesus. All hail the savior of the world. All hail Jesus. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail Jesus. All hail the savior of the world. All hail.

Come on lift up a shout of praise in the house. Let's lift it up today. Let every knee bow before the king of kings. Let every tongue confess that he is Lord. Lift up your shout let us join with all of heaven singing. Singing oh. Singing oh. Oh. Singing oh. All hail. And all hail King Jesus. And all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus. Jesus, and all hail, the Savior of the world Come on, has He saved you? Come on, has He delivered you today? Come on, He is the Redeemer Bless you Lord We bless you Lord, we magnify your name in your house We say you are the only one found worthy Pour out your presence on us this morning A fresh wave of your Spirit As we worship, as we lift you up, Jesus Permeate our being Spirit sound, rushing wind Fire of God, fall within Holy Ghost, breathe on us, we pray As we repent, turn from sin Revival in, smoldering Breath of God, fan us into flame

Cause we need a fresh wind Come on, are you desperate? Pour your Spirit out Pour your Spirit out Pour it out, pour it out Hearts that burn with holy fear Purify, faith in me Refiner's fire, strengthen one We need a church who'll bear your light Lamb of flame, city bright King and kingdom, come is what we pray Cause we need a fresh wind The fragrance of heaven Pour your Spirit out Pour your Spirit out Holy anointing, the power of your presence Pour your Spirit out Pour your Spirit out Pour your Spirit out Lord of all redeemed Prophesy and sing We can hear the wind blowing, blowing, blowing Move upon our praise Sons and daughters sing We can hear the wind blowing Blowing, blowing Lord of all redeemed Prophesy and sing We can hear the wind blowing, blowing, blowing Move upon our praise

Sons and daughters sing We can hear the wind blowing Cause we need a fresh wind The fragrance of heaven Pour your Spirit out Pour your Spirit out Holy anointing, the power of your presence Pour your Spirit out Lord of all redeemed Prophesy and sing We will hear the wind blowing, blowing, blowing Move upon our prayer, the sons of God are singing We will hear the wind blowing Give me a fresh breath, the feathers of heaven Pour your Spirit out, pour your Spirit out Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Pour your Spirit out, pour your Spirit out Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing

Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing Call me anointing, I will be your blessing A real depth in areas of expertise, some, of course, is from their years of serving the kingdom of God and dealing with people in life and in ministry. But Pastor Bob, man, the teaching was just amazing, and I'm so thankful. There was 250-plus that attended. I'm so grateful for everyone that took the time to do that, and for the teams. I mean, the whole staff had to reorchestrate the week to accommodate that and the shifting in and out of the building, of the chairs and stuff. Just wonderful. So thank you. Again, your generosity helps us to be able to bring in quality ministry that can speak to each of us. So we're so grateful for it. I'm going to go into prayer now, and I'll probably just keep you seated for prayer for just a moment, then I'll have you stand for the scripture. Certainly, all week, I was just thinking about what I should write about or do a video on concerning Venezuela. And then we had the stuff going on in Minnesota and in Iran, and it just seemed like I couldn't put my thoughts together quicker than all the stuff that's going on around the world. And I'm sure you got thoughts about it. I know I got thoughts about all of it, and I hope that none of my thoughts really go down what people would call a party line. I just believe in all things. There's a biblical worldview about every situation. So usually when I write about things, do a video about things, think through things,

I just really try to see, okay, what does the scripture say? On the one hand, and I won't go into much of this now, on the one hand, I'm always grateful when people in countries are able to experience liberation in which they can embrace everything that God has for them based on creation and giving them value, whether that be in Venezuela, whether that be in Iran, et cetera. Never pleased about some of the chaos and rioting that goes along with it. But again, and probably in most of these places, whether it be Venezuela, which that seemed like hasn't been that much of an issue, that's probably more... Honestly, that one now probably falls more into a political line than it does, you know, the people's responses to it. People there are grateful for the opportunity for them to be able to embrace life in a different manner. I think the question always is, is what happens next and what our role is, should be, shouldn't be, et cetera. And I don't get caught up in the rhetoric. I just, you know, I just don't get caught up in it. People can say a lot of things. They can have their opinions. And even our president, he can pop off his mouth and a lot of times you don't know, you don't know what that means or what it doesn't mean or whatever. You know, I just don't get caught up in all the rhetoric. I just try to see what is the heart of God in all of this. Same thing with the situation in... I'm not sure if it's directly in Minneapolis, but in Minnesota. It's a tragedy that the woman lost her life. It really is. And I think we should all grieve about that. And honestly, they'll probably work through what needs to be, whether the officer was right, not right, all of that kind of stuff. Here's what I know.

We have people in this congregation that serve under the authority of the federal government or the local police department, sheriff department, et cetera. Every one of us have a responsibility to respond to what they tell us to do. Every one of us do. Now, whether that should have led to what it led to, I don't know. But the Bible is real clear about being subject to authority. And so sometimes we look at what happened and want to make that the issue. And I think sometimes you need to look at what got things to the point that it is. And so my prayer, obviously, is for that young lady and her family, but also been praying for the officer and what he has to walk through and deal with. They may find that the action that he took was wrong. That man has to live with the life that was taken. They may find out that what he did was justified. But he still has to live with the life that was taken. And we want to demonize everyone that is working in that arena. I'm looking at people in our congregation who could be very subject to the same thing. These are people who have committed to serving us and protecting us, and they're under authority just like everybody else. And so I think for people to demonize people in situations, you just try to find the heart of God. Pray for people. There's suffering on both sides of all of this. And honestly, at times like this, it's sometimes even right or wrong can be a fine line, but praying for people's hearts and minds to carry on. The spiral from this on both sides could just increase and get worse, which we're just seeing a whole bunch of more protests and stuff going on in the city. And so I'll have some prayers for that, and I'm certainly going to pray for people in our community that have to serve in the same capacity. Everybody all right? All right. So from what I just said, you don't know whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. You just know I'm a God-man that believes that the Word of God is right. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity now to be in the house of the Lord. And Lord, I thank you for the people of God that are here. Lord, all

week we've been in the building, and it's just been great. I mean, from times with the staff early in the week and service on Wednesday night, seminar throughout the week, through the weekend, it's just been tremendous to be in your house, to be with your people, to hear, to learn, to pray, to worship, and to magnify you. Lord, I celebrate with Dorothy Warren and her family on her testimony, which is just magnificent. I don't think Dorothy even can weigh the magnitude of what that's going to do in the kingdom of God and among those that she has relationships with. But Lord, we thank you and celebrate you. Lord, our desire is that the message that I'm going to bring forth, Lord, it will certainly connect with everyone listening and hearing, those even that are watching. Christ would be exalted. The Word of God will be preached. People's lives will be touched and transformed. And Lord, I also want to thank you for those that are, again, watching, listening, and those that are in the house, and those that are yet to come today. Lord, those that may have a real desire to be here and the enemy is throwing everything against them from getting to the house of God. Lord, we stand against that in Jesus' name and pray that they can press through and press on and be in your house to celebrate with your people and your presence. I thank you for the worship team, the ministry of song and music. And Father, as I have noted, obviously unrest in Iran, unrest in Venezuela, maybe more so unrest among our political leaders about Venezuela, unrest there in Minnesota. And Lord, for various reasons, honestly, but Lord, we know that you're the Lord and sovereign over all these things. And we just pray every time we think about it that damage to people will be minimal and damage to property will be minimal. And people will not just let themselves get carried away in doing things that are more harmful and just causes more destruction. That people will just have a value of people and whatever their differences are, it's not one in hostility, it's not one in violence, it's not one in burning and fighting and spitting and throwing stuff, none of that. Shooting and carrying on, it's not where it's one.

And so, Lord, I pray for just a peace, just a peace, people to make right decisions and take right actions. Father, I pray for, and though I pray this in general, I certainly do pray for the people in our congregation who have the duty to serve us. And Lord, I don't want any of them to go out there on any given day and not come back home. Lord, I pray for those in our military community, those that are in our border protection community, those that are first responders through YPD and Sheriff Department. I just pray, Lord God, that you will give them grace and give them strength. And, Lord, in matters where they're right or wrong, that people will respond to them in a right manner and give them the honor and the respect and the value that belongs to them. And so, Lord, I pray, again, for our first responders in this house, among us and our families. Father, I pray for the evasion family as they walk through deep grief and sorrow. And, Lord, I thank you that we are able to gather in the house of the Lord in freedom, in freedom, without the fear, Lord God, of things like we see in Nigeria or what we see in India and the persecution of pastors and churches in the manner that we are seeing in pockets around the world, that we can gather here in freedom and declare with a loud voice that Jesus Christ is our Lord and sing the songs of Zion, hear the word of God, and be empowered in our life to be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Father, we do love you and we thank you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, I'm going to ask you to stand now and you probably already took off your cap and hat. I've talked a lot and prayed a lot, which was my intent, and the message is long, so you just got to deal with it. But by the grace of God, I'll get through it in a manner that you can hear and understand and receive and what needs to be said will be said and what doesn't need to be won't be. Galatians 5, we're going to look at verses 16 again as we did last week and go down through

verse 25. Again, I think last week we read 26, but I'm pushing that into next Sunday's message. Galatians 5, 16 through 25, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evidence, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such thing will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. So far the reading of the word, can you say amen? You may be seated. Now the big idea of this I think is on the screen. The fruit of the spirit reveals who is truly ruling your life. This is what you know. This is what I know that every life produces fruit. Something is going to be revealed out of your life that none of us get around that. The question is not will something grow? The question is what is growing? What is being revealed? Paul kind of gives us, if you want to look at it this way, kind of a picture of two gardens.

One of them is cultivated by the flesh. One of them is cultivated by the spirit. And what grows kind of reveals who is controlled, what is in control, or whom is in control. Is it the spirit or is it you that's in control? Jesus said this in Matthew 12, 33, a tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. In last week's lesson, we read those first two verses and kind of honed in on this whole tension that takes place, this battling that's constant between the flesh and the spirit, an ongoing thing that will not stop. The flesh wants to do opposite of what the spirit wants us to do. The spirit wants to do... Sorry. Yeah. And the spirit opposes the flesh, goes against it, always fighting each other. Oftentimes, keeping people from carrying out good intentions. What I like about Paul, and actually love about him in so many ways, Paul and David, to me, David through the songs, Paul through the epistles, they're such realists. They're so real about Christian ethics. very revealing about what they think. I mean, you know, sometimes you can read David in the Psalms, and he's so angry with folks, he says, man, break their children's teeth. It's like, okay, that's too much information, right? I mean, of your thoughts. They're so realist in Christian ethics. Paul knows that believers are going to struggle. Even in a loving community, for us to do what God desires, there's a struggle there. And he also wants us to know, though, that fruit can be born because of what the Spirit has done, and that we shouldn't grow weary. And I'll deal with that at the end in doing good. So he brings attention in, and he says it real clear, don't let yourself be gratified. The word is teleo. Don't let the end of what is going on with you accomplish or fulfills or carries out what the flesh wants.

Don't let that be the end goal, that your gratification is found in what the flesh does. And so John Calvin, he said this, the spiritual man is not free from the lust of the flesh and the often incitement, but he does not submit to letting them reign over him. Now, I do want to say this so that you get this early on. As we learn more so to walk by the Spirit, the flesh does become more increasingly subdued. The more you walk by the Spirit, the flesh becomes increasingly subdued. Basically, what I'm trying to say, as you continue to grow in Christ and let the Spirit work, you should be sinning less and less and less. Does that make sense to everyone? And so, let me just give you just, I want to break down this into three sections. And one is this, the works of the flesh grows naturally. The things of the flesh grows naturally. There's a whole list here. I won't read that again quite yet, verses on the screen. But Paul lists behaviors, honestly, that flow out of us naturally when the flesh rules. Another way to put this, and he says it's evident of the flesh. Another way to put it is these are the things that you would be doing in your life, and maybe not all of them, not all of them. I don't think any of us was as sinful as we could have been because once you're under the control of the flesh and not under the control of the Spirit, you're susceptible to do anything. But conscious may keep you from doing some things. Maybe worldview keeps you from doing some things. But every one of us is susceptible to do anything according to the flesh if we only have the rule of the flesh that's dominating. And so, none of us have been as sinful as we could be. But Paul is saying that we can produce any of this in our life if we just live according to our natural person. And these aren't random sins. These are sins that's kind of...when life gets turned inward and you just live according to the flesh, it leads to broken relationships and uncontrolled desires where you do things that just seem so out of it, so debaucherous, and so detrimental, so evil, so dark, self-centered ambition, and spiritual emptiness. When a life goes unchecked, those are the things that can happen. John MacArthur said something. He says,

the flesh doesn't need to be trained. It only needs to be unleashed. That's something. You don't have to train your flesh to act bad. You just got to unleash it, and that's what it will do. So these behaviors, they come naturally. Now, I've got them broken down into four categories, and that I think I got from John Stott on how he categorized these. And this is probably where I'm going to not be able to spend as much time as I'd like, but the first three are kind of sexual sins. Sexual immorality, which is fornication or sex of any manner outside of God's provision, in marriage. Impurities is like an indecency, unnatural vice. When you just see things that people do, and you almost just want to say, how gross or how sick. Then there's sensuality, which is really just inappropriate behavior, just behavior that your flesh desires to do that's just crossing the line, that's just inappropriate. being same-sex stuff or with the opposite sex. And then there's a religious sense, which is idolatry, which is worship of anything that's not God. That's idolatry. And sorcery is evil powers of any form, where you deem yourself to be dependent and rely on, which includes drugs and various substances. That's more of a sorcery. That's an evil power that you are dependent on. Then there's a social sense of enmity, which is hostility, which we see every day on the TV, it seems now. And there's strife, contending for one's way. And then there's jealousy, which is a mixed bag of emotions, of anger and insecurity and fear that gets expressed when you feel like you're losing something of value and how you may respond to that,

whether it be an anger, insecurity, fear. Most of the time, it's kind of a combination of all. And then there's fits of anger. And then there's rivalries, which is selfish ambition. We see a lot of this when we see political candidates competing against one another. I'm always very celebratory of those ones who are running against another candidate, and they present themselves and what they believe they can do without throwing rocks and stones at the other person. Rivalries is what breeds that kind of stuff. Then there's dissensions, serious disagreements. I probably shouldn't do this, but I'm gonna do this. Sitting right here in front of me is Chris Morris, who's one of our city councilmen. And I'm gonna say this, you're one of the most honorable men I know, man. One of the most honorable men I know. Thank you for serving. And then there's dissensions, serious disagreement that causes relationships. And things that turn out to be irreconcilable. And then there's divisions, where just intentional, divisive acts. This stuff comes from gossip, it comes from social media posts for false stories. I love what Pastor Bob said during the seminar, that you can say some things about people that can absolutely destroy them,

where they can never recover. And sometimes it's just opinions and gossip and false nonsense. And then there's envy, resentment, and discontent, where that leads to a desire that drives you to want something someone else has. And then there's a sense of excess, which is drunkenness and orgies. Orgies here is not necessarily sexual, that's why it's not in the top. It's more just parties where a lot of drinking and carrying on, and it could lead, of course, to other excessive debauchery. These aren't random things. These are things that are revealed out of a disordered heart. The heart is out of order. And human beings actually produce this stuff on their own. You don't need no help. I love Jelly Roll, but he sings a song with Post Malone saying, I had some help. No, no, you don't need no help. We do this stuff. We can do this stuff without help. And this stuff, this is what grows when God is pushed out, when God is pushed out of our life or not even allowed to infiltrate our life. This is the result. Jesus made this clear when the disciples asked him a question, this is Matthew 15, 15, listen to this.

Then Peter said to Jesus, explain to us the parable that says people aren't defiled by what they eat. If you know anything about the Jewish culture, Jesus was dealing with some of their diet stuff and he wasn't saying not to do it, but he was saying that that's not what makes you the most spiritual. Well, that was a shocker to them because practicing dietary stuff the way they did, to them, that was part of their faith unto God. And if you tackle that and break that down, then Peter is saying, well, man, explain that to us because we've always been taught that if we have a faith in God, this is what we do dietarily. Jesus said, don't you understand yet? Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes on into the sewer. I don't need to explain that, do you? You know what that means. If you put it in, it's going out. But the words you speak come from the heart. That's what defiles you. For from the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. That's what defiles you. So Jesus is saying, if you eat something bad, it's gonna come out of you eventually. But if this stuff. is in your heart, that ain't going into the sewer. That's coming out onto the lives of others.

Are y'all following me so far? And so Galatians 5.21 says this, I'm warning you about these things as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So that's what he's saying. Check the list. If you practice these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I like the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the word practice because the Bible is not condemning lapses. Again, even as a believer, every one of us is susceptible to any of these sins. If I find you, I don't even know a bar nowadays. Somebody calls me and says, hey, my husband is down at, is there one called Shadows? But whatever, a bar down in town. That's a trick question. I wanted to see if y'all knew. I saw you, Ryan. It was on your lips, but you didn't say it. And if I go down there and got to get you out of the bar, I'm not going to put you in my car and say you're going to hell because you was drunk. It's not lapses where the Scripture or the Lord condemns us. It's a practice where it becomes a part of your lifestyle. It's not just a lapse. This is what you practice. This is what you do. And so if you're walking down a road and these are your signposts, you're not walking according to the Spirit. If those things we just listed are the signposts of your life, then you're on a road that leads outside of the kingdom of God. It leads outside. We're sons and daughters of the Lord, and we are to inherit His kingdom. And so if we're walking the wrong way, then we're losing our inheritance. We're losing our inheritance. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10. Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge, and you see that word there again, in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or who commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or abusive, or cheat people, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. So if that's the life, the practice, then, man, you're going down the wrong road. And what God intended and designed for you, you're not going to get. You're not going to inherit it. You're going to be a loser. You're going to be an eternal loser if these are the signposts of your life. So if you're living that way and you proclaim that you're a Christ follower, then seriously, the question has to be what Jesus are you following? What Jesus are you following? John said this in 1 John 3, 4 through 10. Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in Him. Anyone who continues to live in Him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know Him or understand who He is. Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil who's been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who've been born in God's family, do not make a practice of sinning. Can you say amen? Because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning because they're children of God. So now we can tell who children of God are and who are children of the devil. I mean, that's just so real, so right, and so true. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. Pretty cut and dry, pretty simple. So if you're living that way, the Scripture is clear, then you're not a Christ follower. And honestly, this ends badly for you. It ends badly. The only way for you to reverse this impending doom is to repent. The destruction and the damnation that you're heading to is not what God's desire is for you. It's not God's intention. Repent. You got to stop. You got to turn to Jesus. Repent of this stuff. Ask Christ into your life, receive His Spirit, and be saved. Can you say amen? Second thing is this, the fruit of the Spirit grows naturally. And again, I won't list them all there, but they're on the screen. And notice Paul says fruit, not fruits, because the teaching and the implication is this is all part of the package. We can't... And listen, there's things in here you can believe that I struggle with, and I wish I can go to God and say, listen, man, you got nine of them here. I'm doing pretty good in seven. Don't that count? No, no, it don't count. It's fruit. It's one package. So there's things we got to grow in that comes out of the Spirit life, evidence of a transformed life. I broke these down in... And I'm not sure who suggested this in my study, but I certainly liked it. Broke it down in threes in where it seems like the substratum of it should be. The first one is relationship to God, love, joy, and peace. Those are the things because of our relationship with God. We've received His love. We have the joy.

Our joy is because of salvation and peace because we have Christ to help us in all things. So that, it seems to be rooted in our relationship with Him, and that fruit is evident. And then there's relationship to others. And this is our responses, honestly, to people without harshness or without retaliation. Patience being long-suffering. And long-suffering is not just wading through something. Unfortunately, this word patience means long-suffering toward those who aggravate you, annoy you. Keep looking at me. Don't look at nobody sitting next to you. Patience, kindness, always having that disposition toward others, and goodness, and words, and deeds, and spiritual excellence. The Bible really identified Joseph as this character trait when he believed Mary was pregnant by another man. The Scripture says he did not want to make a public example of her and put her to shame. So he wanted to handle this privately so that Mary would not become a public skeptic, people publicly demeaning her. That's an act of goodness, and then there's those personal traits that mark you as a person in Christ. Faithfulness, where you're reliable as a Christian person. Gentleness, where you're meek as we see Christ is meek, and you have self-control. This is absolutely spirit-empowered. We can't be passive in this. This is cultivated. None of these, and again, I wish I had more time with them, but none of these are personality upgrades. This is not personality upgrades. This is not making myself a better person. This is really allowing Christ to be more formed in you. Not you making yourself, but allowing Christ to be more formed in you. This fruit grows organically. Whenever the roots are healthy, fruit will grow. You don't have to try to produce this by all of your effort. You just abide in Christ. None of those dates over there in the garden date, I'm not concerned about them putting off any other fruit. If they stay rooted, if they stay watered and expose the light, then I know in season it's going to be dates. They stay connected if we stay connected in Christ. And here's the third thing on this, and here's where the weight comes in on us. Belonging to Christ comes

with responsibility. I do want to read this again out of the New Living, verse 24 and 25. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful flesh to his cross and crucified them there. Since we're living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. And here's the issue. The issue is that our old life has been crucified. Remember that. It has been crucified. When Jesus went to the cross, your old life, these fleshly passions have been crucified. Even this fleshly nature. Now, it doesn't eradicate it, it doesn't disappear, but it's been crucified. When Jesus died on the cross... He took your fleshly nature with Him and nailed that thing on the cross. He nailed it on the cross so that we have the ability to reorient our life in Christ Jesus, to reorient it. Remember this, that God's ultimate purpose is not just for people to be forgiven and have eternal life and live with them in heaven. You should be so past that. You should never be concerned if you've made a confession of faith in Christ Jesus and has received Him as Lord and Savior. You should never be concerned on whether you have eternal life and go into heaven. I don't lose... Man, if I wake up early one morning and Virginia's already gone, I'm thinking, oh my God, I didn't miss the rapture because I know she's going. I'm just doing the best I can. I ain't sweating it because I know that... No, no, I have eternal life. I have Christ Jesus. My sins have been forgiven. The hope of God, the ultimate purpose for us is to have a flourishing life and a life of beauty that reflects Christ Jesus. Again, Bob done a great job yesterday talking about the whole end goal for us is that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.

So, he didn't just pardon our sins, he remade our very, very nature. Now, we're born again. We're children of God. We're a new creation. The old is passed away, behold, the new has come. And because we're recreated children of God, it's intended for us to demonstrate the genetics of our Father. The more we grow in Christ, the more people ought to see our Father in us. The more we grow in Him, the more they ought to see our Father. And this fruit is manifesting. It's not because of trying hard, it's because we're letting the Spirit of God work. So, we're crucified with Christ to live by the leading of the Spirit. And so, here's what Galatians 2.20 says, and team, you can come. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So now, since we have been crucified with Christ, we got to kill that bad boy. We got to kill it. That's intentional. You got to keep letting this flesh know you are dead. Christ has taken you on the cross, crucified this old nature. And now, we got to consider ourselves dead and just kill it. It's not about self-hatred, it's about new identity. Nailing the flesh to the cross, repentance and repudiation. Galatians 6.6 says, we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. Tim Keller said it this way, to crucify the flesh means to say, this desire no longer defines me, Christ does.

Christ defines us. So that doesn't mean that all temptations are going to disappear, but it does mean that temptations got no authority over you. They got no authority over you. To crucify the flesh is now for you to say, you, to the flesh, you no longer get to decide who I am. I am who I am in Christ Jesus. You can't defeat the flesh by willpower, you have to overcome it by walking with the spirit of God and there can be no negotiations. We walk in the spirit. We walk, actually he said, since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Moving as the spirit of God moves. It's a military language. It's talking about like soldiers marching in rhythm. We move with the spirit of God. That's daily obedience. That's moment by moment surrender. So I'm going to close again like I did last week with some questions for you and just allow you to work through that. Which, and I don't know if these will be on the screen or not, but which work of the flesh do you often make excuses for? What is it out of these things that are works of the flesh, whether it be sexual sins, immorality, religious sins, idolatry, social sins, whether it be strife? whether it be rivalry, whether it be divisions, or sins of excess, whether it be drunkenness, which is the one that you make the excuse for? No more negotiations with it. Make no more excuses.

It's a work of the flesh. You don't need it, you don't want it. You don't need it in part of your life. That's not who you are. Stop making excuses for it. Stop making excuses. Which of the fruit of the spirit do you most need right now? And who knows? I say right now because there are times, honestly, there's times where it may need to be faithfulness unto God. There are times it may need to be goodness toward others. But I think all of us know where we are in life, where we're doing and how we are doing, how we're not doing. Is there one of the fruit of the spirit that you really need working right now? And what would life look like if you really walked and stepped with the spirit all next week? Let's not look at the whole year yet. That'll overwhelm you, honestly. I was sharing with someone yesterday, they were sitting at my desk, and I was looking at my calendar, and I looked up at them, because my whole calendar's on my desk underneath, and I just looked up and said, I am overwhelmed. Help me just look at January. Sometimes we try to look at the whole picture and think,

oh man, that's too much. Start one step at a time, and set a course, man, this week, this week. For some of you, it might be today. You wanna get through the end of the day and lay your head down at night, and maybe for the first time in a long time, you pat yourself on the back and say, this was a good day today. This was a good day. But I want you to know this, when you fail, don't get discouraged. Just acknowledge it, take it before the Lord. Don't get discouraged, don't throw in the towel. Don't say this is too hard. Don't say I can't do this. Don't say this is too tough. Just acknowledge it before the Lord, but don't get discouraged. Ask God for his forgiveness, which you already have, actually, through the death of the cross, the death of Christ, and take up the cross. Luke 9, 23 says, he said to the crowd, if any one of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up the cross daily, and follow me. Start the morning every day picking that bad boy up. It's heavy, but saying, I'm gonna take on this cross. I'm not gonna stay far from the cross.

I'm not gonna stay far from the crucified life of Christ. Take up that cross daily, and get back in step with the Spirit. Get back in step. Y'all good? Everybody stand, if you will. Now, I'm gonna pray. Prayer team, you can come in. As you know, the altars are always open, so please feel free to come, pray for whatever you may need. If you wanna begin a new life in Christ, this is the best. This is the best time to do it. If you're tired of striving, if you're weary of fighting in your own strength, if you wanna deeper walk with Christ, just come and surrender. It may be a surrender again, but come and surrender. You're not surrendering to rules. You're not surrendering to religion. You're surrendering to the lover of your soul who will help you walk in the Spirit. Father, I thank you for this opportunity to share with who you've given me an opportunity to minister to, those that are in the house, those that'll be listening, those that'll be watching. Lord, my desire is that every one of us will take this message and the questions honestly, and really contemplate them, think about them, work through them, and Lord, may today be a day that each one of us make that step by the Spirit

to become more conformed to the image of Christ. I do believe it, that the more we follow the Spirit, the less we will sin. The more we walk in step with the Spirit, the more of Christ will be revealed. So let that be a day for each of us. We take this thing day by day, and Lord, if there's any here that have not began that relationship with you, to be people that also reflect the love of you, Lord, let today be the day that they make a commitment to follow you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. God bless you, have a great day. What an incredible and challenging message to just live by the Spirit. like pastor said when we are Christians it becomes our responsibility to live according to his word so I just want to encourage you in that to take your next step whether that's water baptism or joining a serve team you can do that by tapping the disc on the back of each chair or stopping at the connect table on your way out and if you're online then you can click the link that's posted if your next step is to join a life group then I want to just invite you to to stop at the life group fair on your way out we would love to connect with you right now we're gonna go into one more song of worship I love you so so much we'll see you next week