The Spirit Led Life

Yeah, hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full Gospel hour, right here on global seven, my prayers that you will be blessed, you’ll be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless. Um, so I’m just so grateful. I’m grateful for the goodness of God, grateful for just his faithfulness, his dedication, just how he’s been to each of us into this ministry, especially over the course of just difficult, uh, times that everyone has been in. Uh, so I’m just so grateful for who God is and how he’s moving. And today I want to talk about the Spirit led life. The spirit led life. We spoke over the past 23 weeks now about life in the Spirit, uh, since Pentecost sunday, we looked at before, then we looked at jesus resurrection and how he showed himself mighty and strong in power and resurrected power to his disciples and to those that were with him. Uh, and now we realized that when jesus said, hey, uh, you’re gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, judea Samaria, the ends of the earth, he said this and he didn’t stay, he said, you’re going to receive power. And then jesus left, he left. And so they didn’t have a physical representation to have jesus say, hey, follow me, make this right, follow me make this left, follow me, let’s go this way, let’s go that way they had to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and listening to the spirit and watching what the spirit was doing uh to be able to move and live a god filled God pleasing life. And so for us today that that still applies because we don’t see jesus and saying, hey we you know jesus as they follow me physically and do X. Y. And you know, we have to lean on the spirit, lean on the word of God, lean on the truth of God that we see in scripture, lean on the promptings of God that we may feel or hear and it means we are led by the Spirit. And this is difficult for us. Oftentimes because we love to be in charge. We love to be our own boss. We love to make our own decisions but to live a healthy life in the kingdom of God. It’s not so much about uh how well you lied, but how well you follow and how well you can take instructions. Um so let me just uh read the text and then I open up in a word of prayer. Today’s text comes from the book of romans In the book of Romans, Chapter eight. Are we reading versus 12 through 17. So then brothers, We are debtors. We are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die. But if you put but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Right for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry. Abba Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God. And if Children then heirs and if heirs of God, fellow heirs with christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. I’ll be focusing on verse 14 for all who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God. Our gracious Lord heavenly father. We thank you so much for this time. We thank you for who you are, who you’ve shown yourself to be in our lives, mighty and strong and faithful. I pray Lord that as this word goes forth that you would be seeing you would be heard, you would be felt you what only you can do in the lives of your people through this message today empower us, strengthen us, lift us up, encourage us. God give us guidance to walk this out day by day, one step at a time giving you glory with each step. We thank you. We praise you. We ask these things in jesus name, Amen. Hey man and Amen. So we’re looking at being spirit led and we realized that we love to be in charge. We love to be our own boss in the kingdom of God is not so much about how well you lied about how well you can follow. And we see this theme of following all throughout scripture from the call of Abraham. When the Lord says get up and go to a land that I will show you. That takes being able to follow directions to follow instructions, go to a land, leave your home, leave your kindred, leave your, leave your country, leave everything you’re familiar with and go to a foreign land that takes trust that takes being able to say, you know what God, this land that you’re gonna show me, I know you’re gonna show it to me and I’m gonna step out in faith and God calls us to do that in many different ways in our lives. He says go to the land that I will show you. So we see that theme throughout scripture of of of somebody that’s in God following God all the way now to the people of Israel when the Lord frees them from Egypt and they walk through the red sea on dry ground, what a miraculous occurrence, the waves crash on the Egyptians and this day the enemy, they see, they will see no more, The text says, they walked through on dry ground, they celebrate and then they have to uh go through the wilderness and God leads them in the wilderness and instructs them in the wilderness. But as they were fleeing from Egypt as they were walking out of Egypt and going towards the Red Sea to have that miraculous experience, they didn’t know they were going to have that, but God guided them with a pillar of fire by night in a cloud by day and they followed this pillar, they followed this cloud, They followed God to the miracle, they followed God to the Red Sea. That’s another theme that we see of following the Lord walking with the Lord all the way to. If we look at the Spirit of God falling on and guiding the heroes of the old testament where miraculous things would take place when the Spirit of God would fall upon them, they would be endowed with power to do great things or boldness to do great things in the old testament. And then we see jesus in the new testament, speaking to the disciples saying, hey drop your nets and follow me, drop your nets, pick up your cross and follow me. I’m going to make you fishers of men unless someone drops his nets and picks up his cross, he is not fit to be my disciple, jesus says Follow me and then the spirit of God falls on the early christians in the new testament after jesus ascends and we see them following instructions. We see them doing wonderful and miraculous and mighty works. Why? Because they lived they lived a spirit led lives as we should. Two. And so being led is not a foreign concept in the kingdom of God. Being led is not a foreign concept in the kingdom of God. It’s actually a way of life. It’s actually a way of life. It’s actually a state of not just doing but a state of being. I am led by God. I am led by God. I make spirit filled informed decisions. I make decisions by seeking the face of God, seeking the counsel of God by opening the text and reading the word and then I informs my next decision, informs my next steps. Yes, I take calculated decisions. Yes, I look at it and analyze and take a look. But I also go to the word of God. I go to the people of God, I go to the throne for myself to hear what thus sayeth the Lord about this decision. So what does it mean to be spirit led and what does the spirit led a life look like? I think one of the best illustrations or the best examples for us uh in scripture that we see and it’s very well known, arguably the most well known som all throughout the psalms psalm 23 David starts off by writing and he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake. Now, David was a shepherd. That’s just the first three verses of the text. David was a shepherd. So he knew all about what it meant to be a shepherd. And when he wrote this as a shepherd, he realized, hey, I’m a shepherd and so I know what it looks like to lead and the Lord is my shepherd right out the gate. The very first sentence lets everyone know that shepherd implies leading. It implies that hey, I’m not in charge here. I’m following directions. I’m following instructions. I’m the one that’s being sheltered. I’m the one that’s being protected. I’m the one that’s being provided for just as I provide for the sheep. My God provides for me just as I lead the sheep. My God leads me. The Lord is my shepherd and as a result of the Lord being my shepherd, I know that I do not lack anything. You know that I’m not living in lack. I know that the Lord is with me. I may be in tough times. I may have difficulties, but the Lord is my shepherd. So I shall not want. Ultimately I have peace in the time storm. Ultimately I can remain calm because I know who is in charge. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want watch this in verse two, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. That means he guides me to a place where I can be fed. He guides me to a place where I can be nourished. He guides me to a place where I can find sustenance. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. Besides the waters of peace, I was reading through some commentaries and they said the waters were still, they weren’t raging, they weren’t perilous. They weren’t dangerous for the sheep they have to cross through. There were still waters that the sheep could drink from. Still waters that the sheep could cross easily. Still waters. Waters of peace. God leads us to peace. The spirit led life is a life of peace. A life when we walk in peace, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. We don’t get there ourselves. He leads me to the still waters. The sheep have to be willing to be led. David knew this fully. David understood this fully because there were probably some sheep that David had to go back after and say, hey, walk with the group, sheep don’t lead the shepherd is the shepherd that lead the sheep and many of us behave in our, in our walk with God and our time with God and our relationship with God as if we’re the ones in charge, as if we’re the ones saying, okay God, this is what we’re doing. Okay God, we’re going here, we’re going here, we’re going here you coming or not. It’s not how it goes, not how that’s not how it goes. The shepherd is the one that leads. The Lord is the one that leads busy giving God an ultimatum. You know, I’ll go if you know you do this or I’ll go if this is to this and none of the shepherd is the one that gives the instruction. The shepherd is the one that gives the guidance. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He restores my soul. Oftentimes in difficulties. Life can hit us hard. We learned that last year, learn that through this whole experience through the pandemic. And it’s good to know that God isn’t a God that says, okay, just follow, follow. Follow, follow and our energy is zapped and we’re going through difficulties. And he just says, all right, keep up keep up the pace. But sometimes he takes and takes a break leads you to that water and restores your soul restores your energy. Your soul the seat of your emotions. Sometimes we get, we can get so depleted with life depleted because we’re giving out depleted because we’re doing doing, doing doing. But God breathes new life into dry bones and he restores our soul. And then the text says, he leads me in the paths of righteousness that we go being led again. David as a shepherd understands what the sheep have to follow were leading to water. And then we’re leading me in paths of righteousness for his name sake. If we know one thing about the Lord throughout reading the scriptures is that he values his name, he says, look, put some respect on my name. I’m not to be played with, my word will not return void. Why? Because it’s just it’s my name at stake. Right here. He leads me down the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. So I give him glory and I exalt him with each and every step. And I’m being led to do this by him by the spirit of God. This song, this is just the three verses of the song. But the song speaks of comfort automatically. So we know that as we’re being led were being comforted. This psalm speaks of proximity. You have to be close with someone to be led by someone, you have to have trust in someone to follow their instructions. You have to be close enough to hear them to know what’s going on to be led by them. So you here, okay, we’re gonna meet here at this time to do X, y and Z. Show up and bring this with you. You have to be able to gather all that information and that only comes with proximity. That comes with being aware that comes with relationship and oftentimes for us it seems as though we want to have our our cake and eat it too. Or we want to be a part of uh the fellowship of God, the family of God, the Kingdom of God, but not be able to follow, not be able to be close. And many of us, we’ve lived such a good religious life that we don’t realize there’s a whole relational component that’s missing. You know, we get up all I do this, I go to church, I do tai I have my tithes, you know, since the pandemic, I’ve, you know, watched online a couple times. I’ve given my tired, I’ve been supportive, I’ve, you know, done X, y and Z all this doing, doing doing. But God wants us to be God wants us to exist with him in him and find life in and through him and be led by him. So we must realize that a life in the Kingdom of God, a life in the Kingdom of God is a life of being led. And yes, God calls us to be leaders in our own right. God calls us to lead. God calls us to be living witnesses to be living examples to be those that show the goodness of God through our lives and through our obedience. God calls us to lead. Yes, but can we follow, can we follow jesus says, look just like you’ve seen me suffer just like you’ve seen me go through some things, you guys are gonna go through the same things, no servant is greater than his master. We’re gonna go through the same thing as I went through. So watch, follow, observe, I’m going to be with you while you’re going through what I’m going to be with you through the difficulty I’m going to be with you and understand that I’ve called you to follow. The beautiful thing about scripture is that uh it’s one large story in text that shows us the goodness of God shows us God’s heart for mankind. Georgia’s God’s heart for the world of God’s heart for creation and the same god that had Israel following the cloud, it’s the same god that said to the disciples follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men and that’s the same god who showed up in power and led the disciples in the early church and that is the same god that leads us today. We can find hope in that sense of God, we can find strength in that sense of God. This isn’t some brand new thing. This has tried, this has tested this is true. And so with every step we know that the God that said let there be is the one that guides us, the God that said peace be still is the one that instructs us and we can stand on his word as we walk and move forward as he leads us and guides us romans eight verse 14 says all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Sons meaning not just uh men but sons is like the family of God. And it’s important for us to realize that if we are spirit led, if we’re walking in truth we are part of the family. Oh God! And paul contrasts life in the spirit here we’re moving now to the Book of romans which paul wrote and the apostle paul knows what it’s like to walk in the flesh. He knows what it’s like to think, he’s right and walk firmly in what he thinks to be true. And then realized later that it was false, realized later that he was deceived and he says we are debtors not to the flesh, not to live according to the flesh because if we live according to the flesh we will die. If I stayed living down the path that I was living in before christ came and interrupted me. Then I will die then then my my works will produce a death. But if I live by the spirit, I put to death the deeds of the body and then I live and then he says if you are led by the spirit of God, you are the sons of God, you didn’t receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption of sons by whom we cry. Abba father. There is a life of the Spirit. There is a family in the spirit. There is a way of living in the spirit. You know, with family, it’s it’s so funny because uh, there’s a resemblance there. You look like your mother, you look like your father or you walk like your mother, you walk like your father, You have mannerisms like this way or like that way. There’s a, there’s a resemblance in family lines that we can see. There’s a, the genetic makeup that’s passed down from generation to generation. There’s a similarity there and the and the same applies and is carried over when we walk in the Kingdom of God. If you’re led by the spirit of God, there are certain ways that you need to behave, ways that you need to walk characteristics that shine through because you’re not walking in your own strength, you’re walking by the spirit of God. So how does the spirit led life look? A spirit led life is a life of first and foremost, I believe it’s a life of listening, listening, listening, listening. We see in In the book of 1st Samuel, when the Lord Calls Samuel, that Samuel is chilling. He’s doing some work and then he has a nice time to just relax and and get some rest. Uh, it says the in first Samuel chapter three verse one that the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord. Now, Samuel’s case, he was a child of of a of a miracle his mother could not conceive. She prayed time after time. Day after day Lord blessed my wound with the sun. If you do this, I’ll give him back to you. The Lord does this blesses her wound with a son. She has Samuel and she gives him right back to the Lord. He uh grows up at the temple serving in the temple. And the text lets us know that Samuel was serving in the temple, ministering to the Lord in the presence of the priest eli. And it lets us know that the word of the Lord was rare in those days and there was no frequent vision. Now that’s not the case today. But back then the word of the Lord was rare. There was no frequent vision right now. We have, you know the scripture being fulfilled as stated in Joel, I’ll pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your people will dream dreams and see visions and all of these different things that are taking place today. But back then there was no real vision at the time and without a vision, what does the text say? The people perish. And so Israel was in a state of decline and we realize now that Samuel comes into the picture, one that God can trust with the vision, one that God can trust with the detail and he’s laying down to get some rest and the Lord calls him Samuel. And naturally since the word of the Lord was rare, he did not understand that the voice calling to him was God, He thought it was eli. So he runs to eli you lie says look I didn’t call you man go back to sleep. So I’m waking me up in the middle of night, he goes back to sleep and the Lord calls again, Samuel says hey this is this is gonna be L. A. What do you want? Goes to Eli, Eli said stop waking me up man, go back to sleep again. This happens Samuel says, hey you called me and Eli perceived then that the Lord must be calling the boy, he says go back lay down and if you hear that voice again say speak Lord thy servant, here’s the years again. And Samuel of course there speak Lord thy servant hears and the Lord uh speaks a powerful, dreadful word to Samuel. And now this begins the Lord speaking to Samuel as the prophet of Israel. For us today, I want to I say that story because for us today the spirit speaks and moves each and every day in different ways throughout our lives. But are we listening? And when the Lord speaks, do we perceive that it’s the Lord, you can be two people in this equation. You can be Samuel and not really understanding or you can be Eli and also not really understanding either way, you need to understand how God sounds the text says that my sheep will know my voice and so when the Lord speaks, do we understand that it is him who are speaking? Do we understand that is the Lord that is speaking out? We need to understand that a life in the spirit is a life that involves listening and hearing. Okay God, do I make this move, understand that you may not get the clouds open up? Yes, make this move, you know what I mean? That’s extreme. That’s very, very, very, very rare. But a lot of times you may get just a stillness, a piece in your spirit about the situation. You may have a dream about the situation, you may have someone to come up to you that doesn’t really know what’s going on and speak to you about the situation, give you clarity about the situation. You may seek wise counsel, you may open up the word and God instructs you in the way that you should go through his text. And so for us we have to be in a posture, in a position of listening to what thus Saith the Lord avoid listening to how God is moving and what God is doing in our lives. We have to be in a posture in a position to listen. And oftentimes that involves us slowing down because oftentimes our lives can be extremely busy, extremely busy and to listen sometimes that means we have to get still. You know how if you’re driving and listening to the radio, if you go to a, if you’re driving through a specific area and the signal gets cut out and then you have to drive through and it comes back again. Or uh your driver through the ceiling gets cut out and you have to fine tune the dial to get to exactly where it needs to be. So you can hear it clearly. Sometimes life is like that, we have to make adjustments so we can hear what God is saying here, how God is moving here, how God is directing us in our lives. And it’s very important because I said listening, not just hearing when you hear what the Lord is saying. Hebrews chapter three do not harden your hearts because you can hear and not follow through, You can hear and not listen, You can hear and say, oh, you know, that’s fine, I’m not gonna, you know, I’m not gonna do that though, but thanks. But the Lord calls us to listen to here and then to follow through to here and then to to apply to our lives. And it’s then that we see change. It’s then that we see transformation. It’s then that we step out in faith and we see obedience. It’s important for us to be able to number one hear the voice of God. So look through your life and say, hey, I’m I’m moving too fast, I need to slow down and I need to adjust some things in my schedule. So I need to at least you know, for a couple minutes a day, just take a breather and say, Lord speak to me Lord, I’m open to what you have to say. I want to hear your voice or any guidance and instruction. Have some big decisions, I need to hear you today, I don’t want to move unless it’s you, I want to make this decision unless it’s you. It’s a big decision. Lord will be with me. So a spirit that life is one that involves listening secondly, a spirit led life is one that involves letting go, letting go. This is important because we like to hold on, you like to hold on. I believe it was last year I, I preached the sermon series called I surrender and it spoke the whole series spoke about different instances in scripture where we have to realize, hey, I surrender all that. It’s difficult to do because I have to come outside of myself. It’s difficult to do because I want to be in control, but I must surrender. I must let go, jesus says if any man would come after me, he must first what deny himself then pick up his cross and follow me. We want to come. We wanna come after jesus, we want to follow jesus, but are we willing to deny ourselves, are willing to let some things go and it’s so important for us. If we look throughout scripture, we see consistent times and consistent uh stories where people have to let something go. Gideon was so tied to uh threshing wheat in the wine press, So tied to in the book of Judges six. He was so tied to doing things away that was convenient for him. But it didn’t make sense because he was fearful. He had to let go of fear. And we see this because when the angel of the Lord approached him, he said rise up o mighty man of valor and Gideon is like me, oh no, no, no, you’ve got the wrong one. He’s tied to his fear. He says I’m the weakest and my clan. I don’t have the strength to do what you’ve asked me to do. I’m not the one. And we’re realizing now that God sometimes calls us to let go of lies that we’ve believed about ourselves. Gideon said, look, I’m the weakest in my clan. I don’t have what it takes. I can’t do it. And he held on to this for so long. Imagine if he didn’t surrender, imagine if he said, you know what God, I’m I’m the weakest one and and you know that that’s no way to lead. He had to shed that he had to let that go and God put him through a series of tests to be able to be able to say, you know what I can do this through, through, through, through the power of God, You know what I can let go of this fear that I’m facing, you know what I can rise up and helped to free the people of Israel from the clutches of Midian and he did this, but it took him first letting go. And so for us, what are some things we need to let go of? It could be a host of different things. It could be physical things. Maybe it could be things that we own that the Lord is saying, is this, do you own this or does this own you? That’s what it takes to be spirit led. If God is saying, hey released this, we have to be willing to do that. It could be people, maybe we’re holding on to people too tightly. A relationship that may be the Lord is calling us to let go up. Are we willing to release this person and say, hey, they’ll be fine without me. You know, it may be painful for a season, but if this is what God is calling me to do, it’s something I must do to be obedient to the Lord. So it could be things that could be people, it could be whatever, but we need to do the hard work, we need to do the work. But we look at ourselves and say, okay God, uh, am I willing to let this go, do what does this have a hold over me? Or am I just holding this? Am I willing to lay this at your feet in obedience and let it go. So a spirit led. Life is a life of listening. A spirit that life is a life of letting go. A spirit. That life is also a life of learning Of learning of learning Galatians. Chapter five Paul wrote this as well versus 16 through 26. I’m gonna read these 10 verses because they apply today to this. This specific point. Relations 5 16 through 26. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not grant 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 are led by the spirit, you are not under law now. The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, idolatry, Sorcery enmity strife, jealousy fits of anger, rivalries. Dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you as I’ve warned you before that those who do such things 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 have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another, paul says, look, we have to keep in step with the Spirit. We have to walk the way the spirit says, walk, we have to live the way the spirit says live. And it takes some learning, it takes some adjusting. You’re not just gonna wake up one day and say, oh I forgot everything I learned in the world all, you know, 20 years of not knowing christ, 20 years of not uh being serious about jesus, I forgot everything, you know, I I don’t know how to do X, Y and Z. And you have to unlearn and relearn walking in the spirit. It’s like taking baby steps. You ever seen a baby trying to take his first steps? It’s a lot of falling, it’s a lot of stumbling, that’s a lot of trying to, you know, you get the balance first step and fall second step and fall. It’s clumsy with their their limbs because they don’t really know how to how to do it right yet. And so for us oftentimes when we walk in the spirit it might not look or might not feel like it comes naturally, but it’s because we have to learn how to do it. We have to learn this thing and unlearned the old habits that kept us bound the old habits that drove us away from God. The old habits that kept us stuck, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry. All of these things are things that uh that we were proficient in before christ and now we come into christ and God says I need you to unlearn that and learn this, learn how to be patient, learn how to be kind if you use your speech to tear down, if you use your speech as a defense so people couldn’t get close to you and you would get the first hit and God is saying now I need you to learn how to be how to be kind in your speech, I need to learn how to not do that. You have to unlearn some things and re learn now how to follow God in this way and that is not easy. Saints of God, I’m not here saying oh this is a simple thing, whatever we got in it yet and I know it takes time, it takes work, it takes effort. And oftentimes we just think, oh I prayed a prayer, boom, I’m done, I’m good, you may be saved, but that sanctification process takes work. It takes work when jesus says, hey pick up his cross and follow me, that’s not an easy thing, it’s not a heavy, it’s not a light thing to bear pick up this cross and follow God calls us to walk in the fruit of the spirit. If we walk in the spirit then we will produce the spirits fruit. If we walk in the flesh then we will produce the flesh is fruit. The fruit of the flesh will bring death. The fruit of the Spirit will bring life. But it takes unlearning the old ways, unlearning the old habits, unlearning the old patterns, unlearning the old steps, the old things that we used to do, it takes unlearning that and that takes surrender. That takes letting go. That takes listening. All these things are put into place when we get to this point of learning because we have to learn and unlearn unlearn what we used to do and now retrain our minds retrain our brains. I said. We have to be transformed by the renewing of our mind to be able to walk in the fruit of the spirit and realize also that this walking in the spirit, we’re walking in the flesh. It’s not just that I’m going on this journey, it’s sewing, We’re sowing seeds you either sow to the spirit or sow to the flesh. If you sow to the flesh, you reap fleshly rewards and they maybe feel good or gratify for the moment, but the end result leads to death. We see this in the text and we see this in the lives of those around us. But if we walk in the spirit then you reap spiritual blessings as well. And so we have to learn and unlearn and learn to walk again. 4th we have to uh life in the spirit is a life of listening, a life of letting go, a life of learning And a life of number four, Leaning, leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms right. The Book of Matthew lets us know something interesting about the temptation of jesus. After he’s baptized in the Holy Spirit comes upon him as in the form of a dove and you hear the voice of God from heaven say this is my beloved son, in whom I’m well pleased. The text then lets us know that after he’s baptized, that jesus Matthew chapter four, jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now this is is a jarring sentence because it says Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness. To be tempted. I don’t want us to confuse this. It does not say that Jesus was tempted by God because in the Book of James, it lets us know that uh let no one who was tempted. If you’re ever tempted, let no one who was tempted say, oh God is tempting me because God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Them desire when his conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it’s fully grown, brings forth death. So God does not tempt us. But what we realize is that jesus was drawn out into the wilderness for this to take place. And this happens often times we realize in our lives we go into situations where we’re tempted or situations where there’s a trial. The situations where things are are difficult and in those situations, God has not abandoned us. But he is with us as a pillar to lean on with us as a shoulder to lean on. Life in the spirit is a life of leaning because sometimes you don’t feel like you can stand on your own. Sometimes you don’t feel like you have it in you to withstand the temptation by yourself. And so you have the Spirit of God on the inside of you that you can lean on and rely on in difficult times. I’m so grateful that when life gets rough, God does not abandon, I’m so grateful that when life gets difficult, God does not flee the scene, I’m so grateful that when I feel alone, I know that I am not alone because God is with me. And he promised to never leave me or never forsake me. I am so grateful for the fact that God is with me and I can lean on him in the world. In this we see jesus leaning on the scriptures and then afterwards he is comforted by the hosts of heaven and for us as well. That same thing must apply. We must have, we must lean when we are in temptation on the scriptures, lean when we are in temptation on the Spirit of God, lean when we are in temptation on the Saints of God. When we are in trial, understand that we are not going through it alone. The life in the spirit is a life of leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms and so many of us so many times we can get so good at doing life that we think we have it all figured out I’m good. I don’t need no help, I don’t need nobody, I don’t need a thing, I’m good, I got it and situations come and we realized how I need somebody to lean on God is there? I believe that’s why in the Psalm Psalm 23 the text says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. For his name sake! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Saints of God. We must understand that God is with us. Even in the valleys of life, even in the difficulties of life we have someone on which we can lean and the thing is we can put our problems on God, he’s not going to say, this is too much for me, if we have burdens. If we have tried, If we have things that are heavy and weighing us down, he says, come to me all who are heavy burden, all who are heavy laden, I’ll give you rest. So we have someone that we can lean on. We have someone that we can lean on. Life in. The Spirit is a life of leaning. It’s okay to trust God with your problems. It’s okay to trust God with your pain. You don’t have to carry that. It’s okay to lay that down at the feet of jesus. The Spirit of God. Life in the Spirit is a life of Leaning. And finally, life in the Spirit is a life of liberty, a life of Liberty. So we have life in the spirit of the life of listening, life of letting go, A life of learning, A life of leaving, leaning. And lastly, a life of Liberty. Second Corinthians, Paul writes, to whom the Son sets free is free. Indeed, uh, excuse me? No, no. Second Corinthians Chapter 3 17 Paul writes now, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. God calls us to be free. He doesn’t call us to live in bondage. He doesn’t call us to live in shame. He doesn’t call us to live in fear, he doesn’t call us to live constantly angry, he doesn’t call us to live uh constantly depressed. But he calls us to be free and where the spirit of the Lord is, If God is there, if the spirit is moving, then there is freedom, Jesus himself says in John Chapter eight verse 36, this is the text who the son sets free is free. Indeed, God calls us to be free and he comes to set us free. What, jesus mission statement, one of the first things he read uh, when he got up before the people in the Tabernacle in Isaiah chapter 61 He reads a text, an old testament text as a 61, he gets up and he says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison. To those who are bound, he reads this text and he says, look, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, closes the book and walks off, start a riot and they try to throw him off a cliff and all these different things take place. But he says, look, I’m the fulfillment of this text, I am here and the Spirit of God is with me. The spirit of God is on me and I’m anointed to set the captives free. So if you have chains on today, if you’re bound today, if you’re looking for freedom today, look no further life in the spirit is a life of liberty. We have to do the work. Saints of God to get free to stay free to be free to live free. We have to do the work Saints of God because like I said, just because we pray this prayer, the Lord can, can can heal us uh miraculously and turn us from uh people that were dead in our sins to now being alive in christ. But we have to do the work to break some of the chains. We have to say, okay God, I surrender to you and each and every day pick up our cross and follow each and every day strive to walk in freedom. Each and every day strive to walk in victory. And as I close and as the team comes up, I truly believe that if we do this each day, that we can be free. That if we do this and stay committed in community and walk by the spirit of God as sons of God that God can ring true, be true in our lives and we can give him glory as we live this life by the spirit. So my prayer for a sense of God is that we would uh intentionally walk this walk, talk this talk, live this life surrender to the spirit that we would understand that this life is going to be a life of listening, fine tune our ears to hear what thus sayeth the Lord. This life is going to be a life of letting go. That we would not be afraid to live life with our palms open and not our fists clenched to live life with things in our palms and say, hey God, you want this okay, taking the life of letting go. A life of listening, letting go. A life of learning that we would be, as my grandfather used to say, my father says a lifetime learner consistently learning consistently being willing to say God, I want to shed this old behavior and learn how to walk in your ways and your statutes. So a life of learning and then also a life of leaning, leaning on God eat in each and every situation and lastly, a life of liberty. God calls us to be free. God calls us to walk in victory, walk in freedom. Let’s do that today and be encouraged as we live this life by the spirit. Yeah, dear God, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I thank you for your sons and your daughters. I pray Lord that as we live this life in the spirit that we would stay surrendered. Stay committed. Stay faithful to you, be our strength in this season. Be our strength in difficulty. Help us Lord to walk this walk to not just do, but to be to understand that you are our shepherd and as our shepherd God we can follow you. We thank you, we give you glory, we give you honor. We give you praise, encourage us today, strengthen us today, give us hope today as we follow you in jesus name, we pray all of these things. Amen, amen and amen. If you’re here, you’re watching, you’ve heard this word and you realize, hey, I don’t know jesus, I don’t have a relationship with him and I want one, I want to be able to say I’m living a spirit led life and I want to take the first step towards that. If that’s you, I want you to text the saved to the number at the bottom of the screen text text saved to the number at the bottom of the screen people that are willing to speak with you and lead you to a relationship with christ Thank you so much. Hello again and thank you so much for tuning in to the message at Global seven. Once again my name is roderick CAesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry you can text B G T F I 277977 again you can text B G T f E 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you. As you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much.