January 27, 2025 • 16 mins
What if the battle between flesh and spirit is the most defining struggle of your life? In our latest episode, we invite you to explore this profound question as we recount a series of soul-stirring events within our church community. We've witnessed seven impactful transformations as individuals chose the path of salvation, symbolized through their acts of discarding old vices like cigarettes, vapes, and alcohol. Through the inspiring lens of Apostle Paul's teachings in Romans and Galatians, we discuss the ongoing tug-of-war between the desires of the flesh and the freedom of living by the Spirit. Join us in celebrating the beauty of embracing a holy and authentic life, guided by Jesus Christ's example.
Listen to a compelling personal story that highlights the dangers of lukewarm faith and the powerful shift that occurs with true surrender to Christ. Our conversation challenges societal misconceptions about Christianity, emphasizing that spiritual transformation goes beyond mere labels. We delve into the necessity of maturing in faith, urging believers to move from spiritual milk to meat, and align their lives with the Word of God, as outlined in Romans 8. With metaphors like tug-of-war and A-frame ladders, we unpack the importance of choosing a life led by the Spirit, free from the constraints of the law, and embracing the fullness of spiritual freedom.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
hey, you know what time it is.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's time for another episode pastor to pastor,
that's right, you keep trying toget me with these openings.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I just keep trying to change it up a little bit,
because I don't want you stuckin a rut you know what time it
is I want you to do something alittle different.
So so here we are, man, anotherepisode of Pastor to Pastor,
look, and we are focused on kindof recapping what our sermons
have been like.
So listen, man, let's talkabout what you gave to the
people this past Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, man, we had an amazing service today.
I will tell you.
We ended service with sevensalvations bro.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Bro, that is worth running around.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hold my mic, come on somebody, yeah take two laps
around yeah, let me run aroundyeah, man, it was just this
beautiful thing and I'll talkabout what led people to to make
that decision here in just aminute.
And you know, last sunday wehad people bringing cigarettes
and vapes.
I had messages of people whopoured out their alcohol at home
that day and, uh, you know,today we had somebody to step
(01:04):
and break break on their fateman, I love it and god's doing
some amazing things.
Um, this series and a collectionof talks that we're in on
divided loyalty, man is reallyjust getting us back to the
standard, yeah, the standard ofholiness.
Uh, you know, I told my dadyesterday we were on the way to
the Carolina game, guitar HillsFirst, I know.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
You're my friend, you support me, okay, okay, I
support you, but I can't supportyou in your sin.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Go ahead, son, but you know, these old school
fashions are so stupid.
Oh wow, these old schoolfashions are coming out.
Everything that's from the backin the day is kind of
resurfacing.
Still, I said, you know, whatwe really need to do is bring
back holiness.
Everything else is coming back.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We need to bring back holiness.
You gave them the holinesslesson.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know my daddy, he ate that up.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
He's like you know what.
He's back real good.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But you know, this is about standard, getting the
church where they need to be.
If we're ever going to win theloss, we need to be truly
authentic to who we're supposedto be, and today we talked about
um, our divided loyalty betweenthe flesh and the spirit.
Now I'm not going to read allthe scriptures, because they
were really long.
We did romans, chapter 8, 1 for1 through 14, and we did one
(02:16):
that a lot of people know asgalatians 5, where it talks
about the fruit of the flesh andthen the fruits of the spirit
and, um, you know, I used used arope with some tug-of-war just
to open up the sermon they'retrying to give.
Because this passage ofScripture that Paul is talking
about in Romans 8, he says thatthe Spirit and the flesh I'm
sorry, galatians, that theSpirit and the flesh are
(02:36):
contrary to one another right,they're always fighting.
The flesh is pulling you oneway, the Spirit is pulling you
away.
So I stood in the middle.
I had somebody represent theflesh, somebody represent the
spirit, and it's a constant tugof war between what way am I
going to go?
I know I want to do right, butmy flesh is also enticing me to
(02:57):
do what is not right and what isnot holy.
And so we set this up.
And to truly understand thebattle that Paul was trying to
get us to understand, you haveto really go back to Romans 7.
Romans 7 is where Paul istalking about I want to do
what's right, but I don't.
What a wretched man I am.
(03:17):
Yeah, and I don't want to dowhat's wrong, but I still end up
doing it.
And he's talking about thisbattle of the flesh.
And toward the latter part ofthat section of Romans 7, he
says how miserable I am who willfree me from this misery?
He says thank God, it is JesusChrist.
(03:38):
And I broke this down.
I said you know to reallyunderstand Romans 7, what Paul
is teaching here, you, you gotto look at Romans 8.
You got to look at the earlychapters of Galatians where Paul
is talking about the law.
This is not Paul saying.
He's actually talking about hisold self.
And we'll take this.
You know what?
Paul struggled with his flesh.
(03:58):
I struggled with my flesh.
I'm with good company.
If he wrote the New Testamentand God used him, I can use me
in my flesh.
But Paul's saying no, no, no.
Before Christ sent his spirit,before he died, I could not do
it by myself.
He even brings up the law ofMoses.
I was subject to the law.
Without the spirit I couldn'taccomplish it, he said.
(04:19):
But thank God, my deliverer isJesus Christ.
I no longer have to toil withmy flesh anymore.
The sinful nature is not.
I'm not dominated by my sinfulnature is what he says anymore.
And that's not an excuse.
It's to show you the glorybehind and the easiness of life
when you follow the Spirit.
Yeah, and so you have to lookat Romans 8.
(04:39):
You have to look at all thechapters in Galatians where he's
trying to get the Israelites,the people, to understand why
you cannot live by the law.
The law was good in its time,but Jesus came to make life a
lot easier for us.
Now we know why the law washere.
He gave us 613 laws because weasked for the law.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I thought it was just 10.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Lord, Lord.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We can't even keep 10 .
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right, but you know the law of the Mosaic law, the
law of Moses we asked for if yougo back and study.
We asked for the law RightBecause we wanted parameters.
We needed to know theboundaries to go to make God
happy.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so they asked for more, so it ends up being 613.
There's two reasons why Godgave us the law, and it is one
because we asked for it, but twohe needed to show us that
without Jesus Christ, we cannever please him.
Without the Spirit, we'll neverplease him.
And so and here's the kicker tobreak one is to break them all.
So, like I said, we can't evenhold 10 of them, you think we're
(05:37):
going to not break 613?
.
And so Paul says but thank God,who would take me from this
misery?
Thank God, it's Jesus Christ.
And he talks about the reality.
And so we looked at Paul andhis journey of fighting the
flesh and thanking God for theSpirit, and it's just a
(05:58):
beautiful thing that Paul saidwho's going to save me from this
miserable, miserable life?
I'm in misery right now.
I don't know about you, butwhen I am in misery it's because
of myself.
The one thing that I hate themost is myself, my flesh, but
(06:19):
you, when I fail, God.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'm miserable, like you said.
That's where Paul is like thatI want to do, or I should do, I
don't do.
And what I don't want to do, Ido.
And his reflection is what awretched man am.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I right, yeah, there's nothing worse than
telling God I promise you I'mnever doing this again, please
forgive me.
And two weeks later you're backin the same place.
It's like God, I just feel sounworthy man, I just feel like
and you know, there's so manytimes I feel like Paul where he
says, man, it's better for me, Iwould rather for Christ to come
(06:53):
take me.
You know, I'd rather for him tocome get me, but it's better
for me if I stay and share thegospel.
That's where I'm at.
I'm here for my wife, my son,this church and the reach to
lost.
Everything else doesn't matter,just share the gospel and bring
heaven here on earth.
And so we continue to talkabout that and the flesh.
(07:13):
And I had a friend of mine thatI grew up with.
Well, he's much older than me,but at my home church,
springfield Shout out toSpringfield Church of God in
Laurier Hill.
His name's Jeff Oxendine.
He wouldn't mind me sharingthis story and years ago he
probably don't remember tellingme, but years ago he told me his
(07:34):
salvation story he used to cusslike a sailor.
He's one of those people thatevery other word was a cuss word
and he said he got saved onesunday and went to church, I
mean, and went back to work andhe hit his, his thumb, with a
hammer at work on accident.
He said all I could do waslaugh because I said a word I
never said before and it wasouch.
He said that was not thefour-letter word that I'm used
(07:55):
to saying when I hurt myself.
And it's amazing how God justimmediately changed him.
And that's what Christ does.
When we come in contact withhim and truly surrender to him,
we'll see immediate results.
I think a lot of people usethis sanctification thing as a
crutch to be able to live in sin, to be able to satisfy the
flesh while saying I'm pursuingchrist, right.
(08:16):
And what happens is, when youthink that you can satisfy your
flesh while pursuing christ,you're really stuck in the
middle.
Just think about me in themiddle with that tug of war.
You're not committing to eitherone.
You're not committing to yourflesh, you're not committed to
your spirit.
So you're stuck in the middleand you have no growth.
Right?
And can I be honest with you?
Being stuck in the middle andyou have no growth?
And can I be honest with youbeing stuck in the middle
between pursuing flesh and theSpirit?
You will go to hell.
(08:36):
That is not the way to theFather.
No sin, as you look atGalatians, the sins that you
commit, you will not inherit thekingdom of God.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Oh, so I can't just sleep around with people I'm not
married with.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Heck, no I can't lie.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What about even if it's a little white lie?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well, let me just say this, bro.
I'll use this story and I saidlisten, there's no such thing as
have to save people.
Like you know, it doesn't takeGod three years to free you from
something that you knew heneeded to free you from from day
one.
The reason why you stay boundedin the same mess and in the
same problems, battling the sameissues, is because you would
(09:13):
rather stay stuck.
Have a little bit of jesus anda little bit of your flesh, and
the bible says this.
He says you better be hot orcold, but if you're lukewarm,
I'm going to spit you out mymouth.
If you're stuck in the middle,you find yourself right, god's
going to spit you out his mouth.
Yeah, and so we, we really brokethis thing down of not being
stuck in the middle.
What Paul is teaching us, toreally really start pursuing the
(09:37):
spirit and having the fruit ofthe spirit come out.
Because you know, how do youknow if you're chasing the flesh
or chasing your spirit?
By the fruit you produce.
The fruit you produce will tellon you.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And so go ahead.
It's kind of like this too.
I remember seeing thisillustration.
I thought, man, I'm going tosteal this as soon as I get to
the right sermon.
But I remember this pastor.
He took these two A-frameladders and so he put them
together and he said it's kindof easy when you first start out
to step on one step on theother, step on one step on the
other, but the further up you go, the closer to God you get.
(10:09):
You have to make a decision.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Am I going to follow the flesh or am I going to
follow the spirit?
And so, yeah, you can't clingbetween two ladders.
It only gets you so far.
But God has called us to not belukewarm, to jump all, to burn
the ship, and I'm going to talkabout.
Burn the boat, burn the ship,talk about that.
I'm going to talk about that inmy podcast, or in the one
(10:31):
talking about my sermon, becauseI touched on that today too so
we're right in the same veintogether.
But you have to choose.
Do I want to grow physically ordo I want to grow spiritually?
And if you're a son of God, ifyou're a daughter of God, a
daughter of the king, then youneed to be On the spirit train.
You need to be growing in thespirit and maturing in the
spirit.
Even Paul said when he wastalking about something he was
(10:51):
like I wish you could all eatmeat, but you're still drinking
milk Because you ain't ready formeat yet.
And there comes a point in ourlives when we got to stop
drinking the milk and starteating on the meat.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's right, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I won't steal your sermon.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm preaching for me.
You know there is a thing thatPaul teaches us with the spirit
and the flesh.
And you know we live in asociety where Romans 7 talks
about the flesh and then Romans8 really unifies the body.
When you really look at it,paul was teaching us what a
Christian is.
(11:27):
It's a person that's led by theSpirit.
It's a person that life isaligned with the Word of God.
He breaks it down in Romans 8.
Please go read Romans 8.
It is beautifully written forthe Christian to be encouraged
on the way of life.
And the problem is that theworld, this society we live in,
has their own definitions ofwhat a Christian is.
(11:47):
They think a Christian issomeone that goes to church or
someone that can worship, orsomeone that's generous, or
maybe it's a good person.
And we've we've created thisthing.
And this is the trouble thismight ruffle some feathers for
people who want to live in themiddle is you cannot slap
Christian in front of your sinand think that you're okay,
right.
So let me just say it this waythere's no such thing as a gay
(12:14):
christian.
There's no such thing as aracist christian, a gossiping
christian, a lying christian.
Do you look at the romeadulation's father.
No such thing as a drunkchristian.
You cannot slap christian orchrist on something that is
sinful and think that you'reokay.
What you need to do is slap theblood on it and be set free
from it, right, not live in it.
And paul is teaching us thatthere's only one way to the
Father and it's through the Son.
And he's coming for a spotlessbride a spotless bride.
(12:35):
And so we really dealt withthat today and I came back at
the end of the message and Icame back to the tug-of-war
visual and I came to the middleand I had the Spirit on one side
and the flesh on another, thetug-of-war visual.
And I came to the middle and Ihad the Spirit on one side and
the flesh on another and I saidif you want to get unstuck, you
have to feed the Spirit and youcan get unstuck either way.
(12:56):
You can just go straight to theflesh and it's going to lead.
One leads to, the Bible says,as Paul says, it leads to
separation from God anddestruction.
And then the spirit leads tolife and peace.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
So you choose which one you want.
Choose this day who you'llserve.
But I thought once I wouldalways say the fruit that you
produce they know you by thefruit you bear.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Okay, okay, you know you don't have to question if
somebody's saved.
Just look at their fruit rightthat's why I can't remember who
it was my ben cs lewis.
He said this preach the gospelalways and sometimes use words.
Right, absolutely Our life isthe gospel and that will testify
if you truly are saved Right.
And so I said look, if you wantto get unstuck and you want
life and peace, this is how youdo that.
(13:39):
And so I called differentpeople to come up and come help
me.
On the spirit side, I said I'vegot some accountability coming.
I've got some accountabilitycoming, I've got Bible study
coming, I've got the word coming, I've got a prayer life coming
in and I've got a church thatI'm connected to and then I'm
serving and I've got a wholegroup of people on my spirit
side.
And now I just got this onething on the flesh and that's
that little sinful nature thatlikes to try to creep in.
(14:00):
But when before it was just atug-of-war bounced me, but this,
when the flesh would try topull me, I had the spirit
fighting for me and it couldn'teven move me.
Matter of fact, it was abeautiful thing.
I didn't plan it, man, it was.
It was amazing, the spirit.
They got real happy they gotreal happy.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
These men got rabid.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They pulled and they yanked the flesh away from even
gripping on to me it was just abeautiful representation of how
god will help you.
God the spirit will lead you,he'll guide you.
You just got to submit to itand, man, we just prayed.
I said, hey, if you, if youfeel like you're stuck in the
middle, you know there's somethings, that attitude, those
things that you got to deal with.
(14:39):
And, uh, I, I know I talkedabout cussing.
Like you know, cussingshouldn't come out of it because
cussing shouldn't be in you.
And I had a little little jokeyou know that I used.
You know some people are tryingto be sane in that sinful nature
, trying to come up.
You know when you stump yourtoe and you want to say that
thing.
You always say you know what I'msaying.
Like, for your glory, you startworshiping or you strop
(15:00):
something heavy on your foot andyou're like Mother Mary, did
you know?
So we talked about that, butreally I ended it.
God just really graced theending of this message.
Man, I said, if you're stuck inthe middle and you know, and
I'm telling you that this leadsto sin, sin will lead you to
hell.
If you're stuck in the middleand you're comfortable there,
you're lukewarm and you're goingto go to hell.
(15:21):
When Christ comes back and he'scoming back soon.
If you want to be set free andyou want to start pursuing the
things of the Spirit and reallybe a person that produces fruit,
you've got to come, you've gotto let God really take and clean
you out.
Man, it was a beautiful thing.
Seven people came, gave theirlife to Christ.
God was still moving afterservice.
I wasn't even involved in itand I got pictures of people
(15:42):
breaking their vape and stuff.
It was a beautiful thing andGod really moved, man.
Man, I'm telling you god'scoming back for a spotless bride
and we gotta start preachingsermons that are not about
growing numbers and gettingmoney, but it's about winning
souls, man, that's where we atthat's it.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Gotta be challenging and uh gotta be, growing and
yeah, that's beautiful, yeah,absolutely seven salvations,
though seven it was.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was amazing.
That's great, crazy, but that'smy sermon and and I'm sticking
to it.
Divine and divine in the Lord.
And so, hey, we're going tobless you good.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I'm going to bless you with a priestly blessing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
In Dumbbells, chapter 6, it says May the Lord bless
you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you andbe gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favorand give you peace.
Hey, thank you so much forcatching this episode.
We hope that it's blessed youand we'll see you right here for
next time for Pastor Jay'ssermon review.
You all right over there?
Yeah, I don't know what you'redoing.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
We'll catch you next time, guys.
God bless you.
hey, you know what time it is.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's time for another episode pastor to pastor,
that's right, you keep trying toget me with these openings.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I just keep trying to change it up a little bit,
because I don't want you stuckin a rut you know what time it
is I want you to do something alittle different.
So so here we are, man, anotherepisode of Pastor to Pastor,
look, and we are focused on kindof recapping what our sermons
have been like.
So listen, man, let's talkabout what you gave to the
people this past Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, man, we had an amazing service today.
I will tell you.
We ended service with sevensalvations bro.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Bro, that is worth running around.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hold my mic, come on somebody, yeah take two laps
around yeah, let me run aroundyeah, man, it was just this
beautiful thing and I'll talkabout what led people to to make
that decision here in just aminute.
And you know, last sunday wehad people bringing cigarettes
and vapes.
I had messages of people whopoured out their alcohol at home
that day and, uh, you know,today we had somebody to step
(01:04):
and break break on their fateman, I love it and god's doing
some amazing things.
Um, this series and a collectionof talks that we're in on
divided loyalty, man is reallyjust getting us back to the
standard, yeah, the standard ofholiness.
Uh, you know, I told my dadyesterday we were on the way to
the Carolina game, guitar HillsFirst, I know.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
You're my friend, you support me, okay, okay, I
support you, but I can't supportyou in your sin.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Go ahead, son, but you know, these old school
fashions are so stupid.
Oh wow, these old schoolfashions are coming out.
Everything that's from the backin the day is kind of
resurfacing.
Still, I said, you know, whatwe really need to do is bring
back holiness.
Everything else is coming back.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We need to bring back holiness.
You gave them the holinesslesson.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know my daddy, he ate that up.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
He's like you know what.
He's back real good.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But you know, this is about standard, getting the
church where they need to be.
If we're ever going to win theloss, we need to be truly
authentic to who we're supposedto be, and today we talked about
um, our divided loyalty betweenthe flesh and the spirit.
Now I'm not going to read allthe scriptures, because they
were really long.
We did romans, chapter 8, 1 for1 through 14, and we did one
(02:16):
that a lot of people know asgalatians 5, where it talks
about the fruit of the flesh andthen the fruits of the spirit
and, um, you know, I used used arope with some tug-of-war just
to open up the sermon they'retrying to give.
Because this passage ofScripture that Paul is talking
about in Romans 8, he says thatthe Spirit and the flesh I'm
sorry, galatians, that theSpirit and the flesh are
(02:36):
contrary to one another right,they're always fighting.
The flesh is pulling you oneway, the Spirit is pulling you
away.
So I stood in the middle.
I had somebody represent theflesh, somebody represent the
spirit, and it's a constant tugof war between what way am I
going to go?
I know I want to do right, butmy flesh is also enticing me to
(02:57):
do what is not right and what isnot holy.
And so we set this up.
And to truly understand thebattle that Paul was trying to
get us to understand, you haveto really go back to Romans 7.
Romans 7 is where Paul istalking about I want to do
what's right, but I don't.
What a wretched man I am.
(03:17):
Yeah, and I don't want to dowhat's wrong, but I still end up
doing it.
And he's talking about thisbattle of the flesh.
And toward the latter part ofthat section of Romans 7, he
says how miserable I am who willfree me from this misery?
He says thank God, it is JesusChrist.
(03:38):
And I broke this down.
I said you know to reallyunderstand Romans 7, what Paul
is teaching here, you, you gotto look at Romans 8.
You got to look at the earlychapters of Galatians where Paul
is talking about the law.
This is not Paul saying.
He's actually talking about hisold self.
And we'll take this.
You know what?
Paul struggled with his flesh.
(03:58):
I struggled with my flesh.
I'm with good company.
If he wrote the New Testamentand God used him, I can use me
in my flesh.
But Paul's saying no, no, no.
Before Christ sent his spirit,before he died, I could not do
it by myself.
He even brings up the law ofMoses.
I was subject to the law.
Without the spirit I couldn'taccomplish it, he said.
(04:19):
But thank God, my deliverer isJesus Christ.
I no longer have to toil withmy flesh anymore.
The sinful nature is not.
I'm not dominated by my sinfulnature is what he says anymore.
And that's not an excuse.
It's to show you the glorybehind and the easiness of life
when you follow the Spirit.
Yeah, and so you have to lookat Romans 8.
(04:39):
You have to look at all thechapters in Galatians where he's
trying to get the Israelites,the people, to understand why
you cannot live by the law.
The law was good in its time,but Jesus came to make life a
lot easier for us.
Now we know why the law washere.
He gave us 613 laws because weasked for the law.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I thought it was just 10.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Lord, Lord.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We can't even keep 10 .
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right, but you know the law of the Mosaic law, the
law of Moses we asked for if yougo back and study.
We asked for the law RightBecause we wanted parameters.
We needed to know theboundaries to go to make God
happy.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so they asked for more, so it ends up being 613.
There's two reasons why Godgave us the law, and it is one
because we asked for it, but twohe needed to show us that
without Jesus Christ, we cannever please him.
Without the Spirit, we'll neverplease him.
And so and here's the kicker tobreak one is to break them all.
So, like I said, we can't evenhold 10 of them, you think we're
(05:37):
going to not break 613?
.
And so Paul says but thank God,who would take me from this
misery?
Thank God, it's Jesus Christ.
And he talks about the reality.
And so we looked at Paul andhis journey of fighting the
flesh and thanking God for theSpirit, and it's just a
(05:58):
beautiful thing that Paul saidwho's going to save me from this
miserable, miserable life?
I'm in misery right now.
I don't know about you, butwhen I am in misery it's because
of myself.
The one thing that I hate themost is myself, my flesh, but
(06:19):
you, when I fail, God.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'm miserable, like you said.
That's where Paul is like thatI want to do, or I should do, I
don't do.
And what I don't want to do, Ido.
And his reflection is what awretched man am.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I right, yeah, there's nothing worse than
telling God I promise you I'mnever doing this again, please
forgive me.
And two weeks later you're backin the same place.
It's like God, I just feel sounworthy man, I just feel like
and you know, there's so manytimes I feel like Paul where he
says, man, it's better for me, Iwould rather for Christ to come
(06:53):
take me.
You know, I'd rather for him tocome get me, but it's better
for me if I stay and share thegospel.
That's where I'm at.
I'm here for my wife, my son,this church and the reach to
lost.
Everything else doesn't matter,just share the gospel and bring
heaven here on earth.
And so we continue to talkabout that and the flesh.
(07:13):
And I had a friend of mine thatI grew up with.
Well, he's much older than me,but at my home church,
springfield Shout out toSpringfield Church of God in
Laurier Hill.
His name's Jeff Oxendine.
He wouldn't mind me sharingthis story and years ago he
probably don't remember tellingme, but years ago he told me his
(07:34):
salvation story he used to cusslike a sailor.
He's one of those people thatevery other word was a cuss word
and he said he got saved onesunday and went to church, I
mean, and went back to work andhe hit his, his thumb, with a
hammer at work on accident.
He said all I could do waslaugh because I said a word I
never said before and it wasouch.
He said that was not thefour-letter word that I'm used
(07:55):
to saying when I hurt myself.
And it's amazing how God justimmediately changed him.
And that's what Christ does.
When we come in contact withhim and truly surrender to him,
we'll see immediate results.
I think a lot of people usethis sanctification thing as a
crutch to be able to live in sin, to be able to satisfy the
flesh while saying I'm pursuingchrist, right.
(08:16):
And what happens is, when youthink that you can satisfy your
flesh while pursuing christ,you're really stuck in the
middle.
Just think about me in themiddle with that tug of war.
You're not committing to eitherone.
You're not committing to yourflesh, you're not committed to
your spirit.
So you're stuck in the middleand you have no growth.
Right?
And can I be honest with you?
Being stuck in the middle andyou have no growth?
And can I be honest with youbeing stuck in the middle
between pursuing flesh and theSpirit?
You will go to hell.
(08:36):
That is not the way to theFather.
No sin, as you look atGalatians, the sins that you
commit, you will not inherit thekingdom of God.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Oh, so I can't just sleep around with people I'm not
married with.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Heck, no I can't lie.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What about even if it's a little white lie?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well, let me just say this, bro.
I'll use this story and I saidlisten, there's no such thing as
have to save people.
Like you know, it doesn't takeGod three years to free you from
something that you knew heneeded to free you from from day
one.
The reason why you stay boundedin the same mess and in the
same problems, battling the sameissues, is because you would
(09:13):
rather stay stuck.
Have a little bit of jesus anda little bit of your flesh, and
the bible says this.
He says you better be hot orcold, but if you're lukewarm,
I'm going to spit you out mymouth.
If you're stuck in the middle,you find yourself right, god's
going to spit you out his mouth.
Yeah, and so we, we really brokethis thing down of not being
stuck in the middle.
What Paul is teaching us, toreally really start pursuing the
(09:37):
spirit and having the fruit ofthe spirit come out.
Because you know, how do youknow if you're chasing the flesh
or chasing your spirit?
By the fruit you produce.
The fruit you produce will tellon you.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And so go ahead.
It's kind of like this too.
I remember seeing thisillustration.
I thought, man, I'm going tosteal this as soon as I get to
the right sermon.
But I remember this pastor.
He took these two A-frameladders and so he put them
together and he said it's kindof easy when you first start out
to step on one step on theother, step on one step on the
other, but the further up you go, the closer to God you get.
(10:09):
You have to make a decision.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Am I going to follow the flesh or am I going to
follow the spirit?
And so, yeah, you can't clingbetween two ladders.
It only gets you so far.
But God has called us to not belukewarm, to jump all, to burn
the ship, and I'm going to talkabout.
Burn the boat, burn the ship,talk about that.
I'm going to talk about that inmy podcast, or in the one
(10:31):
talking about my sermon, becauseI touched on that today too so
we're right in the same veintogether.
But you have to choose.
Do I want to grow physically ordo I want to grow spiritually?
And if you're a son of God, ifyou're a daughter of God, a
daughter of the king, then youneed to be On the spirit train.
You need to be growing in thespirit and maturing in the
spirit.
Even Paul said when he wastalking about something he was
(10:51):
like I wish you could all eatmeat, but you're still drinking
milk Because you ain't ready formeat yet.
And there comes a point in ourlives when we got to stop
drinking the milk and starteating on the meat.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's right, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I won't steal your sermon.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I'm preaching for me.
You know there is a thing thatPaul teaches us with the spirit
and the flesh.
And you know we live in asociety where Romans 7 talks
about the flesh and then Romans8 really unifies the body.
When you really look at it,paul was teaching us what a
Christian is.
(11:27):
It's a person that's led by theSpirit.
It's a person that life isaligned with the Word of God.
He breaks it down in Romans 8.
Please go read Romans 8.
It is beautifully written forthe Christian to be encouraged
on the way of life.
And the problem is that theworld, this society we live in,
has their own definitions ofwhat a Christian is.
(11:47):
They think a Christian issomeone that goes to church or
someone that can worship, orsomeone that's generous, or
maybe it's a good person.
And we've we've created thisthing.
And this is the trouble thismight ruffle some feathers for
people who want to live in themiddle is you cannot slap
Christian in front of your sinand think that you're okay,
right.
So let me just say it this waythere's no such thing as a gay
(12:14):
christian.
There's no such thing as aracist christian, a gossiping
christian, a lying christian.
Do you look at the romeadulation's father.
No such thing as a drunkchristian.
You cannot slap christian orchrist on something that is
sinful and think that you'reokay.
What you need to do is slap theblood on it and be set free
from it, right, not live in it.
And paul is teaching us thatthere's only one way to the
Father and it's through the Son.
And he's coming for a spotlessbride a spotless bride.
(12:35):
And so we really dealt withthat today and I came back at
the end of the message and Icame back to the tug-of-war
visual and I came to the middleand I had the Spirit on one side
and the flesh on another, thetug-of-war visual.
And I came to the middle and Ihad the Spirit on one side and
the flesh on another and I saidif you want to get unstuck, you
have to feed the Spirit and youcan get unstuck either way.
(12:56):
You can just go straight to theflesh and it's going to lead.
One leads to, the Bible says,as Paul says, it leads to
separation from God anddestruction.
And then the spirit leads tolife and peace.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
So you choose which one you want.
Choose this day who you'llserve.
But I thought once I wouldalways say the fruit that you
produce they know you by thefruit you bear.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Okay, okay, you know you don't have to question if
somebody's saved.
Just look at their fruit rightthat's why I can't remember who
it was my ben cs lewis.
He said this preach the gospelalways and sometimes use words.
Right, absolutely Our life isthe gospel and that will testify
if you truly are saved Right.
And so I said look, if you wantto get unstuck and you want
life and peace, this is how youdo that.
(13:39):
And so I called differentpeople to come up and come help
me.
On the spirit side, I said I'vegot some accountability coming.
I've got some accountabilitycoming, I've got Bible study
coming, I've got the word coming, I've got a prayer life coming
in and I've got a church thatI'm connected to and then I'm
serving and I've got a wholegroup of people on my spirit
side.
And now I just got this onething on the flesh and that's
that little sinful nature thatlikes to try to creep in.
(14:00):
But when before it was just atug-of-war bounced me, but this,
when the flesh would try topull me, I had the spirit
fighting for me and it couldn'teven move me.
Matter of fact, it was abeautiful thing.
I didn't plan it, man, it was.
It was amazing, the spirit.
They got real happy they gotreal happy.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
These men got rabid.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They pulled and they yanked the flesh away from even
gripping on to me it was just abeautiful representation of how
god will help you.
God the spirit will lead you,he'll guide you.
You just got to submit to itand, man, we just prayed.
I said, hey, if you, if youfeel like you're stuck in the
middle, you know there's somethings, that attitude, those
things that you got to deal with.
(14:39):
And, uh, I, I know I talkedabout cussing.
Like you know, cussingshouldn't come out of it because
cussing shouldn't be in you.
And I had a little little jokeyou know that I used.
You know some people are tryingto be sane in that sinful nature
, trying to come up.
You know when you stump yourtoe and you want to say that
thing.
You always say you know what I'msaying.
Like, for your glory, you startworshiping or you strop
(15:00):
something heavy on your foot andyou're like Mother Mary, did
you know?
So we talked about that, butreally I ended it.
God just really graced theending of this message.
Man, I said, if you're stuck inthe middle and you know, and
I'm telling you that this leadsto sin, sin will lead you to
hell.
If you're stuck in the middleand you're comfortable there,
you're lukewarm and you're goingto go to hell.
(15:21):
When Christ comes back and he'scoming back soon.
If you want to be set free andyou want to start pursuing the
things of the Spirit and reallybe a person that produces fruit,
you've got to come, you've gotto let God really take and clean
you out.
Man, it was a beautiful thing.
Seven people came, gave theirlife to Christ.
God was still moving afterservice.
I wasn't even involved in itand I got pictures of people
(15:42):
breaking their vape and stuff.
It was a beautiful thing andGod really moved, man.
Man, I'm telling you god'scoming back for a spotless bride
and we gotta start preachingsermons that are not about
growing numbers and gettingmoney, but it's about winning
souls, man, that's where we atthat's it.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Gotta be challenging and uh gotta be, growing and
yeah, that's beautiful, yeah,absolutely seven salvations,
though seven it was.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was amazing.
That's great, crazy, but that'smy sermon and and I'm sticking
to it.
Divine and divine in the Lord.
And so, hey, we're going tobless you good.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I'm going to bless you with a priestly blessing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
In Dumbbells, chapter 6, it says May the Lord bless
you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you andbe gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favorand give you peace.
Hey, thank you so much forcatching this episode.
We hope that it's blessed youand we'll see you right here for
next time for Pastor Jay'ssermon review.
You all right over there?
Yeah, I don't know what you'redoing.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
We'll catch you next time, guys.
God bless you.
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