Taking Back Control

Good Evening,

I want to do something tonight that I don’t know if I have ever done on Sunday night. As you all know there is a struggle for me to be with each one of you involved in your life the way I would like, but I know most of you pretty well but there are many days that I wish that I could be around more often, more personally with each of you. To share what God is doing in my life, to see how things are going in yours, but I know that is getting more and more difficult. Your lives are busy as is mine, to be honest I really struggle to find adequate balance between being a faithful minister of the gospel and a faithful Husband and father as I am sure many of you deal with or have dealt with in your past.

It is very easy in our world today to get off kilter, to desire a vibrant relationship with Jesus but struggle with the daily grind of work life, home life, and church life. So I began by praying and asking God what He desired for me to do and this is what I have felt lead to do. We are going to begin a series tonight on this issue BARRIERS things that prevent us from living the life God intends for us to live. This series is going to be extremely practical, but it is my prayer that we grow together and move toward faithful disciplines in our lives for Gods glory and our good.

This first topic may sound strange at first but I hope by the end it will make a little more sense.

TAKING BACK CONTROL

sometimes your life can get outta control, and we need to stop long enough to reel in, and take control back in life.

You see we can get distracted, we can get overwhelmed, we can get so discrouaged and alone that we lose our way… or we can simply lack the discipline that we need to be what God wants us to be. It can happen to any of us, it can happen in our schedules, where our schedules become so crazy out here we dont even know how to dial in where were supposed to be at the time.

Our diets can get outta control, the belt has to adjusted, somethings gotta give

Sooner or later we have to resolve… its time to take back control of my life!

Everybody needs that, but please know that taking back contorl does not mean taking it back for yourself, but reeling it in one by one and surrendering it brand new to JEsus Christ again.

I want o draw your attention to this evening I want to read one verse initially then I wanna come back and read several others then were going to take a brief tour over to later on. But we have to start at

Galatians 3:3 NKJV

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

In other words now that you have begun your life in the Spirit do you really think your going to become all God wants you to be through the power of your flesh?

So are we flesh people, or are we Spirit people?

When you look at the word of God sometime one of the greatest ways to lkearn the Word of God is to ask the Word questions...

For example:

WHEN DID YOUR LIFE BEGIN WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?

You say what do you mean?

Do you remember when Jesus was talking to a religious man one night named Nicodemus?

He nailed it!

Nicodemus was talking about the importance of being religious, and Jesus confronted him and told him

John 3:3 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Heres one of the greatest religious leaders of the day, and heres what Nicodemus did because he thought with his flesh, he said

“Hey how am I gonna be born again and enter back into my mothers womb?

Jesus said “oh no Im not talking about being born again through your flesh, because there is flesh birth and there is Spirit birth”

Jesus told him, “If your going to see the Kingdom of God your going to have to be born again by the Spirit.”

Meaning you must be born from above...

Now everyone in this room tonight is alive… you have a date of birth… for those of us who know Christ we have a date when we came to know JEsus Christ… now i dont remember the actual date but there was a moment in time when you remember God’s Spirit beginning to change you..

Jesus said its one thing to be born of the flesh but its something else entirely to be born of the Spirit.

THe moment you gave your life to Christ the Holy Spirit came to live within you, and thats when your life of the Spirit began. This is what Paul is dealing with in is it now that your life has begun in the Spirit do you think your flesh is going to get you to where you wanna go? the answer to that is what?

NO!

The problem is that we act like it does sometime.

Theres another question we need to ask though:

WILL THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKE YOU MORE LIKE JESUS, OR YOUR OWN FLESH?

The answer is only the Holy Spirit will make you more like Jesus, you see your flesh, it knows how to do 1 thing.... satisfy itself...

You walk by something that looks good you eat it am I right?.... that’s called satisfaction to the glory of God.

We see something in life we want and we get it, we satisfy ourselves. Every child in that nursery has already got that down pat even if they were just born a week or two ago.

They know how to satisfy their flesh, nobody has to teach us that we are just born knowing how to satisfy our flesh, but satisfying my flesh will never make me more like Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can make me more like Jesus.

How do we know this is true?

Galatians 2:19

Galatians 2:19–3:3 NKJV

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

In other words Paul told them here that if you believe that you can become better and more righteous by living the law and doing the law then there was no need for Jesus to die...

But what does the law do?

The law condemns you, the law results in death, the law reminds you that your guilty and you cannot be what God wants you to be. Thats why the gospel is such good news..

We have the gospel of Jesus Christ

Did you you recieve the power of the Holy Spirit because you lived by the law? Or did you recieve the Spirit because you exhibited faith in grace alone through Christ alone?

Romans tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of GOD!

Then he enters into this big question in chapter 3

Galatians 3:3 ESV

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Galatians 3

Are you going to find satisfaction in this life through the felsh?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! in the flesh we are dead!

If the law was the way to become more like JEsus then Jesus died for nothing!

But the law dont make you more like Jesus, the law reminds you of your need for Jesus!

We are people not of the law but GRACE and if JEsus is in your life it dont matter what youve done good bad or ugly ALL of your sins have been forgiven you have been wahsed in the blood of JEsus Christ yoiu are forgiven!

BLAMELESS!!!

The moment you have been forgiven the Holy Spirit came to live inside of you it really happened JESUS DIED FORE YOUR SINS!

Jesus is your source of your life and salvation.

JESUS SAVES YOU AND GIVES YOU THE HOLY SPIRIT

You say well Kyle thats pretty basic, well yeah but here we have a church who knows what happened at Pentecost! They know what the Spirits power can do, but rather than rely on his power they are trying to perfect themselves through the flesh instead of the Spirit!

So what does it mean to take your life back?

Taking your life back is something we need to look at today

Taking back control of your life, means you recognize the Holy Spirit lives within you, and wants lead you into becoming more like Jesus Christ as you surrender to Him.

Heres the heart of this

If we do not surrender our lives to God then we will lose the battle with our flesh everyday in our life if we do not walk in total surrender to Him then I BECOME MY BIGGEST PROBLEM

MY BIGGEST PROBLEM IS NOT THE DEVIL MY BIGGEST PROBLEM IS ME!!!

YOU CAN HAVE AS MUCH OF JESUS AS YOU WANT, BUT HE WONT FORCE HIMSELF ON YOU.

What we wanna do by instinct is satisfy ourselves but its time that flesh barrier comes down, can I get an amen

Heres our choice

WILL I LIVE BY MY OWN WILL POWER OR IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Well guess what, my will power cannot sanctify me and make me more like JEsus

BUT WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES IN POWER HE CAN GIVE US LIFE AND MAKE US MORE LIKE JESUS!!

THE REAL BARRIER

An undisciplined life

this is why our schedules rule us rather than us ruliung our shcedules

Thats why our diets get out of control because our flesh wants satisfaction

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO SURRENDER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT DAILY?

DISCIPLINE

You know what discipline is?

Discipline is doing something when you know its the right thing to do but you don’t want to do it!

I promise you when we say I’m gonna start doing that in my life… THATS WHY IT WILL FIZZLE

BC the flesh will only satisfy the flesh

Sanctification- the lifelong process of becoming like Jesus Christ

It is a daily process,

Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where you thought it would be ok to coast?

You used to be in the Word of God meeting with Him daily serving him walking with Him but now, you just kind of wanna coast for a bit and youll start back again soon?

YOUR HEADED FOR TROUBLE...

Tonight might be the nigth to say TONIGHT I PUT A STAKE IN THE GROUND I AM TURNING MYSELF OVER TO JESUS FRESH AND NEW

WHERE IS YOUR PLACE?

WHEN IS YOUR TIME?

WHAT IS YOUR REGIMEN?

What are some things that have helped you?

This may be your opportunity to help someone else