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Week number eight in our series that I've entitled
Spiritual Growth. Spiritual Growth. Now, if today's
your first time with us in this series, it's
okay, because there's going to be plenty of background
information to get you up to speed. That's just
the way we do it. We don't leave you in the dark,
all right? But if you would like more information
after today, all the other messages, the first
seven messages are available on our podcast.
All you have to do is search Elation Church anywhere
you listen to podcasts, and you can get this
whole series or any other series The last two
and a half years, I guess, we've had every service
on our podcast. So let's dive right in. 1 Corinthians
2, verse 14 says this. The natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Everybody say natural man. Let's go to chapter
3, verses 1 through 3. And I, brethren, could
not speak to you as spiritual people, but as
to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk and not with solid food. For until now you
were not able to receive it. And even now you
are still not able. For you are still carnal.
For where there are envy, strife, and divisions
among you, are you not carnal and behaving like
mere men? We could even replace that mere with
natural, like in the first verse that we read.
So these verses tell us that there's ultimately
three types of people. Three types of people.
The first one is a natural person. Everybody
say natural. This is a person who is not born
again. They're not a believer. They're not a
follower of Christ. We were all like that at
one point. Without Christ. And if that's where
you are, all you have to go by or live by is
what seems right to you. What seems right in
your own eyes. Whatever feels good. Surely you've
heard the phrase, if it feels good, do it. Just
living by what feels good or by what seems right.
Because they don't know, the Bible says in the
verse that we read, they don't understand spiritual
things because they're spiritually discerned.
Then we see the next type of person. A carnal
person. Everybody say carnal. Now a carnal person
is a Christian. Because Paul is speaking to the
Corinthian believers, and he's calling some of
them carnal, or the majority of them carnal.
They're just living according to their flesh,
just like the natural people. You can't tell
any difference between a natural man and a carnal
Christian. Can't tell any difference. That's
sad, right? This person is born again, but they're
immature. They live their lives on a childhood
level spiritually because they don't feed on
the Word of God or grow. So that's a carnal person.
Everybody say carnal. And then the third type
of person is a spiritual person. Everybody say
spiritual. A spiritual person is a Christian
who is led by the Spirit of God through the Word
of God. This is a growing Christian. I'm not
saying it's a Christian who has arrived, because
none of us have arrived. We all have room for
improvement. Look at the person beside you and
say, I have room for improvement. Don't tell
them they have room for improvement. Tell them
I have room for improvement. But it's a person
who desires to know God, desires to follow God.
It's a person who loves the Word of God. It's
a person who walks in the Spirit and they're
led by the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual person.
So we see those three types of people. One is
natural. A person who does not know God. One
is carnal. A person who is a Christian, but you
can't tell it. And then we have spiritual. Who
do you want to be? Or who are you? Where does
this spiritual growth occur? Where does it occur?
How does it occur? 1 Thessalonians 5 .23. Tells
us something about ourselves. Now may the God
of peace make you holy. Everybody say set apart.
Everybody say different. May the God of peace
make you holy in every way. Now listen carefully.
And may your whole spirit and soul and body be
kept blameless. until our Lord Jesus Christ comes
again. So in this verse, we see that we are a
three -part being. Three parts. It's right here.
It's easy. You can just see it. Now, you are
a spirit. A lot of people never realize this.
But we are spirit beings. We are. We're created
in the image of God. And God is spirit. We are
spirit beings. That's what separates you and
me from every other living thing on this earth.
Every other breathing thing on this earth. You
know, I love my grandpuppy, but my grandpuppy
is not a spirit being. She's not a spirit. People
are spirits created in the image of God. That's
who you are. But we're not born knowing that.
Because our spirit is not alive unto God, because
in the Garden of Eden, God said, if you disobey,
If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, you will surely die. And that's what
happened. It was a spiritual death. A spiritual
death that separated humanity from being connected
to God. Alive unto God is probably a better word.
At that point, Adam and Eve were no longer alive
unto God, and they ran and hid themselves. So
you are a spirit. Everybody say, I am a spirit.
Everybody say, I have a soul. And I live in a
body. So our spirit has salvation. Our spirit
comes alive unto God. That's what we mean when
we say we're born again. Because our spirit was
not alive unto God and then at salvation our
spirit becomes alive unto God and we are born
again. We are united with Christ. And the Holy
Spirit moves us at salvation. He moves us. from
being immersed in sin to being immersed in Christ.
And at that point, at the point of salvation,
some people have a hard time receiving this,
but it's very scriptural. I can show you a lot
of verses, but that's not what I'm preaching
today. If you come to Alation Church a lot, you
know that I preach about this a lot. Raise your
hand, raise your hand. We preach about this a
lot. So I can't preach this whole message, but...
You, at the point of salvation, you put on the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You become
completely righteous. You cannot be any more
righteous than at the point when you are born
again. You do not grow in righteousness. If you
say, but Dean, I need to grow in righteousness,
that means that you're going to attempt in the
flesh to be more right with God than Jesus is.
Does anybody want to attempt that? To be more
right with God than Jesus? Because we're clothed
in His righteousness. His righteousness. We've
taken off our righteousness like a dirty garment.
And we put on Christ's righteousness. And every
time God looks at us, He sees Jesus. He sees
the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for
me on the cross. We are righteous. We are complete.
Everything that the Bible says that we have in
Christ or we are in Christ, all those things
are ours at the point of salvation. So your spirit
is complete and you are a spirit. But you have
a soul. Now our soul is comprised of three things
as well. Our soul is our mind, our will, and
our emotions. Let's break it down. Our soul is
our thought life, our desires, and our feelings.
Now how many of you know that when you got saved,
none of that got saved? Hello? The day I got
saved, my thought life was not perfectly holy.
You know, it didn't just whoo. My desires didn't
just completely change to where I don't have
any desires that aren't holy desires anymore.
My feelings. I didn't automatically not let negative
feelings control me anymore. All those things
need some work. And that's where spiritual growth
concern is. That's where it happens. That's where
it takes place, is in your soul. Spiritual growth
takes place in your thought life, in your desire
life, in your feeling life. That's where spiritual
growth takes place. That's where it takes place.
The difference between a carnal and a spiritual
believer is the spiritual growth or lack thereof
in the soul. That's the difference. That's the
difference. And I'm going to share some other
things with you. Spiritual maturity is not measured
by how long you've been a Christian. I've been
a Christian 51 years and 3 weeks. That doesn't
mean I'm spiritual. It's not about how long you've
been a Christian. It's not about how often you
attend worship services. I mean, if there was
a plaque in heaven for attending worship services,
I'm going to get a big plaque. Because for 20
years, I averaged over 200... Well, maybe not
all 20 years, but... One year, I went to over
280 church services in one year. That's more
than some people do in 10 years. Thousands and
thousands and thousands. That doesn't mean that
I'm spiritual. Being spiritual is not measured
by how much scripture you can quote. Has anybody
ever met some really mean people who could quote
some Scripture? Well, Paul called the Corinthians
carnal because they were envy and strife and
division. That's the fruit of being carnal. So
it don't matter how much Scripture you can quote.
Now listen to me. I believe it's very important
to know Scripture. I believe it's very important
to come together with other believers to worship
God. I believe it's very important to be a Christ
follower, to come to know Him. That's the ultimate
important thing that can happen in anyone's life.
But none of those things mean that you are spiritually
mature. None of them. Jesus gave us some insight.
Luke 6, verses 43 and 44. He says this, A good
tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad
tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known
by its own fruit. So this whole series is about
spiritual fruit being the marker of spiritual
maturity. That's what it really is. How much
spiritual fruit is evident in your life? How
much spiritual fruit is growing, constantly growing
in your life? That'll tell each one of us how
spiritual we are. Because spiritual growth is
measured by spiritual fruit, constantly increasing
and always evidenced in our life. Now this is
a series in self -examination. No one needs to
think, boy, I wish this relative was here. I
wish this neighbor was here because they really
need to hear it. Have you ever sat in church
and said, boy, I wish this person was here because
they really needed the message today? Well, here's
the deal. God knew that they weren't going to
be here and God knew you were going to be here.
So we are obviously the people who need to hear
it. Because we are the people who are here. It's
self -examination. Don't look at the person beside
you. We're all a work in progress. We're all
at different positions in this race. But we're
all a work in progress. None of us have arrived.
Galatians 5, 22 and 23. We finally made it to
verse 23. Seven weeks. Eight weeks. This is week
eight. Because we have one more. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.
We're going to stop at gentleness this week.
A doorway in your house, like when you were growing
up or when you were raising your children, did
you have a doorway that you would mark how tall
the child was? Maybe right down their age. And
you gauged their growth. I'm here today to tell
you that if you want to gauge your level of spiritual
maturity or gauge your level of spiritual growth,
what's your love life look like? I'm not talking
about your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband
or wife. I'm talking about your love walk with
everyone. Not just the people in your house.
The people who are not easy to love that you
come in contact with. How's your love walk? How
is your joy? What's your level of joy? If you're
here today and you say, well, you know what?
Life's just beating me up and beating me down.
I don't have any joy. That's because you're trying
to find joy in the wrong place. Because the joy
of the Lord is your strength. It's your strength.
No matter what's going on around you, you can
have the joy of the Lord. You can walk in the
joy of the Lord. As a matter of fact, the kingdom
of God is about righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Spirit. And if our encounter with
God, relationship with God, if our church life,
if we're going to call it that, doesn't include
peace and joy, we're searching after the wrong
things. We're emphasizing the wrong things. Because
we have to understand that we are the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. My righteousness doesn't
depend on my ability to perform. And we walk
in the peace of God, and we walk in the joy of
the Holy Spirit. If those things aren't there,
let's back up and get those things before we
move forward. Because it's the fruit of the Spirit,
too. The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy
and peace. Peace. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And then we get to the ones that make us a little
uncomfortable. Patience. Patience. Patience.
It's a fruit of the Spirit. Kindness. Goodness.
And then we saw when we looked up the word, it's
faith and faithfulness last week. Faith and faithfulness.
Because the majority of the times that word shows
up in the Greek, it's just translated faith.
And then today, we're going to talk about gentleness.
Gentleness. Everybody say gentleness. Here's
the Greek word, praoutes. And here's what it
means. It means gentleness. It means meekness.
It means mildness. It means humility. I'm going
to say that again. Gentleness, meekness, mildness,
and humility. Let's talk about it. Because when
most people hear the word gentle, they immediately
think, ah, it's weak. If a person is gentle,
then they're weak. They're passive. They're timid.
Maybe they're fearful. But this word in the Bible
is not weakness. Gentleness is strength under
control. It takes more strength to be gentle
than it does to fly off. It takes more strength.
Jesus was gentle. And powerful. At the same time.
Hello? He was never weak. We can't say that Jesus
was weak. But he said of himself that he was
gentle. Gentleness is gentle strength. This comes
from Helps Word Study. Gentle strength which
expresses power with reserve and gentleness.
I like that. Just copied and pasted it right
out of a concordance. Gentle strength, which
expresses power with reserve and gentleness.
Gentleness reflects the character of Jesus. Matthew
11, 28 and 29. You've probably memorized this
verse. You've probably quoted this verse. But
sometimes when we read through a Bible verse,
we'll miss some important parts until the Holy
Spirit illuminates them for us. Then Jesus said,
come to me, all of you who are weary and carry
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you. Let me teach you. Listen to
what he says. Because I am humble and gentle
at heart. And you will find rest for your soul.
You will find rest in your thought life. You'll
find rest in your desires. They won't control
you. Desires that are not of God won't control
you. You'll find rest in your emotions. And your
feelings. You can find rest. Now Jesus could
be real harsh. And he could tell you what you're
doing wrong. And tell you, you better straighten
up. But that's not gentleness. That's not gentleness.
We looked at it in kindness. verse. It just popped
in my head. It's the kindness of God that leads
people to repentance. He's gentle. He is humble
and gentle at heart. And make sure you get a
hold of this. The creator of the universe who
spoke everything into existence, the king of
all kings and the Lord of all lords, the one
with all authority on heaven and earth, described
His own heart as being gentle. My heart is humble.
I am humble and gentle at heart, Jesus said.
Gentleness is being humbly patient. Gentleness
is not being quick to react when you are provoked.
How quick are you to act when you are provoked?
Gentleness is not being quick to react when you're
provoked. One of the clearest evidences of spiritual
growth is learning how to deal with people in
the right spirit. If we don't deal with people
correctly, we're not very spiritually mature.
Because see, spiritual maturity doesn't have
a whole lot to do with a church service going
on. It has to do with life. And how the Word
of God is applied in your everyday life. Because
we can all sit here. Here's something that I've
realized during this series. I am a whole lot,
I think, let me get this right. I think that
I'm a whole lot more spiritual than I actually
am. And I dare say I'm not the only one in the
room. Because when we think of how spiritual
we are, we start forming a list, right? I got
this, I do this, I do that. Ask yourself how
spiritual you are when you're driving down 27
or I -4. Because that's where you're going to
find out how spiritual you are. When somebody
does something to offend you, you're going to
quickly see how spiritual you are when you have
the opportunity to be offended. See, immature
people, immature people, they're the ones who
respond harshly. They're the ones who react quickly.
They're the ones who speak recklessly. They're
the ones who handle everybody very carelessly.
That's spiritual immaturity. I mean, if this
isn't going to show up in our lives, we're just
wasting our time. It's got to show up in our
lives. I mean, I can't tell you how long I thought
if I just went to church every Sunday, I'm doing
good. And it had no impact on the way I lived
or what I said or how I acted. I mean, I was
a preacher's kid. But it wasn't making a difference
in my life. You can go to church all your life
and think that you're very spiritual, but if...
If it doesn't come out in the way you deal with
people, you're just immaterial. You're just carnal.
And you might say, how dare you talk to me that
directly? Well, I'm just trying to shake you
a little bit so that you can wake up. Because
we all need to wake up at some point. I would
say I was a Christian... 10, 15 years going to
church three times a week before it started really
connecting with my life. And I began to move.
I mean, 15 years, that's a long time. Gentleness.
We don't like this word. Being gentle is being
submissive and compliant. Another word for being
submissive and compliant is being tamed. So a
gentle person is a tamed person. And some of
you are going, what in the world? Well, let me
introduce you to Calvin. That's Calvin on his
knees. And that's Honey beside him. When I was
in Myrtle Beach for nine years, Calvin and Honey
would preach one Sunday a year. And Honey did
most of the preaching. Because we had an American
Heart Association horse event where I was a chaplain.
And he's a cowboy preacher. Calvin is. But Honey
would pretty much present the whole message every
year. And Calvin would just interpret Honey's
message. Because if he didn't interpret it, people
could come up with their own interpretation.
That was the most trained horse I've ever seen.
I mean, there would be 300, 350 people in the
room. And the honey would just... Honey was completely
obedient and completely tamed. Calvin would tie
her up in a rope and just walk. I mean, you know,
what horse likes to be tied up in a rope? I mean,
it's feet. Just tied up, his neck tied down to
her feet. What horse likes that? He would just
look a certain way and the horse would do what
he wanted the horse to do just by the way he
looked at the horse or maybe some little sound
he made with his mouth. I mean, she was completely
obedient and completely tamed. How many of you
know a horse? is big enough and strong enough
to do what it wants to do. I'll never forget
in a full gallop on a horse and it decided it
didn't want me on its back anymore. And it just
put on the brakes and lowered its head and I
went tumbling. I'll never forget the trail horse
who's supposed to be tamed and obedient, just
follow the tail of the horse in front of it,
but not mine. It had been raining and my horse
refused to walk through a mud puddle. And it
took me up a mountain into a cedar tree. Even
though I had its nose on its left shoulder, it
kept climbing up the mountain to the right. Horses
can be dangerous. Have you ever seen a wild horse?
Have you seen movies about a wild horse and somebody
has to break that horse? It can be very dangerous.
A trained horse can possess incredible power,
but strength becomes useful only when it comes
under control. I'm going to say that again. Strength
only becomes useful when it comes under control.
An untrained horse can become destructive. A
person who's not gentle is a person who can be
very destructive. A person who is gentle is a
strong person, but they're under the control
of the Holy Spirit, under control of God. Gentleness
is not weakness, it's power under control. Gentleness
is evidence that the Holy Spirit is governing
your emotions, governing your speech, and governing
your interactions. That's what gentleness is.
And each one of us will know that spiritual growth
is happening when our reactions soften up a little
bit. When our words become wiser. When our anger
slows down. When our response becomes calmer.
When our treatment of other people reflects how
Jesus would treat them more consistently. That's
when spiritual growth is happening. We're not
going to immediately jump to the ultimate of
this in one service. I wish I could just get
everybody up here and pray for you and everybody
would leave. with the gentleness of God. But
that's not the way it works. It's not the way
it works. It's going to take some effort on your
part. It's going to take some surrender on your
part. It's going to take some work on your part.
Without gentleness, listen, without gentleness,
every inconvenience becomes a conflict. Every
disagreement creates division. Every frustration
becomes explosive. When we don't have this spiritual
fruit evident in our lives, our lives are about
conflict, division, and explosive emotions. Gentleness.
absorbs the pressure of life. How many of you
have pressure sometimes? How many of you face
a little bit of pressure in this life? Well,
gentleness is the fruit of the Spirit in us that
absorbs this pressure that comes against us.
It slows our reactions, it softens our responses,
and it protects our relationships. Gentleness
does. Sign of spiritual growth is when you stop
reacting to every situation impulsively. Look
to the person beside you and tell them, slow
down. Slow down. Slow, where does it go? Slow
your roll. Slow down. Gentleness is something
we need to chase after. Everybody say chase after.
1 Timothy 6, 11. It says this, pursue righteousness
and a godly life along with faith, love, perseverance,
and gentleness. So gentleness should be something
on our radar that we want in our lives, that
we're going to chase after. When we find out
about it, we're going to chase after gentleness.
It's also something that we're going to have
to put on. Everybody say put on. Colossians 3
.12 says this, Since God chose you to be the
holy set -apart people He loves, you must. Don't
say this would be a good idea if you feel like
it. Does it? No, it says we have to. We must.
You must clothe yourselves with tender heart
and mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness. And
patience. Don't leave your bedroom without putting
it on. Don't leave your bedroom without putting
on these things. Every day. We have to put them
on. And then gentleness is something we have
to act in. James 3 verse 13 says this, if you're
wise and understand God's ways, prove it. By
living an honorable life, doing good works with
the humility, same word, even though it's translated
humility right here. Depending on what version
you're reading, it could be humility, it could
be meekness, it could be gentleness, but it's
the same word. Doing good works with the gentleness
that comes from wisdom. Does anyone want to be
wise? A wise person acts doing good works with
gentleness. Boy, it got quiet in here. What did
Jesus have to say about meekness, gentleness,
and humility? Here's that same word again. Everybody
say same word. Same word is found in the Beatitudes.
Matthew 5, 5 says this. God blesses those who
are gentle, humble, meek. God blesses those who
are gentle. Same word. For they will inherit
the whole earth. What a promise. It's not only
a sign of spiritual maturity, it comes with an
added blessing. That's the blessing, right? God
blesses who? Those who are gentle. Extra blessing.
What is the blessing? They will inherit the whole
earth. When you study those words, here's what
you come up with. You're going to be blessed
with having a comfortable, undisturbed enjoyment.
in yourself, your friends, and your God. Does
that sound like something that's worth having?
To have comfortable, undisturbed enjoyment? What
does meekness, gentleness, and humility look
like? What does that look like? In everyday life.
What does that look like on Monday at work? What
does that look like on Tuesday driving down I
-4? It means that you're not easily offended
or angered. Is that a description of your life?
You're not easily offended or angered? If gentleness
is there and growing, yeah, that's going to be
what your life looks like. Staying calm when
others are outraged. I'm just letting this sit
in. I've got something else to say. I'm just
letting you think about it a little bit. It's
a whole lot easier to get outraged when somebody
else is getting outraged. When somebody else
is ramping up, it's easy for you to just jump
on the bandwagon to ramp up with them. Hello?
If somebody's screaming at you, it's a whole
lot easier to scream back. Hello? But gentleness,
if that spiritual fruit is evident in your life,
you're the one who stays calm and tries to diffuse
the situation calmly. Gentleness addresses issues
when it's necessary, but gentleness does it calmly.
Everybody say calmly. Not emotionally. Not emotionally.
Gentleness quietly submits to God and His Word.
That's what gentleness looks like. And the goal
of this whole series... The goal of spiritual
fruit and spiritual growth is for you and me
to become more like Jesus. The reason why a lot
of people don't want to go to church today is
because they've been before. They met a lot of
people who weren't like Jesus. And they say they
don't want anything to do with it anymore. That's
sad. That's sad. I'm glad that you're here today
because everybody in this room has been hurt
or offended at some point. I don't believe anybody
can be alive in this room and go to church that
you didn't have an opportunity to be offended.
But you overcame that. Because your relationship
with God was more important than being offended.
I'm talking now more to the people who are watching
on Facebook and YouTube. Your relationship with
God should be of greater importance than any
offense from your past. And I said it. The goal
of spiritual growth is to become more like Jesus.
And here's what we've learned during the series.
Fruit grows naturally where a healthy connection
exists. Jesus said, I'm the vine. You're the
branches. And he said, if you will abide in me.
He didn't say if you'll come visit me every Sunday
morning for an hour and a half. He said, if you
abide in me, my word will abide in you. Your
life's going to produce a lot of fruit. A lot
of fruit. You'll be fruitful if you abide in
Him. Gentleness is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit takes hold of the things of God,
the things that God has for us. He's the one
who takes hold of those things. In previous weeks,
I've read verses and, you know, I just... I'd
stand here and preach two or three hours, but
you wouldn't sit there that long. Listen, the
Holy Spirit, the Bible tells us this. He's the
one. He's the God. He is God who takes hold of
all the things of God, all the promises of God,
all the provisions of God, all the character
of God. He takes hold of those things, and then
He's the one who declares them to us. He's the
one who makes. These promises come alive on the
inside of us. Have you ever read a Bible verse,
and you might have read it for the hundredth
time, and then all of a sudden, something just
comes alive out of that verse. And it's like,
that's the Holy Spirit illuminating that in our
hearts. That's what He does. He takes the Word
of God, the promises of God, the blessings of
God. He declares them to us. He intensifies them.
He makes them known to us. He is God. And the
person of the Godhead who connects us, because
He's in us, He connects us to the things of God.
So this is what it comes down to. Spiritual growth
is not about more self -dedication. Nobody in
this room can say, I'm going to be more gentle
this week. I'm going to take hold of my life
and I'm just going to be gentle because the preacher
told me that Jesus is gentle and I need to be
more like Jesus. So I'm just going to do all
I can to be gentle. That's going to lead to frustration.
Because you can't live the Christian life in
the flesh. You can't do it. Just go ahead and
surrender it up and say, I can't do it. But if
I'm connected with Jesus and I'm acknowledging
Him, and if I'm acknowledging the indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit, God is with me.
If I'm acknowledging Him and then something happens
where I have the opportunity to be angry or offended
or hurt, When that opportunity comes, if I just
say, Holy Spirit, I don't have it in me to deal
with this myself. But thank you for being in
me. Thank you for working in me. Work through
me. Because I'm about to bust. But instead of
busting, I'm going to look to you. Because you
are my helper. You are my comforter. You are
my guide. I don't want to say anything that you
don't want me to say right now. Spiritual growth
is not about more self -dedication, self -determination,
more self -effort. It's about abiding more in
Christ. Abiding more is kind of an odd... It's
like just abiding in Christ. That's like your
address. That's where you live. You live. Not
visiting. Not visiting on Sunday morning or visiting
when you read the Bible for 10 minutes. Okay,
God, that's all the time I've got for you. Now
I'm going to go ahead about my own life, God.
No, abiding in Christ. Acknowledging that God
is with you and God is in you. Acknowledging
His indwelling presence. Walking with Him. That
means we're doing life with God. That's where
the disconnect is. We've got to do life with
God. There's not a moment in our day that we're
not acknowledging God. I mean, if Jesus was in
the car with you, would you drive any different?
If Jesus was eating with you at the restaurant
and you wasn't getting the best service, Would
you act different? If Jesus was in a room and
you had the opportunity to be offended, would
you take it? Get this. He's closer than that.
God is in you. If you're a Christian, God is
in you. He's always there. Always. But we have
to acknowledge the indwelling presence of God.
Just acknowledging Him will steer us towards
all of these fruit that we've been looking at.
They'll be more natural. Because we're flowing
with Him and He's flowing through us. We're walking
in the Spirit. We're yielding to His leading.
He's always leading. We're not always following.
Listen. If you feel beat up right now because
I'm saying these things, I don't believe you
being beat up is coming from me or my words.
You being beat up is coming from the accuser
of the brethren who's saying, yeah, you are a
sorry Christian. You can't... Do it. You're just
a piece of work. You're not gentle. If that's
what you're hearing in your mind right now, you
shouldn't be. Because the Holy Spirit is trying
to talk to you and He's saying, you know, let's
face it where we are, but Let's move on up. Let's
move on up. This is what I have for you. This
is the life that I've provided for you that I
want for you. Come on. He's like, come on, let's
go. Let's go together. Let's come on up. That's
the correct mindset. When the Word of God begins
to confront you, He's confronting you because
He wants you to come on up. The measure of your
gentleness, the measure of your meekness, your
mildness, your humility is a good measure of
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