The Danger of Spiritual Self-Help: Why Willpower Cannot Save

• Mindset and the Battle 00:08:28 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines the spiritual battle as a mindset issue, citing Romans 8:5-6 to explain that the mindset of the flesh leads to death, while the mindset of the Spirit leads to life and peace.
• The Nature of the Flesh 00:13:20 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that the flesh is hostile to God and cannot please Him, contrasting this with the believer's new identity in the Spirit.
• The Role of the Holy Spirit 00:16:14 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces the Holy Spirit as the 'game changer' who dwells in believers, enabling them to overcome struggles through divine power rather than self-effort.
• Practical Application of Mindset 00:17:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor outlines specific steps for setting the mind daily, including starting the day in truth and interrupting wrong thought patterns.
• Starting the day in truth 00:20:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor urges the congregation to begin their day by asking God to show them the right path to avoid regret.
• Interrupting wrong thought patterns 00:20:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that while one cannot prevent negative thoughts from entering the mind, one can prevent them from staying by using the truth of God's word to interrupt them.
• Replacing lies with truth 00:22:11 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor instructs the congregation to identify lies from various sources (enemy, self, media) and replace them with the truth of God's word.
• The necessity of the Holy Spirit 00:23:36 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites Romans 8:9 to assert that having the Spirit of Christ is the defining mark of belonging to Him, distinguishing true believers from those who are merely 'spiritual' or church-attending.

• Sermon Illustration 00:10:54 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about driving with his wife using self-driving mode on a freeway in Missouri where the lane lines had been repaved but not repainted, causing the car to drift into a ditch, illustrating how humans drift into bad habits when not focused on God.
• Sermon Illustration 00:20:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a bird flying over one's head to explain that while one cannot prevent negative thoughts from entering the mind, one can prevent them from 'building a nest' by interrupting them with the truth of God's Word.
• Sermon Illustration 00:20:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a piece of wisdom from his father: 'You can't prevent a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair,' illustrating that while thoughts come unbidden, one can choose not to let them settle.

• Pastoral Charge 00:18:29 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor invites the congregation to identify if they are 'night owls' and acknowledges the difficulty of morning routines, implicitly calling them to prioritize starting their day in truth despite these challenges.
• Pastoral Charge 00:19:58 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explicitly asks the congregation if they desire to start their day in truth to avoid regret, encouraging them to adopt this practice.
• Pastoral Charge 00:24:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor begins to invite the congregation to respond, though the specific action is cut off in this chunk.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Just go to Fuse Camp. Did you get that message? Just go to Fuse Camp. What an awesome testimony. A testimony that resonates, I think, with all of us in this room. I think all of us have probably been in a similar state. When is it going to be my time, right? I just don't know my purpose. It feels like I'm struggling, I'm wrestling, and the good news is that part of Britlyn's testimony is that she found God at Fuse Camp. So if for no other
[00:00:32] the reason you want your student to find a relationship with Jesus Christ, to have an experience that will impact them the rest of their lives, do whatever you can do, send them to Fuse Camp where they can meet with him. It will be life transforming. At Genesis Metro, that's what we try
[00:00:49] to do. We try to provide encounters with God. We try to provide environments and experiences where people can encounter the living God. That's why we're here today. Amen. We want to have an encounter. We want to have an experience. Because if we're honest with ourselves, life is pretty
[00:01:05] hard. Would you agree with that? Has anybody just skated through life and you haven't had any issues at all? And you know what? Go ahead and raise your hand if that's you, because we need to become
[00:01:15] friends. No problems. I wish I could tell you that following Jesus is risk-free. But Jesus never said that, did he? He said, if you want to follow me, you're going to deny yourself. You're going to
[00:01:33] take up your cross, the method of execution, and you're going to come follow me. And if you want to save your life, you got to be willing to lose it. And everybody who loses their life for my sake
[00:01:44] will find it. Last Sunday, we began our sermon series. If God is for us, everybody say, if God is for us. With Romans chapter 8, one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible, my hope and my
[00:01:59] desire is that as we get through this sermon series, our response is going to change from if God is for us to since God is for us. I hope every week you are reminded that God is for you,
[00:02:14] that God has moved heaven and earth and all eternity and done everything necessary to make sure that he is with us. Because if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes walking close to Jesus, trying our best to follow after him, brings in or invites in tension and struggle that we had
[00:02:37] never experienced before. I wish I could tell you that wasn't the case. I think the world offers a a nice palette of christianity that says just follow jesus and you'll never have problems again but the reality is that's not true following jesus sometimes introduces a new tension it
[00:02:57] doesn't take away tension but sometimes it introduces a new tension in our rooted discipleship class we have the privilege of guiding students through 10 weeks of discipleship training intensive and i i love leading that uh that course uh because on day one it's so awesome you have
[00:03:20] everybody sitting in the room at tables and everybody's just like let's go come on i'm so ready because usually it happens this last one happened right after uprising anybody in the room go to uprising brotherhood retreat yeah yeah but did that change your life a little bit was it a
[00:03:35] little bit of a mountaintop experience uh are we all here yeah we're all here i knew i don't know how long that's gonna go but we won't let it die um and then so like the the very next week after
[00:03:49] uprising we started rooted discipleship and so here we have all these people they're just like yes let's go let's go let's go into the word let's learn rhythms and habits and patterns of spiritual growth and and we're all excited but every rooted the very first night we always say
[00:04:07] this statement if you have taken the challenge to follow jesus and you've made your faith known to yourself to your family to your church to the community what you've done is you've put a target on your back does anybody know what i'm talking about that that all of a sudden it's you've
[00:04:25] stepped out of the old life and you've stepped into something new. And if you think the enemy is going to let you take over territory without putting up a fight, you're mistaken.
[00:04:37] But walking in Jesus, striving to walk in step with him, all of a sudden introduces us to a new set of challenges. Last week we began this series and we started with verse one, one of the most
[00:04:51] powerful verses of scripture where Paul says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Did anybody remember that verse? Anybody memorize it? I would say, if you're going to do a memory verse, go ahead and plug that one in deep down in your heart.
[00:05:07] There is no condemnation. And we were challenged last week to walk out of here with our heads held high because not because we're good enough, not because we're strong enough, right? Not because we got all our battles licked and there's no struggles anymore, but because if God doesn't
[00:05:25] condemn me, I'm not free to condemn myself. And so we walked out of here last Sunday and everybody had a problem-free week, right? Right. No problems. Some of you hit problems just driving out of the parking lot, right? Like go man, if it's clear, go. So that's my particular
[00:05:48] bad habit. I get aggressive. Listen, we're the third crowd. I can say this. Your job in driving a car is to get from point A to point B as efficient and quickly as possible. So, okay,
[00:06:03] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I feel seen. Thank you. Like, I don't want to spend time in my car. I just want to get where I'm going. Anyways, so no problems, right? When you went to
[00:06:18] work Monday morning, no problems. On the drive home, you didn't have any arguments with your wife, right? Because there's no condemnation, right? Honey, there's no condemnation. Jesus said it. Stop condemning me, right? No. The reality is that old habits are hard to break, that though
[00:06:34] we have the presence of God living in us and we have divine purpose, it doesn't mean those old patterns are gone. Reality is we still struggle in the flesh. So today, we're going to tackle
[00:06:46] question number two. If God is for us, why do I still struggle? If God is for me, why do I still struggle? Why does every day feel like a fight? Why do I still have the same thoughts?
[00:07:06] Why do I keep going back to the same patterns? Why do I feel like everything is working against me?
[00:07:12] Now we know and we'll acknowledge today that the human experience is full of struggle Would you agree with that? Like it doesn't matter who you are Where you've been where you were born how old you are at some point
[00:07:29] There's going to be some level of suffering in this life So the question I want to bring to your attention today is would you rather?
[00:07:38] Would you rather struggle without Jesus or would you rather walk through struggle with Jesus?
[00:07:47] That's the question that I think our text is gonna answer today.
[00:07:52] We begin in Romans chapter eight, verse five, and here's what Paul says.
[00:07:57] Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit have their minds set on the things of the spirit.
[00:08:09] now the mindset of the flesh is death but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace so let's start here if we're talking about struggling let's acknowledge the reality that the word of God puts out before us this is a principle that we need to embrace that the battle
[00:08:28] begins in our minds the battle is a mindset because he said if you if you live according to the flesh, you have set your mind on the things of the flesh. If you live according to the Spirit,
[00:08:44] it's because you have set your mind on the things of the Spirit. The battle starts in your mind.
[00:08:50] It starts with your mindset. I love this word in the Bible, the word mindset, because it means to ponder, right? We don't use that word very often. Everybody say ponder. Okay, so everybody know what
[00:09:03] I mean, it means to dwell on, to ruminate, to process the things that you, the things that you internalize, those thoughts that you tell yourself, the things that you rehearse, what you agree with internally. And so if you could put verse six back on the screen, please, I want us
[00:09:20] to point out the distinction because verse six says those who ponder on the flesh, the result is what? Death. Everybody say death. The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is what? Life and peace. Now, again, if I took a poll and I said, hey, everybody vote for
[00:09:39] which one you want, right? Intellectually, this morning, we would say, well, I don't want death.
[00:09:46] Like, I don't want destruction and damage. I don't want relationships to be destroyed. I actually want life and peace. And right here, Paul tells us how it happens. It's the mindset of the Spirit.
[00:09:57] you don't accidentally drift into life and peace you set your mind there right you set your mind there it doesn't happen by accident if we want life and peace we have to set our mind on the
[00:10:13] spirit our minds are like a steering wheel has anybody ever been behind a driver that you knew without a shadow of a doubt since we're talking about driving that they were distracted or on their phone or, I don't know, worse comes to worse, like intoxicated, like you're behind them
[00:10:33] and you're like, bro, this person is not, they're not keeping it in the lanes, you know? And you're like, man, that's alarming. And it's because when our mind is not focused on what it should be
[00:10:44] focused, we tend to drift, right? My wife and I bought a car recently in the last couple of years that has one of those self-driving modes.
[00:10:54] Does anybody know what that's like?
[00:10:56] Does anybody like it?
[00:10:57] Raise your hand if you like it.
[00:10:59] Okay, I liked it actually.
[00:11:01] I was like, babe, this car drives itself.
[00:11:04] Like you just set the cruise, set the steering and then we're just like off and we're just cruising.
[00:11:10] And at first I was like, man, this is really, really cool.
[00:11:14] Then we took a trip to Chicago.
[00:11:16] She was running the Chicago Marathon.
[00:11:18] And so we were like, we're gonna road trip.
[00:11:19] So we're driving on that freeway, uh, that interstate up through Missouri and it's just cornfields everywhere.
[00:11:26] And we're just, we're just cruising, right?
[00:11:28] The car's driving itself and we're having a good old time.
[00:11:31] Well, there was a portion of the freeway where they hadn't, they had repaved it, but they hadn't put lines back on it.
[00:11:38] And I don't know if you knew this or not, but, but for that thing to work properly, it's got to have lines.
[00:11:44] And so I didn't know that.
[00:11:46] I mean, we're just having a good old time.
[00:11:47] and I reached down to grab my phone or something probably. And, uh, she looked down and when I looked up, there was a speed limit sign right in front of us. Like we had drifted. And so I was
[00:11:59] like, like we, we went down into the ditch at 75 miles an hour and by God's grace, nothing was there. And I would just look ahead and I was like, well, we got to get back up there. So we just kind
[00:12:10] of went back up and just kept on going down our little merry way. But, but that's, but that's what life is like when we choose to disengage from God's spirit. We never drift into anything good.
[00:12:25] We only drift into anything bad. Does anybody testify to that today? Like if I said something to my wife that hurt her feelings or made her mad, do you know what one of the first things I say to
[00:12:37] her is? I wasn't thinking, right? I'm sorry that I said that. I'm sorry that I did that. I just, I don't know what I was thinking. I just wasn't thinking. I just said it. I said something about
[00:12:47] how you remind me of your mother, right? Sometimes I'm getting better, but listen, that's where I go when I'm not thinking. Everybody following me? When we don't think, we end up in bad places. You don't drift into good habits. You drift into bad habits. We default to
[00:13:07] the flesh. We default to the flesh. And so you say, well, if that's what our default is, what's so bad about the flesh? Didn't God create me this way? Isn't this the way? Well, I'm glad you asked. What's
[00:13:20] so bad about the flesh? Look at verse seven. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh, verse 8,
[00:13:39] cannot please God. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Today we're tackling some very harsh truths that may cause us to reflect a little bit, but let's let this one sink in.
[00:13:59] if I'm in the flesh, I cannot please God. It's not that I usually won't please God.
[00:14:06] Sometimes I please God in the flesh. No, he says you cannot. If the flesh is in control, if my mind is in control, if my desires are at the forefront of my thinking and speaking and
[00:14:19] behaving, if my appetite is the overriding motivation for the decisions that I make, Paul says you're not going to please God because who's in control? I am and not him. So you see the problem. You want to know why we struggle? It's because a lot of times we find ourselves
[00:14:37] ruminating with a mindset of the flesh that says I'm going to make decisions based upon what I want not what God wants. So you can have a new spirit and be forgiven but you can still operate with
[00:14:52] an old mindset. The Spirit tells us where to go, and sometimes we don't listen. We talk about going through struggles. We're talking about setting our mindset. We're talking about getting to a place where we say, I'm not going to fight anymore. I'm not going to flee anymore. I'm just going to have
[00:15:13] faith. I'm going to trust God that you know what's best for me, and I'm going to do that which makes you happy. Whatever voice you agree with in your head, that's the direction we end up going.
[00:15:25] You want life and peace? Agree with the Spirit. Give Him power. Set your mind on the truth of God's Word and on His Spirit. You want death and decay and destruction? You want to drive off into
[00:15:37] the ditch and wreak havoc on your new car and then put yourself at risk? Then just give in to the flesh, right? But those are the two options, and that's why we struggle. So, that's the bad
[00:15:50] news. Let's get to some good news. Anybody want some good news today? I want some good news, because I need some help. I need some help. I need to know that it's not all up to me and my
[00:16:00] willpower to get myself out of whatever trial or trouble or struggle that I'm facing. The Word of God continues in verse nine, because Paul says, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the
[00:16:14] spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives in you. So here's the game changer. You see, when you become a child of God, it's not up to you anymore to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and start
[00:16:27] doing all the things that make God happy. The Bible says you can't do it because you're only in the flesh. But what you can do is when you become a child of God, God sends his Holy Spirit
[00:16:38] into your life. And with the Spirit's help, you can overcome anything. We have the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:45] God's Spirit lives in you. The Apostle Paul said it like this in Ephesians 1.13. He says, in Jesus, you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and when you believed. So here's Paul saying, when you believed in Jesus
[00:17:05] Christ, you heard the gospel, you believed the Holy Spirit was sealed. Everybody say sealed.
[00:17:10] That's a permanent seal. He's here. He dwells in each one of God's children. And that's the help we have to move forward. So how do we work in correlation with the Holy Spirit? Well, we have
[00:17:25] to set our minds daily. This is not a one-time, one-size-fits-all type of scenario. When we're born again, we're introduced to Jesus, and we have the Holy Spirit, but don't you know that we have to start recognizing God's hand in our life? Don't you know that every day when we
[00:17:44] face old habits and temptation, that we have to reset our brains to think correctly? So setting your mind daily. Here's what it looks like. Number one, start your day in the truth. Start your day
[00:18:00] in the truth. That is when you wake up, before you talk to your phone, before you respond to that email, before you check your messages, before you turn on the TV, get yourself in the word of
[00:18:19] God. Now, now I know, I know we have some night owls in here. Some of y'all do your best thinking when everybody else is in bed. Is there anybody like that? Like, like, especially if you have
[00:18:29] kids, sometimes that's your only piece, right? Um, but there's a, but there's a critical opportunity if we decide to begin our day in truth. I'm not saying don't end it in truth, but what I am saying is when you, when you roll out of bed, uh, this is what it looks like at my
[00:18:47] house. I roll out of bed. I go to the coffee pot. Well, I brush my teeth first because I got to talk to my wife. You know, you got to do that. Brush my teeth. Then I go to the coffee pot. Amen. Get a cup
[00:18:59] of coffee. Then I go to the table. I set my coffee down. I tell my wife, good morning. How did you sleep? But our conversation really doesn't go much further than that. We sit down at the table
[00:19:11] together. We open our Bibles and we start listening to what God has to say to us. Now, I'm not saying that's the best way. I'm not saying look at us at how I'm telling you that is a learned process
[00:19:20] after almost 33, uh, 30 years of marriage that we better spend time in the word before we try to do anything else. Cause I need my coffee, but I need my Jesus. Are you following me? Start your day
[00:19:33] in the truth. Uh, David, a man after God's own heart over, over 10 times in the Psalms, he said in the morning, in the morning, in the morning, let me read you what he said in Psalm one 43
[00:19:44] verse 8, let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way that I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. I want to start my day like that. Does anybody
[00:19:58] else want to start your day like in the morning? Before I start going, I don't want to get to the end of the day and say, make me know the way that I should have gone, right? I don't want to get to
[00:20:08] the end of the day and have regret. I'd love to start my day and say, God, make me know the way that I should go. Start your day in truth. Number two, interrupt wrong thought patterns.
[00:20:19] When you start thinking incorrectly, when you start having those thoughts come into your brain that are not healthy, that are not helpful, that are actually fallacious or lies from the enemy that cause destruction or harm, when those things come in, you can't keep them from coming in,
[00:20:40] but you can keep them from, from staying there. Does that make sense? Uh, my dad, uh, borrowed this wisdom and he told it to me time and time and time and time again. And he always said,
[00:20:51] you can't prevent a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair, right? Sometimes those thoughts come in and you can't help it. They just come in,
[00:21:02] but you know what you do have the ability to do? You have the ability to send it on out, right to let it come in but then to send it on out to interrupt it with the truth of god's word
[00:21:13] paul said it like this in second corinthians 10 3 through 5 he said for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not with the flesh
[00:21:24] but we have divine power to destroy strongholds we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
[00:21:39] How many thoughts do we take captive to obey Christ? Paul said every one. If it's a bad thought, you take it captive and you make it submit to the obedience of the authority of the
[00:21:52] word of Jesus. Start your day in the truth. Interrupt wrong thought patterns. And then number three, replace the lies with truth. Whatever lie the enemy has told you, whatever lie you've told yourself, whatever lie the TV tells you, whatever lie the Instagram influencer tells you,
[00:22:11] make sure it's truth and replace it with the truth of God's word. When your mind says one thing, you answer it with what God has already said. Jesus said to his church, if you abide in my word,
[00:22:25] You are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
[00:22:32] So I want to ask you this morning, I'm not asking you if you struggle, I'm asking when you struggle, what do you keep setting your mind on? What do you set your mind on? We can't keep feeding our
[00:22:48] mind one thing and expect our lives to move in a different direction. I love this text because Paul goes through and explains the contrast of a life a mindset of the flesh versus the mindset
[00:23:01] of the spirit and he said if you have Christ's spirit in you and all God's people in the room said yes and amen but then he has a sentence that's almost ominous and it's right in the
[00:23:18] middle of our passage for today and and I would I would be negligent if I didn't deal with the truth of this sentence in Romans chapter 8 verse 9 here's what Paul says if anyone does not have
[00:23:36] the spirit of Christ he does not belong to him so I want I want to ask the question I have to ask the question do you have the spirit of Christ do you have the Holy Spirit living inside you
[00:23:57] because in a room this size, I can imagine that some of you think, well, I mean, I'm a spiritual person. That's what the world loves to say these days. I'm a spiritual. I'm not asking if you're
[00:24:10] a spiritual person. I'm not asking you if you go to church every now and then. I'm asking you, does God's spirit live inside of you? And so I want to do this today. I want to ask you to please
[00:24:24] bow your heads and close your eyes. And I want a moment of reflection, personal reflection, personal reflection. I'm not asking you what kind of church you grew up in. I'm not asking you how faithful you are to attend. I'm not asking if you did any good works. I'm asking you,
[00:24:43] does God live in you? Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, born again, born of the spirit. Paul said, when you heard the word of truth and responded in faith, you received the
[00:24:56] Holy Spirit of God. And so with your eyes closed and your heads bowed, I want to ask you, have you ever prayed to accept Christ and trust him with your life? Because now is the time. You want the
[00:25:10] Spirit of God dwelling in you. It begins by trusting Jesus Christ alone as your Savior and as your Lord. And so you pray a prayer to God right now that sounds just like this. God, I know I'm a
[00:25:31] sinner. I know I've done wrong things. And God, I know every time I try to do the right thing, I keep doing the wrong thing. And God, I know that no amount of good works will ever cause me to earn
[00:25:46] heaven. I need to be forgiven. So God, I know what Jesus did for me. He died on the cross, bearing my sin. He was buried and he rose from the grave on the third day,
[00:26:02] justifying me. I trust in Jesus. Say it out loud. I trust in Jesus. Forgive my sin. Give me life. I will follow you all the days of my life. Amen and amen. Now look at me.
[00:26:26] If you prayed that prayer today for the first time, or maybe you've prayed it before, but you've never told anybody, I want you to tell somebody. When you walk out of these doors, there's a
[00:26:38] welcome desk. There'll be people standing. And if you pray to receive Christ, stop and tell them, I pray to trust in Jesus Christ today. My life is different. I submit and I surrender to Christ
[00:26:48] who gives me salvation wouldn't you want to face every struggle in life with the hope and the promise that God is with you every step of the way wouldn't you want to face every trial and
[00:27:03] tribulation knowing that you're not alone you may be the only person facing it your family may be gone you may be sitting at your kitchen table all alone but you're not alone if you're in Christ
[00:27:16] his spirit is in you he is there with you forever and for always he is permanently sealed and I want to I want to preach a sermon now because I want us to look at the text some of the most powerful
[00:27:33] verses in this passage today that tell us what kind of power we're dealing with what kind of power resides in the child of God. It's not a spark. It's not a little flame. It is the third
[00:27:50] person of the Trinity, God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit who has now moved in and taken up residence in your life. So, so you want to face struggle with confidence. You
[00:28:03] want to walk out of here knowing that there is nothing that you will face that is too hard for God, understand, it's the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you.
[00:28:12] I want to read the rest of our text, verse 10.
[00:28:16] Because Paul says, now if Christ is in you, and those of you who prayed that prayer this morning and have trusted in Christ, Christ is in you.
[00:28:25] He is in you.
[00:28:27] And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
[00:28:35] Verse 11, you want to talk about power.
[00:28:39] if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead lives in you then he who raised christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you
[00:28:57] this week go back and read that verse again and again and again and again if the spirit who raised you you see what kind of spirit are we talking about what kind of power are we talking about
[00:29:10] We're talking about resurrection power that lives inside each child of God.
[00:29:15] We're not talking about motivation.
[00:29:17] We're not talking about positive thinking.
[00:29:19] We're not talking about human effort.
[00:29:21] We're talking about the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
[00:29:24] When Jesus gave his life on the cross of Calvary and he died and he was buried, he didn't need self-help.
[00:29:30] He didn't need willpower.
[00:29:32] He didn't need the latest influencer to tell him the truth.
[00:29:34] He was dead.
[00:29:36] You understand?
[00:29:37] He was dead and needed to be brought back to life.
[00:29:43] And so the Bible says the Holy Spirit entered into the tomb and rolled away the stone and raised him and he walked straight out.
[00:29:51] And here's what Paul says.
[00:29:52] Paul says that spirit lives in you.
[00:29:56] He lives in you.
[00:29:58] We're not talking about self-help.
[00:30:00] We're not talking about motivation.
[00:30:02] We're talking about resurrection power that lives inside each of us.
[00:30:06] today, you're not fighting sin with your willpower. You're not battling temptation with your personality. You have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you. And so I want to ask you, are you listening to your flesh or are you listening to God's spirit? Wouldn't you rather
[00:30:32] listen to the spirit? Wouldn't you rather not give another moment to your flesh and say, no, no, the flesh is weak. I'd rather yield to the spirit of Christ. Wouldn't you rather listen to the voice of God who dwells in you and say, I know what I'm facing is tough, but with God's help
[00:30:53] who raises people from the dead, anything is possible. Which voice are you listening to?
[00:31:02] The voice of the flesh says, this is just who you are. The Holy Spirit says, no, this is who you were. The voice of the flesh says, you're never going to change. And the voice of the Holy Spirit
[00:31:16] says, I raise dead things. The voice of the flesh says, I'm in this tomb and I can't get out. And the voice of the Spirit says, get up and walk out. That's the power that we're talking about today.
[00:31:28] The power of the Holy Spirit. And listen, listen, I'm done. I'm done. But let me say this one more thing if we're talking about a spirit that has the ability to raise dead bodies what do you think it
[00:31:40] can do for your marriage it doesn't raise dead marriages what do you think it can do to a man who's about to quit he raises a man who's about to quit he raises hope and he raises prayer he
[00:31:52] raises passion he raises women who are exhausted and don't know where to turn he brings back the prodigal he brings back those who are far from him that's the power of the holy spirit church
[00:32:04] He lives in you. Let's stand up and let's worship him together.