Learn to Live in Step

Brent Ingersoll · Tidal Church Moncton · April 16, 2023 · Spirit series

Brent Ingersoll teaches from Galatians 5 that real freedom is not living by every urge but walking in step with the Holy Spirit. As we learn to follow His rhythm and put self aside, the fruit of the Spirit grows in us.

More from Brent Ingersoll · The Spirit series

Topics: Holy Spirit, Identity, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] So good to be at Moncton Wesleyan Church. This church is amazing, seriously. It is just, it's been a leader in the region, you know this, those of you and part of it. If you're new, you maybe don't know this. This church has broken barriers and ceilings for the church in the region for decades, and it's just exciting to look back on what God has accomplished here, but you know, it's more exciting. God saves His best work for the last days. And there is more ahead of you for this church than what has happened. And I'm really excited about what God is doing in your midst, but I'm pumped to be here. Bonjour. Amazing. Franco fun. Jetham day I call on mlcame sweet Ray Rusty.

[0:45] So we're gonna stick to English, if you will. Allow me. If you have a Bible, go to Galatians chapter 5. We're gonna hang out there today. It's the only scripture, just in Galatians. We're gonna hang there. So it's like a handful of chapters, maybe six or seven chapters in the New Testament. Just open it up. We'll have it on the screen as well. And we're gonna look at that. A couple weeks ago, I was coming out of the gym, because I go to the gym, obviously. Joking, joking. I was coming out of the gym and I ran into a lifelong childhood friend. Guy actually grew up here at Moncton Wesleyan, and we bumped into each other, and we both celebrated the fact that we recently both turned 40. You can't believe that either, can you? Yeah, both are 40. We just sort of encourage each other. Hey, let's try to stay healthy before we get too old to make a difference. And I left that conversation. I'm driving back up Hampton Roads to my office, and I got thinking, he has way more muscles than me.

[1:49] We both go to the gym. We both value our health. But one guy looks one way and another guy looks the other way. Why is he in better shape than me? We both do the same thing. Have you ever had that realization? Maybe for you, it wasn't fitness, or maybe it was. Maybe you and your spouse, you know, you both value the same things, and yet one's experiencing one level of health and the other's experience. Yeah, you ever wonder why? Or maybe, maybe it's in your finances. You know, maybe you have the same job as another guy, and they seem to have more money than you, and you can't put together why is it. We have the same job. We have the same basic income. Why do they seem to flourish in a way that I'm not? Or maybe it's in a marriage, maybe for you.

[2:36] It was, you know, you and your spouse got married at the same time as your friends, and your friends seem to be thriving at a level that you're not. You ever noticed this in life? How just because you have the same vision and hopes for your life doesn't necessarily dictate your level of fulfillment and fruitfulness and health. And I have found the same to be very true in my Christian life. Have you? Maybe some of you who are brand new to this, and this is super exciting. I know there's a bunch of you that just kind of came for the first time last week. Some of you were brand new Christians. Here is a pro tip for you. I'm gonna talk about this today. It's not just a matter, your Christian life and the amount that you flourish in your life with God, and how many, you know, God wants you to flourish.

[3:24] Amen. Like what Mark said, Pastor Mark said in that song is 100% true. There are storms and tests and trials in your life, but it is unto your flourishing. God is not a God who takes. God is a God who gives, and He wants your life to abound in good works and in the fruit of the Spirit. He's after that for you. But how many you have been around church long enough to know that two people can both come to church and both believe in Jesus and have radically different results. Have you ever noticed that? Maybe you have in your own life. You got saved, you were in the same Alpha course, and one person, you see, they're just like on fire, and God is setting them free from addiction, or their lives are being transformed. You can see it happening in real time, and you are just as stuck as the day you were when you first met Jesus.

[4:16] And it's amazing to see how long you can go with no results. And I want to talk to you for a few minutes about this, and I want to give you a principle that we're gonna work from today. And that is this: that the quality of your life as a believer and a follower of Jesus is not simply a matter of how much you believe in Him. It's actually more a matter of how you learn to abide with Him. That the fruitfulness and joy and the life that God promises you as a believer isn't necessarily just about your vision of wanting to flourish. But it's about how you learn to walk day-to-day in step with His presence and His Spirit. Jesus once said, "Apart from Me you can do Yeah, nothing. But if you remain in Me, you will bear much."

[5:11] Yeah, some of you know that one. You say it differently. My life is the sum and the substance of my ability in every season and circumstance to live close to Him, that ultimately is going to determine your level of joy. I mean, how many know God promises us joy, peace, freedom, life, patience, gentleness, self-control? But all of those things are contingent upon not your ability to believe that they're true, but your ability to abide in the One who produces them. And I want to talk for a few minutes about this. If you have a Bible, go to Galatians chapter 5. Now, you're all looking way too comfortable in these Lazy Boy seats. So stand to your feet for a minute. I'm serious.

[5:56] And let's read the Word of God together. Can we do that? I'll read, you listen, and say amen when you feel like it. All right, Galatians chapter 5. Let's read it. This is the Word of the Almighty. How many know you'd stand up if the king came in? So how much more should we stand up and reverence for the Word of the Almighty? Amen. Galatians 5, Paul says it like this. This is the letter from Paul: "For you were called to freedom. This is what He called you to, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

[6:46] For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." So you might have a vision of how God wants to fulfill your life, but there's a war going on. You need to take note of. "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." Next, live verse 19. "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." But here's the invitation. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," is that, I feel like, the breath of fresh air? "Gentleness, self-control; against such things."

[7:45] There is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. This is God's Word. You may be seated. I want to give you realiz- ations, based on what Paul's telling us here, to help set you up to experience the fruit of the Spirit and live in step with the Spirit, and what that looks like and how that functions. And the first realization is this. For you note takers, I've got points for you. You can write them down, eat your heart out. Here we go. Realization number one: We have to realize first and foremost, if you're ever gonna flourish, you're gonna see the results in this walk with Jesus that you'd hope to see and that He promises that you can see, you're going to have to have the realization that what the world calls freedom, the Word actually calls slavery.

[8:41] And we actually need to untangle some of the definitions and language around what real freedom is actually all about. How many of you have noticed in culture and in society today that oftentimes you scratch your head and you kind of think, are we sure that this is a good idea, and are we sure that that's what we want, and are we sure that that's what we mean by this? You ever feel confused just watching the news? Like, how in the world do we end up with that conclusion? We live in a time where language has been weaponized and confusion is rampant. Amen. Anybody ever read the book (it might be dating myself here) 1984 by George Orwell? Yeah, it's a great book. Actually, you should check it out. But in it, it's this allegory about how malevolent powers will weaponize language to breed confusion and control in society, and it has a lot to say with our society today, but even speaks to how the Devil himself will weaponize confusion and call things as though they are even though they're not.

[9:46] And so in the book 1984, Orwell talks about how, you know, the government are saying, you know, slavery is actually freedom and war is actually peace. Ever noticed how even now we find the redefinition of words happening in society? And we're living in a moment where we're now redefining up is actually down and down is actually up, and in is out and out is in, and left is right and right is left, and we don't know up and down. We're in this moment of mass confusion, and it's breeding a lot of deception and dissension and disintegration. And this is ultimately what Paul is trying to untangle, because this was happening in the first century as well. This is not a new problem. Go figure. You know that every problem we are going through right now is already addressed in your Bible. It's not good news.

[10:41] And so Paul's telling us you have to untangle this. Now, what's going on in Galatia? They are dealing with the problem of slavery, and they are deceived and thinking they're free, and there's two forms of slavery unfolding. The first is this. Some of them, we find out, and this is a scathing letter. You can go home and read it, like Galatians 1 through 3. I mean, Paul, if Pastor Jim ever talked to you like Paul talks to the church in Galatia, you would not be installing him next week. Like, it is rough. Like, he's saying, "You fools," and he's talking to them very harshly because Jesus came and set them free from legalism and religion. And now you have a group of people that are adopting the old Jewish legalistic ways. And Paul comes in and says, this is not what Jesus died for. He died to set you free from you having to work under the law of your own flesh to somehow earn right standing with God.

[11:42] And so he comes in, he corrects this legalism, and maybe you've experienced that in your own life, or maybe you grew up in church, and you know how easy it is to fall into that form of slavery that Jesus died to set you free from, that somehow we convince ourselves that I've got to be a really good person so that God likes me. But that's actually the exact antithesis of the gospel. God loves you. And once you have a revelation of the love of God, it causes you to change. Oh, that's pretty good news. So Paul comes and he tries to correct this one issue, but then he shifts gears. He chastises the religious legalists, but then he flips over to the other side, to another form of slavery. And this one has a lot more to do with where we are at in society today. Bring back up, if you would, verse 13 in Galatians 5. So he talks to them about this idea of the flesh, and he says, "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh." Now, what is he referencing? There was a group of people in the church in Galatia. Now, this would never happen in our day.

[12:56] But in Galatia there were some people that were misinterpreting the grace of Jesus as to do whatever they want. And so they were saying and coming to conclusions such as, "Well, Jesus died to forgive me, so it doesn't really matter what I do. He's gonna save me. He's already saved me." And so they were misinterpreting the gospel, giving themselves over to the cravings of their flesh. And so Paul says, you are actually called to freedom. You weren't called to the flesh, and he's trying to give them some insight here. And that is this: that what the world calls freedom, in other words, the opportunity to satisfy the cravings of your flesh. How many, you know, that is ultimately what the world calls freedom.

[13:45] What are some of the mantras that we use today? You do. Yeah, do you, boo. Right? Stay true to... Yeah, live your truth. If it feels good... Yeah, and there is a sacrosanct gospel of secular society that tells you that real freedom is having no constraints on your inner urges. Am I right with that? That is exactly what the message of society would tell you. And Paul comes in and he says, if you are operating thinking that you're free just because you can satisfy every inner inclination of your gut, you're not free at all. You're actually a slave, and you don't even know it.

[14:39] Look what he says down here. He says, "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit." It's warring against what God wants to do in your life. And here's the crazier thing: you are bound to it. You have the illusion that you're free, but you can't even control yourself. You don't even have the power to say no or deny yourself. And here's what I want to untangle for you for a minute. In our culture, our culture would tell us that real freedom means the absence of constraint. Is that not what it is? "Don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me no. I am a free person, and I'm going to do what I want as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. I'm gonna satisfy my inner urges." But the cultural lie that Paul is exposing here is actually that that is a form of slavery, because logic isn't directing you and love isn't directing you. The cravings of your flesh are directing you, and you don't know how to even say no, you're controlled by it.

[15:43] You're stuck under the impulse of your urges, and you are not free at all. And the absence of having constraints is not what freedom is. Let me put it this way. How many of you have never really thought about it like this, but it actually requires restraint to operate in real freedom. What I mean by that, let me use marriage as an example. Just recently, in fact, I walked into our... find my wife watching The Bachelor. After my judgmental scorn, I said, "Why do you watch this?" Can I say "crap" in your church? Sorry, I did. Why do you watch this? And she's like, "Oh, it's just mindless." And she goes, "And babe, it makes me so thankful that I have you."

[16:41] Right? Like, okay, keep watching. Right? But what she's getting at though is she was remembering, you know, that's a tough season to be a young adult out looking for love and to find that right person. But ultimately though, what is marriage? Marriage is the binding of my soul and my life to my wife. It is the voluntary, I am now. I belong to you, and I am constraining myself in this relationship, forsaking all others. And that brings a unique freedom that only comes through that marriage. Does that make sense? So in other words, you have these constraints that bring and produce real freedom. So I want to burst the bubble this morning. Just for some of you, this might just be the only thing you remember, but do not believe the lie that the absence of constraint is real freedom.

[17:39] That actually can be slavery to destruction, and there are all kinds of areas in your life. You might not think about it this way, but it is the rules and the laws and the constraints that actually set you free. That actually allow you to live. Like, maybe some of you are more financially minded. How many, you know, it's your ability to restrain yourself that sets you free to accomplish things financially that you couldn't otherwise. Some of you are a slave to your urges, and your money follows that, and that's why you never have any. I'm serious. This is the principle. Let me quote Tim Keller. If I'm confusing you, he'll bring some clarity because he just knows how to say things better than I do. Look what Tim Keller says: "Freedom is not what the culture tells us. Real freedom comes from a strategic loss of some freedoms in order to gain others.

[18:30] It is not the absence of constraints, but it is choosing the right constraints and the right freedoms to lose." That's helping somebody. It's this idea of bringing alignment into the right areas of constraints and the right areas of freedom. And this is ultimately what Paul is getting at. He's saying, if you are operating to gratify, solely gratify, the cravings of your flesh, you are a slave to your urges. And what happens? Here's my second realization that you need to get here today. If you are a slave to your flesh, ultimately, that leads to destruction.

[19:16] The end result of giving ourselves over consistently to the flesh is destruction. Let me read my point how I wrote it: We must realize that the life enslaved to the flesh ends in destruction. But here's the invitation: life in step with the Spirit leads to everlasting fruitfulness. So we start now. We start now to parse out selective freedom and selective constraints. Now this is going to help some of you that are just beginning your journey with Christ. This is now the growing, ongoing process of learning to come into alignment with Christ so that He can fulfill everlasting fruitfulness in your life. But if you don't, there is an antithesis. There's a dark side to this invitation, and that is, it leads to destruction. Now, let's look for a second at the list of things that Paul talks about that are the works of the flesh. To some, you're like, "Well, how do I know if I'm operating under the flesh?" Well, Paul lists a whole bunch of them. Let's look at them.

[20:23] Verse 19: "The works of the flesh are evident." Then he breaks it down. I've highlighted here in four different categories. There's the category of immorality here in, like, the purpley blue. There's the category of idolatry here in the teal. There's the category of animosity here in yellow. And then the last is this idea of intemperance in green. Let's break it down for a second. Immorality. He says, here's how you know if you're operating in the flesh. Well, here's the acts are evident: one, sexual immorality. This is the Greek word porneia. This is where you get the idea, the word pornography. It's not exclusive to pornography, but it's this idea of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and looking at somebody as a material, not a human being, as something to be consumed, not as someone to be adored and honored.

[21:20] That's ultimately what he's getting at: sexual immorality, impurity. What's that? It's the word defilement. It is what impurity means. Some of your translations might say that. Has anybody ever sinned and felt dirty? Yeah. No, you can be honest in church. "I've never sinned." You just lied. And you're a sinner. No, what happens, especially those of us who follow Jesus and we have some dialogue with the Holy Spirit, after you sin you feel this sense of dirty, the sense of icky, and you need the grace of God to remind you that I have been washed clean and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah! But that defilement, that's what comes from the flesh. He talked about sensuality. What's that? Some of your translations say debauchery. What is debauchery? Ultimately, it's a celebration of what is sinful. What is debauchery? You see it all over our culture right now.

[22:20] I mean, talk about the celebration of what is sinful. It's debauchery to have men dressed as women doing dances in front of kids in libraries. That's debauchery. That, I'm trying to not be political. That's debauchery, like think Sam Smith at the Grammys, the celebration of what is sinful, the proliferation of what is sinful. That's debauchery. Then he gets into stuff that you might think doesn't have anything to do with you. But it does. He talks about idolatry. What's idolatry? Idolatry is to put anything created in higher value than the Creator Himself.

[23:05] And how many, you know, it is very easy to fall into idolatry. For some of you, your idol is on your phone. It's on Instagram, scrolling for the likes. Those likes are idols. For some of you, it's your money. For some of you, it's your business. For some of you, it's a relationship. It's easy to put something ahead of Him. That's what idolatry is. What? Sorcery? You know, some of you're like, "Now surely I'm not struggling with sorcery." I did not see anybody dressed like Gandalf when I came in today. There's no wizards here. Does your CR group have a wizard Recovery Group? No. No, none of us. I think that's funny. None of us think that we struggle with sorcery, but what's he actually getting at? Well, the Greek word here is pharmakeia, and so we get the word pharmaceuticals, and ultimately what he's getting at is when you use materials in this world to manipulate outcomes, it's sorcery.

[24:12] So some of you don't think you're messing with sorcery, but if you are leaning into alcohol so that you can find some peace and go to bed, pharmakeia. Drug use is pharmakeia. It's anything we look to to help medicate or to help control or manipulate outcomes. That's where we get witchcraft from. This is also connected to abortion in the first century occult. Like, that's what pharmakeia is getting at. Then he goes on in the yellow. Here's something I want you to notice. Are you still with me? Is this... I've got a couple minutes left, okay? Here's what I want you to notice. It goes from kind of these personal things, but then, you know, what sin does, you know, what the flesh does, as we begin to gratify the cravings of our flesh, it begins to put us at odds with each other.

[25:04] Have you noticed this? Okay, married couples, time to be honest: none of us love our spouse when they're being selfish. And the same can be true of you. Like, none of us are like, "I just love when she's so self-centered. She makes me just head over heels." Why? Because the flesh and gratifying the cravings of our flesh actually brings division. And that's what he's getting at here. When you gratify the cravings of your flesh, it puts you at odds and brings relational destruction. Why did churches get torn apart? Because they are living to gratify the cravings of their flesh, and it's creating factions. That's what's happening. That's what he's getting at. So it creates rivalries, dissensions, division, and then he gets into, like, jealousy, drunkenness, orgies. That's giving yourself over to the flesh; it creates all kinds of destructive communal stuff.

[26:05] And we're seeing that in our society, aren't we? Like, is it lost on anybody? And some of you, you're like, you're never going to invite you back after this. Fine. Have you noticed, like, when I was young it was just the LGBT, like, oh, he's going there. Okay, he's going there. Now it's the LGBTQIA plus, to R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y. They keep adding categories. Do you notice this? It's not a statement on people in that community. It's a statement on what happens when we gratify the cravings of our flesh. It creates more categories and factions. It doesn't bring unity, it brings division. And so the reason we are in a society that is increasingly divided and fractured, it's what happens when eight billion people set out to gratify the cravings of their flesh: eight billion sovereign selves on this planet.

[27:04] That's ultimately what's happening. And Paul warns us. I'm going to be done in a second, but he warns us, if you are operating, consistently gratifying the cravings of your flesh, you might not think it's a big deal because you don't notice the subtle shift that's happening to you. But if you fast forward enough time, you're going to crash. This is what James talks about, like, sin when it is full grown leads to destruction. C.S. Lewis, in one of my favorite books of all time, The Great Divorce, check it out. It's an easy read, super super awesome. He says this, though, talking about this exact principle: "Taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning the central thing of your life either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature.

[27:57] To be the one kind of creature is heaven. That is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness and horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness." And here's what Paul's trying to help us understand: each of us, at each moment, is progressing to the one state or the other. So in other words, those little choices that you and I make every single day, whether or not we're going to gratify the cravings of our flesh, they are leading us somewhere. And Paul is trying to warn the church in Galatia, and he's trying to help us understand that if you consistently gratify the cravings of your flesh, its end is destruction. It says in Proverbs, there is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in destruction.

[28:50] And so Paul's trying to parse these two things out. Now some are like, "Okay, so tell me. Tell me the good news. I want to live the other way. What does that look like?" Let's bring it home. For good. Let's bring the next slide up. Let's look at the fruit of the Spirit. He says, verse 22. So he warns us in verse 21, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Let me just say this. And maybe this is the thing that's going to land with you, and maybe this is what I need to kind of put in the atmosphere here. You don't have to live as a slave to your flesh.

[29:44] Let me just say it again for the powers and principalities and Moncton to hear. We don't have to live as slaves to our flesh. But Jesus died to disarm the rulers and authorities of this world, and He died to not just set us free from the dark powers. He died to set us free from ourselves. And He will give us the power to produce in us what we can't for ourselves. Here's what I love about this. Do you notice the difference in language? He says, note the works of the flesh. It's mechanical. It's industrial. It's almost mathematic. Then it's like, it's the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not you go into Sobeys and saying, "I want to pick a little bit of joy today. I'm gonna pick a little patience." No, the fruit, what it means is it's the offspring.

[30:42] It's the offshoot. It's the byproduct, the produce of knowing Jesus. It is the natural outcome of you and I learning how to know and love and listen to and walk with Jesus day by day. So for some of you, might resonate with this. I grew up in the Wesleyan Church, and though I'm grateful for a lot of it, one thing I had to, like, kind of untangle was the Holiness movement. And the Holiness movement was this idea about, like, kind of having a lifestyle that mirrored Christ, and that's good. We're supposed to be imitators of Christ, right? But what I caught, and I don't blame anybody. I don't think this my pastor ever taught this, but what I caught, and maybe some of you resonate with this, was I need to be a very, very good person so that I too can have the fruit of the Spirit, and I'm going to work very hard to be holier than anybody else.

[31:40] It's like, so I'm not going to drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls who do. Right. That's what I caught. But what that did was it produced this thing inside of me that said, I like, my holiness is the result of my efforts. That's a lie. My holiness is not the result of my effort to be holy. My holiness is the result of my effort to know the One who is holy. And as I know the One who is holy, it changes me. Like, there's a little plaque at the camp I go to, and love any Beulah people. Hey, all right. I love Beulah, but I hate one thing. There is this little plaque on the way in that says, "Dedicated to the pursuit of holiness since whenever, 6 BC." I don't know.

[32:33] And I'm like, I look at that and I think, if what you mean by that is if holiness is a someone, then yeah, let's get after it. But if holiness is a standard to achieve, you are just falling back into slavery. If holiness is a person named Jesus that I need to pursue, then amen. But if holiness is how good of a person I can be in my own strength, to hell with that. It's slavery. And this is what Paul is inviting us to. Let me wrap up. Look at this. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have, say it with me, crucified the flesh. That's strong language. What does that mean? We've crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the Spirit. Let us also keep in step with the Spirit. What is he talking about? Here's my third realization, and the band's gonna come back, and it's going to be the universal symbol that he's wrapping up: number three.

[33:37] We have to realize that our life in step with the Spirit begins when our life in service to self ends. This is really where the rubber meets the road, and here's why Paul references the cross, because the cross sets us free into the life of the Spirit. You see, it wasn't just Jesus that had a cross. He went first, but all of us, Jesus says, have to learn to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. What does that look like? I love that Paul uses the word "in step." Let us keep in step. Can you bring that back up? Just that last slide, the one before, really quick. It says at the end, "Let us keep in step with the Spirit." Now, this is using language, like, now, some of you maybe who are more into dance, you're more thinking waltz. That's probably a good way to think about it, that God, through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is leading us in this dance, and our ability to kind of move with Him is sort of what it's getting at. But actually, it's using military language.

[34:46] It's using military language. We don't, I think, do warfare like this anymore. But back in the day, picture, like, the Patriot, they would line up in the field, and they would have a drummer, and the drummer was there to keep people moving to the rhythm of that drumbeat. And what Paul is getting at here is, here is ultimately what you need to learn how to do. Your life now is no longer about marching to the beat of your own drum and your own urges. I want to look at that. All I need to eat that. All I need to do that your life now is the gradual process of learning to listen to the rhythm of God's heartbeat and coming in step with it.

[35:34] And so what it does is it flushes itself out in these little moments in your life, and it's usually a little small. I don't know. I find Brent Ingersoll's drumbeat is often banging here and here, but I find the drumbeat of the Holy Spirit is just a little pitter-patter right here. I want you to step out over here, Brent. I want you to not do that, Brent. I want you to apologize and ask forgiveness. I want you to tell your friend about Me. And to the degree I, moment by moment, learn how to, at any time my drum beats aren't matching up with His drumbeat, I put my drum down and say, I'm walking in Your rhythm.

[36:28] That's what changes your life. Two people can go to the same church for 20 years, and one can be utterly transformed to the point that they're unrecognizable. And it's possible for the other to sit there every week and believe the same things, but never actually experience the fruit of the Spirit. Why? Because they never learned how to crucify the flesh and listen to the rhythm of the Father's heart and say, "Yes, Lord." And that's what I want to challenge you with today. I want to invite you to stand to your feet. I want to pray for you. And I felt my assignment today was this, to kind of lay that framework out for you, and then I really just felt the Holy Spirit invite me to lead us in a prayer where we ask Him to help us hear the rhythm of His heartbeat better in our lives and give us the grace to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and find new life in Him.

[37:37] Amen. Sound good? It's a challenge, but God will give you grace for it. He'll give you grace for it. So if you want to pray, just maybe open your hands up, and you're like, you know what, that's something I need. I need that transformation. I want to operate in joy and peace and, in general, patience, kind of stuff. I wanted. Then you just agree with me. Father, we just come to You now, and we thank You. Thank You for this sense of Your presence, Holy Spirit. We love Your presence, Lord, and Father. I want to ask You today for my brothers and sisters here at Moncton Wesleyan. I pray right now in Jesus' name that Your ears would be open to the voice of the Holy Spirit, that Your eyes would be open to see not the seen realm, but You would see what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. And, Holy Spirit, I pray You would open the eyes of the hearts of this church to see this whole kingdom world around them. Lord, I pray that they would start to hear Your voice, and they would hear the pitter-patter of Your heart, and that in those moments, Lord, I pray for the increased ability to live in step with Your Spirit, God. I pray that even by this time next year, there's such a mark of transformation in this church, to Your glory, that, God, people would actually look back and say, I can't believe how much I have changed, how much God has shifted my life in just this year, all because they learned to walk and step in a Bible with You. So Father, in Jesus' name, we just believe that it is Your heart that we would bear much fruit. And now I ask, by the power of Your Spirit and, Lord, I pray for these next few weeks as we talk about the Holy Spirit. We ask, God, would You, Holy Spirit, surprise our church, surprise us, show up, speak to us.

[39:24] move change our plans. We're redefine our categories. Give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and we ask, God, as a church and in our individual lives, would You fill us fresh with Your Spirit and help us learn to walk increasingly in step with You, so that we too will bear much fruit. We pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, "Amen." Amen. Amen.