The Power and Energy of God

Some type of carapatona or something, but I have faith in faith, and she said she can solve all that. Nurse Faith. I'm going to call her Dr. Faith from now on. So hopefully that does not distract you as I speak today. Okay, are we ready? Let's go. I have to look at my time being next week I have to go to Vero Beach after this service. So I will have to keep next week at exactly an hour and a half, or I'll have to leave by 12 30 to get there by 2 30 so they start services. So we're going to we're going to give that a try next week, and hopefully I will not have to speed be my wife when I'll be here next week to tell me I'm driving too fast. So I'll try my best there. This day, the Sabbath day before the day of Pentecost, is the anniversary of the giving of God's Holy Spirit to His church. There are many reasons for the giving of the Holy Spirit, as we will talk about tomorrow. I want to touch on those as we think about this double Sabbath that we are able to enjoy. Hopefully you will get rest, but you will be able to have more time to study.

The Holy Spirit is actually called the Comforter by Jesus Christ. He said, I will send the Comforter to have comfort us, help us inside to not feel so alone in this big dark world that we are sometimes in. It's also called the Helper, as I'm sure many of you can attest to. I can. I have needed help, and it has been there for me. Romans 8, it's 23 through 27. I actually talked about it being an intercessor for us in our prayers. The prayer of life suffers a little bit. The prayer of life lacking a little bit. Stir up the Spirit. It's there to help us. In 2 Peter, I actually talked about it. It helps us to move. Yes. He said, it helps to move you. Move you which way? A good way. It helps to motivate you. One of my favorite scriptures in John, it says, and it teaches you all things. All things! That's all the things you need to know. In Romans 8, 26, it said, and that's all I want to talk about today, the Spirit helps in our weaknesses. The Spirit helps in our weaknesses. You got any? I do. And more and more, I realize I have more and more that I have to contend with. So God's Spirit is the power, the energy, a supernatural force from God. Powerful words. But that's what it is. It's a power to call on, a power gathered at our disposal, a power alone from God. Do we realize that? It's not ours. Even though we possess it, we don't own it. It's not ours yet. Someday we will be nothing but Spirit. It's a power to help us keep His law. It's a power to help us keep the Spirit of the law, which, as those who've been around church for a very long time, realize that's where it gets difficult, the Spirit of the law as Christ expounded so many times. But it's a power to help us to read a Scripture and to do it. Yes, do it. Do that Scripture. Keep that Scripture. What I want to talk about today is it is a power to help us even keep half of Scripture. There's so much in this half Scripture. It's so noted that it takes really the Holy Spirit for us to be able to accomplish the grip that we're told in this half Scripture. So no matter how difficult or how hard that Scripture may appear to the human mind, with God's Holy Spirit, we can keep it. Obey it. Do it. As a Nike logo says, do it. Just do it. In 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, I want to look at the second part of the verse.

There are quite a few difficult Scriptures in the entire Bible. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Jesus Christ. Tough. Assume others better than yourself. Tough. I love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, your being. Tough. Those are tough. There are challenges to us. But this one, this one I've worked with for quite a few years. The Scripture is, the second part, the B part, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, is bring every thought into captivity. Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

How difficult is that? It's interesting because the Good News translation says, we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. So let's just talk about mind control. Mind control by us. We pathetic human beings. Mind control. So, here during the Days of Unleavened Bread, hopefully we focused our lives at that time on putting sin out of our lives and identifying sin, identifying how we can take it out, identifying how it works on us.

And hopefully we came through the Days of Unleavened Bread seven weeks ago stronger than we were before. I hope so. Did you, during those Days of Unleavened Bread, wear some rose-colored glasses? So you didn't have quite see every little thing in our life. There's a country singer from back in the 70s, and I guess it might have been the 80s, named John Connelly. I don't know if Carl was here. Carl would definitely know. But he wrote a song, country singer, and it was called Rose-colored Glasses.

It was one of his famous hits. And he talked about these rose-colored glasses, and they said, it shows only the beauty, but they hide all the truth. What about us during the Days of Unleavened Bread? And the seven weeks that it's taken for us to get here. Have we taken off the rose-colored glasses and tried to take some special spiritual contact lenses, put it on our eyes, to see how we may become more God-like? We may become more like Jesus Christ. Because, see, seeing sin is important. We see it all the day long.

I drove here, and saw sin. You drove here, you saw sin. And seeing sin is important. Because we can wax on people's sins all day long, can't we? We can see this person sinning, we can see this, and we can shout it out and call it out.

And it's very important that what is most important is seeing the sin in our lives, so that we can do something about it. Hopefully we want to do something about it. So, Romans 16, verse 19. Romans 16 and verse 19. So it's be wise, be wise in what is good and innocent concerning evil. You might just want to say what? Naive. Be wise in what is good. That means godly stuff, good, worldly stuff, evil. But it's like so many of the internet news, television news, and things you hear. They want to educate you, so you're not naive. And so what happens? You read too much, you watch too much, you listen too much, and it begins to pollute your mind.

You begin to lose mind control, because you have stuff in there. It's not good. And we all do it, don't we? Sometimes we have to cut ourselves out. Why am I watching this? Why am I listening to this? Why am I reading this? Because it usually starts out a little bit from a tree of good and evil. It's kind of interesting at first, and then it takes you down roads. You don't need to go. Mind control.

Remember the old 70s song? I don't remember who it was by. I just remember, this would have been, I was 12, 13. I used to listen to radio, had this, and it had this song. And it's very catchy. Yeah, I remember it this day. It's just me and Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones. We got a theme going on.

Remember that? Yes. Yeah, here I am, 12 or 13 years old. It's been about me and Mrs. Jones. I didn't even know what I was even thinking that it was in there, and it's been in there ever since. Mrs. Jones, I'm not Mr. Jones. That's the step. So what's it trying to do? It's trying to mess with your mind. Are the song of loving you is wrong? I don't want to be right. Right? I mean, see how this step can get in there? And it stays in there for when I was 12 years old. Mind the book. Isaiah 5, verse 20, said, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

Right? It talks about Romans 2. It says, Overcome evil with what? Good in Romans 12. So the Bible is trying to help us here. Help us with this mind control. Amos 5, verse 15, said what? It tells the people of God to hate evil. Amos 5, verse 50, hate evil and love good. So how do we do that? How do we bring every thought into captivity? You know, Paul knew what it took to overcome the flesh and let the Spirit, let God's Spirit reign in his life.

The Apostle Paul knew he had to bring every thought into captivity. Because what's going to happen if he doesn't? If he didn't? What's going to happen to you? It's interesting there. Paul's words bring every thought into captivity. Paul's word, captivity, comes from the root word, which means to what? To take captive. To take captive, to lock up, to imprison, to confine, to detain behind bars. Which raises a question I have for you today, brother. How good is your jail? How good is your jail? Or better yet, how good is your jailer? How good is your jailer? Is it a minimum security facility that you're running up here?

Or is it maximum security? How good is that jail? You remember the old TV show Andy Griffith? And Mayberry, they had this town, and so it's supposed to be this idyllic town, and he had a couple of jail sales there in the jail. So they put you in these sales. Well, it's so interesting there. Remember, they had the old town drunk. We would say he had a substance abuse problem today.

Back then, they didn't mind. They just said, he's drunk. He's a drunk. He's a town drunk. Otis Campbell, you remember him? And Otis Campbell went and he'd get drunk. He knew he was drunk. He knew he was getting lost. So he would actually go and walk in the jail, grab the keys, open the door, and soon as I went, and they were hanging back up, hanging up.

Not a very secure jail, was it? Keys were just hanging right here.

How's your jail? Do you have thoughts from the world just able to check themselves in and check themselves out? Do you need a better jail for your thoughts? You need it? James 1. I'd like you to turn here, if you will. First chapter of James. James kind of breaks it down and makes it pretty simple for us. James 1, verse 14 through 15.

James says, Each one. What's your name? Each one. Stephen. Each one. Don. Each one is tempted when he or she loses or he or she is drawn away by his own desires and lusts. Each one of us makes. I'm tempted when I'm drawn away by my own lusts or desires. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's foregrown, will bring forth what? My death. Your death. If I do not learn to handle it, it will bring forth my death. You know, almost half things in this world must be controlled. Harnessed! Right? We have WMDs. Weapons of mass destruction. Everybody's really concerned. About getting in the hands of a dictator, a rogue nation. You know, a time is coming, Christ says in Matthew 24, when this out-of-control mindset puts the world on the brink of extinction, annihilation. It's not a matter of if, but when, because it's going to happen. Jesus Christ predicted it. But I digress because I want to talk about us. This control. This mind control. In Galatians 5, verse 22, you all know that. You shouldn't even have to turn to it. It gives a list of the fruits of the Spirit. It says, By their fruits you shall know them. So we kind of look at the fruits. We kind of look at the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, long suffering. Faithless? What? And what's the last one? Self-control. Self-control. The very last one, listed in the fruits of God's Spirit. Self-control. Boy, it's hard to practice. In a world that says, Dude, you see fit. Don't let anyone judge you. You don't need this mind control. And the story goes on and on and on for the last thousands of years. Last few thousands of years, everyone does what's right in their own eyes. There's no need for this mind control. Me? I sin. Every day. I need cleansing. I need cleaning. I need more self-control. Now, raise your hand if self-control is not a problem, but lying is.

Because I have met anyone that has perfect control over everything. Well, Matthew does back there. Yes, he has no. Nope. Jonathan does perfect control.

Do you need more self-control? Look at the stories on the news.

A simple example is one of the greatest golfers ever played the game was Tiger Woods. Phil Lips. On a good day. From the time he dominated the sport. But he had no self-control. Here he had one of the most beautiful wives in the entire world. He both agreed. Yes, he saw her too.

But what happened? No self-control. Wasn't good enough to have one of those people. He only has many women as he can have. It's interesting, the book I read, I don't remember exactly who wrote it, but it was a book about Joseph. And so all the qualities and traits of Joseph in the Bible. One of the things that it mentioned there was that he was, had a mathematical mind, just a genius. Beautiful looking guy. Handsome. Had it all. And this book actually said, not many men can carry a full cup. And that's so true. But Joseph could. Not many men can carry a full cup. That's true. You were given everything, could you? I'm glad I was. Don't think I could. I remember one of my favorite movies of all time. It was the old, I think it's 1938-39 movie, Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart with Burton. And in this movie, Humphrey Bogart plays his character, and he's sitting at a table. And this young lady had made a deal with, I guess you could say, almost like a deal with the devil during the movie, trying to get their freedom. She's going to have to do something very bad. And she wanted to make sure that the man, she was going to have to do this bad deed that promised her freedom. We'd keep up his end of the bargain. So she came to Rick Blaine, Humphrey Bogart's character in the movie, and she says, What kind of man is he? I so remember that line. So he looked up and he goes, He's like any other man, but more so. Like any other man, but more so. That's us. That's me. That's you. Without the Holy Spirit reigning in our lives. We need it. We need the Holy Spirit to help us reign ourselves in. So how do we bring every thought into captivity? How do we have this self-control? Why don't you turn to 1 Timothy? He will. Book to the young new preacher. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7.

He said, But reject profane and all wise fables, and exercise yourself rather to godliness. Exercise yourself rather to godliness. I like how the New American Standard put it. They said, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. It's interesting that this word discipline in the Greek is actually gumnaso. Gumnaso. G-U-M-N-A-Z-O. Gumnaso. The transliteration is actually gymnaso. G-Y-M. It's where we get the word gymnasium. Gymnasium. Meaning discipline. A couple of different translations. The new translation says, Keep yourself in training for a godly life. Like that. I need to keep myself in training for a godly life. This sounds appeared, doesn't it?

Another said, Exercise daily in God. No spiritual flabbiness. Please.

Turn yourself for godliness. Turn yourself to be godly. Is what another translation says. New Living Translation says, Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. Hmm. And the Phillips translation says, Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit. Got up this morning and outside of our condo, there's a swimming pool. And there was a guy that got in early this morning. Heard him. And he just started swimming. Not a very big pool, but he just swam laps. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. For probably 30, 40 minutes, could have been an hour. Exercising. You know, he got out of the pool and you can look at him and, you know, he didn't have much fat on him. You know? He was lean. Mean. A muscle machine. Okay? That's where God wants us to be spiritually. He wants us to be that lean and mean spiritually. So, let's go down to verse 8. Verse 24, verse 8. So, bodily exercise profits a little, which is good. You want to keep yourself healthy, living long, looking sharp. Profits a little bit. Right? The godliness is profitable for what? All. All things.

Having promise of the life that now is and that which is to come. Not only now, but also for eternity. Pretty strong. You know, conditioning raises two points. Okay? Conditioning raises two points. Conditioning, number one, involves repetitive exercises, doesn't it? That guy had to swim and went back and forth and back and forth. You've ever played sports? You realize that it's repetitive to get good at anything. You do it time and time again. Same thing. I remember playing basketball when I was in school and moved from elementary to freshman. Freshman basketball, then you moved to varsity. And one of the things they had teach you was, okay, what you're doing before isn't good enough. I would shoot layups right-handed. And on the other side of the goal, left-handed, I would shoot them with the right hand. They said, no, that's not going to work. Because people are going to swap that away. So you're going to have to learn to shoot with your left hand. You can't just be one-handed. Be any good. You've got to learn to shoot both hands. And that was so hard! Until they made you stand there for an hour and just shoot the ball with your left hand right under the goal to wear pretty soon. After a few weeks, after a month, you can't shoot the other way. You can't shoot with the other hand there like you used to do. Because you're so repetitive. It's wonderful exercises. Can you go out and run a marathon today without training? I don't think so. Not without them picking you up off the ground.

Bible study, prayer, meditation, fasting. These are the repetitive exercises to build you up spiritually. And also help stimulate that spirit that God's given you. The second point is no one can condition someone else. No one can condition someone else. It would be great if you could. Then you could start a store down here and go, rent a water. And then you come in and say, I want to be a water man. And then you come in and say, I want to rent that guy and run for me for three miles and come back and I'm going to feel good. Wouldn't you make money? I'd be incredible. But you can't do it. You can't rent a runner. Just like you can't rent a faster. Somebody to fast for you. And then you get everything from what fasting is good for you about, can you? Can't be done. And how would you like to be praying? You would say, well, I think I rent a prayer. Okay. By the time my prayer is not going very well, would you come in here and substitute and get my prayer back straight? You can't do it!

Conditioning is between you and God. You are the jailer, rather than no one else can do it. Can't do it.

Proverbs 25 and verse 28. Proverbs 25 and verse 28.

So it's like a city that is broken into and without rest, is a man who has no control over his spirit. Let's talk about the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit.

I can put that into today's terms. When we fail to control whether our desires, when we allow our human nature to control us, we are like a bank vault with a screen door. You want your money protected with the screen door? Because that's what it's like. When we do not reign ourselves in. Interesting that the Greek word for self-control is actually encratia. Encratia. E-N-K-R-A-T-E-I-A. Encratia. Do you have encratia? Self-control? Some of us do in various parts, don't we? We have very good self-control in certain areas. And then there is we hardly have any self-control. There is, yes, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.

It actually comes from the root word kratos, which means strength or might. And it's often translated in the Bible, dominion. And when they put the prefix en in front of it, it personalizes it. So, encratia is the ability to have dominion over one's impulses or desires.

The exercise of this discipline called self-control prevents desire from becoming our dictator. You want to see some messed up people in the world? Find those that have never learned self-control. You want to see a lot of problems in the world today? Find those where there's no self-control, where their desires have become their dictators. And they are controlled by their desires, not the other way around. You know the Corinthians and Corinth, where this sermon started, 2 Corinthians. The people living there at the time in the church, they were living in a very, very worldly society. And they were affected by the world around them. They showed in their church, and brethren, it was showing this one. In a more worldly society you live in. That was interesting to call it. I think it was about 146 BC. It was conquered by Julius Caesar. I remember, right? The Greeks had it. They were dominated and overthrown. A major city near Seaport. About 100 years later, the Romans decided to rebuild the city, about 46 BC. And it became such a popular place that by the time Paul came around and set up the church, it had about 700,000 people in the city of Corinth. And it was so worldly, sinful, and people would come for miles around. Because it was at its highest point, they had this mountain. It was a mountainous area. And they had this mountain, and at about 18... It was the highest one around at 1800 feet tall, was this mountain in Corinth. And it was such a sinful city, because the pagans worshiped anything and everything, and mostly of the sexual nature. But you can go back and study it. I'm just giving you a little bit of a background. But at the top of this 1800-foot mountain, they built this huge temple.

And it was to worship. Goddess. And one of the things that they...part of the worship was that they had on this hill in this temple were a thousand temple prostitutes. 800 of them women, 200 of them men. And this is how you came and worshiped at that time in that city. And they were a few prostitutes. So if you came up and worshiped, they were free, paid by the city.

And as you remember from some previous scriptures, you actually see where Paul talks about a tinkling symbol, or clanging, whatever. He was writing that because the temple was so high and such an...overlooked the city that when someone would come in to worship, they would clang these symbols. And so you can imagine trying to live in that society. You can imagine trying to worship. And during your worship service, you would hear this clanging and symbols going on. And the symbols going off because of the sexual worship that was going on there.

What about us? Do we have enough self-control? Do we handle the world around us? Because the other saying goes, worldly people marry worldly people, you get what? More worldly people. All right? Converted people marry converted people? Hopefully you're going to get more converted people! Liquid people hang around, liquid people get what? More liquid people? But godly people hang around godly people, and marry godly people. You're going to get more godly people.

1 Corinthians 9, if you could turn there.

Right on time today. 1 Corinthians 9.

Interesting here, as I want to give just a little bit of background, as I said, the Greeks controlled this. Under where Alexander the Great conquered a big part of the known world at that time. And actually, they started something called the Ist-Mian Games. Ist-Mian Games. And they started by the Greeks, but when they were conquered by the Romans, the Romans decided to carry it on. And the Ist-Mian Games were held every two years near Corinth, just outside the city of Corinth, the huge walls that were built around. And it was almost as big as the Olympic Games, that were carried on in Greece. And they were almost as popular, and they were actually threefold, as people would come in from all over the area to participate in these games that went on for about a week. A week and a half. Sometimes two, it depended on the weather. But these Ist-Mian Games were threefold. They had running, like marathons. They had wrestling, as they say in the South, wrestling. And then they actually had boxing, where there were box, of course, no grebs, just barefisted. And later on, when the Romans took over, they actually put in chariot racing, because that's something they really liked. But during these Ist-Mian Games, they were open to anyone. And they were so great that actually everybody in Corinth would know about it.

And the prizes? It was a sixfold prize. If you won in one of these things, whether it was running, wrestling, or boxing, and later chariot racing, you would actually win to start. You would win a woven pine fronds, like a crown. Okay. I'm sorry. Nothing to get too excited about. That was just the first. And then the victors were treated like royalty. They were held up on people's shoulders and walked through town and around the walls. And then they were actually taken and part of the wall, they would bust out a hole in the wall and take bronze and put your name in the city wall. Choose your name in that wall. In that wall. And then your debts were canceled. You owed any debts? They were actually paid off. Cancelled. And then you were allowed to live tax-free for the rest of your life. Sounded pretty good, didn't it? Isn't it something we could all... You know? You go, well, I don't like running, but I might start running for that. And then you were also given a lifetime supply of foodstuffs.

With that in mind, I want to go to 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24. Because Paul gives us some insight here. He says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run that one receives a price? Run! Run! In such a way that you may obtain it. And every one who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown. What listening games! But he says that we, for, and am, perishable crown. An imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. What's he talking about here? He's talking about shadow boxing. Because those fighters, you know, we talked about running. Now he's talking about the fighters. Who has said that if you've ever been around boxers, or my father was a boxer, if you've ever been around a boxer, if you've ever been around those, and so you kind of keep your head up, and then you look at a shadow, and you kind of see where you drop this.

He says, that I fight, not as one who beats the air. There's something physical. Right? That I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. I discipline my body. It's interesting that the Greek word translated from discipline here literally means to strike under the eye. To strike under the eye. The point, rather than discipline, self-control, is to make our bodies serve us, rather than us serve our bodies. Because that word discipline translated, strike under the eye, it's the word for beating yourself back in blue. So people will fight, run, go through tremendous things to discipline themselves for a perishable crown. And he's saying, I want you to do the same thing spiritually, for an imperishable crown, so that you can live forever. I'll wrap this up today, if you can now, so I can show a little self-control and not talk forever.

Might return to the last scripture. Hebrews 12.

Turn to Hebrews 12, if you will. And it says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside what every weight and the sin, which shall easily ensnare us, and let us run, run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And actually, another translation, I think it's in the Oaking James, actually says, Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. Same word for looking or fixing. Comes from the Hebrew word, aphorio. A-P-H-O-R-A-O. Aphorio. Fixing our eyes. And it actually means to look exclusively at something and study it intently while consciously looking away from all distractions. You get that? Means to look exclusively at something and study it so intently while consciously looking away from everything else. What's he talking about? Tunnel vision. Tunnel vision. You've got locked onto something before, and you can't get your eyes off of it. And you're almost becoming a trance. It almost draws you to it to where you can't look away. That's what he's saying. We should do with Christ. Fixing our eyes on Christ. That's why when I first got here, I said, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read the Gospels. Read the Gospels. Read Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the greatest sermon ever given. It helps you to understand Christ. Fixing our eyes on Christ helps us to keep tunnel vision, which helps us to have mind control. Mind control. See, fixing our eyes on Christ causes all other things to dim in significance, doesn't it?

Look at Christ! Not me! Not Jimmy Laker. Not ever Debbie Armstrong. Not any of these people. So, look. Look at Christ. Keep your focus on Jesus Christ. I'll let you down. He never will. So, why, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. We need to be looking. Read our Bibles. Let the Spirit stir you to read about Christ. How He lived. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. Powerful. Very, very powerful. I want to finish with a story to make my point today.

Barbara said, I have not told this, so if she's wrong, you can tell her afterwards, because I called her last night, because it gets to where you're speaking in so many places, you can't remember what you said and what you didn't say sometimes.

But the story of a grandfather, and he's got a little grandson. The grandson's about six years old. And the grandfather likes to take his grandson over to the zoo, because the zoo is just something that the young boy is just amazed with, all the animals. And so he loves to take him. And one of the things that the little boy loves most is where the wolves are. There's a section over here where the wolves, so they always end up where the wolves are. And he wants to teach his little grandson something, and so he's been there more than a few times. So as they're standing there looking at the wolves, and they're kind of looking in the eyes, and they're kind of walking around, and the birds just mesmerize. And the grandfather looks out, and he goes, you know, there's wolves inside of you. And the little boy goes, there he is? He says, yes. There's two wolves inside of you. And the little boy goes, really? He says, yes, one's bad and mean and evil, and the other one's kind and gentle and good, and they battle all the time. And he says, Grandpa, which one will win? And he says, the one you feed. The one you feed. Well then, bring every thought into captivity. Mind control. He is God's Holy Spirit. It's been given so that we can have that mind control, and so that we can feed the wolf. That's inside of us that is good and pure. So that's the one that everyone sees and that they can count on.