Choose Life (08/01/2004)

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Dr. Myron Golden

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John chapter number 10, John chapter number 10 and I am going to springboard from this passage to Romans and Galatians and then
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I'll be done, kind of. John chapter 10 and verse 10 and it says, the thief cometh,
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I'm sorry, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
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I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
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Did y 'all hear what that said? The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy.
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That means if the thief can't kill something, steal something or destroy something, he ain't coming.
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Okay? Y 'all with me? So what we're going to do is we're going to look at that analogy and I want to talk to you about this subject today, choose life, choose life.
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Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the power and the truth of it in Jesus name, amen.
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Ultimately, the enemy has an objective for us. We don't think of ourselves on a daily basis, unfortunately.
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We don't think of ourselves being at war. I mean like war in the
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Middle East, like war in Iraq, like war in Afghanistan, like war with somebody, an enemy who really literally, not figuratively, but literally wants to kill us.
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We don't think of that. And the interesting thing about this enemy is he has a unique ability that other enemies don't have and that is he has the unique ability to solicit us to assist him in his objective.
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Isn't that amazing? What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you an illustration and my whole sermon will be an illustration.
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So David, if you can come help me. And let me see, I need somebody. Where's Paul? Oh, he had to transport someone somewhere?
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Okay. I need another big strongman. Pick me.
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I need my little finger. You can come help too. You can come help me. Bill. Bill.
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That's not Bill. That's Bill. Bill's brother. And I need one more.
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Now you can hear me talk, right? Good. How about you?
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That's cool. You don't mind talking to me? No. No. Now, understand, we're going to allow
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David over here. David, you're going to be dead. Okay, go over a little bit farther, brother
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Clarence. And brother Clarence is alive. Now, turn with me if you will in a moment.
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David, you are? Dead. Dead. And your objective is to? Kill. And you are a sharp guy.
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You must be a college student. Okay. And brother Clarence, you are? Alive.
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Alive. And you are wanting to give it more abundance. Now, Jesus came and we might have abundant life.
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And I want you to see something that's really amazing in Romans chapter, let's start with chapter 6.
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Let's look at verse 14. It says, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.
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Now, most people don't understand what that means when the Bible says, you are not under the law, but under grace.
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They don't understand what that means. It does not mean we are free as Christians to do anything we want to do, brother.
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We'll just cover that in Sunday School this morning. Come here in here, man. Ryan, let me hold your hand.
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This is what I want to do. Hold your hand up just like that. Just like that. Now, we're going to pretend that Ryan's hand is a lost sinner.
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All right. Ryan's hand is a lost sinner. You're lost. Now, my left hand is the law.
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My right hand is grace. Y 'all with me? And the reason my right hand is up here and grace is down here is because grace is always higher than the law.
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Say that with me. Grace higher than the law. Grace is higher than the law. Now, you are a sinner.
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And if the sinner says, I know I'm a sinner. Very good. And the law says, but you better get right.
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And if the sinner says, I can't get right. But if you don't get right, you're going to pay. I can't help it.
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That's right. Can't help it. But guess what? When we receive Jesus Christ, grace comes down here and brings us up here.
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And then we have this thing that Philippians chapter two calls. It is God that works in you both to will.
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That's the desire. And to do, that's the dynamic. Both to will, that's the passion.
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And to do, that's the passion and the power.
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What did you say about all this this morning? What? We go in every direction. I'm not going to go into this, but I want to describe to you
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Romans chapter seven talks about three different laws. How many different laws? Three.
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There are three different laws mentioned in Romans chapter seven. First law mentioned in Romans chapter seven is the law of the scriptures, which is from my master.
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This law, the law of the word of God, is the first law mentioned in Romans chapter seven.
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The second law that is mentioned is the law of sin that is in my members.
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First law, law of the scriptures from my master. Second law, law of the law of sin, which is in my members.
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My hands, my feet, my hands want to knock somebody out. My feet want to go away from God.
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My mouth naturally wanted to say things it shouldn't say. The law of sin was in my members.
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Y 'all understand? Y 'all with me? Now, and then the fourth law is the law of the spirit, which is in my mind.
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Those are the three laws that are covered in Romans chapter seven. Now notice what it says here in Romans chapter eight, verse number two.
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The law of the spirit of life is in my mind. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
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For what the law could not do in that it was weep through the flesh, the law could not make me do right because it was weak.
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And the only thing that could try to help it was the flesh. And the flesh already didn't want to do right. For what the law could not do in that it was weep through the flesh,
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God said in his own tongue, in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, condensing the flesh.
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Why? Verse number, okay. Verse number four tells us that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
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So the reason Jesus came and saved us is so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who don't walk after the flesh, but we walk after the spirit.
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That's where we have the dynamic and the desire to do what God wants us to do. Now, here's why these people aren't here.
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They're not here because they don't want to do what God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what
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God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what
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God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what
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God wants them to do. They're not here because they don't want to do what
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God wants them to do. Talk to me Okay I like it
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Okay Here's what happens they talk to me here's what usually happens the flesh talks louder than the spirit
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Sometimes the flesh will holler at you Watch this as I let's say today
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Because of whatever reason I wake up in the morning And I don't feel like being spiritual because that's spiritual stuff walking in that spirit sometimes
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You know trying to give me a little bit here So I say I'm gonna listen to the flesh and the flesh starts to lead me over here
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And I hit the snooze button, wait a minute, I hit the snooze button, and I go back to sleep And then
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I wake up, now I'm awake And I start looking for my clothes and the flesh says ask your wife where your clothes are
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Ask your wife where your clothes are WHERE MY CLOTHES She says I don't know,
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I don't wear your clothes Don't get smart with me woman I mean, right? Right?
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That's what the flesh tells me to say And the flesh says Why is it I can't have anything I need when
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I need it? Right? And I'm having a bad day because I started following this joke And this joke is getting ready to get me in trouble
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Right? That's what the flesh says Now I'm late for work, I finally get my clothes I scarf down some food, I'm on my way to work
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And somebody pulls out in front of me And slows down And the flesh says honk your horn
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Honk your horn ME ME ME ME Right?
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And then I go to work And the flesh says The boss says you're late again Golden And I say
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Who do you think you're talking to? Who do you think you're talking to?
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I just work here brother This ain't the only job in town Right? And watch this,
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I'm listening to my flesh And I'm getting farther Watch this The farther
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I walk after the flesh The farther I get away From the spirit
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See with young folks it doesn't exactly work like that Young folks, it's uh Mom says son did you
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Clean your room? The flesh says Tell her No, no, no, you tell me to tell her
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Mom why are you always on my back man? Right?
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No, you're flesh, you ain't supposed to be Telling me to do the right thing, you're supposed to be telling me to do the wrong thing This guy is not a good flesh
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Okay, but that's good You're a good guy, you're not a good flesh He doesn't even know how to beat a cow
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And then, and then Your brother has it on your shirt So the flesh tells me to eat it
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Man you better take off my shirt And Take it off Yes, beat him up and take it from him
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Well you know what, hey guess what folks As we walk after the flesh And it doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to get drunk
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It doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to do drugs It doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to commit adultery Guess what, all that stuff is over here
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Adultery and fornication And lasciviousness and idolatry And witchcraft and hatred and barrens
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Emulations and all the rest of it And if I get over here close enough to death You know Jiu Jitsu right?
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No Put something on me That I can't get out of Yeah put something on me that I can't get out of No you ain't gonna hurt me
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You can't hurt me bro Just hold me, no don't put me down there What happens
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Is folks get over here too close And death gets a grip on them And sometimes
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Sometimes it's the death grip Of cocaine Sometimes it's the death grip of adultery Sometimes it's the death grip of fornication
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And they start struggling and they can't get loose You know why? Because they listen to the Ambassador of death
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And the ambassador of death wants a man To think that some woman cares more about him Than her husband
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Or something wants a man to think That some other woman cares more about her Him than his wife
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Yeah this is a crazy mix That world we live in And we get over here and we don't want to listen to our parents
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As young people Man you ain't doing a very good job bro And we wrestle
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But death has a grip on us And we can't get loose You know what?
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You know what? That is literally What happens We got one over here called death that wants to kill us
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But death doesn't send somebody With swords and knives and guns To come be our ambassador Send somebody nice and easy
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And smiling Has great big promises And looks like they can deliver
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And they get us going in the wrong direction Watch this When I wake up in the morning
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And the spirit tells me to go pray and I go pray And the spirit tells me to read my Bible No tell me
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So I read my Bible now
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And I got a song in my heart And now I wake up early Can't find my clothes Tell me to ask my wife where her clothes are
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Honey have you seen my outfit for today? Right? And I'm saying that's okay darling
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I'll find something Right? But we know The reason we're laughing is
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I wake up and I say have a nice day I'm just singing and enjoying the Lord And I get to the work
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And I say boss I am so excited to be here today I'm so glad to be able to work for you From a young person
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I get up in the morning I pray I read my Bible I say to my parent Dad is there anything else you want me to do?
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And after he gets over his heart attack Right? Then we both seek to please our parent
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And it's an amazing life I like walking in the spirit Because when we get over people in the spirit
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The farther I walk after the spirit The farther I get away From the flesh
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You know what I notice about folks who walk in sin That the longer they walk in sin The easier it is for them to walk in sin
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But the longer you walk in the spirit And the farther you walk in the spirit The harder it is You know what
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I found out? I found out that it's hard to be tempted To get something to drink
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If you're at your house and you don't have anything to drink It's hard to be tempted To do drugs if you're not around folks who do drugs
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There's no way to tempt you To get farther and farther away from that lifestyle As you're walking in the spirit
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Okay appreciate that Gentlemen all y 'all can have a seat This is the last thing I want to show y 'all Y 'all can have a seat and then
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I'll be done Turn to Galatians chapter 5 A challenge in Christianity Now I really wish
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It would have been wonderful If I had had somebody teach that to me When I first got saved But I was saved for more than 20 years
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Before I realized what I just shared with you More than 20 years of my life had gone by And here's what happened
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The first 20 some odd years of my Christianity I just had a bunch of folks
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Saying to me Well don't the don'ts and do the do's And you will be a good Christian Oh don't the don'ts and do the do's
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You know what I found out Man there's a bunch of don'ts in there Watch this
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Galatians chapter 5 In verse number 19
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Now the works of the flesh are manifest Which are these adultery, fornication
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Uncleanness, lasciviousness Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred Emulations, wrath
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Strife, I forgot variants Seditions, heresies Endings, murders, drunkenness
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Revelings And such like Now did y 'all see that He named 17
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Things 17 things he named That you should not do And then he said
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And such like So he said don't do These 17 things or anything like it
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Because these are the Manifestations of the works of The flesh Now how in the world am
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I supposed to remember 17 things Let alone remember them long enough
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Not to do them Well you know what I don't not do the 17 things
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By trying not to do the 17 things Well then how do you do it
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Look at verse 16 This I say then Walk In the spirit
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And ye shall not Fulfill the lust of the flesh
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Ain't God awesome God said if you will do one thing
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One Now if you can count that high If you can do one thing
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This one thing that you do Will stop you from doing those Other 17 things
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And such like So we don't have to focus on not committing adultery And not committing variants and emulations
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And strife and wrath And seditions and heresies And we don't have to focus on those things
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We need to focus on one thing Walk in the spirit How do you walk in the spirit By that awareness
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By listening for And then listening to The spirit
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Of God As he speaks to you by his word You know what I found out I knew that Nobody Ever Has to tell me
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When I'm wrong I already Know Nobody has to tell me when
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I'm wrong Nobody has to tell me Well Myron you have bitterness Nobody has to tell me that I already know You know
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Myron that was mean Nobody has to tell me that I already know God has put his spirit inside of me To talk to me when
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I do something wrong And to make it right And to tell me to do what's right In every given circumstance
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I always have the opportunity To choose life How do I do it By walking in the spirit
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And not in the flesh Because To be spiritually minded
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Is life and peace But to be carnally minded Is death You know what that means
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That means when we focus on the carnal Things We're automatically walking
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Towards death Even when people who think You know I used to wonder Why do all these people All these preachers Who preach against all the sin
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How do they end up doing the very sins They preach against Because that's where their focus is
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Jesus wants our focus to be On walking in the spirit And the
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Bible says We will not fulfill The lust of the flesh Praise the
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Lord Choose life Because the thief cometh not But for to steal, to kill, and to destroy
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But Jesus said I am come that you might have life And that you might have it
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More abundantly That's what God wants for each and every one of us That abundant spirit filled life
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Let's pray Father thank you for your word Thank you for the power and the truth of it Minister your words to our hearts
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I pray And help us to do that one thing So we don't have to focus on those 17 other things
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And such like in Jesus name Amen Brother David Well It's been a wonderful Day for us
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A wonderful weekend Thanks to many of you For keeping us ready
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We had a repeat party One of these days We appreciate your
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Being there for our family With our family It tops it off A wonderful day for us all
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Let's stand in the last For the real The real