Discerning Voices: Walking in Spirit and Truth

If you are newer to the church, we've been around the block a few times. We've been in existence since 1965, and both my parents, my mom and my dad, are the founders of this church. So, we're standing on the shoulders of their legacy, and we're grateful that we're here with you.

If you're able, can you stand to your feet for the reading of God's word? We're going to read Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. For the last two and a half months, we've been on a sermon series called "Jesus Principles," teaching on Jesus' teaching on the mount. He is literally giving us principles after principles, and to be honest with you, we didn't cover it all. We covered a lot, but we didn't cover it all. So, I encourage you to read The Sermon on the Mount for yourself and let God minister to you.

But we've got two more weeks in this sermon series. I'm going to read Matthew 7:13-14 from the Amplified version, and it says this:

"Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to everlasting life, and there are few who find it."

I want you to repeat after me:

"Your word is written in my mind.
Your word is hidden in my heart.
Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.
I will seek you with all my strength.
I choose to live my life according to your word.
Your word, O Lord, is eternal."

You may be seated.

So, Jesus is making a comparison between two different gates. A gate is a barrier that opens and closes, which gives an opening to cross over into a path that eventually leads you into a destination. He is explaining that there are two different gates or two different doors we choose from, and these gates lead us into paths that ultimately, if you stay on that path, you would end up in a destination.

So, if you're taking notes, the narrow gate leads to life with God in heaven. So, you have got a gate, you have got a path, and then you have got a destination. This one is specific. The Bible says in John 10:9-10, "I am the gate," Jesus speaking. "Whoever enters through me will be saved." Do I have any saved people here today? That means that you have entered through the filter of Jesus. "They will come in and go out and find pasture."

Now, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." So, when you reach into or when you go into the narrow path, the Bible says that yes, it is difficult, but ultimately it is full of life.

Now, the wide gate leads to death, absent of God, in hell. And I want to be clear when I say that because hell means that God is not there. The absence of God is hell, and the Bible speaks on what hell is. We all will die one time; we all have an expiration date. There is a moment in time where you and I will breathe our last.

Now, according to the scriptures, the Bible says that there is a second death for those who reject Christ. Those who reject Christ will have a second death, and that is that they would perish in hell. Those who are believers, those who are saved by God's grace, will not have a second death because we would have eternal life with God in heaven. Are you tracking with me?

Every person from the sound of my voice will have to cross this spiritual crossroad in determining which direction they would go. We're going to have to make a decision: Do I want to go through the narrow gate, or do I want to go through the wide gate? Jesus makes a contrast between these two different gates. He doesn't hide the fact that the path of God is narrow and difficult. The Bible says that only a few would find this road, that it is narrow and it is difficult.

I want to help some people here today. Some people think that the moment I accept Jesus into my life, it's going to be easy. No, according to scripture, the easy path is on the other side. The easy path is on the wide gate that leads to a broad road, but you will find it difficult as you go through this narrow road.

Now, this is why Paul says in his last remarks, "I have fought the good fight." The reason he said, "I have fought the good fight," is because it wasn't an easy road. The reason that he said that he had fought the good fight is because he had some difficulties and some challenges. Not only did he fight the good fight, but he says that "I have kept the faith."

Because as long as we have breath in our lungs, I'm here to tell you there is a road that we're on, and if we have breath in our lungs, we have not yet met our destination. So, if you're on this narrow road, then there are difficulties and challenges, and at the end, you want to be rewarded. Why? Because you have kept the faith. That no matter how difficult it was, no matter how much you've been tempted, no matter how many times you fell, you got right back up. You followed Jesus through and through.

It's not a perfect ride; it wasn't a perfect trip. But at the end of it all, you trusted Jesus. You know, to be a follower of Jesus doesn't mean you won't be tempted or hard-pressed. The word temptation is to be lured into disobeying God. The enemy wants you to disobey God, plain and simple. The enemy doesn't care how you disobey God; he just wants you to disobey God.

This is why temptation comes from every side. Our sinful nature is an enemy of God, which is why, listen to me, the Bible teaches us that our flesh is our sinful nature. The reason the path that is narrow is difficult is because we are human beings walking this narrow path in a difficult, challenging life.

Let me put it this way: It's much easier to hate than to cuss someone out than to love your enemy and turn the other cheek. It's much easier for you to hate someone than to forgive someone. Easy is not having to resist my flesh. So, whatever I feel, whatever I think, I say. I don't have to resist any temptation; I don't have to resist what my flesh desires. I'm just going to allow it to do what it feels.

Well, here's what the Bible says in Galatians 5:16-24, and I'm going to break this down. "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." So, if you walk by the Spirit, then you will not gratify the desires of your flesh. In other words, in this narrow road, the Holy Spirit needs to be your guide. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is why we, as Christians, when we're on the narrow path and we fall short of His glory, there is what we call conviction. Conviction is given to us by the Holy Spirit because of the knowledge and understanding we have of His word. The Bible says that the Spirit of God brings out what we have already known and understood based on what we've already read.

So, when we feel a conviction, it is because the Spirit is reminding us of what God already said. One of the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit is to always align Himself towards the Father. He would not come against God; He would not come against the teachings of Jesus. He would always point you to the Father.

So, when I say, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of your flesh," that is because you are submitting to God. Let's keep reading. "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are under the law."

So, there is a fight between your flesh and your spirit. Your flesh wants to sin; your spirit wants to honor God. This is why the Bible says that when you worship God, you worship Him in spirit and in truth, because the way that we connect to God is through spirit.

So, when you take the wide path, your flesh is guiding you. When you create your own ideologies that are contradicting to what God has to say, you are allowing your flesh to guide you. Our flesh is our sinful nature.

Let's keep reading. "The acts of the flesh are obvious." So now we are giving examples of what it is for us to be in the flesh. "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like."

It's really quiet in here today. You guys are good? All right, I just want to make sure you guys are still there with me. I warned you as I did before. I'm still reading scripture, y'all. I warned you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In other words, those who choose the broad gate and walk the broad path, then your destination is not the kingdom of God. I want you to know, New Life Covenant, God is not in the act of the flesh. God does not bless the acts of the flesh. You can ask somebody to bless you when you're in sin with the same thing that you're asking for the blessing.

Somebody came up to me and they asked me, "Pastor D, true story, I need to make ends meet. I'm a drug dealer. Can you bless that my business prospers?" I need you to understand something. We laughed at that, but at the end of the day, we're talking about people that don't have the knowledge and the understanding of God.

And I'm going to show you in scripture why people have this type of mentality. See, for those of us that probably giggle or we laugh, in our mindset, we know what God has to say about that. I want you to know that God does not bless the acts of the flesh. Pastor David cannot bless a relationship that is sexually immoral. Pastor David cannot bless an act of sin so that God can prosper you.

What Pastor David wants to do is pray that the Holy Spirit comes into your life to bring about a change and a transformation so that you can go from the broad road into the narrow road. Because we cannot be so focused on what is temporarily here when ultimately there is an end goal. There is a life after this that we have to be mindful of.

God died because of our sinful nature. Listen to me, for our salvation, we all fall in that category so that we don't have to be burdened and enslaved by the weight of sin. We may struggle with the sin, but we don't have to be burdened by the sin. We may be attacked with the sin, but we don't have to be burnt.

We need to recognize, Pastor Matt talked about it, that His yoke is light, that God would give us what we need as we are going through this difficult journey.

Verse 22: So, what are the characteristics of a man or a woman that is filled with the Spirit? Verse 22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

When you are guided by the Holy Spirit, you will develop— I need you to shout out "develop"— a Christ-like attitude. The reason that I'm saying "develop" is because it takes time to develop something. It takes time to mature, which is why we, as believers, have got to be careful that we don't judge everyone that we see on this narrow path because they are on a journey of relearning things that they have thought were true for a very long time in their life.

They are now learning how to be able to resist, how to be able to practice self-control, how to be disciplined. Let me break it down really simple for you. I used to, and sometimes I still have this habit of biting my nails. I have anybody who bites their nails? Right? It's a habit, and sometimes unconsciously you just do it, right?

So, you don't even think about it; you're just constantly biting your nails. When I think about biting nails, it is a habit, and in order for you to stop the habit, you have got to think about what you're thinking about. Think about what you're about to do. I have got to tell myself, "Oh, I can't do this," or "I don't want to do this no more." It takes time to develop.

When I was a young person, I had kids many times ask me questions, not recognizing that the questions that they were asking me were directly a sinful nature. They thought that that was normal; they thought that it was okay. But when you bring the word of God to light into people's lives, then they start building knowledge and understanding.

The attributes are selfless and power under control. When I'm filled with the Spirit, I am under control. I'm letting the Spirit of God help me through these difficulties. Are you with me? A man who walks through the narrow gate will walk a path of difficulties because, though you may be Spirit-filled, listen to me, you're still a human being.

You're still a human being that, though you're Spirit-filled, though you love Jesus, though you walk this narrow path, you're still a human being with sinful natures that has to be a daily practice to resist, a daily practice to practice patience.

Verse 24 says, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." So, to crucify anything will require for something to die. So, I've got to be mindful of the things that I want to die. When I grow in Christ, I want to know what God knows. I want to love what God loves. I want to hate what God hates so that I am mindful.

Knowledge has power, and when we know stuff, we can start applying stuff. And when we apply the word in us, then we can start crucifying these very things. I bind spirits in the name of Jesus. Why? Because I know the thoughts that are in my mind right now do not come from God.

So, if you have suicidal thoughts, I'm here to tell you that is not from God. So, in the moments, because you are human in nature and you've allowed worry and anxiety to consume you, you have the power to be able to call out this lie that the enemy is trying to kill you with. He is trying to kill; he is trying to destroy; he is trying to remove the faith that you have in God so that you can start questioning God in your life.

We have to crucify the flesh with the passions and the desires. It costs too much to be in this broad road. It costs too much. In the moment, it may feel great; in the moment, it may even feel right, but the cost is too much. Walking the path through the wide gate may feel fulfilling and right, even easy, but the consequences are way too great. It's just not worth it.

Why? It is the choice of action that leads into destruction, which is hell. This is probably the very reason why there are so many skeptics. How can a good God send people to hell? Many people have grown up in the faith. I was watching a video just the other day, and it's about a pastor who got delivered from witchcraft. He was a Satanist, and he was a witch doctor.

What he would do now is that he would go into certain spaces and begin to preach the gospel. So, he sat in front of a palm reader and started ministering to this palm reader and began to share his story. God would use him in that way.

There was an instance as he was walking into another store; he began to talk to this young girl. At the end of the storyline of this young girl, she told him that just two years ago she stopped believing in Jesus. Prior to that, she was serving in ministry; she was a follower of Jesus. As a matter of fact, to this very day, according to the video, her parents were still praying for her.

So, there are a lot of questions, a lot of people who are asking, "Why does God allow suffering to happen?" And in their minds, it's very difficult for them to reason what's happening in the natural. I've really looked into this and started asking the Lord, "How do I respond to people who are questioning you?"

God started to take me to certain stories in the Bible, and one of the stories was a priest, or he was a prophet of Judah. The Bible says in the very first chapter that he starts going to God. He said, "God, what's going on? There is so much violence; there is injustice; there is so much wickedness, and yet we feel like there's absolutely no relief. God, where are you?"

Have you ever asked that question? I kept on reading, and I'm like, "Okay, God for sure is going to answer him directly." But when you go to about verse 4 and verse 5, God does not answer the question directly.

So, you can go to Job, and Job is also another story. He lost faith; he lost money; he lost his wealth; he lost his family; his body got attacked with sickness. And you would say, "Well, how can a man who loves Jesus, how can a God who loves the world allow a man to suffer the way that man has suffered?"

And yet, in the story of Job, there was not a direct answer. You would read that in the story of Job, God, matter of fact, went to him and said, "Hey Job, let me ask you a question because you have a lot of questions. You're asking me, 'Where were you when I created the heavens and the earth? Where were you when I put the stars in its place?'"

But let me take you a little bit deeper. Jesus, if there's anybody who understands suffering, it's Jesus. Jesus suffered in such a way that the Bible says when he was pinned or when he was nailed on that cross, that he was unrecognizable. And yet, even Jesus went to his Father and cried out, "Father, Father, why have you abandoned me?"

What do you read following the very words of Jesus? In that conversation, not one time did the Father respond to that answer. But the reality is there's one thing that is in common with Habakkuk, there's one thing that is in common with Job, and there's also one thing that is in common with Jesus: that at the end of it all, though they did not have the direct answer to the questions that they had here in this moment, they trusted God.

I know this is not the answer you were looking for. I know you wanted me to get you an answer that would describe everything that you're thinking and everything that you're feeling. But at the end of the day, what I'm trying to convey to you is there is an element that we have to apply in the moments of time, which is faith in Jesus.

That I don't have all of the answers, but I know He does. Many people are sitting back and asking, "Well, why is God waiting so long to come back?" I'm here to tell you He's waiting longer to come back because I grew up in the church, and I've heard it over and over that Jesus is coming back. I'm 41 years old, and Jesus has not yet come back.

And I recognize that a thousand years is a day, and a day is a thousand years in the calendar of God. God is not moved by calendar because He's eternal. So, when we try to put God in a box and we frame Him in that space, it is very difficult for us to even try to logically understand all of God.

But when we have these questions that are in our minds and in our hearts, there's one thing that I recognize that is stated in 2 Corinthians 4:4, and it says it this way: "In their case," now this is a church, "the God of this world," making reference to Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

The enemy wants to grab those who have faith in Jesus, and he wants to put doubt inside of you, and he wants that doubt to graduate into unbelief. This is how the enemy works. According to 2 Corinthians, the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.

So, for those who believe that there's no God, his goal is to keep it that way. For those who have an ideology that is not of God, he wants to keep it that way. The Bible says that he has blinded, watch this, the minds. So many have entered the wide gate and walked a broad road, blinded, not able to see Jesus because of their sinful nature.

The Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, which is why there are over 4,000 religions around this world. Think about that for a moment. Some people sit back and they ask me, "Pastor D, well, what is your denomination? Does that really matter?"

The question that you need to ask is, "Listen, is this a Bible-teaching church? Do you guys believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is the Savior of this world? Do you believe that He lived, He died, and He resurrected?" Because if the answer is yes, then that's the church I want to be a part of.

Religion is what blinds people. This is what was happening with the Pharisees. They were blinded by religion. They couldn't see past the law; they couldn't see past their systems; they couldn't see past their rhythm. And God is coming into a narrative, and He's saying, "I am changing the way that people have seen me."

Because people see God as a man that is a rule book, and God is saying, "I am so much more than just a rule book. I am a man that came down from Heaven to Earth because I love you. I am a God that does not summon you; I am a God that comes to you. I am a God that came down and suffered on your behalf."

Many are perishing for a lack of knowledge, a lack of knowledge. You're in the faith, but there's no knowledge. You're in the faith, but there's much you don't know about what God has to say, which is why the Bible warns us, "Be careful that you don't have itchy ears, that you just follow preachers that want to preach feel-good sermons but don't preach the word."

Or you want to listen to the advice of people that are feeding your ego or feeding your passions or feeding your desires. Be careful who you listen to. I will just tell you, silence all the voices and get into His word, and let's grow and learn what He has to say about us.

People are perishing for a lack of knowledge. Many, including Christians, have blind spots because of deceptions. We are being deceived. We're being deceived, and the enemy is coming.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says this: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" This is the key. I want you to underline the verse. I want you to underline, "Do not be deceived." Paul is talking to Christians because deception is how the enemy comes in and disrupts righteousness.

He says, "Do not be deceived." Now, here we go. Here's the list: "Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

This is the road Jesus is referring to that would lead to death. This is the road that Jesus is referring to, and I want to tell you I got some good news: that Jesus died for those that are in that road. You're so much focused on the sin in itself that in the process, we're rejecting Jesus.

This road is the one that's led by the flesh, and our flesh is full of pride. Your flesh will tell you, "Let's get high. Let's do it." Your flesh will compromise. Your flesh will never tell you, "Be holy." Your flesh will tell you, "A little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more." Your flesh has no conscience. There is no conviction when it comes to your flesh. It does what it wants.

And here's what the Bible says because Paul, listen to me, he is preaching, writing a letter to a church. He's writing a letter to a church that has already been saved, and this is what he says: "And such were some of you." In other words, yeah, before Jesus, you were sexually immoral. Before Jesus, you were an idolater. Before Jesus, you practiced homosexuality. Before Jesus, you were a thief, and you were greedy, and you were a drunkard, and you were a reviler, and you were a swindler.

Yeah, before Jesus, that's who you were. But this is what Paul says: "But you were washed." I need you to hear me here today. Paul says, "But you were washed." This is a rebuke; this is a correction to the church for those who have compromised holiness for their selfish indulgement.

He says, "You were washed. Why are you living a life that is compromising your faith? You were sanctified; you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." You're not that anymore. The scripture never said that you don't struggle with that anymore.