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Join us for Sunday Sermons from Pastor Ronald Daugherty. Recorded live at New Beginnings Full Gospel Church where he presides as pastor. New Beginnings Full Gospel Church is located in the south side of Chicago. A small community church founded by Bishop Corneal Harper, and Pastor Joyce A. Harper in 1996. Rooted in service, community, love, and the teachings of the word. Under Pastor Ronald Daughertys leadership New Beginnings continues to be a staple in the community. Listen, Learn, and Be blessed.
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If you came in through the back door, you're in here now.
However you got in here, you're in here now.
So receive from God that that he has for you.
He will cause your life to be blessed and encouraged and enriched so you can know that in him you can do all things because he empowers you.
We praise God and we bless him today.
This is day one of our phase one of our Daniel fast.
Amen.
If y'all forgot, let me remind you, we started this morning.
Amen.
We started this morning from six to six.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
And sometimes we, you know, I do understand and I know that, you know, some of us like, you know, I'm used to eating back, sir.
You know, I wake up hungry.
Me too.
Me too.
Me too.
But if I lean on his power, he'll enable me to make it through.
So each day this week from six to six, from six in the morning to six in the evening, we are fasting, nothing but water, nothing but water, nothing but water.
And I understand that some of us have medications that we take and we have to take them periodically throughout the day and we need a little something because they say, you know, eat this, take this with food, you know, and that type of deal.
Amen.
And I ain't saying don't do that.
Don't you go tell your doctor I told you not to do that.
Do what you have to do, but trust God to get you through the day.
And if you got it, you know, you're taking your medication, but you ain't taking it all day.
Amen.
You ain't taking it all day.
Well, I had to take my medicine, so I've been eating and eating.
No, do what you need to do to take your medicine and then let's move on.
Let's trust God because God wants to do something great, powerful in our lives.
And sometimes some of the things that God wants to do are activated in our lives as we take it a step further.
Not just asking, but engaging in prayer and in fasting.
He makes it happen for us and in us.
So we encourage you and those who want to come along with us, jump in with us.
So each day from...
Sunday through Saturday from 6 a.m.
to 6 p.m.
we'll be fasting nothing but water.
And after 6 p.m.
you can have a sensible meal.
As I said last week, don't try to make up for the day.
Don't try to make up for the day.
Don't try to do that.
But a sensible meal.
For a lot of us, it's going to do us a whole lot of good.
Physically.
Amen.
Amen.
So we're hoping ourselves, even as we're training ourselves, so that we can be surrendered and submitted to God.
So we encourage you, if you can, join in with us and watch what God will do.
And for the last hour of each day, from 5 to 6, that last hour, we will get, we're joining together on our Zoom number and line, getting together and spending that last hour in prayer.
So we end out each day of fasting with prayer.
Amen.
One of us getting on that.
Thank you, Jesus.
I made it.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
We got our stuff sitting on the side waiting.
Thank you, Jesus.
I made it.
I made it.
I made it.
But each time it'll be strength to you.
Each time you'll see because there's some things that we have kind of yielded to and given it to.
Have you ever, you know, said you were going to do something?
You were planning not to do a thing or even a bunch of stuff happened in our lives.
And we said, I'm not going to do this or I'm not going to do that.
And we get there and we face with the temptation and we give in.
And right after we've given in, we said, I really didn't have to do that.
I could have lasted.
I could have made it.
I didn't have to spend that.
I didn't have to do that.
So sometimes when I think I'm fainting, I ain't fainting.
Just push it another further.
You'll get to your goal.
So we thank God for the strength that he's given us as we go forward.
Amen.
This is our first Sunday in year 2024.
Amen.
And we are reaching for more.
Amen.
But in our neighborhood, we say it's 2024.
So we're going, let's grow.
So if you were four, then we're reaching for more.
If you were four, then we're going to grow.
However you do it, we're going forward in the Lord.
We thank God for his blessings and for his goodness, what he's making happen in our lives.
So those of you who have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to Romans chapter 8, verses 3 and 4.
And it says, for what the law could not do.
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Amen.
We'll be looking at some other verses, but that's what we want to kind of zoom in on today.
And our thought and our topic for today is flesh,
I'll say it the way I say it and I'll say how I wrote it.
You ain't the boss of me.
Flesh, you are not the boss of me.
You are not the boss of me.
Some of us, our flesh will look back and say, well, who is this?
Because, you know, there's some stuff in our lives that don't go down without a fight.
What?
Who the boss is?
They're going to step up to you like, well, you know, if I'm not, show me that I'm not.
But we want to declare in our lives, and we're talking about this year growing in God.
And I will be focusing throughout this year on certain areas that we want to grow in, develop in, mature in.
And one of the first area that we want to be looking at, it will be in our spiritual life.
So we're going to be dealing throughout this year.
The first quarter of the year is that we want to grow.
Let's grow spiritually.
Second quarter of the year, we're moving in to let's grow financially.
talking about our money and things of that nature.
The third quarter of the year, we're going to talk about let's grow relationship-wise or relationally with it and our marriages and our families and our connections with those type of things.
And the last quarter of the year, we're going to be talking about let's grow.
I put down academically, but I'm talking about in self-development, me becoming better.
Me reaching for and attaining those things that I dreamed about.
Me working on me so that by the end of this year, I can look back at me and say, boy, you done grew up.
Let's grow, let's grow, let's grow.
But this first quarter of the year, we're talking about let's grow spiritually.
So we're saying to our flesh, you are not the boss of me.
You're not the boss of me.
And we're going to start looking at a few things as we're going forward.
In Genesis, we learned as we look at Genesis 1 and 26 that God created man in his image and in his likeness.
Let's just go and read what it says.
Genesis 1 and 26 and 27 says, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing.
creepeth upon the earth so God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them God made us out of the dust of the ground God made us he formed us he shaped us with his hand he created this body
He created it out of the dust.
He created the arms and the legs.
And he didn't just create a thing, but he made it in his image and in his likeness.
So in creating me, God made me to look like him and really to be like him.
That's what he was creating when he made this body and all of that.
So we were created this shape and everything after God, but not only did he create this body and call the flesh and with everything that God did each day, God said at the end of the day, and it was good.
So when God made man, God said, that's good.
I like what I just did.
It looks good, it resembles me, it's got everything that I need for it to have and all of that, and God was pleased with the man that he had made out of the dust of the ground.
And in Genesis 2 and 7, it says, and the Lord God created, formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
So when God made man, he formed this flesh, but he didn't leave it just as the flesh being shaped by him, but he breathed into him
Life and man became a living soul.
So what God was doing, he was creating not only the physical, but when he breathed, he created the spiritual.
So with our physical, he connects us with this earth that we live in so that we touch it and we move in the midst of it and we're affected by it and the various things.
But as he breathed this spirit in us, he connected us with him spiritually.
So the man that he created was both natural and spiritual.
He had operation in the earth because God gave him dominion over all of this thing.
So in his flesh, he was a rule and all these things and do all the things that God had desired.
And in his spirit, that that breath that was breathing him, he was connected with God.
That's why in the cool of the day God would come down and meet with man and man would be right there because that was his connection with God.
He was both physical and spiritual and that flesh and all that God created, God looked at it and he was glad, he said this was good to him that man was made this way and operated this way and moved and did so much so that man was so connected with God
in the flesh and so much like god that when god began to bring the animals to adam to name them and all of this god didn't change the name you know sometimes you know you tell you're trying to teach your kids something and and you have them say it and they say the wrong thing and you correct them because that was the wrong thing come on one plus one is
You play, you know, you're teaching.
One plus one is two.
One plus one is two.
And then, you know, you, especially when you're showing them out before somebody, you know, let them see your child.
Come on.
One plus one is, and they say three.
And you correct them real quick because that's not right.
That wasn't right.
Man was so connected with God spiritually that whatever Adam called it, God didn't correct it.
Whatever Adam said, because Adam is connected with God so much spiritually that he's got the mind of God and the feel of God and the spirit of God.
So as he looked at it, it was like God looking at it.
Whatever came out of Adam's mouth, God said, that's it.
Because he's so connected with God.
You ever had a friend, you know, and they talk about friends who are connected real, you know, they're always around each other, that you start the sentence and they finish it.
And they say exactly what you would have said because y'all connected like that.
So man was so connected with God spiritually that whatever he called a thing, God put a stamp on it and said, yep, that's it.
Yep, that's it.
That's man's connection with God.
And man is so also connected with God that whatever God does not want, man walks in what God said.
God took him in the garden and he said to man, listen, you can eat of every tree in the garden, but this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't you eat from that.
Man is so connected with God that if God said it, then that's what he's doing.
He's not even looking in the direction of the tree to have a desire for it.
Why?
Because God said don't bother that.
That's how connected he is with God.
Whatever God don't want, I ain't even going in the direction of that thing.
I trust God.
I believe God.
So whatever God forbids for me,
I won't do it.
In Genesis 2 and 16, verses 16 and 17, it tells about that where God forbids him.
He said, I've created all these things.
He said, but that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It says, for the Lord God commanded man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat, but the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.
Man is so connected with God that he said, if God said don't do it, then I ain't nowhere in the world you're going to get me to do that.
It ain't happening.
I'm not even looking in the direction of that thing.
So God is walking, I mean, man is walking, he's in connection with God in the physical to do the work, but in the spiritual also to obey the things of God.
But as we walk and as we go, we find out that there is always, especially with an enemy in this world, that there is always something to disrupt.
And he always comes, Satan comes to disrupt the plan and the purpose of God.
Third chapter of Genesis, verses 1 through basically 7, it says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, God hath said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but the tree...
uh of the that's in the midst of the garden god has said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die and the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely die for god doth know that in the day that you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as god's knowing good and evil
Verse 6 says, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eye and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave unto her husband with her and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
Sometimes we miss something.
And as I was reading through this, I'm reading where the enemy approached Eve and he says, you know, can't y'all eat from any tree in the garden?
And she said, we can eat from any tree except the tree that's in the midst of the garden.
Then the enemy starts to say to her,
that this is a tree to be desired, you know, you need to eat from this.
And what it says about her, that kind of gives this thing of how connected they were to God, the implication is that they weren't even looking in the direction of that tree.
It said, when she saw that it was good to look upon.
That's saying that they ain't even, God said don't do that.
I'm staying as far away from it as I can.
God said, don't have any part of it.
I'm not even looking at it.
They didn't even know it until she looked at it that way that it was a tree to be desired.
Oh, to be so connected with God that when he says no, I take no.
And when he says don't, I receive don't.
And I don't even look in the direction of what he said no to.
They are so connected with God that they ain't even paying the tree of knowledge of good and evil no attention at all.
It was not until the enemy came and had her take a look at it that she now sees that it's something that is desirable.
Oh God.
God tells us no and we keep looking like he gonna change his mind in a minute.
God said you can't do that and we keep hanging around like he gonna change.
God told them no to the tree and they didn't even come into a place where they would look at it to see that it was desirable.
So connected to God that whatever he says is what I do.
But the enemy realized that not only were they connected to God spiritually, but they were connected to this world in a way of the flesh.
So he knew that with the flesh that there could be a space and place of temptation if he presents it the right way.
If I can just get you to look at what he said no to you to.
If I can just get you to get around what he said you could not have, I can get you to change your mind.
Because with this flesh that God created, although it was good and God created it in a way to please him, there was also with this flesh a connection to the things of the earth that yearns to and can be drawn by the things that are in this world.
So what the enemy seeks to do for us in all of our lives is seeking to pursue God, is that he wants to bring things to us that will become to us desirable.
That I'll look at it and say, that so look good.
Wish I had some of that.
Wish I could.
So the enemy, what he does, what he's come to find out and figure out is the same thing that James talks about.
In the first chapter of James, he begins to talk about the situation that we're dealing with as we deal with the various things.
He said, let no man say when he is tempted that I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil.
Neither tempt he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entice.
What our enemy does is that he observes your life to see what you like.
The devil looks at you to see what pulls at you.
He looks at you to see what gets your attention.
If you ignore it, he'll move on until he finds something that you looked and you looked again.
He making notes, yup, yup, yup, yup.
And he keeps this, as it were, this book of notes about you as to what is appealing or tempting to you.
So to get you in a space and place where although you're connected to God spiritually through the Spirit, you've been born again to God, there is still this connection to this world and the flesh and the way that he pulls at you, that he starts bringing those things that you would be drawn to.
but he does it in a way that is outside of what God wants for you right now.
And because he knows by observation that this is the thing that you like, he'll present it in such a way that makes you desire.
And he knows that if he can get you to desire it enough, if he keeps bringing it your way, in a minute you may
Wait a minute.
Pastor Wilson used to, some years ago, he talked about, you know, he was really talking about the young people and them, you know, getting the young men and the young women getting together and getting by themselves.
They would always tell us, don't be, y'all stay in groups.
Don't be pairing off.
Don't be pairing off.
Because he said, you know, he was talking about it.
He said, you know, y'all get together, and then he started doing something.
You know what's wrong.
He said, no, don't.
Then he said, stop.
Don't.
Stop.
Then it becomes a, don't stop.
Don't stop.
And before we knew it, we pulled into it.
Because we stayed in the area of that.
I kept telling myself, listen, I was telling the people, y'all don't know me, I'm saved.
When I gave my heart to God, I gave him my heart.
I ain't playing with him.
No, this is real.
Y'all tell them they ain't got a power, but I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm good.
That ain't happening with me.
I love God too much.
And I was being for real.
I'm not playing no game.
I love God too much.
to do that.
It would hurt him.
And I ain't about doing that.
I told him when I serve him, I'm gonna do it for real.
So I'm gonna give it everything I got.
So y'all warn them.
Y'all ain't gotta warn me cause I'm real.
I'm in this for real.
Until, until I was in a don't stop.
Don't stop.
Like don't stop.
Don't stop.
And before I know it, I've gone over the line.
I've transgressed.
I've gotten into a space and place where I have displeased God.
So the enemy works in the areas where you desire.
Pastor Karen, okay, I'm sorry.
It wasn't her.
She keeps telling me that.
It wasn't.
It wasn't.
It wasn't.
By the time I got with Pastor Karen and stuff like that, we was good.
We struggled at a spot.
Lord, Jesus.
But we come through on the victory side.
We held on to God.
Lord, if I would have made one more step, I would have been.
Jesus, thank you, Lord.
We held on because as God began to talk to me about it, listen.
I wasn't planning to go.
It was just one step.
One more step, we'd have been there.
And the Lord caused an interruption right there, boom, rifle, an interruption.
And when the interruption happened, I heard him say to me, don't mess up.
Don't mess up.
I got out of there.
got to my house the enemy knows how and he will work on those things so with so with Adam and Eve there in the garden them been been determined to do what God said they weren't even looking at the tree and the enemy brought the tree to their attention
and made them look real close to see that it was the desirable before they know it.
She then pulled from the tree and ate and gave it to her husband.
He ate it too.
Now they're in a space and place where they are now separated.
Not that they're dead.
You know, he said, the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
And there was a death that took place because when God comes in the cool of the day the next time, instead of them running to him,
They're running away from him.
So we get to the space and place, and because that has happened in Adam and Eve, that seed is passed on to every man, woman, that's of the seed of Adam.
Guess what?
You of the seed of Adam.
Uh-uh, my momma ain't listen.
Chase, your mama, their mama, you're going to come up at them some way.
That's just how it is.
So that thing was passed on to all, and we began to die in this relationship with God, our connection to God.
We began to lose space and place spiritually, and the enemy was using it so God would turn from us.
But God had something else in mind.
But this thing of the flesh, when you give it an inch, how do you know it don't stay at an inch?
It's going to take more and more and more and more ground.
In Genesis 6 and 5, it says this, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination and thought of his heart was only evil continually.
Just that one that Eve and Adam did has spawned into something that man's thought always is now evil.
It's this work of this flesh that connects them to this world that magnifies and manifests over and over and over again and causes us to be pulled away from what God would have for us.
And it's what I noted down here, flesh out of control.
That whatever we think about doing, we wind up doing.
And a lot of times some of the stuff that we think about doing is stuff that we know that we don't need to be doing.
How does that permeate my thoughts all the time?
How does that get in my head all the time?
How is that more than the good that I should be doing?
It's just the manifestation of the flesh being yielded to and given into over and over and over again.
Some years ago, I found this little story about the Indian chief who was talking to his grandson.
And he said, within every man, there are two wolves.
One is good, and he wants to do all good things and stuff like that.
And one is very evil, and all he wants to do is kill and destroy and stuff like that.
And he left it at that.
And the grandson looked at the grandfather and says, well, which one wins?
And the grandfather said, the one you feed.
The one you feed.
The one you feed.
The one you yield to.
The one you give in to.
The one you submit to.
That's the one that wins.
So this thing in our flesh, this battle that's going on of good and evil, why does evil, why does all this stuff keep coming up in me?
Why is there more?
What you feed.
So as I begin to feed those things, it gets stronger and stronger.
And most of the time when I look around, it is now doing more.
Or I'm pulling more in that direction because I'm feeding it.
But I've learned, like most of us learn, that yearning is something that I just yield to.
Some stuff I used to think about doing before.
I know if I do this, my mama going to beat me.
Now I'm thinking about, well, how long is she going to beat me?
Because I'm going to do this.
You know, it's not now the fear of being beat because I'm going to do this.
I'm just worried about how long I'm going to be beat.
I'm already yielding in my heart and my mind to the things.
So the enemy tempts us with those things that we would have a yearning towards.
So we'd be pulled in that direction and we would hopefully win, the flesh will win and we'll give in to those things.
But this thing of this flesh and this battle that we're facing, we find out that in most cases, now there are times like New Year's and stuff, we begin to determine what good things we're going to do this year and stuff like that.
And for most of us, I'm not saying for everybody, but for most of us,
you know, we done changed that thing about 12 times.
Because we done keep missing here and there, and that's before January gets out.
So somewhere along the line about March, we just throw up our hands because it ain't working, it ain't working, it ain't working.
Because we've become accustomed to yielding to this flesh, and the power of the flesh is very powerful.
Why?
Because it keeps getting fed.
It keeps getting fed.
It keeps getting fed.
And the spiritual side of us keeps diminishing in its power because we stop feeding it.
We stop feeding.
So we have to get into space and place where we are feeding the things of our spirit more than the things of his flesh.
But Paul looked at it in the book of Romans in the seventh chapter, 24th verse, he concludes all of this, the struggle that he's having.
And that's the chapter where he talks about, when I would do good, evil is present.
And I find myself doing the evil other than the good.
You know, what I said I wouldn't do before I knew it.
I done done it and things of that nature.
And he concludes and says, oh, wretched man that I am.
Who going to deliver me from this death?
From this sin, from this sin.
And for a lot of us, we kind of just kind of yielded to a lot of things in our lives because we've concluded in our minds that I'm not going to get past this.
This is just me.
My mama was like this.
My daddy was like this.
My uncle and them like this, I'm part of the family.
Guess what?
I'm gonna be like that.
You don't have to be like that.
But we sometimes surrender and submit in our mind to these things because we see that all around us and we begin to say to ourselves, as much as I've tried not to, I keep doing it, so it must be for me to do.
Wrong.
Wrong.
It keeps having power because we keep feeding it.
We keep yielding to it.
And the thing that I need to do is to stop feeding it.
But I do find a struggle with not feeding it.
Because it cries loud.
Some of us in our own situations, just naturally, we're sitting with some people and we haven't had nothing since breakfast and it's already 2.30 and we're sitting with people talking and something...
And they look at you.
You okay?
Your stomach is saying, feed me.
Feed me.
And it's the same with the various things in our lives that we're trying to pull away from and things of that nature.
When we've been away from it for a little bit of time, it started doing it.
And they're saying, feed me.
Feed me.
Before we know it, you know, because it gets, because, you know, that grumbling, it don't get quieter.
And you starting to move and like, I'm hungry.
Until you go and give it something to eat and now you better now.
Mm-mm.
So the enemy banks on the fact that whatever he brings to our flesh that's appealing to our flesh, that we're going to give into it.
And as we give into it, it's pulling us further and further away from the things of God.
And Paul, as I said, in that seventh chapter, he said, oh, wretched man that I am, I keep having this struggle.
How am I going to get out of this in this flesh?
Because I'm flesh.
I'm connected to this world.
You know, I went to bed.
When I woke up, I was in the bed.
I was there.
You know, I can run from you, but guess who I can't run from?
I can't run from me.
Because when I look in the mirror, guess who I see?
I'll be wondering who it is, who is this old man looking at me, but...
But I'm there, and the enemy is appealing to the needs of this flesh and causing me to yield and to give in to that.
So Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am.
And it's almost like, well, I'm not going to get any better.
I'm not going to make any achievements beyond this point because I keep having to deal with this particular battle, and I just cannot do it.
this flesh has its victory over me but but there's a verse in the Bible in John the first chapter the 14th verse it says and the Word of God became flesh thank you became flesh and dwelt among us
My goodness gracious.
And we beheld his glory as of the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God knows that we can get victory over the flesh, but we've been convinced that we can't.
So Jesus said, I'll become flesh and show you how to get it done.
I'll become flesh and show you how to work this thing out.
I'll become flesh to experience everything that you experience and show you how to be victorious in every situation that you face.
And the word became flesh.
and dwell among us, and we beheld, we looked at him.
We got a chance to see how to walk this thing out in such a way that we can be victorious over the flesh.
He said he was tempted in all points, just like we were, but without sin.
In other words, whatever temptations come your way, well, they didn't have no crack back then.
No, they didn't.
Not like that.
No, no, no.
No, they didn't.
No, they didn't.
No, no.
No, they had no crack pipe over them.
No, no.
They didn't have that.
But there was hallucinant genitives, whatever them things is.
There was drugs back there, too.
And the same type of temptation that you face, he faced.
The scripture says, you know, it talks about that these is what's happening in the world, that in this world, in this world system, you're going to deal with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
That's what happens in this world.
So although they may not have had crack, they had lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
Anything that you deal with falls into one of those categories.
Anything that you go through falls into one of those categories.
And Jesus came to show us that in whatever category you struggling in, I come to show you that you can be victorious.
You don't have to yield to, you don't have to give in to, you don't have to be submitted or surrender to.
All you gotta do is follow my example.
And that was my reason for coming.
I didn't come as an angel.
I was made in the flesh, just like you.
I didn't come as an alien coming to the planet.
I came in the likeness of sinful flesh to show you you can be betrothed.
What are you saying?
Well, Jesus' daddy was God.
He didn't have the sin nature in him.
So was Adam's daddy.
So was Adam's daddy.
He was God.
So Jesus said, I'm coming, but I'm taking you back to the origin, the start, the beginning of everything and show you how if you lean on God and stay dependent on him, he will take you all the way through victoriously.
So you don't have to yield to this flesh and let it be your boss or run over your life.
You can be victorious in whatever it is.
All you got to do is follow the pattern of Jesus.
The verse that we read starting out with it says, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh.
Flesh always giving into the wrong thing or stuff like that.
God sending his own son.
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, this is why he's sinning, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of God might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
Jesus came to say this to us who are struggling, whatever you're struggling in and all of that, I came so that you can know you can get out of that.
I came so that you can know you can overcome in that situation.
I came so that you can know that that thing don't need to have power over your life anymore.
I came to let you know that the power of the enemy and to come through sin has been defeated through me.
And if you want to be victorious, all you got to do is walk after me.
Came to let you know that sin or the flesh does not need to be your boss no more.
Calling the shots.
Waking you up in the middle of the night saying you need.
Walking past a situation, circumstance where you know you need not be crying out saying you better go down that way.
Jesus came to let you know I came so that you can know you can be victorious.
I came so that you can know you don't have to submit or surrender to anything that your flesh is pulling or crying out for, but you can be victorious in Christ Jesus.
So we struggle, and we all do.
Jesus said, I did too.
So we have temptations, and we all do.
Jesus said, I did too.
So we have hard places where we have to battle through.
Jesus said, I did too.
I came in this flesh so that you can know whatever you're dealing with, it don't have to be your boss.
It don't have to be running, managing your life or running roughshod over you.
There is deliverance and it's in Jesus Christ.
came that you might have life and that more abundantly.
So whenever you're facing your heart, placing spaces and places in the flesh that you're dealing with is crying out to do that that you know that is not the right thing to do, realize it ain't your boss.
There is another who came and said, all power is in my hands.
And that same power
I give to you.
I give to you.
Some of us, the thing that is keeping us from the space and place that we know that we should be occupying or who we know we should be is this cry of the flesh.
That when I look in the direction or move in that direction, I'm gonna accomplish and do this and that, this jumps up and that jumps up and this comes up and before I know it, I'm pulled aside.
That ain't got to be your boss.
There is power.
Jesus was made manifest so we can know that we've got victory over sin and walk in the righteousness of God and accomplish and achieve everything that God has for us.
We need to say to our flesh, you ain't my boss.
Yeah, you strong, but you ain't my boss.
Yeah, you got power, but you ain't my boss.
And I've got to give space and place to the strong man.
The scripture says no man can spoil the house of a strong man unless a stronger man comes and binds him.
And then he can destroy everything that he had.
Satan in my flesh may be a strong man, but there is a stronger man.
who said, I have conquered sin and the flesh.
I have conquered this thing.
I have overcome in this area.
And just like I did, you can too.
So today I just come to let you know and make you aware of, yes, we deal in struggles and fighting and things of that nature in our flesh because it always pulls us in the direction that we know we need not go in.
But I just let you know today that Jesus also came in the flesh.
And he got victory so that he could give it to you.
So that he could give it to you.
So that he could give it to you.
So he wants us to take up and begin to walk in those things that he's given us so that we can be victorious over the same things.
I'll close with this.
Years ago we, well we first, I was born in Memphis.
and I think I was there until I was about four years old, and we moved, four or five, and we moved to Chicago.
We moved, and when we got here, I think we stayed with my aunt for a little while, then we stayed with my grandmother for a little bit, and then we moved into the projects on the west side, Rockwell Gardens.
West side.
Listen, that was my place.
I loved it in the projects.
I loved it in the projects.
But I was new in the building and stuff like that, young kid, just going to first grade and stuff like that.
But I ran into this guy who lived on the same floor that we lived in.
Our building had 10 floors in our building.
I sat on the third floor.
This guy lived about maybe five doors down.
The bully of the project.
My goodness.
And I found out, because I saw what he did with some other kids.
I was trying to stay away from him.
I called his out one day.
That boy ran my life for a while and he was, you know, whatever he, you know, our cousin, I mean, he was like, ugh.
So I remember one day I was outside, my mother was standing by the door or whatever and he said something to me and I don't know what it was, but my mother called me, my mom called me, I said, if you let that boy do one more thing to you, when you come in here,
I'm going to do something to you.
But the thing that was kind of about that was that there was other guys, friends that I had that lived on the floor and in the building kept telling me, man, he ain't nothing but a bully.
Stand up to him.
He'll back down.
Stand up to him.
He'll back down.
They had been telling me this, but I was like, I don't know.
But my mama said that.
So the next time we went out, and he kind of caught me somewhere, and he's trying to take my money and stuff.
And I said, no, no, no, you can't take it this time.
And he hit me.
And I popped him back.
And he kind of looked like, he hit me.
So we got to wrestling and stuff like that, and I wind up on top of him, and I'm going for old and new, because you done took my quarters, you done took my toys.
I'm going for old and new.
One of the neighbors pulled me off of it and everything.
I ain't never had no problem with it.
He moved from me to somebody else.
The next person he moved to was a friend of ours that hung out with us.
And we was all telling him, he ain't nothing but a bully.
You stand up to him, he'll back down.
You stand in there, he ain't going to hang in there long because he's a bully.
And they was all like I was, no, no, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
And as long as that person was with us and we came around them, they was like, yeah.
But he was waiting to catch them by their self.
And he would catch them by their self and they'd come back crying because he took their stuff.
And we kept telling him, man, he ain't nothing but a bully.
Stand up to him.
And he'd catch one by themselves and they would listen.
They would hear what we said.
And they stand up to him, and they got in a fight with him.
And one boy came back, and he was kind of smiling a little bit.
His nose was bleeding a little bit.
He hit him in the nose, but I bust him in his eye.
And he stopped bothering him.
So the thing about it is that we understood and knew that he was a bully.
And although we were telling other people that he was a bully, they had to for themselves stand up to him.
It wasn't just that we told them, but they for themselves had to stand up to him.
And then they're standing up to him.
They gain victory over him where he moved from them to somebody else.
The enemy that we face, the flesh that we face is nothing but a bully.
And as long as you keep giving in, he going to keep having power.
But when you begin to stand up in your authority that's in Jesus Christ, then he got to back down.
But you got to stand up.
So when he approaches you,
When I was scared of him, when I saw him coming, I was going in my pocket to get what change I had because I know he's going to take it and I'm going to give it to him.
But when I found out he was a bully and I could beat him, my change stayed in my pocket.
And if you keep bothering me, your change is going to be in my pocket.
We got to stand up to the enemy and this flesh that's running roughshod over our lives.
Because there is a power through Jesus that has conquered the enemy to give us victory over the things that come against us.
I encourage us today that as we go through this year and as we're dealing with the various struggles that we have, stand up.
Stand up.
Stand in the power of Christ.
and win the victory over that thing so that that will not run roughshod over your life anymore.
You know your struggles.
There is power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.
He can free you.
So I encourage you today and I encourage us all that we look at flesh and we tell it, you ain't the boss of me.
You don't run nothing here.
Jesus is my boss.
I submit to him.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we just bless you.
We thank you.
We give you glory and honor and praise for all that you are and all that you cause to happen in our lives as we say yes to you.
There is none like you.
You didn't just observe us going through this battle in the flesh and do nothing and just send word to encourage us in the sense that all we did was hear you.
You came and became flesh.
teach us how to overcome and as you have taught us let us take heed to the lessons so we can walk in the power of God and not be hindered by the things of this flesh so that we can achieve your plan and your purpose for our lives and we can experience the abundance that you came to bring us in Jesus name amen for you on Facebook land if you have not submitted your life to God
Then the flesh runs roughshod.
I ain't got to point out nothing.
You already know.
Even when we say that I'm not going to do this and this is my New Year's resolution and I try to end before I know it, I don't know.
It's there again.
God wants to deliver us.
He's already won the victory.
He just needs us to grab hold to what he's done and walk it out and accept it for our lives so that we can be victorious.
And Facebook landing even in the room today, if you need the power of God to help you overcome the enemy, as your flesh is being pulled into various spaces and places, Jesus says that the victory is mine.
He came for the purpose of getting rid of the power of sin to rule in your life.
That's what we were reading in Romans.
So that you can now walk in the righteousness that he provides for us and not be enslaved anymore to sin.
If you want to be free today, just raise your hand in the building and on Facebook land.
Raise your hand, raise your hand, raise your hand.
And just pray this prayer.
Father,
My life has been a life where the flesh has reigned as boss.
But from what I received today from your word, I understand that you have overcome the flesh so that I no longer have
need be ruled by the whims of this flesh.
You paid the price.
You became the sacrifice so that victory was won over sin.
The sin of the world and the sin in my life.
Today, I submit to you and I ask you to strengthen me
to walk in your way so that this flesh no longer rules in my life.
But you are my Lord and you are my king.
You are my savior.
You are my strength.
Today, Lord, take my life.
Call to be victorious in every space and place of struggle.
so that your will is performed in me.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
Victory is ours in Jesus' name.
As he has overcome all you need do, believe, accept his word, and walk in it.
He will cause you to be victorious in Jesus' name.
For those on Facebook land, thank you for joining us.
We'll look to see you on the next occasion.
God bless you.
Happy New Year's again.
Go forward in God.
Love you.
Have a great day.
Praise God.