Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of our spiritual walk in building the house of God, urging believers to shift their focus from self-centered desires to a life controlled by the love of Christ. He draws parallels between the rigorous training of police academy and the transformative journey of a Christian, highlighting that true faith requires a new way of living that prioritizes God's will over personal gain. Beach challenges the congregation to examine their motivations and to embrace a life of faith, newness, and spiritual growth, ultimately aiming to glorify Christ in their lives.

Father, we thank You for Your presence this morning. We thank You for calling us in worship, calling us to turn our eyes from our circumstances, our feelings, our struggles, even our blessings, the things that make us happy. Thank You for calling us to turn our eyes from all of these things and once again reminding us that our hearts can only be satisfied as they gaze upon Your loveliness and drink from the rivers of living water that flow from Your heart. We pray that as we go into Your Word, which You have placed above Your name, that You would speak to us, that You would enlarge us, that in making us feel a bit uncomfortable, You would meet us and stretch us so that we can more perfectly be walking the way that You have called us to walk. Open up our hearts. We acknowledge our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit to quicken and make real Your Word. And we ask that You'll do that so that Your house can be further built into a glorious temple where living stones are joined together, each one expressing the eternal perfections of the blessed Son of God who alone is worthy. We praise You, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. A number of years ago, as some of you may know, I was a police officer in Gulfport, Mississippi. And while the police department was not the military, they had some practices during police academy that they drilled into us. As a quote-unquote civilian, you go to police academy and you're introduced to an entirely new way of doing things. Now please listen carefully. You've got all kinds of guys coming to police academy, mostly young guys. Some of them were 19. Most of them were in their mid-20s. And you've got cocky individuals, arrogant individuals, very self-sufficient individuals. You've got some individuals who are team players. You've got other individuals who are not team players. You've got some who are quiet and meek and others who think they know everything. Well, I can remember the first day of police academy, we were lined up and one of the lieutenants began to talk to us. And he began to tell us that for the next 11 weeks, we had no life. We had no life. And that for the next 11 weeks, he, along with the other ranking officers, were going to be telling us everything that we were going to be doing. From the moment our eyes opened up from sleep to the moment we lied our head on the pillow, or laid our head on the pillow, is that correct? My wife has been drilling me with that for years. We laid our head on the pillow. They introduced to us the schedule. And after looking through the schedule, I came to the conclusion that that lieutenant was absolutely right. I lost my life for 11 weeks. They told me when to get up. They told me what to do after I got up. Talk about a structured lifestyle, Gary. I'm telling you, they gave you a certain amount of time to get your bed made. But not only did they give you a certain amount of time, they told you how to make your bed. And every single morning, we had inspection. And we had to stand at attention while the ranking officers came in and checked our beds. And occasionally, one of them was in a bad mood, and he looked at my bed, and he grabbed the hold of the blanket, and he ripped it apart, threw it on the floor, and said, I don't like it. You've got two minutes to fix it. Sir. Yes, sir. Sir. Yes, sir. It wasn't, what do you mean you don't like it? It looked pretty good to me. Huh? You even try that lip, and you'll be down doing push-ups. Give me 20. Sir. Yes, sir. 20. Now give me 20 more for even thinking about saying something derogatory to what you were told to do. For 11 weeks, we lost our life. And we learned a new life, a new way of doing everything. The reason why is because we were being trained in order to most effectively fulfill the mission that we had accepted in being police officers, law enforcement officers. They taught us ways of thinking that you who are civilians, if any of you were in the military or have law enforcement experience, you would understand. But if you don't, they taught us ways of thinking that you would normally not think. And for many years after I was out of law enforcement, I found myself thinking like a police officer. It was drilled in my mind, in my heart. It was drilled, Norman. Driving in a car, constantly looking, constantly observing my circumstances, reading license plates after I was a police officer, looking for suspicious activity going on. Found myself driving and looking at a car and being tempted to turn around and follow it. That's how deep this thinking gets in you. Even to this day when I go into restaurants, I have to sit by a wall. The wall has to be behind me. That's what we were taught. Because if you're in the middle of a restaurant, you can't see what's going on behind you. And if you're a police officer and you have a uniform on and someone hates police officers, there you go. You're vulnerable. You're setting yourself up to be shot, to be killed. So I have to sit next to a wall so I know that there's nothing behind me. So I constantly have an ability to assess what's going on around me. You say, that sounds insane. It is perhaps as a civilian, but as a law enforcement officer, it's your life. Because we were taught in police academy that the most important goal in getting up in the morning was coming home to our family. Coming home to my wife. And so they taught me everything I needed to know in order to accomplish that goal. I say all that to say this. When we come into the kingdom of God by being born again and we receive a new life, the Bible says that we were translated, transplanted out of the kingdom of darkness and planted into the kingdom of God's dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to show you the Scripture. We're going to lay a foundation and we're going to begin to enter into this next section that we're going to be dealing with regarding the building of the house of God. The building of the house of God. I'd like for you to turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. This is a familiar portion of Scripture and we're going to read it now so that we can see how even though the story that I just told you about police academy only relates to law enforcement officers and those who are in the military, the principle is applicable to our Christian life. But we have forgotten it. We hope today to be reminded by God's Word. 2 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us, or it controls us. That's an interesting statement, isn't it? The love of Christ controls us. Is your life controlled by the love of Christ today? Ask yourself that. Is your life controlled by the love of Christ? Are your actions and reactions and words and deeds and thoughts being controlled by the love of Christ? Paul said he was controlled by the love of Christ. He died to selfish ambition. He died to the mindset of what's in it for me. The reason why Christianity is so lame and weak and sterile today is because Christians wake up in the morning and this is the mindset. I'm going to go about my day and I'm going to be motivated most of the time by what I can get out of it. What I can get out of it. What's in it for me. I was just telling my wife recently how I've been weeping in my spirit because I no longer see what I used to see 20 years ago and what I read about that happened 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago when gatherings of God's people from time to time would be marked by a move of the Holy Spirit where the whole entire company of believers would be on their knees as God was dealing with them about offering their lives for Him and service to Him perhaps on the mission field. And I said, you don't see that much anymore. And I began to say, God, what's wrong? I know that You haven't changed. I know Your heart is still after the peoples of the world. And then I began to realize that the reason why is because such a mindset doesn't have anything in it for me. It's basically accepting an invitation of death. Death to the comforts of this life. Death to the security of this life. Death to slowly going up the ladder of protocol and prestige and being able to boast and being able to say, this is what I've accomplished. We live in the day, and I'm not mocking this or belittling it, but we live in the day of entrepreneurship. I want to be my own boss. Bless God. I want to set my own hours. Now understand the spirit of what is being said. I'm not saying it's wrong to be an entrepreneur, to have your own business. But what's the motive behind it? Is it so I don't have to deal with people and schedules and bosses? What's behind it? We need the searchlight of God's Word and the searchlight of God's heart revealing to us. Paul said, I am compelled by the love of God. I'm driven by the love of God. Love is not self-seeking. I know what this does with American Christianity. It blows it apart. I know. It blows it apart. Love does not look at a situation and say, well, if there's something in it for me, I'll get my feet wet. A lot of people are engaged in great sacrifice. A lot of families. But why? What is the sacrifice for? I don't want to stop there. I wanted to make that comment. Beloved, don't ever forget, when you're called by God's Spirit and God's grace to become a Christian and Jesus saves you and you receive the gift of salvation and you're born again and you have become enlightened and you have come to see that Christ is the exclusive Savior, never forget that you are called out of one kingdom into an entirely different kingdom which is run differently than the kingdom of this world. We are under the headship of a king. He's a loving God, yes. He's a tender shepherd, yes. He embraces us, yes. He understands our struggles, yes. But He's not an American Savior. He's not an American Christ. We come to God tainted with the culture. We think Christ is in heaven saying, well, whatever makes you happy, my little child, I want to do for you. Whatever is beneficial to you so that you can glory among your Christian friends and be able to show off what you've got, that's what I want to do for you, my child. No, beloved, no. That's not the picture of God as it's revealed in the Scripture. That is the American Christianity. But that's not what's revealed in the Scripture. We see a God in the Scripture who loves us, yes. Who cares for us, yes. Who is sympathetic and empathetic with our struggles, yes. But He has a bigger purpose in mind than saving you so that you can just be happy. He's got a bigger purpose in mind. He wants to enlarge our hearts. He wants to enlarge our capacity to come to Him, come to His Word, come to a gathering like this, meet in homes and gather. He wants to enlarge our heart so that we're not always going to the Lord and to prayer and to His Word and saying, what is God going to do for me? That's a man-centered, self-centered Christianity. And brothers and sisters, in love I say this, it cannot be supported by the Word of God. A man-centered Christianity cannot be supported by the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation, the Revelation and the Word of God is not a man-centered, it is a God-centered, Christ-centered Christianity. God lives to fulfill the purpose of His heart which He purposed in His Son, Jesus Christ. It's the glorifying of His Son. It's the advancement of His Kingdom on earth. Yes, He promises to care for us. Yes, He promises to take care of our needs. But we need to define what that means. Because it certainly doesn't mean that God is committed to give us the American dream. He's not. You think God loved Paul the Apostle? Study his life. Study the life of the Apostles. Study the life of the early church. Was God unfaithful to them? No, of course not. Paul lacked. Paul was persecuted. Paul spent a night and a day in the ocean. Paul was beaten. Paul said at times he had an abundance, at times he had lack. Paul said at times he was naked. He was hungry. Wait a minute, God will never let me go hungry because His Word says that God will provide my needs. Paul said it. So what do we do with that? One of the greatest missionaries that ever lived served God for over 40 years in a foreign country. He died alone in a boat from a dreadful disease with no one by his side. Did God forsake him? Where was the dream? I want to encourage everyone this morning not to be upset or to get defensive in your heart, but to consider these words. Consider them and pray, God. Help my understanding to grow. Yes, God is working with us right where we're at. But I want to assure you, brothers and sisters, that even though God is working with us right where we're at, He wants us to grow more. He does. And now listen, listen. Please listen. Don't be so sure that the kind of life you want is best for you. I was talking to this about Collette too a little earlier. We oftentimes think that a blessed life is a life with no conflict, no pressures, no struggles. Everything just is nice. Let me tell you the danger of that kind of life. We stop growing spiritually. We stop being enlarged. And we have the tendency to settle down. And like our dear brother Bruce from England preached last Sunday, what do we do? We sit and we camp at a life of ease. I thank God a million times for the struggles that I'm presently in. I don't need to divulge them. God knows. I thank God for the struggles that my family is in right now. I thank God for the struggles that God has continued to allow in our life for 20 years. I'm not talking about moral struggles or anything like that. I'm talking about the hand of God in our lives that prevents us from settling down and being at ease. We constantly have to be crying out to God for everything, everything. I thank God that as a young man, God didn't hear my prayer and give me what I thought I needed. I thank God that He loves me enough to keep me in a position, in a posture of desperation for Him and constant dependence on Him. What a blessed state when we feel our need for God. The love of Christ controls. There you go. Controls. Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. We're all dead. We're all dead men. You see, when I went into police academy, I became a dead man in that I was no longer able to function for 11 weeks in police academy the way I would have functioned prior to being in police academy. I became a dead man, Norman. I had to learn a new way. I had to learn new rules. I had to come under a new authority. Listen, I had to be subject to uncomfortable conditions that by nature I wouldn't have chosen. Wouldn't have chosen them. But they were for my good. I fear that we have a tendency to want to choose our way, but we end up with something that spiritually causes us to decline and grow fat and lazy. You know, the Laodiceans, I am rich. I am in need of nothing. Oh, beware, brothers and sisters. Beware. We should all be praying, Oh, dear God, help me to realize that I must thus judge, as Paul did, that I am dead. I am dead. I am dead. I can no longer think and act and function as simply a person with a desire and an interest and then I go after it. I am in a new kingdom. This is the Word. See? This is the Word. I love the Word of God. Having been in India and having come back and we've had guests that have really been good and have preached the Word, but oh, I was hungry this morning to get into the Word of God and to start walking through it. Oh, I love God's Word. It's just so clear. I met an 85-year-old man a few days ago who I had known about 12 years ago. He's been a Christian for probably 60 or 65 years. And he looked at me and got real close up to my face. I mean like real close to where if he wasn't an 85-year-old man, I would have pushed him away a little bit. And he looked at me and he has these beautiful blue eyes. And he said, oh, brother, I love God's Word. He said, I take a bath in it every day. And oh, it cleans me and washes me up. And he said, boy, does it encourage this old heart of mine. And I said, brother, I know how you feel. I feel dirty if I don't get into the Word. My heart can get so discouraged so easily if I don't live on God's Word. Someone might say, well, that's a little extreme. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if that seems extreme. But you know, when God puts a love in your heart for Him, it's not extreme to want to lay your life down. How many husbands do we have here? Rather, how many wives do we have here? Yeah, we have a few. Do you think it's extreme if your husband looks at you and says, I love you with all my heart, sweetheart. And I want to serve you just like Christ serves the church. How many of you women would get up and say, oh, come on. Leave me alone. I doubt if I know anything about women having five girls and a wife, which makes six. If I know anything about women, they would get that little sparkle in their eye. They'd get that little cute smile on their face and they'd say, oh, okay. Sure. Wow. Great. What happened? What happened? You can relate? Well, that's the same thing with Jesus. He wants us to have a passion for Him that's radical. Radical. Radical. I mean, Jesus, You're everything. I'm a failure and I'm not perfect, but I still want to have a perfect heart. That's what He's after. So that's what the Word of God does to you if you spend time in it. It'll change your life. Listen, you can't live your own life and love God's Word at the same time. It's impossible. You can't do it. There's a deficiency among Christians today, especially young Christians, the Word of God. Listen, young people, young Christians, listen, teenagers, let me say something. You might know the Lord and the Holy Spirit might be with you and you might be sure that your sins are forgiven, but until God gets a hold of your heart and you fall in love with this Word and you start reading it and finding Jesus in every sentence and in all the books of the Bible, you're going to be spiritually handicapped. This Word is what reveals the glories of God to us. This Word. We should feed on this Word. We should feed on it. And only God can give you a desire for that. And I pray God will do that. I pray He'll start saying, Lord, I know I don't love Your Word the way I should. I'm not going to get in bondage over it though and feel condemned. That's not where we're going. But Lord, I would like to know Your Word more. I dare you to ask God to give you love for His Word. He'll do it. Is that right, Mike? He'll do it. He'll do it. When I first met Mike, I was so blessed because very shortly after our conversation at the diner, he just looked at me and he said something like, I just need God's Word. I just love God's Word. I mean, I have to read it every day. We thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. We're all dead. Don't forget that. And that He died for all, that they which live, that's you and I, should not henceforth live unto themselves. It's hard to go on, isn't it? Are we living unto ourself? Is it all about us? That we should not live to ourself. First day of police academy. New life cadets. They taught us a new life. They taught us how to walk. I'm not kidding. We had to walk a certain way. I had to learn to march like a soldier. I can't even remember how to do it now. Right face and left face and a bow face. You had to learn these things. You had to march at a command. They taught you a whole new way of life. Can I ask you a question? Listen closely. Are you learning a whole new way of life now that you're a Christian? Is Jesus teaching you in His Word a whole new way of life? A whole new way of thinking? The foundation of that new life is this. It's no longer about me and what I want to do and living for myself. Now it's about a big God who has a big kingdom and has glorified His Son. And now my life is an offering to His Son so that His Son can be glorified in my life. Did you know that's what the kingdom of God is all about? The glorifying of the Son of God in our lives? No matter how God seems fit to do that. It's not for us to choose. It's for us to offer ourselves to Him. And then as we delight in Him, He'll give us the desires of our heart. But it's about Him. It's about Jesus glorifying His life in our life. Now watch. Watch as we move on here. He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. What a wonderful thought. Boy, do you ever thought of that? Jesus died for us. We owe Him our life. It's not that we can earn anything by offering our life to Him. It's not that we earn His love. It's just the fact we owe Him our life. Do you see that? Do I see that? Jesus, I owe You my life. You spilt Your blood on Calvary for me. You endured the cross for my sins. You allowed those Roman soldiers to take handfuls of Your hair out of Your face and pull it out. You allowed them to place a crown of thorns on Your head and pushed it down so hard that You bled and blood probably ran into Your eyes and into Your mouth. He did it for you. He did it for me. We can never forget this. If we forget this, we'll buy into this man-centered Christianity. We owe our life to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We owe our passions to Him. We owe our dreams to Him. It ought not to be dream the biggest dream and go for it like so many preachers are telling us it's not about dreaming big dreams. It's about falling before the Lamb and saying, You are worthy, I offer my life to You. Use me to glorify Your name in the earth. And let's start in the family. Let's start in Your family. Wherefore, v. 16, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Watch this. V. 17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. A new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There you go. Now when it says, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, that statement, knowing no man after the flesh, is connected to all things are passed away, all things have become new. We don't know one another after the flesh anymore. It's not based on how much money we make. It's not based on what color skin we have. It's not based on how much education we have. It's not based on how good we look. Whether we have fashionable clothes or not. Whether we drive a brand new Lexus or not. I'm afraid to say that many in the Christian circle today think those things are important. But God's Word is here to tell us today they're not important at all. And I mean at all. God does not place value on cars. We do. God does not place value on the kind of clothes we wear. We do. Having come from India and having seen these thousand plus pastors and their wives and their children and the kind of clothes and the kind of lifestyle they have, I've come to realize more than ever that God doesn't place value on these things. And if we drift from feeding on God's Word and feeding on Christ Himself, we will begin to place value on things that God does not place value on. And it will become a source of contention in our life. It will become a source of struggle in our life. And we'll find that we are after the things that God does not value and we neglect the things that God does value. That's the danger. Where your heart is, there is your treasure. In another place, the Word says that which man places value on is what? An abomination to God. You know what that word abomination means? Detestable. Can we see this? I mean, is this the Gospel or isn't it? Is this the simple Word of God? Do you see why we need to love the Word? See, it's so simple. It's just the Word. This is what we need to be doing daily. Feed on the Word. Get together. When you get together with other believers, feed on the Word. Let the Word speak to you. You see the danger of placing value on things that God doesn't place value on? I mean, the whole church culture in America is wrapped up with placing esteem and value on things after the flesh which God's Word says we ought not to know anyone after the flesh like that. That ought not to be the basis of our fellowship. This is the building of the house of God. The building of the house of God is the sovereign work of God tearing down in our lives the junk and building into us the values and the understanding and the mindset that He has. Isn't that exciting? Okay. Now listen carefully. One of the dealings of God that will come into our lives when God gets a hold of us and we start living by His Word and it has to do with what I have up on the board. Building God's house. Working on our walk. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God is working on our walk. Now apply what we just taught on for the past 25 minutes. The idea of everything has to become new. New. New. Listen. God wants to give you a new walk. The building of God's house includes the work of God in the lives of living stones because remember that's what the temple is today. It's not a temple made with the hands of man. We're living stones. The church is not a building. The church is made up of people. Called out people. Ekklesia. Ekklesia. A called out company of believers in whom Christ dwells. Through whom the kingdom and the glory of Christ is expressed. That's the church. But that church, that community of believers is called out of something old and they're called to walk in something that's new. Fundamentally different than the world and the ways of the world. And part of the process of God building His house is working on our walk. God's house must have a certain kind of walk. Now I'm not talking about this kind of walk compared to this kind of walk. You know, compared to this kind of walk. I can't imitate all the different kinds of walks. I'm sure some are probably more talented in that way. I'm not talking about an aerobic walk versus a slow walk. A hippie walk. A straight walk. This is a spiritual thing. And we're going to see that God's Word mentions over and over and over the way that we ought to walk. Let me ask you a question. I want everyone to ask yourself this question. How is your walk today? How are you walking? Now let me say something. You might be walking quite nicely in your own eyes. But I tell you what, if today's first day of police academy for you, you're going to learn that your whole way of walking, your whole way of living, when you enter into that police academy, is going to die and you're going to learn a new way. And if you submit to the Word of God, you're going to come to a crisis in your life. And the crisis is going to be this. I can't walk the way I used to walk. I can't do it anymore. God's called me into something new. Something new. Are we prepared today to let God work on our walk? Okay, Norman, I'm going to ask if you go ahead and erase the board. And what we're going to do now, what we're going to do now is this. We're going to look at a number of Scriptures in the New Testament that talk about our walk. And I'm simply asking you, this is an introduction, I'm simply asking you to give the Word of God a listening ear this morning. Give the Word of God a listening ear this morning. Let God's Word speak to you. That's all I'm asking. Let God's Word speak to you. And then once we look over several of these Scriptures, we're going to discover that there's one book in the New Testament that inclusively, inclusively deals with all of these various different Scriptures that we're going to be looking at that deal with our walk. That's where we're finally going to get. We won't get there probably today, at least not entirely. You're going to be amazed at the call of the Spirit of God this morning through the Word of God in order to bring to our attention our walk. Okay, let's begin in Romans 4.12. Talking about Abraham who received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised. Verse 12. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. Number one, Romans 4.12. A walk of faith. Brothers and sisters, we are called to walk a walk of faith. How's your walk this morning? Are you walking a walk of faith? Are you praying, oh God, I want to walk the walk of faith that my spiritual father Abraham walked? You see, in the world, there's a walk of sight. There's a walk of dependence upon myself. In the world, there's a walk of dependence upon my abilities and my skills and my provision. It revolves around the creature's ability to sustain himself. But when we come to the house of God, and Abraham is the spiritual father of the house of God, in Abraham, God captures the way he deals with his house corporately. You want to know how God's going to deal in your life? In order to spiritually make you into a living stone and fit you together with other believers so that you can become a temple where Christ is glorified? Study the life of Abraham. And the spiritual principles that God worked in Abraham are being worked in every single believer that has ever come to know God as their Father. Every one of them. It is a life of faith. It is a walk of faith. Paul said we walk by faith, not by sight. The very beginning of our Christian life is a life of faith. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. You don't have to write that down. For it is by grace through faith that you are saved. And that, not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast. The very beginning of our Christian life is a life of faith. A life where we are forced to depend upon another. We must depend upon the work of Christ. We must depend upon His blood. I must become vulnerable where I acknowledge my need before God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Hallelujah to God's Word. Blessed are those who recognize their poverty, their state of spiritual bankruptcy. Blessed are those who realize that they have nothing. They need faith to believe in the sufficiency of another person. Hallelujah. So it's a walk of faith. As you become subject to the Word of God and the dealings of God that are going on in your life, in my life, God is going to teach you the walk of faith. Now remember, it's God who initiates this. He's the Father. He initiates this. Listen, don't despair when you are brought into situations where you have to learn a little more faith, a little more dependence on God. Don't think that that means God is against you. That God is mad at you. That God is angry at you. No, He's enlarging you. He's teaching you a new walk. He's enlarging your spiritual capacity. This is a prophetic word this morning. Listen, this is prophetic to the church in America. God is going to teach the church in America the walk of faith once again. We've become too visual centered. We center on what we feel and what we see and what we can grasp with our hands and what we can get with our energy. And God is saying, no, I'm going to teach you a walk of faith. For without faith, it's impossible to please God. But I'll tell you too, it's impossible to have faith without an impossible situation. We claim to have faith, but we've got everything under control. The time that faith really shines is when you are in a situation where you can't look to anything but God. That's where true faith is born. Oh, we can spend days on each one of these points. Romans 6.4 First, we saw a walk of faith. Keep asking yourself this question. How's your walk? How's your walk? Listen, God's Word isn't about just living a nice, happy Christian life and doing our own thing in the name of the Lord. No, it's going to school. We're in the military as Christians. We're called to serve as soldiers. And anyone in this room who hears the Spirit and says yes to God, God Himself is going to teach you these things. And like I said, this is prophetic. It's going to happen in your life if it hasn't. It's going to happen in your life. And it will be the greatest opportunity that God has ever given you. Romans 6.4 I love this verse. Therefore, we are all buried with Him by baptism into death. That simply means that we have entered into the death of Christ. He brought us to death. In His death, we died. Our sin died. Our selfishness died. Our old life died. When Christ died, God took you and me and nailed Him to the cross and with Christ, we went down to the grave. God says it's over. It's finished. My Son has fully satisfied my wrath. In His death, I now see you as dead. That's the same truth that Paul was teaching in 2 Corinthians. We thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. We've been buried with Christ. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we should also walk in newness of life. Here's a second one. We've got Romans 4.12 The walk of faith. Now Romans 6.4 The walk in newness of life. This newness of life is walking in step with God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. This newness of life is walking in step with Christ's will. Listen, this newness of life has to do with learning how to walk not by the drumbeat of what's in it for me? How can I benefit? How can I be enlarged? How can I prosper? How can I be better off? How can I get higher up? No, the newness of life is a walk with the Son of God who said, I have meat that you know not of. When His disciples wondered where He got food, they thought someone fed Him. And He said, oh, I have meat that you know not of. And they said, well, did someone come and feed you? He said, no, no. See, they didn't know the newness of life then. He said, my meat is what? To know, do, and finish the will of God. That's the walk of the newness of life. My walk is, oh God, I live to do Your will. I live to know what Your will is. I live to search Your Word and to discover what You're saying. The walk of newness of life. Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Oh my goodness. There you go. So we got Romans 8.1 and my helper's gone. Okay. He went for a walk. He went for a walk. What does the Bible say here now? Who walk what? Who walk not after the flesh. Now I know you who have modern translations like the NIV. You don't have that there. But in Romans 8.4 you have this. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 4B. It's there. It's there. They omitted it in the NIV, but it's there. Romans 8.4. We walk not after flesh. It's a walk not after flesh. Okay. What do we have so far? This is what Christianity is all about, beloved. This is it. It's living by the Word of God. It's not just taking the name of Jesus and pinning it on your forehead. Learning the language. Finding some church to plug into. And then, praise God, I do what I have to do. No, it's a life. It's a lifestyle. It's a walk of faith. It's a walk in the newness of life. And now it's a walk not after the flesh. Listen, beloved. Turn your Bibles to Galatians. We're going to stop here. We're just laying the foundation. These are the principles of the building of the house of God. Thank God we're a part of a house where God is building into us these things. Isn't it wonderful? Oh, I just love God's Word. Verse 19, Galatians 5. Verse 19, Galatians 5. Now look up here. You don't have to write these down, Norm. Romans 8, 1. I so appreciate Norman. Look at that. These are really neat. I know. But I tell you, that's so cool. I always wanted one of these too. I know. Look at this guy. He's got one. He paid a dollar for his at the dollar store. And I paid maybe ten bucks for this. But we compared them this morning and it does appear that mine's better quality. But I still don't feel justified in paying that much. But anyway, are you catching this, guys? I hope. Listen, one of my passions as a preacher, one of my passions is to instill in God's people a passion for God's Word. A passion. I want people to know that no matter what you're going through, God's Word is a rock. And I'm telling you, you can't sink on God's Word. You might be shaken to your inner being feels like it's going to come out. But you cannot sink on God's Word. He'll uphold you. He'll uphold you. This is so exciting. So it's a walk of faith, a walk in newness of life, a walk not after the flesh. And now, let's just look a little bit at what a life after the flesh is like that we are commanded not to walk like. Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Adultery. And fornication. Adultery and fornication. Brothers and sisters, please listen to the Word of God. We are living in a culture and in a society that is glorifying every manner of sexual infidelity and impurity. But we are here this morning in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ giving preeminence to His Word. And His Word says that the works of the flesh are adultery and fornication. Brothers and sisters, flee all forms of sexual impurity. Flee it. Run from it. That is not the kind of walk that we are called to walk as Christians. I don't care what your friends are doing. I don't care what the music says. I don't care what the Internet says. I don't care what the magazines say. I don't care what the TV says. Run from it. Young people, listen to Brother Phil. Run from sexual impurity. Run from it. Don't have anything to do with it. It will destroy you. It will destroy your life. It will destroy your marriage. It will destroy your soul. Run from it. Be like Joseph, who when Potiphar's wife took hold of him to try and get him to sleep with her, he ran. He ended up in prison for it, but he saved his soul. Don't give the devil a foothold in this area. And if he has one, you cry out to God. You find someone that you can trust, that's close to you. And you talk to that brother or sister and ask him to pray for you. Uncleanness. Lasciviousness. That word lascivious means simply a desire for evil. Idolatry. You say, well, I don't need to worry about idolatry. Idolatry is anything that you esteem higher than God. Anything that you esteem that's higher than God. And we live in a culture where there's idolatry all over. There's the worship of our body. The worship of our looks. The worship of money. The worship of success. The worship of wanting to be the chief hog. The chief one. Everyone wants to be number one. You know, in God's kingdom, let me just say this. We're going to all have to learn to be team players. We've talked about it before, about the soccer team. The tendency with the kids, and it's a normal thing. It's to make big fuss over the one who scores the goal. But what about, I'll never forget a couple weeks ago, Al and son Benjamin. The two saves that that boy made was the game. He won the game. He saved. Listen, it's a team effort, guys. It's a team effort. Don't be poisoned by the spirit in this world that gives you the idea of, I'm going to be independent. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm not going to deal with working with other people. It's so easy to say, I'm not going to deal with my brother's struggles and his faults. I'm just going to be a maverick sheep. I'm just going to do my own thing. You'll never grow spiritually or find the ultimate pleasure of God in your life. As long as you can't be a team player and walk together with other believers. And so, idolatry can be seen in this way in our culture today. Everyone wants to be independent and do their own thing. Well, we're going to stop in a minute or so. Idolatry, I'm going to just read through them because it's hard not to stop. Witchcraft, God help us. Witchcraft. What's that movie, Harry Potter? First day, guess how much? Anyone here? I understand $33 million. First day that it showed. It does teach sorcery and witchcraft. Hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelings, and such like this. Now remember, this is the walk in the flesh. And we're not called to walk this way. And here's what happens if we do. I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do, that word there is, a repeated and continuous action. Those who are continuously and repeatedly doing these things, the Bible says, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. So there you go, brothers and sisters. That's all we're going to deal with today. We started this introduction. We're going to keep walking through this, walking through this. But God is going to enlarge us as we walk together in his word. I'm going to ask if Colette would come to the piano and just play a song. And we want to just spend two or three minutes. I know we're running out of time. Before the Lord, and just let God's word speak to our heart. And if you're here today, and God spoke to you sometime, either earlier in worship or during the preaching of the word, if God spoke to you, I want to challenge you to simply respond to him by saying, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, I hear your word and I want you to do in me what your word has spoken into my heart. Let's bow our hearts and just give God that few minutes as Colette plays. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Does anyone want special prayer? Anyone at all? We just want to affirm our love for the young people that are here. Some have left. We love you. Alexis, it's always good to see you, sweetheart. We love you. Jackie, it's good to see you. Timothy, all the young people that are here. Craig, he's an older man now. Are you 18 now? My goodness. But we just want to believe God to help our young people. Touch them, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Guard them from the evil one. Help them to see how much you love them. Help them to hear your call to lay their lives down to you and to say, Father, I want to serve you. I want to love you and obey you. Amen? Amen? Amen. I do want to say that it was brought to my attention that there are people parking in the handicapped section from time to time where we park. Be careful. It's a $100 fine if a police officer comes. Now, I know that you say, well, it's Sunday, but still, they have the right. And I don't think anyone has. Does anyone have a spare $100 they'd like to give to the police department? I know I don't. So just be careful, okay, about where you park out there. And lastly, I've got three beautiful brochures that explain the work that's being done in India and China. And the ministry that I went with when I went to India. They're great folks. They love God. And they're real. So get the literature. Read about it. And pray for them. Because I know they'll appreciate that. Okay. Yes. Okay. My dad wants me to remind all the young people, if you get one of these laser pointers, make sure you don't shine them in someone's eye. Because they do have the potential to do serious eye damage. That's true. They actually tell you on there, don't point it in your eyes. We love everyone. God bless you. Stay close to Jesus. And in his word. We'll see you again next week. And we'll get back into God's word.