Putting Death The Deeds Of the Flesh

You know, the flesh wages war against the spirit, and the spirit wages war against the flesh, so that you may not do the things that you please. Many times the Holy Spirit is trying to lead us, but He's also fighting desires in our hearts that are not good, and they're not from the Lord, they're from our flesh. And we have to be willing to yield to the Holy Spirit in that time. It says in Romans 8 that, you know, by the Holy Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh. And so, a lot of the time we have desires in our flesh, and we need the Holy Spirit's help to do that. You can't do it on your own strength like Alan shared. You cannot. And this is why the Lord allows sometimes, we get very independent, we get very strong, we get very, we can get a lot of things done, because we can in our own strength. But then the Lord allows temptations and struggles to come into our life to show us that we have need of Him. And sometimes we don't understand why is the battle in my mind so thick? Why am I going through these trials? And it's because the Lord's trying to make us weak, He's trying to make us dependent on Him and to show us that we have a need of the Lord. That's why it happens. So sometimes we have difficult days, we have tremendous battles in our mind, and it's because the Lord is trying to bring us to our knees so that we have need of Him. And I've had a lot of that lately. And, but I'm grateful for that because I know the Lord loves me. I know He cares for me. And I know He's trying to help me to show that He has to be the first and foremost in my life, nothing else. And He has a way of doing that personally and individually. You know, one of the greatest challenges in those times is we can start to point the finger at each other. And especially it can happen in a husband and wife relationship, a family relationship. You become an accuser rather than a helper in those situations. And we have to be on guard against that. I wanted to read something in Zechariah, Zechariah chapter three, praise the Lord. Maybe a bit different, but the Lord works. Zechariah three, verse one, it says, "'Cause then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.'" And this is what happens in our lives is Satan fills our minds with accusations towards people, especially in a marriage. You know, you can have a husband who says, oh, my wife, she never respects me or she never values the things that I do. And you can have a wife who always thinks, you know, my husband is the exact same and she may lack or not trust his leadership. She may say, my husband doesn't have the leadership skills that he needs to have. And I can make a better decision than him. And the devil can fill these mind with these thoughts and you become an accuser, an accuser. And you start to get into agreement with those things. And the Holy Spirit is trying to help you to say, no, I need you to humble yourself to submit at this time. And yet you can sit there and accuse and accuse and accuse and start to get frustrated. And that's how you have division, give birth in a home. That's how you have division, give birth in a family, even amongst good brothers. You can have Satan just fire a fiery dart. It comes and it just hits you right in the head. And you can just sit there and you can see all the faults of that person and they may be true. They may be true, 100% accurate, but it doesn't mean it's the Lord that put that thought there. And this is what happened here. Joshua was standing at the right hand and Satan was standing at his right hand to accuse him. So here's Joshua in all of his strength and the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuked you, Satan. The Lord rebuked you, Satan. Sometimes we have a brother here or your wife or your husband, they're there. And Satan is sitting at your right hand accusing them. And we can sit there and we can agree with those things. Or we can say, the Lord rebuked you, Satan, I'm not gonna listen to those thoughts. And you have to be ready to take those thoughts captive. You have to be ready and you have to know the schemes of the enemy. Because everything that the devil will say will be true. He's not gonna lie. Do you think that Satan could lie to God in front of his presence? No, he said everything true about Joshua. But the spirit in which he said it was very accusational. This person does this, my boss, he just does this, or my employees, they do this. And you sit there and you agree with it. And it's not from the spirit of God, it's from your flesh and it's from the devil. And you have to be able to discern when it's true or when it's wrong. You have to be able to discern or what your heart attitude is towards that thought that comes into your mind. You have to be willing. And if it produces a spirit of bitterness in you, if it produces a division between you and your spouse, or you and your family, or you and your brother, or you and your sister, then you have to be aware that this thought was not from the Lord. It produced in me an attitude of accusation. And that's what we need to be on guard against. Because you can do that. And I've seen many people, including myself, the things that you hear, the things that you think about a brother, your sister, your family member, they're true, and you start to get proud towards them. And you know what happens later? A short time later, there's a fall. I've watched it even in recovery centers. I've watched it even in recovery centers where they see faults in leadership. I have. And these men, they rise up towards it. And what happens quickly after? We all know what happens quickly after. There's a fall. It happens because the devil is constantly wanting us to fall into the trap of pride. And that's what he wants to do. And so we need to be aware of these things. It says right here, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now, look at what about Joshua. Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. This is verse three. Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel or the Lord. And he spoke. This is what the Lord said. He spoke and he said to those who were standing before him saying, remove the filthy garments from him. Remove the filthy garments from him. Again, he said to him, see, I have taken away your iniquity and I will clothe you with festival robes. You know, that's the wonderful attitude of the Lord is even when these things are heard or true, the Lord's desire is that he would take away our filthy garments and he would give us festival robes. I like going to a festival. You get to put on your best clothes. I went to a wedding last weekend and the most exciting part was me. I got to put on my festival clothes because I don't get to do it that much anymore. I work in an auto mechanic shop. So I don't dress the way that I would like to. When I got to go to the wedding, I got to put on a shirt and a tie, you know, and I felt, yes, I took some clothes out of the closet that had been there for so long. And you felt great. You know, you put on your nice clothes and this is what the Lord's desires for us is that he would take away our filthy garments and he would give us good clean garments. And this is the attitude we need to have when those thoughts fill our mind and say, no, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Satan wants to fill your mind all the time to disrupt your spiritual progression, to disrupt the home and the relationship between husband and wife, between father and children, between you and your parents. He wants to, and you need to be willing to take those thoughts captive. I remember when I was a teenager, you know, my dad was pretty tough on me. He was. And I remember my mind always, you know, accusing, accusing, this, this, he does this, and he does that. And, you know, the Lord would always come to me and say, Dan, I just want you to humble yourself. Just humble yourself. And when I did humble myself, it always went well for me. The Lord would bless me. And that doesn't mean that what maybe he was doing was right, but my attitude towards it was one of humility. And the Lord was always with me. No, it's when I gave into those accusations and I started to come in agreement with the devil, that's when things went bad for me. I literally watched it happen. And sometimes that's a test for us. It's a test for us. And it's always the first test as a Christian, I would say, is a test of humility and submission. Can you humble yourself, even though the things that you're saying are true? Can you actually close your lips and stop being an accuser of the brethren, but actually be a supporter? And say, you know what? The Lord rebukes you, Satan. And even though you say those things are true, I'm not gonna listen to him. Get out of here. I'm gonna pray for that person. I'm gonna love that person. I'm gonna help that person. I'm gonna support them. This will build unity in a family and it will cause your relationship to go deeper together. He says, let him put a clean turban on his head. I don't know what a clean turban on my head would look like, but he put a clean turban on Joshua's head. Praise God. So they put a clean turban on his head, a helmet of salvation. And they clothed him with garments while the angel of the Lord was standing by. What's that helmet of salvation? The helmet of the hope of salvation is that when the devil comes to accuse you and he comes to put you down, you can say, no, my hope is in the blood of Jesus. My hope is in what the Lord has done for me on Calvary. That's my hope. And I'm not gonna listen to those thoughts. And you're gonna take those arrows and you're gonna throw them down. I'm not gonna allow those things to fester in my mind. We were at the creek the other day and there was a man there who was used by the devil to sow something into my life. And he was talking to me, he was asking some questions. And then out of his mouth, he said something to me. How come you as a father don't get any honor? I had never actually thought that in my life ever. I honestly didn't. How come everybody honors the mom, but not you as a father? He literally said this to me. He was a demon inside of this man trying to sow division into my mind. And I had a choice at that point. I confessed it to him. I told him, I said, this guy said this weird thing to me. My brother said to me, he said, you need to get rid of that thought right now in Jesus' name. And I said, Lord, in Jesus' name, get out of my life. I'm not gonna listen to it because the devil was using him to sow something into my life to gain a place, to gain a place in my heart. You have to take it captive, especially as fathers. You need to take it captive. You go to work every day. You bear the burden of leading, of trying to provide for your family. And when the devil comes to accuse you and say you're not getting the due reward that you should get or the respect that you deserve, you need to put it down and you take it captive. You say, no, no, I do this because I love the Lord, because I love my family. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna listen to that. You need to be on guard against the devil schemes, my friends. You need to put a clean turban on your head, put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. We have a great hope. The world is so depressed right now. They have so much fear about what's happening. We don't have to have that. We can have a renewed mind that says this. There's three things that the Bible says that we're not supposed to fear. We're not supposed to fear what men say to us. We're not supposed to fear what men can do to us. We're not supposed to fear that when we stand before governors and kings, what we're supposed to say. We're also not supposed to worry about what we're gonna eat or what we're gonna drink. We're not supposed to do that. We're also not supposed to be anxious about our future and our lives. But the one thing that we need to fear, we need to fear Him who after we have died, has the authority to cast us into hell, both body and soul. That's what it says in Luke chapter 12. You can read it yourself. There's three things you need not fear. And that's those things. What am I gonna do about my future? What am I gonna do as being a Christian? And I can stand for the gospel in a wicked and perverse generation, even when many people are turning away from God, it's coming to a point where our children, when they're older, they're gonna have to stand for the Lord and probably experience greater persecution than we ever have. And we can't get caught up in trying to plan for the future. We need to sow into their lives the things of God so that when their future comes, they can stand. They can stand in the time of temptation, the time of trial. So we can get on our knees together. We can pray together, husband and wife. I read a verse from my dad's journal last time. My dad passed away five years ago. I like going back and listening to his journal because he was going through terrible trials with us kids. Kids sometimes, the Lord uses it to sanctify them. But my dad, he said, why can't we pray more together? That's what he wrote in his journal. Why can't we pray more together as a husband and wife? Why can't we pray more together? We need to pray more together as a family, as brothers and sisters you do. I encourage you, you need to humble yourself, confess your sins one to another, confess your weaknesses and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Don't sit there and accuse one another. And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua and says this, thus says the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways, if you will perform my service, then you will also govern my house and will have charge over my courts and I will grant you free access among those who are standing here. It's a wonderful thing that the grace of the Lord is free, but it costs you everything. Please recognize when those thoughts come into your mind and ask the Lord to give you the grace to take those thoughts captive. Don't listen to the accuser of the brethren. We need to stand and be an intercessor of the brethren and of our families because Jesus is interceding for me every single day. He is, and we need to intercede for each other.