How to overcome your emotions: Spirit Power | Week 1 | Fighting Fit

Fighting fit is different from just being fit.

For many of us we keep hold of our faith but we're clinging on by our nails.

You're competing for a prize. It's not about competing with anyone else, it's actually competing against yourself. You can point at other people but you want to start looking and realizing it's yourself is the issue. 

1. Body - Senses and physical needs
We're very quick at making judgments for the way someone looks. But Many of us are good at hiding what's in us.
God says it's good to take care of yourself and look good and healthy but that's not the priority for God. The priority is the inner beauty of the heart.

2. Soul - our mind, will and emotions. 
If you are living a life led by your feelings you will never live the life that God has planned for you. Living a life by feelings lead to regret, disappointment, dissatisfaction, you will never ever get there. 
The truth is the grass isn't greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it. 

3. Spirit - Spiritual capacity and potential
Every one of us has that built into us. But it comes down to our choice. The Spirit is eternal.Spirit is saying, come on I've called you for holiness. 
There is this transformation for every one of you. God doesn't want to leave you where you are, you were not the finished article. 

The Contenders - Emotions Vs Spirit
Often when we're emotionally led, we become quite proud and we overthink everything, instead of trusting who God called us to be. Our feelings are loud, they shout louder than the spirit. They shout loud on the outside. 
If you're focused on the flesh you're going to fight God's plan and refuse to submit to his direction and then you wonder why you end up in a bad place because it cannot stand against it. But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life you were not dominated by the flesh but by the spirit.

Who's the boss? Emotions or spirit?
Many of us, we are believers but we're not actually following him as Lord because actually our feelings and emotions, those are our lord. They are our master. 

Self control comes from the Greek word "egkrateia". And it means the virtues of one who masters desires, thoughts and feelings. 

If you want to be fighting fit, you got to commit to self-discipline, we underrate it, we put it down. Self-discipline in every aspect of your life will bring fruitfulness, will bring power, will bring the potential that is within you that is eternal. 

You don't have to be dominated by your feelings any longer, but you can be led by your spirit,

We couldn't do anything but through Jesus, through the power of the Cross because he paid the price for our sin.

How to overcome your emotions: Spirit Power

We've started a brand new series today and it's called Fighting Fit.

Some of us are fighting fit or some of us are not fighting fit. that's fine. because, The whole idea of this is going to be like a spiritual gym. We're going into the gym together and the whole idea of getting fit is we're going to do some exercise.

I just want you to commit to these coming weeks. I believe if you commit to these coming weeks you're going to see transformation. It really is something on God's agenda, fighting fit.

Fighting fit is different from just being fit. Some of us are fit. We are just used to be in Christians, we're used to the routine, we have daily practices and routines but there's almost like a higher level. When you come into a fight, you've got to be fighting fit and this is what this is all going to be about.

So we're going to start off with birds. These are Canaries and they're famous for their song. People have a canary in their home because they're the most joyous birds you could ever find. They sing, they just sing all the time, they're happy.

You'll notice on the picture here, there's one odd one. This is called a red factor. Guess why, because he's red! It's not because he was born that way, he was actually born yellow and in fact I had one. I had one at home when the kids were little.

We had a canary in the little cage in the lounge and it was a red factor and how you get him red is you feed him a certain type of food. It's red factor food, basically it goes in, doesn't harm him, so don't worry, it goes in and it turns him from yellow to red and he's called a red factor.

And so I had my proud little bird who used to sing the whole time, he was the red factor. What he used to do is, the cages we used to have, they used to have those trays and all the seed and the mess would go in the bottom and you got to clear out, all the poo and that and you've got to clear it out once a week. So I just figured out rather than having to pull out the tray and it will mess over the floor, just use the hoover, the vacuum, get the vacuum nozzle in there and suck up all the seed, job done, it takes a minute.

So this is what I used to do weekly in my cleaning rota around the house as a good husband, but just on this one occasion something happened. I was there hoovering away, Heather was in the kitchen and she shouted my name and just like as usual, I was attentive. I hear her call me, Gary, it's like yes and just as I responded I must have slightly lifted the end of the hoover nozzle and all of a sudden I heard a thud. I looked in the cage and he wasn't there anymore. He had vanished!

So I quickly put the hoover off, got the pipe out, looked in the bag, he wasn't in there, got the pipe out, he was stuck halfway down the pipe. I got a great big stick, poked him out and he plopped out on the floor with his wing like this, that's what I thought. My little red factor canary, he was shivering and shaking, but I put him back in the cage, sort of propped him up on his perch. He was in the corner and he never sang again. I can't remember what happened to him actually but he never sang again.

This is a bit like us, we come to church every week, we put on our Christian best, we turn out and we do our songs. We've got the red factor appearance.

Funny, we go through the motions, we do the stuff and then something in our lives happened that we don't expect and suddenly that might be a dark moment.

It might be a situation that is beyond our control and we get sucked up the dark hole and we come through the other end and we pop out, maybe with something broken, but for some reason we don't sing anymore.

There's something really powerful about this because for many of us we keep hold of our faith but we're clinging on by our nails. 

We know we're different, we want to go in, when I use that whole title about being fighting fit, we want to be fighting fit, we hear a message and we respond and we step up in prayer and we do things and believe for the impossible and then the impossible doesn't happen.

Maybe for some of us, we have believed for a baby and we get pregnant and then we lose the baby and we go through life and through loss and through discouragement and things happen and those feelings come over our life and we begin to think, I'm just going to stay in the corner. I'm going to not sing but I'm just going to get through.

God wants to change our whole way of thinking.

I want you to think of the red factor because so many of us and that's what I'm disturbed by. Through this series I want you to see that you might have gone through, you might be going through things but it doesn't need to identify who you are.

Because what we do, we can turn up every Sunday, but what we do from today to next Sunday is the key to being fighting fit.

It's the key about how we are living our lives.

This is what Paul said.

This isn't just about your body. It is more than your body, if it was just our body it'd be simple, it's more than our body,

I went through situations and Paul knew what it was to go through situations that could have broken him but instead it made him better.

But it lies with us, it lies with you, about how we're going to respond to this and that's what I want us to look at.

We're complex beings, I mean some of your more complex than others. Some of you, still trying to work out, but thank God he made you, he knows, you think about it, some of us are so complicated but I'm going to try and simplify this. It's a very complicated subject but I'm going to try and simplify it.

When I say this, I want to say online and to everyone if we got any theologians around, there's going to be oh well that's called a dichotomy and that's called this and it's called whatever and you can separate.

Get the principle I'm talking about, don't get caught up because there's some different opinions and views, those won't really affect what I'm saying, so don't get stuck in that. That's what the enemy wants is for you to get stuck in your intellect.

I want you to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying today, I want you to listen to what he's saying because he wants to bring freedom into your life.

You're going to need to understand he's called you to be an athlete, that means you're competing for a prize. It's not about competing with anyone else, it's actually competing against yourself. 

What is the biggest issue I have? Myself. Where do the problems keep coming from? Myself.

You can point at other people all you want until you start looking and realizing it's yourself is the issue. 

It's not like the world has all got an issue with you, no, you've got an issue with yourself and I need to compete so I don't get disqualified.

1. Body

So think of these 3 elements to make this complex thing simpler. First of all, this is the simplest, we have the body. It's very black and white, here it is, the diagram I've got here.

The body, you're going to be born, you're going to live your life, you're then going to die and return to the dust. That's the cycle of life.

I know we don't like looking at that but that's your body. That's your physical being, that is something that's within, it's your senses and your physical needs, if you don't eat you're going to die. That's your body, your body is functioning and this is the body that we are given and in fact as Christians we believe this is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's more than just a body that I can abuse, it's more than a body. But it actually says respect and honour your bodies.

It actually says you need to be careful how you use it because I believe that these are vessels. These are temples. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit so what you eat and the way that you keep fit and the way that you live out the years of your life.

If God ordained 78 years for your life but you are not healthy and die at 69 from a heart attack because you had too much fat in your diet, you're going to fall short of the God plan that he had for your life.

No one's responsible for that, it comes through competing in the games, being self disciplined. It comes through saying the fact that actually you've entrusted this to me.

I know right now that this body of mine, this is not all of who I am.

When people look at you, they make judgments upon the way you look. We're very quick at making judgments for the way someone looks. We'll look and we'll think, oh yeah, that's them, no, it's not them.

Many of us are good at hiding what's in us.

Right now while I'm speaking, what we do is when we feel vulnerable we're not open, we close, we hide, and our body displays what's going on in the inside and the fact the Bible says that God is not interested,

He says it's good to take care of yourself and look good and healthy and says it's good but that's not the priority for God. 

The priority is the inner beauty of the heart. 

It says the hidden heart within mankind that is what God goes for, which is contrary to the whole world that we live in.

It's more than you see in the mirror. We've been entrusted with this body and as in God entrusts us with children and entrusts us with finance and opportunity, I believe we're also accountable for stewarding this body. So that's the body. I think we're quite aware of what that is.

2. Soul

The next one is the soul. 

Now this is where it gets really interesting because the Bible interchanges soul and spirit quite often, but come with me.

The soul, the way I want to describe this as we refer to it on our journey is that the soul is our mind, will and emotions.

Something about seeing within our mind, those are the decisions that we make.

We chose to do some things and we chose not to have relationships with certain people because of our emotions and our judgments and opinions that were formulated through our experience, our disappointment, our discouragement and from it what happens is we end up formulating within our soul these decisions.

This is where our emotions live, some of us are more emotional than others, but heck it's something to handle and the Bible challenges us about this because the emotions will work against us.

If we live a life that is feeling led will be like the red factor canary, on the purge.

I can guarantee you right now, if you are living a life led by your feelings you will never live the life that God has planned for you. Living a life by feelings lead to regret, disappointment, dissatisfaction, you will never ever get there. 

It's designed to keep you going in circles. And yet we all have to contend with it.

Having feelings isn't bad, it's actually very good, we need feelings but it is what you do with them that counts.

As a Christian, the Bible talks about what will you do with your feelings, either you're going to live a life that is feeling led or you're going to do something different.

And So we've got to realize that this is going to always be a challenge for us.

Paul even said it this way, he said, "I struggle to do what I know I should do, but why do I find it easy to do what I know I shouldn't. Who's in that gang? Who's in that gang?

It's like how often, how often? Especially when you're younger or more immature, you learn the hard way, you keep making the same mistakes,

I know I shouldn't but I want to and when you do, when you try and cover it up and then you think I'll get away from it and maybe I'll do it again, now I got away with it again until something happens and then you start realizing you're trapped in a cycle.

I know the result of this is guilt, I know it isn't peace, it's the opposite.

I know the result of doing this is trying to gratify myself because often these things are around gratification.

It felt good for a moment but afterwards when am I going to learn? I'm so stupid.

I remember physically beating myself, I'm going to be honest with you because I know what God had for me but I know what I went and did when I knew better and I was thinking why, this body, this flesh, this carnal thing that becomes animalistic because without God, we return to the things of selfishness.

You're going to need to get control of your feelings because if you are feeling led, it will get you into trouble, it will rob your life, it will rob your life. 

Paul understood this, but later on he understood even more, he writes again, he matures and he's starting to work it out and he said I've worked it out, actually for me to live, it's to die, but to die is gain.

He's saying about himself, I compete in the race against myself and it's my selfishness that I need to deal with and if I can't contend with my selfishness, I'm not going to live, I'm going to die. So he starts realizing what this is all about.

We convince ourselves when we make decisions that it'll be okay, when God clearly said No. 

We make decisions around dating a Non-Christian and just say, it just feels so right. How can it be wrong?

We make decisions about falling out of love with our husband or wife and then feeling attracted to someone else. Then saying, I know that God wouldn't want me to have a loveless marriage and we start looking elsewhere.

But the truth is the grass isn't greener on the other side, the grass is greener where you water it. 

There is something that we all do this. I'm not picking on anyone. We do it.

The enemy is a deceiver and a liar.

Think about the Garden of Eden at the beginning. What did he do? He tempted and within Eve's soul, it was like it looks good. No, you can't have it. I'm not sure, I don't think God would turn down the best for me, would he? I'm sure it must be good.

And we reach out and we grab it only to find that it only satisfies for a little while, and then we find that we're lost and we're distant.

There are so many things right now and I want to challenge us all as I speak to you online, if you're watching this on TV, in one of our locations, wherever you are. I pray Holy Spirit will you convict us where somehow we have listened to the voices through feelings, where we've said I think it's okay for God. I know he said No, but for me he says yes. I pray that it would disturb us right now, relationships, decisions.

It's amazing how so many things in our life, we can approve ourselves and say this is okay for me because it feels so right.

So if feelings were good it would mean, do what you feel like and you're going to live the best life ever. In fact, it is the contrary.

You live a life led by your feelings, you're going to live a life of loss. Because the enemy is a robber and a thief.

Enemy's a liar and a cheat and he will want you somehow to make decisions, even around sexuality.

Let's go there. Sexuality in the world that we're in right now. Confusion over sexuality, you can be anything, all sorts, whatever, it's just how you feel. I felt like this, surely that's me if I feel like it. God must understand that because he made me, when we know what God says in his word. So we've got to get this sorted.

3. Spirit

Then the third one is spirit.

We've got body, soul and spirit. This is where it gets exciting, spirit! I've got some hope for you, spirit.

We'd all be lost if we stayed at that point. In fact, that's where we were before we met Christ. That would be my preach without Christ. It would be,

We're just going to have to do our best to overcome these feelings that you have. You're going to have to do your best.

I know you keep failing but we're just going to keep pushing along and maybe we'll just hold on to the end.

But when it comes to the spirit, our spirit, the Bible talks about our spirit, this is incredible. Our spirit, this is the spiritual capacity of every individual. We all have one.

When you read all the thousands of stories of people that died and then got brought back after 5/10/20 minutes, they will talk about and many people who are not even sure what they believe will accept that actually there could be something after death and people who talk about leaving their body and looking back and maybe going and seeing lights and seeing a guy that seems a little bit like a Jesus fellow, even in places that didn't know and weren't taught about Jesus, in places that weren't Christian.

Your spirit, this is the spiritual capacity and potential for every person. That means that God is placed in every person the potential to be saved. 

You can say that you're an atheist, you can use your intellect and have all your arguments and your reasons and stuff and go through but every one of us has something within us that has an antenna to go to God and when God is speaking, he's reaching constantly saying, come on, I'm after you, I'm after you. And we have to choose and go. There you are.

Every one of us has that built into us. But it comes down to our choice. The Spirit is eternal.

As Christians we have a renewed spirit. If you're not a Christian your spirit is not alive to Christ. And it's either unholy or holy. That is why eternity is not, oh I didn't believe so I'm probably just going to stop existing.

We all have a spirit and it'll be our spirit that goes on and the Bible says, either we choose to be with God or we choose to reject him and we will be away from God and without God.

A vacuum of good and hope so there is a choice but the Spirit has the potential for eternal purpose and potential.

So he knew he placed it. It was there right from the beginning and that's where we hunger for holiness and righteousness and even as I challenge some people there about some of the things that we've justified in relationships, there is a voice in there, there is something in your gut that you're trying to block it out and you go no, this is right because it feels right.

You've got yourself in situations where you shouldn't be and you've got involved and did some things that you shouldn't do and you drank some things you shouldn't that led to this, that and whatever but there's this voice that keeps coming back, Spirit calls to Spirit and the Spirit of Christ calls to you and it's amazing because no matter where you are, even in your lostness, even when we walk away from him, it's like the Spirit is saying, come on I've called you for holiness. 

There's something in us, there's something in us that's deep down and it says that his Spirit bears witness with our spirit. That we are the children of God. You can't know that unless your spirit is renewed. Unless your spirit comes alive.

I think there is a hunger in us that we go away but it is calling us. This conviction. And the Spirit contends for our soul. Listen to that. So think about where your soul is right now.

We've talked about the soul, see your spirit contends for the soul, the emotions, the feelings, the decisions.

The person that you said, well this is just me, it's just the way I'll always be. I went through this and I was a victim and It that happened to me and I've had a tough deal, feel pretty angry about it.

The soul does all that. It says, this is where I am,

but then the Spirit is going, no, you're not staying there because the more I get of Christ in me, the more I get of Christ in me, it starts saying no.

This whole word about being transformed means you're on the move 'trans', we're in transit, you're not stuck, you're not staying there.

There is this transformation for every one of you. God doesn't want to leave you where you are, you were not the finished article. 

The enemy wants to say you're always going to struggle with that habit or that way of thinking. You are always going to struggle and you're going to be an emotion led person, but I'm here today to say no, because your spirit comes up and it says you can change because why? Not just because of you but it's the partnership of you in obedience with your spirit saying, spirit we got this.

This is about eternity here, this is about making decisions that will change and release my potential but we're in transit.

I'm going to say, no that's not acceptable. So I have all these arguments with myself all the time. I feel drawn to do this it's like wack, I slap myself across the face, and say, what are you thinking of? Some of us have this natural inclination where we have a weakness around certain things. You've got to learn them pretty quick and if you learn them quick you can say, here it comes, here it comes, wack. That's what discipline is.

You talk about fighting fit, you're going to need to train this muscle, but right now at the minute for many of us we do how we feel. It's like, this week's been hmm because I felt like this. That's what I'm saying the red factor, we're there, something happens to us and it's like...

We wear what we experience but we should wear who we are. 

But when you know who you are in Christ, you've got to start wearing it before you even start believing it. Because I know who he called me to be.

Can I quite believe it, but I'm going to start wearing it.

The Contenders

So we've got a contention going on, we've got the contenders, we've got this fight going on.

Imagine the boxing ring, we've got the fight going on. The soul is all around our emotions, our feelings versus our spirit.

This is what's going on and it's fascinating because emotions are unpredictable. You don't know when they coming. They are so clumsy because we got such a big head over them.

Often when we're emotionally led, we become quite proud and we overthink everything, instead of trusting who God called us to be. Our feelings are loud, they shout louder than the spirit. They shout loud on the outside. 

They're contesting for us because they know if they can contest for the flesh and they can somehow indulge in and do those things, you're then in shame.

Blew it again. Feeling guilty, some of us came in feeling like that today. Feel a failure, feel down. It's not who God called you to be but if you listen, what you're doing is you're being led by your feelings. But you should know my situation. It's not reliant on your situation, it's actually reliant on the Spirit that is within you and the emotions.

They battle for gravitation and the ears cause distraction, why? Because they listen to everything.

They're like, so-and-so didn't speak to me today, they spoke to so-and-so. I just feel like I don't fit. They said that but I think they meant that, and how come I didn't get a thank you for that.

All the time it's going, you feel like you're not of value or worth, you feel like you don't deserve to be here because your feelings are designed to isolate you to get you out and to say that other people are the problem. 

People just keep letting me down. And yet God is saying no, this is about your spirit. Indecisive, inconsistent and a sore loser. Salt. Where as someone who operates by the spirit is committed and disciplined. 

That sounds like takes a lifetime to do. Its commitment and as soon as you think you've got it you're letting it slip. You've got to keep pursuing, you've got to keep going after it. There is something about a broad perspective. I might feel like this but I don't understand everything but I know God does understand everything and I know that his timing is perfect and I know I can trust him and so my perspective is broader. Maybe that person was itchy today and a bit scratty but I don't know what's going on there, so I'm going to choose to begin thinking the best, rather than worst because that means I can live a life that is full, rather than a life that is empty.

Powered by eternity, that's what the spirit is. I do things within my life that invest in eternity, not invest in my gratification for tomorrow because it would be gone.

Single-minded, not making a decision like today on a Sunday because I feel challenged and I'm going to take over the world, I'm an overcomer and then tomorrow I feel overwhelmed and I can't even turn out to groups this week because I just feel like I want to be by myself. I know I should but I think it would be good for me have a nice rest.

It will do you no good. This is the lie that I've got to expose. 

People think when I'm feeling low and when I feeling down I want to withdraw. It is a lie of the enemy and I rebuke it in Jesus name, that you were made to be around people. You might not feel like being around people but it is the best thing for you but if you go under duress and sit there like a big sulky big-headed big-eared monster, people are going to go, no we're not going to talk and then you think what I said it doesn't work to be around people, it's because you need to change the way your attitude is, you've got to be around people but there's also something around you changing your attitude to be open rather than closed.

Discernment that's a powerful thing. You discern between emotions and weaknesses and you can say, I'm not going there again, that's my vulnerability, I'm not going there again. Stronger through loss. Grateful in victory. Stronger in loss. Grateful in victory because God can do all things through this.

To live a life of stability and consistency because that's what we all want. I want to live a life of stability and consistency. You can't be feeling led. You need to be spirit led. 

And right up till now you might have been feeling led because this is what we've got to realise; if we keep spending money impulsively we're going to end up in a place where we're always in debt.

No pain, no gain. So if you actually withhold and you discipline yourself around those things, you start becoming more consistent, great stability but you've got a journey it through.

If you withdraw from relationships when they seem to be difficult you'll never enter into the fullness of what a relationship brings in as a reward.

If you decide that you're going to believe the best in others it is going to have a great reward, it's the way it works.

Some of you have done marathons and done some amazing things. How do you do it? You've got a mindset. A mindset is I'm going to set my mind and I can do this. I set my mind, "in fact the mindset focused on the flesh fights God's plan and refuses to submit to his direction."

This is talking to you, Christian. It's not the unsaved, he's talking to you, to us, as Christians.

It's saying, if you're focused on the flesh you're going to fight God's plan and refuse to submit to his direction and then you wonder why you end up in a bad place because it cannot stand against it.

"But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life you were not dominated by the flesh but by the spirit."

The news I've got for you today, the great news I've got for you is that the Spirit of Christ empowers your life this isn't just about you alone as a human being.

The enemy wants to make out that you're by yourself, that what's happened defines you, that's the end of it. If it was just that, it would be your body, it would be your soul, but this is the great news is this spirit, the Spirit of Christ empowers your life.

You are not dominated by the flesh any longer. I'm not lying to you. You've got this great big portion of your life that is given over to listening, it's tuned into the flesh, to the soul, to your thoughts, to your mind and they run wild like a 5 year old without any discipline and it wrecks your life.

You're up, down. You're confused, you're this way, you're that way, indecisive, inconsistent and God is saying it's time.

The enemy, as long as he thinks that you're dominated, you're always going to succumb. but when you start realising actually, no, you look at what God's Word says, you might feel that way but it's a lie of the enemy. The truth is there's the spirit that is alive in us. It's the spirit that works in us, it's his spirit that is in us, we are free and we are able.

You might have to have a go on a pattern and break a habit of thinking because feelings they come from habits.

When this happens in my life I was withdraw when this happens I always feel like no one understands me. I feel I'm better by myself. We've got to change the way that we think. We've got to change the way we live.

But it starts here. It starts here.

I think this is particularly hard for some people and I believe God's grace is sufficient for you, but if you were raised in a home where emotions played a huge part. If emotions were the thing that determined the way the day or the week went and you saw it and you grew up in it, you've been trained in it. You probably understand what it is to use emotions to manipulate people. To withhold or to give as a reward, it's manipulation and we don't have the right to do it.

We learned that using anger and other things to get our own way is a way that is normal, when God comes through his Spirit right now and he's saying to you that is not a way, it is empty, it's destructive, it's all around the flesh and it's like you're actually a slave to feelings and I'm asking the Holy Spirit to come in and by his grace begin moving upon us through his word in every way to say you don't have to be that way anymore, you can break free from a generational pattern and you can change it because that's God's plan for us, that we're no longer the old creation.

He says, behold you're a new creation, something like never ever seen before on this earth. You're a new creation, why? Because your spirit was renewed and came alive in Christ. 

But many of us are still on the purge. We've been through some stuff and we're licking our wounds when God is saying, no it's time to become stronger.

Who's the boss? 

That's the question, just thought it was great do some visuals. Who's the boss? Are you going to be emotions led? Because it comes down to this.

Jesus talked about lordship. Don't call me Lord. He's talking to his believers.

Many of us, we are believers but we're not actually following him as Lord because actually our feelings and emotions, those are our lord. They are our master. 

But the spirit within us, it's time to kick the old style out, it has no right. I am telling you it has no authority over your life, it has no authority over your life.

And we can get all the counsel and we can get friends that want to tell us what we want to hear. What we need to hear is that the Spirit of God wants to bring life to you so how are we going to do it guys? Because that's great but how are we going to do it?

There it is in God's Word, it's been there all along and today I want to reveal it to you and say he never called you to live according to fear and emotions and what might happen and worry and anxiety but he called you to live a life of power, of love, surrounded by unconditional love.

But the word personal discipline, that's the bit, if I called this message "Personal discipline message" not many people would listen to it, because we want to know the 10 best things to be successful but we don't realise that actually personal discipline is how you become successful. 

Self control comes from the Greek word "egkrateia". And it means the virtues of one who masters desires, thoughts and feelings.

It says that this is a fruit of the Spirit. It is something that you grow, you grow a fruit and I'm asking you, church, will you grow?.

If you want to be fighting fit, you got to commit to self-discipline, we underrate it, we put it down. Self-discipline in every aspect of your life will bring fruitfulness, will bring power, will bring the potential that is within you that is eternal. That's what he said.

You don't have to be dominated by your feelings any longer, but you can be led by your spirit,  That's what he's called us for.

Stop letting your emotions vote. It is like letting the 5 year old vote on what you think's best. We wouldn't do it as parents but we do it as individuals.

I just feel this way, I just feel like we don't really fit in that church anymore. I feel like I might wander over here and see if the grass is greener.

God's words and his principles are truth. I didn't get up here to preach today because I felt like it.

I got up because God called me to do it. I lived a life controlled by my feelings for the first 25 years and it was this verse in Timothy that set me free but it took me 2 years to get free. That's what I am saying,

Don't think it's  just a quick fix message. I'm highlighting something. This is almost like the event and maybe God is speaking to your soul right now but you've got to get your spirit in line. Ist'a your spirit that would say I'm making a new rule here. I'm making a new decision here. That's when I started to live a life that wasn't controlled by my feelings and things can go on in my life and you may not know whether I've had a good week or a bad week because I've chosen to put my hope in something higher.

I said, Lord I'm going to always trust in you and if I'm an eternal being and I'm spirit led, these earthly things will never shake my joy and shake my hope, but I'm found in who you are.

Church, last thing I want to say, listen to this, when I talk about the spirit, think about Jesus for a minute, maybe you're here and you're not a believer or maybe you walked away from God but I just want to tell you something. Before we came to put our faith in Jesus as a Saviour, we were separated from God and our spirit was dead. It was dead. Set for eternal damnation, that's what the Bible says, it was done. Then we came into contact with Jesus and we heard and we responded. When you responded to Jesus as your Saviour, it was almost like your spirit that was dead, it's like this power pack. It got plugged into the resurrection. It got plugged into the tomb and in that tomb, there was Jesus, the stone was over it and they thought it was all done and finished and suddenly there was like this heartbeat.

There was a heartbeat where Jesus comes and he smashes death and hades. He grabs the keys and he says no longer, I've taken up authority, authority over everything. That same power. It's like when you were dead and you came and you chose Jesus it was like the defibrillator. There's no pulse, there's nothing here, it looks like it's over and then it was like God, your Father, came and he put the defibs on and the power surge and it went in, your spirit came alive, it came alive and it's renewed and it's alive and that's why it says you transferred from that moment from death to life.

It wasn't a week, it wasn't good works, it was all because of Jesus. This is the message of the gospel; that we couldn't do anything but through Jesus, through the power of the Cross because he paid the price for our sin, he paid the price for us that we wouldn't have to be empty we wouldn't have to be away but he chose us, he chose us, he chose you, he chose you and he's here right now, he's here in this place.

It says that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. That's what it means. That's why you can do anything. That's why you can kick those feelings into touch and you can say no more. I'm going to die to myself. I'm going to follow Jesus. He is my master. He is my Lord. There is a heartbeat.

What happens as this continues the heartbeat increases, what does it do? It starts transforming my life. Where once I said yes, I start saying no longer.

Where I once held unforgiveness, I say going to forgive.

The things that I stayed and I had no power over, the power that was in Christ that raised him from the dead is right now in you and you can let people go, you can bless people, you can get free, you can find this freedom all because of him.

I want to hand over to you all now church at the start this series, that we get ready. This is a critical foundation for us to move forward and I want you to go away and pray into this and commit to be Spirit led. In Jesus name, we bless you guys.