Welcome to the 411

Stop Tripping Over The Flesh And Start Walking Straight

Raymond Brown, Clarence Matthews, North Clinton Ave Church of Christ Season 1 Episode 117

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 22:19

Send us Fan Mail

Start here if you’ve felt the tug-of-war between what you know is right and what your impulses demand. We open the Scriptures and find a simple, demanding, and liberating path: walk in the Spirit. Not a sprint fueled by moods, but a steady cadence of love, light, and careful wisdom that reshapes how we think, speak, and choose.

We begin with gratitude for the grace that made us family and for the Word that keeps our minds clear. From there we unpack three anchors of a faithful walk: walk in love that is born of the Spirit rather than sentiment, walk as children of light so the path is visible and deception loses its lure, and walk circumspectly by watching what stands around us and weighing it against God’s will. Galatians 5 becomes our north star: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” We confront how the flesh breeds rivalry, complaint, and devouring, especially within the church, and we offer practical ways to cultivate unity by keeping in step with the Spirit.

We also map the journey’s arc. New birth and baptism mark the beginning, rising to newness of life with a destination in view. Faithfulness is the daily miracle—pressing forward while leaving behind what hinders. Along the way, we name the paradoxical blessings: sleepless nights that become classrooms of dependence, sorrow that refines joy, scarcity that expands generosity. With Scripture as our compass and the Spirit as our strength, we learn to filter the world’s noise, make wise choices at home, work, school, and church, and trade reaction for reliance.

If your heart longs for steady footing and clear direction, this conversation invites you to recover the slow, strong pace of a Spirit-led life. Subscribe for more Scripture-rich guides to practical faith, share this episode with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review to tell us how you’re keeping in step with the Spirit.

Visit Us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/NorthClintonAvenueChurchOfChrist

Word, Meditation, And The Walk

Walk In Love, Light, And Wisdom

Galatians 5 And Life In The Spirit

New Birth, Baptism, And Newness

Trials, Noises, And Paradoxical Blessings

Daily Reliance And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00

Praise the Lord. You are brothers and sisters in Christ. I am glad that I am your brother. I'm glad for my brothers and sisters in Christ. God has brought us together. And we give him the praise for his grace. He does the work in our lives that needs to be done. And we continue to praise his name. We walk by faith and thank God, the new and living way. Not by law. We don't have an ability in ourselves to even know how to start. But we hear his word. And through his word, he tells us what to do. We need someone to tell us what to do. And I think telling us what to do through his word. As we search the word, we are taught to meditate upon his word. Meditate day and night. So the mind is kept through his word. To bring to our attention today how we ought to walk. The Bible tells us plainly about walking. Many of these occurrences depict the Christian life. For example, the Bible teaches you and me, walk in love if you saw verse 8. Walked in love. One thing you need to understand. You need to understand biblical love. I put biblical love because the world talks about love. It's not based on the spirit, based on the flesh. The Bible tells you need to walk in the spirit as believers, not in our flesh. Our flesh profits nothing. Cause trouble as we try to walk in our own will and our own thinking, how we feel, and so on and so forth and so on. It's done through the mouth and through the members of the body, it's the world. All that's in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. We need to keep that in mind. Think on the things that God has provided. He has demonstrated himself toward us, giving us life. He gives us what we need, not always what we want. Sometimes what we want is this may be destructive to us, but he wants to uh not destroy us, we need to give us that we might live for him. The Father, he he tells us to praise the Father for what he has done, praises God for what he is doing, he has demonstrated himself by uh consulting and abiding in his father's will. I have come to do not my will, he says, but the will of him that sent me. The Father sent the Son because as the Bible teaches you in me, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. God gave his son, and whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank God for the Bible. I thank God for showing me and giving me his will, and he tells us you and me, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So as we think today, walking in the spirit, the spirit is has been given as a new and living way. You know, walk according to how we feel and how we think. We walk according to the commands that God has given us to his word. Now, the term walk, as I said at the beginning, is used dozens of times in the New Testament to describe the manner of life that a person is leading. Many of these occurrences depict the Christian life. For example, walk as the Bible teaches you and me, walk in love, walk as children of light. Walk circumspectly. Walk in love is the love that God gives to his spirit. All but love when we understand God's gift of love. Not the world seeking, not the world giving, but as God gives you me from and through his Holy Spirit. Walk as children of light. We become children of light. And as we walk in light, God helps us, we know where we're going. It becomes the light unto our pathway. We know where we're going because we have the light of his love. Walk circumspectly. But he tells you me, watch out where you're going. Watch out for the things that surround you. We hear from the world. We ask the world into the world, how are you doing? But circumstances literally means things that stand around, things that stand in our way, things that hinder us from doing what we ought to do. So the Bible teaches you and me to look out. Watch the things that stand around. Those stand things that stand around might hinder us from doing what we ought to do in God's will. So the Bible tells you and me to walk circumspectly. Watch where you're going. Watch what uh is around you. Watch and see if these things are in God's will or outside of God's will. Walk circumspectly. And then in the Bible that teaches us, and thank God for the Bible. In our passage, we are told to walk in the spirit. I want you to look at Galatians 5. Look at Galatians 5 and verse 16. This I say. Paul is writing, he's an apostle to us, Gentiles. He says, This I say, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And notice what it shows something that the flesh does, if you walk in it. Verse 15 he says, but if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. So if we don't walk according to the spirit that has been given to you and me, and we are striving to walk in our own way and our own spirit, we just bite and devour one another. Uh, have uh observed. The Bible teaches us to observe people. Some people within the church, especially, uh, we hear grumbling and complaining uh coming from uh persons it ought not to be. We are to walk cautiously, we are to walk in love. If we understand love, I'm talking about the love that comes to the Holy Spirit that dwells. Notice what it's saying dwells in us. It's the spirit that produces what's needed to live the Christian life, to live the life of the spirit. The spirit has been given to teach us, to help us. We need help. Don't think that we can do the things of God on our own poor, the way we think and the way we feel. No, we must do it a way that the Holy Spirit dictates to us. That's why He is given, He's a gift from God, dwelling in if the Bible understand the Holy Spirit dwells in the body that God has given you and me. And we understand, and ask the Lord to help us understand that our bodies, physical bodies, is given for God's use. For God dwells in you and me according to scripture. That's how we walk, we walk according to the spirit. Jesus taught us that God is spirit. In the Greek, it says spirit, the God. Praise God. He said, and Jesus said, they that worship God who is spirit must notice the word must worship him in spirit and in truth. That's the way Jesus has taught us to worship the Father, whom no man has ever seen and never will see, but God through Christ reveals himself to you and me. Walking is a very insightful description of spiritual life. A walk has a beginning and a destination. If we're walking according to the God's spirit, he directs us in the right in righteousness. Our beginning was in new birth. That's why we are Christians. It was the beginning in the new birth. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. So we have the beginning of our new birth through the Spirit of God. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. It's the water baptism that counts. God put water in the plan, and we must be emerged, buried with him through baptism. And we rise from the waters of baptism to walk in newness of life. At that point, God gives us in the new birth his spirit. We are born of the spirit. According to First Thessalonians 4 and verse 17. A good walk is steady and progressive. We are called to be faithful. Well done, thy good and faithful servant, according to Matthew 25, 21. We are to be faithful to the Lord, faithful in our walk. We are called to press ahead, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward. Praise God, to those things which are ahead. Paul says I press toward the goal. Philippians 3, verses 13 through 14. In addition, a walk as many potential adventures along the way. We are likely to encounter stretchings, challenges, paradoxical blessings. I like the word paradoxical. Blessings that stand alongside of us as we walk in turmoil. So we have the Holy Spirit lives in us to help us to see things, to hear things, and not be under things. We're uh walking circumspectly. We the Lord help us to see things, to understand the noises are not of God at all times. Noises are from the world in labor. Oh, we have labors along the way, but God helps us, praise God. We have sleepness, sleeplessness. Sometimes we can't sleep too well because of the noises of the world, things around us. We have sorrowful things that we must uh understand, stand up regardless, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. That's what the Holy Spirit does for you and me as He works inside of us. Ultimately, a walk must have an available resource that provides sufficient vitality. Oh, we need life, don't we? Life from God to His Holy Spirit. We need strength, we need guidance always and assurance here. Our passage offers special hope through injunction to walk in the spirit. Day by day, each step of the way, we are to rely upon the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Remember, church, wake up, wake up, and listen to God and his will, every issue of life, whether at home, where you work, school, church, is to be faced in this manner. Wake up, otherwise, the influence of our flesh, our natural humanity will prevail. But the Bible teaches you and me never never forget, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's what the Bible teaches. Do you believe we are not able ourselves to overcome the inadequacies and improper tendency of the flesh? However, the Holy Spirit is more than able to become our sufficient provider of whatever we need for an effective and fruitful work, faithful and fruitful walk. Disrespect it on Christian living, makes complete biblical sense. Biblical sense. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. It was strictly by the work of the Holy Spirit that we received life initially. Therefore, let's take each step of life. Walking. Praise God, Lord. We are so grateful for what you have done in our lives. You have given us the new and living way. And as we live, we walk in the spirit that you have given us. Oh, what a walk. Praise your name. Praise you for every brother and sister who have started out through your spirit and help us to always meditate upon what your spirit has given us in the Word, the Bible. Help us all. All of us need help. I believe we all need help. Continue to bless us as we walk along the way, and as we continue to walk in your spirit. Now, unto him that is able to keep us from falling and to present us forth before his presence with exceeding joy. Now and forever, let us all say Amen.