ONE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS - S:01 E:22

RECORDED IN THE STRONGHOLD STUDIO IN PALM BAY, FLORIDA

THEME SONG "STAY IN MY LANE" - WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY BURKS

AUDIO EDITED BY U-DIRECT VIDEO WORKS IN AUBREY, TEXAS

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JAMES EDWARD BURKS FOR ONE VOICE MINISTRIES

https://www.onevoiceministriesinc.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We spent some time covering the fruits of the Spirit that are mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. But if you look at that chapter, what precedes that is what we refer to as the works of the flesh. We're going to spend a little bit of time talking about that today on One Voice in the Wilderness. Hi friends, welcome to One Voice in the Wilderness. I'm James Burks. Glad to have you with us this week. We are so excited as always to just share with you from the Word of God and try to be an encouragement to you. This is an outreach of One Voice Ministries. And we're just glad that we have the opportunity to do this week each week. I get so excited when the time comes to record. So glad to have you with us. Let's open in prayer and dive right in today, okay? Father, we love you and we thank you and we praise you. We thank you for every good and perfect gift that comes from you, Father. And just the opportunity to share your word is a wonderful gift and a wonderful opportunity and truly a blessing. So thank you for that. I pray that the hearer will receive what you have for them, that that seed of your word will find good ground in the heart, and that you will then give the increase as they grow in relationship with you, Father. So just be with us in this time. Order our steps, direct our words, uh, guide us in all that we do, and we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, glad to have you here with us. Uh, as we mentioned uh in previous episodes, we've talked about the uh fruit of the Spirit, and so uh as I was reading through that passage again, I thought, well, you know, let's go back a little bit before that portion of Galatians 5 and look at what we refer to as the works of the flesh. Okay? Scripture is very clear about the fact that those works of the flesh work contrary to what's going on in your spirit. Okay? Because I mean the basic reason for that is those things from the spirit are things from God. And those things from the flesh are from us. They're from us, they're from the influence of the world, uh, they're from the schemes and lies of the enemy of Satan. And so, yes, they would clearly be in contrast with what God wants to give us through his spirit. And so let's let's look at it today because we want to be mindful of those things as well. Uh, as I was reading through the list, there's like uh 17 that they list on here. Some of them are similar, uh, as was the case with the fruit of the spirit. Uh and so we're gonna try to break this into two episodes. So we're gonna get through a portion of them today, and then we'll try to finish them in the in the next episode. All right? So turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, and I'm reading from the King James to start with here, and we're gonna begin at verse 16. Alright? It reads, This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh lust lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that ye would. But if you are led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifests, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, uh emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, uh, reveling, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Wow. Did you catch that part at the end? What it's basically saying, not if you've ever committed those sins, because any of those sins that you commit, if you turn your life over to Christ, if you repent, if you believe, if you trust in Him, you can be forgiven, and you can receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. So these aren't cancelers in terms of if I do these, there's no chance I'll ever be able to receive salvation from Jesus Christ. What it's saying at the end there is that if this is the lifestyle you choose, if this is what you want to do ongoing, constantly, no regret, no remorse, no care, it is the life you choose, then that that will be contrary to the spirit, contrary to the work of salvation, and you won't receive eternal life, or you will not inherit the kingdom of God. It's just that simple. It means you're just living your life in total rebellion against God. If you're embracing these things, you don't want the things of God. Okay? And so that's the realization that people have to come to when they make that switch from their worldliness to uh coming into relationship with Christ Jesus. Again, repentance, we've mentioned before, is not only a change in behavior, but it's a change of mind and attitude. It's it's recognizing sin for what it is. It's rebellion against God and reaching that point of turning away from that and and hating that and saying to yourself, I don't want to live that way anymore in rebellion against Christ. I want to live in fellowship with Him, I want to live surrendered to Him. And so the things that I used to love, my sin, I now hate. That's that's that turning away, that's that repenting. Okay? And the thing that I used to hate and detest and avoid, which was Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the scriptures, the Bible, those things I now love. Okay? I'm repenting, I'm turning in that other direction. I now want the things of God in my life. Okay? And so if you're walking in the Spirit, then you have that fellowship with God, you have that relationship with Him. And it says in the first part of that, in verse 16, that you then won't desire to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. Okay? It says you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You you won't want to do those things. Okay. Do we wrestle with sin when we become believers? Absolutely. Okay. Does the enemy still try to prompt us and prod us and uh impact us if he can? Certainly. Will he still try to tempt us and draw us away from the ways of Christ and the things we're learning in the Word of God? Certainly. That's what he does. Okay, I don't expect anything different out of him. Alright? But if I'm walking in the Spirit, if I'm truly desiring to surrender to and know and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life, then I don't want to do those things anymore. I'm not I'm not prone to those things. I'm not because here's what happens. What happens when Jesus died on the cross and we believe and put our faith and trust in that work of the cross, we not only are free from the punishment of sin, but we're also free from the power of sin. It doesn't control us, it has no grip on us any longer. Yes, we are free. We are free in Christ Jesus because those who He has made free are free indeed. Now we get to walk in fellowship, we get to walk in this life of purity with God. We get to walk in this place of surrender to Him. Okay? Are we perfect? We're not perfect, but we're being perfected. That's the work of Christ. We're being transformed, we're being renewed, we're being sanctified, we're being made more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Every step of every day that we're walking, surrendered to Christ Jesus. Okay? And so these works of the flesh, though, first of all, think about the definition or the phrasing there. It says the works of the flesh. It's something you're working at to do. It's a conscious, purposeful, uh, intentional choice that you're making to embrace these sins and not walk with God and walk in the Spirit of God. All sin is intentional. It is a choice that we make. Okay? And even as believers on the other side of the cross, we've we've genuinely repented, we've genuinely believed, and we've trusted Jesus to be uh Lord and Savior of our life. When we stumble and we sin, it is still by choice. Okay, we don't accidentally, oops, you know, no. We chose to do that thing. We chose to take a different path, we chose to walk against God. Okay? So sin is always a choice from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, they were given instructions, and part of the instructions, and basically the only commandment they had to have to answer to was don't eat of this particular tree in the garden. Okay? They did it on purpose. All right. No one accidentally sinned, even the first sin. It was a choice. They looked at it, it looked good for food, it looked good to make one wise, it looked good to uh make them be what they thought they wanted to be, and and change them into uh more of the image of God, they thought that was what it was going to do, make them more like Him. They were already perfectly made in His image, okay? So they didn't have to make that mistake, but they did make that choice. Okay? So when we walk in the flesh, okay, and by flesh, it it's not just the word flesh in terms of our skin, but it's our human nature. It's that human mindset that we operate in, it's our human thinking, our human reasoning. When we walk in the flesh and we operate in these things, it is a work of our flesh. It is a a it is what's produced by our rebellious nature. Okay? Where the fruit of the spirit is something that grows and ripens and matures as a result of the Spirit of God. Okay? God's Spirit brings that fruit forth that matures and grows in us. Well, our flesh brings these works and these activities and these actions for it. That's what it chooses to do. Alright? So let's take a look at this real quick. Verse 19, uh, let's start there. It says, and the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, okay? So it says, These works are manifest. What does that mean? To have these these works, and and these are works that are going on inwardly inside of us, then they they show up, okay? So they become evident. That's what to manifest means, okay? It means that they are obvious and clearly seen. Okay? It's what was going on inside of us, and now we act on it, we demonstrate it, we show it through these actions called the works of the flesh. All right? So let me let me just share another passage of scripture with you real quick, because I really want you to see where this stuff originates. Turn to Matthew chapter 15, and we're gonna look at let's go back to verse 17, because there's this discussion about defilement going on here. In verse 17, I'm reading from the ESV, it says, Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? Okay, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles the person. Okay? They were they were going back and forth about what food you eat and what could defile you, and this and that and the other. And eating, this this conversation started at the beginning of chapter 15, talking about uh not washing their hands before they eat, and so you know, you touch something, you eat it, does that defile you? And so what Jesus is explaining uh to the Pharisees and the scribes here is that it's not what goes in you that defiles you. It says your mouth speaks things that proceed out of your heart, and this is what defiles the person. Let me keep reading. Verse 19 for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. Okay? Jesus is saying it's that attitude of the heart that defiles the character of the person. Okay? And these are things that come from a heart that is a heart that's still not surrendered to Jesus Christ. This is what your heart, separate from Jesus Christ, this is what your heart produces. Okay? It produces evil thoughts, it produces murders, it produces adultery, sexual immorality, theft, um, lying, slander. It produces those things. That's what happens when just left to our flesh. That's what we get. Okay? That is our heart, our flesh. And so when we talk about the works of the flesh, we're talking about those things that are manifest, that are made obvious, that are produced, that become evident from a heart that is still damaged. A heart that has not been repaired and mended by the power of Jesus Christ, a heart that is not surrendered and has not been impacted by the love of God. Okay? That heart, that flesh, is what produces all of these things that defile us, and these things that defile us, again, we refer to as the works of the flesh. Alright? So let's go back in, take a look, okay? Um, I I mentioned earlier that this was probably going to be two episodes. Just getting the intro in here and laying the foundation, this might be a three, uh, three-parter, and that's okay if that's what it turns out to be. All right, because we just want to be thorough in the word because we want to share with you that thing that can be life-changing for you. We want to share that truth from the word of God that will penetrate your heart. Not what I'm saying or doing, but the word speaking to you that will make that difference and impact you and draw you to a life in Christ Jesus. Okay? So we'll take as much time as we need to to do that. All right. Um, but let's look at this again. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And it starts to name them. And the first one it lists is adultery. Okay? Adultery is when a married person has physical, sexual, even emotional intimacy with someone other than their spouse, other than the one that they're married to. Okay? Um and Jesus was was talking about the fact that uh uh as he's sharing, he says that that it was said in the times of old that thou shalt not commit adultery. Uh he said, but I say to you that if you look on, you're talking to specifically to a guy, if you look at a woman lustfully, and speaking to women, if you look at a man lustfully, then you've already committed adultery in your heart. Okay? So that's why as I was describing adultery, I was saying not only the physical act of committing uh sexual intimacy with someone other than your spouse, but it's also that mental and emotional stuff that's going on as well. Okay. Um Bible talks about uh uh a husband and a wife, one man, one woman, okay, uh is what God designed for marriage. And when you step outside of that parameter of marriage and you have that kind of connection and intimacy with someone else that was only intended for your spouse, then that's adultery. Okay. The flip side of that coin is fornication, which is the next one that it lists. And fornication is when you are unmarried and you are still engaging in those sexual uh intimacies, those lusts, um, touching, all of those kind of things. Um, you're still sinning. That is another form of sin, a sexual sin. Those sexual sins affect our body, uh the connections we have with people. Okay, you need to be very careful when you are casual with your body. You're making connections with people that are going to be ties that are hard to break in the future. You're giving away parts of yourself to someone that if they're not your bride, they're not your husband, they're not entitled to those things. Okay? And you can't even give them away early, folks. For those of you engaged, no, you don't get to play the engaged card. It says, Well, we're getting married, or we already feel like we're married, or we're married in our hearts. No, you are not married. If you have not stood and pledged uh those vows and gone through the design for what we call legal marriage, then you're not married. And if you're not married, then you don't get to engage in those things related to marriage. Okay? So adultery, fornication, those are forms of uh works of the flesh. Okay, those are the first two that they mentioned. Some other, I noticed some of the other translations kind of just group those together and and they just phrase it as sexual immorality. Okay, well, what do they mean by that? By that they mean anything that runs contrary to God's biblical design for physical intimacy. Okay, so that is a broad and wide category, folks. Okay, and so some translations instead of separating out as adultery and fornication, uh sex uh when you're married and you have sex with someone that you're not married to, or fornication, not being married and you're having someone having uh intimacy with someone, um, they just lump it into one and call it sexual immorality, and then that just covers the whole the whole bailiwick, if you will, and a whole lot of other things that could attach themselves to that as well. Okay. Um, the Bible is very clear on the fact that God is the one that created marriage, all right. I know we live in a time in a world where people want to fight and push against that, all right? I didn't make the rules, it's God's design. And since God is the creator of all things, since God is the ultimate judge of all things, since God is the one that sets the parameters for all things, then God has the final say in all things. Okay? And again, you can wrestle with that, you can argue with that, you can be bitter about that, you can be angry about that, you can name-call people who believe this word of God, you can do all that sort of stuff. Truth be told, these are works of the flesh, these are things that go against the spirit of God, go against the design of God, and it's just the way it is. It's just the reality. Okay? You can either embrace that truth or you can reject that truth, but one day you will stand in judgment before God and you will answer to what he told you. You will answer to his word. You will answer ultimately to who was his son Jesus to you. Not the Jesus you want to make up, not the Jesus that you want to uh manufacture that caters to all of these works of the flesh, and he's okay with you doing those things. That's not the biblical Jesus. Okay, so we need to recognize that God calls it, God calls the shots. He's the one that says, These are works of the flesh, these are things that go against what I want for you. Okay, so all kinds of sexual immorality fall into that category. All right. The next one is uncleanness. Okay? Uncleanness is uh moral and spiritual impurity. Okay, those are works of the flesh. When you are not a moral person, okay, when you are spiritually corrupt in what you do and what you say, when you misuse and abuse the word of God, when you neglect the word of God, when you alter the word of God, those things are unclean before God. Okay? Those are works of the flesh. All right. Um lasciviousness, that's one of those big fancy uh words. Uh uh lasciviousness is basically lewdness. Lustfulness. It is those things that are intended to intended to arouse sexual thoughts and things like that. Folks, listen, we live, and we don't throw the word lascivious around much anymore, but we need to, because we live in a world in a society where you are bombarded with it daily. Okay? Billboards, music, commercials on television, let alone television shows and movies themselves, books that we read and things like that, we are just pounded daily with these things that want to arouse a sexual appetite within us. And again, purposeful to create works of the flesh in us. Alright? If you're married, if if you are married, women, if you have a husband, guys, if you have a wife, within the design of the oneness of marriage that God created, you don't need something outside of that to try to get you interested in each other. It's part of the beauty of the relationship that you have. Okay? These things, this lasciviousness that comes from the world, is an attempt to stir us inwardly to sin. That's the only reason that it exists. All of these things, pornography that's out there in the world, prostitution, all of those things are things to draw us into sinful behavior, into rebellion against God. Okay? These are works of the flesh. These things run contrary to the heart and the mind of God. Alright? Let me pause there. Again, this could be a five-part episode. We're going to pause there because I do want to get in a Malawi moment. So let's let's do that now. One of the things that One Voice Ministry is purposed to do as we come alongside people, whether it's here or the work that we're doing in Malawi Africa, is we want to empower, not imprison. We want to help lift people into a full dependence on Christ and then walk independently of the world and independent of even us and our ministry. We don't want you to allow us even to become something that's a hindrance to you moving forward and growing. Now, our intervention in Malawi, a lot of it has been crisis ministry. Yes, we are feeding the poor, we are feeding the widows, feeding the orphans because of the crisis that's there to do that. But we're also trying to help people move to a place of independence from us, even. Okay? So we've started uh a One Voice Ministries internship program, and what is that is designed is as we have young people that are coming up that we've been helping and supporting, we want to help them get through school, we want to encourage that. But then as they reach that point where they need to head into the job world, we want them to have skills and abilities to be able to function and have a productive life, productive life there in Malawi. Okay? So we've designed internships where we are connecting our young people with businesses and with people there to help do apprenticeships and training for them so that they're getting uh skills, they're getting uh those abilities to then be able to utilize those things in a paid job so that they can then support themselves, support their family, uh have a family, buy a home, do all those kinds of things. Those are things we're not doing for people. We are not going to take a young man, raise him up, feed him, provide for him, and then buy him a house, and then when he gets married and he has children, feed him and his wife and his and his kids. That's not what one voice is designed to do. Okay? We are there uh following after God's heart to be a blessing and to pour into people with not only support and money and food and clothing, but with the gospel. We want them to be free in Christ Jesus and then walk into the life that Christ has for them. So um our internship is going well. Um Clement is our latest um uh One Voice family member who is walking in internship. We have a dear friend there, uh Brother Fredson, who is uh he has a construction business. He's worked with us on some repairs and builds over there in Malawi, and he is the one that's doing a build right now for uh Esther Howard, one of our uh widow, uh one of our widow family members who is helping to raise orphans. Okay, and her house was destroyed by a storm, and so we didn't want to keep patching it and stuff like that, and so with your help and support, we were able to raise the funds we needed, and and so they're in the process of building that right now, they're making great progress, and I'm looking forward to showing you some final pictures of that when we get to that place. Um, but Clement is working with Fred Some, who's doing the construction, and he's getting on-the-job training, he's learning how to to uh build, build, uh, make bricks and and lay mortar, and he they're they're right now they're currently working on the roof. They've already put in the foundation, they built the walls. He's learning all of that stuff, developing those skills so that he can go and work construction for someone else, or even one day have his own construction business. Okay, that might be something he and his brother Chiwimwe, uh older brother, had an internship doing construction with Fredson as well. Maybe these brothers will partner together one day and have their own uh contracting business and do construction over there in Malaya. That'd be awesome. Uh, that's what we're praying for. But we're excited for these opportunities for these young people because we really want them to fully walk in what God has for them and walk in the blessings that God has for them. All right. So keep Clement uh in your prayers. Um uh I might, I I think I said Clement before. Clement, I could be saying it wrong either way. I don't know. Uh, but they know I love them so much. Um but keep him in your prayers as he's going through this. Um, uh Gladstone, our pastor, is working with him on that. He set our expectations. He let uh Clement know that we're expecting quality and excellence in what you do. We're expecting you to follow the authority. We don't want you coming in rebellious, we don't want you coming in pushing back, we don't want you to be walking in slowfulness and laziness, works of the flesh. We don't want you doing any of that stuff. We want you to walk as one who uh is appreciating the blessing and the opportunity that you're receiving. Okay? And so keep them in prayer. We're excited for that. Uh we want to keep our insurance internship program going. We want to connect others of our kids as they're coming of working age into skill situations where they can uh develop a trade and uh find a way to then be able to uh self-support and take care of themselves and their families. All right. So again, we thank you folks. Um we didn't get very far on our list of the works of the flesh. We're gonna dive in a little bit more the next time. Uh, but we thank you for being here with us, all right? We're praying for you. Um pray for us. We're just trying to walk this out, stay in our lane, uh, do the things that God wants us to do. That's our prayer for you, is that you will be able to do that as well. All right, thank you again to you to work you direct works, uh, our son for the video work, uh, our son Caleb for our theme song. Thank all of you for uh being a part and a support of One Voice Ministries and One Voice in the Wilderness. All right, God bless you, folks.