ONE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS - S:01 E:24

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

Hi friends. Welcome to the wrap-up of season one of One Voice in the Wilderness. Join us for this episode as we continue talking about the works of the flesh. This is One Voice in the Wilderness. Greetings, my friends. Oh my goodness. As we said in the opening, we are on episode 24, which is the wrap-up of season one of One Voice in the Wilderness. I'm James Burks, and uh One Voice Ministries has just delighted in bringing this to you. We've just had such a blessed time in the Lord, just sharing God's word with you. And uh we are going to continue doing that. This is not the end of the podcast. This is just a little segue break for us for the end of season one, transitioning into season two. Um we're gonna take a little bit of time, a couple weeks, and um uh kind of regroup, do some more study, get some more things prepared. And then I believe uh May 18th is when we are planning to resume uh with the premiere of season two. So we are glad that you've been with us and we've appreciated your prayers and your support. And and here's the thing: if you're behind, you missed a couple episodes, this little gap uh gives you a chance to go back to our website, uh One Voice uh OneVoic Ministries Inc.org, and you can catch any previous episodes that you may have missed, and you can share those with others as well. So uh we're we're just so grateful. We're looking forward to continuing this, continuing to do the work that God has given us to do. We greatly appreciate our son Jesse out in Texas and uh Udirectworks, um you direct video works, um all the work that he's been doing on our editing and getting everything done and prepared for us. We are so so grateful for that, and we are just so appreciative of him. Uh, our son Caleb loaning us his music to be a part of our theme intro, reminding us to stay in our lane. All of it has just been such a blessing, and we're so grateful. So we thank the Lord above all. He's the one that has made this possible, he's the one that has poured this in, and we are thankful for that. So, alrighty. So let's let's dive in with a little bit more of this uh talk on works of the flesh. We're hoping to get a little further along. Um we're we're hoping to, and uh, we'll get as far as the Lord gets us, and if it spills into season two, that's okay. We're all right with that. We want him to be glorified in the midst of it. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this hour, uh, for all you've done in this first portion of this work, these first 24 episodes. Uh, we are so appreciative and so thankful. And so, Lord, just continue to walk with us, continue to pour your presence into all of this so that as your word goes out, it touches, changes, transforms lives, that people are drawn, that they hear your call, that they would respond and surrender their lives to you, that they would repent and believe and trust you to be Lord and Savior of their lives. That's the greatest thing we hope for out of all of this is that some lost sheep would be found and some lost soul would come to you, Father. And so, in that we just praise you. We give you all the glory, we give you all the honor in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. All right. Well, as you can tell from my handkerchief, it's a warm Florida morning here, and so trying to get through this and not be too drippy or too shiny through the whole process. Uh, but again, we're glad to have you here. Folks, there's so many people that pray for us and uh encourage us along the way. And one that I need to thank as we get ready to dive into this is my amazing, precious, beautiful, incredible wife Heather. Um, when this episode airs, I think this is gonna air on May 4th. When this episode airs the day before, May 3rd, we will have, if the Lord allows us, uh been able to uh celebrate 40 years of marriage together. And uh again, I couldn't have asked for a greater gift from God. Scripture says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing. I found an amazing, amazing thing. And uh I didn't find her, he brought her, he gave her to me. And uh I am so thankful. Hun, I love you so much. You have been such a blessing, blessing throughout this ministry, uh the work that we do together with One Voice in Africa. Um, it is great to have you as a helpmate right by my side, and I appreciate your prayers and support through all of this. So thank you. Thank you for 40 amazing years. Looking forward to 40 more. All right, all right, let's dive in here. Uh, Galatians, um chapter 5, beginning at verse 16. I'm gonna read it through again for you as we dive in, and we'll pick up where we left off at, but and you can go back and check the previous episodes if you missed the start of this lesson. But uh verse sixteen says, and this is the King James, this I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lust at against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanless, clean uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Alright? So that's that list again, and uh couple quick things to note and to point out is that it says that if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Okay? Understand that the law did not go away, the law was fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Alright? And so now what happens to us is as we put our faith and trust in him, as we repent and believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, he has fulfilled that law, and we then walk that out because of our connection with him and his spirit being in us. Okay? And so we're not trying to keep all of those other things one by one by one by one. We have the fulfillment of it in the Spirit of God through Christ Jesus. All right. Also, um at the end of that passage, it says that uh those that do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, as I said before, if you've ever done any of these at any point, that statement is not saying, well, if at any point you fornicated, you that you cannot receive salvation, and there's no way for you to ever go to heaven and get eternal life. No. That passage is saying if this is the lifestyle that you choose, rejecting God, pushing away Christ, uh, denying his word, uh, denying the work that he did on the cross, if you reject him and you live this way, then no, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. There's no way for you to do that because you are rejecting the very one and the very thing who gives you that eternal life. Okay? So that I wanted to make sure I pointed out those things again. So we left off on seditions, okay? And that's in verse 20. We got near the end of verse 20. And so, seditions, um when you think about sedition and you think about it as you've seen it in movies and things, uh plots and things like that, um, it's that stirring up a rebellion against authority. Okay. Um, that sedition is having a desire to overthrow those that are rightfully in charge, but doing it through a sinister way of trying to create an undercurrent of rebellion amongst the other people. Okay, and so that is what happens in our works of the flesh. We want to overthrow the authority of Jesus Christ in our lives and in the lives of everyone else and in the lives of the world in general. So we go about doing things that create discord, create rebellion, uh, we rewrite uh who Christ is and what his truth is. We flat out reject it. We try to alter the truth. If the word says A, we try to go with B. Um, and so we try to create this stirring within the people that they're rising up against Christians. Have you noticed that when there have been uh attacks going on of believers around the world and things like that, most of what you see are Christians being persecuted. Most of what you see are Christians being attacked. Even in our own country, if ever there's any pushback against anything, it's usually pushback against Christianity, against the word of God, against Jesus Christ. Okay? It's usually not pushback against other religions. It's like we almost take our hands off and we see it as offensive or wrong for us to say anything about those, but Christianity is fair game. We can just go at that and attack that. Here's why that is because following Jesus Christ is the true authority. It is the truth, it is the life. Christianity, following after Christ, being a believer in Christ Jesus, is at the heart of everything that the scripture talks about. It is the truth, okay? And that is what people are trying to, in sedition, that's what they're trying to undermine is that truth, the reality of Christ Jesus. They push back against it, and that's a work of the flesh, and it's also a work of the enemy. He wants to stir within people, don't follow Christ. Okay? Go back to Genesis. What did he challenge Adam and Eve with? As he was speaking with Eve, he said, Did God really say that? He wanted to plant doubt about God's truth and who God was, so that we would then figure out our own alternate plan away from God. And so that's sedition, that rebellion against God. Uh following that is heresies, okay? Heresy is false doctrine. It is that uh it's it's deviating from that core biblical truth of who God is. It it is heresies have the effect, and again, going back to that sedition, heresies have that effect of creating schisms, uh, conflict within the church. Okay, if we introduce false doctrine, if we introduce man's word and interpretation and his process, his doctrine over the doctrine of scripture, over the word of God. Again, anything that goes against the word of God is false doctrine. Let's just call it that. Okay, if we do that, it's going to create a division within the body of Christ, within the fellowship. Because there's going to be those that are wanting to be true and faithful to this word, others, because of their flesh, who want to go along with the lie that the enemy is trying to introduce through false doctrine. And as a result, one of the effects that the enemy gets out of this work of the flesh is it gets that breaking, that breaking apart within the body, within the church. We get those schisms within the church. So heresy is dangerous because heresy is usually wrapped up in the false illusion of something that might kind of sound truthful, but out and out is just a lie. And it's uh false doctrine and it goes against the word of God. Okay. What the enemy would do is he would try to use just a sprinkle of something that's true and then wrap it around the lie and the deceit. Okay? And that's heresy. Okay? That's taking that word of God and then going off path, following after your own pursuits, following after your own lusts, your own desires, your own will, your own agenda that runs contrary to the will and agenda of Christ Jesus. Okay? And so we have to be mindful and cautious about heresy rising up in our church. Okay? Envyings. Um it is that resentful bitterness, uh, those grudges that occur. Uh envying, it's being jealous. It's being jealous. It's looking at someone else, not wanting the best for them, not wanting them to uh walk out anything that is honoring God, and in any way God is then pouring out into their life. And because of that jealousy, because of that bitterness and hatred, then our work of the flesh is to do whatever we can to tear that down. Turn to James chapter 3, verse 16 from the ESV. It says, For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Did you hear that? Wherever there is selfish ambition, me being about me, and then jealousy about other people, that that passage says that there is going to be disorder. There's going to be that chaos. There's going to be every vile practice that is a result of that work of the flesh. Okay? Um. Murders. John. 1 John, excuse me, uh, 3, 15. Let's take a quick look there. 1 John. Third chapter in the 15th verse. Excuse my page turning here. Pages are sticking together, I think, because of the humidity here. Okay. 1 John. Alright, we're there. Here we go. 1 John 3, 15, King James, it says, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. Wow, did you hear that? Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Hatred. The Bible describes hatred as murder. Just ponder that for a second, okay? Just think about that. That's pretty heavy. That's pretty heavy, folks. To think about murder and seeing the scripture say that hatred equates with that. That's how God's heart is. God is love, scripture tells us. Um in in uh 1 John 4, 7, he tells us uh in verse 7, I'm in the King James, 1 John chapter 4, verse 7, says, Beloved, let us love one another, for God, for love is of God. Okay? And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Verse 8 goes on to say, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. God loves and he wants us to love, and he doesn't want us to hate. And according to scripture, hatred is as murder. It's that vile and it's that horrible. Now, beyond just that understanding of hatred being seen that way, then there's the concept of murder, okay? And God does not want us being people who will take life, he does not want us being ones who murder and kill and destroy in that way. Okay? Um, and so uh let me take a quick peek here. Um, and I know this is gonna run contrary to culture and it's gonna challenge culture, uh, but uh I'm about Christ, not culture. Okay? I I'm about the the kingdom over what's convenient. I'm I'm I'm about the truth over the lie and the heresy. Okay, and so scripture says in Proverbs chapter 6, um, that there are six things that God hates, things that God's against, um, that grieves his heart, seven uh that are an abomination to him, and I'm in the ESV. Um, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and watch this in verse 17, and hands that shed innocent blood. Okay, there's nothing more innocent than a baby. There's nothing more innocent than that, than a baby that is still in the birth process, that is still developing in its mother, and and then coming into the world. I firmly believe, based on scripture and God knowing us when we were in the womb, I believe, I believe, based on what I read uh in scripture, that life begins at conception. God's design, when the seed and the egg come together, that's when life begins. And that makes life sacred and precious to God, and He wants that life protected. And if you take that life, if you deliberately take that life, and that's what murder is, it's a deliberate killing. When we do that, we are shedding innocent blood. Folks, that is murder. That is murder, okay? Because we legalize things, because we allow things, doesn't mean that it's right in God's eyes. Okay? And so He doesn't want us to commit murder. That is a work of the flesh. And we need to be mindful of that, and we need to pray for that, okay? And folks, this isn't attacking anyone that has ever experienced this in their life, has made that decision, has made that choice. God is merciful, God is gracious, God is forgiving, God is love. Okay? But it's a choice he doesn't want us purposely and deliberately making. He doesn't want us, back to the false doctrine and heresies. He doesn't want us altering his word for what our flesh desires, that work of the flesh. Okay? And and, you know, again, I I I'm doing this podcast to stay in the word of God and stay focused on the word of God. Okay, I'm not running for office, I'm not looking to jump into political fray. I just want to stay in the truth of God's word. Genesis says that he made them male and female. Okay, to me, that ends the argument. Male and female, that's it. That takes care of our gender dilemma. Male and female. Okay. And I believe that God is a God who knows what he's doing. God isn't a God of mistakes. And so what God does is what God intends. Okay? And so we just need to learn how to walk that out and walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. All right. Let's keep going here. Um so murder is that intentional, premeditated um uh decision to end a human life. All right, work of the flesh. Drunkenness. Drunkenness is that intoxication, it is letting anything take control over you uh in a way that you start to then lose self-control. Okay? And we can get drunk on power, okay? We can get into a role or position and just get so intoxicated with the control and the power we have that we're not even being reasonable and rational anymore. We're not even thinking clearly anymore. We are uh just trying to uh do whatever our flesh is crying out for, and we lose that work of the that that fruit of the spirit, rather. We lose that temperance and that self-control, and we're letting something else control us, and that's what drunkenness is. Okay, again, people talk about well, can you have a little wine and a little wine for the stomach's ache, things like that. I'm talking about drunkenness. I'm talking about when it has taken over you, it is in control of you, it is altering your thinking, your faculties, your responses, your control. Okay, God is against drunkenness. He tells us not to be drunk on anything, but filled with the Spirit of God. Okay? We should let nothing else be controlling us in that way. Okay, and so God does not want you operating in that work of the flesh of drunkenness. And then the the there's two more on the list here, so we might get through this. Uh, the next one is reveling, okay, and that reveling is a wild, excessive behavior, and in this context of a work of the flesh, it's something that's wrong, it's debauchery, it's immoral. Okay, it's just being out of control when it comes to how you are handling life. Okay, it is excessive, it is it is riotous living. You remember the story of the prodigal? It talks about that he got out there and got engaged in what would be called reveling, he was into riotous. Riotous living, wasteful spending. He was into all of that craziness, and then he lost all he had. A famine hit, and he had to come to himself and be reminded that he had a father that loved him. Okay, folks, that's my prayer for anyone who's living a life right now that is just white, riotous, out of control. You know, for them, it's about the party, it's about, you know, losing, it's about the drug use, it's about all this. I'm praying that you come to a mindset and an understanding through the pricking of the Holy Spirit, through the drawing of the Father, the call of God on your life, to realize I have a Father who loves me. And all I have to do is come and cry out to Him and repent of my sin, confess those sins, turn away from those sins, put my faith and trust and belief in Jesus Christ. Not worry about Him altering, about me altering my own behavior, but about me surrendering my life and all my behaviors to Him and letting Him change and transform me. Okay? That's my heart for you. If you are stuck and you're struggling and you're caught up in the things of the world, you're caught up in these works of the flesh. My heart is that you are going to hear God's draw on you. Maybe even through this podcast, through this message today, you're going to hear that and you're going to say, Yes, Lord. Yes, I hear you, and I'm responding. Here's my life. Here's my agenda. Here's everything. I want your life. I want your plans. I want your heart. I want your love. Lord, forgive me. Lord, release me, free me. Help me. Strengthen me. Change me. Transform me. That's my prayer for you, my friends. If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, and folks, I gotta tell you, you may not join back in in season two, but that's the heart of this podcast. It is for me to share with you the word of God so that you come into a saving relationship with Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life and receive that gift of eternal life and be able to spend it with Him, but then also live it for Him while you're here right now. That's the heart of this. That's what One Voice in the Wilderness is about. I will continue to be that one voice crying out in the wilderness, the wilderness of this world, the craziness of this life. If everyone else stops, I will be that one voice that says, repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Alright. Reveling. Wild excessive behavior, immoral behavior, reckless behavior, unrestrained indulgence. Excess. Okay? God does not want you walking in that work of your flesh. Now, after all of that list, I love what he says here. Um let's go back to the original text here. Because I want to read that last verse in its entirety. Alright? It says, Envying, verse 21, Galatians 5, 21, King James, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, we just covered those, 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. Did you hear what he concluded with? He said, and such things. I love that. You know what he's saying there? And anything else similar to it, anything else like it, anything else that's derived from your flesh, anything that's derived from the world, anything prompted by the enemy, by Satan, any of those things are also concluded on this list as a work of your flesh. Anything else like it. Okay? I love that because it covers everything else. Sometimes we get very religious and we'll do the things on the list, or try to do the things on the list, but then if it's not on the list, we think, oh, then it must be okay that I do that because the Bible didn't specifically say that, you know, uh uh on this list, okay, as I'm reading through this, adultery, witchcraft, hatred, you know, wrath, sedition, da-da-da. You'll look under and go, oh, wait, it doesn't clearly specifically say I shouldn't cheat on my taxes. So that must be okay. No, folks, come on, come on. Listen, he says, anything like that that's derived from the wickedness of our heart. Okay? The wickedness, the the the death that's in us, anything derived from that that doesn't bring life and doesn't promote life and doesn't promote the life of Christ, anything is that category. It's it falls under that list of and such like. Okay? I love that. And such like. Anything else like it that draws you away from Christ, draws you away from the truth of God's word, draws you away from the love of God, the sacrifice of the cross, the gift of the resurrection, the redemption, the transformation, the sanctification. Anything that runs contrary to any of those things and such like would be considered a work of your flesh. Alright? God does not want us to live in the works of our flesh. Here's what his preference is for us. Verse 22, Galatians 5, King James. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Okay? That's God's heart towards you. That's what God wants for you, is for the fruit of the Spirit to be growing in you as a result of the seed. And then we heard from the parable, the seed is the word of God. That word gets implanted into you. It finds good ground. God brings the increase. You are now transformed, you are saved, you are sanctified, you are filled with his spirit, you have become a believer and a follower of Christ Jesus. You have repented, you have believed, you have trusted in him. That spirit in you that now dwells in you is growing fruit, and it's growing fruit that's going to allow you to live out gentleness and peace and joy and self-control and love and mercy and grace for everyone that's around you. It's going to be a benefit for you personally to walk that out and just uh bask in that peace of God. But you will be a peacemaker. You will be that person who's able to then pour out the presence of God to anyone that will hear, anyone that will listen. And you need to just keep asking God daily, Lord, where are those opportunities? Who do you want me to share your life and your light with? Who do you want me to help come to know you? And let God just direct your path in all of that. Okay. So, folks, don't walk, simply put, don't walk in your flesh. Don't walk in the works of your flesh, your self-effort, your self-stuff. Be led by the Spirit of God. Okay? And that will lead you into the presence of God. Alright? Amen. Praise God. Thank you again. Season one has just been amazing. We have enjoyed this so, so much. And we want to just continue to walk this out. As long as God continues to provide for us the opportunity, gives us the words, gives us the resources, all of those things. We just want to continue to uh live and exalt and magnify the name of Jesus Christ. When I think about uh magnifying the Lord, I'm always mindful that I can't, when you think about magnification, think about something getting bigger. I can't make God bigger, but what a magnifying glass does, it doesn't actually make the words on my page bigger, it draws me in closer to them so that I can see them better. Okay? And yes, folks, there are occasional times with my Bible I'm using a magnifier when I'm studying because those words seem to be getting a little smaller and smaller. Uh I was about to say littler and littler, okay. Uh but uh um I want to just keep seeing God magnified in my life and in every way. Okay, and so we're grateful for this opportunity. Join us for season two in a couple weeks, and uh, we're looking forward to that. All right. Um lastly, one more um Malawi moment uh to wrap up season one, all right. All right, for the final Malawi moment of season one, uh we were updating you along the way. We had uh one of our families suffer uh a tragedy from the storms that have occurred over there in Malawi. Her house was destroyed, unlivable, and we reached out, we prayed about it, we sought the Lord, you came alongside to support us, and uh we are so blessed to see that Sister Esther's home is in the final finishing stages. Okay. I'm hoping by the time I check my email when I get ready to broadcast this, I'll have pictures of it completely finished. But right now, the walls are built, there's a foundation and there's a roof on it. Uh, they still have some final plastering and some final painting to do. We were blessed enough that we were able to send some furniture. Uh, so they will have beds for um uh Esther and for the kids. She has four of our kids that we support through One Voice, they will be able to sleep on a mattress, on a pillow, on a sheet. Folks, oh my goodness, that just blesses my heart and brings tears to my eyes because it's something that we take for granted here in America. We are so used to that that we don't even consider it a luxury, we just consider it almost a requirement. Okay. Over there, they sleep on mats, they sleep on the floor, they sleep on the hard ground, they sleep on the dirt, okay? So we are so excited that we can bless them in that way. And I don't want them, I truly don't want them to have less than the Lord blesses me with. If the Lord blesses me with food, I want them to have food. If he blesses me with clean water, I want them to have clean water. If he blesses me with a pillow to lay my head on, I want them to have a pillow. And so we're grateful that we can do that and that you are a part of that. So continue to pray for them and their family, all of our families uh of uh One Voice Ministries that are over in Malawi Africa, for our ministers, uh Gladstone and Moses, who are such a blessing for us, continue to lift them up and their families in prayer. And Lord, just continue to, I mean, Lord, and we thank the Lord for all that he is doing in Malawi. And and folks, just continue to pray for us that we just continue to do this work. Uh, we are his workmanship and we are created for good works in Christ Jesus. This is ours, this is our lane that we're trying to stay in. As always, we pray you find yours. Folks, rejoin us in a couple weeks for season two. All right? We love you. Thank you for your support. God bless you.