RULE YOUR SPIRIT / PASTOR NEIL HOPPER

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Cedar Lake Christian Center Podcast. Our church exists to see lives transformed through a relationship with Jesus. We pray this message helps you continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. You can find us online at clc.church.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

So very quickly, um, I'm gonna shift gears. Um I I uh I wanna last week I started talking to you uh about something that's very important to me, and that is I call it dominion theology. And the reason I think that's important is because I don't think when you go to Genesis and you look at what Genesis says, I don't think that uh that mandate, that uh directive has changed. I think we are still people that have dominion. Now, uh dominion is a very important thing, but what we started talking about last week is it's tough to have dominion over lots of things when you don't have dominion over you. I'll try that. Maybe Miss Effie can help me. It's tough to have dominion over a lot of things if you don't have dominion over you. Amen. You need dominion over you, rule you. I know Jesus is Lord of your life, but you have a spirit, you have, you have a will, you have um, you you have choices, and you you have to understand that anything outside of you that controls you other than Jesus is dangerous. You control you. Amen. You control you. How do I know that? God's given you that authority. So here's how I'll do it because I'm gonna run out of time very quickly. Um, there's a song that you will know. It comes from uh the Psalms from the psalmist, but you will know this song. Bless the Lord are oh my soul. Oh my soul. Worship his holy name. Sing like never before. Oh my soul. See what you need to catch on. This is what the psalmist is saying. He's telling himself to worship. He's speaking to himself, he's saying on a day when you don't feel like it, he's saying, Bless the Lord, oh my. He's talking to himself. I thought he was singing to God. That's not what it says. He says, Bless the Lord, oh my soul. In other words, he's saying to himself, he's you know, you do have a relationship with you. Do you know that some people don't even like that their self? You some people have a relationship with themselves and they don't even like themselves. They know God loves them, but somehow in that crazy little mind of theirs, they think, well, God loves me. It's okay for me not to like me too much. Well, now I call that pride. You may call that a lot of other things. Well, like a single Howard, I've got a $20 bill somewhere. I'm gonna start passing them out if you'll say amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Look, look, look.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Ah. Y'all are funny. Right. Listen, the reason I think it's important is I want everybody in here to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit. But you how how are you gonna be led by the Holy Spirit when you can't even lead you? You know, you you don't even do a good job. Now, I'm and I don't want to preach at you. Listen, I sometimes I don't do a good job. That's why I have a wife. When I don't do a good job of directing me, she helps, she's my helpmate. Right? That's when you need, that's the reason, guys. Listen, if if if you don't know what the program is, ask your wife, and she will help you get with the program. Sometimes you just need somebody to help you get with the program. Amen. Why is it Shannon is saying amen? We have a newlywed couple here with us today. Why are you not screaming? Amen. It's so good to have Graham and his new wife. Look, Stan, because I love this guy so much. Amen. You can be seated now that I'm probably embarrassed you, and I apologize, but they are the best. And I know they're in another part of the country right now, but we are we're we're praying them back. We're praying. I want the will of God for you, but you know. So anyway, what I'm saying is that if it here's the Joyce Meyer way of saying it, and I said this last week. It's hard for you to rule over all kinds of stuff that God may have called you to rule over if you cannot rule over a sink full of dirty dishes. Say amen. Amen. Praise God. Amen. So here's here's what I here's what I want to talk about today. I just take what's time we have left, and I want to talk for a minute about you telling you what to do. You tell you what to do. So if if otherwise we've got so many competing factors in our own mind, our own heart, our own life. You've got the enemy to overcome. And now, if you don't know how to take some control and some command over your own spirit, not only is the enemy taking every open door he can get to discourage you, distract you, depress you, whatever, but there's also this second thing where you can't even tell you what to do, even though God's given you the authority to tell you what to do, so that when we come into service, you if you don't even feel like it, you can say, Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul. It's Monday morning, and I still need to bless him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul. Amen. Self-control is listed among the gifts uh of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter 5. It's a part of what the uh of what uh God's given us by his spirit to have self-control. But my thought is putting the two together this morning and saying, we want Holy Ghost, but sometimes, maybe it's just me, maybe you can relate, but sometimes my mind is moving 400 miles an hour, and we've got her in high gear and we're moving, and we can't sit still long enough to tell you sit down and cut the Netflix off. Amen. I know we I talk about this all the time. There just has to be a time that you say, I've got to sit with me for a minute. Why? Because it's a part of you quieting your own soul so the Holy Spirit can speak. We want you to know what God is saying to you. We we, in case you're visiting with us, we're a church that believes that the Holy Spirit speaks in the hearts of his people. There is a Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit, and when your spirit is topsy turvy all the time. Do you know that people have a hard time hearing from the Lord? Sometimes the reason it's difficult for them is their whole life has been turned upside down. And they that so now I come to church and I'm trying to hear God. It's just my whole world got turned upside down, and now my emotions are in turmoil, and now my mind is working 900 miles an hour, and I need something. I need God to give me peace that passes all understanding. I need the Holy Ghost, I need the fruit of the Spirit to come forth in my life so that I can, you know, so that I can uh walk in a steadfastness that God uh it longs to bring forth in our lives, so that we're not roller coaster Christians up today and down tomorrow. There's much more of an understanding that even when I don't feel so good about it. So let me just go over, you know, I can even though I don't feel good about it, I can still choose to bless his name. So here are two verses that I will share with you, and I'll share those very quickly. They come from Proverbs 16, verse 32. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. He's talking about ruling your own spirit. He that ruleth his spirit is is mightier, he's better than somebody, than a mighty warrior who can take a city. Right? I mean, that's word, that's scripture. The next one is Proverbs 25 and 28. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down and without walls. You're vulnerable if you don't understand how to rule your own spirit. It's like he called you, he called us, he called people who who are like that. He said, You you're you're like a city that's broken down and without walls. Right? So it's just learning to function in this and learning to understand this. Um so here's the scripture, Psalm 103, verses 1 and 2. This is what I've been singing and what we've been talking about. This scripture says Psalm 103 verses 1 and 2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. It's when you say to you, I'm gonna get up and praise God today if I feel like crud, right? I'm gonna get up and praise God today. I'm gonna get a praise in my mouth because he's worthy even when I don't feel like it, he's still worthy. I'm gonna get up and get a right spirit and a right attitude. Verse 2 says much the same thing. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He said, if you understood that every benefit you have comes from God, every blessing you've ever had comes from God. It's not hard to tell yourself, right? It's not hard to tell yourself to bless God when every good thing you've ever had in your life, you receive it from Him. When you begin to recognize you might have been through hell and back, but you still here. You you begin to realize, listen, he says, Bless the Lord, oh my soul. He's saying to himself, you must have forgotten that God's the one that's blessed you all these days. You must have forgotten that he's been the God that got you out of those messes that you've got yourself into. You must have forgotten that God has a way to work it out. So when you start, when you when you come into church and you you understand this little principle, um, you it starts, it's it resonates with you. You begin to say, I don't have to wait for a feeling to praise God. Here's what uh there's a song we used to sing for those of you who've been around here a long time like I have. We used to sing this song that said, I command my soul to bless the Lord. I command my soul to bless his name. I commend my soul. See, you get to it, it's really figuring out who's in command. You say, well, well, Jesus is in command. He is, but he gave you a dominion and authority over you. Do you know nobody has more authority over your house than you? I I, even as a spiritual leader, if you consider me as your pastor and you're under this spiritual leadership, I don't have more authority at your house than you. I only have the authority that you give me, right? If you tell me, come and let's pray or pray over this situation. Now I can interject, but there's some things that I'm limited, but where your life is concerned, he's given you authority. Same way over your own household. He didn't give you authority over your neighbor's household. He didn't give you authority. You only have the authority that they allow you to have. And so when we start talking about speaking into situations and so forth, you only have so much authority. And in case you didn't know it, authority in the kingdom is a big deal. Who's got who's in charge, who's in authority? Amen. It's a big deal. So let me go over uh a couple of things. Uh here's let me just share some of these notes with you. So uh a man with understanding that uh understands spiritual things where spiritual things are concerned, you have the right to command your own body, your own spirit, and your own mind to come in line. You have a right to tell you what to do. You know what I love? I like I might like telling other people what to do. Is there anybody in here you ain't the boss but you bossy? Look, I'm only kidding you. There's a lot of people they love to tell somebody else what to do. Amen. There's a lot of people that stick that nose into somebody else. Look, easy now, Brother Neil. What are you saying? Easy. You say, eh, they ain't the boss, but they sure is bossy. Amen. Um, your mind doesn't have to tell you what to do, your spirit tells your mind what to do, what to think. That's what, so when we start thinking about this and you start breaking it down, you start realizing that Romans 12, 1 and 2 say you renewed, you you renew your mind. You'd be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And the renewing of your mind is one thing, but if you renew your mind and you don't, and you don't learn how to tell you what to do, discipline's a big deal. Every athlete in here knows that. Every businessman, you have to be disciplined in what you do in life. There's discipline is is, oh, this is gonna get you the rubby the wrong way. Discipline is a spiritual issue. Discipline is a spiritual issue, right? It really is. So um, if the Holy Spirit speaks in our spirit, then we have to make sure our spirits are where they need to be. And, you know, there's a calmness and a peace and a steadfastness and a connection that we have with the Holy Spirit, and and God will speak on that line of faith. So let me just give you a few ways that I hope will be a blessing to you. That these are ways that you can rule over your own spirit that maybe you haven't thought of. Uh, one of those is that you can receive correction from the Lord and from those who are in authority. Amen. None of us, I don't, I don't know anybody, I'll put it that way. I'm I'm not aware, I'm sure they're among us, I'm not aware of a lot of people who receive correction very well. Most of us do not. Some are better than others. When you begin to be spiritually mature, spiritual, when even when God corrects you, you just receive it and move on. Correction is proof of sonship. Pride rejects correction, wisdom receives it. Growth requires teachability. Growth requires teachability. Number two, uh you begin to be hard to offend. You don't take offense so easily when we're mature in the spirit and we're ruling over our own heart and spirit the way we should, our own mind the way we should. You begin to be a little it's a little more difficult, it's harder to offend you because um the Bible says love, and that's really the essence of what we're talking about, walking not only in a disciplined fashion, but in the love of God. And, you know, uh 1 Corinthians says, love is not easily provoked. It's not easily provoked. When you're walking in love and you have soundness of mind and your heart is clear before God, and you're you're you're walking where you need to be, things happen sometimes, you brush it off. You you'll know I I know, I'm gonna put it this way because this is easy. I know where I am based on my knee-jerk reaction. I'm helping you now. I'm helping you. You you know where you are. I'm telling you about me now. I know where I am based on my knee-jerk reaction. Amen. You you you ain't never knee-jerked. Am I the only y'all acting like I'm the only one up in here that ever done got a knee jerk reaction? I know. Thank you, Elditanda. Your honesty is overwhelming. Praise God for that. Amen. But you, you know, we we look, everybody could get offended over something, but what happens is it's when we walk in that level of maturity where we're keeping ourselves where we need to be and telling our soul how we're gonna respond and how we're gonna react. We're functioning out of faith and a renewed mind. Now all of a sudden, it's like I told him the other day, you want to talk about uh discernment. I told a story Wednesday night about Dr. E, the great, late, great preacher, Dr. E. V. Heel. He used to tell this story. He said, My daughter, her name was Norrose, he said, something knocked on my door one day. You're gonna love this, Bill. He said, something, not somebody, he said, something knocked on my door one day. And he went and answered it. And the young gentleman said, Is Norrose here? And he said, I looked him up and down and said, Not for you, she's not. And he said, You mean to tell me I can't speak to her? He said, No, sir, you sure cannot. So he said, I closed the door and sent him away. And in a minute, Norrose came screaming down the stairs, Daddy, you done sent him away. What's wrong with you? Daddy, you a bigot. She started calling him all kind of names and fussing at him. And he said, It didn't affect me. You know why? Because I knew where it was coming from. Do you know when you know who you are and you know where that's coming from, you talk about discernment. Discernment lets you see right through a thing, and you begin to see something out of another spiritual realm. And she's she said, You sent him away. You a you a bigot, daddy. You just you didn't like the way he looked, so you sent him away. Of course, he goes on to tell the story, and Dr. E. B. Hill says, uh, sometime later in her life, I married her to the vice president of the bigot club. Right. He said, sometime later, right? The pa the the point being, you sometimes can, if you're walking where you need to walk, and the Holy Spirit is leading you, and you know you're ruling over your own spirit and your emotions, and you're not knee-jerking, things can come your way, and things that might have affected you at one point that is don't affect you anymore. I'll speed up because we're gonna run out of time. Uh, you receive criticism without constantly defending yourself. Listen, here's the best part of the whole message if you hear it. Every meaningful assignment comes with criticism. If you ain't getting criticized, you probably don't have a meaningful assignment from God. The enemy will come out of and he will speak out of. There'll be opposition from people and people that disagree with you and all. Every meaningful assignment comes with a level of criticism. You gotta be able to just let it go. That's when you gotta know who you are, right? Next, choose your words carefully. Spirit-controlled people think before they speak. They think before they speak. Now, this one's hard for me, and I'm gonna tell you why that is. Well, my Gift is speaking. That's what God's given me the gift of. I'm kidding y'all. And so when you when you when your mouth is your gift, then you just kind of sometimes know everybody, including the preacher, you have to watch your mouth. You have to line yourself up. When I was really young in the Lord, a friend of mine would say to me, he would always say, if you'll take four or five seconds before you open your mouth and speak, it will help you. Well, I can't tell you how many hundreds of times I've forgotten that through the years, but it's still really good advice. Sometimes just, you know, what spirit is this coming out of? Because sometimes you can take out your. I used to have a buddy of mine, he would say, It's okay, Brother Neil. I'm just gonna take out my sword and cut them up and believe God can heal them later. Now I don't know that that's the best advice, but that's the Dr. Mark Hibbert way. Dr. Hibbert used to say, sometimes, man, you just gotta take out a sword and cut them up and let God heal them later. Pray for healing on the other side. Well, I don't know that that's the best way, but we can make sure that our words are lining up with his word. You you you still have to take care of you.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Maturity is not saying everything you think. Wisdom will control timing and tone.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Wisdom will control timing and tone. It's the reason you gotta be careful when you're texting people because it has no tone. You can you can assume a lot when you're texting somebody. You can read stuff in there that are emailing them. You you can read stuff in there that you don't even you think, well Lord, they might as well have just cussed me out in that email. I mean, there weren't their curse words in it, but I know I already know what they're saying. I know what they're saying, and then you get them on the phone and you go, and you go, well, that ain't really what they was saying at all. I was wrong. Imagine that. It's it's perception. Amen. You perceived it wrongly, you know, you just perceived it wrongly. So guard your tongue, control your appetites. I'm not talking just about whether or not you're gonna overeat with chips and dips. That works too, but here's what I'm talking about. Proverbs 23, verse 2 says, put a knife to your throat. If you're a man given to appetite. What is he saying? He's saying you control your appetite. Here, here's some things that we don't consider appetite, but they are pleasure. Pleasure. I just need pleasure all the time. How about this? How about comfort? I just want to be comfortable. I just always looking for comfort. That's an appetite. Somebody who's being led by their flesh will always need the next one recognition. Gotta be recognized. Look, we try to recognize if God does something good for you. We try to recognize folks and we we want to honor you if God's done something good. But I love it when people say, I don't need all that. I don't have to have all that. Why? Because what I'm doing for him and what he's doing in me is enough. Right? So he says, Appetites go beyond food, they're pleasure, success, recognition, lust, and comfort. Put it another way. Here's another way. Freedom is your ability to say no. Say it a different way. We we did a freedom course here. I think we're gonna go back to it at some point. I thought the the freedom course that we did is great, and I know all the people that took the course and went with us had a great time. But they always say freedom is a choice. Freedom is a choice, but it's also freedom is the is your ability, your right to say, No, I ain't gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. Right? It's it that's that's a real liberty, that's a real freedom. Freedom is the ability to say no. Anything that controls you beside Christ is dangerous. It it can get out of control quickly. I'll finish with this so we can move along. We got a couple other prayer requests that we need to talk about that Miss Donna gave me, and we're gonna pray over them before we leave. Um you resist meddling in other people's business. Right? I I talked a few weeks ago about uh sometimes you gotta know when to speak and when to be quiet. You you gotta just know that. You resist this this thing of thinking you have to speak into any and every situation. Not every battle is yours to fight. Not every battle is yours to fight, and spiritually mature people understand this. I ain't gonna have to fight that battle. Uh a number of years ago on a Wednesday night, I did this thing out of the book of Revelation, and it says he's made us to be kings and priests unto our God. And I said, if you notice, that verse doesn't say he made us to be drama kings and drama queens. He's made us to be kings and priests unto our God, not drama kings and drama queens. You know, some churches are full of drama kings and don't think we men can I can be as dramatic. Lord have mercy. Sister Hopper's the one screaming amen up here in the front. Praise God. But when I get hurt or when something bothers me, it's devastating. You know what I mean? She handles things better than me. It's just devastating to me, sister. So I have to really keep myself where I need to be. Anyone that's been around here for a long, long time knows for 30 years I've been telling people around here, I ain't got time to tell you what to do, because keeping me where I need to be a full-time job. Let me give you a hint, it's the same for you. If you keep you where you need to be before God and in the right spirit, and keep the garden of your heart with all the little weedies plucked out of it, if you do that, you've got a full-time job just taking care of you. Now, then praying for other people and interceding for other people begins to be the love of your life. You begin to show the love of God by who you pray for and who you intercept for. Why? Because you've got you where you need to be. Right? Anyway, let me finish. So just we don't, you know, spiritually mature people that that rule themselves pretty well, they don't have any need to meddle in other folks' business. Uh there's a sc there's a proverb, you don't have to go to it, but I'll just read it to you. Trust me, it's there. You can check me out. Proverbs 26, 17. He that passeth by and meddleth with strife, belongeth belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a doll by the ear. What is he saying? He's saying, if you pass by and you grab hold of something and you meddle in something that's not yours, you're about to get bit. I might have been bitten a few times. Just, I mean, just you you have to ask yourself, has God called me to be in this conversation with this person? Because if he has it, this is an opportunity that he's gonna use for me to bless them and minister to them and hopefully encourage them. That's one thing. But if I'm meddling in something, he says it's like grabbing a dog's ear. What he means is grab up your dog's ear and pull it real hard to see if it won't bite at you. Don't be grabbing things that don't belong to you. Amen. And then lastly, and this will be it, I promise.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

You can make yourself do hard things. People who rule their spirit choose discipline over comfort.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. The hand of the diligent share shall bear rule. That's Proverbs 10:4 and Proverbs 12, 24. Discipline is a spiritual issue. Mature believers do difficult things, they do hard work, they forgive people, they pursue peace, they obey God even when it's uncomfortable. A ruled spirit is strong with self and gentle with others. Say that again. A ruled spirit, here's how you know you're in the right spirit. You'll be strong with you and gentle with others. Most of us I like it the other way around. I'll be gentle with me and strong with you. But that's not what he's saying.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

What I'm saying is be strong with you. Be strong with you, but be gentle with others.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Work hard, forgive people, pursue peace, obey God when it's uncomfortable. These are these are traits of a mature believer that's ruling their spirit and walking in the Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit, letting God have his way in our lives. That's what we're talking about this morning. Can you say amen? Amen. So we won't be ruled by our emotions, we won't be mastered by our appetites, we won't be controlled by offense, and we will not be driven by pride. And then you'll know that you're becoming more Christ-like every single day. Can you say amen? Stand up on your feet. Father, we bless you, we thank you. Lord, we give you glory. I pray over your people. Pray over these precious people that Sister Donna has reached out to talk to me about this morning. I thank you, Lord, for ministering to this family, this young lady who made some choices this week that we prayed wouldn't happen. God, I pray that you would meet her right where she is. Just like every person in this room, meet her where she is this morning. In that room. She was fearful. But God, I pray an abundance of grace for her. For a mom that was devastated by her daughter's decision. We also pray for a young father who's being coming with the mother of his child. They've presented Christ to him, told him to have the gospel conversation, talk to him about getting saved. But he has not yet given in. So in Jesus' mighty name, we believe that young man. Even today, Lord, there's a breaking in his own spirit. Open his eyes to let him see Jesus for who he really is. For a young lady who recently came and had the conversation with her about Jesus, she prayed to receive the Lord, just thanking you for doing a special work in her. I thank you that she will be rooted and grounded in her faith. Rooted and grounded, walking in faith, walking in your love, knowing your goodness and grace. Pray over every person in here this morning. Pray right now and come in agreement with Bill and Denise, for mom and dad. For Butch who has had to undergo for the mom who needs a healing. God, I pray for special grace and mercy for Butch. Happy to do what he's having to do every single day. God, we thank you for family. We thank you for strength upon strength. God, touch your people today. Send revival, refreshing, and renewal to every heart, every family, and every life standing here this morning. Those watching online, pray over a friend who, because of some terrible decisions, his life is upside down. Pray over him right now. Said he'd be watching online today, Father in Jesus' name. I pray that he would know your love, but I also thank you, Lord, for giving him the grace and the mercy to deal with every bad seed song, every bad decision that's causing the boy. Thank you for giving him that same wisdom and grace. Bless your people, oh God, for financial needs to be met, marriages to be healed, relationships to be restored. Let it be so, oh God. Don't forget your people in Cedar Town. Don't forget your people around the world. Lord, don't forget your people in Pope County, in Floyd County, in Bartow County, in Cop County, all across this great state. Sin revival, refreshing, and renewal. Not in a not in any kind of an emotional way, but a true turning of hearts. A true awakening in our spirits and in our lives. Jesus' mighty name if you breathe. Say amen. Amen, amen. God bless you, have a good uh rest of the day and an enjoying the city.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Our Sunday service begins at 1030 a.m. and our Wednesday evening Bible study begins at 7 p.m. If you'd like to contact us, our telephone number is 770 748 5750.