A young man visited us from the Buffalo church.  He was excited to be here.  He’s part of the fruit from our visit last year.  He’s still there, praise God!  One of the big reasons is that one of you has continued to follow up with him and help disciple him from here, speaking into this young man’s life.  He was so proud.  He came up and said, “I’ve been saved now for 308 days!”  I said, “Praise God!  Keep going, man!  Keep going!”  Then he asked me, “How long have you been saved?”  I said, “Well, I can’t give you the number of days right now off the top of my head, but you’re on your way, praise God!  Just faithfully get up every morning and crucify yourself.”  He said, “I want to be a superhero for God!  I want to be great for God!”  I said, “Praise God!  Don’t ever lose that fire.  Do you want to be great for God?  Then be faithful.  ‘A faithful man who can find?’  Do you want to be great for God?  Then be humble.  Do you want to be great for God?  Then don’t seek position, but seek to serve.  

We lose sight of that (don’t we?), that the greatest is the servant.  The greatest among us are those who can achieve the most humility.  When we look at humility, it is, practically, having total reliance upon God and no confidence in oneself; that’s humility.  “I can do nothing.”   Isn’t that what the apostle said?  Without Him I can do nothing that glorifies Him, nothing that pleases Him.  We can take no credit for anything of worth that’s done in the kingdom of God.  We might not always express it properly here in this life.  There have been many times that God has used me and blessed me and allowed me to bless others, when I have not then turned like that tenth leper to give Him proper thanks and praise.  But one of these days I’m going to cast a crown at His feet, praise God!  Amen?  That crown will have been produced entirely by the goodness and the grace of God.  We’ll cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, who will ever be,” praise God!

Faithfulness, consistency, patience (or endurance), long-suffering, all of these things that are character traits are needed in every one of our lives.  They constitute what he goes on to say in the twenty-fifth verse about living in the Spirit.  What does it mean to live in the Spirit?  It’s to be consistently producing the characteristics of Christ as the Holy Spirit lives these things out in us.  How do we know where we are?  Well, how are you reacting, now, to the pressures of the flesh and the pressures of the world?  So, you have just had a great victory and things are going great, man.  You were so thankful for that last victory, but now these things are starting to press in again.  How are you responding to them?  Are you afraid you will fall this time?  You’re gritting your teeth; you’re going to work harder?  Well then, you’re back in the flesh.  Don’t panic when those things try to evidence themselves.  Put your trust in God; amen?  Declare who you are in Jesus Christ.  Make no provision for the flesh.  Don’t hold it yourself.  You haven’t whipped it for the last twenty years by yourself; amen?  Get around somebody who will encourage you and lift up your hands.  Follow those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God.  These great admonitions, then, that come to us concern the responsibility that has been placed upon us to be doers of this Word and not hearers only.