All right, turn to Zechariah. A little bit less familiar passage of scripture, but if you get to the New Testament and turn back a few pages, you'll get into the right place. We don't get into those minor prophets a whole lot, but in Zechariah chapter four is our text for this evening. Zechariah is the prophet of God, Today God speaks to you and I through His Word and through the Holy Spirit. But God had in the Old Testament many times would give the prophet a vision, would give the prophet insight into a matter and show them what they needed to do. They would take that message from God and give it to the people. Well, Zechariah was given ten visions from God. And here in this chapter, chapter number four, Coming into we get a front-row seat to the fifth of the ten visions that God is giving to him and this responsibility that he's supposed to preach this truth to the people and to Let them know and understand that God is the one that's going to do the work that needs to be done The verse I would like you to look at this evening that is our text and our title for the message tonight is in Zechariah chapter 4 in verse number 6 and He said, then he answered and he spake unto me saying, again, this is the angel that appeared unto him, the vision that came to him and continued to tell him what he was supposed to tell the people, was saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Zerubbabel was given a job, a responsibility. Now you know the story of those that were in exile, those that were taken into captivity and they desired or wanted to, those that wanted to, looking for the opportunity or time to go back home. and you know there was three groups of people or three leaders that led groups of people back to Jerusalem. The first of those was Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel led a group of people back to Jerusalem and the responsibility, the burden that God had put on his heart was to rebuild the temple. that can be read about and found in the first six chapters of Ezra and this was a responsibility that he was supposed to do to rebuild the temple then of course you know Ezra led the second group of people back and that's found in Ezra chapter 6 through 10 and then Nehemiah the third group that went these each different stages and Nehemiah of course built the wall Ezra built the people but Zerubbabel was given the job and the responsibility as he went back first to build the temple, to build back God's house. He knew he was supposed to do it. He went to do this in the face of great hardship, to rebuild a broken down and destroyed temple, a destroyed house of God. Can you picture it? This building that for 70 years I like watching on YouTube abandoned buildings. They have different groups of people. They sneak into these buildings and they video these abandoned structures. There's somebody that snuck into Chernobyl. I don't know if they made it out, but the video made it out because I watched it. They're videoing these abandoned structures, and it's kind of neat. But you see the destruction that takes place just from water damage, just from wind, just from something being exposed to the elements for just a few years. But here, the house of God had been left exposed to the element for 70 years, and he's going to go back and rebuild the temple of God. He did this in the face of great hardship. He did this in face of great opposition. with little to no help. He did it with insufficient finances. You ever been there? Had something to do with insufficient finances? Zerubbabel goes back to build this temple that had been burned in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar. They went into captivity because of God's judgment, but the time was for them to come home and God told him, I want my house built. He knew that this is what he was supposed to do. Even though it was going to be hard, even though there was lots of opposition, even though they had inadequate ability, he was supposed to go back and build the temple. In the face of this, God sends and gives him a vision, an angel comes to him and says, listen, Zerubbabel, I know it seems like it's too much. I know it seems like it's too hard. I know it seems like it's impossible, but I want you to understand, Zerubbabel, that it's not by might, it's not by power, but by my spirit that this is gonna get done. And you need to go and you need to tell the people that this is how it's going to be accomplished, in and through the power of the Spirit of God. And dear friend, I'm here tonight and I want to tell you that any work for God that has ever been accomplished that meant or did anything of value was accomplished through the Spirit of God. That which could never have been done by strength alone was done by the Spirit of God. That which raw talent could not accomplish, God accomplished. That which ingenuity and hard work would fall short, God did not fall short. No matter how mighty you are this evening, what you need is the Spirit of God. It's not your might that's going to give you victory as a Christian. It's not your might that's going to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in your life. It's not the mighty. It's not by might, but by My Spirit. Doesn't matter how much personal strength you have, you need the Spirit of God tonight. No amount of money, no strength, or no amount of talent will be able to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in the spiritual battle that we're in for God. We need the power of God and the Spirit of God today. You know, our country, we look at our country, our country's a mess. We see the turmoil and the division and the... just seems like our country's being ripped apart and we look at it, but I want you to understand that no amount of conservative gatherings is going to change the country. No assembly of political organizations is going to change the country. No amount of just getting together and talking about or criticizing or complaining about the problems that are in our world today is going to change the country. It's the spirit of God that's going to change the country. There's been times in history when you look back through our world and things were worse than they are today in the aspect of there's times when people were eating their own children. Yet God by His Spirit did a miraculous work and a nation turned back to Him. This nation is not beyond hope, the hope of the Spirit of God. We need God's power, we need His Spirit in every aspect, in every area of our life. But tonight, I want to just look at a couple of things specifically that are critical for us, that we need to be reminded of the fact that it's necessary for us to have the Spirit of God, that the work of God's gonna be done through the Spirit of God. And the first one is, it's critical, beloved, for a Christian walk, for us to have the Spirit of God. If you and I are gonna be successful as Christians, we must walk in the spirit of God. Would you turn to Galatians chapter five? Galatians, I know it's familiar verses. Some of you could quote them. I say Galatians five, you know where I'm going. You're ready to quote the scriptures, but I want you to see it in the word of God tonight. If you and I have any hope of overcoming this flesh, we've gotta be filled with the spirit of God. The Bible says in Galatians chapter 5, verse number 16, through verse number 21, he says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envians, 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. Look back at verse number 16, I want you to see the promise that's given to us there. He says, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and what's the rest of that verse? Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's a promise from God. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I was questioned on Sunday for oversimplifying the living of the Christian life. I was caught and questioned and kind of like I think that you didn't address this properly because you oversimplified living the Christian life. You said if you read the Word of God and you're infused with the water of the Word that you would have spiritual life. And that if you had the Holy Spirit in your heart guiding you into all truth that you would be able to live right as a Christian. But I want you to know that we're broken people. So I agree we're broken people. I just asked them, I said, did I preach truth? Did I preach what I preach? Is it the word of God that I preach truth? And they said, yes. I said, well, that's all I know how to do. But here's what I want you to see, beloved, as I pondered this thought over this last few days, I don't believe I oversimplified it. We have a promise from God here, Christian, that if you walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And I think that we've been giving people an excuse. We've been giving people a pass to live in sin today because we want to say that, oh, well, after all, we're just sinners saved by grace. And I mean, I just got this old flesh, and surely God doesn't expect me to have victory. And oh, yeah, we're broken people, and it's so hard to do right. And I understand. So God will forgive you, and it's going to be OK. And so we've put up with sin and we've said, well, we're just broken people. And so the life that I'm struggling with and the battle I'm having with sin is just the way it is. And I'm going to continue to be not a victorious Christian. God said, if you walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lesson of flesh. It's a promise from God. The problem is, is we're not walking in the spirit. We're not. The works of the flesh, beloved, that are described for us in verses 19 to 21 is really, I mean, you look at that list and you know what? It's literally an activity list for the average person today. I'm talking about it's a project list. The TGIF, the thank God it's Friday mentality that permeates our world today is quite literally just the objective and the goal to get to Friday so that they can go out and fulfill more works of the flesh. They'll have more time to go do and participate in these things. But Christians are not supposed to be doing those things. We're supposed to be living clean, pure, holy lives unto God. And we have the ability and the power to do so. God has given it to us if we would walk in the spirit. But we're not walking in the spirit. You will not maintain a victorious Christian life on your own. It will not happen. It's not by might. It's not by power, but by my spirit. Dr. Mike Edwards. said the secret to overcoming the works of the flesh is not willpower, but Holy Spirit power. God said it like this, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit. I remember Dr. Edwards came and preached when I was in college, preached a message I'll never forget. Title of it was, it's the Holy Spirit, stupid. It's the Holy Spirit, stupid. And boy, we are so dumb. Because we know it, but we don't do it. We know it, but we don't do it. Willpower and might might get you started. Willpower and personal ambition might get you out of bed for a few days. But if you're going to live a victorious Christian life on a consistent basis, it must be through the power of the Spirit of God. That is what is necessary. I'm convinced tonight that if man would spend as much energy and time striving to walk in the Spirit as he spends trying to be victorious over sin, that the victory over sin would simply be a byproduct of walking in the Spirit. But we in our own flesh are over here battling the sin and trying to get victory over it and so fed up that we keep falling and yet we're leaving the Holy Spirit over there, we're leaving God over there, we're just trying to please Him but please Him in our flesh. When if we would just walk in the Spirit, we would have the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and victory over that sin that has continued to destroy us would be had. if we would walk in the Spirit. It's critical, Christian. If we're gonna have a successful Christian life, we've gotta walk in the Spirit. If we're gonna be a fruit-bearing Christian, we gotta walk in the Spirit. For fruit is just a byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. Be not drunk with wine where it's in excess, but be filled with the Spirit. And if we are filled with the Spirit, Instead of trying to be more loving, if we were filled with the Spirit, we would be more loving. The fruit of the Spirit is just a byproduct of walking in the Spirit. Those things, I was gonna say they're a natural byproduct of walking in the Spirit, but I think a better way to say it is they are a supernatural byproduct. When we walk in the Spirit, there's a supernatural thing that happens and you could stop battling that anger that you have and could be more loving if you're just walking in the Spirit. You can't force fruit. It's a supernatural thing. The attributes of Christ Those attributes which make us Christ-like, which are what we are as a Christian, would be part of our life if we were just walking in the Spirit. That love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith and temperance. Those things would be part of our life if we were walking in the Spirit. It's not by might, but by my Spirit. It's also critical that we walk in the spirit for church work. The promise given to the church in Acts 1-8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, that promise, you understand, was not a passive gift to every church or every group of people that gathered together and just called themselves a church. You see they, he said, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. After the Holy Ghost come upon them, the disciples had to get alone in the upper room. The disciples had to yield and submit themselves to God. The disciples had to have surrendered hearts and seek God. And then God sent the Holy Spirit to them and power to do the work of God. Beloved, if we as Christians, you know the Christians is made up of people. And the church as a whole needs the power of God This is not something that just happens in this building. It's not something that just happens because this is 1800 Worthington Heights and we've got a sign out front that says Hunt Valley Baptist Church. It happens because there's a group of people that are submitted and yielded to God and are striving to walk in the spirit for their own Christian life. And then God comes when we gather together and he meets with us in a powerful way to to perform and to do the work that God needs to be done in and through the church. The work of the church, beloved, is a great work. like Nehemiah who stood on the wall and he looked at Samballot and Tobias and he said, hey, I cannot come down. They wanted to get him away from the work. They wanted him to stop the work and said, I can't come down. I can't do it because it's a great work that I'm involved in. The work of the church is great work. I want you to understand that. It's great because it's great in size. You know, Some people look and say, well, Hunt Valley Baptist Church, not that great in size, not that big of a group of people. But do you know the work that we're called to do? I don't know about you, but the command to go ye into all the world is a little overwhelming to me. Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature? That's, I mean, for me, I'm a little overwhelmed with what we've got to do right here in our little corner of Maryland. let alone the command to reach the whole world. It's great in size. The magnitude of what God wants us to accomplish in and through this small group of people is great, and it can be overwhelming, and it's not going to happen because we've got some strong or some talented or some gifted people in the church. It's going to happen because we've got some Spirit-filled people in the church. It's great, beloved. It's a great work. It's great because of its size. It's great because of its importance. You understand, beloved, there's nothing more important in life than the work of God. I'm talking about whether we're talking about serving in security, or the sound ministry, or the bus ministry, or all three. A lot of people are doing multiple things, right? They're wearing many hats. They walk through the church and change hats. Got all these different, probably teaching Sunday school to usher, all the things, I know. But whatever it is, it's a great work. It's important. You know, sometimes I think we oversimplify and we belittle the work of God, even in our own mind. We look at it and we think, oh, it's not really that important. I mean, after all, there's probably only gonna be 25 or 30 people there tonight. You see, if we had 2,000 people here tonight, people would be like, man, this is important. This is important. You know, it's not about who's here. Who are we doing it for? I think one of the reasons there are so many small churches that have not grown or gone beyond those few is because they're full of people that don't think it's very important work. Oh, this is not very important. We don't have to really put our best foot forward. We don't have to do that nice of a job. We don't have to look that sharp or I don't have to practice that much because after all, it's just a few people and I know them. We need to be convinced in our heart of how important this is, of how important the work is. Every aspect of the work that we do, from the time we pull on here, whether it's cleaning the building or serving in the sound booth or singing in the choir, everything we do, it's important because of who we're doing it for, not because of who's in the audience. It's important. It's great because it's important. It's great because it has some great enemies. You know, there's nothing that Satan hates more than a church moving forward for God. We got to remember that Satan is the enemy. Sometimes he may look like a neighbor, but Satan's the enemy. Sometimes he may look like the Valley's Planning Council. But Satan's the enemy. He is the one that is ultimately doing what he can to hinder and stop the great work of God. And we have a great enemy, so it is vitally important that we have the Spirit of God to stand against the wiles of the devil. They're just tools in Satan's hands. Whoever they are, they would stand in the way of the work of God. I was talking yesterday to Pastor Bishop in Alexandria, Virginia and he was telling me some years ago, they're just about to do a building project and some years ago they wanted to start this building project and in Alexandria township there or county, whatever it is, they have a man who was appointed and his job is to help churches navigate the ridiculous building codes that churches have to go through to get anything built in that area. The county appointed somebody to help churches be able to navigate that mess. I thought, man, we need that in Baltimore. And then he went on and he told me, well, I went and sat down with him and I said, here's what we want to do, what do we got to do? And as is the nature with most unregenerate men, the guy is as corrupt as the day is long. The guy looked at him and said, well, Pastor Bishop, what you do is I'm going to send you certain contractors. You hire them, and this will go through. You won't have a hitch. This will all be done. Pastor Bishop said, no, thank you, stood up and walked out. And he had to battle his own way through it. There's people everywhere that stand in opposition to the church. There's enemies. Zerubbabel had some enemies. The opposition of the church. Sometimes it's distractions. You know, for 16 years the work of God there, the building of the temple sat in disarray. Nothing was happening. You could go over and read the story and the account of this and You remember, if you've been in church for a while, that the prophet came and he says, hey, how long are you gonna dwell in your sealed houses? How long are you gonna live in a community that you've got everything else ready, everything's comfortable, you got everything you need is set, and the house of God lays in disarray? He called them on the carpet, because they just got distracted. Sometimes distractions pull us from this work. You know, the temple had been desecrated. Took some extra work to get it fixed. And I'm not going to chase that rabbit tail, but you know there's a lot of churches today that are being desecrated, bringing in the filth of this world. The work is great. The enemies are great. But even with all that, it can be done by the Spirit of God. And we have no hope of doing it without the Spirit. I don't know why, beloved, why it's such a hard lesson for us to learn, nor why, after we learn it, we so soon forget it. Because there's nobody in here tonight that I'm preaching anything that you did not already know, including me. Everything we do is dependent upon the Holy Spirit. You know what, beloved, as I pondered and thought about this today, We have more streams of outreach for the church than we've ever had since Christ was here. We have more means of getting the gospel out than we've ever had. We have all kinds of podcast and radio broadcast and streamcast and multicast and we've got religious TV broadcast. There's more religious TV broadcast than there's ever been. And yet we're still not doing it. We're still not reaching the world. We have nicer facilities than we've ever had. We have more printed material, more gospel literature, more tracks, all of this than we've ever had. You know, I remember when I was a kid growing up and my dad being a pastor and growing up in his church, I remember getting Fellowship Track League tracks that were printed so poorly, the ink and things were, you know, like all like almost blurry. And they were printed crooked. And they were folded crooked. I remember as a kid having to take the tracks that we got and unfold them and try and fold them back to get them a little straight. And they were all black and white. And that's what we gave away, black and white gospel tracks. I mean, you look at the beautiful tracks that we have out there, the ability we have to present a quality presentation. I mean, I remember as a kid when we used to make banners for church, for big days, we made banners with markers. We were so excited when I was a young teen when the dot matrix printer came out. and we could print our banners on dot matrix rolled up paper and it would come out in one long sheet of millions of black dots. And then we would take those black dots and we would lay it down on a table and we would get out our markers and color the black dots so they would be less black. I mean, it's all black dots. I mean, we would color them red and we'd color them green and I mean, making these banners for our church. You see this banner? Man, we've got access to unbelievable banners today. Woo, look at that man, it's classy. That is nice. People are gonna walk through the doors of the church and they're gonna fall on their knees and beg God forgiveness because we have that banner. Nope. We got more at our disposal today than we've ever had and we're still not doing it because we don't have the spirit of God. Not by might. Not by some pretty banner. My dad, I just picture him as when he was my age and pastoring, I mean, The capacity or means that we have today to reach out are beyond what my dad could have even dreamed of when he was my age, let alone afford to do. And yet we're not getting it done because we don't have the spirit of God. The life of British Lieutenant Colonel T.E. Lawrence was portrayed in that old film, Lawrence of Arabia. It was a depiction of his life. Winston Churchill said of Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence that he was the greatest man alive at that time. Lieutenant Lawrence, fighting battles out in the sands of the Arabian Desert with the Bedouin people, fought and won many, many victories with untrained and ill-equipped people, but he became very good friends with many of the Bedouins. At the close of the war, he came back to England, and in his book, The Tale of Wisdom, I believe is the title of the book, but in his book he tells about bringing these Arabian sheiks back to England. They were amazed by the buildings. They were awestruck by the Palace of the Queen, which they had the privilege of getting an audience with. They went before Parliament and were part of the Treaty of Versailles, where they signed the paperwork. They were part of all that. So amazed by it all, after the conclusion of their trip and time in England, Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence said to his, the Arabian sheiks, he said, if you could take anything from England back with you, what would it be? We, as the people of England, are grateful for what you did and we want to give it to you, whatever it is. They didn't know what it was called. But they knew what they wanted. They didn't have to think about it. They said, come here. They took them into their hotel, up to their room, and into the bathroom, and said, we want this thing, and pointed to the faucet in the tub. And they were awestruck by the fact that you could turn that knob, and water would come out. and not just a little bit of water, but what seemed like endless water would come out. Just water, just running and running. They said, we want that. And Lawrence had to explain that, well, although that faucet is very beautiful, it is just the vessel through which the water flows. You see, it's necessary that that be connected to the pipes. which is connected to the pump, which is connected to the great reservoir of water for the entire city. You see, they wanted the faucet, but didn't realize where the source of the water came from. And Christian, so many of our trappings today in our beautiful facilities and well-printed materials and fancy podcast and video presentations are just pretty trappings if it's not connected to the source. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Would you stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? I'm going to ask the pianist to play. Christian, if we're gonna live holy lives committed to Him, we need to have the Holy Spirit of God.