thanks for watching our program today and i want to let you know about our web site activate life died or you can send us your prayer requests we are honored to pray for you we also have daily devotions and other resources you can sign up for and if you want to support us financially you can do that through the web site now we'll get back to the teaching as we get into god's word together those who started with the twelve and there was them movement that was even bigger than what we see here in i am not saying the n f c west will prevail against you or show not prevail against you i'm saying the gates of hell will not prevail against a movement she's a star jesus boils down to the only decision that all of us make a daily decision so then from that daily decision how do we measure success how do you define success is the question i'm proposing and we go back to goal a sions and in chapter five verse twenty two this is what the scripture says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control against such things there is no law it's like the exact opposite of the list i read before against such things there is no law what's the purpose of law one of the purpose is to restrain rebellion that's why we have a law you restrain rebellion well you don't need a law with peace because you don't need to restrain peace you don't need to restrain the love the more love you receive in give the better you don't need to put a law on love no it's greater in so that's what's laid out for us so how do you define success do you know how you define success if i ask you well is this a good day how do you measure that say for our church like how do you measure what success if you don't know what success in your life daily here you know if you don't know how to measure it's a good thing to stop and pray about him think about searches get off track churches struggle with this there's corny little acronyms like a b c churches will boil it down to attendance building in cash how many people showed up how big the building how big is the offering who that success really is that what the scripture says that's not what i read  so churches get off track and again in our lives sometimes we get off track what does scripture say scripture emphasizes abide stay close to jesus be filled with the holy spirit and then your character the fruit of your life that success and when you're abiding in jesus you're going to bear much fruit and you're going to do great things for the lord but here's a perspective check the fruit of the spirit is more important than the gifts of the spirit and sometimes in our culture we're all about performance what are you doing human doings and we say this is you know most important what you're doing and it's the being and it's the character that's emphasized in scripture and it's love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control i just say what if in our own lives that was the measure of success during a day to live that way close to jesus and have that fruit that was our church that was success to walk close to jesus in live with love joy peace patience kindness coming from the holy spirit if you imagine that would revolutionize a city if that suddenly became how christians were were just living so we get off track and sometimes we overemphasize the miners and here's an example perspective from the book of romans there was a hot hot topic back in the day me was sacrificed to idols in the christians came along and they're like oh i'd like to have that beef jerky but they kind of sacrifice that to an idol in some christians would take that me they would pray over it and say lord we dedicate this to you and they would enjoy that double burger other ones would come along and know that was sacrificed to idols i can't go near that you know paul says there's not really a right answer for some people their conscience doesn't allow them to eat that means act as idols and that's just fine other people they pray over that thing and they say well done they cook a little more and then they're in there they put says both are fine this is what's important that there's mutual edification and if someone stumbles in the area of meat sacrificed idols in their conscience doesn't allow to do it well then don't pick up the double burger run from them and go well i've got no problem with that don't want some there was a big issue about me to end who reads it and don't cause a brother or sister to stumble in then this is what paul says and this is important perspective romans fourteen seventeen he says the kingdom of god is not about eating we enjoy eating it's a blessing but the kingdom of god is not about me it's not about eating it's not about drinking it's about righteousness peace and joy in the hol righteousness joy and peace in the holy ghost in so you know you talk about also assured ok if you talk a little bit of nonsense but you keep things in perspective and the joy of the lord you don't let the minor deals feel the joy of the lord so here's a question here's a challenge does your faith go deeper than your feelings and your circumstance c i know a lot of christians say why i can't have the food or the spirit because we don't have a lot of money right now i can't have the