Living a Fruitful(Fruit Full) Life

Galatians 5:1-6 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Jesus gave us the beatitudes(The attitudes of Christ Followers); Now Paul gives us what Christ Followers should be.

We were given those Christ attitudes as a precious gift and we can’t try to wrap them up in this world’s gift paper and bows. We need to let the Spirit of the Lord breath through our lives.

Galatians 5:7–12 NIV84

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

This world and the one who tries to run it will do everything it can to move us off course and distract us from what God calls us to do.

Today's Best Illustrations, Volumes 1-4 (Headed Away from the Cross)

When people become comfortable in their irresponsibility, they are

heading away from the cross.

Galatians 5:13–21 NIV84

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This just isn’t another list but an identification of the primary traps which lay before us that Satan hides with all sorts of tempting lures and baits.

Today's Best Illustrations, Volumes 1-4 (Sinful Nature)

The famous cuckoo bird never builds its own nest. It flies around until it sees another nest with eggs in it and no mother bird around. The cuckoo quickly lands, lays its eggs there, and flies away. The thrush, whose nest has been invaded, comes back. Not being very good at arithmetic, she gets to work hatching the eggs.What happens? Four little thrushes hatch, but one large cuckoo hatches. The cuckoo is two or three times the size of the thrushes. When Mrs. Thrush brings to the nest one large, juicy worm, she finds four petite thrush mouths, one cavernous cuckoo mouth. Guess who gets the worm? A full-sized thrush ends up feeding a baby cuckoo that is three times as big as it is.Over time, the bigger cuckoo gets bigger and bigger, and the smaller thrushes get smaller and smaller. When I was a kid, you could always find a baby cuckoo’s nest. You walked along a hedgerow until you found dead little thrushes, which the cuckoo throws out one at a time. Paul teaches in Romans 8:5–8 that spiritually speaking, you’ve got two natures in one nest. The nature that you go on feeding will grow, and the nature that you go on starving will diminish.

Last week I asked what you wanted me to preach on this week. One of the members said, “patience.” So we will study the next seven weeks not just patience but ALL the fruits we need to produce from the faith walk Jesus set us on.