We've Got a Ways to Go
Notes
Transcript
As your pastor, each summer I go through what might be considered a sort of annual ritual of trying to determine a series for the season. Some pastors preach the lectionary, using the prescribed readings for that particular Sunday - I often use the prescribed Psalm as our call to worship; other pastors go thematic and simply choose themes for particular Sundays; others might go through a book of the Bible; and I’m sure there are other ways of choosing your sermons of which I’m unaware.
One of the things I try and do, especially for a summer series is to preach a series that each Sunday is a stand alone sermon, so that as families come and go on vacations, as people are here one week and gone the next that each sermon can be a stand alone message independent of all the others. Though it’s true you can glean from any sermon on its own, when I preach a series there is information that is shared and built upon from one sermon to the next.
Of course, my hope is always that you might be able to be here for each sermon, not to stoke my ego but because I believe that God speaks through His Holy Word and that is why I spend so much time each week in study and preparation for the brief time we have together. If you do miss a Sunday we do try and post to our website the sermons each Sunday, and of course you can always join us via Zoom using the link that Ruth faithfully sends out each week with our weekly bulletin.
Today we’re beginning a series one might call the Fruits of the Spirit.
Fruits of the Spirit
Fruits of the Spirit
By the Spirit I mean of course the Holy Spirit, and by fruits we are speaking of what is produced as a product of that Spirit working within us. So this sermon really serves as mere prelude to where we will be this summer.
Our text for this morning is Galatians 5:16-26.
If Drew is present: “I’m going to invite our “reader in residence” to come and read for us our passage this morning.”
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
“Thank you Drew.”
As I was preparing for this series, and more specifically for this morning I of course needed a title for the sermon. IN reading the text it wasn’t difficult to think, “We’ve got a ways to go.” And that is my over arching thought for this morning, “We’ve got a ways to go.”
We’ve Got a Ways to Go
We’ve Got a Ways to Go
We most definitely do: not only as a culture, but as individuals as well. It can become so easy for us to point at others and say things like: “I’m better than they are.” Or, “At least I’m not like them.” And these are merely excuses to justify our behavior that we know is not in line with the goodness that God would have for us.
In this short letter to the church of Galatia, the Apostle Paul writes in just a few short chapters a powerful message that is really to all of us and strikes true to us today. In our passage today he contrasts the flesh and it’s desires to those of the Spirit at work within us.
Our passage this morning begins with a conjunction, and one that we’ve spoken of before and it’s power of contradicting everything that went before. The word “But” reminds us that something indeed has come before and I would commend to you to not just take the text we are focused on this morning, and instead take the time to read the entire letter. It might take you a half hour, and I can assure you it would be 30 minutes well spent.
We began this morning in verse 16
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Paul contrasts our worldly desires - the desires of the flesh - with the desires of God for us, that which we know is ultimately best for us. He establishes for us a clear dichotomy between right and wrong, of being within the Law and the freedom that is in Christ. That is truly the heart of Paul’s message within this letter - the difference there is in following Christ and God’s desires for our good, and our own worldly desires that are for this world and temporary gratification.
Paul gives us a list:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
As one goes through this list it’s not difficult to see how inward they are turned. There is nothing here that is about loving our neighbor much less about loving God - it is all about personal gratification; self-focused, self-centered- me first - I want what I want mentality. The truth is it gets us nothing but leads to conflict and anger; it pits one person against another it divides communities and leads to coveting what others might have instead of being thankful for what you have.
I’m reminded of an exercise at a youth group meeting. The speaker gave out pennies to everyone, so each person had about 5 pennies and they were to try and get as many pennies as they could from their peers. You could only take one penny at a time and once you were out of pennies you could no longer participate. You can imagine the chaos that ensued. In only a short period there were only a few left trying to wrestle pennies out of one another’s hands.
Then the speaker had the group try it again, only this time your goal was to try and share your pennies - if someone offered you a penny you had to accept it. A much different sort of chaos happened, and there was a whole lot more joy and a there wasn’t any sort of frustration. Everyone continued to be a part of the activity because as soon as they were out of pennies someone offered them one. This continued until the speaker called the group back to order.
What do we learn here? When I’m focused on only me it leads to many items that Paul lists: enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy…the list goes on. In the first part of that exercise most felt victimized by those that took their pennies. Yet in the second part we saw that when I’m concerned with giving what I have to others.
I’m lucky enough to be a part of a group of men that meet regularly for prayer, study, and encouragement. One of our group has often said that “we can only work on our own stuff”. There’s a lot of wisdom there.
Our culture spends a tremendous amount of time accusing and/or judging those with whom we disagree or are different from us. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded with what was known at the time as the Shema,
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
God needs to be first. Paul’s list is a great way to examine ourselves. If we’re putting garbage into our lives we’re going to get garbage out. There’s a modern parable that asks the question, “What’s in your cup?”
You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.
Why did you spill the coffee?
"Because someone bumped into me!!!"
Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.
Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So we have to ask ourselves... “what's in my cup?"
When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratitude, peace and humility?
Anger, bitterness, victim mentality and quitting tendencies?
Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it.
Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, resilience, positivity; and kindness, gentleness and love for others.
We’ve Got A Ways to Go
We’ve Got A Ways to Go
As we examine our lives it’s easy to see we’ve got a ways to go. Each one of us if we’re honest with ourselves can see that not always do good things spill out of us. That should cause us to dig and uncover what is it that is in our cup. To seek to get rid of those things. Then we can focus on what things we ought to be filling our cups with, the fruits of the Spirit,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Let’s start working on ourselves. As Jesus said, first remove the log in your own eye so that you’ll be able to see clearly to remove that speck that you see in your neighbors eye.
To God be the glory.
Let me pray for you.