The Joy of Walking in the Spirit

Sermon: The Joy of Walking in the Spirit

Date: 7/21/2023

By: Samuel Sorenson

Text: Galatians 5:16-26

Introduction:

Many times, God puts a sermon on a preacher’s heart, long before we preach that sermon to an audience. This sermon is an outpouring from my heart of what God has been doing in my life, and I am excited to share this sermon with you.

Why does every interaction we have with people matter? Because people keep a video record in their hearts and minds of every interaction that we have with them. Sometimes, they are testing us to get a response that will dictate where the relationship will lead. We also do this to others subconsciously, not realizing we are testing people to know where our relationship with them will go. As a single person many times I have not understood when a potential young lady is testing me? Until we can learn what these tests look like, the tests can seem quite costly. However, after seeking out answers from the Lord as to why these missed opportunities keep happening, God begins to give us answers through repeat scenarios. Now we can ask the question why does this keep on happening to me, or we can ask the question how can I be better? How can I respond in a way that is God honoring and helps this person that is currently testing me? When the Holy Spirit starts opening our eyes to these tests, that is when the excitement begins. We can become change agents for God’s kingdom and assist Him in bringing the kingdom of God into other people’s lives. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can surprise people and be a force that will lead them closer to an eternal relationship with God.

Illustration: Let me give you a small illustration of what I mean by this. I remember a time in Kansas City Mo, during my Seminary education, that I visited a church, and this young preacher approached me in a manner that would provoke a response. He was a recent graduate and was learning the ropes of ministry. He came up to me and immediately started asking me who I was and what I was about. Now the prideful side of me wanted to brag about where I came from and what I had done, but the Holy Spirit was whispering this is a test, don’t turn this into a contest. So, I responded to him by saying, “I’m just a servant.” He looked at me for a while and said, “You know that is really humble.” I was excited to hear that from a fellow believer in Christ, his response to my response taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that God is watching, and our fellow man is always watching. A verse that goes along with this is Proverbs 20:6- Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?

Also, our words matter, choosing to answer with a spirit of humility will go far greater than choosing to show a prideful response.

Proverbs 18:21 states, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Body

Purpose statement: My purpose in speaking to you today is for you to realize the Joy that can be found when you stop focusing on earthly temptations that bring only temporary pleasure and start practicing or making a lifestyle of what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit.

Context:

To give context the Book of Galatians deals with having liberty and freedom in Christ. Paul is arguing that those who are in Christ are not under the law. That Christians are to submit their will to God’s will, not through rules and regulations like the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day taught, but to walk in the spirit by focusing on having a relationship with Christ.

Many Galatians were continually thinking about how to fulfill the desires of the flesh. They were always wrestling with their sin, as one scholar stated “they were in a perpetual sindrome” not syndrome (Jon Courson). As a result of focusing on the works of the flesh, their lives were wrecked by sin. The more they thought about their sin and trying to overcome their sin by following the law through pure willpower the more frustrated they became. Paul is challenging them to overcome this preoccupation with sin by exhorting (correcting and encouraging) them to enjoy the Lord.

Now there were wolves in the church called Judaizers who were creating divisions by appealing to the Jews. These false teachers had convinced the Galatians of a false gospel which required them to be circumcised. These false Christians merely want to win converts for their own agenda, just like false teachers do today. Their agenda was to win the approval of the Jewish leaders by converting Gentiles to a form of Judaism. These false teachers had the best of both worlds: they had created a splinter group or sect where they were leaders, and they could escape any Jewish persecution. The effect that the false teachers had on the Galatians was a spirit of division within the church over issues of circumcision and the law. Paul is more critical of the Galatians by calling them foolish in Galatians 3:1 where he says, “Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you?” Paul goes through a list of reasons to return to the truth that they have in Christ Jesus in Galatians 3.

There is so much better that the Lord desires for His children if we look beyond what is seen and look to the Lord for what He has set before us. To become so engulfed in what the Lord wants us to do that we forget to sin. Just like Paul states in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul was so focused on living for God that he forgot about his past sin and shame. How do the Galatians overcome the works of the flesh? Well, we are going to dive into that question.

Let’s get into the text.

Scripture reading: Galatians 5:16-26: 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is[1] love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Today, I want to illustrate two benefits of how walking in the Spirit produces the fruit of the spirit.

1. The Benefit of walking in the Spirit.

2. The Benefit of walking in the Spirit is being an example for other Christians to follow.

1) The Benefit of walking in the Spirit.

Let me start by prefacing this question? How do we get free of this anger issue we are struggling with, or this lust issue, or this addiction that is ensnaring us, or any of the works of the flesh mentioned in verses 16-21? Look again with me at the text. Galatians 5:16 states, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Now friends this verse is simple to say but it’s not easy to do. The first act of walking in the spirit is how we worship. God requires His followers to spend time with Him through a quiet time of reading His Word and praying to Him. Seeking His face by asking for His counsel, seeking His will for our lives. Second, walking in the Spirit takes community, we must be in relationship with God, and we must be in relationship with other believers. We must have the Holy Spirit that speaks to our hearts when we sin and allows us to see what God sees. Without conviction from the Holy Spirit, we cannot practice the fruit of the Spirit. Moment by moment we are to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit says to speak to that person than we are to speak to that person. The Holy Spirit says make that phone call than we are to make that phone call, if He says pray about this then we are to pray about this.

It is a blessing to have people around you who challenge you. Without them, you would not have to practice patience. I am thankful for the men and women in the church who have revealed my weak areas that I need to work on. Brothers and sisters who lovingly confront me in areas I need help with. I need to allow people the freedom to correct me. You cannot Walk in the Spirit if you are not open to people correcting you.

All of us desire a strong relationship with God and with others. A right relationship with the Lord results in us building stronger relationships with other Christians. This does not mean we are going to have a right relationship with all people, because people are not perfect, and God is perfect. However, it helps have a right relationship with the people that God wants us to be in relationship with. In seeking out the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control our relationships become glorifying to God and that video that others play back when they see us is a video that brings them joy and contentment.

As I have grown older the greatest joy that comes to me is having healthy relationships. I can call on strong men and women of God to pray for me, my friendships have led me to better opportunities. Practicing kindness has taught me that there is a greater purpose that the Lord has for me than practicing meanness or cruelty. If we look up a few verses in chapter 5 of Galatians, Paul explains this in verse 14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is a strong connection between this verse and the greatest commandment found in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The Lord tells us plainly in His Word what we are to do in order to have a right relationship with Him and a right relationship with others. Practicing the fruit of the spirit results in spiritual fruit that is sown and blessed by God.

So, point number 1: The Benefit of walking in the Spirit.

We must as Christians learn to forget about self, because of past sins, we often don’t feel like we deserve God’s love or blessings. God does not want us focusing on our inadequacies or self-loathing. Sometimes our greatest enemy and what gets in the way of God’s purpose and plan for us is our self.

When we wake up in the morning what are we focused on? Are we focused on how good looking we are? How big of muscles we have or how smart we are? Are we focused on our own accomplishments and what we are good at? Or are we focused on serving God, loving Him, and loving His people like the great commandment commands us to do? If we are so focused on reaching others with the gospel, we will not have time to focus on the works of the flesh.

Learn to forget about self, let’s take our eyes off our inadequacies, our past sins, on how we think things should go, with us wanting our own way. Learn to trust in God and His promises, living for Him, forgetting about self. Romans 12:1 states, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Paul exhorts us to be living sacrifices as our reasonable service to God. This means forgetting about our agenda and seeking out His agenda.

2. The Benefit of walking in the Spirit is being an example for other Christians to follow.

I must warn you of sowing seeds to the flesh. If you sow to the flesh the works of the flesh will eventually sprout. Galatians 5:6-7 states, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

This happened with Samson. Here was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, who was extremely gifted, had tremendous strength, and was a mighty judge of Israel. However, Satan knew his weakness he loved sex, he loved women, he broke his vow with God and told his enemy a Philistine his secret to where he gained his strength. She took advantage and cut his hair, as a result he lost his eyes. God did forgive him and gave him grace, his hair did grow back, and his strength returned, but his eyes didn’t grow back. There was a cost that was a great cost to him. God still used him greatly and he did destroy his enemies, but at the cost of his eyes. You see friends our fleshly desires lie to us, Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

How many of you in here can remember a time when you lost your temper and it cost you a relationship? Or you said something unkind that cost you a friend or family member? The cost of sin is so much greater than the alternative of seeking out Christ and His will over our own will.

However, the flip side is much better. If we look at the life of missionaries and the life of Paul, he was greatly used by God and had a heart of compassion that all leaders need to have towards people. He wrote over half the books of the New Testament and was greatly loved by the many churches he planted. His willingness to do God’s will over his own will resulted in Christianity being spread throughout the known world.

Friends if you want a verse to help you to stop thinking about yourself here is an excellent verse, Philippians 4:8-9, Paul writes this, 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

The Philippian church loved Paul and ministered to him while he was in prison. He had great joy while he was in prison, and he was still able to fellowship and see God’s kingdom built because of his obedience to God. Paul was greatly used because of his willingness to say Yes to the Lord. This was not easy; it took a lot of self-discipline in his life to keep on denying the flesh.

How do you build the inner man?

Through pain, the pain of seeing and experiencing the results of consequences. If you study consequences over just making decisions, then the results will be far better. As one man said, “Play the movie to the end.” If we listen to modern music the lyrics are enticing people to sin, to practice sexual sin, to use drugs, to act out violently, to blame others for their problems. That is a lie and trap from Satan used to draw a person into the slavery of practicing works of the flesh.

What does God say Satan’s goal is for us? Let’s look at that in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus warns Peter in Luke 22:31, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” Fulfilling the lusts of the flesh results in Satan destroying you.

The Lord put on my heart this message to speak to the challenges of being a men and women of excellence. The discipline that is required to live a life above average requires some pain. I would challenge you to embrace the grind, embrace the pain, embrace the challenges. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” I want to emphasize the phrase embrace the grind. Embrace the grind of ministry, embrace picking up your cross daily and following Him. To choose the hard things over the easy things, the pain over the pleasure. This is what builds the inner man. This is what creates grit, stamina, emotional endurance, cultivates character, and creates men and women of excellence. We all want to hear our Savior say, “Well done good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:21a. Embracing the grind will allow us to be examples to a sin infested world.

1. The Benefit of walking in the Spirit.

2: The Benefit of walking in the Spirit is being an example for other Christians to follow.

Conclusion: I would like you to consider one truth claim.

1. Where knowledge ends, frustration begins.

In illustrating what I mean by this let’s look at the life of Job, he was highly favored by God, he had wealth, family, prestige, and a life that was an example to many. However, one day God and Satan made a bet and God allows Satan to test him to see if Job will curse God. This happened without the knowledge of Job knowing what was happening. First Job loses all of his children, then his health starts to decline, and his wealth declines. His three friends visit him to try and come up with answers as to why this is happening to him, but they all come up short. So, they tell him he must have sinned, and this is what caused him to have these misfortunes.

However, Job could not find out what exactly he did to have these tragedies happen to him? Going to man and seeking man’s answers was futile. So, he begins to question God and His motives? He asks God why this has happened to him, and God does eventually answer him, but not with an answer but with more questions. God does restore Job in the end and blesses him greater than what he had before. One could only imagine the frustration Job went through going through all of those tests Satan put him through and still choosing to remain faithful to God.

In trying to understand the tragedies that will come upon us one day we can all look to the life of Job and thank God for how He used Job as an illustration to all of us on how to remain faithful in the midst of trials.

Now friends the Bible does warn about trials that come into our lives in James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Life can knock us down, when we are living a Godly life, seeking Him, we give, we serve, we do our best to raise our kids, but one day we get cancer, or a loved one dies. This is a fallen world. Let me encourage you with this verse, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

To give you a real-world illustration I remember going to a funeral of a young man who committed suicide. The Pastor was Eric Peterson, and he gave this illustration that put the entire audience in tears of compassion. Paraphrasing here is what Eric said.

“There was a man who had a son who was around eight years old. He was dying of cancer; it was towards the end of this young boy’s life and his dad and him were saying their goodbyes. The son said to his dad, “Dad I know if I fall asleep that I am going to die.” His dad replied, “Yes I know son.” The little boy said, “But I’ll see you in the morning.” His dad replied, “Yes son I’ll see you in the morning.” And with those last words the son closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into that next world, and later on the dad said to his Pastor, “I cannot wait for the morning, I cannot wait for the morning.”

Now, those were words that the parents of the young man who had committed suicide needed to hear. I remember reading the room after Eric had given that illustration and seeing tears of compassion upon so many in the crowd.

It’s hard to admit our weaknesses and limitations, however when we do it opens the door for us to show compassion to others.

Gospel Presentation

Today, if the Holy Spirit has spoken to you through this message and you do not know Jesus, let me introduce you to Him, He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Being the Son. He is God. He has the ability to give eternal life to those who repent and believe in Him.

He was born of a virgin birth. The only one who has been born of a virgin in all of history. He is also the only person to resurrect Himself from the dead and stay alive afterwards.

He chose to step down from heaven and take on flesh. That is like a human becoming an ant. He did this because He loved us enough to live the perfect life, chose to take our place on the cross and die for us. Jesus is the only way to God. John 14:6 states, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus being without sin, and being God is the perfect lamb of God to be offered for our sin.

Jesus was the propitiation, meaning He took Gods wrath that should have been ours so that we could be reconciled to the Father.

His blood was shed for our sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. He died a criminal’s death; the most brutal execution being known to man.

Three days later, like He told His disciples, He was resurrected from the dead.

The Bible is very clear in John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” God loves you enough to give His only begotten Son for you.

So, today if you do not know if you have a relationship with Jesus, I ask will you repent of your sin and put your trust in Jesus. God bless all of you. Thank you so much for having me today.

[1] The New King James Version (Ga 5:16–22). (1982). Thomas Nelson.