Follow
Notes
Transcript
We’re going to start off a little differently today. I need at least 4 volunteers.
Did you ever play follow the leader?
I’m the leader and you will follow me.
Great fun!
I enjoy making people do things that they probably would not do on their own initiative.
What is the basic rule of Follow the Leader? The one who is in charge sets the pace, sets the actions. Everyone else is called to mimic him.
This is the Christian life. We have leader that we are following. At, least one that we should be following.
Unfortunately, we sin. We have an addiction. And we follow that thing instead of Christ.
Over the past month, we have seen that we are powerless in our own strength.
We must believe that God is the one whose power can restore us.
By faith, we must trust God with our life and will through the grace offered in Jesus Christ.
Knowing who we are and who God is, we are to look into a mirror and make a fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
All those are steps in believing the truth. Truth is what sets us free. But, truth must be acted upon. Truth must bring life-change.
Because of the truth, we must be people who confess.
We have to make an honest admission to ourselves, to God, and to trusted friends.
Last week, we discussed that we must be people who repent.
We become entirely ready to turn away from our pattern of sin and turn to God.
This week, we will see that we are people who follow.
We humbly ask God’s Spirit to change our hearts and minds in order to follow Christ fully.
Our text is what Paul wrote to the Galatians:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
I wish this was easier to practice than it is.
Pray
1. The Role of the Spirit
1. The Role of the Spirit
Last week was more the negative side of what we are talking about today.
We discuss that we are to turn from our sins and turn to God. Repent. We talked about cutting things out of our life that would bring us down the path to sin.
That is something that we must do, but it is focusing on taking things away. It is a negative action.
Today, I want to talk about the positive action. Following the Spirit.
Who is this Spirit and what is the role of the Spirit?
Thank you for asking.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. Father Son and Holy Spirit. This being, completely God, is given to us to help us in the Christian life.
Jesus speaks of this:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I could spend all day talking about what the Spirit does.
But, I only have four minutes.
The Spirit empowers by giving life.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
It empowers by giving strength for service.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
It purifies
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
It reveals by guiding and directing God’s people
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
It reveals by teaching
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
It reveals by giving assurance
The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
It unifies
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
God gave us the Holy Spirit to show us what we are to know, to show us how we are to act, and to empower us in that.
In fact, as Paul says in our text:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The Holy Spirit produces that fruit in us, as we follow God.
Put simply, the Spirit leads and empowers us in the Christian life.
2. The Means of the Spirit
2. The Means of the Spirit
So, instead of living according to our sins and addictions, we are to follow the Spirit. But, how?
Yes, I would rather life of life of love and peace than to dive into sin that brings death. I would rather live with self-control than feel like my life is spinning out of control because of my addictions. But, how do I follow the spirit?
Paul writes:
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Well, Paul, that’s not very helpful. We are to remember that we have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires and we are to keep in step with the Spirit.
Great! But, how?
A. Bible Study
A. Bible Study
Well, the Spirit works through the Word of God, the Bible
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the Bible to write all that is in it, from Genesis to Revelation. As we read it, the Holy Spirit impresses the truths on our heart, equipping us for every good work.
As we read it, he begins to transform our mind, replaces the ugly desires of sin with his own desires.
How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
We renew our mind by replacing those thoughts and desires with something else. We renew our mind by spending time with the God who bought us. And he speaks through his word.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
If we are not spending time reading the Word of God, we will not be able to follow the Spirit of God.
B. Prayer
B. Prayer
The Word of God, the Bible, is how we hear from God. It is how we fill up our mind with good, replacing the junk that we are putting in it.
Prayer is the means by which we talk with God. But, it is also the means by which God changes us.
Paul writes
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
When we have a life of praying, soon the desires and priorities of our hearts change.
If we think about anxiety, Paul writes:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If we struggle with anxiety, God replaces that with peace, through prayer.
The purpose of prayer is not getting our wants, but coming before the righteous creator of the universe, seeing him for who he is and being changed by being near his awesomeness.
The Psalmist writes:
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
As we delight in the Lord, our desires become him and his. They change, so that, yes, we will get the desires of our heart, because they have become his desires and his will.
When we struggle with sin, we need to come to the Lord, filling our mind with his word and continually seeking God in prayer, so that he will restore our soul, transform our mind, so that we will hate our sin and have the strength to turn away from it.
It’s called communing with God.
C. Community
C. Community
The Spirit works through Bible study, prayer, and finally community.
In the early church, whenever anyone got saved, they immediately dived into fellowship with other believers.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
One of the results of this devotion to community was turning from sins in their lives
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
The spirit works through the community to to change us, to convict us, to strengthen us. That’s why the author of Hebrews writes:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Our time together is an important part of our sanctification, our pursuit of Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we refuse to spend time with the people of God, we will not grow spiritually, and we will not break the chains of sin and addiction that bind us.
The same can be said of the other point today. If we refuse to spend time with God daily in prayer, we will not grow spiritually, and we will not break the chains of sin and addiction that bind us.
If we refuse to spend time with God daily in Bible study, we will not grow spiritually, and we will not break the chains of sin and addiction that bind us.
There are tons more spiritual disciplines that the church of God has practiced over the years. If you want more information, let me know. I’ve got resources: all these ways to follow the leading of the Spirit, to allow him to change us from the inside out.
3. The Result of the Spirit
3. The Result of the Spirit
What is the result of filling our lives with the pursuit of Christ through the Spirit?
Well, put simply, we will have a changed life.
Remember our text:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
When we humbly ask God’s Spirit to change our hearts and minds in order to follow Christ fully, he will do it. As we follow him, keeping in step with the Spirit, he produces fruit in our lives.
Now, notice that Paul doesn’t say that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, etc. He says “the fruits of the spirit is” That has caused so many people to conjecture about so many things, saying that the fruit is love, and the rest of the words are a description of that love.
I’lll let you decided that. The point is that the Spirit will change our lives, and it will manifest in these ways.
One of which, some might say the foremost of which, is love.
A. Love for God
A. Love for God
As we pursue Christ, allowing the Spirit to change us, he will grow in us a love for God.
Jesus said, referring to the greatest commandment:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
When we pursue sin and addiction, we are saying that we love this thing, this action, more than God. As we pursue Christ, allowing the Spirit to change us, he grows in us a love for God, a love which affects our whole lives, our whole selves, encompasses our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Have you ever seen a teenager or young adult in love? Many people say that it is sickening, but it is how God designed it. They want to spend all their time together. They want to do things that will make the other person happy. They look out for their other’s interests and desires.
That’s a picture of how we are supposed to be with God. We are to be completely in love with him. And that love, will push out the sin and addiction in our life.
The Spirit grows that love in us, as he changes us.
B. Love for Others
B. Love for Others
The Spirit also grows a love for others in us.
You know, sin and addiction are really selfish acts, they are based in pride, saying that I am going to look after myself and not others.
Once we start growing in our love for God, the spirit also begins to change us to show love for others.
Jesus, when discussing the most important commandment continued:
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
When we begin to stop obsessing over what we want and what would make us happy or restful, or whatever, and start thinking about others around us, we have less of a desire to sin, we have less of a desire to pursue our addictions. We will see how our actions actually hurt people around us. Out of love for them, we will say: no more of this.
Only the Spirit can produce that change in us. Only the Spirit can mold our hearts to where we start caring about God and others over ourselves. But as we pursue the Spirit, he will make that change, so that we will become people of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Let us be people who follow.
Let us humbly ask God’s Spirit to change our hearts and minds in order to follow Christ fully.