Galatians 5:16-26

Introduction

We started last week a new series called Walking in Light of Easter

We know Easter is a big deal

The bible says it changes everything

But how do we live in light of it?

That way to live is called how we walk over and over in the entire bible

And each week I want us to return to the Big Idea of this entire series

BIG IDEA Your faith isn't a static belief; it is a dynamic, daily movement that defines the "total sum" of who you are.

Each week we are going to see more and more how the dynamics play out

Galatians 5 is where we are going to be for the next few weeks

How do we walk in light of easter was the very question the Galatian Christians were asking that caused Paul to write to them

They are new believers from non jewish backgrounds

Paul planted these churches then when he left Jewish Christians came in and said you are close but not quite christian

So these believers were scrambling

Jewish Christians were telling them they needed Jewish rules to truly be followers of Christ

This letter was an emergency response to protect the purity of the Gospel and teach them how to be free in Christ

And it is part of me

Most couples go to movies or dinner when they first start dating

Morgan and I went to get tattoos on a whim

I am pretty sure part of the reason is that she has never really been interested in me and it was a good way to appease me and not really have to talk

Either way it happend

She got Romans 12:2 and I got Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom Christ has set us free

We are a few verses past that today in verses 16-25

Paul is talking about walking in new life led by the Spirit

Nothing is more simple and confusing at the same time as the call for us to walk in the spirit

What on earth does that mean?

On top of it it seems strange that of all the things walking in the spirit means for us what is repeated is that it is a walk in freedom

It doesn’t mean we will do miracles or mean we will never have a hard day again

It is interesting that what it means for us is a life of freedom

That is the main point of this sermon in this series of Walking in Light of Easter

MPS true freedom is not the absence of restraint, but the presence of new, stronger desires created by the Holy Spirit.

Unlearning How To Be Free

Galatians 5:16–21 “I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

In marketing you can go one of 2 routes

You can be immersed in a business and see a need and create a product

You don’t have to create the market or create a tension that needs resolved its already there

OR…

You see a need but have to first convince people there is a need and then present the remedy for the need

Route 2 is tough

But it is what route Paul has taken here V

The verses before this are Paul creating a passionate tension

Paul is providing the practical solution to a massive tension he just created in verses 13–15

He has said You are free to love

You are free from this legalism people are heaping on you with the law

WIthout that love you will destroy each other

So here is the soution to the tension

I say then go this way to be free

"I say then" is the introduction to the most powerful thing in the christian life

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.

Paul is saying: "You can't stop biting and devouring each other by trying harder; You can’t stop sinning by trying harder you stop by walking with Someone else."

Galatians addresses the universal human tendency toward legalism—the belief that we must perform well or follow specific rules to earn God's favor. Paul’s response is that if we add anything to the work of Christ as a requirement for salvation, we have lost the Gospel entirely.

That person you walk with is the Holy Spirit who offers a better way to live in light of Easter

But can we be honest for a second…what the heck does what in the Spirit mean

We really don’t get the Holy Spirit thing anyway and on top of it walking in Him sounds mystical and not that appealing

“Christianity is not primarily about lifestyle change; it is about knowing God.

And knowing God is exactly the reason we have the Holy Spirit

We don’t get the holy spirit so we learn how to be nicer people

We get the holy spirit to walk in light of easter in freedom

Jesus knew we needed that more then anything

John 16:7 “Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.”

It is better for me to go: we didn’t need more teaching we needed a new heart to live in light of who Jesus is and what He has done for us in the Gospel

Jesus said the Holy Spirit will give us new hearts that will desire Jesus

John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

It is the Holy Spirits work in you to remind you of the beauty of Christ and remind you of what he has said SO THAT when you place the Gospel on the scales with your sin you will choose the greater weight

That is the Holy Spirits role

But wait theres more…..

Romans 8:26 “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.”

His role is to help us ….

The tool he uses is God’s word

How does he make you new? Through the word

1 Peter 1:23 “because you have been born again( through the spirt)—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.”

We walk never doubting the character of God

In specific when we are most vulnerable to doubt it

When are you most vulnerable to believe the lie that God is holding out the good life from you?

When are you most tempted to believe you can be happier if you go a different way?

In what area of your life are you most vulnerable to believe the lie that you have to perform for God to really love you?

It is in those moments we walk in the Spirit

That is why I said at the beginning: “Christianity is not primarily about lifestyle change; it is about knowing God.

To know and grow to enjoy him is what we are saved for...

Getting to know God better makes for far more profound and practical change as well.

The work of the Spirit is not to make us better performers at being Christians

The Spirit is not about bringing us to a mere external performance for Jesus to love us

His work is about bringing us to actually love Him and find our joy in Him instead of looking anywhere else

His work is to make us live in light of easter in every way

His work is to bring passion even into the mundane because Easter says we are in an epic of new creation and something amazing is coming soon

The Holy Spirit helps us not waste our lives on the list of sin he lays out

Make the most of your time- don’t waste your life …know god’s will for you

Make it your own

Make it your greatest hobby and pursuit

Don’t waste your life

The point of your life is not to get rich or be healed or even be worldly happy - the purpose of your life is to find god’s purposes for you and make them your own

John Piper says - “Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don’t coast through life without a passion.”

Living against God’s redemptive plan for your life is wasting your life

Think about this

You right now are cast in the greatest redemptive epic drama the cosmos will ever know

The greatest thing you can do is see your everyday as part of that epic and live for it

Make the most of the time…don’t waste your life

What does the holy Spirit have to do with any of that?

It is simple when we look at what God wants from us

Piper again says - “He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

And the holy spirits role in our hearts is to do exactly that

he makes us more satisfied in Jesus so that it is the expulsive power of a greater affection as we saw last week

A Stronger Love Displaces a Weaker One:

The Holy Spirit wages the war for us so Christ is our strongest love…which leads to the life change that sets us free

As J. I. Packer has written, “The Spirit’s message to us is never, ‘Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me,’ but always, ‘Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him, and hear his word; go to him, and have life; get to know him, and taste his gift of joy and peace.’”

When we look to Christ we don’t waste our life

We need to be filled by the spirit and what he does for us

Because as Jesus said - Apart from me you can do nothing

Now walk in it

Don’t go back to trying to earn God’s love

Don’t go back to wasting your life a slave to sin

In Christ Life is liberty

Make Christ the expulsive power of a greater affection in your life

That is how you walk in light of Easter

This is a huge paradigm shift for so many of us

Scott McKnight says:

Galatians A Call to a Life in the Spirit against the Flesh (vv. 16–18)

One does not huddle with oneself in the morning, gather together his or her forces, and charge onto the field of life full of self-determined direction. Rather, the Christian life is a life of consistent surrender to the Spirit

Ephesians 5:15–18 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:”

It is in walking with the Spirit we are wise to how we are walking back into legalism or back into thinking what the world offers will ultimately make us happy

he makes us pay attention

And he makes the Gospel so beautiful in our lives it expulses weaker desires in our lives

Keeping In Step

Galatians 5:22–26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now 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.”

So we may be Christian here and say Of course, we “live by the Spirit,” which means the Spirit is the One who brings us out of darkness and into light by illuminating Christ and applying salvation to us.

But it then calls us to “keep in step with the Spirit.” The Spirit doesn’t transform us and leave us. He’s not a momentary presence. He’s our abiding, empowering presence.

to walk by the Spirit is to put on the new way of life, to be “led by the Spirit.” It’s to be under his control and direction. It’s not just the absence of sin; it’s the presence of goodness and love and power.

He sets the pace

Paul has switched words he uses for walk in these verses from the first part

He switches from Peripateo- it means the whole why behind what you and and all your activities. It encompasses how you behave at home, work, and alone

To…..

Stoicheo- It means to keep in step with. It is a military term to hold the line

Keep up with His pace of growing in your christian life

it takes time

Trust His timing

Keep in step everyday with the little next steps he is calling you to

The Message of Galatians a. We Must Crucify the Flesh

It is not now a ‘dying’ which we have experienced through union with Christ; it is rather a deliberate ‘putting to death

Work on this area for as long as it takes to put it to death daily

Be patient…he is

The Message of Galatians b. We Must Walk by the Spirit

It is the Spirit who does the leading, but we who do the walking

Isn’t walking in the light a heck of a lot better then living hiding sin in shame and regret?

He says find every way every day you can do that

Put on the light and what it produces in the area he is convicting you to today

I love the language of this

We can still feel like we have to produce the fruit

But even that is His job

We make works

But look at the intentional switch from works to fruit

The Christian life doesn’t produce what we long for if we perform good enough to get the perfect harvest

Fruit doesn’t work like works

Scott MnKnight says -

Galatians What Is the Life in the Spirit? (vv. 22–26)

The change of terms to “fruit” evokes a different image: from one of human responsibility to one of divine enablement. The image of fruit has a certain sense of passivity to it; it is the Spirit of God who produces such things, and they grow in the life of the Christian.

We trust where our father will plant us

We remain faithful even if the climate is brutal for a season

We remain obedient when the world around us seems to be passing us by on the fast track to the good life

And when the time is right, when we need it the most the fruit shows up in a way we never could have imagined

And don’t miss this

We don’t just learn to take on the character of Christ

We develop Christlike “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control”

This is where we are going over the next 9 weeks

We are not talking about love and joy and all that so we get some life hacks on how to be a nicer person

We are going to learn what Christs love was

What Christs Joy was

What Christs patience was

So that we are in awe of the King of Kings and the Lion who became the Lamb

So that He is our greatest affection

And when we have Him as our greatest affection we have the power of the greatest affection that can triumph over anything we face in this life

So that we are free people

The thing about free people is that it means we know what it is to be slaves

Like the Israelites had to we need to learn how to be free people

That is the Holy Spirits job

To teach those of us who were once slaves how to be free

And we learn to be free the more we gaze at the beauty of the one who took on our slavery to set the captives free

Therefore we pray, with believers from two thousand years of church history, “Come, Holy Spirit.”

Lets Pray