Walk by the Spirit - Part 3

Introduction:

Illustration: The Three Dreaded Words “Church Business Meeting”

I was once a part of a church who had hired on a new pastor. This pastor was filled with vision and energy to bring life back in to this dying church. Several weeks had gone by and the church quickly began to show signs of life. Visitors were walking through the doors, the music was upbeat, everything was exciting. Until “the church business meeting.” The pastor (in his desire and attempt to bring organization to the church) announced that they would begin implementing a few new standards, standards that were certainly going to infringe on the freedom of the congregants. And as you might have guessed, the congregation was split almost right down the middle on whether or not these standards were a good idea or not. At first there were questions asked in sincerity and within reason, but all of the sudden one thing led to another and before long accusations were being made, the pastor’s character was being defamed; as a 20 year old college student it was one of the ugliest church scenes I had ever seen. The church meeting went on for quite some time and ended with a vote that was in favor of the standards of the new pastor. That next Sunday, nearly half of the congregation was gone. People who considered each other brother and sister, close friends were gone and many of them had no desire to make amends. That church of now 65 or 70 people went limping into the next season of the life of that nearly thirty year old congregation.

Of course, we could stand back in judgement of the congregation and take sides of who was right and who was wrong, but that’s not the point of the illustration. The point is that this, in many ways, is what Paul was dealing with; a congregation made up of many smaller home churches that were literally at each other’s throats trying to win an argument over whether or not they should listen to the Judaizers and become cultural Jews or whether they should stick with Paul’s teaching about being accepted by God on the basis of the work of Christ.That was an issue that Paul has dealt with. The case for relying upon the sufficiency of Christ’s work is settled, but now Paul has a word for the way they went about their disagreement TURNED battle scene. And Paul would have said the same thing to both churches:

Review:

We’re going to talk about walking in the Spirit again today...

A couple of weeks ago we went to see my parents in Ventura, CA and our family likes to take manageable drives and turn them in to that nightmare where you’re being buried alive or drowning. So Mary and I try to think through how we might cope with doing six hours of travel in nine hours. A lot of times we will try new music. So, we flipped on the Spotify top albums and this one band (AJR) of three brothers from NYC started playing and it was pretty happy sounding, good traveling music, and on comes this song where the lead singer is kind of reflecting his previous evening’s choices, bemoaning a few things that were “bad for me” and how he should have just decided to “Say no, and go to bed” but (the song is called ‘Weak’) he gives in to temptation because he’s weak… “and what’s wrong with that?”

I read an interview about that song (that’s been out for several months now) and what was behind the lyrics and what they said was that most of what people are singing about just isn’t reality. They didn’t mention any songs by name, but that they’re all about how confident people are and how happy people are, “But, sometimes that’s just not very true. We wanted to write songs that no one has ever said in music before.”

And I think they hit their mark with that song. Although I think plenty of musicians in the past have had no problem admitting that their vices had a grip on them they were not interested in breaking. But there’s something about the generation we live in (even within the church) that craves authenticity. We’re (all) tired of the dualistic lifestyle that is often a black eye within the church.

But the authenticity and the confessionalism that is becoming popular within the church is only half way to where Jesus and the Apostle’s teaching led to. It’s true, we don’t have to hide, we are not trying to earn God’s approval, we don’t have to be men pleasers, so we should be authentic and confessional. But if we’re not careful we could confuse confessing with repenting, and the two are not the same. Just admitting you’re “weak” isn’t the same as recognizing that the weakness/brokenness/sinfulness/flesh that is within us is at war with the desires of the Spirit and the Spirit that is indwelling us to given to us to radically transform us to the way that God designed Humans to be.

One of the main points in Paul’s teaching on holiness in Romans is to explain how the people of God have been given the free gift of God’s grace through Christ so that they will “reign in life” through Jesus Christ. Without spending too much time on this, this echoes the purpose for humans that God issued in Genesis, this echoes the call of Abraham, the gathering of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, and the awe-inspiring obedience of Jesus to be truly human when all else had failed. The Spirit of Jesus is not indwelling us merely so we can have assurance that we are God’s children, but so that our minds and our hearts will be transformed to the Genesis call of dwelling, ruling, and reigning with God.

Now, that’s the goal. But where we’ve been doing most of our study is actually in the day to day, nitty-gritty. We know we’re supposed to walk by the Spirit, but we really struggle to know how to walk in the Spirit and how to know IF we’re walking in the Spirit.

Main Point:

So that’s what I want to finish talking about today: How to walk by the Spirit and how do we know if we’re walking by the Spirit

We walk by the Spirit when we take hold of our deepest desires and submit them to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and then trust him with the results

Explanation:

To reiterate what we’re not talking about:

We’re not saying that walking in the Spirit means, walking in spontaneous impulses or feelings. Although, the Spirit does prod us toward specific words or actions. And we would do ourselves a favor by obeying the Spirit’s promptings. But that’s not what Paul is talking about here.

We’re also not saying that walking in the Spirit means, following the right set of rules. As if to say that the definition of walking in the Spirit is determined by following a random set of commands that you pull out of Scripture. Read your Bible, pray, go to church, etc… they’re not synonomous with walking in the Spirit.

So, what then is it?

Take Hold of Your Deepest Desires

​ ESVI will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

So the beautiful reality is that God himself is performing this heart replacement surgery on every Christian and has put His Spirit within us so that we will finally be able to walk in His statutes and obey his rules. That’s why Paul can say as he does not only here, but also in that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are at war with each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Paul says,

​ ESVFor I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

And I understand the pushback from one side of this is that if we have a desire to do something good, we should assume it is from the Spirit and do it. I would completely agree with that statement if Paul had not written .

​ ESVIf I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Since we know that the flesh has desires and the Spirit has desires and they’re at war with each other to keep us from doing the things we want to do. (17) So there must be a constant harvesting of our deepest desires. This is the examination that is missing from so many lives. We would much rather live by a strict set of rules than have to do the hard work of gathering those desires. Resist that. The reason we must gather all desires is because the process of submitting those desires to the leadership of the Holy Spirit will keep us from living the life. We’re running around doing a bunch of “good things” but because there is no love “aka we’re not walking in the Spirit” it is meaningless, it is fruitless.

Submit them to the Leadership of the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:24–25 ESV

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.

How much different would your decision making process look, if you practiced this, “I’m not afraid of God’s will, so I’m going to gather up all of my desires and longings today and bring them to the cross and be willing to crucify them all?”

Now, some of you are like, but if I take my deep longings (dreams, goals, wishes) to the cross, I won’t ever see them… maybe, and maybe not. I guess we have forgotten about the whole “Your Father in heaven loves to give good gifts to his children” passage.

And some people might wonder if this is just a hidden form of legalism. After all Paul does say that “If you do these things (works of the flesh) you will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God.” It sounds a little like I have to keep performing some sort of sacrificial offering all of the time. That’s certainly one way to read this, but maybe what Paul intends for us to see again is that those works of the flesh are simply the results of deep desires that have been allowed to grow freely in our already depraved hearts, but those who have taken those deep desires to the cross are truly disciples of Christ. And when we won’t take those deep longings to the cross aren’t we saying something to the effect of, “I must have security, comfort, intimacy, marriage, children, friendship, wealth, etc or else I won’t really be satisfied.”? And when we say this, we are admitting that Christ isn’t enough for us. Wasn’t this the dilemma of the rich young ruler in the gospels? “I want the eternal life God gives, but I want it along side of my extreme wealth, and in the end he decided, I want my wealth more than I want God.”

But how do we discern what the Spirit wants?

This is where people start to get a little skeptical (especially Christians in the 21st Century Western world).

Because, although God is sanctifying us, we’re unfinished and we should not trust our own instincts.

I think there may be a hand full of times, like maybe one where we say something like, “I don’t care what anyone else says, this is what God told me to do and I’m going to do it.” That, my friends, is NOT walking in the Spirit, that is walking in the flesh, no matter what the decision is.

I want to show you how Paul confirmed that what he was saying was in line with the leadership of the Spirit:

Christ revealed truth to Paul and he desired to share it with the other Jews and Gentiles (chapter 1)

Paul took that desire to preach the Gospel and submitted it to the other church leaders (chapter 2)

Paul submitted the Gospel he received to the Scriptures (3-4)

To submit our deep longings to the leadership of the Holy Spirit would look a lot like Paul’s example:

You believe God gave you a strong desire to do something...

You take that desire and you wash it under the revealed Word of God, if there is a contradiction, that desire is not of the Spirit… (There is a pastor in prison who told a 17 year old girl that it was God’s will for them to have an ongoing sexual relationship)

You humbly take that desire and you filter it through your community of God-fearing brothers and sisters…

And I know that this is so foreign to a lot of us because it doesn’t sound free. I mean, I don’t have to submit to any man, I can go directly to the throne of Grace! And you’re right, you can, but the problem with isolated Christianity is that the natural propensity for humans still plagued with the remnant of the Adamic nature is that our initial heart impulse cannot be trusted on its own. And this is not new to us, it was prevalent in the first century, that’s why the author of Hebrews said:

Heb 3:

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Walking in the Spirit includes walking with others who are filled with the Spirit. It means talking to each other about what is going on in our hearts and our minds. In the Gospel Fellowship that I lead, I will often start the conversation by asking the question, “What is God teaching you this week?” This is always a great time for us to talk about what we’re wrestling with, decisions, heart attitudes, deep longings…

But Christians have convinced ourselves that “that’s between me and God” so we miss out on what the Spirit does want to say to us.

And then finally… Once you have taken hold of your desires and submitted them under the leadership of the Spirit,

You Trust Him with the Results

When you walk in the Spirit, you know what happens? The Spirit produces fruit. And those deep desires (that you brought to the cross and ran under the water of the Word and through your community) begin to blossom and slowly (painfully) slow God’s Spirit begins to transform your heart and mind; your character.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

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 once where your deep longing for things to be just right and organized and perfect once grew into the work of the flesh of manipulation and frustration, NOW that longing has been fulfilled in Christ and out comes patience. Patience with your children, patience with your husband, patience with your neighbor.

And once where your deep longing for tranquility and open-space once grew into the work of the flesh of racism, and elitism, and classism, NOW that longing has been fulfilled in Christ and out comes peace and kindness and goodness towards those who don’t look like you, think like you, or vote like you.

Without a doubt, God’s ways are not our ways—they’re higher than our ways. And God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. But as He chisels away at our pride, our conceit, our greed, our lust for power and control, guess what happens, we DO have the mind of Christ, we DO develop the heart of Christ, we DO become shaped into His image.

Walking in the Spirit resembles living by the Spirit. Just as you became a Christian and received the Spirit by faith—that is relying upon the calling and works of God and not your own savvy decision making, you walk in step with the Spirit; not by your own savvy decision making skills, but by the power you receive by relying solely upon the work of God.

​ ESVLet me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Galatians 3:2 ESV

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

​ ESVDoes he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

​ ESVDoes he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Galatians 3:5 ESV

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

Finally, how do we know if we are walking in the Spirit?

The fruit of the Spirit is grows out of a life that is abiding in Christ, submitting their desires to the Spirit’s leadership, and trusting Him with the results. But the fruit of the Spirit is a fruit, not fruits. That means that you shouldn’t look at this list like it’s a list of character traits to be worked on. For instance, you wouldn’t say, “Love check, joy check, peace check, patience nope, kindness LOL, goodness check, faithfulness check, etc...”

The fruit of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit pushing the old fleshly character of self out and away while simultaneously producing the new character of Jesus out and through you.

Galatians for You The Parts of the Fruit

1. Agape = love. It means to serve a person for their good and intrinsic value, not for what the person brings you. Its opposite is fear: self-protection and abusing people. Its counterfeit (a fake version) is selfish affection, where you are attracted to someone and treat them well because of how they make you feel about yourself.

2. Chara = joy, a delight in God for the sheer beauty and worth of who He is. Its opposite is hopelessness or despair, and its counterfeit is an elation that is based on experiencing blessings, not the Blesser, causing mood swings based on circumstances.

3. Irene = peace, meaning a confidence and rest in the wisdom and control of God, rather than in your own. It replaces anxiety and worry. The fake version of peace is indifference, apathy, not caring about something.

4. Makrothumia = patience, an ability to face trouble without blowing up or hitting out. Its opposite is resentment toward God and others, and its counterfeits are cynicism or lack of care: This is too small to care about.

5. Chrestotes = kindness, which is an ability to serve others practically in a way which makes me vulnerable, which comes from having a deep inner security. Its opposite is envy, which leaves me unable to rejoice in another’s joy. And its fake alternative is manipulative good deeds, doing good for others so I can congratulate myself and feel I am “good enough” for others or for God.

6. Agathosune = goodness, integrity; being the same person in every situation, rather than a phony or a hypocrite. This is not the same as being always truthful but not always loving; getting things off your chest just to make yourself feel or look better.

7. Pistis = faithfulness, loyalty, courage, to be utterly reliable and true to your word. Its opposite is to be an opportunist, a friend only in good times. And its counterfeit is to be loving but not truthful, so that you are never willing to confront or challenge.

8. Prautas = gentleness, humility, self-forgetfulness. The opposite is to be superior or self-absorbed. Humility is not the same as inferiority (see next chapter).

9. Egkrateia = self-control, the ability to pursue the important over the urgent, rather than to be always impulsive or uncontrolled. The slightly surprising counterfeit is a willpower which is based on pride, the need to feel in control.

Before we come to the table for communion, I want to share a handful of suggestions for putting yourself in position to wrestle with these desires that we have.

See, the reason we fail so often to walk in step with the Spirit, is because we rarely take time to develop the habits that form the character of Christ. I’m not talking about faking the fruit of the Spirit (you can fake all but the last one). I’m talking about developing habits that will strengthen your Spiritual muscles making the decisions to be led by the Spirit at any moment, second nature.

I recommend that you make a habit out of:

Listening to the Word of God

When you hear something that conflicts or presses into a desire,

Submitting to the Word through prayer

And when you come to a biblical promise

Meditating on the promises of God

let those promises lead you to repent of sin, to give praise, to worship Him

Worship and Fellowship with the family of God

bringing those desires with the family and listening to the desires of others

watch the Spirit work as what you spent time meditating on, the Spirit intended for your sister to hearSharing the Gospel of GodSystematically Giving back to God

Gospel Fellowship Questions:

Explain what it means to walk in the Spirit and why we must walk in the Spirit

Explain (to a 10 year old) how to walk in the Spirit

Has there ever been a time when you had a strong desire for something good that then backfired?

What should we do with our deep desires?

And practically, how do we do that?

What character forming habits have you developed in order to be in a position to walk in the Spirit?