Keep in step with the Spirit

Since Easter we have been asking the question “where do we go from here?” We are looking at our need for the power, presence and sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit to move forward in his mission to renew Pendleton, Clemson and the world.

What does it mean to be truly alive? David Foster Wallace in his novel Infinite Jest writes about a dystopian future where an entertainment (something like a movie) that has been weaponize to enslave whoever watches it. When ever anyone views this entertainment, they immediately feel the most intense pleasure, elation, and euphoria that is humanly possible. The only problem is that all they care about from then on is gratifying that desire to watch the entertainment, they won’t eat, drink, or sleep, they will just watch with unspeakable glee until they die.

And in the book these two special agents Hugh who is trying to stop the entertainment from spreading and the other Reme, who is seeking to allow the entertainment to spread have this conversation about freedom and what it means to truly be alive. Marathe says to Steeply: Allowing the entertainment to spread is about life, these people are freed to choose to be happy for the rest of their lives. And Steeply is unable to give a response to Marathe because his country belies the good life is a life of maximum choice and spontaneous pleasure so that people can gratify any desire they have.

David Foster Wallace wants us to see that entertainment can be enslaving and even if there was a potential to gratify all desires, to live a life of ease exerting no effort and feeling nothing but pleasure from now until you die, even if that were possible you still might never truly be alive.

and these two special agents one who is trying to stop the entertainment from

Develop the idea that we live by the Spirit

Self gratification, and seeking ease and doing only what we feel like doing in the moment is no way to live, but often we are told that to be truly alive we should indulge, and gratify our desires.

Discipline and doing what you may not want to do in the moment well thats inauthentic, and fake. And as we know there is always a pull to want to gratify selfish desires, to do things our way, to make things easy, or expect things to be easy.

Or we are told that everything should be easy and spontaneous,

Or we

Another more subtle way this works it self out is that often we are told that to have real

There will always be a desire to want to put self first, to build a name for ourselves, to draw attention to ourselves. But when we gratify the desire to make put our selves first we end up consuming one another.

And as we know there is always a pull to want to gratify selfish desires, to do things our way, to build a name for ourselves, to put our self first.

There will always be a desire to want to put self first, to build a name for ourselves, to draw attention to ourselves. But when we gratify the desire to make put our selves first we end up consuming one another.

In our passage this morning we see that if we seek to gratify our selfish desires, and do only what we feel like doing when we feel like doing it, we end up bringing death, consuming one another.

And to be a church that loves our neighbors, we need know that life does not come through self gratification, or a life of ease controlled only my our feelings in the moment.

Life comes by the Spirit.

We live by the Spirit

So what are the implications for us if we live by the Spirit? Well, apparently it looks like we should dance. A sanctifying dance with the Holy Spirit making us more Holy.

In our passage we see this kind of holy dance taking place with the Spirit, Paul gives us our dance moves all throughout. We are to walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and keep in step with the Spirit. And 1-2-3-4, 1-2...

walk by the Spirit, follow the Spirits lead, and keep in step with the Spirit.

First

First

Three times we are instructed to move as the partner of the Holy Spirit.

So first Paul tells us to

Walk by the Spirit

The life and freedom

Look with me at verse 16 and 17

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV

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.

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

If we are walking by the Spirit, in his power, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

What Paul means by desires of the flesh, is the indwelling sin that exists in all Christians, it is the anti-God energy that tempts us to want to put our selves in the center and make it all about us, to seek the easy road.

This indwelling sin, the flesh is opposed to the Spirit.

But if you are walking by the Spirit, you will not gratify these desires.

Paul is telling us to “Dance with the one who brung ya.” Because if you are dancing with the Spirit, you will not be dancing with someone else. If you walk by the Spirit you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. In this dance you can only dance with one at a time.

Illustration:

Application:

This is actually a really important point when it comes to the struggle that every Christian faces. Let’s say do not want to gratify the desires of the flesh, well you cannot simply “Just say no”, that will not work. Not gratifying the desires of the flesh is less about resisting and more about walking with the Spirit. You are going to dance, the question is who with.

So if we look at list of works of the flesh that Paul gives us and take a look at the first one Sexual immorality, so if you struggle with pornography, growth comes not by simply trying hard to say no, resisting only lasts for a short time. So rather than just saying no, walk with the Spirit. If you are walking with the Spirit you will subvert the desires of the flesh by developing real intimacy and vulnerability with God and real intimacy and vulnerability with close friends, and spouse. Because that is what is needed if you want to live in the life of the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Growith in Holiness is more about positivly walking with the Spirt more than about trying not to do something.

but walking with the Spirit you develop real intimacy and vulnerability with God and with brothers and sisters in Christ. Because that is what is needed if you want to live in the Spirits freedom and not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Simply saying no to pornography, drugs, alcohol, fits of anger, envy is not done, by negation, but by positively walking with the Spirit.

Walking by the Spirit in the new life of freedom he has given is done

Christians are in this dance of life, the question is are we going to dance with the one who brought us.

We should seek to walk by the Spirit and we should also

Follow the Spirits lead

In verse 18 we read

Galatians 5:18 ESV

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

This is one of two places where Paul talks about being led by the Spirit. And what he means by led by the Spirit is not a revealing to the mind divine direction that has been previously unknown, but a guiding of our wills and desires to practice what we already known. This is why he follows this with “you are not under the law.” If you are under the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit, the law of God (which was write by the Holy Spirit) is no longer external to you, but is written on your heart. You aren’t under the Law, the law is within you. The law is not pushing you from the outside, but by the Spirit leads you from the inside.

And when Paul uses this what he means is a guiding of our wills and desires to practice

is a guiding of our wills and desires to practice

Sub point 1: How does the Holy Spirit lead us?

The Holy Spirit impels our wills to desire and pursue a life of obedience to the law of God which as Jesus summarized as loving God and neighbors. We follow his lead, not by letting go and letting God, but by actively responding to every day life under his lead.

Illustration:

He writes the law on our hearts

Back in the day Sara Frances and I would go swing dancing. Sara Frances is a much better than I am, she would mostly put up with me on the dance floor.

And one of the things that made her a good swing dancing is that she knows how to follow. So in swing dancing you have a lead and a follow and following is by far from a passive activity. For one you don’t hang your arms loose, but are kept in tension with the lead because the next move is often directed with a slight push from the leads hand. Often you don’t know what is coming next, so you are always to be ready to respond.

Sub Point 2:

Sara Frances was really good at this and it made dancing with her really enjoyable.

Application:

Now similarly if we desire to be led by the Spirit we will need to be active participants in his dance. The Holy Spirit leads us, he impels our wills and desire, but we are not passive. Oh well if he really wanted me to change he would just do it.

This means that we should

Dacing produces fruit

In sanctification we participate in his dance. This is where discipline and habits come in. We should develop habit's of daily Bible reading and prayer, of habits of hospitality and service. Habits of sabbath and fellowship. If we want to be led by the Spirit we must learn to dace and that takes time, and practice. You don’t immediately know how to dance as soon as you step out on the dance floor, it takes time. The Christian’s growth in holiness is the same way, it takes time and practice.

Not only should we follow the Spirits lead, but we should

Keep in step with the Spirit

In verses 22 and 23 we see the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This fruit of the Spirit comes from the life of Jesus.

Look with me at verse 24 and 25

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.

-15

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

We live by the Spirit because the Spirit unites us to the life of Christ, a Christian belongs to Christ. The gift of life from the Spirit is not like someone giving you a new car, here are the keys, make sure to check the oil, hope you enjoy come and see me every now and then.

Keeping in step with the spirit and walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

The Spirit does not give autonomous life, the Spirit gives the life of Jesus, the Spirit binds us to his life. So the more we keep in step with the spirit, the more of the life of Jesus we will experience making our souls more fertile ground for the Spirit to bear fruit.

life like someone might give you a new car, here are the keys, hope you enjoy come and see me every now and then. The life is the life of Jesus, in union with him.

Illustration:

Neither Sara Frances and I have a green thumbs. Most plants that come to our home struggle to survive. We are mostly just trying to keep three kids alive, and watering the plant comes in way low on order of importance, although we are making improvement.

There is one plant that we have managed to keep alive though for a quite some time. And the other day I was congratulating Sara Frances on keeping this plant alive. She told me not to get too high on my horse because it is not like the plant has thrived. We more or less have been torturing the plant its whole life. It limps along at the edge of death and every so often we would pour a whole lot of water on it and it would come back to being green and full for a little bit and then begins to shrivel.

The plants I do manage to keep alive are always on life support. What I mean is that I usually don’t water them until their leaves are wilting and falling off. So I water it

So the plant has not grown much, but it is still alive.

Application

Some of you may spiritually feel like our house plant, not so much keeping in step with the Spirit, but limping along, yeah.

Just barely alive but every so often go to a conference or have some unique experience and then feel renewed, but only for a little bit then we start shrivel up spiritually, and this is what we do, limping along.

edge of vitality like my house plant. We live on the edge of vitality if our only time for prayer is Sunday morning. Or if we are only reading and hearing God’s word on Sundays.

But if we keep in step with the Spirit is like a regular, weekly, daily, hourly watering of our soul.

The way ancient Christians did this was through what they called a rule of life. They developed intentional patterns and practices into the parts of the day. Morning, noonday, and evening prayer.

And if we want to keep in step with the Spirit we can do something like that as well.

What if we were marking each transition of our day with intentional prayer and Scripture meditation, when we wake up, the first thing we do when we begin our work day, before lunch, as we end our work day, before we go to bed.

Often we don’t like this because it is not spontaneous, or because we don’t feel like doing it. Or because we don’t see immediate results. But if we leave cultivating our relationship with God only for the spontaneous it usually means it wont happen. And all we are left only with these one off moments of vitality to sustain us, instead of those spontaneous moments being extra icing on an already good cake, we try to live off them.

but often times if we leave cultivating our relationship with God only for the spontaneous it usually means it wont happen. And so we are left only with these one off moments of vitality to sustain us, instead of those moments being extra icing on the cake.

But if we want to be a church that is full of the fruit of the Spirit we can’t live this way. We

Now it is important to note, a rule of life or practices and patterns we may embrace don't produce fruit, God’s word is clear, that it is the Holy Spirit that produces fruit, what a rule of life does is soften and prepare the soil of our soul for the Spirit to grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self control in us.

It is keeping in step with the Spirit.

Conclusion:

The Spirit bears fruit in our life as we keep in step with

The fruitful life that the the Spirit brings to a Christian is the life of Christ.

The fruitful life that the the Spirit brings to a Christian is the life of Christ, A Christian is not his own man or his own woman. A Christian is someone who belongs to Jesus.

The fruit the Spirit in the realm of the moral, right and wrong, it is right to be patent and wrong to be impatient, and we should they have an ethical edge.

But we can also see the fruit of the Spirit in the realm of the aesthetic, there is a beauty to joyful, kind, and faithful life. God finds it aesthetically pleasing.

When Sara Frances and I were newly married and in Seminary we had another couple friend and every Wednesday night we would watch a TV show together. And for all of us to agree on what we would watch there had to be a compromise, well the show we watched was “So you think you can dance.” I will let you figure how who did the compromising on that one. But so we did get into it.

Imagine with me that

And it really was quite incredible what these dancers could do, many times we were struck with the beauty of the dance it could be quite moving.

Usually at these school dances, you don’t see people joyfully dancing with the person that brought them.

As Christians, the Holy Spirit has given us new life, he brought us to this dance, and as we walk with him, follow his lead, and keep in step with him what happens he makes our lives more holy, more beautiful, more aesthetically pleasing, a delight to see and experience. An attractive life. A fruitful life.

We are drawn to things that are beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. A

The Holy Spirit has bound our soul to Jesus bringing us life. For a Christian there is no other way to live than by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit brought us into new life. For a Christian there is no other way to live than by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us life because he binds us to the life of Jesus. The Spirit

The fruitful life that the the Spirit brings to a Christian flows from our nearness to Christ.

Let us not be wallflowers at this dance, but dance with the one who brought us.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also dance with the Spirit.

is the one who brought us to the dance, he has given us life, a

Sub Point: Walking as a habit of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Pg 91 packer