Traditional Service 6/26/22

Keep me safe. God, I run for dear life to you. I say To God Be My Lord without you. Nothing makes sense. These God, chosen lives all around. What Splendid friends they make. Don't just go shopping for. God, gods are not for sale. I swear, I'll never treat God names, like, brand names, my choices. You God. First and only, now I find, I'm your choice. You set me up with a house and yard, then you made me, your are the wise counsel God gives when I'm awake is confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night. I'll stick with God. I got a good thing going and I'm not letting go, I'm Happy from the inside out and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed you canceled my ticket to hell. That is not my destination. Now you've got my feet on the life path. All radiant from The Shining of your face ever since you took my hands, I'm on the right way.

Our new testament reading is Paul's letter to the Galatians. Chapter 5 verses 1 and 13 through 25.

For Freedom Christ, has set us free stand firm. Therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to Freedom brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If however, you bite and devour one, another take care that you are not consumed by one, another live by the spirit I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh for what the flesh desires is supposed to the spirit and what the spirit desires is opposed to the flash for, these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now, the works of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality, impurity debacle free idolatry sorcery, and middies strife, jealousy and anger Quarles dissensions, factions Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I'm warning you as I warned you. Before those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God by contrast. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness generosity faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things. Those who belong to Christ have crucified, The Flash with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also be guided by the spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Text Peter.

If you are at all familiar with the Christian faith, you have probably heard that we are called to love one another as we love ourselves. We do this because God first loved us unconditionally and our God is available to all. That's amazing news in a world. That is often divided. When we allow the holy spirit to guide us and show us the love of Christ and we can show that to others. We might just see that their world will open up. George Knight, says David, the writer of our Psalm is grateful to God for guiding his thoughts and for leaving him to Yahweh. Yahweh has been leading him even in the night hours and motivating his kidneys, to help him think the illogically. The English translation here says heart. But the Hebrew says kidneys, those organs may be the most sensitive and possibly the most vital part of the human frame. The ancient world accepted as fact that all our inward parts are involved in our thinking and feeling, and that each part can stand for and work for the others. Some suggest that the kidneys were the seat of our conscience. However, what is meant, is that God uses the whole of our being feeling in imagination, reasoning, logical, thought. And even his digestive system to instruct him in his faith and spiritual way of life. A year-and-a-half ago, I developed a large kidney stone that turned into three surgeries and a month of pain. Perhaps some of you can relate to that it's physically made sense to me. How kidney is greatly affect the entire body in a similar way. God uses our whole bean to help us to understand and follow God, then serve others with Grace. William Barclay tells us, it was Paul's position that the way of grace, and the way of law are mutually exclusive, the way of law makes salvation dependent on human achievement, the person who takes the way of Grace, simply passed them self and their sin upon the mercy of God. Something interesting about the Apostle Paul was that his theology was very ethical and practical. He believed it wasn't much good to teach something to someone unless you can make it practical to their lives. For example, we don't have to feel constrained by the law because Grace and Abel's us to want to make God proud of our words and actions and focus on our commitment to serving others. Our church wired were Bible studies. Have us discussing many different timely news topics. Recently, we've discussed forms of government many different forms of government around the world, their original purposes and yes, they're distortions to take this a step further. You may know that monarchy is a government by one and began in the interest of efficiency for government by committees. As we may know, as Presbyterians has always had its occasional drawbacks. Oligarchy means government by the few and can be justified by arguing that maybe only a few are actually fit to govern aristocracy means government by the best, but the best is left to be defined. Plutocracy means government by the wealthy and it's justified by the claim that those who had the biggest stake in the country, have a logical right to rule it, but they are not always the best leaders.

Democracy means peep government of the People by the people for the people. Christianity may be the only true democracy because in a Christian State, everyone would think as much of their neighbor as they do themselves. Christianity is not meant to give freedom to sin, but by the grace of God, the freedom not to send. In the end, selfishness does not exalted person, it destroys them and those around them causing the individual to see others as Rivals rather than brothers and sisters, self-centeredness inevitably leads to using others for one's own needs. While the self is ultimately Never Satisfied, always unfulfilled. Paul warns us about several such pitfalls in life during his time, a perversion of sexual activity was common and fertility. Cults. And also prostitution, primarily among the poor today that could translate to pornography addiction and human trafficking.

Impurity can be thought of, you know, as an unclean wound. A tree that has never been pruned or material that needs to be sifted or refined here though, we are referring to ceremonial uncleanliness which prevents a person from approaching their gods. What Paul means by impurity is a person being unfit to come before God the soil and of our lives with the things that separate us from Christ. The barkery.

democracy is like not being able to control, one's self to the extent that a person, no longer cares, how they affect their loved ones, or even God, sometimes this can come in the form of addictions. Idolatry is worshiping human-made gods or putting material things between us and God. The Temptations of money. Power or Creature Comforts are common. Sorcery or witchcraft in this context, actually means the abuse of drugs, believe it or not like a slow poisoning. This was also very common in the ancient world. Belladonna is a plant, containing a toxin that in doses too small to kill and mediately dilates the eyes. You may also know this as Nightshade when a human is attracted to another their eyes dilate seen this happen. To another person triggers of subconscious attraction response, so Belladonna was used as a love potion. The problem behind this was manipulation God does not want us to manipulate others in any way honesty and communication is the healthy way to go if possible. Enmity is being characteristically hostile to others versus caring for others. The way that Jesus demonstrated there is obviously a lot of hostility in our world today. Strife, Strife is like rivalry - competition and interest in arguing goes against Godly conflict, resolution and Harmony. We may see this today in domestic or political disputes. Jealousy can be very common, especially in cases of low self-esteem. Basically don't obsess over something. Someone has that is not meant to be yours. Anger in this context is like, quick, violent bursts of temper. It is normal to feel anger. It's okay. But what we do with that makes all the difference, Harbin Road as a clinical psychologist, specializing in the treatment of angry men. I've seen many of my patients lose jobs, wives and opportunities because they were simply not able to handle the normal frustrations and disappointments in life. They argue, insult, and sulk. They come to think of themselves as ineffective, unlucky, or just plain losers. They don't admit this to anyone, but deep inside they feel inferior, others, don't like them, and they don't like themselves. Their anger gets in the way of their ability to be good bosses workers and family men. I've also spent a great deal of time, evaluating men who have been charged with serious crimes such as assault and murder. Many. Many of these crimes were not premeditated. These men did not all. Start out with the intention of hurting others. They reacted, impulsively out of anger.

Carol's or self-seeking in our Hebrews versus actually means. For example, someone who wants a well-respected job not to serve or learn but just for what they can get out of it, themselves with the least amount of integrity. You may see this and companies where someone attempts to cheat the system. And employee morale has become unhealthy, actually, sort of the opposite of living by the spirit. Dissension is like every person for themself in contrast, true Christianity. We are the body of Christ. Believe it or not, every member affects every other member at some point. Fraction is actually related to our religious word heresy. Pause Point. Here is people who hold different views, very often end up disliking, not each other's opinions but each other It should be possible to differ with another person and yet remain friends. The struggle is very prevalent around society today. nearly 10 years ago, our pcusa denomination and this church split over ecclesiastical politics My grandmother in-laws small, Baptist Church in South Florida. Split several times over various issues over the years. Now, the Methodist denomination is facing something very similar. The church Universal is not immune from dissension and faction. Envy takes jealousy. A step further, the essence of not wanting, just to have what someone else has. It's just liking the fact that the other person has these things at all. It's not so much, wanting those things for oneself, it's merely wanting to take them from the other person, it's like anger at someone else's blessing. Drunkenness wasn't really common in the ancient world where told even children drink wine since it was cleaner and more common than some other drinks. Nonetheless, they drank it in the proportion of three parts. Water to one part wine. I'm sorry. Two parts of wine. Out of control. Possibly violent drinking was not acceptable. Carousing here is probably best described as partying to destruction. Celebrates achievements victories and Milestones with us, especially when we are all safe and sound when Gatherings take on a life of their own and become dangerous, the celebration has ended The oldies interrelated downfalls that Paul warns us about our kind of like an extension of Pastor Fred for his sermon last week on The Ten Commandments. They show us. Just how Timeless Human Nature has been since Biblical times to know all the same. We are called to rise up and live by the spirit. When we allow God to be in charge, Temptation loses its power. Therefore let's think about the assistance of the fruits of the spirit that Paul brings up Cordelia. Did a great job explaining that to the kids, the spirit, not the law produces this fruit, which more than fulfills, what the law requires love. You may know that there are four types in classical Greek. One arrows, which is like, passion between a married, couple to filia, which is that loyal? Love we may feel for our extended family, or close friends, 3 store ghee is the love between a parent and a child, and then four is agape. What is agape?

Godly love. And this is where we no matter what seek the highest and the best love for others. Joy. Here is not basic happiness, that we get from everyday interaction, but Godly joy that we can only experience through our relationship with Christ. Perhaps, you may feel this during a praise song or him feeling God's presence during prayer or the feeling of the Holy Spirit, working through you to help another person. Piece of this type isn't just freedom from trouble, but the Assurance of knowing that God always has your back. Look for true peace and you may not find it instead look for Christ and you can find true. Peace. Patience. According to Paul is the kind of perseverance that God has with Humanity. Despite all of our evil Pride violence and neglect. Intern God wants us to seek that. Holy type of loving forbearing and forgiving with one another. Kindness is sweetness like when Jesus the way that he behaved toward the woman who anointed his feet. Nicky Gumbel tells about Steve sorgen, who wrote a book called a conspiracy of kindness. He started a church in Ohio that has grown rapidly to an average attendance of 7,500 in just fifteen years. Their motto is small things done with great. Love are changing the world. The carry out random acts of kindness like paying for a stranger's, coffee or writing a thank you note to a shop assistant.

They've discovered the power and impact of showing God's love in practical ways. People from the outside were attracted because of what they saw happening on the inside, they were attracted by the sheer undiluted power of God, released through those acts of kindness. Generosity takes kindness to the next level, and it's defined as total virtue. And I was reminded, I'm sure I learned this in seminary, that I was reminded of this Jesus, genuinely demonstrated, generosity by chasing the money changers, out of the temple. Different way, to look at generosity. Faithfulness is trustworthiness or reliability? Many of, you know, that my family and I have rescued and rehomed many stray and feral cats over the years. We have a one-year-old that we had decided to keep whom we named Parson. I usually stay up later than my family members. So when I finally had off to bed Parson finds me and walks me to bed meowing. He sits with me until I fall asleep when I wake in the morning person jumps up on the bed to say hello. I think Carson is a little loving example, of loyal faithfulness and perhaps you all have had animals through the years that you have felt that unconditional love as well. Gentleness has three meanings in the New Testament, one being obedient to God's will. To be teachable and not too proud to learn and three, mostly gentleness means being considerate. Finally self-control is being able to master one's own words and actions to the point that one is properly fit to be a servant to others. I believe everyone can help other people but certainly maturity and faith can help us to feel more in tune with what is God's will.

So what do you struggle with?

Do you feel unfit to stand before God? Just know that you are loved. Do you struggle with an addiction? God, can give you tools towards self control. Have you allowed something to come between you and God? Work on regaining, your face to be a more reliable servant. Are you in a relation that involves manipulation? Try applying a little patience with the other person and even God's spirit because the best relationships rely on God's wise timing, even those that don't ends together. Are you experiencing verbal or physical hostility? Try exemplifying gentleness the correct mood away from anger. Do you ever find yourself jealous or envious of others? Maybe you could be kind to them if they share their life with you, you may realize that you don't need what they have after all. If you want something without working for it, you might be cheating yourself out of feeling the joy of Christ helping you to grow. Ever feel like running away or even taking a few folks with you. Remember that we ultimately can't run from our challenges because true peace lies in Christ. Are you participating in some sort of out-of-control or risky Behavior? Try turning that feeling into generosity toward God because there are lots of interesting temples out there that need Jesus, courage, and social justice that need your gifts. we as humans have lived in tension between good and evil, since the beginning of time,

Thank God. That Christ's. Resurrection shows us that our old Temptations and threats can be can be overcome through Grace, Freedom, love and service. So that we can be called you live and be guided by the Holy Spirit. We are on the right path. I meant.

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