Walking in the Spirit

Introduction

Good morning everyone and welcome back!

This morning we are going to be going to the passage of the first message I ever preached.

That scripture being Galatians 5, verses 13-26.

And if you haven’t guessed it from the title of the message, it is one of the central passages of the Apostle Paul that explains the importance and necessity of living each and every day for God and walking in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit.

One of my absolute favorite passages of the New Testament, because it absolutely nails down what it takes to walk in true victory in Jesus Christ as well as many of the pitfalls that try to derail our lives and our walk with the Lord.

There was so much garbage flying around in the ancient world about this religion and that religion.

People were trying to mix and match what they liked from different religions and form their own.

Or they were claiming to be of a certain religion and just dropping the parts they didn’t like or weren’t popular from a cultural standpoint.

And Paul is seeing this invade the church at Galatia and is troubled deeply by it.

And he knows he has to do something and address it.

And the main culprit invading the church at Galatia are these Judaizers.

They were the ones that were telling these first century Christians that they had to accept Jesus Christ, but that wasn’t enough.

In addition to accepting Jesus, they were telling them they also had to follow all of the Jewish law, including being circumcised.

And if you don’t know about ancient culture, outside of the Jewish people, who circumcised boys when they were 8 days old, no one else practiced circumcision.

And they were telling all of the Gentile converts that they were not good enough.

And all it really was, was a veiled attempt to gain control over people and to try to lift one’s self up at the expense of someone else.

And it also opened the door to this idea that salvation was based on works and not faith, which we know is not salvation.

Salvation is Jesus Christ breaking the chains and setting you free—not burdening you with more chains and more things you “must” do.

So Paul says enough is enough and he addresses it in this letter.

And our passage is the conclusion of the letter where Paul is explaining to them that yes, they still possess a great deal of responsibility, but it is not on them to navigate all of that on their own.

There is a power much, much greater that can and will help them be and do all that God has called them to be and do.

And that power, is none other than the Holy Spirit.

The One who has been there from the beginning empowering and enabling God’s people to fulfill the mission and calling that God has put on their lives.

The One who has been there interceding for God’s people.

The One who has been there removing strongholds and demonic forces that try to destroy God’s people.

The One who lives inside each and every one of God’s people.

The One who desires to have God’s people unleash His power on this broken world.

And I could go on but we need to get into the message this morning.

Galatians 5, stating in verse 13, Paul writes . . .

Scripture Focus

Galatians 5:13–26 NIV84

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

The Cost & Reward of Salvation

So, we can see here sprinkled throughout this passage Paul’s warning to not only NOT live by the flesh but also to live a life of faith in Jesus Christ, led by the Holy Spirit.

No number of rules, regulations, Jewish laws, or good works can replace this.

In this though is also a very strong warning to not go to the other extreme as well.

Again starting in verse 13, Paul writes . . .

Galatians 5:13–14 NIV84

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And those two verses sum up the Gospel and the responsibility of all who follow Jesus Christ.

When Jesus frees us we are set free from everything.

The slate is wiped clean—we are made new.

We do not get a makeover, we are made new.

We may look the same on the outside, but the inside—our hearts are new and pure and fresh in God’s eyes.

But even though we have been granted this new freedom, don’t think you can go back and get back into the same old lifestyle and just ask forgiveness later.

It doesn’t work that way.

Don’t abuse the gift that God has given to each of us.

Don’t abuse your freedom in Christ.

Instead, use that new found self to serve others, in love.

Allow the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the hurting world around you.

Allow the Holy Spirit to touch your heart on the behalf of others.

Let go of yourself and let the Holy Spirit guide you.

Don’t be afraid to open yourself up and to love others.

To have compassion on others.

Look past the tough exterior that has been beaten up by this world and see the soul that lies beneath that exterior.

And go after that soul with the love and power of Jesus with reckless abandonment.

Love other people the way you want God to love you.

Because Paul says this of the alternate . . .

Galatians 5:15 NIV84

If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

And the worst part about all of this that Paul is saying here in verse 15 is he is not talking about all the people out in the world that have no relationship with Jesus.

Paul is addressing the Church.

Paul is talking to God’s people.

And Paul is having to tell them to not devour and bite one another.

He is telling people who are supposed to love God with all their heart, mind, and soul—and love their neighbor as themselves to stop acting worse towards people than the rest of the world.

And when the Church has to be reminded to NOT act this way, then there is a problem.

Not in the world.

Not in the lost.

But in the Church.

“God help us to never be so full ourselves that we forget the one job that you gave us.”

Flesh vs Spirit

And to be honest, it is really not a very hard job either.

It is honestly pretty simple if we let the Holy Spirit be in control and in charge.

Look at what Paul says next . . .

Galatians 5:16–18 NIV84

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

So, there it is, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Give yourself over to the Holy Spirit.

Take hold of the Holy Spirit and don’t let go, ever.

Let the all consuming power of God flow freely through your soul to the point that you cannot contain it.

Let is flow over to the point that it covers everywhere you go, everything you touch, and every word that comes out of your mouth.

Be full of the Holy Spirit and live NOT by the rules, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And it will not be easy.

In fact it will be very difficult because we still have a human nature that is in an all out war against the Holy Spirit.

And that is because the Holy Spirit wants to change us and mold us so much and push us so far outside of our comfort zones that our old human nature is so uncomfortable that sometimes it feels like our minds will explode.

And just being transparent, one way this happens to me is I absolutely overthink everything.

I want to be sure that its not going to blow up in my face before I take that first step.

And I say, “I don’t know Lord, what if...”

And I really don’t think I am alone in this, but it is so frustrating.

But walking in the Spirit means allowing God to deal with that within us.

And sometimes that change is slow and hard work.

But God will work on it, if we allow the work to be done.

And we may make missteps along the way but don’t give up on God because God ain’t gave up on us.

However, if we continuously give in to this sinful human nature, then the end result are things like what Paul describes next . . .

Galatians 5:19–21 NIV84

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And in all of this it can really be summed up into (4) different categories that Paul is talking about.

First he talks about sexual sins—just giving into the lust of the eyes.

Then religious sins—Idolatry and witchcraft.

The social sins—making it all about “me” or “I’m #1.”

Then finally sins that show a lack of self control.

And our religious legalist friends will take these and others and start making their checklist and say don’t do these things and your okay.

That’s list #1 and the second list is, well you need to do the things on this list and you are okay.

But the reality is this—what Paul is listing here is just some examples of the outward manifestation of what the root problem actually is.

And that root problem is a heart that does not fully belong to Jesus Christ.

And if your heart does not fully belong to Jesus Christ, then you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

Now, does that mean people don’t mess up and give in to temptation?

Absolutely not—even Christian people mess up.

When was the last time you were jealous?

When was the last time you let your selfish ambition override what the Holy Spirit was saying?

So, before we get up on and ride our high horses off into the sunset maybe we need to take a step back and let the Holy Spirit examine our lives just a little bit closer.

And while we are examining we need to be asking ourselves are we living by the Fruit of the Spirit, as Paul says . . .

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV84

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Does our life demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

And I am not talking about our opinion of what our life demonstrates, what do others say about us?

What do others see in us?

Because . . .

Galatians 5:24–26 NIV84

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Altar/Challenge

Our friend Mr. AW Tozer, one of my favorites wrote: There are qualities in God that can never be explained to the intellect and can only be known by the heart, the innermost being . . . I believe in what the old writers called religious affection—and we have so little of it because we have not laid the groundwork for it. The groundwork is repentance and obedience and separation and holy living! I am confident that whenever this groundwork is laid, there will come to us this sense of the other-worldly Presence of God and it will become wonderfully, wonderfully real. The deeper life is a continual discovery of how fully Jesus satisfies the deep yearnings of our hearts.

My prayer for each and every one of us, me included is that we continually discover a deeper and deeper love for Jesus.

So much so that people think that we have absolutely lost our minds.

I pray that the Holy Spirit rest on every single one of us so strong that the fire of God burns so hot that the chains on people’s lives completely melts away.

I pray for a revival in our hearts so strong that we understand and know that All THINGS are possible through Jesus and that we live our lives EXPECTING the unexpected.

But it all starts here and all starts with our willingness to give ourselves to God.

To relinquish control to the Holy Spirit.

Are we willing to do that today?

Let’s pray . . .