In this sermon, titled 'Walk in the Spirit', Paul Carrington discusses the concept of keeping the heart and the importance of walking in the Spirit as a Christian. He highlights the perpetual conflict between the flesh and the Spirit within believers and emphasizes the need to resist the works of the flesh and cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. Through a detailed analysis of Galatians 5, Carrington explores specific sins and virtues related to our relationships with others. He encourages listeners to strive for holiness and exemplify the character of Christ in their everyday lives.

Well, good afternoon. I'd ask if you could please open your Bibles to the fifth chapter of Galatians. We'll be spending our time in a few verses in Galatians chapter five. And what I'd like to do this afternoon is really talk to you about the hardest thing that a Christian will ever have to do. And you could say, what is it?

Is it prayer? Is it evangelism or missions or something else? Well, really the heart of religion, of our religion is very, very practical. It really brings it closer to home. And we're gonna be speaking about keeping the heart.

Solomon's counsel in the book of Proverbs is keep the heart, keep your heart with all diligence because out of it flow the issues of life. But in the New Testament, the equivalent of keeping the heart would be what the Apostle Paul shares with us in the fifth chapter, and it could be summarized in a simple phrase, walk in the Spirit. In the Old Testament, keep the heart. In the New Testament, walk in the Spirit. And as I was preparing for this and thinking about what it means to walk in the spirit I was I was thinking of kind of the analogy of even the history of the United States and if you look at the United States since its inception until now it's been involved in about 12 major wars and a lot of other side wars some that are public some that are not you know in World War one and World War two about five hundred and twenty thousand men lost their life That's a lot of people when you start to be counting one, two, three, 520, 000 men.

But both of those wars are dwarfed by the amount of men that were killed in the Civil War which was anywhere between 620, 000 and 800, 000 men. Think about it that every single day between 1861 and 1865 you had about 425 men dying, losing their life every single day. Well, that civil war, it came to an end, but the civil war that we're gonna be talking about today is one that we're all engaged in as Christians. You're fighting in a civil war. And what I mean by that is, within your own breast, within your own heart, are these two opposing forces that are waging war against each other.

And that's really what I want to talk to us about, this perpetual conflict that Christians experience. And so, in Galatians chapter five, we'll read and then we'll pray. I'm gonna start in verse 13 and then we'll read down to verse 23. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Let's pray together.

Lord, we come to you this afternoon, Lord, seeking your help. We ask you, Lord, to please attend to us with your word. We ask you to change us and conform us and equip us, Lord, to live as your children, as your people in this world. And Lord, we pray that you would equip us to fight this war. You already have given us your word and you, O Holy Spirit, have been active and working, changing us little by little over the years and they'll be pray that we would become more mindful of who you are and your ministry in our lives and in the wider world so please help us Lord help me to communicate your word and bless each one of us as we gather beneath it now in Christ's name amen amen.

Well I you know we've been going through this series on keeping the heart and and we've taken been taking snapshots and biographies of different men and women. But I thought just based on the sermon that our brother preached this morning on the Holy Spirit and his working, that it would be appropriate to talk about this idea of walking in the Spirit, but in the same vein of keeping the heart and what that actually means. I think you'll see in a minute. But really, the question that we want to ask ourselves here this afternoon is, am I keeping my heart with all diligence, really and practically, on a regular basis, on a day-to-day basis? Well, another way to ask that is, am I walking in the spirit?

And I'm not talking about you had a bad day, so don't look at your day today and say, you know, I got in this argument or something happened, but I want you to just look at what we're gonna be talking about today more so in line with a pattern or a trajectory of your life or maybe your family and look at it like this. And to help us, we're gonna be taking a look at these two lists that we have before us, One that's the fruit of the flesh and the other the fruit of the spirit. But don't treat them like checklists like, yeah, I got that one, I got that one. Look at it in a little bit of a different way. The book of Galatians, it's a really fascinating book because the Apostle Paul took it upon himself to write to these people, these different churches, about four different churches in Galatia, because they had been infiltrated by Judaizers, men who were coming in and saying that in order to be justified with God you need to go back and become like Jews, You have to be circumcised and keep the law and do all these different things and so Paul takes a special attention maybe more than in any other letter except maybe for Romans to hammer down the doctrine of what it means to be justified.

He's almost violent when it comes to the doctrine of justification. You see how he comes face to face. He says, I withstood Peter and Barnabas to the face when they started to threaten this beautiful doctrine. And right at the very beginning of the letter he says something twice which is like an exclamation mark. He says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you then what we have preached you let him be accursed.

As we have said before so now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." He's trying to hammer something home and he wants them to know you've passed from death to life. Your present experience, who you are right now, you've already passed from death to life because of what Christ has done. Well praise God for that great and mighty work but he doesn't just end it there. He then goes on to talk about what it means to be sanctified. He's encouraging them to live as though they passed from death to life.

And that's what we're gonna be looking at here. He's talking about growing in likeness to Jesus Christ. And really, if you want a good definition of holiness, can you think of a better definition than likeness to Jesus Christ? Nothing else but the beauty and the character of God displayed in your everyday life, whether you're a mother, whether you're an employer, employee, whether you're at home being taught by your mother or you're a husband. All of us had this opportunity to walk in the way that the Lord has designed.

But here's the reality. Your sins were forgiven but your sin nature is very much alive and well. Don't you, do you recognize that? That's really a reality for each and every one of us. And so you've got this powerful crying for fulfillment inside of you, saying, feed me, every single day, which is called the flesh.

But if you're a believer now, you've also got the Holy Spirit at work. So this is what I mean when I was talking about this civil war going on and why missions and evangelism, those things might be fearful and those might have high stakes, but the highest stake battle is what's taking place right inside of my heart and inside of your heart. And so you can look at the world and it's right now it's going through a moral collapse. War could be threatening at any given point. You know we just recently read that whole list of Romans 1 and we see that in on display like no other time in our culture.

And oftentimes we fall for the the trick or we we can get caught up with the thinking that the problem is out there and there are many many problems out there but I really want to spend this time talking about the problem in here threatening from within the Civil War and how we can keep our hearts or how we can walk in the spirit and and I want to let you know first up here that I'm not coming to you from on high. Anyone I think who knows me knows this is a struggle for me just as much. In fact, why this whole series I'm talking about keeping the heart because it's probably the thing I'm trying my best to do and want to do better. And so you won't hear me saying things like when I used to walk in the flesh, you know, that won't just...won't come out of my mouth today. But here's a warning for all of us is don't be thinking about anybody else.

There's always a temptation when we're hearing things that cut close, well, I wish so and so was listening to that or something else, but I wanna start off in verse 16. And here's what the apostle says. He says, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He introduces the civil war and these two opposing forces right here. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit, on the other, the flesh.

But he doesn't just leave us with the facts, like there's a war going on and you should know about it. But he's actually giving us a commandment right in this single verse. He gives us a commandment. He says, walk in the spirit. In other words, he's saying, fill the cup with the spirit so that there's little to no room left for the flesh to put its lusts.

Or you could say, fill the cup with oil so that there's no room for the vinegar, right? He's telling you to do something here. But oftentimes people just say, you know, walk in the spirit. Well, how do I walk in the spirit? What does that mean?

How do I go about that? And I think the idea is that we want to be spiritually minded. It's a very simple thing in a sense, but spiritually minded with a desire to obey is what it means to walk in the Spirit. And it seems to be that, you know, you're living with the consciousness of the Lord with all the decisions that you make on a daily basis. It's not like a sense of fear, like God's gonna get me, but it is a sense that I'm owned, I've been bought, I've been purchased, that Christ is in me, that I'm a disciple of Christ and I wanna please him.

And as a result of that, the decisions that I begin to make are made in this light that I'm not my own and the direction not only the decisions but the directions that flow from the decisions I make are a testimony that I'm not my own and what's very fascinating is is that before men and before women were called Christians, and we'll find this out later as our brother continues in Acts, that they were actually called followers of the way, before we actually come to the fact that they're called Christians. In other words, there was a pattern and a way of life that was acknowledged that people saw that it was a matter of walking in the Spirit even though they were men and women just like us there was a marked change in their lives and this is what the Apostle Paul says as he elaborates he says for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. You know the carnal man really knows nothing of this fight that goes on within the Christian and and pulse he begins to talk about these flesh the flesh that lusts against the spirit any of you children have you ever seen a tug-of-war where you have two parties on either side and maybe even if it's fun they'll put a mud something like mud or something in the middle and they'll pull with all their might to pull the opposing force down or into the middle.

Well that's that's what's happening with this fight that's going on. It's this idea of dragging you in a certain direction. The flesh is lusting against the Spirit. And this is what's happening. And then on the other side, you have the Holy Spirit who's seeking to conform you.

He's directing you. He's giving you commandments. He's helping you, actually providing real help in your life on a daily basis so that your life will bring glory to God over time. And then you've got the flesh clawing you back into your old ways, your old habits, your old ways of thinking and behaving and all these different types of things. And what Paul says, he says, these are contrary.

The idea here is that they're totally opposite, the Holy Spirit and your flesh. They're on opposing forces and they're locked in this mortal combat and you're the one that they're warring within. And so he says, so that the thing so that you do not do the things that you wish. And I often find that I find like I want to I want to change. I want to be less proud, less worldly, less selfish, or less argumentative, or more loving.

But there's this fight going on, that's what he means, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Paul talks about that in Romans, the seventh chapter. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But it's not that easy as simply wishing it. And that's why I want to really impress upon you today, do you see that this is really the hardest thing that a Christian will ever have to do is be locked in this warfare with the Spirit and the flesh.

This is really where everything takes place. And Paul goes on, he says, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And another, maybe a better way to say that would be if you give yourselves up to be led by the Spirit or yield yourself to be led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And so the Holy Spirit, He is abiding in you for this very purpose here right now to help you shed the old man and to take on the new man. That's the whole purpose of why the Holy Spirit is operating among us and in us.

And so it should be something that we praise God for because guess what? You're not alone in this war. Could you imagine you're just given all these commandments but then you're left to just do it in your own strength? It'd be utterly futile. It'd be impossible to do it.

But with the Holy Spirit in us working, it becomes something that over time, little by little, the Spirit begins to form the fruit of the Spirit in us. And so he goes on to say, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. And then the Apostle, he gives us these two lists. We'll start off with the first one. But remember justification.

I just want you to think about this, right? What the doctrine of justification means is that through Christ you've been reconciled to God the Father through faith not through any works or anything like that but but look at look at this right justification has to do with your standing with God well what we're gonna look at here is when we look at these lists, really what they have to do with is your standing not so much with God but with one another. My brother talked about that this morning in that first section of how we ought to conduct ourselves. And I want to just kind of go on and talk about that because our standing with God ought to increasingly translate into living a certain way with others. I think you called it harmony among the believers.

And so as a result of Christ and God, you know, God the Father justifying us through Christ, how ought that to translate with the way that I operate and function in my home, in my church. So it's not this impractical way of life that's being led, but, you know, an impractical sense where I'm fine as long as nobody troubles me. But how do I live in the midst of a church or in the midst of a family or in the midst of all these different things coming at me from outside. And because a lot of times, you know, many of these are relationship sins, right, that we yield ourselves to and they really kind of illuminate where we stand with God. That's what he's gonna talk about here.

He says in verse 19, he says, now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness. He's saying they're evident meaning It's plainly recognized and there's about 17 things that are outlined here. The first four have to deal with sexual sins, adultery, fornication. The root of that is porneia, Something that's very much alive and well in our culture and, sad to say, very much alive and well in the church, so much so that it might be the thing that renders men and renders the church perhaps most impotent in a day where the church needs strength, but cuts off its own feet and legs so that, why am I gonna tell anybody about Christ when I feel like a hypocrite, here I am a slave to sin? Uncleanness, This is the same word in Romans that we saw the other day in Romans chapter 1, therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their heart.

It's the same word and lewdness, this unbridled lust. So the question I have for you, for me, are you keeping your heart against these things? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, those are the top four that he he elaborates on here. And then he goes on to idolatry, and I think we all know idolatry, which is the worship of false gods, but that also includes mammon, right? Things that we don't necessarily see and bow down to physically, but that take up large parts of our hearts.

That can be an idol, and he's warning against that. And then he talks about sorcery or in the King James it's called witchcraft. And here's a good question. I think I heard a brother say this the other, I can't remember how long ago, but it might have been a men's study. But Where in the Bible is sorcery or witchcraft ever spoken of favorably?

Can you think of a place? There's none. There's none. And so why should we, whether in our books or movies or in other things, engage in it and think of it as harmless and just you know something that's you know it's not that bad. When nowhere in the Bible is it ever regarded favorably.

He says hatred which is this enmity that we might have toward another brother where maybe over time we get these building walls, you know, little by little where I just don't, you know, say hi to you anymore. You don't say hi to me anymore. It could even be in a home where these things take place. May God forbid. But the question I have is, are you keeping your heart against these things?

Against things like idolatry, sorcery, hatred? Well you could say, so far, I'm checking off the list and I'm doing pretty good. But then he goes on, he brings up this one called contentions, which is this whole idea of debate and strife and wrangling that takes place. And if you ask yourself, you know, what is the root of contention? It's pride, Right?

In Proverbs, we find out that only by pride comes contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom. I read a statement the other day, people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. And pride is oftentimes something that really can steal and destroy relationships. It's such a devastating thing. And do you find yourself, here's a question, do you find yourself often at the center of controversy?

Do you find yourself always at the center of some squabble? How is your home life or marriage, it could be you as children, Are you warring against your parents when they ask you to do something? Are you contentious? Well why do I have to do that? Or can I do it later?

You know that's where the beginnings of this spirit can really form. Would those who know you best say that you're contentious? So think to consider. And what's so amazing about such a seeming innocent sin as being contentious is that it shows up in the same list as things like fornication and idolatry. Like, why is it there?

It's like Romans chapter one, why is sodomy, homosexuality? But then you read on, disobedience to parents? But in the eyes of God, these things are not taken lightly. And so holiness is much broader than we often think. So how are you keeping your heart against this particular thing, pride and contention?

It's really worth thinking about. He goes on to talk about jealousies, this burning that takes place inside your heart. Nobody sees it, but it takes place inside your heart when something good happens to somebody else. Consider, outbursts of wrath. This is this idea of the word it means passion or heat.

It's kind of like the idea of being on edge. Is this your pattern of life? I'm not saying again did you get angry yesterday, but is there a pattern of life where you could be characterized as giving way to outbursts of wrath, where people have to be on eggshells when they're around you because it's never quite clear when you're gonna go off or how you're gonna wake up that day. That's not the way that you want to live. He goes on to talk about selfish ambitions, setting up for position or for personal glory.

It's a dangerous one because again, it's a heart matter. You know, there's Jeremiah there and he's preaching and suffering and then he speaks to his scribe named Baruch and he says, do you seek great things for yourself? He says, seek them not. This is the instruction of the word of God. He talks about dissensions, and I think that's a large thrust, the opposite of what we saw in Acts this morning, where here they were in harmony in one accord, and it was a beautiful, fertile ground for God to enter in, and the Holy Spirit to do a mighty work.

But where there's dissensions and disunity, God, that's not a place where God is going to be actively working because it's not cultivating the spirit, it's allowing the flesh to run rampant. It goes on to say heresies and this is something where you say, well hey we're confessional and all these different things but know this that there's always heresy knocking at the door of some someone's life in the church at any given time I met with a brother who used to go to this church about less than two weeks ago and to hear the things that he now believes and is engaged in it's shocking but it didn't just start it's little by little and you give way to heresies and entertaining them and before long you're you're off the track entirely it was it was very shocking and sad He goes on to talk about envy which is this idea of ill will where I wish something bad would happen to somebody else, a particular person. Murders and we know from the Lord Jesus himself that murder it doesn't have to be the physical act of taking a weapon and killing, but even the idea of hatred towards a person.

Murders, drunkenness, this idea of intoxication, of taking into your body foreign substances so that you can feel better, whatever that might be. It's a broad category. And then he talks about revelries, this idea of just kind of a party, careless spirit, that nothing matters. But then he says this, And he says, and the like. And this list, what he's basically saying here is, I could go on.

This list isn't exhaustive. In fact, if you go to other books in the Bible, you'll find that he has different types of sins that are listed here. He's not trying to be exhausted, but he's giving a picture. That's why I say, don't use it as a checklist and say hey I'm doing you know 8 out of 10 or 15 out of 17 or whatever it is because it's not that. See what should strike you I hope here is that so-called innocent sins are lumped together with with grievous sins and are you keeping your heart against these things that the Holy Spirit says are grievous unto God?

Well Paul goes on he says, of which I tell you beforehand just as I told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Matthew Henry, we heard a lot from him this morning, he says, these sins will shut men out of heaven. Yet what numbers calling themselves Christians live in these and say they hope for heaven?" And so if these are your patterns, repent and turn to the Lord. If you've been born again, if you've been justified, If you've been passed, if you've passed from death to life, these things should alarm you. I think that's what Paul the Apostle, he's trying to do, is alarm those that are somehow missing these things and just kind of continue on carelessly. And so the Bible just doesn't allow you to have these things flourishing.

I've been justified but then look at my relationships with my fellow man. They're in tatters or they're not in order. The Bible doesn't really allow you to have these two things going on at the same time. But what's beautiful about all of this is that it's not only enough that we cease to do evil, but then we must learn also to do well. And we find this other list here.

And notice this list also has entirely to do with your relationship with others. Again, what we heard this morning of the work of the Holy Spirit. He says this, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law." And so the beautiful thing he's saying to us as believers, as horrific as that first list is, is now that Christ is in you, you don't have to let sin reign in your immortal body as it was before you became a Christian. You had absolutely no choice, no way to buffer against all these types of things.

He's saying, don't let it be this way. And so don't let your flesh be taken captive at every single turn when a bad situation comes or somebody offends you. Or a plethora of different types of experiences that can happen because the Holy Spirit is powerful to help us gradually, just like a tree grows, develop the fruit of the Spirit over time. It's not a matter of willpower or some sort of inner power or self-talk, but it's a matter of walking in the way with the spirit, with the power that God supplies. And so he says this, but the fruit of the spirit, and maybe another way to think about this, the fruit of a renewed nature where Christ dwells will bring out these types of things here.

What fruit grows as a result of Christ being in me? Well what happens here is again I'll quote from Matthew Henry he says, as the Apostle has chiefly named the works of the flesh not only hurtful to men themselves but tending to make them so to one another. So here he chiefly notices the fruits of the Spirit which tend to make Christians agreeable to one another as well as to make them happy. And so how can I be more characterized by these things in my closest relationships is a good way to think about what we're gonna look at? And of course love heads the list here it's such a beautiful word it's really the foundation and the motivation for all the rest that we're gonna see.

It's really the most powerful force on earth. It's what compelled God, if you could say, to send his son. God so loved the world. You know, as Christians we must forgive but it's in light of the fact that we've been forgiven. And we love because we're loved.

Hopefully we see that, you know, it's one of those things that we ought to have characterized and flowing out of us increasingly. None of us do it perfectly. I hope you don't come away with this kind of idea that, you know, there's a super Christian somehow speaking. No, that's not it at all, but gradually, little by little, hopefully these things will come out more. And then he says, joy.

Are you characterized by joy? So a good question to ask because this is really one of the most obvious elements or aspects of the fruit of the Spirit in the fact that if you've been reconciled to God, if All of your debt has been paid and you recognize that. That should, by virtue of your debt being eliminated, put a certain rejoicing inside of your heart. And I'm not talking about being giddy and laughing and smiling at every second. I'm talking about this inner joy.

It's like an anchor to your soul that carries you and so beautiful. It's this idea of cheerfulness and gladness that takes over. It's the opposite of being dour and always kind of downcast as though the world's ending at any given moment. And so peace, he goes on to say, built upon love and joy, you've got this word peace, which is this idea of quiet and rest. Where before the heart of the unbeliever is like a troubled sea, It's just bringing up mire, right?

That's what we read in the Old Testament. Here we got this beautiful picture of restfulness in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of this storm. It's one of the most rare commodities in the world, even among Christians, to see someone who has peace in the midst of difficulty. But it's one of those powerful things when sometimes when I see someone who I'm just looking at them I'm like this is just amazing. They're going through this trauma and difficulty but look at the way they're conducting themselves.

It's beautiful to see it just testifies that God is there and they're operating on another plane altogether. They're recognizing something that maybe I'm not. And so if we're walking with them increasingly peace will flow out of us as a result you know the fact that we're reconciled with the Prince of Peace will bring us some peace and again it's not the absence of trouble well if they would stop provoking me I'd have some peace that's that's not what he's saying here but it's in the midst of trouble that hopefully we can have this element of peace because it's a fruit of the Spirit, not a result of what's happening around us. And then he goes on to say long suffering, which really describes this attitude of patient endurance towards afflictors and toward injury when difficulty comes. We read about love suffering long in 1 Corinthians 13 and it's not easily provoked.

It's not soon angry. There's a long fuse that happens because really and truly any any fool can respond angrily to another fool, right? That's not difficult But it takes someone walking in the spirit to return evil, or to return good for evil. That's one of the most unusual things. When someone compels you to go a mile, you go with them too.

I mean, that's unusual. And that's what Christ, I think, was getting at in the Sermon on the Mount, so they don't even know what to do with some somebody like that that's long-suffering. And he goes on to say kindness and goodness. Some some people say that that kindness is kind of the state of the heart and then the goodness is the outworking of that kindness into the into the world but this is really true power. If I were to pick a single word that describes Christ, kindness.

He was kind. It's so beautiful. The fact that here he was, he was Extending his hand, drying out his hand to lepers as well as to little children. He came to save harlots as well as self-righteous. He was so kind in everything that he did.

And no doubt you've met someone who's kind, who's just kind. That's the word that you would use to describe them. They're just, they're thoughtful. They're all these, it's such a beautiful thing to see someone who's kind. There's some people here that are like that, you know, and as I was just thinking about this word kind, The scripture that came to me, it's a strange scripture, but it's the last verse of the book of Jonah.

And if you know the last word of the book of Jonah, it's very telling of the character of God. This is what the last verse says, and should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120, 000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much cattle. That's the last word. It seems very strange and it's very striking but what it tells you is that even the brute beast is of interest to God. It's amazing.

When you look back in the Old Testament, and it talks about how to treat a bird in its nest, or how a man regards the life of his beast, how much more a human being, who God clearly elevates on an altogether different category. But is this your character? Is it growing, is kindness growing? Is this being more manifest? Because guess what, at the end of the day, this is really true holiness and true likeness to Christ.

Well, there's a few more, three more. It says faithfulness. And this is not faith in this theological sense of I believe but it's more speaking about dependability and trustworthiness among again one another. It's are you a keeper of your promises When you say you're gonna do something, you do it to the best of your ability, to discharge your duties without being asked. You could even think of it, children, those of you who are asked to do a task, clean your room.

Do you do it faithfully, or do you need to be checked up on? Or maybe you didn't do it at all it's one of those things to consider he says gentleness this idea of mildness or or meekness I wish I had more of this in me honestly to be more gentle but it has to do with this idea of being submissive to your authorities or to circumstances that come upon you. And what you find out when you read about Christ is he was a lion but he was also gentle. Somehow he was able to have these two things held together. It's one of the most amazing things.

He had this beautiful gentle spirit. And then the last one is self-control. And this is where the natural passions and desires are no longer your ruler but the spirit of God is your ruler. And he ends with this. He says, against such, there is no law.

He says, so far beyond the sphere of do this and don't do that, all that kind of thing, he says, now you're living truly as God has designed you to live, and you're truly free as you increasingly walk in the spirit. And so just in conclusion, I just want to remind us, you're in a family, you're in a church, a local church, and God has put you there and he's surrounded you with sinners. And this is what happens is that those sinners around you are actually brought there as the greatest blessing to help sanctify you and form Christ in you that would never otherwise be formed. If I was living in a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, how would Christ ever be formed in me? I might have the illusion that I'm doing pretty good because I'm never having anyone rub against me.

But the reality that here you are and you're being exposed maybe on a daily basis, give thanks to God for these things because here's the thing, one day you're going to die. One day I'm going to die. And what will be the memory? Will it be? Will it reflect the fruit of the Spirit?

Well, maybe right now it might be a little green. You couldn't eat that fruit. You know, it's not very tasty. But over time, is Christ being formed? Because here's what I would say is that you are becoming the person that you will be.

With every circumstance and every day that goes on, you're becoming the person that you will be, little by little. And so I hope you see that it's so superior to walk in the Spirit or the other way to say it, to keep your heart with all diligence with the Holy Spirit living in you and I just pray for myself I pray for you you know may the may the civil war be brought more fully under the power of the Holy Spirit I came across this quote and I'll end with this. This is from John Stott. He says this, of course it costs to be a Christian, but it costs much more not to be. It's hard, you're in a battle, it costs.

It's gonna be hard in many different ways, but aren't you glad you're in Christ and you have this hope and you have Christ, God in you, the hope of glory working and forming little by little the Spirit of God in us. So let's pray together. Well Heavenly Father we come to you here this afternoon and how we need you Lord I need you. You see the desperate straits we are in that I am in how oftentimes Lord we feel like we've hardly even begun because we see so much of the flesh and so little of the spirit. But Lord, we are so glad that you have brought us to a point where we can rejoice not in ourselves, but we rejoice in Christ.

We rejoice in our standing with you, not being of anything else but by faith. And yet, Lord, we do pray, increasingly we would represent you better, we would walk more in the Spirit, and Lord, that you would help us to conquer and be overcomers of our own selves in this civil war. Lord, we thank you for your patience. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you that you don't expect everything all at once, but Lord, you're working in us.

And yet, Lord, help us not to use these things as an excuse to just continue in our rebellious states but grant repentance where we need it Lord we look to you and we ask you Lord to fill us increasingly in Christ's name amen amen well we're dismissed God bless you and have a good afternoon.