Walk by the Spirit

Galatians chapter five will actually start in verse thirteen through twenty-six.

If you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible in front of you in the pew.

I'll invite you to to use that this morning.

Galatians chapter five, starting in verse 13, which reads, For you were called to freedom, brothers.

Only do not yours use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Verse 16.

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.

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

Now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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 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.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Here ends the reading of God's Word.

This morning we have a special guest familiar to most of us here, Matt Cavernan, who serves he and his family in East Asia, but is on furlough here.

He's going to be sharing God's word this morning.

So would you help me welcome Matt as he comes and as he shares this morning?

Welcome, Matt.

Thank you, Pat.

Thank you.

Is this working?

Good, good.

Lots of thanks for many of you who've been praying for me as I prepare and uh keep praying.

Don't stop.

I'm nervous, uh, but also very excited to uh share God's word with you this morning.

Let me start by praying.

Gracious and merciful God who whose power is perfected in weakness, uh come.

I mean, work this morning in our hearts.

I pray that you would produce uh fresh uh new uh confession in our hearts of our sin and our weakness, and and uh fresh faith in your mercy and grace that you poured on on us through your son Jesus Christ, and fresh joy in the in our in our salvation, and the fact that we're your sons and daughters, and then fresh faith too in your in your spirit to empower us to uh love our neighbor uh as ourselves, uh to to join with you in your work of uh for your glory and for the joy of all the peoples uh to join with you in that work.

So help us, God.

Work powerfully through your word, um this week uh vessel, please.

Uh in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Uh so during the last few years, I've noticed that um so much of the time I feel I feel like I'm striving, not resting.

I feel a lot of pressure and anxiety and stress, not not so much peace and joy that we just read about.

Uh I feel afraid, not confident in God's faithfulness.

Um I felt these these kind of negative emotions as I've uh gone out to share my faith with uh East Asian people.

I've also felt them as I've not gone out to share my faith because of fear, because of uh busyness with other lesser things.

Um I felt this kind of these things as uh Laura and I have have argued about how our family spends our limited uh time and energy.

Um I felt them as I've tried to love my kids, but been really frustrated and discouraged at times.

Um I felt them as I've uh as I've led, you know, I I lead over there, and I so I lead prayer times, lead people in Bible study, um, disciple young staff, uh have to make hard decisions, and I I've felt these things a lot, a lot more than I wanted to, want to.

But but God has helped me admit uh lately these emotions to myself and others uh and him, and and to see that uh, and also to see that these are different than what he promised, and the fruits of the Spirit, and that what he seems to offer us as the abundant life.

Um so I've been asking God why these last couple of years.

What's going on?

Uh what am I missing here?

And and he's answering, um, slower than I hoped, uh different than I expected, but but he's answering.

It reminds me of when Jesus said, Ask and you will receive.

If a father asks for bread, excuse me, if a son asks for bread, the father's not gonna give him a rock.

Uh God says, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, of course I'm gonna give you good things.

So God is is giving me, he's answering my prayer, but it's not been the instant kind of rest and peace and joy and and and love that I was hoping for.

Um it's actually the the path towards these good things that he gives us in his son has has been included a lot more confession of sin than I was hoping for.

Um sins, two main sins I want to confess to you.

Uh the first is the sin of loving the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Do you remember that Jesus said that about the Pharisees once?

Um it fits me too.

In other words, I I often compulsively strive to meet one more expectation, please one more person, impress just one more person, instead of actually loving God or loving people.

Um so I I I break another promise to my wife.

To to to do one more thing.

So, you know, not not all missionary overwork is is good and because of compassion for the lost.

Um and then I sometimes, you know, I I blame others, especially my family, for for holding me back from making disciples of all nations.

Uh but she's not holding me back.

She's she and others have have helped me to see my sin, to see my self-righteousness, to see my image managed, that that my image management program is actually gonna destroy me and not gonna bring God glory or help people be saved.

Uh so another sin is the sin of loving accomplishment more than the people I'm talking to.

So I use uh opportunities of to share the gospel or to preach God's word instead of as a chance to glorify God and love people, I can use them as a chance to to prove to them or or myself or or or the readers back home that I'm a good missionary.

Um I'm a good spiritual leader.

And I'm ashamed of those things.

Um but uh Christ has taken away that shame.

So I so I'm not right now I'm not ashamed.

I'm I'm I it's true, and and but Jesus has forgiven me.

We sang about that this morning.

So so confession has been huge for me.

Um and I believe this is the first step in the two-step process of walking by the Spirit or of loving our neighbor by the Spirit.

And so now I want to get to the to the passage.

Uh, Galatians, as many of you know, is written by Paul.

Um it's God's word through Paul.

And Paul was a missionary in in the Mediterranean area, and he uh shared the gospel with many, uh, went all around sharing the gospel and planting churches.

And um, and so in Galatia, there were several churches planted, and and and Paul um you know preached the gospel to these churches, and he's he taught them that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the real gospel.

And and then the Judaizers came in and they said they preached a different gospel, a false gospel.

The Judaizers uh said that yes, it's faith in Christ, but you have to add circumcision, you have to add observing these days and months.

And uh so it's it's Christ, it's faith in Christ and dependence on his grace plus human effort that will justify you before God and that will uh help you grow in in Christ's likeness.

And in uh Galatians 4.17, it's interesting, it stuck out to me.

It says, um, you can look there if you want Galatians 4.17, it says, They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

It means the Judaizers to the Galatian believers.

He said, They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

They want to shut you out that you may make much of them.

I can relate to that motive that you may, you know, they so uh so anyway, so Galatians, God through Paul wrote Galatians to these believers to thwart the corruptive influence of these legalists, these Judaizers.

And so after most of Galatians, he's clearly renouncing the legalism of the Judaizers.

Um Paul knows the objection the Galatians are gonna have.

They're gonna say, well, if if if people don't have these, the the law, if they're not under the law, and if they don't, if we don't need to add human effort and rule following to be justified before God or to grow in Christ's, then the gospel you preach, Paul, is gonna lead to fleshly living.

It's gonna lead to people doing whatever they want whenever they want.

And so Paul, in verse 13, he says, yes, you're called to freedom, but don't use your freedom, you know, to indulge your sinful desires.

Use your freedom to to love one another.

But but what does that look like?

How do we um how do we do that?

How do we love our neighbor?

Um not in bondage to the law, but but in the freedom that we have in the gospel.

And that's what I want to talk about today.

Uh walking by the Spirit or loving our neighbor by the Spirit.

But first I want to um, before we get into the right way to do it, there's two wrong ways.

In a sense, this is a I'm not an artist, but anyway, this is a uh this is supposed to be like a narrow road.

And on the left side is kind of a steep cliff, and on the right side is kind of a steep cliff, but we're kind of walking on this narrow road by the Spirit.

And uh on the left side is pride.

Uh uh in other words, this is how do we how do we love?

How do we uh yeah, how do we love?

We could just call it that.

Uh what one way is by pride.

I can do it.

I I grew up in a good church, I'm from a good family, I've been a missionary 14 years, I can do this.

I can share my faith, I can preach a sermon, I can do it.

Um or maybe for you, it might mean you know, I can I and if I can just have a long enough quiet time or be disciplined enough in my quiet times, or if I can just go to church every Sunday, or if I can just stop watching this, or stop doing that, or start doing this, or read this book, then I can get it.

I can I can fix myself, I can I can make myself a good Christian, or I can I can make myself pleasing to God.

So the focus is on me, it's up to me, what I can do.

And and effectively, um, and this is of course what the Judaizers were saying, is it's up to you.

You can do it.

It's up to you.

Um and so and so we strive.

Um and and and on the other side, the other way that we respond maybe to Christ's commands and his promises even, is is resignation.

I quit.

Uh I'll just do whatever I want.

It's too hard.

God, Jesus, your your commands are too great.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Are you kidding me?

I can't do that.

Um, you know, we we don't believe.

We don't believe his commands, so we just we just kind of give up and do whatever we want.

And instead of seeking uh life and and joy uh and hope and love in Christ and by his spirit, we we find life and joy by um you know just the temporal comforts and enjoyments here on earth.

TV, money, sex, food, sports, traveling, clothes, looks, people pleasing.

Um and and uh we just try to find life in those and kind of give up on ever really pleasing Jesus or or or walking by the spirit.

Um yeah, so so these are some of the ways I believe we fall off the path of walking by the spirit.

But now let's get into the text here in verse 16.

Um, and let's see what we can learn about walking by the Spirit.

Um, first, but I say walk by the Spirit.

This is Paul, God through Paul's command to us, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

So so walking by the spirit is is the opposite of gratifying the desires of the flesh.

The desires of the flesh, that's our sinful nature, that's our sinful desires.

And um I I didn't really realize I had a sinful desire for a long time.

Uh that's how messed up I was.

In verse 17, 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.

So there's this flesh and spirit within all of us.

And it says that this keep this kind of conflict within us keeps us from doing the things we want to do.

In other words, all of us, every one of us here, we're we're never doing the things we want to do.

And we're always doing the things we want to do.

We're either doing the things the spirit wants to do, or we're doing the things the flesh wants to do.

But whenever we choose one, we're choosing against the other.

And so so we always have this.

I believe Paul is teaching us here that we always have this conflict within us.

We always have this sinful desires that we're choosing against or or giving into.

And I want to make clear too that this conflict is for the believers.

Um Christ in John 3 said we have to be born of the water and of the Spirit.

So when as we trust in Christ as our Savior and trust him and let him be Lord of our lives, we we um we receive the Holy Spirit.

And so from that moment on, we we have, as believers, we're a new creation and we have the Spirit within us.

Before that, we have no Spirit.

Um but for all of us who are believers here, there's this conflict raging within us.

And um, verse 18 says, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

So again, this is in uh in Galatians, Paul talks about this.

We're not justified, we're not under the law for our justification.

Um, but we've been crucified with Christ, and we're dead to the law, and we're alive to Christ.

And then going on to verse 19.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, and and I won't read all of those, but these are these words are um what our flesh produces in our lives when we let it run amuck.

Um so we all carry around our this this flesh in us, and the flesh is the sinful desires, the temptations that we all face constantly.

And and when we give in to them, when we obey this voice, we call it in my family the sin voice, when you obey the sin voice in your heart, that this is the stuff that happens.

And and we all get that, I think, if we're honest.

That yeah, when when I listen to that, these sort of things kind of come out and happen in my in our lives.

Um, just moving on to 21.

Um, the second half of 21 says, Paul says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Those who do such things is a warning uh from God through Paul to us, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And I looked at the Bible knowledge commentary and it says uh it says this about the second half of 21.

It says, This does not say that a Christian loses his salvation if he lapses into a sin of the flesh.

I don't believe a Christian can lose their salvation.

Uh but and but that what it does say is that a person who lives continually on such a level of moral corruption gives evidence of not being a child of God.

So there's a danger when we when we see these warnings just to kind of skip over them because they might make us uncomfortable.

But I don't think Paul wants us to do that.

And so, yeah, I don't know what who who might need that warning from God this morning.

But if if if our lives are dominated by unrepentant sin, then God through Paul warns us that we need to make sure we're we we're trusting in Christ, the real powerful Lord and Savior, to save us and not some kind of magic words we said one time.

Uh moving on to 22 and 23.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Um these are just like when we give in to the flesh and we give into the sinful desires, uh, it produces these works of the flesh, these terrible things.

But when we give in to the spirit, when we follow the spirit, then he produces in our lives and in our hearts this kind of fruit.

Abide in me, and I will abide in you, and you will bear much fruit.

Um and so, and then we uh we go to verse 25.

He says, uh, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

He's repeating that we need to walk by the Spirit.

This is active, this is intentional, this is not natural.

So the right response to God's commands is not saying, I can do it.

Okay, God, you I got your back on this one.

Don't worry, I got this.

You can you can go help somebody else now.

I I'm gonna do this.

Um I can love, you know, I yeah.

And it's not saying I quit.

Your commands are too hard.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do this.

But it's it we we love each other by the Spirit.

And what does that mean now?

Um I believe this Galatians teaches this.

I believe this this it's a two step process.

So walking is a left foot, right foot, right?

Left foot, right foot.

Two feet, two steps.

I believe the whole of Scripture teaches these two steps.

And Galatians again teaches it.

The first step is confession.

Confession.

We confess our sin.

We admit that we have a flesh.

We admit that we have sinful desires.

We have temptations.

And that we've given in to those temptations far too often.

And we admit that we have doubt.

We admit that we doubt God's promises.

We admit that we don't, sometimes we we don't want to obey and we even intentionally sin.

We admit that we we love ourselves and more than we love God and love others.

We admit that we love wrong things.

This is this confession.

Psalm 51 says, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God He knows.

You know, it feels scary kind of at first to start confessing our sins to God.

At least it does to me.

But it helps me to remember that, you know, God knew this long ago.

He knew it long before I did that I had these sinful desires and thoughts and motives, no matter how evil they are.

He knew them long ago and he still sent his son to die for us and saved us.

And he still even calls us to serve him.

And not because he didn't think he thought we were better than we actually are.

In fact, he knows how terrible we are.

In fact, he knows more than we know.

And he kind of slowly, gently reveals those things to us.

Because I think if we saw it all at once, we would just be crushed and we'd we'd give up entirely.

So graciously, mercifully, he slowly shows us our sin more and more and draws us into a deeper, uh, more complete confession and repentance.

Um and and for me, um part of confession too is confessing my that I'm that I'm just a human being that is confessing my weakness and my human limitations.

Um and this isn't sin, it's not sin to be human, but but um to me it it I need to do that.

God, you know, you didn't make a mistake when you only gave me 24 hours in a day.

And you you're you're mighty to accomplish your purposes with and without me, often without me, and that's okay.

Um so I don't we don't need to love everybody and meet everybody's needs.

Um so and then as we confess, you know, 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So God's grace through his son, through Jesus Christ, death and resurrection is sufficient to cover all our sins.

But so so we confess our sin and our weakness, but but that's not enough.

You know, I think probably the you know the drunks down at the bar, they they do this one pretty well, probably better than a lot of us in church here.

They're willing to admit their sin and their weakness.

Um, but that's not quite enough to walk by the spirit.

The second part is uh is belief.

Believe.

So we confess and we believe.

We confess and we believe.

And for me, this is constant.

At least when I'm walking by the spirit, it's constant.

And when it stops, then I'm in trouble.

Um but but it so what's this belief?

Well, of course, we believe the gospel.

Uh we believe that he's forgiven us and will continue to forgive us, and and we believe that our righteousness is based not on our own uh efforts and and successes, but it's based on Christ.

We have the righteousness of Christ.

Um if you turn turn to Galatians 3, uh, I want to read this.

I encourage you to go back and read over Galatians and check and make sure I'm preaching God's word accurately.

I think you'll I think I am.

Verse 2 through 4.

Let me ask you only this.

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

And that's kind of a rhetorical question.

He means, come on, you dummies, don't you remember?

You you you you received the Spirit, you were saved, not by your works, but by hearing with faith.

And then he says, Are you so foolish?

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

So you what what are you growing in Christ by your own efforts?

Are you being you know, loving one another by your own efforts?

He says, Do you suffer so many things in vain?

If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the spirit to you work and work miracles among you do so by works of the law, by human effort, by striving, or by hearing with faith?

And of course he means it's by hearing with faith.

We're saved by hearing the gospel, confessing our sins and faith in Jesus Christ.

And we're also we also grow in Christ-likeness the same way by confessing our weakness and sin and receiving power from God to transform us.

So, what does this look like?

Uh I I think you know, and it's kind of terrifying at first, I think, to walk by the Spirit.

It's easier to walk by pride and say, I can do this and kind of keep control and it's on my terms and it's my way.

Or it's easy just to give up and and okay, I'll just go back to what's familiar and comfortable and and do that.

I'm not gonna try to follow you, Jesus.

Um it's kind of terrifying.

Uh back in November we did an evangelism training in one of the uh cities in in our region, and and I I shared um what this this message, something like this message, with with those very new believers who are learning to share their faith.

And uh and and then after about a day and a half, or a day of training, the last part of the training is to go out and and share the gospel with some strangers on a university campus.

And inevitably, there was about 15 people there that were being trained and were gonna go out, and some of them were petrified, some were fired up and excited, but some of them were really scared.

Inevitably, there's a really timid little young East Asian lady who uh real timid and shy, and she's just petrified.

What am I gonna do?

And and so, you know, we we I called her, we called her to walk by the Spirit, do this, love these people by the by the Holy Spirit, and what does that mean?

So confess, you know, don't try to just um I don't know, kind of give yourself a good enough pep talk to kind of get yourself fired up enough to do it.

Confess to God that you're petrified, confess to God that you're you're scared, and and and then ask him to give you courage.

Jesus, ask him to to empower you and give you love.

And and so um, you know, one of the young ladies did that.

And and it was so fun that when they came back after sharing their faith for a couple hours on campus, we came back and we had a sharing time, and and it's always so fun.

And again, it was so fun to hear this young lady say, I God met me.

You know, I I I I did that, and and God helped me.

He gave me courage to talk to a stranger.

I never talked to strangers, but he gave me courage to do it.

And and and this person, they really were interested.

They didn't trust Christ, but uh, but they were really interested.

And I'm I'm so excited, God met me.

This this the Holy Spirit, he's real.

Like, yeah.

And and uh it's terrifying though.

You know, it's terrifying for me coming to to preach to you because I I know all the messed up motives in my heart, and and and also I know that the word of God, this is a serious thing to preach God's word.

To me, it's a it's a and and I know to many of you it's a very serious thing, and I don't want to mess it up.

Uh one, because I just don't like messing up.

And two, because um because this, you know, you can, you know, if you miss a shot in a basketball game, it's one thing, but to preach God's word inaccurately is is a is a problem, it's a serious problem.

So, but so it's terrifying.

But so I've been constantly confessing these last week and and uh trying to constantly confess my my weakness and my my sins and ask God to empower me.

And and but it's terrifying at first.

Yeah.

Um okay, so um I just want to look at a couple uh promises of God that that that help that I think about as I think about believing.

What am I believing?

Um first one is um whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

So um so God promises to give us the Spirit to satisfy all of our needs and thirsts, and then to flow from us to minister to others.

So we should believe this promise.

We have to believe this promise, that God will meet all of our needs and he will empower us to minister to others.

Second, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

As I'm studying this passage, Holy Spirit, help me understand it.

Help me teach it accurately.

Um, not that we you know we don't study and and read and learn from others, but in the end, am I trusting in my own efforts to understand this text accurately, or am I am I ultimately trusting in God to graciously lead and guide me?

And so there's peace instead of anxious striving.

Uh if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting.

Uh man, I we all need wisdom every day.

We all make tons of decisions every day as we as we parent in our workplace, um, etc.

Uh of course we we use our minds and we use our the ways we we uh and we read and we we seek to learn, but ultimately are we trusting in ourselves to make the right choice, or trusting in some person to advise us, or do we really trust that God's gonna give us the wisdom that he promises here?

Um so it's it's believing, it's confessing my my lack of wisdom, confessing my fear that you're not gonna show up, but then believing that he's gonna show up.

The fruits of the Spirit.

Um, yeah, that I don't have love, God.

I I forgive me, but but then give me love.

Give me love for these people, my children, sometimes.

Um Acts 1.8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So so the power for witnessing, it doesn't come from you know trainings and kind of giving enough good pep talks to ourselves.

I I think the trainings are helpful, the pep talks can be helpful, but but ultimately we we need the Holy Spirit to come and empower us.

And it's scary, it's scary for all of us to share our faith, even missionaries.

And uh, and and and so um, you know, uh, but but are we confessing that to God?

We need to confess that to God and then ask him to come and give us give us fresh love, give us fresh humility, give us fresh confidence in him and in the gospel, and and and work powerfully.

So um, next slide.

Um yeah, so so again, walking by the Spirit is two steps.

Uh confess, I I can't.

I I I'm I'm I I'm a mess.

I I have sin, I'm weak.

But but believe, you know, you can, thank God, you can.

You're mighty, you're faithful, you're good.

Uh you you long to give good gifts to your children.

You're not gonna withhold this.

Um so you know, for me, uh this has been uh some steps towards uh the rest that Christ offers instead of the striving.

It's been steps towards the peace and the joy that God promises instead of the anxious and toiling and kind of stressful hoping, kind of hoping.

Um it's been it's been uh as I you know I've confessed these things and try to believe his promises and then from from fear to love, uh, fearing people and using people uh instead of loving them.

And and God's moving me in that direction.

And um, we're gonna, by way of application uh for you, um, you know, what area of your life, of your own life, kind of comes to mind as as I as I talk and as we we look at um these truths from God's Word?

Uh which of God's commands or promises are you thinking about?

Maybe it's um sharing your faith with a family member.

Well it's so hard.

Maybe it's uh I don't know.

I don't know what it what it is, but but I I I know that some of you probably um like me often still think you can do it, still think it's up to you.

It's up to me.

I I can do this.

If I just have a longer quiet time, if I just study the Bible more, I'll kind of figure it out.

Um now, of course, quiet times, prayer, Bible study, very important.

But what are you trusting in?

Are you trusting in God to empower you and lead you and produce love and joy and and faith, even faith in your heart?

Or are you trusting in yourself to kind of do enough and make it work?

It's up to it's up to me.

Um and so I pray for for for you that um this morning um you would be freshly uh aware of your limitations, that apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

And and that um, and maybe for some of you I pray that that you'd be freshly convicted of sin, uh unbelief in your heart, or or wrong motives in your heart.

Um and and I I pray that so that you could more completely fall on the grace of God and receive his grace and forgiveness and mercy and and spirit to empower you for the works that that he's calling you to.

And and some of you you feel your sin and your weakness so much that you fall off the right side.

I I can't do it.

I and and you're right, you can't do it, actually.

You can't do it, you can't be like Christ, you can't obey Christ, you can't trust him, and that's absolutely right.

But Jesus doesn't call you to do it on your own, he calls you to walk by the Spirit.

And so he doesn't want you to quit, but he wants you to admit to him, confess to him that you can, and then start trusting him to give you the strength and the power for that.

So for the sake of God's glory, um, for the sake of your own heart, for the sake of your family, uh, for the sake of uh lost people here in Grand Forks, for the sake of the millions around the world who've never heard the gospel and don't know a Christian, and and even their people, their friends don't know a Christian, for the sake of all these important things.

Let's let's walk by the Spirit.

Let's respond to Christ's uh commands and promises with confession.

I can't, and belief that God can.

Let me close us in prayer.

God, uh, do uh we we just we so often uh uh misunderstand and and struggle to believe uh your promises, our hearts are full of of our flesh is still there, sinful desires and and unbelief.

And so God, I I do pray that that yeah, for your glory, God, so that you would receive the glory as we go out and love our neighbors, that we would do it by the Spirit instead of by the best we can do our flesh.

Um and that, and and and I know that as we as we abide in you, you say that we'll bear much fruit for our joy and for your glory, God, will bear much fruit.

So help us, God, empower us to minister, to to be evangelists, to to love one another, to love our families, to love our spouses with with power and uh from your spirit, God.

And and I pray that this church would that we would be a light here in Grand Forks and that that um you would receive much glory from from the works you do in and through us.

Because we don't do it for our own glory, by our own strength, but we do it uh by the Spirit, God.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.