Galatians 5:16-21 - Intentionality & Inaction - Rick Graumlich

Church, as I said, we're in Galatians or Galatians chapter five this morning.

I'm going to read through verse 26.

Lord willing, we'll preach.

I will preach through verse 21.

And then next week, if the Lord does allow, we will continue the passage.

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

For the desires of the flesh are sorry, you want to 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.

Then 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 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.

And 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.

I want to start by asking a question this morning.

I want you to hear this, isn't just a rhetorical question, just for the sake of it.

Think about this.

How serious are you about your faith?

How serious are you about following Jesus?

And I ask this question not because I want you to feel bad or I want you to feel like I'm doubting your faith or I'm just judging you, but because I am your pastor, I care very much about you and about the state of your soul.

And the most unloving thing I can do as a pastor or even just as a Christian is to let you just kind of be and not press in and ask hard questions.

It's much easier for me to not get involved and just kind of let you do your thing and keep a distance, let you figure things out.

But it is not loving.

Love is when you seek another person's welfare above your own.

And it's very unloving to allow people to stay lukewarm in their faith and let them think that they're okay, that God's okay with that.

It's a very unloving thing to do.

So I ask you, how serious are you about your relationship with Jesus?

How much do you want Jesus in your life?

And maybe there's some here who the answer is none.

I don't want any.

You know that.

Some maybe a little bit.

You know, it's good to kind of have around, maybe 50% or even 90%.

I like a good chunk of Jesus in my life.

I just want a little bit of room, a little bit of margin to do what I want to do.

Now I think for most of us here, we're here to hear the word, we're here to worship the Lord.

We genuinely want Jesus.

We want 100% of our heart to be in alignment with him.

We want to be there.

What Paul kind of peels back this morning in this text, or what I will peel back, what Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reveals, is there's really two ways to live walking with God through the power of the Holy Spirit, or walking in sin by the power of your flesh.

Walking by the Spirit or walking in the flesh.

There's only two options there.

Now just kind of remember back the whole book of Galatians.

Paul wrote the book to the churches in Galatians to encourage them.

There's a major heresy going on about you can be a Christian, but you have to keep parts of the law if you're going to actually be a Christian into new circumcision.

There's other things that must be done.

The reality is Paul writes to address those things.

And he's addressed those in chapters two and three and four.

And then chapter five, he begins to say, okay, because you've got your doctrine right, make sure that you get your heart right.

It's good to have right doctrine.

We should pursue good and right doctrine.

We should be in alignment with what God says.

We should think well about the things of God, about it, about his word.

But just as we should get our doctrine straight, so we must always also get our lives straight.

Our living in alignment with what God has commanded us to do.

See, the heresy that was spreading that you need to keep parts of the Old Testament, parts of the Old Covenant in order to be a Christian, was about salvation.

We're saved, though, we know through faith.

It's our belief in the person and work of Jesus Christ that saves us.

So then we live that out.

So because Christ is done for that, how are we to live?

Remember a couple passages ago when it said that the law enslaves us, it makes us a prisoner because it reveals the condition of our heart.

We're bound to sin, we're slaves to sin.

The law reveals that.

Because grace and mercy has been shown to us.

We've been given what we do not deserve, so that we can then give to others what they do not deserve.

This love.

So the doctrine is right.

Got that part worked out.

It's faith in Christ alone.

But now are our hearts in alignment with God.

Are we following Jesus?

Or are we just mostly following Jesus in some of our own sinful desires?

We believe in salvation through faith alone in Christ.

Are we truly following Christ alone?

I have two main points I want to unpack this morning.

Walking in the Spirit requires intentionality.

Walking in the Spirit requires intentionality.

And works of the flesh require inaction.

Works of the flesh require inaction.

The scripture is teaching us that God has a plan for us.

He has a plan of redemption, a plan of salvation.

As we talked about through the different books of the Bible, there's this narrative from the beginning of the Bible to the very end.

There's this story that's happening.

This is God's redemption of his people.

He set out in the garden to redeem his people.

And we know in Revelation that he will consummate that, he will finish redeeming his people.

We never kind of leave that storyline.

No matter where we're at in the Bible, that's the main thing that's going on.

Christ is redeeming his people.

And he has a plan for us on how we should live.

Now the thing is, understanding that plan is not hard.

It's not hard to think, okay, read the scriptures, what's God's plan is to do these things, to live like he's commanded us to live.

It's really, literally quite laid out for us.

Understanding the plan is easy.

Obeying the plan is not easy.

It's the hard part.

Look at this with me in 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 under the law.

Now here we have command in verse 16 and a promise in verse 16.

Right?

So to walk by the spirit.

This is a command.

I say walk by the spirit.

That's the command, the promise, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

To walk, to live, to go about with the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 25, down later in the chapter, says, keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

This is the idea.

Walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

In Romans 13, verse 13, it says, Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in orgies or drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Romans 13:13

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

Jesus' disciples walked with Jesus.

If Jesus is walking over here, the disciples are going with him.

This is what it means to follow Jesus.

Now we don't have Jesus here with us on the earth.

Jesus said, I'm leaving to send you the helper of the Holy Spirit.

We have the Holy Spirit as believers in us to guide us.

We do this.

We keep in step, we walk with the Spirit.

What happens?

We're not gratifying the desires of the flesh.

It's a promise.

Now this isn't, we'll get into this in a minute, but there's something you need to understand here.

As fallen people, we cannot perfectly do this yet.

Because we still have our flesh.

As long as we have our carnal flesh, we're still not able to fully walk in the spirit.

Therefore, we will still at times give in to the desires of the flesh.

But this also isn't kind of a way out.

This isn't an excuse for our sin.

Well, I still have the flesh, therefore I'm going to sin, so I'm just going to kind of indulge in my sin.

That's not what Paul's saying at all.

He's revealing our heart.

This is what he says.

You have two desires in you.

You have a desire of the spirit, and you have a desire of the flesh.

And they are at war.

They're opposed to each other.

And if you're a Christian, you should feel this tension.

This warring between the two desires.

They contend.

They wrestle.

They nag.

And so as long as we're in the flesh, we're not completely free to follow the Spirit perfectly.

But because we have the Spirit, we are not under the law.

Now, if you know we've been going through Galatians, there's a lot of law language going on.

Lots of conversations and discussion about the law.

And he's then just revealing, in case someone forgot, as they're kind of getting into a different segment of the chapter or the letter.

And just so you remember, if you're walking in the spirit, you're not under the law.

Because you're walking with the spirit.

God has given you his spirit.

In Romans 8, 14 says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Okay, so we understand what this passage right here is saying, but like, what does it mean?

Walk by the Spirit.

You got it, right?

It's simple.

Walk by the Spirit.

There's two spirits, there's two desires in you, the flesh and the spirit, and they're at war, it makes sense.

But what does this mean?

Like, how do we walk by the Spirit?

Well, first requires that you be a Christian.

If you are a Christian, then you have the Holy Spirit in you.

You are given the Holy Spirit the moment God saves you.

The Holy Spirit does not come in a later time.

It's not a special gift, it's not a second salvation or a second baptism or a second blessing or anything like that.

You cannot be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit in you.

So in order to walk by the Spirit, you have to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

You must be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 would make no sense if you weren't a Christian.

For those who are non-Christians, it makes no sense because they don't have two desires.

They have one desire, the flesh, and they give in to it.

That's the only desire they have.

They don't have desires for the things of God.

This Holy Spirit's not in them, wooing them and speaking to them.

They have one desire.

And it's not at war, it's conquering, it's enslaving.

So you must be a follower of Jesus Christ.

You must be a Christian to walk by the Spirit.

Again, I've said this before, but walking by the Spirit, it's very simple.

Where's the Spirit telling you to go?

You go there.

What's it telling you to do?

You do that.

Simple.

Also, climbing Mount Everest, I don't know if anyone here has done that, but I don't think so.

Climbing Mount Everest, from my understanding, is very simple.

You go to the mountain, you find the trail, and you climb the trail.

Simple.

It's just really, really hard to do it.

Statistics are like six out of ten or four out of ten people don't even live through it.

It's extremely difficult, strenuous, exhausting.

But how do you do it?

You find the trail, you just go up the trail.

You get to the top, you'll know you're at the top.

And similarly, we can kind of throw this out like this, walk by the Spirit, and you won't gratify the desires of the flesh.

It is that simple.

It isn't more complex than that.

It's just really, really hard to do it.

And this is my point when I'm saying God has a plan, He has a design for His people.

It's not hard for us to understand that design.

It's not hard for us to see that.

It's hard for us to submit to it and to live that out.

To understand.

And most of you probably remember back in the not too long ago for some people, but long ago for some others, the WWJD bracelets or the slogan, the mantra, WWJD, you know, what would Jesus do?

That's what it's still wrong.

What would Jesus do?

And it's kind of like a cliche like question that we were to ask ourselves.

The intent, well, though, is like a good thing.

Like, what would Jesus do?

Because that's probably, if I'm a Christ follower, what I should be doing.

And so it kind of gets at the heart of what's it mean to be walked by the Spirit?

Well, what does the Spirit desire?

What does God want me to do?

Well, that's what I should be doing.

How do we walk by the things of this by the Spirit?

We follow what the Lord commands us to do.

I heard a preacher talking about this passage one time and he and he said, it's like a fork in the road.

And you just take the high road.

Man.

And this happens dozens or hundreds of times in a day.

Should I sleep in or should I get up and spend some time in the word in prayer?

We all know the answer to that question.

Should I I get home from work, I'm exhausted, should I help out with the kids and stuff, or should I kind of take my own time and just chill out in front of the TV?

We all know the answer to that question.

Right?

We're in work and there's kind of a tiff between you and a coworker, and you think you're right, he thinks he's right.

And to be honest, he's kind of needs to be put in his place, you know, and he's brought down a couple places, and he's humbled, and you're there, so you might as well do it.

What's the right thing to do?

You know the answer.

Right?

You're you're out to eat and you're and you're just kind of enjoying your meal, and you see someone who is very attractive, and there's a lot there to see, and you just kind of want to gaze for a moment.

What's the right thing to do?

You know the answer.

It's the end of the day, you're tired, it's exhausted.

If you have little kids, you finally put them to bed and they're still not asleep, but they're in the room, and you just want to like check out.

I want to be done.

I want to be done.

You haven't had much time in the word in prayer, you haven't spent much time with your spouse, encouraging them or praying for them, but you just need to chill.

What's the right thing to do?

See, we know the right thing to do, it's just always submitting to that.

But until we begin to understand, I need to be walking with God.

I can't do these things.

You do not just show up and have the ability.

You have the Holy Spirit in you, yes.

And he has the ability, yes.

But you, you need to submit to him and walk in obedience to him.

He doesn't just come in and pick you up and let me carry you over here and let me kind of work your mouth to do the right thing and say the right thing.

He calls us, he enables us, and he lays all these opportunities before us to walk in obedience.

And listen, if we're honest, we know.

You know when you're walking in obedience to the things of the Lord.

Again, it's not hard.

It's not it's not complex, it's simple.

It just takes effort, it's not easy.

A few things I want to unpack here, it requires us to understand that we're at war with our flesh.

Do you know that?

Do you know that you're at war with your flesh?

That in you are competing desires that want two things, and you're never going to reach a spot in your faith as a Christian where the flesh just stops nagging at you, where the desire to kind of just relax and chill and just veg out for the TV goes away.

You will always be contending, always at war with the flesh.

But you must understand this.

We are at war.

But there's things that entangle us.

Sometimes they're not bad things.

TV is not a bad thing per se.

Other things, they're not bad things, but they can entangle us and distract us and pull us away from the Lord.

In Hebrews chapter 12, it opens up, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

How often we're running, and then we kind of slow down for a moment.

Things are happening, we feel like we're contending against sin and we're overcoming sin, and then we just kind of relax for a moment.

Just need to catch my breath.

One moment becomes a few, and then a few more days, and as time passes, our heart and our relationship with sin begins to change.

One author put it, time makes way for many little sins.

And little sins in time make way for larger ones.

John Owen, his book, The Mortification of Sin says, you be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

There are no other options.

Either you're putting it to death or it's seeking to put you to death.

We need to be aware of that, that we are in war with our flesh.

So we understand we're at war with our flesh.

To walk in the spirit, it requires us to practice self-denial.

How often do you deny yourself something?

I mean, it's easy to deny to deny ourselves big things.

Hey, yeah, I'm not gonna go sleep with that person, or I'm not gonna.

Gamble all my savings away.

We can deny ourselves things that aren't really major struggles for us.

But how about denying yourself things that you do crave, that you do desire?

A candy bar or a donut, a TV show or a movie.

Sleep or coffee.

I think we're we're tremendous.

We're tremendous at denying ourselves sleep, God's gift for us, in exchange for just garbage.

Whether it's video games or TV or whatever, just garbage.

So we say, I won't deny myself sleep to get up and be with the Lord in the morning or to be in the Word in the evening.

I won't deny my sleep for the things of God, but I will deny the gift of God, which is sleep, for just garbage things.

And I'm right there with you.

I'm not on a high horse looking down at you people who just can't deny yourselves.

We are all in this struggle of denying what our flesh wants.

But again, I just want you to think for a moment.

How often do you deny what could be a good and fine thing just because you need to train your body to deny things?

Because you need to train yourself that your flesh doesn't always get what it wants.

Sure, you can have a donut.

I love donuts.

I do.

I can eat them all the time.

Ask my wife or anyone who knows me, I love donuts.

The idea of going to a donut shop and saying, no, just a cup of coffee, please.

Just, I feel like I wither inside.

Like we're supposed to be here.

It's a donut shop, we should be having donuts.

But what a good thing to be before a good thing that's fine and say, I want this.

And maybe it's fine that I have it, but for the sake of training myself to say no, I'm going to deny that thing.

Now, this isn't asceticism where people just kind of beat themselves and starve themselves to death because they think they can be righteous.

This is just us being aware that our body and our flesh is, we're consumers.

We want and we want, we want, and we're never satisfied.

So sometimes we just got to step in and say, you know, that's a good and fine thing.

We're just not going to do it.

We're not going to have that.

So we have to deny, practice self-denial.

We can't just wake up with self-denial happening.

You can't not deny yourself all week long and then in a moment of intense temptation expect you to overcome and then deny.

Must be self-disciplined.

To walk in the flesh or to walk in the spirit requires us to use the ordinary means of grace.

The ordinary means of grace are just that.

They are ordinary.

The scriptures, prayer, and the church.

These things feel ordinary and they feel kind of simple.

But they're the pattern that we see in the New Testament for how God builds his church and how he sanctifies his people.

Time in the word, reading, studying, memorizing God's word, hiding it in your heart, laying it up and just kind of examining it, letting it work in you, spending time in the word, spending time in the word together with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Time in the word.

It's not just any old book.

It's the active, living word of God.

Time in prayer.

Praising God.

Confessing our sins to God.

Asking God to work in us.

Enjoying God's goodness.

Just time in prayer.

Another quote from the Puritan John Owen, he says, if we do not abide in prayer, we will not abide in temptation.

Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession.

God preserve my soul and keep my heart in all its ways so that I may not be entangled.

When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us.

We will remain free while others lie in bondage.

We must be people of prayer.

It's ordinary, it's simple.

It often feels boring.

You're not sure what you're doing.

But praying to the Lord.

And then time with the church.

Gathering together, serving one another.

Submitting to the church.

This is why we sing.

This is why we pray.

This is why we preach.

This is why we fellowship.

Because this is God's design for how his church is built and how we mature.

I say we come, I say it's all we come together for a meal.

In most meals, you forget them.

You just forget them.

You're probably going to forget my sermon.

You're going to forget what we ate later today.

You're going to forget the Psalms we sing.

You will forget all of this, probably.

But it doesn't mean that it didn't feed you, it didn't grow you, it didn't spur you.

Oh, and it didn't work in your life.

This is God's ordinary means of grace.

It's how he builds his church.

So we understand and we submit to that.

We seek to give our lives in the word, in prayer, together as the church, and he matures us.

Walking by the Spirit requires intentionality.

We don't just show up and we're doing it.

Doesn't just happen because you you grew up.

And there's some people who grew up and they're just they're just really good people, you know.

Like they they're just they are respectful to their parents and they pay their taxes, and you know, maybe they even want to pay their taxes, you know?

They're just good people.

But that doesn't do anything for them in their heart.

They're still ruled by the flesh.

Takes intentionality, effort, us spurring one another on.

Are you are you in the word, brother?

How is your prayer life going, sister?

We haven't seen you for a while.

Are there things we can be praying for you about?

We miss you.

We need you not just to be here in a seat on Sunday morning, but to be a part of the body of Christ.

It takes great effort and intentionality to walk in the Spirit.

Don't be confused.

This isn't our salvation.

Christ has purchased that for us.

It's us walking in obedience.

It's good.

It requires intentionality.

The works of the flesh, on the other hand, requires inaction.

It requires that we do nothing.

Look with me in verse 19.

Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Right?

He's saying, like, there's kind of some mystery here to the walking by the Spirit.

It's a simple thing to say, but doing it takes great effort.

What takes no effort at all is to live in the flesh.

It's very, very evident, these fleshly things.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

It's amazing.

He just kind of lumps some things together and then just kind of caveats it all.

And just all the things that you kind of give yourself over to.

If you find yourself just kind of giving yourself over to it, I want the thing, and I'm just going to get that thing.

And whatever the consequences are, it's fine.

I just want that thing.

It's kind of when you know you've given yourself over to something.

When you are not really concerned about the consequences anymore.

You just want the satisfaction.

You want that moment of pleasure.

You want that moment of pride.

You want that feeling that you're after.

And that's all that matters.

So you're giving yourself over to these things.

The first three sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality.

These sins are directed against ourselves.

Yes, these are sins against God for sure.

And it's sins against others, absolutely.

But these are us.

I just want my heart and my soul.

I just want the satisfaction, and I'm going to gratify my desires sexually.

And these sins destroy our ability to see and enjoy mankind.

And it destroys us seeing that we are made in God's image.

We're in a culture that just celebrates all of this.

Celebrates it, especially this month, but all the live-long day.

And as appalling as that is, and then sickening in some ways, that's just what the flesh does.

These people who are just giving themselves over to sexual immorality, to impurity, and to sensuality.

They're no worse than we were before Christ.

They're not some kind of subset of really, really wicked people.

This is just what the flesh wants.

This is just what it does.

It seeks to gratify itself by pleasing itself, using the means that God has given to his children to enjoy his creation.

God has given us the confines of marriage, a husband and a wife in a union for life.

And in that confine, everything is good.

Enjoy.

Have at it God's blessing.

You're created for it.

What a blessing.

Outside of the confines of marriage, it's restricted, it's forbidden, it's wrong, it's wicked, it's repulsive, and it will bring death.

Outside of someone losing a loved one, rarely do you see the kind of grief and the kind of pain brought on them by those, but except for when they indulge in sex outside of marriage.

It's one of the most painful things to see, to be a part of.

So those who are works of the flesh, they destroy our ability to see us for who God has made us to be.

It destroys our ability to look at others and see them for who God has made them to be.

Again, all the sins are against God.

But these this idolatry and sorcery, it destroys our ability to see God for who he is and to worship him as we were created to worship.

It's saying, I think I can kind of almost be God a little bit.

I can, through sorcery or idolatry, I can manipulate things.

Or I can create my own God, kind of fashion him, how her how I want them to be.

And then they will do, and they'll kind of give me a license to live how I want to live.

And so by creating these false gods or worshiping things outside of God, it's a sin against God.

So it's evident in their lives.

They don't desire the God of the Bible.

Again, these are just works of the flesh.

These are what people who do not have the Holy Spirit in them.

This is just what they do.

And 2,000 years ago, maybe they built idols and put them up on their wall.

And every so often they would come in and they would just kind of sit before that idol and worship it and give it their time and hoping that somehow that idol could bring them joy, or that idol can bring them peace or prosperity or heal their children.

But today it's a different kind of idol, I think, for most of us or all of us.

It's some other thing that you've fashioned, that you look to for hope, that you look to for satisfaction, that this thing will numb my pain, or this thing will bring me meaning, or this thing will finally satisfy me.

If I just had this relationship, if I just had this promotion, if I just had this much money, or if I just had this person's affections, or if people just looked at me this way, then I would be satisfied.

It's not the way of the Lord, it's the way of the flesh.

So it's sin directed against ourselves, sin directed against God, and then there's sin directed against others.

It's a long list.

And you might have seen, you might have looked at the first list and said, hey, I think I'm okay there.

But if you looked at the first list and you're like, hey, check, no problem there for me, you need to look again.

The second list, you might say, hey, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, there's no problem with me.

I love the Lord, I'm not seeking to be idolatrous and or to follow sorcery in any way.

If you're just kind of ticking through these things, check good, check good.

I just want to warn you.

You still have the flesh in you.

It's still at war.

You still have perverted desires sexually.

You still long for a God that's more kind of the way you want him to be than the way he is.

And then we get to this list of how we treat others.

Those who are walking in the flesh, I should say, treat others.

And we can see in our own heart at times these things: enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy and drunkenness, norgies, and things like these.

There's a reality here.

There's sin against others.

There's this kind of backbiting.

It's I'm I'm frustrated, or I'm jealous, or I'm angry.

There's rivalries, there's divisions.

He said, she said.

And we, listen, we are, I think, are most of us probably premature Christians.

Most of us don't struggle with these things.

Do we have any kind of issue?

Maybe we're not backbiting out in public.

Maybe we're not finding each other in the hallways and saying, listen, I heard about what you did and this and that and that.

Do you ever leave here on a Sunday and think, that person?

What can't be they said that to me?

Can you say that to me?

And you go talking to four or five other people?

They said this.

Or they just looked at me wrong.

They looked at me.

And I knew they were they were judging me for something.

And this is how it just begins.

We do not give other people a benefit of the doubt.

I remember being at a graduation party, um, and I was just, I used to be a youth pastor, so you go to a lot of graduation parties, but I was leaving and my phone rang and I picked it up, and someone said, Hey, how come you ignored me?

I was like, What are you talking about?

Like, yeah, you didn't even you didn't even say hi to me.

And they were like pretty upset about this.

And I was like, brother, I didn't even see you.

Here, this this brother, like this happens.

It happens to all of us.

You you see someone, you're like, man, they just blew me off.

I can't believe they just blew me off.

Not all the time, but most of the time, they probably just didn't see you.

And you're getting all upset, and it's ruining your day, and it's kind of poisoning your attitude towards this person, and this person, man, they just didn't even see you.

It's not that their heart is against you, they just didn't even see you.

And so, likewise, these enmity and strife and jealousy, they're so petty, they're so selfish.

I can't believe you you didn't include me in this, and I can't believe this didn't happen.

This is this is terrible that you you didn't think about me in this way.

This this life isn't about us.

God didn't write his word saying, you know what, put yourself first.

Make sure everyone loves you as you think you should be loved.

This is about you dying to yourself.

For it's those who walk in the flesh who are concerned with themselves, but those who walk in the spirit are seeking to honor and glorify the Lord.

Because the reality of sin is that it brings death.

Let's make this point and I'll wrap it up and we'll get the air conditioning on here shortly.

Hang in here.

Verse 21.

This hits, this should hit heavy on you.

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

For those who practice these things, who make a practice of these things, who are given over to these things, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

They will not inherit the joy or the peace or the provision that we have as God's people here and now.

And they will not inherit the eternal life.

This is literally an issue of life and death.

For those who give themselves over to these things, they will not inherit the kingdom.

And you might hopefully you're you're going through your heart and you're asking, am I doing no, and you're you're you're submitting to the Lord.

But there are people in your life who are giving over to these things.

Family members, co-workers, neighbors, people you don't know, people you do know, people you love, people you don't love.

The reality is they stay in their sin.

They will not inherit the kingdom of God.

They will not be with their creator.

So it's imperative on us to proclaim the good news that there is life.

One commentator put it, if you want to know why those who do these things cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the answer is simple.

It's because the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6 tells us.

And why would God put someone down as an heir to his kingdom when that person would not let God reign in them?

Why would we think that if we do not let God reign in us, in our lives, that he would then make us an heir to his kingdom?

Let us rather let God reign in our lives.

We need to examine ourselves.

2 Corinthians 13 says, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.

Are we repentant of areas of laziness in our life?

Are we slothful in our fighting of sin?

We need to be repentant.

We need to examine ourselves.

And we need to seek the things of God and put to death the things of the flesh.

We need to read our Bibles more.

And I'm not just here to give you a laundry list to go home and do.

I'm telling you, this is what God calls us to do.

And in this is joy, and in this is life.

Reading and being in the word, studying the word.

People of the word.

Pray often.

Pray as you go about your day as you're going, as you're driving, as you're folding laundry and doing dishes, praying to the Lord.

And set time aside to pray and to seek the Lord in prayer.

And be serious about being a part of the body of Christ.

This doesn't mean just gather together on the Lord's day here.

That is a minimum.

It means seeking fellowship with others, encouraging others, seeking others who can speak into your life and hold you, encourage you to be faithful to the Lord.

Seeking relationship with others, you can bear each other's burdens and be a part of the body of Christ.

It's not simple.

But it is the way that I'm sorry, I said that backwards.

It is simple.

It is simple.

God loves us.

He just lays it out for us and he just calls us to obedience.

It's not hard to be obedient.

It just takes great intentionality with us seeking the word and in prayer.

And gathering together as a church.

You must deny yourself.

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus.

Let's pray.