Sarx or Spirit?

No, there we go go coods. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I didn't know what was gonna happen. And I walked

up here. Listen, this was not my plan. I had

another outfit picked out for this weekend. I wasn't trying

to start stuff. And then I received a gift of

these fresh kicks, and I was like, you know, if

they had been purple and gold, I would have wore

my husky polo.

I don't have a husky polo. So joke's on you.

Uh all right, how are you guys doing? It?

Is really take I love coming back to a place

because that means they know what they're getting into. Full

you once, shame on me, fool you twice you called

me so I love coming back. It's Revival Sunday. That's

the thing.

Okay, you're doing a Fruit of the Spirit. Serious.

We're gonna talk about fruits of the spirit.

Not fruits. Fruit of the spirit.

I'm gonna do that by going back to the very

first story where we find fruit. We're gonna go all

the way back to the Garden of Eden this morning,

and you are going to think to yourself, about twenty

five minutes in, he forgot what he's preaching on I

have not stuck with Stick with me.

All right, here we go.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth

when they were created. When the Lord God made the

earth and the heavens now, no shrub had yet appeared

on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up,

for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth,

and there was no one to work the ground. But

streams came up from the earth and watered the whole

surface of the ground. And the Lord God formed man

from the dust of the ground and breathed. Say Rua

in Hebrew is the word for breath, spirit and wind.

It's the same word.

In the Hebrew, it's the same concept, breath, spirit, wind.

The word is ruah. Say rua, Yeah, you did it,

you got the.

Hat the end of it. Hah ru rua okay.

In the Greek, this is very odd es usually hasn't

happen between Eastern and Western languages, but in the Greek

the same thing happens. The Greek word is numa, say numa, wind, breath, spirit,

all of them, Numa rua in the Hebrew, Numa in

the Greek god Numa he ruach into mankind. The breath

of life, and man became a living being.

Now we know from.

Scripture that there are other things that have the breath

of life. It's not just mankind that has the breath

of life. But in this story, just here, within the

story of the Garden of Eden, there is a unique

relationship between God and humankind, human beings, and part of

how that is displayed is that he puts his rua,

his spirits, his breath, his holy.

Wind into them.

That's this unique relationship that God has with human beings,

at least as it's told in this story.

Now, the Lord God had planted a garden in the.

East and Eden, and there he put the man he

had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees

grow out of the ground, trees or please you to

the eye good for food in the middle of the

garden with a tree of life and the tree of

knowledge of good and evil.

So we have God. He makes creation.

It's depicted as a garden. He has mankind, humankind that

he has a special relationship with, and he puts them

in the guard. He say that I need you to

partner with me to take care of creation.

You are not just creation. We are a creature.

We're a part of creation, but we have a special

relationship God creation humankind. We're a part of this, but

we're also a part of this.

It's almost this.

Priestly role that we have in the middle of God

and his creation. I'm gonna skip a little paragraph about rivers,

not because it's not important, but because it's not about

the fruit of the spirit at least today.

Thank you for.

Chuckling in all my jokes. Skip that paragraph. Canna jump ahead.

The Lord God suck the man and put him in

the garden of Eden to work and take care of it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free

to eat from any tree of the garden, but you

must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil, for when you eat of it, you

will certainly die. The Lord God said, it is not

good for the man to be alone. I will make

a helper suitable for him. When you stop right there,

the Lord God said, it's not good for man, So

he makes man special relationship. Here's a garden, here's the

ground rules trees. You can eat from that, and then

the next and then it's like I have like a

paragraph break. And God looked and God's like, hey, you

know what, you're alone. I don't like that. That's not good. Now,

don't look at your bible. Never mind, so many of

you have your bibles open right now, stop, don't look

at your Bible. But what's the next verse going to be?

Don't say it out loud, what's the next verse going

to be?

God?

God just got done saying it's not good for man

to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him.

And so God took a rib from the side of Adam. Right,

that's what the next verse is going to be. God

just said it's not good for him to be alone.

I'll make a helper. So the next verse is going

to be the creation of Eve.

No, it's not. Now, the Lord God had formed out

of the ground all the wild animals and all the

birds in the sky. He brought them to the man

to see what he would name them. And whenever the

man called each living creature, that was its name. So

the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds

in the sky, and all the wild animals. So you're

reading this and you're like, man, the author has the

worst case of add. Moses is like, gu it's not

good for him to be alone.

But what about those animals?

But maybe actually it's somehow central and critical. But for Adam,

no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused

the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while

he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs

and closed up to place with flesh. And the Lord

God made a woman from the rib he had taken

out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, this is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman,

for she was taken out of man. That is why

a man leaves his father and mother and is united

to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and

his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Now listen, we're gonna deal with this story. You have

heard the story of Adam and Eve a lot in

your life. Rabbi David Foreman calls it the lulla.

By effect, we.

Start to hear a story so much that it just

kind of lulls us to sleep, and we stop paying

attention to the details. So you knew that that verse

was coming next. You gotta work yourself out of the

Lola by effect. If you're hearing this story, you are like,

wait a minute, that's a weird detail to have to

tell me. There's two people that laughed at that, Like,

we're telling this story about the creation of mankind by

the way of all the things you need to know

about them. They were naked, all right, Okay, let's keep

going now. The serpent was more crafty, say crafty, crafty.

The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals.

Say wild animals.

A beast, right, is wild animal the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, thank you. That is not normal.

I know that you have heard this story so much.

You are not supposed to read this story.

There is no angel or god in heaven.

That was inspiring somebody that expected you to be like, yeah,

a talking snake, cool, right, That is supposed to make

you go, huh, snakes don't talk.

I don't know if you knew that spoiler alert.

Did God really say you must not eat from the

tree of the garden the woman said to the serpent.

So she's apparently cool with it. She's not like, wow,

talking snake.

This is unique. I should pay attention.

This whole story has weird things that you've heard so

many times you're not paying attention to.

But this story. And the snake said, you're excuse me,

And the woman replied, what what is going on?

The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit

from the trees of the garden, But God did say

you must not eat from the tree that is in

the middle of the garden.

You must not touch it, or you will die.

So many things that we could say about that, but

we're gonna keep moving. You will not certainly die, the

serpent said to the woman, For God knows is that

when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened,

and you.

Will be like God, knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree

was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and

desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She assel gave some to her husband, who was with her,

and he ate it.

What is going like? Here's the music?

If this is a move, if this is a movie,

the music is swelling, the volume is increasing, surround sound

is doing its work. They've just done the thing that

they're not supposed to do.

What is gonna happen?

It's gonna be like special effects death. He said, death

like death is gonna be. Here's what happened. The eyes

of both of them were open, and they realized they

were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made.

Coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of

the Lord God as he was walking in the garden

in the cool of the day, and they hid from

the Lord God among the trees the garden. But the

Lord God called to the man, where are you? He answered,

I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because

I ate from the tree and broke the rules.

That is what it should say, but it doesn't. It

says because I was naked, to.

Which God's response should be you ate from the tree,

But his first words are not that.

His first words are who told you that you were naked?

This story is awkwardly about nakedness, and you are used

to it, so you're like, yeah, the whole naked thing, guys,

This story would be a whole lot better story if

the author would quit making it about nakedness. But it's

like forced into the story. It's baked into this story.

This naked com Now you hear that, and what you

don't hear is the Hebrew words because you're reading it

in English, because that's the options that are given to you.

Here's some things you need to know.

The word for nakedness is the word aroum say room.

The word for naked. The word for naked is arom

say arome. The word for crafty is arom say arome, Yes,

thank you. They share a root, very similar root form.

The vowelation is different. Hebrew doesn't have vowels. It's all

done by the breathing marks that are inserted into that.

So the roots sound when you're listening to the story.

Because they didn't have the Bible spoiler alert, they didn't

have the Bible in a printing press back then, so

you had to hear the story. So you're hearing somebody say, oh, yeah,

and they were a Rome and the serpent was the

most crafty. The serpent was the most aroom of all

the wild animals.

What do you say? Did you say aram no, I

said a room? You said what a room? Not arom

no a room?

I mean they see that's what you're as you're reading this,

you're like, oh, did you say aram no I said eerom? Oh? Oh,

he was crafty. God, But there's a play in words.

Let me go back. Nope, right there now the serpent

was more room.

Than any of the wild animals the Lord God has made.

He said to the woman, to God, really say you're

you're sitting there going.

Wait a minute.

Is the serpent naked or crafty? Is he crafty or naked?

Who is it that's naked? Not a trick question human beings,

but the wild animals crafty? But the human beings are naked.

But you're left to wonder. But doesn't that by the way,

he said to the woman, the snake is what.

Talking?

Who talks human beings? The snake is walking, You're like, no,

he's not.

Yes.

In Genesis chapter three, the snake is cursed to crawl

on his belly and eat dust the rest of his days,

meaning before that he wasn't crawling on his belly and

eating dust the rest of his days. He was very human. Like.

The snake is walking, the snake is talking, the snake

is reasoning, the snake is relating.

In fact, one of the Jewish mid rush.

Jewish mid rush is a fancy term for commentary, one

of the Jewish commentaries which are always crazy.

By the way, we'll deal with more than one this morning.

One of the Jewish.

Commentaries says that the snake was actually trying to work

his way in and like and and and steal her away.

Have an affair with Eve.

Not as a snake snake, but as a human like snake.

He's so human like.

He's trying to entice her into a relationship, not with

another human being but with a wild animal.

By the way, do you remember, let's go back.

Do you remember, God said, it's not good for man

to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

And the next verse was should have been Eve, but

it wasn't.

What was the next verse animals? And Adam has to

name every single animal.

And God's like, is there a can you find a

wife there?

Nope? Nope. I'm glad. His answer was no.

By the way, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Horse wife, no cat wife. No thank you.

Some of you are laughing, you know, like, listen, I

didn't write the story this way. I'm just preaching about it. Okay, right,

there's no helper because you, Adam, are not a wild animal.

This whole story, this whole story from.

A Jewish perspective.

I know that Christians did a bunch of stuff with

this story, and I know that Christians were like, this

is how sin entered the world. Jews have never dealt

with the story this way. Jews have always asked, this

story is about why we sin in the first place,

not how Sin entered the world. That's Augustine, which is

a few centuries after Paul, in case.

You need a historical timeline. The Jews of Paul or.

Jesus's day saw this story as a why do we

sin in.

The first place? Story?

Okay, this story is about the fact that you are

not a wild animal. You are filled with the spirit,

the rua of God.

If you want to use Genesis one.

Language, you would say you're made in God's image. So

the Jews asked the question, what does it mean to

be made in God's image? This whole story is about

how we're not wild animals, and yet the whole story

keeps making us an awful lot like wild animals, or

makes wild animals an awful lot like us. So what

is it that makes this whole story is begging the difference?

How are you different? If it's not the fact that

you can talk, if it's not the fact that you

can relate.

If it's not the fact that you can reason.

If it's not the fact, how are you What does

it mean to be made in the image of.

God if it's none of those things?

So the Jews argued about it, and they argued about it,

and eventually, in one of the Jewish mid Rush catalogs

called Genesis Rabah, they end up having a conversation about

one of God's names, the name. Oh, I've totally forgotten

about my slide. Show hold on, Let's pause for a

moment and go yay beast or human. Don't want to

forget that slide. The Jews have a conversation about one

of these names of God. The name of God is

l should I say l should I? Now, we don't

know what this word means because it doesn't mean anything.

We translate it.

God almighty, But el Shouldai doesn't mean God almighty, not

even a little.

It's not what it means.

The word else shouldai means nothing because it means nothing gibberish.

It looks like el shada. Shada is the Hebrew word

for breast. That would have been a very common ancient

name for an ancient God in the in the ancient

Eastern world, God of breast would have been God of fertility.

Gods often were fertility gods or goddess. Says that, but

it's not God, it's not el shada it's el Shadai.

And I know that that sounds similar, but it's just construction, etymological.

It's just it's not it's not that, it's not el Shadah.

And el Shadai isn't just well it's plural, Nope, it's

not plural. Well it's possessive. Nope, it's not possessive. It's nothing.

El Shadai means nothing. It's gibberish. The Rebis are like,

what is this what is this name about? And they

connected it to this conversation about being made in the

image of God and not being like a beast of

the field, and they said, El Shadai is basically like

shorthand think acronym.

It's like shorthand for a Hebrew phrase.

You know, if you're like, well that feels pretty arbitrary.

Welcome to Jewish mid rush for like, I don't even

know how they got there. Yeah, oftentimes you don't. But

they're trying to teach you something. They're trying to tell

you something. They're trying to show you something in the text.

And so the rabbi.

Said this, el should die is shorthand for this phrase, me,

Shamar leyolamo die. You can see Shah and die. So

it's the god of the Rabbi say me, Shaamar layolamo die.

You can see Shah died. You see that shot and die,

El shauld die. I'm not getting any nods. Shah die,

El should i? Right, rabbi said, el should i is

shorthand for that phrase. What does that mean? You say,

it's a good question. And Genesis Raba were told me,

sha amar lay olamo die. The god who is the

one who says to his world enough. This God is

a god who knows when to say enough.

Which fits.

We just heard a story in Genesis one about a

god who at.

The end of end of creating knew how to rest

Shabbat stop.

He was creating and creating, and he said enough creating.

We're gonna be done creating. Think about the story of Nodah, God's.

Destroying, destroying, destroying.

How does the story of Noah end God says enough destruction?

Rainbow in the sky no more. Our God is a

god who knows when to say enough. Our God knows

when to stop. Our God doesn't just get worked up.

Our God, you could say, is the creator, master, sustainer,

author of self control. God knows when to say enough

and what it means to.

Be made in the image of God.

It is to be made in the image of a

God who knows when to say enough. The Rabbi say,

that was what the That's what the serpent was trying

to do to Eve. He was trying to say, you're

just an animal. Act on your desires. See a beast

never says enough, It's not.

In their nature.

You will never see a deer out in the woods

outside of Seattle like saying They're like, you know what

would be good for me today? Inter minute, fasting. No,

when they're hungry, they eat when it's made. Each season

they mate because they're a beast. The serpent is like,

come on, God wouldn't tell you not to eat from

the tree.

Look at it. Look at it. If you have a desire,

you act on it. Eve, act on your desires.

We were told that God put trees and it was

pleasing to the eye and good for food. Eve looks

at the tree and she says, pleasing to the eye,

good for food and desirable. See, all of a sudden,

her desire is gotten there and she has a relationship

with her desire.

So does Adam. By the way, this isn't just a

woman think.

They have a relationship with their desire. And the whole

story is trying to say, but you are not a beast.

You have something in you that is the God's stuff.

Trust me.

You have a beast in you, which is good. You

will get hungry if you don't eat lunch today. That

is a beast in you telling you, Hey, if I

don't eat, I die. You have a beast in you.

You are also more than a beast. You have a

God part in you as well. And this God part

is what enables you to tell the beast part to

take a seat for a moment. The beast is always

in the car, but the beast doesn't get to drive. Okay,

it's not anti beast. You can't get rid of your

beast because you are a creature. You are also more

than a creature. You are made in the image of God.

You have the Ruah say Rua, the spirit of God

living inside of you, and that spirit of God makes

you more than a beast. So you tell the beast

sit in the back seat, but you don't get a drive.

And I would prefer you not even in shotgun. And

if I need you, I'll put you in the trunk.

That is part of what it means and the Jewish

mind to be made in the image of God.

Now here's the deal. You don't have to even like this.

You don't have to agree with this. I'm letting.

I'm sharing with you the Jewish perspective of the rabbis.

You don't have to like it.

You don't have to think it's a great exegetical principle

or any of those things. Don't teach it at Bible

study this week.

That's fine. Here's what you need to know.

This is what the Jewish understanding and consciousness surrounding the

conversation was for people like Jesus, or for people like

Paul or the apostles. Your authors of the New Testament

have this understanding about the rabbinical conversation surrounding Genesis because

it's a Jewish It's a Jewish conversation surrounding a Jewish story.

Why does this matter?

Marty because when we get to our New Testament, you're

going to run.

Into a word. That's the word is sarks.

Say Sarks, Sarks, sarks. We always translate it in our

modern translations as sinful nature. The problem is is that

sarks doesn't mean sinful nature.

It just doesn't. We were projecting.

Theology onto the translation. So I believe almost every single

modern translation has taken away that all translations, not just one,

but almost all modern translations have stopped translating it sinful

nature and usually translate it now as flesh, which is

more appropriate. Sarks is flesh. Now here's what I want

to let you know. You can grab any Western Christian

doesn't have to be Jewish, Grab any lectionary you want

off your library shelf, because I know you all got

a lectionary at home. Thank you for laughing at that.

You can also find them online. Go to Blueletter, Bible

Bible Hub, take your pick, do whatever you want, Grab

any electionary you want, Look up the word sarks, and

you will find that one of the first two or

three definitions of what the word sarks means.

Is animal appetites.

I'm not suggesting we should translate it that way, but

that's really helpful info to know when you pair it

with the Jewish conversation and understanding of Genesis. Because when

Paul writes about Sarks, and he writes about Sarks a lot.

If he has this understanding, it fills the teaching with color.

To me, right, it's not just about our sinful nature.

It's related to our sinful nature. Our sinful nature is

connected to this. But the words responding that, it's talking

about this part of us, that's just the beast. And

from the very beginning God has been saying.

But you are more than an animal. You're more than

an animal. So live.

Let my breath, let my spirit, let my rua, let

my numa live inside of you. Don't be like your dog.

Be more like me than your dog. It would be

nice if we were more like God, who made us

and our dog. I get that some days that feels hard.

I understand that it's a difficult task. My dog is awesome.

So his name's Kalmar fantastic. Okay, let's go to Galatians.

Let's see where Paul starts to talk about this. You,

my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but

do not use your freedom to indulge the sarks.

That's the word. Don't use freedom. We have freedom in Christ. Amen.

Our freedom isn't to be used to make us more beasts.

Like we're not supposed to use our freedom to just

indulge our appetites and our desires and our cravings.

Don't be like a beast. Rather serve one another and

humbly in love. What does God do? God knows how

to say enough. God knows how to rest.

God knows how to stop destroying and save humanity. God

knows when to stop. God knows when to stop, and

God knows when to love. Because God is patient and

kind and gentle and forbearing, and God is slow to

anger and abounding in love and grace and truth and faithfulness.

And he shows love to a thousand generations, to those that.

Love him, and he takes it out on takes it out.

That was a weird way to say it.

He punishes three generations. So a thousand to three is

God's love. You want to know why, because he knows

how to say enough. Do you do things each and

every day that probably could just make God angry? Course,

But just like you do with your children, who you

love all the time, You're like, yeah, I get it.

I'm not saying so it doesn't matter. Please don't mist

hear me. That's my point that came out funny. Yeah,

I get it, But.

God knows how to say enough. Be like God.

God, don't use your freedom, Use your freedom to love

other people. Don't use your freedom for you. Use your

freedom to say no to you and love others. Not

in a dysfunctional way, not in a codependent way, not

in a destructive way, but in a way that looks

and mirrors the love and grace of God.

Oh hold on, I didn't finish that.

For the entire laws fulfilled in keeping this one command,

love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour

each other, what does that sound like?

Animals?

I really feel like Paul has a particular understanding about

what the sarks is. If you bite and devour one another,

watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other.

So the animal kingdom does. Don't be like that, Be

like the God who made you. Be full of the spirit.

Walk by the ruach, walk in the numa. So I say,

walk by the ruach or the numa in the Greek,

and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh

of the Sarks. Walk in the Rua, walk in the spirit,

and you won't gratify the Sarks because the Sarks desires

what's contrary to the Ruach and the ruoc, what is

contrary to the Sarks. These things are at war with

one another. They are in conflict with each other. So

you are not to do whatever you want. But if

you are led by the Rua and led by the spirit,

you are not under the law.

The acts of the Sarks are obvious.

Sexual morality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy,

fits of rage, selfish, ambition, dissension, faction, envy, drunkenness, orgies,

and the like.

What is what is that whole list about.

Animal appetites, which I some of that list are probably like, yeah,

totally orgies, Yeah, animal appetites. You're probably like, uh yeah, drunkenness, debauchery, yeah,

animal appetites. How about this one? Fits of rage? I

don't like that one. That's that that's my beast taking over,

that's my fight or flight beast instinct a fit of rage.

Have more self control than that, have more love, joy, peace, patience,

and fits of rage, Envy, Come on, America.

Envy is your beast nature.

Envy, dissension, factions.

Division, that's your animal nature. Say say enough to that.

You're made in the image of a God who knows

when to say enough. Say enough to those things so

that you cannot be divided. Because it takes It takes

the It takes the spirit of God, the breath of

God living in us, to not be divided. I said,

go koogs and split the room up. It takes the

spirit of God for you to say, yeah, go coogs.

I'm just kidding. It's a joke. It's a joke of you.

Some of you are like it would take, it would be,

it would be a miracle of God. It takes the

spirit of God to not give yourself to fits of rage,

because it's the God in nature that's inside of us

that we have to surrender to that. Lets us go patience, kindness,

you know what's coming next. I warn you, as I

did before, that those who live like this will not

inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, the fruit

of rua. If the spirit of God is what.

You're tapping into, if you're not tapping into the base

beast nature of yourself, the wild animal part of you.

If you're tapping into the rua, the numa, the spirit,

the God part of you that lives in you, it

makes you more loving because you don't use your freedom.

To gratify your desires. I wouldn't be like my I

don't know if your dogs are like this, if.

You're like five minutes late to feed time with your

dog and it is like sitting there stomping.

At the food.

We have the ability to say no to these animal

appetites and go. I can hold for a moment. I

can stay back here and minister to my neighbor. I

can stop and listen to my enemy and try to

understand them. I can seek to reconcile a relationship.

We're a world driven by beastly appetites.

Would say cut that off. I can lean into a

minute of reconciliation because the Spirit of God is at.

Work in my life. Because I am more than an.

Animal, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is

no law.

Those who belong to.

Christ Jesus have crucified the sarks with.

Its passions and desires.

Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in

step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking

and envying one another. There is a part that we

are called to play, a surrender. This isn't just we're passive.

God does what God wants to do. We're just passive observers.

There's a part where we we are partnering with God.

We surrender to God to say I want your I

want your rua, I want your numa, I want your

spirit to live and be at work in my life.

Those are real things that we give ourselves to. There

is a part that we need to leave this building

and play today. There's a part we might need to

play before we even leave this building today. So let

the Spirit of God live and bear fruit in our lives.

I know that there's a popular meme video real whatever

the kids are calling it these days, going around the

Internet of a pastor I believe from a very similar

spiritual tradition as you all here in this church, and

he's making the point whenever we talk about people being

filled with the spirit, all anybody wants to look for

is the gifts of the spirit. The scripture calls us

to look for the fruit of the spirit, gifts of

the spirit are amazing.

Do those let the spirit go to work. But proof

that we.

Are living in our God given, spirit filled nature is

not the gifts that we perform, but the fruit that

God produces because we let His ruof do the breathing

in the first place.

Let's pray God.

We we have a hard time remembering that we are

more than a beast. Our desires are real and they're strong.

And our desires themselves are not bad. They're not evil.

They're a part of us. And you gave us those

desires because it's a part of who we are. It's

a part of how we survive. It's a part of

how we live. It's a part of how we find joy.

It's a part of how you work in our lives.

Our desires are not the problem. Our problem is that

when we let the desires become our north star, when

we just give in to the base part of us

that is no different than an animal. God teach us,

you've given us your spirit. It's not our ability, it's

not our willpower. It's your spirit. It's the spirit of

God living in us that allows us to say no

to a desire in order to lay our life down

for a neighbor. It allows us to say yes to

patience rather than striking out in fits of rage. It

enables us to say yes to gratitude instead of envy.

It's what enables us to lean into.

Selfless love rather than gratifying the flesh, debauchery, any of

those things that are so obviously the fruits of sarks.

God teach us live in us, breathe through us, work

through us. But would we surrender to that partnership? We

love you, Thanks for your forgiveness, which is so plentiful.

Each and every day it's in your name me praying Amen.