Galatians | Decision Time (February 4th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

All right, it's time to get your Bibles open.

Get them open to.

I mean, you know where we're at right now, right?

We're in Galatians, final week of that.

Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Uh so get yourself over there.

We're in the final message, as has been stated a couple of times already this morning.

Uh, our series, The Gospel, changes everything.

Okay, 13 weeks of just absorbing how uh incredible our God is, how how fierce his love is, how thorough his forgiveness is, how final his declaration about who you and I are.

All right?

We just sang about that.

We sang about how we are children of God.

How awesome is that.

We learn all of that and far, far more through the gospel.

And I mean, we've seen how the gospel, you know, liberates us, it sets us free from you know the inside out, from the heart outwards, in a way that, you know, uh external behavior and religious performance and you know, outward rule keeping, okay, just flat out can't.

All right, it can't.

It falls so short of actual dramatic life change.

And so as we kind of consider all of these things here and conclude our time in Paul's letter, uh, if you think about it, it really comes down to this.

It comes down to decision time.

Right?

Decision time uh for uh you and I.

All right, will we, will you, will I keep in step with the gospel?

Right?

We've talked about that that idea already.

I'm actually kind of stealing that phrase a little bit and kind of modifying it from chapter 2, verse 14, if you want to do, if you want to jot that down.

But will you and I choose to live in line with the declaration, the realities of the gospel?

Will we commit to living this way?

Will we do it?

Will we allow the gospel to establish deep lasting roots in our hearts and drive absolutely uh everything, everything in life?

Will we actively and intentionally and practically go after these things?

Okay, will you do it?

Will I do it?

Will we do it?

Okay, that's what we're talking about here uh today as we get in.

So let's read this here, Galatians uh chapter six, uh, starting in verse six, just reading right down to the end.

Follow along with me in your copy of God's word.

It says this Let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.

But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life, and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

For even those who are who are circumcised not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, they may boast in your flesh.

But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen.

God, we thank you for your word, Lord.

We thank you that it is clear, we thank you that it liberates.

Lord, it sets us free deep into the darkest corners of our heart, Lord.

And if we're being honest here today, we know that we've got plenty of those dark corners.

Lord, if we're being honest here today, we know that our motives when it comes to loving you, when it comes to serving you, maybe even when it comes to being here today, uh, our motives are not always pure.

Or the motivational system of our hearts is often to uh glorify ourselves.

Lord, it's it's self-centered, it's self-absorbed, and and God, we recognize that acting a certain way, behaving a certain way, that's not that's not the answer.

Rather, tuning our hearts to the to the glories of the gospel is.

And so, God, we we need your spirit.

And so Holy Spirit fall in this place.

Lord, would you have mercy on us?

Lord, we are we are so needy.

Lord, I recognize that my heart hasn't always been in the right place this week.

And and Lord, I need you.

Lord, I know that there are many people here who would probably echo that and agree with that about their own lives.

And so, Father, we kind of limp ourselves in here today.

And Lord, we humbly cry out like a like a needy child reaching for their parent.

Lord, that is us before you.

And so, God, would you would you have mercy on us today, Lord?

Would you show us your goodness?

Would you encourage the weary?

Would you heal the brokenhearted?

Would you help us, Lord, by your spirit break down idols that we think will satisfy?

Lord, we know on a on a on a head level, on a service level that they don't, but Lord, our hearts continue to go back to those empty, dry wells.

God, would you show us the goodness of your heart?

Would you show us your heart today as you expose ours?

Lord, would you show us that that you love us passionately regardless of how our week went.

Lord, if we had the worst week ever, we are no less loved.

Lord, if we had the greatest week ever and everything seemed to click into place, we're no more loved.

Lord, we are fully 100% loved no matter what.

God, I pray that we would understand that.

Lord, what an amazing truth to try and comprehend.

So, Lord, would you lead us through this time in your word?

We thank you for Galatians.

We thank you for this time together.

Lord, glorify your name.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, Harvest.

Hey, it's decision time.

Okay, it's decision time.

Will we keep in step with the gospel?

Will we do it?

You know, will we nurture our heart motivations, our our attitudes, our and our actions, you know, to operate in a way that's consistent with the reality of the good news?

Are we gonna do that?

We're gonna do that or or listen, the other option is to let kind of idolatry and fear and legalism, you know, and and allow ourselves to have this get this disconnect with the Lord on these things.

Will we allow all of that to rule and govern us?

Will we will we go after these things?

Because listen, make no mistake, I will reap what I sow.

I will.

And listen, so will you.

That's the first thing here today.

So let's go through these verses here, starting in verse 6.

Take a look.

All right, it says this Let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Okay, we're gonna come back to that in a second.

Let's keep going.

He says, he says, Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

Okay, so Paul's telling us here, he's telling the Galatians, he's telling us, he said, don't take this lightly.

Okay, what I'm about to say to you, everything that I've been saying to you, uh is super crucial.

Right?

This is this is hugely important.

Ignore the Lord uh here at your own peril, okay, at your own risk.

Okay, and then what does he say?

He says this for whatever, okay, whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Okay, that will he also reap.

That's that's a promise.

Right?

That's a that's a guarantee.

Take that to the bank.

Okay, now here are really the two options uh that lay before uh every single one of us here in this room.

Take a look at this here.

He says this.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap what?

It says corruption, right?

He'll reap corruption.

Uh, but the one who sows to the spirit will, okay, from the spirit reap eternal life.

He will reap eternal life.

All right, and so what does he do here?

He's using uh he's using a farming metaphor.

This is uh this is a common expression, a common teaching method, uh, kind of all throughout the scriptures.

All right, we see it many times in the Bible.

So, okay, for example, here, not sure uh how many of us are farmers here.

I know we have uh one or two uh for sure.

Okay, but so for example here, all right, if you uh plant uh potatoes, okay, what are you gonna get?

Okay, I'm gonna tell you what you're not gonna get.

You're not gonna get, you're not gonna get uh corn, you're not gonna reap bananas, you're not gonna get peaches as much as you uh might hope.

Okay, you get you get potatoes.

Okay, you're gonna get those every single time.

Okay, you can count on it.

Okay, but the same thing goes in life, and that's what Paul's getting at here.

The same thing goes in life.

If you if you sow to the flesh, if you sow to the flesh, if you if you live your life giving in to the desires of the flesh and allowing the flesh to drive you, if you live contrary to God's ways, if we choose not to keep in step with the spirit.

Hey, listen, don't be surprised, don't be surprised when you eventually, at some point here, reap corruption.

Okay, it's gonna happen.

He's saying it's guaranteed.

Okay, so let me let me speak to the younger crowd here for a second.

I don't know if I qualify for that anymore.

I'm 37 years old now, so I see myself as a little bit older, but how about you know, high school, college, you know, university students, that crowd.

Like, listen, if you're in that kind of stage and uh of life and you're in that place where you're sort of like, you know, the world's the world's draw is powerful right now.

And there's a temptation for you, uh, maybe on some level to get sucked into that.

And I want to pursue the world's uh desires and what it would want, and maybe it's the party scene, and maybe it's maybe it's drugs, and maybe it's alcohol, and maybe it's you know sex as much as I want with whoever I want, and then you know, kind of move on to the next person or whatever.

Okay, if if you're dabbling in all of that or considering dabbling in all of that, and many of us old people here have you know have experienced this uh for sure.

Okay, likely, maybe what you're finding right now in this moment at this time in your life, that uh the corruption that this verse talks about, that's just flat out not my experience.

It's like I don't I don't know what you're talking about, man.

Like I don't know what my parents were talking about.

You know, my whole life, you know, staying away from that scene and choosing my friends wisely and you know, staying away from a certain crowd and certain things.

Like, you know, I'm kind of giving in to all those things, and I don't see this corruption that my parents warned me about or that this verse you know talks about uh here.

Okay, maybe that's not been your experience at this point.

Maybe for you it's just it's just fun, right?

It's just excitement and it's just pleasure.

Why is that?

Okay, why might that be your experience?

Well, again, go back to okay, farming and planting.

Think about that, okay?

If you plant, we'll stick with the potato theme.

All right, if you plant potatoes, okay, you know, we all know this, nothing happens for a while.

Nothing happens.

You stick a bunch of seeds in the ground, you cover them all up, you water them, sun hits it, you take a step back, nothing.

Right?

At least that's what it looks like.

But we all know this too.

We know that under the surface, okay, things are starting to happen in the soil and in the nutrients, as the water and the light and all of that begins to hit it, things start to happen, develop, take root, grow, and eventually what will happen if the weather and everything is just right?

A potato's gonna sprout forth.

That is gonna happen, and it's gonna it's gonna come.

Okay, sowing to the flesh works the exact same way.

You give in to that enticing draw to sin and and get caught up in alcohol and hide it from everybody and and and lead that that dual life, and you're kind of going off the rails as much as possible, and right now it's it's just a great time.

Okay, listen, someday down the road, don't be surprised.

Don't be surprised when the consequences are felt.

Okay, and it may be, and it maybe even likely it's gonna happen in ways that that you weren't expecting.

It could be in the form of addictions.

Right?

This was this was fun, but but now I I I have to have these things.

Right?

I I can't just say no.

I I can't control this.

Don't be surprised if your relationships shatter and it's brokenness there, or or maybe it's a severe lack of fulfillment, and all these things that that promised to make me feel good.

All of these things that promise to make my life awesome.

Um I'm starting to see the ugly side of that.

And I'm not and I don't I'm not fulfilled anymore, and rather I'm I'm actually anxious, and and maybe it's depression, and maybe it's despair, and I mean it could be all of those things.

Okay, same thing goes for any of us, the the older crowd.

Okay, we we give into sin in any way.

You know, we sow to the flesh, if we follow our flesh into into pornography, listen, don't be surprised when when that starts to affect the intimacy of your marriage.

It will do it.

Right?

If we practice gossiping and we give our give ourselves over to that and we follow that kind of urge and that desire to talk about somebody.

Again, don't be shocked when somewhere down the road you're left with no friends.

People hate you, they don't trust you.

Why should they?

Because they know that you're just gonna go turn around and talk about them.

We pursue uh an overindulgence of entertainment.

Listen, is it wrong to be entertained?

Is it is it wrong to go on a vacation?

Is it wrong to watch TV and movies and have the Instagram accounts and all that stuff?

Of course it's not wrong to have any of that stuff.

It's the overindulgence of those things.

If we if we give ourselves over to those things and they rule our hearts, hey, don't be surprised.

Do not be surprised when you become super self-centered.

Right?

You're actually very discontent in life and you care less and less about the things of God because something else is ruling your heart.

You worship at the end of the day, entertainment.

If you sow to the flesh by persisting in the myriad of you know uh idolatrous things, if you follow all of that, or you know, if you, you know, we as the church continue in that you know legalistic, you know, performance-minded, surface-only behavior approach to your relationship with the Lord, listen, you're gonna reap corruption.

You will.

That will fall apart.

You will see it as empty and not delivering.

Or maybe even in the ultimate sense, where it's it's a total rejection of Christ, it's uh it's a complete rejection of the gospel, and and the corruption you'll reap is it's gonna be hell for eternity.

Okay, that's dark.

Right?

And that's heavy, but but that might be a reality.

That might be where some of us here are headed.

Okay, but now listen to verse 8.

Okay, we're getting to some of the good stuff now.

Here's what he says he says, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Okay, if you believe the gospel, if you you know humbly confess your sin and trust in Christ and receive the gift of salvation, which means your sins are forgiven forever through his blood on the cross.

Listen, if you sow to the spirit, you will be saved.

You will be.

That also is a guarantee.

You will reap eternal life.

And then, of course, on top of that, certainly the incredible fruits of righteousness that God grows in us, in our hearts, between now and that day.

Between now and eternity.

Okay, you live for the Lord, you'll reap good things.

All right, that's awesome to think about.

But listen, make no mistake, you will reap what you sow.

You will.

Okay, so how are you and I?

How are we gonna invest our time?

How are we gonna invest our energy and our resources in this life that God has given us to manage and steward well?

You know, is it gonna be by the flesh?

Are we gonna are we gonna dump all of that into fleshly pursuits, or is it gonna be uh into the spirit?

Okay, it's decision time here, church.

Do we see that?

Now you're thinking, well, hold on a second, don't push me, Pastor.

You can't push me into a decision.

I'm gonna sit here and gotta push that off.

Listen, to push it off, to make no decision, is to make a decision.

Do you see that?

You're deciding to follow your flesh, putting off, following Christ.

And to do good is to decide to follow the flesh.

That's what it is.

Right now, in this very moment, and and in every single moment that follows, it's really a decision.

Am I gonna sow to the flesh or am I gonna sow to the spirit?

Again, obviously, right?

Paul is encouraging us to the latter, right?

To do good here.

This is what he says in verse 9.

He says, He says, and let us and let us not grow weary of doing good.

I love that.

For in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

Man, that is a verse for weary souls, right there.

It's that it's that boost, right?

It's that it's that inspiration.

You know, keep plugging away in the grind, in the difficulty, in the discouragement that the Christian life can absolutely uh be for us.

Right?

It's not quite time to reap yet, and we're not we're not seeing the fruit of our labor and the fruit of good decisions and trusting the Lord when it doesn't make sense, and I and I can't see him coming through yet.

Listen, do not give up.

Believe that the Lord is working in your life.

Right?

He's doing it.

Right, you're not promised that you're gonna see every single way that he is working.

But he will show you when when we really need it.

Listen, listen, trust him in this.

Believe that the Lord is working, be patient, remind yourself of this verse.

Understand that it's as guaranteed as the farmer's crop coming to fruition.

Remind yourself of this verse.

I love that.

Right?

It's such a good verse.

Then he says this in verse 10.

He says, So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, right?

That's another great verse.

Right?

Uh as opportunities arise, okay, as opportunities arise, do good to all people.

Okay, to every single person.

You know, again, as opportunities arise, don't be overwhelmed by this and be like, I really didn't need to have an effect on every single person on this planet.

No, it says, as opportunities arise, okay, do good to everybody, regardless of their faith, regardless of their worldview, their their background, their similarities or differences to you, regardless of their circumstances that they might be in, while paying, I think, special attention to the church.

Right?

We here, we're we're family.

Right?

We should have a special attention to each other.

We should treat each other especially uh well.

We need the encouragement there.

And again, an example of this, I think, being verse six.

Remember I said we would go back to that?

Take a look at verse six.

He says he says, let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Now I could easily kind of teach this in a very self-serving way, I think, right?

I think sometimes it is kind of taught as that, like you gotta pay your pastor well, right?

And I'm standing up here, you know, harping on you about that, but you know, I think the scriptures do talk about that that concept in other places, but here um that word share there, right?

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

That word share uh actually refers more to fellowship.

A fellowship.

Teachers and and those under their teaching should be uh in rich community with each other.

Right?

We should we should be connected with each other, we should we should enjoy true biblical uh fellowship together, right?

We should share in these good things, in all of these good things.

It's talking about the church coming together and being cohesive and being unified and all of that.

And so listen, as you kind of zoom out again, as we've done a little bit over the last couple of weeks, and as you know, look at what Paul's been spurring us towards all through this letter, and you know, especially in the last several passages, hey, sowing to the spirit is doing good.

It's doing good.

It's loving other people.

It's fulfilling the law of Christ, which is to love our neighbor, everyone.

Okay, but especially the church.

And remember, not legalistically, not legalistically, it's not just, again, external conduct governed by self-serving motives where we're just trying to impress others, you know, or or trying to impress God or manipulate him into blessing us in whatever way we feel we need the blessing, or manipulating him into forgiving us, or or maybe even saving us.

No, no, we sow to the Spirit because our hearts are riveted by gospel truth.

We're riveted by by Jesus and we're riveted by the glory of the cross.

Right?

We're motivated now at a heart level, deep within us, to do what is good, do what is right.

You know, as we keep in step with the gospel, we want to sow to the Spirit.

Right?

We want to do that.

Which means that we will reap eternal life and much good fruit until then.

So again, what are you gonna sow to?

What are you gonna sow to?

You know, as we head from here, you know, in a little bit, as you get up tomorrow morning and it's Monday and it's the furthest point from Sunday and coming back to church, you know, what kind of decisions are you gonna make?

Are you gonna sow to the flesh?

Are you gonna sow to the spirit?

What will be the trajectory of your life in these things?

What will your walk with Christ be like?

How will it be characterized?

Listen, every single person, all of us here in this room, with zero exceptions, we're being confronted with a decision.

Okay, so what will you decide?

Keep going here.

Decision time.

Will I keep in step with the gospel?

Because it is the only way I become a new creation.

It's the only way.

Okay, likely, uh, what's been happening here is Paul's been dictating this letter uh to a scribe.

Okay, but as he concludes all of this here, you kind of picture him like kind of grabbing the pen out of the guy's hand and he's concluding this.

I like I want a personal touch here.

And so he writes his conclusion, verse 11, take a look.

He says, See what large letters I am writing to you with my own hands.

Okay, it's like he's got caps lock stuck on.

Right?

You know, when someone you know texts you in caps locks, like they're yelling, they're they're stressing, they're enunciating.

That's kind of like where he's at here.

He's stressing the importance of what he's about to say, and then addressing these false teachers for a final time here and and and putting a spotlight on the motivation of their hearts and the effectiveness of their legalistic message.

And you know, he's kind of lobbing kind of a final grenade at them.

As he closes down his message, take a look here at verse 12.

He says, It is those, he's talking about the false teachers, it is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only, okay, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

Okay, for even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

So Paul's like, at the end of the day, okay, these false teachers, the Judaizers, the ones who are running amok in this church and making a mess out of things and necessitating this letter.

Listen, they don't care about you.

Okay, not really.

All of the concern they seem to be showing is really about them.

Okay, all they really care about is your approval.

That's how their heart is functioning.

That's the motivation of their heart.

They want popularity, they want the easy path, they just want to be liked, they don't want to be suffering persecution.

Preaching the cross, that brings persecution.

Why?

Because it's ultra offensive.

Telling people that they're dead in sin and they're headed to hell, guess what?

People don't like that.

But they don't want to hear it.

They don't want to be told, no, you're awesome.

Just follow a bunch of rules and you'll be great.

That's the easy way out.

And it's ineffective, and it's broken, it's flawed, and it's deadly.

They just want to boast in your flesh, in the external things that they have somehow convinced you uh to do.

They want to make a good showing in the flesh, he says.

Okay, legalism, think about it, it's it's just external performance motivated by selfish desires.

That's all it is.

That's where these false teachers are coming from.

And to the church, he says, that's the path you're walking down.

Do you see it?

Do you see it?

Okay, there's nothing truly transformational about that.

Nothing.

That's not getting at your heart.

That's not changing your flaws.

That's not transforming your motives.

It kind of looks okay for a bit on the outside, but even then the fruit begins to show for what it is.

It's dead fruit.

Okay?

And then he says here, verse 14.

He says, but far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He's like the gospel.

Like that is what I will boast in.

I will boast in Jesus Christ alone and what he has done for me.

Keep going.

He says, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

He's like, Neither's circumcision, which was the issue, right?

That was the external thing that the false teachers were trying to get these guys to do.

Revert back to the law.

You follow the law, you will be saved.

You follow the law, God will really love you.

And it was circumcision, it was dietary food laws, it was all those things.

He's like, at the end of the day, getting circumcised, not getting circumcised, it's it doesn't count for anything, he says.

But a new creation, a new creation.

And so he's saying, like, my desire, he's speaking of himself, he's like, my desires have actually changed now.

I'm being transformed, I'm a new creation.

He's like, I don't want the world's values anymore.

I don't value what the world values.

He's like, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

It's like I'm being completely transformed from the inside out.

I mean, picture Paul's life when he was a Pharisee to where he is now as he's writing all of this.

Right?

That's a guy that's changed, right?

Big time.

It's all because of the gospel.

It's all because of what Jesus Christ has done.

He's like, I'm a completely new creation.

Sign me up for that.

Right?

The gospel is the only power strong enough to make us a new creation.

It's the only power.

Moral efforts.

We've said this a lot, right?

It's kind of recap today.

Moral efforts, external behavior, that that fleshly dissolve.

I'll be better this time, Lord.

I'm gonna step it up.

Right?

This is I can do this.

Listen, again, all of that gives the appearance of transformation.

And and it lasts only for a little while.

It's not effective long term, because none of it gets to the heart and changes the core of our being.

Only, only Jesus, only through the gospel will we change.

Right?

And Jesus does this as we align ourselves again with the truths of the cross.

He makes you and I a new creation as we believe that we are we are sinners.

We are saved by grace, not by works.

We find our ultimate hope, our our our peace and our purpose in this life.

We find it all in him.

Not in not in works, not in not in idols, not in anything else.

And then Paul he closes with this, verse 16.

He says, and for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

Meaning that those who believe the gospel are Abraham's true children.

That's what he's saying there.

And then he says, From now on, let no one cause me trouble.

Right?

He himself has been persecuted, this church has been giving it a hard time.

He's like, let no one, you know, he's kind of he's kind of fed up with it a little bit.

He says, For I bear the mark on my body the marks of Jesus.

He's been physically tortured over this.

But then I love it.

He says, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen.

Right at the end of all of this, as as frustrated as he's been, as as ticked off at these false teachers, as as they have strayed away from the gospel, and he writes this letter and is annoyed by all of it.

We've seen it throughout over these weeks.

He still calls them brothers.

He loves them, he believes that the Lord is at work, he believes that the Lord will bring them back to this and get them back to a good place.

Now, I mean, we've been talking about becoming a new creation, really, kind of all the way along through uh this letter, how God changes us dramatically as we align ourselves with the gospel, as we keep in step with all of it.

But but what exactly do these changes look like?

Right?

Like, what are some examples of all of this?

Like how, you know, what is this transformation, you know, how what's the evidence of it?

Well, we've got some things for you you can jot down here, but I've got a lot of them, and so you're probably gonna be scrambling.

And so I'm just kind of thinking ahead here.

And you know, if you are you know a note taker and you want to jot these down, again, just send me a message, Facebook, email, whatever, and I and I can fire you this list, or you can write like crazy, or maybe just jot down the ones that that maybe you know you want to focus on in your life, some things that you long to see, you know, in your heart.

But here it is.

When the gospel takes root in my heart and mind, I become a new creation.

I become a new creation.

What does that look like?

Well, here's the first one.

From self-righteous to deeply humble.

Self-righteous to deeply humble.

We all have so much more self-righteousness lurking in our hearts than we uh care to admit.

You know, when the when we understand the gospel, when we understand that we are truly dust and that only God is worthy of glory and all of that, uh, we are truly humbled.

And we really are.

And that that pride and that arrogance that we tend to have about ourselves or towards other people, and that critical spirit, and sometimes that elitism that people see very clearly in the church and in believers, you know, all of that begins to drift away because we realize, hey, we're all on the same page, we're all in the same boat.

We're, you know, as I've heard you know people say before, my wife loves to say it, the uh at the at the foot of the cross, the ground is level.

It's level, right?

We're all the same, we're all sinners in need of grace.

We're all of that.

Okay, that that judgmentalism that so creeps up.

We talked about that a lot that a lot about that last week, and the comparing to other people and seeing ourselves as better or worse.

All of that goes away.

We're not self-righteous anymore, we're not focusing on ourselves, we're truly humble.

We're truly humble.

The gospel has that effect on us.

Here's the second one from crippling insecurity to profound Christ's confidence.

We've talked about insecurity along the way as well.

At the end of the day, we're so insecure, right?

We're not as confident as we think we are, and sometimes the people who project the most confidence are actually the most insecure.

Right?

And we've all got those areas.

And it might have something to do with the way you know we were raised, it might have something to do with the decisions we've made in life.

Maybe all of that kind of combined or whatever, but eventually, you know, ultimately a lot of that is on us.

And listen, I think all of us probably want you know what that says there, profound Christ confidence, you know, not self-confidence.

Can I say again how much I hate that term?

I hate it.

Right?

Do we see that term in the Bible?

No.

Right?

I'd love to find a verse.

You just need to love yourself more.

No, no, that's the problem.

You love yourself too much, you're too focused on yourself.

We need Christ's confidence.

The greater we see Him, the more clearly we view our Lord and our Savior, the more that fills us with confidence, the more, you know, boldness and all of that we have.

But as the gospel takes root in our hearts, the more confident you will be.

You will love your Lord.

This is the insecurities that dominate and rule you, they'll begin to drift away because you'll realize that the Lord is awesome and you are his.

Okay, done with crippling insecurity.

Third one.

From rampant idolatry to tearing them down.

Okay, we've all got idols again.

We've all got things that we think we need in this life.

Some things that you know might be outright sin, blatant sin, but not just that.

Sometimes it's an over-desire for good things.

Right?

We talked about entertainment.

Right, entertainment is fine and good, but we tend to overdesire it.

And it makes us lazy and it makes us focus only on ourselves and you know, all of those kind of things.

Okay?

As the gospel takes root, we we begin to realize, listen, these idols, they they don't satisfy me.

They don't fulfill me the way that my heart, you know, somewhere thinks that it will.

And I start to realize that only Jesus satisfies.

And these other things don't.

So we begin to dismantle those idols as we align ourselves with the truth that Jesus is enough.

We dismantle them, we see them lose their grip, and sometimes we just straight up like kind of take a spiritual sledgehammer to it, start breaking them down.

Okay, from sin dominating me to real power over it.

Okay?

I think sometimes we're like, man, I can't get over this.

This sin just kind of continues to nip at my heels and continues to crush me and continues to you know have power over me and all of that.

Well, as the gospel takes root, you know, as we become a new creation, as we live a spirit-filled life, which we talked about two weeks ago, we begin to not walk in the power of the flesh.

Right?

From sin dominating me to real power over it.

Fifth one, from fear to boldness, from fear to boldness.

Fear plagues a lot of us as well.

And I'm sure a lot of us would love to be bold, love to see that fear wash away.

We become more bold when the gospel takes root.

We pray more, more bold prayers, not just safe and easy prayers, not just prayers for comfort, not just prayers for protection over us or our kids or or our church or whatever it might be, but like, but but gutsy prayers, right?

Bold prayers where we become bold in evangelism.

I'm not so scared anymore of what people think about me, and if they think I'm weird, so be it.

Right?

They they I need to love these people regardless of what they think of me.

I need to take the good news out there to them.

I need to be about discipleship.

I need to be bold in this.

I need a disciple, I need to, you know, maybe confront that person in sin and not be so fearful and shy away and allow them, you know, to continue to do damage to me or themselves or others or whatever it is, from fear to boldness, amen.

How about this?

From lukewarm faith to red-hot passion for Christ.

Lukewarm faith, does that describe the church in Canada at all?

Uh yeah, I think so a little bit.

Right?

We're so lukewarm.

And in Revelation, God speaks of his disdain for lukewarmness, right?

Laodicea, the church of Laodicea, become lukewarm.

Are we Laodicea?

Is that us?

Are we lukewarm?

We're like, nah, I don't care about church.

I don't care about the Lord, I don't care about all these things.

I'm just gonna kinda go with the flow.

And I'm neither like super cold and off the deep end and all kinds of sin, but neither am I fired up.

Neither am I excited about him.

I'm not, again, it's not red-hot passion for Christ.

I don't have passion in my in my prayer.

I I kind of go through the motions and I, you know, pray the same old worn-out prayer uh for dinner every single week, and and maybe I like, you know, force my kids to get down on their knees and pray before bed, but it's the same thing over and over.

There's no passion in that.

There's no passion in my personal study of God's word.

I just read it to get that check mark.

Right?

From lukewarm faith to red hot passion.

We understand who Jesus is and what he has done and how he's transforming us.

Listen, listen, that lukewarmness, that temperature's gonna get turned up.

It's gonna get red hot.

How about this one?

From reluctant compliance to joyful obedience.

Right?

The Lord has a lot of commands.

There's a lot of things that we need to obey.

That's how we that's how we know that we love him, we obey.

But is it reluctant obedience?

Are you like, ugh, uh, that's what our hearts do.

I'll do this, and again, if anyone was looking at me right now, it looks like I'm in the right spot.

But my heart is stone about this.

Reluctant compliance.

Not what God wants.

Not what God wants.

Joyful obedience.

When we understand that Jesus rescued us from the pit of hell that we deserve, we're like, okay, Lord, I'll follow you.

I want to.

I want to go to the ends of the earth.

Right?

You have me, you want me to serve in the church in multiple ministries?

I get that I'm gonna be tired about that.

I'm gonna do it.

You died for me.

I'm not gonna complain, I'm not gonna whine, I'm not gonna be bitter, I'm not gonna, nothing like that.

It is my joy to serve, it is my joy to obey.

Obedience becomes our desire.

I leaked into verse eight, or sorry, into the eighth one, but here it is.

From a complaining attitude to constant gratitude.

Don't need any of this personally.

Have you noticed that we just complain about everything?

Everything.

We whine.

We bicker.

We're all of it.

I'm just sharing my heart.

I got I'm I'm hoping that you agree with this for yourself, right?

But we complain.

Every time we get upset, it's like you know, God's dealt me a bad hand.

Like that, that's really at the core of our complaining.

Right?

Because the gospel hasn't probed deep enough into our hearts.

Again, we understand the the massive reality of grace.

The the the the the the thorough reality of our forgiveness.

Our sin is not held against us, and it never will be again.

And when that happens, we'll learn to be constantly uh grateful.

We'll be thankful people.

Thankful people are joyful people.

Here's number nine.

From a simplistic understanding of the Christian walk to knowing how it really works.

So many of us have an overly simplistic understanding of what the Christian life should be about.

And really we just bring our kind of misplaced expectations and unsanctified feelings and beliefs kind of in uh about it to the equation.

We start to realize that you know the Christian life isn't this easy cakewalk, right?

It's not that that Jesus saves me and then he heals me from all of my pain and all of my problems, and I just kind of coast through the rest of life, and you know, no, you know, no bad things ever happen, I don't go through any difficulties, and you know, the Lord should probably make me healthy, wealthy, and wise, you know, you know, all of that stuff.

Or we have this simplistic understanding sometimes that's that's just flat out unbiblical.

And we start to realize as we grow and as the gospel takes root, we realize that the Christian life is not easy.

It's not.

Growth is is often very slow.

Some things happen fast, a lot of it happens slow.

We still wrestle, right?

We still struggle, we we battle, but all of it with ultimate hope.

The Lord promises to be our strength, he promises uh that he will reap a good fruit as we sow to the spirit, we walk by the spirit, we will not gratify the flesh.

There are a lot of promises there.

There's there's eternal hope that the Lord's coming back, he's gonna renovate this dump that we're all living on, right?

And all the promises.

I'm not trying to slam what Jesus has made.

I'm just saying at the end of the day, he's gonna make it a lot better than it is.

Right?

Don't have that simplistic understanding of the Christian walk.

Know how it really works.

Have the long view here.

Realize that there will be difficulties.

I remember, I remember when I was, you know, early, you know, in my faith, 10, 15 years ago, whatever it was, I remember being so worked up every time there was like temptation in my heart, and I would like stress and flog myself metaphorically about right, about how dare I have this, you know, what's going on?

You know, and I would you know cry out to the Lord, and you know, there's some good in the passion there, but I didn't have that understanding that listen, temptation's still gonna happen.

And so now when it comes, I'm like, yeah, this is this is all part of it.

And I can I can now fight through these things in the power of the spirit with ultimate hope.

Right?

We know how it really works, our our walk with him.

Number 10 from self centeredness to truly loving others.

Okay, we become others oriented as as the truth of the cross permeates our soul.

And we realize it's not about us, it's about Jesus.

And what Jesus wants is for us to love people.

And so we do that.

And as a result, as the gospel is working its way through our heart, there's less and less rivalries and comparison and division, a lot of which can be in the church, and a lot of which pulls the church apart.

Things like racism, which this letter touches on at multiple points.

No, we're not self-centered.

We don't think we're better.

We realize everybody is made in the image of God, right?

Salvation is available for all.

Jesus loves all.

Things like our lust, which is this counterfeit message that you will find love by looking at others inappropriately or being in an inappropriate relationship with them.

That's not love.

That's not love that's that's hurtful.

From self-centeredness to truly loving others.

The gospel also exposes those counterfeits of love that we often talk about.

You know, where we kind of, you know, we hang our growth and we hang where we're at in our spiritual walk on the fact that we're nice.

Well, I'm nice to that person, so therefore I'm loving.

Right?

Or I'm I'm ex you know, I like to be with people, and I'm an extrovert, and so therefore I'm gonna call that love.

No, well, do you are you sad are do you love people even when they hate you?

Do you love people when they don't listen to you?

From self-centeredness to truly loving people.

How about this one, number 11?

From church is an accessory to church is crucial.

Right?

That becomes our heart as we understand the heart of God and as we see his heart through the gospel.

You know, church is is no longer just a thing that you know I go to if my weekend happens to be free.

It's no longer just a thing I do, but it's kind of far down the totem pole in terms of my priorities and all of that.

But no, this is crucial, this is essential.

This is this is the focus of my week.

This is the highlight of my week.

I am I'm gearing my heart up to come and worship the Lord corporately with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'm I'm passionate about my community.

I'm passionate about the mission, the mission to make disciples.

It's not just a country club.

We're not just here to make friends and have you know good Christian kids for my kids to hang out with.

It's not just about those things, it's actually about the mission to see other people get saved and to become mature in Jesus Christ.

Church is crucial.

Our priorities, all of it, shifts radically as the gospel becomes central as I become a new creation.

Two more, number 12.

From a world that thinks we're a joke to a world stunned by the glory of God.

As our hearts transform, guess what?

The world's gonna see that.

And the world, I'm telling you right now, generally speaking, they think we're a joke.

And guess what?

Sometimes they're right.

They're right.

Well, Christians aren't any better at loving people, and how come they're the most judgmental?

And how come they're the most of that's a little bit unfair and maybe be blind to their own hypocrisy and some of that.

But listen, some of it's bang on.

A lot of it's bang on.

But listen, as our hearts are transformed, as we are made into a new creation, and some of you have seen this in your life as the Lord is doing this in you, and you take, you know, that, your faith into the workplace, people are gonna see that you're different.

They're gonna see that you don't flip out when your car breaks down, and it's gonna be you know something that you're gonna have a hard time uh to afford to fix.

They're gonna see that you're calm about that.

You're gonna see that you trust the Lord, you're gonna see that you still have joy.

They're gonna see all of those things.

They're gonna be like, what's up with that person?

They're gonna see Jesus in you.

And listen, they're gonna want that because they're gonna realize that what they're going after, it's all counterfeit, it's all a sham.

None of it's real.

We're gonna see them stunned by the glory of God, not impressed with you specifically, but seeing God in you and working through you.

Okay, and then here's the last thing here from living for this world to living for the next.

Okay, so many of us have a very temporal mindset.

And we're living, you know, for maybe it's the next paycheck.

And I understand, you know, a lot of us are maybe living in that place, but we're living for the next vacation, we're living for, you know, the next thing we can buy.

You know, we're living, whatever.

We're living for all that stuff.

It's this world, it's it's it's the here, it's the now.

It's all gonna burn up.

We can't take it with us, you know, all of those things.

Like, listen, it's gonna be living for the next.

Lord, you have saved me.

You've got me destined for eternity in heaven with you.

I want, I want to live, I want, I want to build up treasures in heaven.

I want to follow you now.

We have that eternal perspective.

Now, an obvious question as you kind of go through all of those things is okay, yeah, so I see that I'm I'm a new creation, that's what I become.

You know, gradually, eventually, you know, some of the things on this list, and this list is not extensive.

We could have done a million of these things.

Okay, but you're seeing that happening.

I see that the Spirit of God ultimately accomplishes this in my heart.

It's not something I can do in my own strength.

This transformation is it's fueled by the Spirit of God.

But listen, a question comes up here, obviously, that, you know, what's my role in all this?

You know, what do I need to do?

Again, we've talked about this before, right?

We're not to be passive in all of this.

Just kick our feet up and expect the Lord to do everything, we do nothing.

No, what should I be doing?

What should I be doing now?

What's my responsibility here?

And again, we've worked through some of these things along the way, but let's kind of hammer it home here one last time, and then we'll be done.

How do I keep in step with the gospel, practically speaking?

How do I do this?

Five things.

I intentionally saturate my mind with it.

I intentionally saturate my mind with it.

If you're only hearing the gospel every time you come here on Sundays, that's not enough.

Not even close.

I'm talking like multiple times a day.

Many times a day.

As it comes up, think of it often, talk about it often with your spouse, with people that you know, study the scriptures, worship the Lord throughout the week, not just here.

Have a game plan.

Listen, if you don't have a game plan about all these things, it's not gonna happen by osmosis.

You're not accidentally gonna stumble into the maturity on these things.

Okay, have a game plan.

Oh, maybe tomorrow I'll just wake up and it'll all be better.

No.

You have a responsibility in here.

Saturate your mind with the gospel.

You gotta be intentional about this.

Okay, how else do I keep in step with the gospel, practically speaking?

Second one.

Get beyond the symptoms of sin and expose the roots.

We've talked about this.

Okay, you gotta get down into the intentions and the motives of your heart.

So if you're the kind of person that gets angry real easy and you blow up and you're like swear under your breath, or or you swear out loud, or you, you know, punch walls everything something doesn't go every time something doesn't go right, or when things get really bad.

Listen, don't just confess the swear words.

Don't just confess the punch.

Okay, yeah, sure, that does need to be confessed, but think about what's really going on here.

Get beneath this, those are just symptoms.

Get down into the root of what's going on in your heart.

What is what does your heart think it needs in that moment that it's not getting that's causing you to be angry and to respond that way?

But never never stop focusing on what's going on in your heart.

Maybe your heart is that you want control.

You're a control freak.

You demand that everything goes your way.

Well, the gospel never promises that things are gonna go your way.

It promises that God is king.

God is on the throne, not you, not me.

Right?

As that sinks down, we'll we'll we'll we'll see the blow-ups, we'll see the anger, the outbursts, all of that happen less and less.

Okay, get beyond the symptoms of sin, expose the roots.

Third one.

Pray gospel truths into my heart.

Pray gospel truths into my heart.

You've got to apply it specifically.

Right?

If you're angry and you're sensing it's a control thing, start to think through the gospel.

Well, the gospel tells me God's in control.

Lord, would you help my heart?

Would you help my heart that struggles with this so deeply and it's not going away, and I'm frustrated and I'm annoyed about this, Lord.

And the fact that I'm angry is making me angry.

And you know, it's that that that's right, pray gospel truths into your heart directly, specifically, repeatedly.

Fourth one.

Invest deeply in gospel community.

You gotta invest in this.

Right?

It's not a half-hearted or one foot in, one foot out gospel community thing.

You gotta buy in.

You gotta buy into the church, you gotta get involved, you gotta be known.

You gotta get to know people and gotta allow people to know you.

And again, the the major way, the main way, our discipleship model here at Harvest is our small groups.

Get involved, invest, buy in.

Invest deeply.

Fast one.

Persevere.

Persevere.

Because it's gonna be crazy.

Okay, it's gonna be crazy.

The Christian walk is nuts, man.

You know this?

It is so up and down at times.

It is all over the place.

So many of us who've lived this for a while, like you're like, yeah, man, I totally get it.

Right?

Like one day was like amazing, and the next day it's hard.

Or it's been hard for like a year.

Or listen, my life has just only been hard.

And I'm not just playing the victim card and and and mistakenly seeing everything as life's out to get me.

No, it's just legitimately difficult.

I'm suffering.

We all suffer in different ways.

We are gonna stumble and fall.

People will let us down.

The church will let you down.

I will let you down.

The enemy will fight back.

Your flesh will not go away.

Life will be hard.

You must persevere.

You must persevere.

It's not easy.

It is wartime mentality.

We talked about that, right?

We talked about that.

Stop acting like you know, people aren't shooting arrows at you and trying to take you out.

They are.

His name is Satan.

Your flesh is trying to mess you up.

Fight back against these things in the spirit, in the strength of the spirit.

And listen, do not grow weary of doing good.

Persevere.

I love that verse again.

Because listen, you have the Lord on your side.

And as Romans chapter 8, 31 says, if God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Right?

That is the fuel we need right there.

We must persevere.

So hey, again.

Last time I'm asking this question, Harvest.

Will you decide to keep in step with the Spirit?

Will you decide to keep in step with the gospel?