Sowing To The Spirit - Galatians 6:1-10 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone.

>> Welcome to Boon Ferry.

>> If you're new, my name is Mati Scaring.

I'm the preaching and teaching pastor

here. And uh we'd love to get to know

you or just connect with you on the

things that are going on at church ways

to serve or any needs that you might

have. And we use our welcome cards for

that. So, you can just take one of those

out of the seat back pocket, fill out

the information you want us to have,

turn it into the connection table. We've

got a gift for you if that's the first

time you're turning that in. We also use

those for prayer request cards, and we

pray every single Wednesday for you. So,

uh, if you have something you'd like to

be prayed for, just remember that's a

public public prayer time. So, maybe

state it in a way that you're

comfortable with people you don't know

hearing about it. Um, I'm I'm excited to

announce our next book study. And I

thought, you know, I can't remember the

last time, it's been a while. We've been

in Galatians for a while now, um, that I

explained how the elders and I do that.

Uh, I think it's a wonderful approach.

Just go straight to the Bible, Genesis

or Revelation, and then repeat. Um, and

I've considered doing that, although

what we've been doing at Boon Fairy for

a long time. We always just do book

studies and preach the Bible verse by

verse, chapter by chapter, and book by

book. Um, and so that's that's what

we're really about. There will be

topical sermons from time to time in

between services or or in between uh

studies or as you've if you've been here

for a while, you know I've been doing

teachings on um what it looks like to be

a mentor or mentee, one-on-one

disciplehip time type of things. But in

Jen, we're always in a book. Um I like

to go back and forth between the Old

Testament and New Testament. Although

what we really actually do is we

prayerfully consider what God wants us

to do next. uh we consider things like

needs, spiritual needs of the

congregation, ways that we feel we need

to grow as a church and uh what book may

speak to those things and we are praying

about that. If you've been here for a

while at Boon Ferry, you know that the

elders and I have felt led uh to grow

ourselves and also to lead our

congregation to grow in what I would

call being able to verbalize your

convictions with greater confidence and

boldness. So be able to verbalize what

you believe from scripture. Uh that

means say it out loud, speaking the

truth in love with greater confidence

and boldness. And there were themes of

that already starting in Daniel. If you

know the book of Daniel, Daniel,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo had to be

very verbally bold in a very dark time

in Babylon. Um a very similar theme

running through the two letters to

Timothy where Paul is encouraging

Timothy to preach the word boldly and to

be bold in this time. uh even Genesis

had that consideration in the back of

our minds in terms of founding doctrine

biblically. Let's let's say um there are

people at your work or friends that you

have or you just even like I recently

did over here at a barberh shop people

talking about gender and the idea of

maybe one of their children wanting to

change their gender. Uh in part we need

to know that God created just two

genders that those genders go deeper

than just the skin. They're not just

genetic, but they are or biological.

They're actually spiritual realities of

a a man and a woman being made male and

female in the image of God. And so

there's a connection between their

relationship in the Lord and their

acceptance of what God actually made

them from birth. And when you're founded

in that way, then you can be more

verbally bold as a result. Um, we don't

feel that that process has been

completed. We still think we're living

in a dark time. We're living in a time

where there we may h have not begun to

be physically persecuted although that

even seems to be happening some in

America but verbal uh legal societal

kinds of persecutions are happening. You

can get cancelled just by believing

things that used to be stuff everyone

believed as I feel like you guys have

noticed. Um so we want to continue in

that and um normally what will happen is

I will be praying and since I some

leading towards a book and I'll present

it to the elders and we pray about and

we start reading it through it and we

feel like yes this is the right thing in

this case I uh I prayed I reflected on

it I'm like I'm not sure where to go

next and it was actually Ben that came

up with our I want to give him credit

for it because as soon as he said it

both Vern and I Vern Crowley who is sick

at home you might pray for because he's

on top of it taking care of Arlene who

just had a a surgery on her appendix. Um

and then Ben and Christian are also

sick. Uh um and uh they've got a bunch

of little kids, so that's tough. You

could be praying for both of them. Uh

but as soon as Ben said it out loud, Ver

and I were like, "Yes, that's the one."

We just knew immediately. It was kind of

like this little lightning from above

moment. And the book we want to go

through is Esther. Can you see that

theme in the book of Esther where

someone had to be very bold and actually

risk their life, not just their social

standing of getting maybe canled or

losing a job, but Esther had to risk her

life to come to a king uh where there

was a law. You don't just come in

without being invited. You don't come in

without being summoned. And people had

been executed for doing so before. And

it was not just her own life or her

uncle Morai's life, but uh the Jews that

lived um back then were under threat of

uh persecution to the point of death.

And had she not done something, Morai

does say God will, you know, raise

someone up from some other other place

through which the Jews will be saved. Um

but so there's it's not as though God

can't

get the truth out there in a bold way if

you fail. He can. But as servants of the

Lord, we need to be bold with the truth.

And you can even just hear in the story

of Esther of how she put her life on the

line uh words like when Jesus said,

"Unless you're willing to give up your

life, you don't gain eternal life." So

there is this willingness to sacrifice

your life on earth uh for the Lord in in

passionate pursuit of his truth and

love. So I'm very excited about that. Um

that's not too long from now that that's

going to be beginning. Uh we will the

first sermon will be on the 8th of

February. Uh there'll be a little short

break in between there, but you can be

looking forward to Esther. So you can

also be praying for my studies. Um not

this next Sunday. Next Sunday is the

very end of Galatians, but the Sunday

after that, I've got Steve Holidayiday,

who is a guy that um has been somewhat

of a preaching mentor to me in the past

and become a really close friend, and

he'll come and preach uh when I need a

break. And in this case, I'll be taking

a break um probably starting like around

the 29th all the way to the 5th. So like

a full week uh just to study Esther. You

can pray for my time doing that. Um I've

already been studying it. Really looking

forward to that. So uh that's all for

announcements. Very excited about that.

Um I've never preached through Esther

before, so I'm really looking forward to

it. Hope you are as well. Uh I want to

pray and we can get right into uh we're

in the last chapter of Galatians, second

to last sermon. Galatians has been

incredible and we'll be dealing with

verse 1 through10 uh for today's sermon.

Let me pray. Father, thank you for the

opportunity to uh finish a very

important letter in in the Bible in your

New Testament. I pray that we would

continue to listen to hear what your

spirit actually has to say to us

individually and to our church. that we

would uh gain the power through

surrender to actually apply in our lives

and that we'd be changed. That we'd

actually fundamentally experience change

in our lives as a result of your word in

accordance with obedience to what you

want uh and what uh work you've designed

in advance for us to walk out as tools

of righteousness. And I pray these

things in Jesus name. Amen.

I've been hoping for quite some time to

be able to plan a trip to Israel, take

the whole church along, and uh those

plans have not yet come to fruition. So,

don't get too excited yet. It's still

something that I would like to do. And

um with the kinds of things that have

been happening with the war in Israel,

uh planning that is is somewhat

difficult. But I've been thinking about

things like taking a congregation to

Israel and preaching at various sites.

And uh so if you're interested in that

and want to pray for us to be able to do

that, that would be an amazing thing.

But in along those thoughts, I was

thinking about a trip that I got to take

to Israel. And going to Israel is an

expensive thing. And uh pastor asked me,

"Hey, would you like to come along?" And

I said, "I'm not sure I can afford

that." And he goes, "Well, how about I

pay half your way?" And I thought,

"Really?" And he goes, "Yeah, and I'd

like to give you about five preaching

opportunities of your choice so you can

choose the locations." And so this was a

long time ago actually now. Um, and

because it was half off, I was able to

take Christine along with us and we got

to go to some of the sites. And although

this site that I'm about to talk about,

Msada, isn't as biblically connected as

many of the other ones are, it was one

of the most um visually stunning. Uh

this is in uh southeastern Israel in the

Judeian desert, a fortress that's still

pretty well preserved. And it's famous

because the Romans besieged it and

ultimately did uh uh get to the people

and and take it over. Um and they built

this giant siege ramp. Um but it's

become uh it's like a historical

heritage site because of that story and

a famous place to go travel to and see

in Israel. Uh it was incredible. They

had these ancient like steam baths where

they had these uh uh tubes underneath

the ground that they would feed water

through that had a fight underneath it

and create steam. So it's not just

24-hour fitness that has steam rooms.

They had it back there in that fortress.

Um kind of funny to think if they used

that while they were being besieged by

the Rome just relaxing in this you can't

get to us. Uh but they did. And uh

anyway, it's it's um it's become famous

for for more than just that reason. And

I wanted to show you something that um

at least thematically connects to the

sermon today. Um have you ever heard of

Methuselah, and I don't mean the oldest

man who ever lived. I mean a date palm

seed uh that's 2,000 years old that they

found at Msada in the Rebel and they

dated it to it's the oldest known seed

that's ever been germinated or one

article said regerminated meaning they

planted it and it grew into a date palm

tree. You guys know what date palm trees

are? where we got to stop on the side of

the road in Israel and uh they they get

these dates and if you can buy them at

the store and if you pull the seed out

it looks kind of like a shriveled long

coffee bean um it's about that long

maybe an inch long or something like

that and sometimes they'll soak them in

honey this roadside little restaurant

has soaked them in honey and then we're

having I think they call it Turkish

coffee which is basically just mostly

coffee grounds and water and so very

strong coffee but delicious. We had mint

tea there as well. Um, a pretty special

time, but I still remember how delicious

the dates were. And it when you walked

right out of this restaurant, you could

see a date palm plantation. Uh, don't

think the slender kind of slightly bent

palm trees with coconuts. Think really

like about that big. And if they don't

manicure them, then they would be having

these dead uh palm sheav, palm branches

hanging out everywhere. They'll be dead.

But they cut them off. And so they, you

can see kind of that they've manicured

them into this big trunk and then

gigantic palm sheaves or leaves or

branches coming out of that. That's a

date palm. Pretty famous. You've seen

it. Well, Methuselah

is now looks like that. But he started

from a 2,000-year-old date plant seed.

Can you believe that? It's the oldest

reggerated seed in the world. It was

thought to be um biologically or

botanically impossible, which makes

sense to me. Think about how long can a

seed be dormant. The fact that a seed

can even be dormant is is wild to me if

you think about it. You know, go without

water for a very long time and come into

this dormant state. And in order to get

it out of that dormant state, it has to

have certain effects that sometimes you

actually have to like it has to go

through a frost. Can you believe that?

like a frost will sort of shock it out

of dormcancy. There are other things

that like water uh moisture or just

planting it in soil. But there have to

be these conditions present and they uh

up until this point I believe that a

seed this old cannot be reggerminated

and and yet it is. Look, you can look it

up. Um and I wanted to read to you from

I think I've got the uh Psalm 92 up on

the slides today. This is Psalm 92

where the psalmist says this starting in

verse 12. The righteous flourish like a

palm tree and grow like a cedar in

Lebanon. They are planted in the house

of the Lord. They flourish in the courts

of our God. They still bear fruit in old

age. They are ever full of sap and green

to declare that the Lord is upright. He

is my rock and there is no

unrighteousness in him.

talking about palm trees. You know, it's

highly likely that the types of palm

tree sheav or leaves or branches that

were thrown at Jesus' feet or used to

fan him or what people were doing when

they were praising him, hosana in the

highest, when he was when he was walking

into Jerusalem were date palm sheav. Uh

to think about a 2,000-y old seed. Uh

that's a seed that was around near and

around the time that Jesus was walking

on earth and they just reggerminated and

now it's actually a date palm tree.

Pretty amazing. I wanted to to use that

as an example of the idea of dormant

seeds uh that are the right seeds that

will actually grow into something. But

seeds can go dormant because we're going

to be talking about something in

Galatians today uh where there are two

different kinds of ways you can sew. You

can sow to the flesh or you can sow to

the spirit. If you sow to the flesh, you

will reap corruption.

If you sow to the spirit, you'll reap

eternal life or as we continue in the

passage, things of eternal value. So

when you sow to the flesh, you sow

things that are perishable that uh that

don't bear lasting fruit or where the

fruit is rotten or corrupt in some way,

a counterfeit of what it's supposed to

be. Uh but when you sw to the spirit

there are things that have eternal

value. You can't always see them.

Sometimes they have a visible

expression. But sometimes there the

fruit is not visible. It's inside your

character. It's inside the character of

somebody else. It's something that

happens that God knows and nobody else

knows. But it has eternal value. He

doesn't forget the things that were sown

in the spirit. And yet something can

happen to Christians where sewing in the

spirit lies dormant and Christians will

begin to sew in the flesh. It doesn't

mean that that seed has died. That seed

could be described as a salvation. The

Holy Spirit living in you, a sign and

and guarantee and seal of your

salvation. Um but you can be living a

life for your own agenda which you might

be quenching the spirit. Or you can be

living life where you're just not

willing to confess sin that's grieving

the Holy Spirit. And maybe it's a

pattern in your life and you've been

sewing to the flesh. It can happen. And

interestingly, uh you can on the outside

it could look like you're sewing to the

spirit. You know, you could be reading

God's word. And did you know that

sometimes you can read God's word and

it's actually sewing to the flesh? The

Pharisees were doing that. reading these

rules as and statutes and laws and

commands as things that they can keep in

their own power and then they're

righteous. That's legalism. That's works

righteousness. And that's using God's

word to sew to the flesh. Another way

you might hear, and I don't even

necessarily think it's wrong to talk

about this, but the heart attitude of

the televangelist is often wrong,

talking about people sewing money that

they're going to then use to sew in the

flesh. A very tricky way of doing it.

But there is a way in which by faith

when you give to fund things in God's

kingdom, I think especially in a local

church, I use that word especially

because Paul uses it in this passage. Uh

you could be sewing to the spirit or you

could be giving and seemingly to the

outside faithful, but you're actually

sewing to the flesh because the way that

you're giving is with the wrong heart.

Right? So anything on the outside could

look like you're sowing to the spirit.

It could also obviously look like you're

sowing to the flesh because we have some

named attitudes like fits of anger or

jealousy or just like the works of the

flesh that pretty easy to recognize

that's not sowing to the spirit. That's

not peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithful. That's not the fruit of the

spirit. But what I'm saying is we it's

this passage even talks about Paul talks

about how easy it is for us to deed

deceive ourselves, right? So, I actually

believe that most of you, unless these

topics are relatively new, let's say

you're either young in your faith or

you've been walking for a while where

you weren't studying scripture as deeply

and and these are new concepts for you,

that's fine. But if they're not new

concepts for you, I assume that we by

the spirit intuitively know the

difference between sowing to the flesh

and sowing to the spirit. So, it's not

always just a matter of like cognitively

understanding that there's a surrender

that happens. You might know I'm sowing

to the flesh right now in general. I'm

doing things I know the Lord doesn't

want me to do. I'm expressing attitudes

and I have attitudes in my heart that

have grown out of that that are in the

category of corrupt. They're not the

right fruit. They're not the right

attitude. I'm not experiencing the joy

or peace or patience or kindness of the

spirit. I know what that's like and I've

been walking like this for a while and I

don't want to stop. It can be a decision

top of mind. I'm not ready to change in

that way. And then there's a warning in

this passage about what what that kind

of attitude and that kind of life

reaps. When you sew those kinds of seed,

what you reap is corruption. Uh but

there's also something hopeful there

because very like I the seeds do die in

dormcancy actual seeds right that's

that's why it was believed botanically

impossible to reconstitute or

reggerminate a seed that's 200 years old

it seems like the conditions at Msada

under the rubble were just right dry

enough shaded enough

I don't know if it has to be

particularly cool or whatever it has to

be for these date seeds to last but

seeds can last a long time with the

spirit. You, according to Paul, you can

remain an infant for in Christ and be

saved, but living a relatively fleshly

life. If you want to go read this, this

would be first Corinthians 3. Um, you're

you're still an infant in Christ. You're

born again, but you're living as though

you weren't really a Christian. And it's

that that seed of your salvation, the

Holy Spirit, lays there dormant for a

very long time. You could also have been

faithful for a long time. something

happens that interrupts your

faithfulness, maybe something bad, and

you're upset with the Lord, and you slip

into sewing it to the flesh. But the

moment you surrender, seeds germinated.

It comes alive again. It's not as though

the Holy Spirit's going to be like,

"Well, you've been walking in the flesh

and sewing in the flesh and not keeping

in step with me for such a long time

that I'm going to have like a testing

period now." I mean, he may test you.

That's not what I'm saying. But like

he's not going to wait to start

producing food through you again. It can

happen in a moment's notice. You could

go from a fit of anger to realizing this

is wrong. I'm going to surrender,

confess it right now to peace

just like that.

But there's a surrender involved. There

is a choice in your heart to actually

confess the fact that you've been sewing

to the flesh. And I I don't assume to

know exactly who has or to what degree.

It's in your heart and between you and

the Holy Spirit, between you and the

Lord to discern, have I been sowing in

the flesh. If you're thinking about

what's the main point going to be today

and you're wanting to if there's

anything I'm talking about and you're

not quite sure how does this hang on it,

my intent is to prove this main point to

and and that you might remember this

very thing. The main point is that

sowing to the spirit reap things of

eternal value. But sowing to the flesh

reaps only corruption. Sowing to the

spirit reap things reaps things of

eternal value, but sowing to the flesh

reaps only corruption.

It's a spiritual metaphor, but it's a

very real thing. Just about everybody

knows what sewing is, right? Even kids,

you know what it is. Like you're just

taking seed and sometimes some seeds are

not meant to be very deep in the soil.

And so you spread them in, kind of rake

them out. They're like just like maybe

an inch under the soil. And what

happens? Does they immediately spring up

into a plant? No. You got to wait and

they got to be watered and it takes a

while. It's it's really the same with

the spirit and the flesh. You could be

sewing to the flesh and you feel like

you're getting away with it for a while

because no deadly plant with corrupt

fruit has sprung up and other people

don't see it necessarily. It can be

hidden. They don't know that you've been

sewing to the flesh for the while.

But eventually those works of the flesh

start having their corrupt

decaying rotten effect in your life and

they work against the growth in faith

and they and they you know the the fruit

of the spirit that were developing your

life seem to drop off the tree and then

your life's not characterized by those

things anymore the longer you sow to the

flesh. So again sowing to the spirit

reaps things of eternal value but sowing

to the flesh reaps only corruption.

things that don't last, things that

decay, things that are wrong, things

that hurt other people, that hurt you,

things that lead towards death,

destruction,

brokenness, separation. It's everything

that's not good, right, and true.

So, let's get into the passage here.

Verse one of chapter 6. Brothers, if

anyone is caught in any transgression,

you who are spiritual should restore him

in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch

on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Remember the backdrop and context of all

of Galatians is combating legalism with

the actual gospel. Legalism says you can

do it in your power. Legalism is uh

saying I can produce the result in

myself that makes me right in

relationship to God. Justified.

Righteous is another word for that. I

can do that in my own power. I can keep

the law. I can fulfill its demands. I'm

doing that so I'm right with the Lord.

It's supremely prideful. It destroys the

gospel. It's exactly the opposite of the

truth. None of us can fulfill the law.

We could at very best keep it in a

shallow way and even then we break our

own shallow standards. And Paul is

combating the false teachers uh in in

Galatia that are basically saying the

Gentiles, non-Jewish people, you need to

keep the law for the sake of salvation.

And Paul says that's absolutely false.

That's wrong. That's a cursed. And that

legalism

is something he's combating here too

because those false teachers seem to

have been accusing him of being

antinomeian. Antinomian is a fancy way

of saying against the law, loose and

fast. He's playing with the law. This is

just going to lead to more sin. Paul

says using grace like that is a hard no.

Meganoto and my way of translating that

in modern language is hard no. That is

using uh your your grace as a cover up.

You know, it's uh it's a false way. It's

it's like it's like when we say, "Well,

I'll do it and ask for forgiveness

later." Remember what it costs Jesus to

forgive you before the next time you

think about doing something you know is

wrong and asking for forgiveness later.

Jesus had to pay for that sin in

advance. Terrible, terrible pain and

agony for the Lord who saves you in that

attitude. So, that's not it. Uh Paul

does have a gospel plan that he knows is

biblical for how people are actually

restored, how sin is truly dealt with.

So he says, "Brothers, if anyone is

caught in any transgression, you who are

spiritual should restore him in a spirit

of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself

lest you too be tempted."

So helping other people to be restored

after they sin, helping them to confess

their sin, helping them to recognize

that once they've confessed their sin,

it's God is faithful and just to forgive

them of that sin and to cleanse them

from all unrighteousness. and that that

the guilt that they might experience

after they've done that is not from the

spirit but from the enemy. Helping them

to them to overcome the kind of act

accusatory and condemning

tempting feelings that enemy seems to

cast towards them. Making sure that they

don't get destroyed in the process of

seeking forgiveness. These things are

sewing to the spirit. It's something you

cannot accomplish apart from the spirit.

How how we don't have any tools with

which to restore someone outside of the

spirit. How would you what would you do?

What tool would you use? You know, just

I think I told you guys this last week,

but I'm finding all these things that I

need to be responsible for living in a

different place and having property to

manage. And so I I got some rigid tools

cuz they have a lifetime warranty on

their batteries. Batteries are usually

the most expensive thing. And uh I don't

know how much I'll use certain tools,

but I've been thinking about tools and

and uh God talks about how he wants us

in scripture to be right tools of

righteousness, you know, but just like

the rigid system has a battery. They're

really cool because you can just take

them anywhere. You don't have to plug

them in. The vast majority of them are

battery operated. They last quite a

while and then you can just charge the

batteries. Those of you who have used

this know more than I do about these

kinds of systems. Well, they have to

have a power source, don't they? You

disconnect these tools from the power

source, they won't work. Your impact

driver doesn't work. Your drill doesn't

work. Your sawsaw doesn't work. I don't

know if you ever seen that little

oscillating sawing tool, but you can

like saw in really little tight places,

but you have no battery source. It won't

work. It's it's the same with tools of

righteousness. Although I hesitate to

call the Holy Spirit a battery source

because he's a person and he is God. But

you understand the idea. You know, he's

not just a force or or a power. He is

God and he indwells us. But without him,

we don't have any power to be used as

tools. Powers off. So you there's

nothing you can do to help restore

someone. You might be saying the right

things to other Christians. It might

seem like you've got the right idea, you

know, but what's this idea about like

keep watch on yourself lest you too be

tempted. So when Satan's effectively

tempted someone or when their own flesh

has led them to fall to temptation, um

there is increased opportunity of him

trying to tempt the very people that or

you even be just being tempted in your

flesh to do something similar or to sin

in response to their sin. Let me give

you an example that you might have not

experienced that I didn't start

experiencing until I got involved in

leadership in churches. And I don't mean

as a pastor. I was like a intern for a

long time at a at a church, but like any

little leadership position, you start

talking to people about spiritual things

and they'll come to you and they'll talk

to you about something they recently

did.

And

one one kind of unusual, probably not

very often thought of, the one that

you're probably thinking of is like, oh,

if they did this, then I might be

tempted to do this, too. So, I need to

ward against that. And that's definitely

part of it. you know, you it just the

mention of someone else's sin is an

opportunity for temptation for you. Uh

but there's another one which is what if

they've sinned and they're still acting

totally unrepentant, unwilling to

confess it, and

have you ever heard this? Oh, you're

just judging me. Well, when you get

accused, when you came into a situation

where you're wanting to help speak the

truth in love, verbalize your

convictions with some boldness, you got

to tell someone, "This is sin. this is

wrong. You need to stop. You need to

confess this. And they want you off

their back. They're sewing the flesh.

They don't want to stop. You're

mentioning it. Well, they they'll say

whatever they have to say to get you to

back off. And one of those I mean, you

could actually be judging them, which is

wrong. But discerning what's what's

wrong in someone is not necessarily you

pridefully judging them, right? But

you'll hear people say, "You're just

judging me because they know I can get

you to back off with that." Well, if

you're not operating the spirit and you

thought you were coming in with good

intentions and someone's you're just

judging me, what if the temptation right

there is to just start sewing in the

flesh yourself and have an argument with

them about how you're not and how

they're wrong and you get what if you

throw a fit of anger as a result of

someone accusing you when you had been

thinking you came in with only good

attent. How dare you tell me I'm judging

you? How much time have I spent loving

you and caring for you and serving you?

Now, the first time I tell you that

something's wrong, you just immediately

call me judgmental and a hypocrite.

So, you see how you could the enemy is

just brilliant. And if he doesn't get

you on one thing, he just tries another

tactic and flanks you. So,

when when you talk to people that are

struggling with transgression or maybe

having fallen into transgression,

they're not always going to respond with

the fruit of the spirit to you saying,

"Hey, this is wrong. You need to address

this.

And so maybe the temptation will just be

like they say some really vicious things

towards you and responding not

not responding to evil with evil versus

responding to evil with good. You might

be pressed beyond your human limit to do

that. And so the temptation is actually

to just get you on a fleshy way. And

then what happens? Are you working as a

tool of righteousness? Are you sewing to

the spirit so that they might actually

be restored? No. Sometimes it takes you

planting a seed that they need to

confess something a sin and then in a

quiet moment maybe long after maybe

closer hopefully you've been praying for

them God waters that seed and they

realize they're right this is a faithful

friend who loves me and said that and

they come back to you you know so you

don't you you don't even have the power

at all to restore someone but the Holy

Spirit has the power to do that through

you and sometimes wonderfully he does it

right in that moment

But you can't do it without him. And you

can't resist the type of temptations

that come to you walking in that kind of

ministry apart from the spirit.

Or to verse two, bear one another's

burdens. And so fulfill the law of

Christ.

Fulfilling the law of Christ. We've

talked a lot about how, and I hope our

entire church knows this by now, unless

you're just kind of brand new to the

study, but do we do anything to fulfill

the law? The law. We're not talking

about the law of Christ. I'm not trying

to trick you. Do we do anything to

fulfill the law? No. Why? Because Jesus

has already fulfilled it. You cannot.

And no one apart from Jesus can fulfill

the law. Because in order to fulfill the

law, you have to not break it even once.

And to claim that you have never broken

the law is to make God a liar, which is

breaking the law. So there's no way out

of that. Human beings are sinful

inherently in their nature. And

therefore, they sin and they will break

God's law. And if you've broken even one

law according to James, you've broken

the whole thing. So you cannot doesn't

matter how good you do after that,

you're not fulfilling it. So the gospel

actually says that God's righteous, good

and holy demands have been fulfilled in

the life and work of Jesus Christ. In

particular, the law's demand that those

who break it would be condemned. And

Jesus was condemned in ourstead. And so

it's faith in him, trust in his

fulfillment of the law, all of its

demands, including its moral righteous

commands to live in a certain way,

believe in a certain way, think in a

certain way, act in a certain way, along

with the ultimate law that God is just

and he cannot leave the guilty

unpunished. So either the person gets

punished or God's own son gets punished.

you believe in God's son, then you have

God's righteousness and you are declared

righteous by faith. That's the gospel.

So when he says fulfill the law of

Christ, he's not talking about, you

know, out of one side of his mouth and

the other and contradicting himself.

It's one where you have to have the Holy

Spirit by faith indwelling you. That

means the law has been written on your

heart. That means that your desires have

changed. Remember the last time, I can't

remember whether it was I think it was

last week, we talked about the idea of

the battle of desires. God has to change

your desire and give you the power to

actually obey something and then you

ought never to claim well I fulfilled it

because it was just us surrendering to

the Holy Spirit. So when we bear

somebody else's burdens and so fulfill

the law of Christ what that means is not

too dissimilar from uh bearing the fruit

and keeping in step with the spirit.

It's loving others enough to walk them

through a time where they have fallen

short of the grace of the Lord where

they have maybe sinned in a way that's

broken some serious relationships and

then we need to love them. That actually

is another temptation to sin where you

really do actually judge somebody. Maybe

somebody has sinned in a way that hurt

someone you love dearly and you're angry

at them and you haven't forgiven them

yourself. You ever you ever been angry

at somebody and the last thing on your

mind is restoring them? The last thing

you're concerned about is whether Satan

is trying to destroy them and you think,

"Well, he they're not even listening to

God because they're not repentant."

Well, that makes it all the more

dangerous for them. When they Satan's

trying to sift us, he's trying to

destroy our lives entirely and every

relationship we have and isolate us and

keep us away from one another and away

from the Lord. And so sometimes, yeah,

you have to be very patient and you have

to trust that the Lord is going to

complete his work in that person and not

just leave them in that entirely

unrepentant state. But you, if you're

going to restore them, you have to have

the kind of love for them that goes

beyond human capacity, a willingness to

forgive when they've hurt you or hurt

somebody else, you know. So, it's it's

just not possible to have that apart

from the spirit. And that is part of

what it means to bear one another's

burdens and so fulfill the law of

Christ. You think of the second greatest

command within the law of Christ, which

is also actually uh the second greatest

command of the law to love your neighbor

as yourself. Think about how you would

like to be loved by another Christian

when you've fallen short of grace. When

you've done something wrong, even when

you have a bad attitude and haven't

confessed it yet, what's the very best

way someone can treat you? pridefully

judging you, not not forgiving you, or

patiently, kindly, lovingly, but

truthfully, and firmly, you know. So, we

know we know what it means to be treated

lovingly, and we know what it means to

treat others lovingly because of the

golden rule. And because the Holy Spirit

has given us the power to do that, we

can actually fulfill the law of Christ.

And yet, pride can interrupt it. Listen

to this. Verse three. For if anyone

thinks he's something when he is

nothing, he deceives himself.

Whereas I'll read it to you in the NLT.

I will tell you real quickly. The New

Living Translation is not just like a

dynamic equivalent.

I'm not even going to go into formal

equivalent. If you want to look up

translation philosophy, I've talked

about it in the past. You can look up

formal equivalent versus dynamic

equivalent. But the NLT is really

actually I I think it's a trustworthy

version of this. But I wouldn't even

call it a translation as much as I would

call it a interpretation resource. So

it's it's like a group of scholars got

together and they're writing what they

believe the translation actually means

in situations especially when it's

become difficult in plain language. Um

and I I feel like it's a trustworthy

resource as long as you know what it is.

Uh they will use words that aren't in

the Greek. So you have to understand you

have to like that's one of the reasons

why we study out of the ESV because it's

a formal equivalent. it stays much

closer to the original language. Um, but

I use lots of other translations. So,

listen to what verse um three sounds

like in uh in the New Living

Translation. If you think you're too

important to help someone, you're only

fooling yourself. You're not that

important.

It is funny and I think it's actually a

good way. Like that's you can see how

that's almost like more preaching than

it is direct translation. But it seems

faithful to me in context. I think

that's what he's dealing with. Like you

think you're too big of a deal to even

help someone. Like this could never

happen to you. This is what happens to

legalists. Well, I don't have that

problem. I'm more faithful, you know?

And so pride will definitely interrupt

us being able to fulfill the law of

Christ. The idea of surrendering to the

Holy Spirit and therefore obeying and

loving our neighbor as oursel and loving

the Lord. This is, you know, it's

relatively easy to love your own kids in

general. Maybe not every little day in

whatever they're doing, but in general,

if it's your son or daughter that are

just lost to some terrible dissipating

sin and you're so worried about the

destruction and corruption that's going

to come in their life, uh what kind of

person do you want speaking to them?

Someone who's going to restore them in a

spirit of gentleness, someone who's a

tool of righteousness and sewing to the

spirit, or some legalist, right?

Almost no matter what your child has

done, you just hope that someone, if

they're not listening to you anymore,

would lead them to repentance and

restoration, even if they have to serve

prison time for that time. So, so if you

can love your son or daughter like that,

why can't you love other sons or

daughters like that? Because they're all

ultimately um children of God, at least

in the general sense. And some of them

are actually saved children of God, you

know, and he loves them. And so we want

to align our love uh with them. And and

pridefully thinking we're too good to

help people. Not not a love aligned with

the law of Christ, is it? So I want you

to think about something because

biblically Paul wants us to be confident

ministers of the New Covenant. He wants

us to be confident New Testament

ministers, but he doesn't want us to be

prideful ones. And I think there are

multiple ways to fall short of that. I

want to go to a amazing teaching from

Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 where

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Paul says this chapter 3:4.

You guys got it up. Such is the

confidence that we have through Christ

towards God. So we are supposed to have

confidence. Confidence does not

necessarily mean pridefulness. Um so I

want you to think do do you have

confidence in relationship to the Lord?

The the context here is in terms of new

covenant ministry. Are you confident

that God can use you for new covenant

ministry? Ministry in the church. Are

you confident in that? Okay, listen to

what he says. Not this is not the way

we're confident. Not that we are

sufficient in ourselves to claim

anything is coming from us, but our

sufficiency is from God. He's talking

about almost exactly the same thing just

in a different context. Let's continue.

Verse six. who has made us sufficient to

be ministers of the new covenant, not of

the letter, but of the spirit. For the

letter kills, sewing to the flesh, but

the spirit gives life.

I'll read one more verse here. I don't

think we even have it up. Now if the

ministry of death carved in letters on

stone came with such glory that the

Israelites could not gaze at Moses face

because of its glory which is now being

brought to an end, will not the ministry

of the spirit have even more glory.

That's the ministry that you are

sufficient by faith in Christ

and you can be confident in that God

will use you in a a way that is

sufficient. a way that will actually

accomplish the sewing of the spirit,

accomplish things of eternal value. So,

here's how you can fall off on either

side. One, and just because someone says

they know they're nothing, does that

mean that they actually truly believe

they're nothing? Can you be hiding

pride? You totally can. So, you could be

convincing yourself that you actually

know that you're nothing while fostering

significant amount of pride. And that's

also sewing to the fresh. It's it's

overconfidence. But you can also be

insecure, which would be I don't think

it's a word, but like underconfidence.

And insecurity about these things is not

what God wants for us either. Um, and so

they're both forms that fall short of

what Paul's actually talking about.

Someone that's insecure be like, I'm

nothing. I can't accomplish this. That's

true.

But you just heard God say that we are

sufficient in Christ that we can be

confident towards God in New Testament

ministry, in new covenant ministry.

That's more glorious than any kind of

old covenant ministry there ever was.

You are sufficient in that way. And

that's also a related surrender because

when you really know you're not

sufficient, it takes a lot of faith that

Christ could be sufficient through you,

doesn't it?

So both both are wrong and both fall

short of the standard in thinking, well,

I am something so I need to help people

or I'm nothing and I can't help people.

It's not about us, is it?

It's about just how powerful the spirit

of God, the spirit of Christ, the sp the

Holy Spirit living in us actually is

when we surrender to him. So when Paul

says, "For if anyone thinks he is

something, when he is nothing, he

deceives himself." Those are just two

options for how you could deceive

yourself. One, you say the words, but

they're not really true. So you're still

prideful and you think you're something,

too good to help people. or another

version, you basically think, well, I'm

not good enough to help people. Well,

what's the solution to that? That's that

this is this crooked little insidious

thought that's actually basically works

righteousness, isn't it? Because if you

say, I'm not good enough to help people.

What's the natural conclusion? I got to

become better before I can. And what

have we already decided? You you you'll

never be good enough to help people in a

real eternally valuable spiritual way on

your own. and you can't become good

enough on your own to be able to do

that.

So you even though it's painful, maybe

this one's closer. Although I've seen

people struggle with insecurity sort of

in a patternistic way long term and I

have compassion for that. My parents

raised me

sort of breathing this kind of spiritual

confidence into me. Uh I deal with my

own insecurities but they're not

crippling. And so if people were not

raised that way and they were raised in

an environment of just I've got a friend

whose dad basically most of what he

remembers his dad saying is you're a

knucklehead and you'll amount to

nothing.

It's hard to even say that. I mean

fathers you got to be careful how you

talk to your kids. I have to be careful

that a little hearts are still being

formed. You can do so much damage. So, I

don't I don't look down on people that

are still struggling with that kind of

insecurity because

it's I mean, it's only by faith. It

takes a supernatural work of the Holy

Spirit to help you surrender in the

first place to secure you and then build

the kind of confidence that just wasn't

built in formative years. But you can.

You think you can't sew in the spirit?

You think God's wrong in telling Paul to

tell people they can be confident

towards me that they can be new covenant

effective well sufficient new covenant

ministers. I was I stopped short of

saying effective because you never know

when God's going to decide this is going

to work now and here comes the plant.

Here comes the flute. He decides when

that's going to happen and we're just

seed planters really, you know. So you

don't have to worry about being

effective per se. That's God's work. But

you are sufficient to do what he's asked

you to do. you are in Christ, never by

yourself. So that's that humility line

that we want to be at before we go to

verse um four, which says this, but let

each one test his own work, and then his

reason to boast will be in himself alone

and not his neighbor. There are some

limitations. First of all, we were just

told uh that if we think we're

something, we puff ourselves up uh and

we're actually nothing, uh we deceive

ourselves. So whatever is being said

here in Paul like his reason will be

boasting himself. It's clearly not the

prideful kind of boasting. I think the

KJV will be use the word glory in um so

what what's being talked about is you

test your work by humble standard right

you actually test it not um in

comparison to others. I've got another

verse for you. I think this is um 2

Corinthians 10

where Paul's talking about the very same

thing. It helps us understand what he

means here and what he doesn't mean. Um,

and I think I've got 2 Corinthians 10

starting in verse 12. Is that right?

Yeah. Not that we dare to classify or

compare ourselves with some of those who

are commending themselves, but when we

measure but when they measure themselves

by one another and compare themselves

with one another, they are without

understanding.

Comparing yourself on a horizontal line

is is in the plane of sewing in the

flesh, right? Right? It's deadly little

seeds because you're using a standard

that's always way lower than God's.

Always. Well, so like maybe you have

Frank over here. I chose a name just off

the cuff. I don't think anyone's named

Frank here. And uh Frank's a pretty bad

sinner. And you know it and everybody

knows it. You're like, "Well, I'm better

than Frank." That's comparing yourself

by yourself. But even if you do the

opposite, I was like, "Oo, Mother Teresa

over here. She's I could never attain to

So I don't I'm pretty humble because I

don't think I'm as good as Mother

Teresa. You know, is there anything that

Mother Teresa had that we don't that

limits us from be able to serve God in a

completely surrendered and passionate

way? No. Again, it's not about the human

being. It's about the spirit living in

us. It's about God and what he can do

through us. When we compare ourselves

negatively over against or positively

pretending like that's humility, that's

sowing to the flesh. That's corruption.

That's false. It's not true. And so what

Paul says is verse 13, but we will not

boast beyond limits, but will boast only

with regard to the area of influence God

has assigned to us to reach even to you.

Um, and [laughter] for we're not

overextending ourselves as though we did

not reach you. For we were the first to

come all the way to you with the gospel

of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit

in the labors of others. But our hope is

that as your faith increases, our area

of influence among you may greatly be

greatly enlarged, so that we may preach

the gospel in lands beyond you without

boasting of work already done in other

areas of influence. And I I read all the

way here because here's the real key.

Verse 17, let the one who boasts boasts

in the Lord.

For it is not the one who commends

himself who is approved, but the one

whom the Lord commends. And Paul is

truly I want to show you how he's saying

the exact same thing. When you test

yourself rightly, what you're testing

is, have I been doing this work in a

sewing to the spirit kind of way? Have I

been doing this work in the power of the

spirit? And if you have, there ought to

be great satisfaction in that.

Many Christians I've talked to will say

something like, you know, I hope when I

die and I stand before Jesus, he tells

me, "Well done, good and faithful

servant." It's a good desire to want him

to tell you that. And I can't imagine

anything more satisfying than God

himself telling you, "Well done, good

and faithful servant." You can glory in

that. You can boast in the Lord's work

through you. So certainly what Paul is

talking about here is not boasting in

yourself alone like over against God in

comparison to others kind of thing

because that's the very next thing he

says. Um and he won't be boasting in

your neighbor. Again the NLT does a

great job in helping us understand um I

believe what Paul actually meant in this

case and let me read it to you. This is

verse verse four. Pay careful attention

to your own work for then you will get

the satisfaction of a job well done and

you won't need to compare yourself to

anybody else. I really believe that's

what Paul's talking about here. And then

he says verse 5, for each will have to

bear his own load. You know, if I I

don't even know I don't believe that

apart from the spirit it's even possible

to understand what God's word says. Uh

anybody that that I know like when you

go on a line online forums where they're

talking about how much God's word

contradicts itself and none of these

people seem to be indwelt by the spirit.

These are non-Christian secularists that

are just don't want to believe the Bible

and so they undermine it constantly.

They'll mention verse 2 and verse 5.

Bear one another's burdens for each will

have to bear his own load. This is a

contradiction. It's most certainly not

and you guys know this intuitively. Um

for example, let's take a common a

common issue men face uh disappointment

in their career. uh as they get older,

disappointment with the legacy of their

career and their vocation and the sense

of their assignment of what they're

doing in life. I think a lot of midlife

crisis kind of stuff comes from that

like did I even live a life worth living

kind of thing. And let's say they worked

really hard and were hoping to, you

know, and serving the Lord faithfully

and then get fired and and and then

maybe they're even having to evaluate,

did I do something that I was rightly

fired for? And so it's very painful.

Now, this this happens to to I I just

know too many faithful men that this

exact story has happened to to know it's

pretty common. Um or something like

this. And uh in this case, can you bear

the load of that fully for somebody? It

wasn't you that got fired. It wasn't you

that has to evaluate maybe did I

actually do something wrong? It wasn't

you. It's not you that has to relate to

the Lord in that moment. looking at God

is was my whole vocation actually

worthwhile

you know it's a desperate painful

thought but men ask themselves this kind

of thing you can't bear that load for

him because it's his load to bear in

relationship to the Lord and ultimately

it's his work to uh or or surrender to

the Lord and let God just you you can't

bear the Lord load and no man can bear

the load of thinking about was my legacy

worthwhile. You have to surrender that

to the Lord. It'll crush you. You know,

trust the Lord that that as long as you

surrender to him, his plan for you is

good and will glorify him. And

too much too much fretting on that can

really be destructive. But again, could

you walk alongside that man and

encourage him?

Could you talk to him about how the very

very next verse, I'll skip forward here

in a moment. And let us not grow weary

of doing good, for in due season we will

reap if we do not give up. Could you

imagine a man maybe feeling like giving

up after that kind of thing happening?

Yeah. Could you encourage him not to?

Does that for a time help bear the load?

I feel like I use working out metaphors

too much, but this one's just great. I

think it is exactly what we're talking

about. When when you're benching heavy

weight, when you're squatting, it's also

very dangerous. But when you're

benching, your throat's right here. If

you drop that, you could crush your

throat, right? So, when you're benching

weight that you don't know if you can

get up, what do you need? You need a

spotter, right? The spotter can't bench

that weight for you. If they're strong

enough, they might be able to pull the

whole thing off and pull off, but you

still didn't bench it. So, it's your

load to bench, but you sometimes need

the help of a friend. So, that's the way

that I think about this. There's no

contradiction. At the end of the day,

um, we're still basically talking about

the restoration and spiritual gentleness

of someone who's caught in some kind of

transgression. Um,

you can't bear the weight of the fallout

of their sin. What if what if what they

did ends up causing a divorce and a

breaking apart of the whole family?

Like, that's not yours to bear. They

that's something they have to accept and

let God redeem, right? But should you be

there for them? Even if the person was

the aggressor, we it's people take sides

on marriage so fast and they don't

consider what the Lord actually says

about how both partners need restoration

there. Uh and not just the one who was

wronged. But even the the one doing the

wrong needs restoration and needs

someone to walk alongside them or you

know the enemy will just have this way

with them. You know, sometimes that's

God's plan. Delivering people's flesh to

Satan for the destruction of it, you

know. Um, but let's continue here. So, I

think you guys understand what we mean.

We do bear each other's loads. We can't

really bear them for each other. We

That's why we have to help each other.

Verse six, let the one who has taught

the word share all good things with the

one who teaches. Um, all good things

means all good things. I uh we don't

need to talk about the financial

component of that today. We talk about

that that plenty in um in in there is a

reality even if televangelists use it

the wrong way that when you give

faithfully with the right heart that is

sewing to the spirit and that does set

men like me apart to be able to study

the word and if you feel that you've

benefited from uh being part of the

teaching ministry at boon fairy and

grown as a result of that um then first

of all I just want to thank you for your

faithful giving but there's another way

of uh let the one who is taught taught

the word share all good things with the

one who teaches. Um, I got a lot of

really encouraging feedback about last

week's sermon and I think it was in part

related because we did some pretty

hypersp specific application and I told

you, hey, I want you to choose a work of

the flesh that keeps popping up in your

life that needs to be killed off. I want

you to choose a corresponding fruit of

the spirit that you want to see

developed. I want you to choose a verse

that corresponds to that, a power verse.

Memorize it. And I want you to pray

every single day for 30 days. I don't

know if you've started doing that or

not. You know, uh I think we should as a

church, if you haven't already, do

exactly that. And that is sewing to the

spirit. Reading God's word on a daily

basis is sewing to the spirit. Not

reading his word. Like if you miss a

day, let's again, legalism destroys the

whole thing. Legalism just turns it

upside down and you're sewing to the

flesh. So don't get legalistic about any

of these things. Um, and but I like to

think of like when I don't spend any

time in God's word as like uh I missed

an opportunity to meet with the Lord.

Have you ever stood a friend up? Ah,

it's a terrible feeling. Like your alarm

doesn't go I I have decided to start

using multiple alarm systems because I

hate standing people up so much, but it

does still sometimes happen. And it's

not that I'm like

it's I wanted to meet with them. I was

excited to meet with them. and maybe

they're busy and now it's going to take

another two weeks to get another meeting

all because I missed the meeting. So

there's like, yeah, I'm really sorry.

You should apologize in that situation.

But the reality is the pain of it was

relational. So it's not, oh, I didn't

check the box this one more time. You

got another moment. The moment you

realize that is a moment you could

literally just sit down and spend some

time with the Lord. I think we should

schedule it. We schedule meetings with

each other. Why not schedule these

appointments with the Lord as well? went

to me when things don't get scheduled

they often times end up falling off the

end of the table of your day so to speak

and then you end up don't not doing them

but yes reading God's word memorizing

God's word um reading it meditatively or

like devotionally where you're just

thinking about what's being said or

studying it very closely or just reading

at 30,000 ft like we do in our Bible

read through where you don't when you're

reading through that you're not studying

every little thing closely all those

different ways when you do that with the

right heart and humility are sewing to

the spirit. Those little deposits you

scatter those seeds in the you know

arena of your faith life and growth

every day there's a lot of good fruit

that starts popping up and and if it's

been prayerlessness in your life and no

time in the word don't think you're

going around not scattering seeds.

You're either sewing to the flesh or

you're sewing to the spirit. There's

nothing in between.

So in relationship to uh the the

positive feedback I need encouragement

too. I get discouraged. What encourages

me most is when people say things that

that that could that could only be

happening in their lives if I was

actually being used as a as a tool like

a sewing in the spirit kind of tool you

know. Um so

even without God men and women can be

elegant in their public speaking. They

can be funny. They can be interesting.

They could they could do all kinds of

things in there. But what I cannot

accomplish apart from God is any

spiritual change in any of you or

myself. Period. So when you come to me

and say, "Man, that was so helpful

because it changed my life in this way

or it makes me want to change my life in

this day." That's the kind of eternally

valuable encouragement that I need. And

and I hope for to be honest. And uh

don't say to yourself, "Oh, if I

encourage him in this way, it'll give

him a big head." If I'm on a pride

trajectory, it will definitely will cuz

you can take any encouragement is like,

"Oh, how awesome am I?" Uh but that's

not the way gospel encouragement works.

It's not flattery, is it? Um I'm not

asking to be flattered. Uh but I am very

encouraged when people come tell me

those kinds of comments about the

sermon. Verse seven, do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatever one sws,

that will he also reap. We've talked

about this quite a bit. You can sew to

the flesh and nobody knows. You know,

you could be like what seems like the

most faithful church servant having been

sewing in the flesh for the longest

time, but it's all kind of hidden under

the surface. It's like uh it's like

roots and they haven't yet grown the

deadly trees or plants that the flesh

produces, the works of the flesh. Or

when they do, you you hide them from you

can you can deceive other people. God's

not mocked. He knows when we've been

sowing to the flesh and when we've been

sowing to the spirit. Do not be

deceived. God is not mocked. For

whatever one knows uh for whatever one

sws that will he also reap. And God also

knows that you know that he knows. And I

know you know what I mean.

[snorts] That one we should edit out.

But uh [laughter]

that just mean like you you know in your

heart

that he sees the actual inner attitude.

You know I mean it's so silly to think

we can hide stuff from God. We still do

it. And one way we do it is by not

taking sewing to the flesh very

seriously because it's well just a

little seed over here little seed over

there. You know

I hope you don't think I'm talking down

to you. If if some of you wonders like

sometimes people say like it's like you

were preaching the sermon exactly to me.

How do you do that? And because I know

you don't even know the things are going

in my life because they're going on in

my life. That's why

[laughter]

you think a pastor never sews the flesh.

Grow up if you think that. Goodness

gracious.

[snorts]

I didn't mean that to [laughter]

I I meant it. I meant exactly what I

said. I'm not disclaimering it. It is

immature to think that there's any such

thing as a man who's never sinful or a

woman. Right?

So for the one who sws to his own flesh

will from the flesh reap corruption, but

the one who sws to the spirit will from

the spirit reap eternal life. I want to

show you the word for corruption. I

don't do this that often. Uh I like to

use the blue uh letter Bible app. Um, I

use other uh resources as well, but this

one that's I think particularly easy to

use for Christians, even if you haven't

taken a bunch of Greek classes. Um, I

think we have an image up of it. The

sound team could put up. Yeah, this is

thora. That's how that word is said. And

no, I didn't disla.

And, um, it has a range of meaning. Most

Greek words have a range of meaning.

There are some pretty hyper rare times

where it's called a hoxina. It's a word

that only shows up one time in biblical

Greek and it's usually Paul that's the

offender on those cases. He seems to

just literally come up with his own

words which I you know I obviously

they're inspired so God helped him come

up with words that are fit perfectly for

the situation spiritually but this word

has a range of meaning. You can see that

it has one a and b and then two. It can

mean corruption, destruction, perishing

uh that which is subject to corruption

uh which is perishable or what is

perishable in the Christian sense

eternal misery in hell. It can also mean

the New Testament uh in an ethical sense

corruption moral decay. Okay. So

generally with the word what you want to

do because just like the word read has a

range of meaning when I say I read words

you know what I mean decodifying

language in your mind uh when I say a

red is expression means something

different doesn't it not decodifying

language you don't have language on your

face unless you have tattoos like

[laughter]

oh just don't get facial tattoos I think

that's a decent rule um but if you if

you do I man you know my

I'm not I yeah

I I would be the biggest hypocrite to be

judgmental about those kinds of things.

But anyway, um what range of meaning do

you as a student of the Bible think we

should apply? Let me make an argument

for you. Um and I think this is actually

true, but I think it goes beyond this.

So since he is comparing eternal life to

something, it' make a lot of sense to

say this corruption that Paul's talking

about is one uh B in the Christian sense

eternal misery in hell. So we could just

put that word in there for a moment. For

the one who sws to his own flesh will

from the flesh reap eternal misery in

hell. But the one who sws the spirit

will from the spirit reap eternal life.

And that is true. Uh remember Paul has

warned us before verse 21 of chapter 5.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that

those who do such things will not

inherit the kingdom of God.

However, I want to read on sometimes

when you're trying to figure out exactly

what a word means. Um, and is the per is

the author using it generally? Isn't use

a very specified sense like 1B or what's

going on here? How should we understand

it? Listen to verse 9 and 10 because

they they help us understand it more

deeply. And let us not grow weary of

doing good for in due season we will

reap if we do not give up. So Paul is

not just talking about sewing to the

spirit in the sense of eternal life.

He's also talking about sewing to the

spirit in in due season than reaping. So

things that will actually So when you

sow to the spirit um in the sense of

just placing your faith in the Lord in

the first place, you are justified and

you are guaranteed eternal life. But

when you sow to the spirit in the sense

of restoring someone, sometimes you see

the result on earth in that season and

and the sort of the reward is reaped.

The the peaceful fruit of righteousness

comes back into their life. You were

used as a tool by the Lord to accomplish

something eternally valuable. So I

really think it's both. And going back

to that definition of the word

corruption, I don't think that Paul is

just using this exclusively as eternal

misery in hell. It's not less than that.

If you've never repented, if you've

never placed your faith in the Lord,

then your whole life is sown to the

flesh and and then you reap eternal

corruption. Uh but it's true for

Christians as well whose they are Paul's

primary audience here that you can sw

the flesh even as a Christian. Like I

said, go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 3

to where Paul talks about that very kind

of thing. You can be caught in works of

the flesh even as a Christian. It

doesn't mean that you've lost your

salvation. That seed

is no longer h how long it goes dormant.

It never actually loses its life. The

spirit will never leave you. Um and so

if you're caught in a season where you

have been sewing to the flesh, maybe

it's because you grew weary, just like

Paul said. And let us not grow weary of

doing good. Maybe you've grown weary.

Maybe you've grown weary for reasons

that most people would understand. And

what's the answer? Well, just stiff

upper lip, keep calm, carry on, white

knuckle it. No, that's still just sewing

to the flesh. You probably tried that if

you've grown really weary and it just

made you more weary, didn't it?

You don't have to ask yourself how I

know. I'm a human being.

So, what do you do in those moments?

Well, let's go back to that Roy battery

thing. It doesn't matter how long the

Roy battery is off the tool. If it's

charged, the moment you put it back on,

the tool works, right? I mean, there are

situations where a tool could be

destroyed, but that's not applicable in

this metaphor. The idea here is that the

moment you surrender, having been doing

things in your own power, which will

always lead to human wearing, the Holy

Spirit will refresh you. Sometimes you

need time and sometimes you need a time

like a sbatical or a time where there's

just time away even like a day just to

yourself where the responsibilities are

off your shoulders and you can just

spend time with the Lord can be

unbelievably refreshing. All right. But

if if a royal battery does that, what

about the spirit of the living God who

is himself God? So that's that's the way

back out.

And and the reality is in there's a

promise here. In due season, we will

reap if we do not give up. Give up what?

Working really hard. No, give up

surrendering to the Holy Spirit. Don't

give up surrendering to the Holy Spirit.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us

do good to everyone and especially to

those of the household of faith. There's

no question that we are to look to

opportunity to help anyone. It doesn't

matter if they're Christian, a

non-Christian, anti-Christian, atheist,

of a different uh faith altogether,

whatever it is, it's everyone, right?

But there is a priority here and

especially to those who are of the

household of faith.

I don't know if you guys have heard of

the political doctrine of America first.

Um, people react pretty strongly to that

idea. But I think in a very simple way,

it's not much different than being on an

airplane, being a mother, and being

told, "Put your own oxygen mask on

first.

It's not they're not asking you to be

selfish. They're saying it's best for

your child to be uh to have a mom who's

conscious.

It's like, duh, right? You need to put

that oxygen mask on yourself and before

you help your child. Why? Because if you

go unconscious, no one's helping your

kid. They're all freaking out and you're

responsible for that child. I'm not

trying to get political. That's what

America first means. But this is

basically the church first doctrine. And

it doesn't mean that we're not helping

people. But remember Jesus said they

will know you by your their love, right?

So if if you have an evangelist heart,

and I hope you do. Uh if you have that

gifting, we need it at this church. And

so you have a great desire for outreach

and helping people outside the church.

What are we inviting them to?

It reminds me of like uh I don't mean to

slam Verizon. Verizon's been great, but

I think in the past uh that's internet

provider and uh in the past they had

like this thing where like if you're a

new customer you get this really special

deal but then the current customers

feels kind of slighted because they

don't have that deal and like well so

I'd be treated better if I just stopped

being a customer and then became a new

customer again. You know, we don't want

people feeling that way about the

church.

God doesn't want people feeling that way

about the church. God wants to show just

how great his love is in the hearts of

his people and how that manifests in

fruit of the spirit, the fruit of love

in relationship to each other. So it's

not at all selfish to make sure that

there's an especially in your

consideration of looking for

opportunities to good for people, but

it's it's not a negation either, right?

by very by the very nature of a church.

It it exists for the salvation of others

and it exists for the continued growth

of faith of those in the church. And

it's not one or the other. We're to go

and make disciples,

baptizing them, the father, the son, and

the holy spirit. Teaching them to

observe everything that Jesus has

commanded us. It's right there in the

great commission that we do both. You go

and you preach the gospel and hopefully

people come to faith. But also once

those people have come to faith, you

continue teaching them them God's word.

The sheep have to be fed and the lost

sheep have to be found. It's not one or

the other. Okay? Sheep have to be fed,

lost sheep have to be found. And that's

again something we cannot do apart from

God's word. So I just want to come back

to that. We're we're done here to that

hyperspecific application.

Would it not be a great thing for 30

days to just make a conscious decision

to surrender and so to the spirit? It's

not too much. I chose I chose things

that were like I know you can do. Spend

a little bit of time memoring of

memorizing a verse that applies to the

spiritual fruit you want to grow. Spend

a little time memorizing that same verse

in the sense of it being like a bullet

to the head of the fleshly thing you're

trying to have killed off by the spirit.

Right? Don't stop short of pulling the

trigger. and and then pray and just

we're not talking about a lengthy hour

and a half prayer on your face if that's

what you want to do. That is a powerful

experience to do. But even just an

intentional 10 minutes of praying for

that thing every day for 30 days, sewing

to the spirit who knows what you'll

reap. I know that God promised us that

in due season we will reap and that he

will not fall short of completing the

things that he started in us. Paul is

100% confident of that in Philippians

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And so let's throw up the

main point one more time. This is

something you can take home with you.

Sowing to the spirit reaps things of

eternal value, but sowing to the flesh

reaps only corruption. Heavenly Father,

thank you for this opportunity to go

through the second to last portion of

Paul's letter to the Galatians. It's

been powerful for me. I pray that we

become a church uh that's unified but

that's also of individuals who are

consistently in their own lives even

when no one's watching sewing to the

spirit and that we would reap eternal

life but that we'd also in due season

reap and and because we have decided not

to grow weary by continuing to be

connected to our power source which is

your Holy Spirit. I pray that we'd

worship now in the power of the spirit.

And I pray that we would experience

>> [music]

>> uh if we're stuck, Lord, an unsticking.

It's your cross that can do that by

faith where you're just so good and you

forgive us so many times that that grace

is so powerful that it can remove

whatever thing in our hearts is keeping

us stuck. And I pray that that very

thing would happen in the hearts of your

people even right [music] now in Jesus

name. Amen.