Free to Live by the Spirit

Good morning, everybody. As you

make your way back to your seats, I always feel like calling

you back is almost like a sin because there's

so much good fellowship going on. But bring you back to your

seats so we can look at God's Word together.

For those of you I haven't met yet or haven't met me, I'm Dave

Schaffner. And I have the privilege of being the associate pastor

here at the, at the Grace Works,

and I get to share the word with you this morning.

So I'm excited about that. I was gone a

lot earlier in the summer, so this is my first opportunity to

chime in on the Galatians piece. So Mark

set me up last week kind of set the bar really, really,

really high. So there's a lot of pressure on me this morning to

bring you a good sermon, and I want you to hang in there with me.

I hope you got a donut and some coffee,

re-energized— you re-energized yourself,

because this sermon is kind of an eclectic combination

for me, okay? And I know you probably don't need to know any of this,

but those of you who haven't met me I teach,

uh, New Testament at high school,

so I teach Bible. I'm a Bible teacher at Northwest Christian High School,

and Galatians is one of my favorite books to go over with my students.

So I'm going to bring you some of the stuff that I share with my

students that I think has been helpful, or they say has been

helpful to them. And, uh, and we'll— so there's going to be a piece of

that. Of course, this week Pastor Kevin and I worked

on this sermon together, so I've gotten a lot of Gleaned a lot of good

information from Pastor Kevin. And then of course there's that piece that

I've gotta pay off for Pastor Mark, uh, for pitching me the softball of

kind of wrapping in all, uh, a lot of the things that we've been talking

about as we've been going through, uh, the book of Galatians.

So just wanna remind you of several things,

uh, before, as we dive into our text this morning,

anybody been looking forward to this section of the text? Yeah,

this is the section of the text that contains the fruit

of the Spirit, probably the most recognizable

verses from the book of Galatians.

And so that's where we are in the book. We're near

the end. And so we want to kind of put a cap— start

putting a capstone on where Paul is

and what he has shared with the Galatians as we've gone along.

Paul has some patterns that

we're going to see as we look at

other writings and other letters that he has written,

right? One of the patterns that Paul follows is

that Paul writes to these churches, these brand

new churches, and he's always going to deal with 2

things. Basic Christian teaching and

whatever issue was going on in that church. So you

can look at Romans, Thessalonians,

Ephesians, all of the books that Paul has written,

letters that Paul has written, and they will always have those 2

elements in them. Why would they have basic Christian

teaching in them?

Christianity is brand new,

brand new. Jesus' death,

burial, and resurrection, and the day of Pentecost happened

in about 30 AD.

This book of Galatians is the first book written in the

New Testament. It's written in about 48 AD.

So you've got an 18 to 20 year period between

the big events of the resurrection and Pentecost.

And now the gospel is spreading through the Mediterranean

world. It's spreading through the

day of Pentecost, people getting saved and then going back to their homes.

It's spreading through Paul going from town

to town on his missionary journey and planting churches.

But the gospel is just beginning to spread. We are in

the absolute earliest days of the

life of what we come to know of as the church.

So I want you this morning to put yourself in the place of those

folks who were in that Galatian church.

You're in— you are a new Christian. Not only

are you a new Christian and in a new church called

Galatia, But the whole religion

of Christianity is also brand

new. So the need for basic training

throughout the formation is really

high. So Paul spends a lot of time on that.

He spends a lot of time telling them how to live

the basic Christian life, right? So if you

were talking to that kind of group,

where would you start? Where would you start?

Well, one of the places that Paul has started with

is he started with this idea, and we've been talking about it over

and over and over again, about the idea of salvation.

Because the, the issue that Paul is addressing

in the Galatian church is this group of people called the

Judaizers. Anybody remember what we've been talking over

and over again about these guys, the Judaizers? And what the Judaizers were

saying was that if you're going to become a

Christian, you first have to become

a Jew. So you need to

follow the Old Testament law. Right?

You need to be circumcised. You need to follow the food laws. You need to

follow the festivals and the days and the celebrations. You need to do all of

that before you can become

a Christian. So Paul wants to be very,

very clear with these folks about

what salvation is. Now we're

going to transition a little bit today into talking

about something, a new idea— we'll get to

it in a minute— about the Holy Spirit in our life and the role he

plays. But I wanted to back up and show you a

verse that has become kind of helpful and,

and in a lot of ways central in my thinking as

I think about the 2 greatest processes that,

that function for us in the Christian life.

Okay, so this is kind of a little bit of basic training,

right? This is a verse that we find in John chapter

John 16 · chapter mention

16. In John chapter 16, Jesus is talking

John 16 · chapter mention

to the disciples. He's getting ready to leave. This is

one of his last discourses to

his disciples, and he is comforting them by

letting them know that after he's gone the Holy Spirit

is going to come and be with them. He's going to be a

helper, a comforter. He's going to be a guide for

them. So we're dropping right into the middle of this passage where Jesus is

giving them this comfort just before he gets

ready to go to the cross. And when he comes— capital

He there is the Holy Spirit— and when he comes

He will convict the world of sin and

of righteousness and of judgment.

Of sin, because they do not believe in me.

Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and

I— and you see me no more. And of judgment,

because the ruler of this world has been

judged. Most of us who are Christians

today encounter the Holy Spirit

for the first time in this process called conviction.

Conviction. Now, what is he convicting us of

when we're talking about salvation? What is

it that the Holy Spirit comes and convicts

you of? Well, the passage tells us he convicts

us of sin, of sin. This is

that moment where the Holy Spirit comes to you and says,

you are a sinner and you need a Savior.

And the good news is one has been provided for you— Jesus

the Christ, who died on the cross for your sins.

And if you will invite him into your life, if you will accept him into

your life, you will be saved.

Period. End of sentence.

Now, does that seem like an easy process to you?

One of the difficulties that Christianity has kind

of wrestled with down through the years is this idea

that the most important thing in your— that happens in your Christian life The

most important thing that happens in your life,

period, is this idea of salvation,

and it's easy.

That doesn't make sense to us. Come on, somebody should have

said amen right there. That don't make sense to us. Amen. It just

seems too easy. I've got all this horrible

sin debt and And you mean I can get my sin debt

paid for just by inviting Jesus into my life

and asking for forgiveness? That just don't seem right.

Surely I must have to climb a mountain or work for 25 or

30 years. Surely I must have to do all kinds of good works

or I can't. How could sin, how could salvation be that simple?

But over and over and over. The Gospels and

the letters of Paul constantly remind us— the whole of the New Testament reminds

us that it really is that simple.

By grace you are saved through faith,

and that not of yourself. It is a gift

of God. You don't have to do anything for it.

You just have to receive the gift that God has already given you.

So I have this little 3C acronym

that I use with my kids at school, right?

Conviction. Who does that? The Holy Spirit.

And what does he convict you of? He convicts you of sin.

What is your response to that conviction?

Well, that's the second C, confession.

You need to confess. Yes, Holy Spirit,

Lord Jesus, I I'm a sinner and I need a

Savior. Your only part in the salvation

process is that confession and that

acceptance of Christ, right? Paul is going to say this very

plainly in Romans chapter 10, right? If you confess

Romans 10 · chapter mention

with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised

him from the dead, you shall be saved.

So our only part in this whole process is that confession

and accepting by faith. And if we do that, then the 3rd

C happens, right? Christ forgives.

End of sentence. End of story. You are saved.

Okay, now the folks who Paul is— are writing—

is, are, am The people that

Paul's writing to are the Galatian Christians.

So there's already— in as he's writing the book,

most of them have already gone through this process, right?

So where he is reaffirming them as

brothers in Christ already, and he's trying

to correct them because some of them have

begun to listen to these Judaizers that say, no,

that's not the end of the story. You got to

add the Old Testament, you got to add

the law, you got to add the Torah to that.

And Paul is saying, no, that's not the way it works.

The Old Testament had its place, served its purpose.

This is something new that God is doing us.

This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, right? So we've

got the salvation process. Everybody pretty clear about that?

This is so important, I want to stop and just kind of make a little

caveat here. If you're here this morning and you're— you've never invited

Jesus into your life, man, we are so grateful that you would come to

church this morning and listen to God's Word. But if you're in that point where

you have not, made that acceptance of Christ, we always

want to give you the opportunity. Seek out Pastor

Brian, seek out Pastor Mark, seek out myself,

and let us share with you how to invite Jesus into your life. If you

have questions, man, those are the kind of questions we just absolutely

live for as pastors. Come and ask us if we— if

you have any issues or any questions about your salvation. We would love

to work on that with you. Okay, so now I'm a believer,

I've accepted Christ, I have gone through the salvation

process. So that's it, right? What do I do with the rest of my life?

Well, now you get to enter into the other major

process in the Christian life, and that's the process of

sanctification. Sanctification.

Big church word. Sounds pretty heavy,

right? What does it mean to be sanctified?

Sanctification is the process of becoming more like

Jesus, right? We are becoming each and

every day— the Holy Spirit is working in us and

through us, and he is turning us into

the image of Christ. We are becoming more

and more like Jesus every day. We should be, right,

becoming more and more like Jesus every day. Now here

again in our passage here in, in John,

the conviction of the Holy Spirit said it convicts us of sin and

of righteousness. So there's a little different

wrinkle the sanctification process,

when the Holy Spirit comes to me and convicts me,

he's not convicting me of my sin in

the sense of saying you need a Savior.

He is convicting me to say you

need to get this sin out of your life.

Okay, so my response to

the second kind of conviction after I've already become a

believer isn't to turn to Jesus and ask for

salvation over and over and over again. I've already got salvation.

Salvation is a one-time thing.

Once you've received Christ into your life, you are born again.

Once I'm born again, if I go out and sin, I'm not

unborn. I'm just a child of God

who has gotten involved in sin. The Holy Spirit will

come and convict me of that sin. What is my response

when the Holy Spirit comes to convict me of my sin after I become

a believer? Well, my response— my response is

repentance. Everybody know what repentance means?

Hmm,

to turn away. In fact, it's actually a military term. For those

of you who are in the military, this, this is actually in

the Greek a military term. What modern-day

military term do you think this relates to?

About-face. To be going in one direction,

to plant your foot, make the decision, and turn

and go in the other direction. The conviction of the Holy

Spirit comes to us and he says, Hey,

you are going in the wrong direction.

Stop what you're doing and head back towards Christ.

Head back the way I want you to go. And so as

we live out our lives, we are constantly as

Christians involved in these 2 big processes,

the salvation experience, which happens for us instantaneously

when we receive Jesus. Now the sanctification process,

where every day we're trying to live a little bit

more like Christ, and we're doing that by the

conviction and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, now that's where Paul is going in our passage today.

He's going to talk to these Galatian Christians,

probably for the first time, about how to walk

in the Spirit. So I want to close out this section

by reminding you of the things that Paul has already talked about

before, because the things that we've been looking at with— throughout

the book of Galatians have all been a setup for

these 2 processes. When we talked about

Abraham, what was the key goal that we were supposed to remember about

Faith. Hint, hint, it's on the screen.

Father of faith. Abraham was the father of faith.

When we talked about the law, what was the law so

supposed to show us?

That we were sinners, right?

The law was supposed to show us we were sinners. Abraham was

a story about faith, and then the sacrifice— we

didn't talk a whole lot about the sacrificial system, but that was the system that

they used in the Old Testament. When they sinned,

they brought a sacrifice. And what was that sacrifice supposed to

do? It was supposed to cover their sin

and put them back in right relationship with God.

Tough thing about the sacrificial system, it was temporary.

It was only one sacrifice for one sin or one

period of time. So when Jesus comes into the picture and

he sacrifices himself for all of our

sins, all of that stuff,

all of these ideas that Paul has been sharing throughout

Galatians are all his way of building up to

these ideas of salvation and sanctification.

Because for salvation, you need to have faith,

faith in Christ. You need to know that you're a sinner,

and the law has clearly showed us that we are sinners and

that we can't live by the law. And the sacrificial system

has shown us this need for a relationship with

God that we can't achieve making animal

sacrifices. We receive Christ, and that restores

our relationship with God. Okay,

I hope some of that made sense. All right, so that's kind of the

wrap-up of where Paul has brought us to

by this point in the passage, by this point in the scripture.

And now I've got 10 seconds to preach a our passage for

today. Okay, here we go. But I

say to you, walk by the Spirit

and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,

and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,

for these are opposed to each other. To keep

you from doing the things that you want to do. But if you are

led by the Spirit, you are not

under the law. You are not under

the law. Now, we said a little bit about this church in

Galatia, but let me touch on a couple more ideas about this church in

Galatia, right? The church in Galatia was

an interesting mix Many of

the churches that Paul planted end up being these

interesting mixes of people.

There were Jewish Christians in

these churches. Paul had a normal practice.

Go back and read through Paul's travels in

the book of Acts, and what Paul would do when he was on his missionary

journeys is Anybody know where was the first place Paul would go when he was

on a missionary journey? Where?

The synagogue. Whenever he would come into a town, he would

immediately— first place he would go was the synagogue. Why would he go to

the synagogue?

Paul could get an immediate hearing

any synagogue that he walked into because he was a

Pharisee, a well-known,

important Pharisee from Jerusalem.

So if you're in a small town in Asia Minor and

you walk into the synagogue, oh my goodness, here is

a leading rabbi from Jerusalem.

Let's listen to him, right? So Paul

got an immediate audience everywhere he went. And so when you read

throughout Acts, Paul uses this, this practice

everywhere he goes. He goes to the synagogue first.

He's also carrying out what Jesus had said, to the

Jew first and then to the Gentile. And so he goes to these

synagogues, and he would preach in these synagogues, and And he would tell them about

Jesus, and guess what would happen? Some of

the Jewish folks in these synagogues would get converted, and they

would become believers. So Jewish people

who had become converted to Christianity. Now,

again, kind of doing some recollection here.

In the first century, in these first early days of the church,

90% of the people in the church are converted

Jews. What percentage

of Jesus's disciples were Jewish? All of

them, 100%, right? So some of these Jewish

folks would get converted out of the synagogue message that Paul would preach.

But Paul didn't stop there. Then he would go to the city center, and what

would he do? He'd preach Jesus. And so guess what

would happen? Gentiles would get converted.

And so now you would have these Gentiles that were converted. And this is the

exact pattern that he would follow, and this is exactly what happened in Galatia.

And so these Galatian churches are a mixture

of converted Jews and converted Gentiles.

Now into the mix of that, as After Paul establishes

the churches and he goes on to preach in other places,

these other folks came in primarily from Jerusalem

called the Judaizers. And they're the ones who

are beginning to share this other idea

with the folks who were already there. Now again,

remember, Christianity is brand new. Your church

is brand new. And now we have these 2 groups of people

who are very different, Jews and Gentiles, who are mixed

together celebrating and worshiping and fellowshipping

in Christ. And this 3rd group comes in, this group of Judaizers,

and they are presenting this new idea.

So that's kind of where we are in this whole process

with this church. So Paul introduces a new idea

here. He says, walk by the Spirit.

Walk by the Spirit?

If you were a Jew and you knew the Old Testament,

what role did the Holy Spirit play in the Old Testament?

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon

people for a certain task,

and then he left. But now in the New Testament,

as we have received Christ into our life, something new

has happened on the day of Pentecost. Now the

Holy Spirit is not going to come on and off of people.

He is going to come to live in The

believers in Christ. Each and every one

of us who has invited Jesus into our life has,

has allowed the Holy Spirit to come and

dwell within you.

Okay, why is that so different?

Why is that such a different idea? Because the Spirit

in us empowers us

And we can now live above

sin. When you and I were— before we

invited Jesus into our life, did we have the power to live above sin?

I mean, your willpower can only last so long.

Most of us failed miserably at trying to

live out a good life With

just our willpower. We didn't have even the strength to live

above sin. But now the Holy Spirit has come inside

of you. Do you have the ability to live above sin

now? Yes, I have

the power of the Holy Spirit and I can resist sin.

Sins that I did not even see before as sins,

the Holy Spirit is now convicting me, right?

Convicting me of sin, righteousness. Now he's convicting

me of those things and I'm able to change my life

because I have the power of God inside of me.

Okay. And so Paul is presenting. So that's

why I said this is kind of a turning point in the book because

now Paul is not giving this argument about why

you shouldn't listen to the Judaizers, why you're not strong enough

to live by the law. Now he is giving that— he's

telling us, hey, here is this power source, this resource

that you have never had before, but it's come— but

the Holy Spirit has come to live inside of you.

And if you will walk by the Spirit, then what

else will happen? All of these other things— the

life of sin, the life of the flesh, will fall by the wayside

because the Spirit will empower you to live

in a way that you've never been able to live before.

Oh boy, you should have said amen right there. Amen. You haven't— you and

I have never— we had no chance of

living a godly, righteous life until

the Holy Spirit's power came within us. And so

Paul is presenting this idea to them, right?

They have had these ideas of the law,

and they've had these ideas of— now the Judaizers are saying the law plus,

but Paul is saying no, it's all about the Spirit.

It's all about walking in the Spirit.

Note in this passage that there's 2 buts.

Now, Pastor Kevin was helping me out with this. This is called an inclusio.

Okay, big fancy word. There's a but at the beginning and a but at

the end, so it's like a sandwich, right? It's like a sandwich.

The Judaizers were offering to the people 2

options. They said you can have the gospel and

the Torah and that will bring salvation and righteousness,

or you can just go on and live a life of sin.

You only have 2 options. This is what the Judaizers were saying to them.

But what Paul is saying to them is, no, that's not how it

is. There's a higher path. There is a way that

is above that, and it's the way of grace and faith

which lead to salvation, and then living by the

Spirit, which leads to righteousness.

But if you are led by the Spirit,

then you are no longer under the law. Sin does

not have dominion over you anymore.

Boy, there should have been an amen right there too. Let me say that again.

Sin no longer has dominion over

you. You are not under its power

and control. You have the power

of the Holy Spirit inside of you. You can choose

by the act— by an act of your will to live

by the Spirit and to walk in a way that

will not lead you to sin. Death and

destruction. You can walk in a way that will lead

you to righteousness, but it's all wrapped up

in this idea of being led by and yielding

ourselves to the Spirit.

Now, the works of the flesh are evident.

Okay, Paul is going to give us a list.

If you've read any of Paul's writings, you know that this is one

of Paul's favorite teaching methods. He gives

you a list, right? He's going to give us a list, and he

usually starts by giving us a list of bad things, things that you

don't want to do, things that you shouldn't be involved in,

and he's going to contrast that with a list of things

that you should do. Okay, so here's the

first of Paul's list. Now the works of

the flesh are evident: sexual immorality,

impurity, sensuality, idolatry,

sorcery, enmity,

strife, jealousy, fits of anger,

rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,

drunkenness, orgies, things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those

who do such things will not inherit

the kingdom of God. Okay,

so here's Paul's first list. This is the list

of the acts of the flesh.

Wow, look at that list!

Ooh, these first-century folks were terrible, right?

Horrible folks. There's some things on that list that are almost

not only scary but shameful. Amen.

All right, I gotta tell you a story.

So my son came down the other day. I love movies,

and when I was a kid growing up, one of my favorite movies was Ulysses,

the old movie with Kirk Douglas, right? It's really the story

of the Odyssey. And so my son came down

and he and a bunch of his friends and I, we all went out to

the movies and we watched the movie The Odyssey. Anybody seen it?

I don't want to give any spoiler alerts, right? I don't want to give any

spoilers here. Wonderful movie. I highly recommend

it. The movie is really good. Okay. So we get to the movie theater and

we go in and we sit down. I always like to make sure I'm there

when the very first thing starts, right when they turn off the lights. For the

next 30 minutes, I was bombarded

by trailers

for upcoming movies.

About the third trailer— there were about 6 or 8 of them, I don't even

remember how many, but 6 or 8 of these little 3 to 4

minute trailers of other movies.

By the time we got to the third one, I poked my

son's girlfriend who was sitting next to me and I said, I don't think I

can take much more of this.

And I started thinking as I was watching the trailers

of these other movies, and I started thinking

of this list,

and I realized halfway, three-quarters of

the way through those trailers that almost everything

on this list was one of the themes of

those upcoming movies.

I literally almost got up and left the theater.

Immorality, anger,

violence, vengeance.

Folks, these weren't problems in the first-century

Roman world. They're problems in America today.

We not only have these problems, we glorify them

and slap them on huge screens

as entertainment.

It was shocking to me. That's why I'm telling

you today, why I made— thought I'd bring it up today.

It just shocked me how fitting

this list is for us in our

world today, how much like the first century Rome

that we are today, and how we are still

plagued by these kinds of issues.

As you look down through that list Some of

you may look at it and there may be things on this list that you

see and you may say, yeah, I have wrestled

with that. Maybe not the whole

list, but maybe one or two particular things.

Paul was speaking to a group of people

in the first century in Galatia,

but he was speaking to us as well. Amen.

These things are still issues and problems for

us today. How are we going to overcome them?

Because there's a big warning in here, isn't there? People who

do this will not inherit

the kingdom of God. Now, I want to be careful here because

I know for myself, when I was a younger Christian, I would read a list

like this. If I saw anything on there that I had

done or been involved in, I would immediately think,

oh my gosh, I can't possibly be a Christian.

Paul is not talking to people who aren't Christians. He's talking to people

who are Christians, and he's pointing out this

list, and he's telling them that we need to avoid these

things. We need to be led by the Spirit,

and the Spirit's not going to lead you into those

things. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that this is about

salvation. It's not about salvation.

This verse is about sanctification,

and it's really hard to pick it out unless you go back and look

at the Greek. But the key word in this last

sentence here is one of the smallest words in the sentence. It's the word

do. Do. If you look that word

up in the Greek, It's, it's prasantantas.

Easy for me to say. Prasantantas, right? And this

means to practice something,

to habitually, routinely do it, to have it

as part of your life. So Paul isn't saying to these folks that

if you slip into one of these sins on an occasion

that you're completely out of the camp. No,

but he is saying that if you are constantly practicing

these kind of things, then you need to ask some hard questions

because something might be wrong. Something might be

wrong if you are continually involved

in jealousy or anger or dissension.

If that's a theme of your life, something is

desperately wrong. Okay, so Paul gives us

this one, this wonderful list of terrible

things. All right,

again, it's not about your

salvation, it's about your sanctification.

And it's about later rewards.

So whether we are at home or away, we make

it our aim to please him, for we must all appear

before the judgment seat of Christ. Remember, what was that last

thing it said? Spirit came to convict the world of what?

Sin, righteousness, and the

judgment to come, right? All right,

so that each of us may receive his due for

what he has done in the body, whether for good or

for evil. Again, I don't know

how much you've thought through this or we've talked about this,

but you as a Christian will go through judgment

at the end of time. In fact,

you as a Christian get the blessing of going through 2

judgments. There's the first judgment,

which is very simple judgment, where Jesus separates the sheep

from the goats— those who have been saved from those

who haven't been saved. It's a very straightforward,

clear-cut thing. Those who have accepted Christ

are going to be blessed and go into heaven and eternity.

Those who have not accepted Christ are going to be rejected and

sent into hell. But the group

that is accepted has a second judgment

where you are going to— you and I are going to appear before the judgment

seat of Christ. This isn't about salvation.

We've already been saved. This is about

reward. This is about Christ looking

at our lives and saying What

did you do? What did you do with the gifts that I gave you?

What'd you do with the talents that I gave you? What'd you do with the

time that I gave you? How did you live your

life? Okay, so these— walking

in the Spirit is the way that

we become sanctified, but it's also

the way that we build an inheritance

the kingdom of God. We don't often

think or talk that way, but this is very clearly what Paul lays

out— that there is an inheritance waiting for

you in the kingdom of God, and your actions

can contribute to that, can contribute to rewards.

Things like crowns are talked about, things like God

giving you a job. In the next world.

All of that stuff is based on this judgment.

Okay,

well, now we get to the good list: love,

joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Note that this is not singular— that this

is singular. It is not the fruits of

the Spirit, it is the fruit of the Spirit.

All 9 of those things are part of the fruit.

When the Holy Spirit comes into your life,

this is his character, this is who he

is, and he wants us to

be more like Christ and to become more like him.

So as he brings the fruit into our lives,

it is a way of changing us.

It says we are going to be led by the Spirit, right?

Well, what are we going to be led into? We're going to be

led into love. We're going to be led into joy.

We're going to be led into peace. All of

these attributes are

the characteristics that God wants us to have. And how we

get them into our lives is not by working harder,

it's by yielding ourselves to the Spirit who already

has these characters— characteristics

as part of who he is.

Okay, one of the things I like to do with Paul's

lists is just throw them up there side

by side. And I like to ask myself a question.

Which do you spend more time doing?

Just let that sink in for a minute. Which do

you spend more time doing? Am I

more on the left or am

I more on the right? If I look at a list

like this and I discover that I'm— my

week or my day was more on the right than

it is on the left, then I need

to repent. Amen. I need to

reinvite the Holy Spirit to lead me.

I need to say, dear Holy Spirit, come into my

life, come in and guide me,

because I don't seem to be where I need to be.

These lists for the early Christians, and I think for us

today, were incredibly helpful because they

gave a guideline of how we

ought to be living. Should we— are we living

Love, joy, and peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control?

Or are we more on the other side?

It's a good question to ask ourselves.

If we are led by the Spirit, let us keep in

step with with the Spirit. Living by the Spirit— this is not

a new law. The Spirit empowers us. He is there to help

us. He is there to guide us. He wants to stay

with us. And I enjoyed this, this keep in

step with the Spirit. Many of you know that I was in the Army

for 30-plus years. I was

a chaplain, and one of the knocks on chaplains was always that we

don't know how to march, you know. So when we get in formations,

it's always a joke to watch, you know, which one of these guys

is the chaplain, right? You can tell because we, we have trouble

staying in step. And this

made me think of a funny story. When I was in basic training, we were

doing some marching drills, and we were in a formation of about

20 people. And the drill instructor kept marching us,

and he'd turn us left and he'd turn us right. And finally he said,

hey, Somebody's, uh, somebody's messing up. And I realized later he

was just trying to be kind. He knew who was messing up.

He didn't want to point the person out, right? And so he

said, okay, somebody in this section is messing up. So the other people stepped

away and he did it again. And there's, hey,

okay, somebody's still messing up. And he divided the group smaller.

He divided the group smaller and smaller until it finally got down to guess who?

That's right, me, right? And it was like I was messing up

the turn on every one of these things, and he was trying to be kind

to me, but eventually he had to just say,

you, you right there, Schaffner, you're not

in the right step, right? How do we keep in

step with the Spirit?

In the military, you listen to the person calling

out the steps. Left,

left, left, right, left.

That's what the life of a Christian is. Every morning

we should be waking up and we would be— should be listening to the

Holy Spirit say, left, right,

love, joy, peace.

We should be listening to the Spirit and keeping in

step with him. And it will allow us to live a

life that we will be free to

live by the Spirit, not by

our own struggles, not by the pressures of the world,

but we'll be free to walk in the Spirit

and the joy that he will bring to

us. Amen. We're going to have

the music team's going to come back up. In just a few moments, we're going

to open up the communion tables as we sing these last

few songs. If you have had any thoughts

today about what the Spirit needs to do in

your life, I would encourage you to think about

those things right now. Think about them as we sing,

as we pray, as we go to the communion

time. But again, if you're here today and you've

never invited Jesus into your life, but you'd like to talk to somebody about doing

that, please feel free to come and talk

to me or Mark or to Brian. We'll be back here in the back,

and we would love to talk to you about that. So let's stand

together and worship a little bit more together and take time

to have communion. Thank you for the day.

Thank you for your word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Father,

help us, help us to be, help us

to yield to the leading of your Holy Spirit each

and every day. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Surround me with a song

of deliverance from

my enemies till all my

fears are gone.

I'm no longer a slave

to fear.

I am a child of God.

I'm no longer a slave

to fear.

I am a child of God.

From my mother's womb, you have chosen

me. Chosen me.

Love has called my name.

I've been born again into your family.

Your blood flows through my veins.

I'm no longer a slave

to fear. I am

a child of God.

I'm no longer a

slave to fear.

I am a child of God.

I'm no longer a slave

to fear. I am a child

of God.

I'm no longer a slave

to fear.

I am a child of God.

Oh,

you split the sea so I could

walk right through it. My fears were

drowned in perfect love.

You rescued me so I could stand

and sing. I am a child.

You split the sea so I could walk right

through it. My fears were drowned

in perfect love.

You rescued me so I could stand

and sing. I am a

child of God.

I am a child of

God.

I'm no longer a

slave to fear.

I am a child of

God. I'm no longer

a slave to fear.

I am a child of God.

My hope is built on nothing less.

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest

frame, but wholly trust

in Jesus' name. Sing it

again. My hope is

built On nothing less

than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest

frame, but wholly

trust in Jesus' name.

Christ alone Cornerstone,

we made strong.

Savior's love through the

storm. He is Lord,

Lord of all.

When darkness seems to

hide his face,

I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale,

my anchor holds within the faith.

My anchor holds within the

veil. Christ alone

corners all.

We've made strong with the Savior's

love. Through the storm, he is Lord.

Lord alone,

Christ alone.

Cornerstone,

the weak made strong in the Savior's

love. Through the storm,

he is Lord.

Lord of all.

He is Lord,

Lord of all.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh, may I then in him be found,

dressed in his righteousness alone.

All that stand before the

throne, Christ alone.

Cornerstone, we'd make strong in

Savior's love.

Through the storm, he is

Lord, Lord of all.

Great to worship together this morning. Just a couple reminders

for you. If you want to know more about our financial update,

we have it on Church Center. There's a 19-page document on there that you

can get into all the details if you'd like. We'd love to have you check

that out on Church Center. I mentioned that our picnic

is next week. Week. It's a week from today. I mentioned our Lacey campus,

but I just wanted to remind you where that is in case you didn't know.

It is— it's like a 12-14 minute drive. It is right near

the RAC, uh, the Regional Athletic Complex,

not too far from Costco in the Hawks Prairie area, right across the

street from Nisqually Middle School. So it's a really quick place, not too far to

get to, really easy to find. So we'll see you next Sunday for that.

We worship— we're We're going to worship through one more song, and the offering basket

will come around. And don't let it be an awkward thing. It's a chance to

express worship through dependence on him and to serve. And so I wanted to

thank you for that. If this is your first time here, do not feel

any obligation at all to give to that. We just want you to hang out

and get to know us a little bit. So let's worship through one more song.

Who breaks

the power

of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty

and so much stronger. The King of Glory,

the King above all kings.

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder,

who leaves us breathless in awe and

wonder, the King of glory,

the King above all kings.

This is amazing grace,

this is unfailing love.

That you would take my place,

that you would bear my cross.

You would lay down your life

that I would feel set free.

Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that

you've done for me.

Who brings our chaos back into

order? Who makes the orphan

a son and daughter? The King of glory,

the King of glory, who rules the nations

with truth and justice, shines like the sun

in all of its brilliance. The King of glory,

the King above all kings.

This is amazing grace.

This is unfailing love.

That you would take my place,

that you would bear my cross.

You laid down your life that

I would be set free.

Oh Jesus, I sing for all that

you've done for me.

Worthy is the

Lamb who was slain.

Worthy is the King who conquered the grave.

Worthy is the Lamb who Worthy

is the King who conquered the grave.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Worthy is the King who conquered the grave.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Worthy, worthy, worthy are you, Jesus. Oh, this is

amazing grace. This is

unfailing love.

That you would take my place,

that you would bear my cross.

You laid down your life

that I would be set free.

Oh Jesus, I sing for all that you've

done for me.

Amen. Hey, um, if you guys— anybody who's willing to help

us clean up, don't take down chairs. We're just moving some stuff on

carts back out to the trailer for next week at our picnic.

Thank you.