back to indexBerean Community Church Wednesday Night Bible Study Galatians 5:13-18
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- No, I mean like, I'm just trying to get megatrends, 00:01:16.940 |
- They're all like, wearing like, a couple hundred 00:04:31.520 |
any time, like, I don't know, I did it today. 00:06:14.600 |
get situated to start our Bible study tonight. 00:06:19.120 |
Give a moment just for people to take their seats. 00:06:24.640 |
Please join with me in a word of prayer as we begin. 00:06:28.360 |
Lord God, we truly do want to thank you and praise you. 00:06:34.080 |
Lord, we are grateful for your kind intention 00:06:44.720 |
And what's more, Lord, we place an incredible amount 00:06:46.840 |
of trust and hope that this journey that we are on, 00:06:55.240 |
And this opportunity we have tonight to join together 00:07:02.600 |
we know, God, it's an incredible privilege for us, 00:07:06.720 |
And now, God, as we join our voices, as we lift you up, 00:07:10.440 |
God, we do pray that through our faith you'd be honored, 00:07:13.640 |
and God, that what we do would be pleasing in your sight. 00:08:15.780 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 00:08:43.780 |
♪ Show me who you are and fill me with your heart ♪ 00:08:50.780 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 00:09:20.280 |
♪ Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring ♪ 00:09:25.280 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 00:09:52.780 |
♪ Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe ♪ 00:10:20.780 |
♪ Show me who you are and fill me with your heart ♪ 00:10:25.780 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 00:10:48.280 |
♪ Show me who you are and fill me with your heart ♪ 00:10:53.280 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 00:12:20.780 |
♪ Show me who you are and fill me with your heart ♪ 00:12:27.780 |
♪ And lead me in your love to those around me ♪ 00:15:57.780 |
Father God, we just want to thank you for this time, Lord. 00:16:02.780 |
You alone are worthy of our praise, our song, 00:16:15.780 |
and lead us through your spirit and your love 00:16:22.780 |
but God, often we just, it's impossible with our flesh. 00:16:35.780 |
it is our prayer that it would be pleasing to you, 00:16:41.780 |
So as we just continue our worship into our Bible study, 01:03:13.780 |
All right, for those of you guys who are in the rooms, 01:04:33.780 |
My guess is your discussions went pretty fast. 01:04:39.780 |
Wait till you guys get to next week's passage, 01:04:48.780 |
All right, you guys, let's take a moment to pray 01:04:58.780 |
and the freedom that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:05:01.780 |
Help us, Lord God, to hold on to the gospel so dearly 01:05:16.780 |
And it says here, "For you were called to freedom, brethren. 01:05:28.780 |
"In the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 01:05:33.780 |
"take care that you are not consumed by one another. 01:05:39.780 |
"and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 01:05:42.780 |
"For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, 01:05:49.780 |
"so that you may not do the things that you please. 01:06:03.780 |
this passage has a lot of explanation, right? 01:06:11.780 |
If you're gonna be in the freedom, then you don't do this. 01:06:15.780 |
But if you don't do this, then you need to be in love. 01:06:19.780 |
then you're gonna be biting and devouring each other, 01:06:36.780 |
of where there could be a division in thought. 01:06:41.780 |
showing us that we need to embrace God's will for us. 01:06:48.780 |
we're free to love, and we ought to say no to the flesh. 01:07:03.780 |
that the last segment was pretty intense, yes? 01:07:16.780 |
as the people who would desire to make influence in our lives. 01:07:37.780 |
It's like no, these individuals who are in the church 01:07:39.780 |
trying to disturb you, seek out your liberty, 01:07:44.780 |
it's appropriate for Apostle Paul to feel that way. 01:07:49.780 |
when he says for, and he gives an explanation. 01:07:52.780 |
Why do I say what I say about these individuals? 01:07:56.780 |
They should mutilate themselves and go all the ways 01:08:03.780 |
They should freely expose themselves and leave 01:08:30.780 |
These people would try to trouble you from that. 01:08:33.780 |
It has been God's desire and it has been his will 01:08:42.780 |
And so I want you guys to think about freedom 01:08:49.780 |
but think of it as immense blessing in Christ. 01:08:54.780 |
is an incredible blessing of the vibrancy of life, 01:09:01.780 |
And so this passage begins off by explaining to us, 01:09:08.780 |
Now, we should take a moment to just quickly review. 01:09:15.780 |
in the previous passages and even as an application discussion 01:09:20.780 |
But because there is an interesting play on words here. 01:09:28.780 |
And then you take this freedom and you're not supposed 01:09:30.780 |
to make it into an opportunity for your flesh, 01:09:32.780 |
but you're supposed to put yourself under and serve. 01:09:35.780 |
And if you did a study, that idea to serve is doulos, 01:09:42.780 |
So then we have to ask, what is the idea of freedom? 01:09:45.780 |
And it's just, I wouldn't say there's one thing, 01:09:48.780 |
but I want us to understand and just kind of show you 01:09:58.780 |
Freedom from darkness, like blindness and ignorance. 01:10:01.780 |
Freedom from, you know, the curse of the law. 01:10:06.780 |
And then there are some other immense personal blessings. 01:10:13.780 |
Freedom from the shame you experience because of your sins. 01:10:19.780 |
by which you cannot enter into the presence of God, right? 01:10:23.780 |
So as you look at the other side, freedom too, 01:10:33.780 |
the will of the Lord as it unfolds in history. 01:10:40.780 |
Free to experience the blessedness of His promise and more. 01:10:43.780 |
And so I want to reiterate that what you have in freedom 01:10:47.780 |
is essentially a massive, massive blessings in Christ, okay? 01:11:00.780 |
Don't be that spoiled child where you get blessed 01:11:05.780 |
and you immediately turn it into something nasty. 01:11:08.780 |
That's the way I summarize, or I guess see, that transition, okay? 01:11:12.780 |
Don't take the freedom that you have, meaning the blessings that you have, 01:11:16.780 |
and make it into an opportunity for your flesh. 01:11:23.780 |
that somehow there are no expectations on your life. 01:11:29.780 |
The book of James talks about how you will actually be judged by the law of liberty. 01:11:33.780 |
God has designed and created you for various purposes to His glory. 01:11:37.780 |
Of course you have expectations on your life. 01:11:40.780 |
Obviously, none of us, right, would ever have the gall to say, 01:11:45.780 |
"You know what? I'm going to live my life and say what I want to say, 01:11:48.780 |
do what I want to do, and don't you dare tell me otherwise," okay? 01:11:52.780 |
But as we get into such an applicational portion of the text, 01:11:56.780 |
I do want to ask a quick applicational question to you, okay? 01:12:00.780 |
We would never say that because I'm a free Christian, 01:12:06.780 |
But another way to see if we actually feel that way 01:12:09.780 |
is to ask the question, "How are your reactions?" 01:12:13.780 |
How are your reactions when your fellow brother or sister tells you, 01:12:18.780 |
or, "Man, you really should be doing better in your commitments, 01:12:22.780 |
in your devotion, in your consistency, even in your participation," right? 01:12:27.780 |
Do you have knee-jerk reactions where it's like, 01:12:34.780 |
If you do, you're kind of saying it without saying it. 01:12:42.780 |
and I wanted to ask that question as a check to ourselves, 01:12:46.780 |
But I want to make a more pointed applicational question to you 01:12:54.780 |
When it tells you not to turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh, 01:12:58.780 |
how have you in any way, in any moment where I see the pattern, 01:13:03.780 |
turned your blessings into opportunity just to gratify yourself? 01:13:09.780 |
Definitely you should ask that applicational question. 01:13:11.780 |
In what ways have you turned the blessings of God 01:13:17.780 |
You know, as I was meditating on that just personally, 01:13:19.780 |
I don't know why, like, it took me back to my childhood, you know? 01:13:24.780 |
As soon as you have an opportunity where you're not in school 01:13:27.780 |
and you get on spring break, what do you normally do? 01:13:29.780 |
As a kid, it's like binge on movies and video games, right? 01:13:34.780 |
When you get older, there are other blessings and opportunities. 01:13:38.780 |
When you get your first job and you first taste money, 01:13:45.780 |
What do we normally do when we are afforded certain things and blessings? 01:13:50.780 |
And I just realized, you know what, just in humility, 01:13:58.780 |
If some of us are, you know, in a kind of busyness of life 01:14:01.780 |
and you feel like, "Man, I just had a season, though. 01:14:06.780 |
When you are first afforded your rest, what do you do? 01:14:19.780 |
Now, when I think about this, I want to take a moment 01:14:22.780 |
where we can all gather our hearts and thank and praise the Lord. 01:14:27.780 |
Because God has said, knowing that people tend to do this, 01:14:35.780 |
Has it been God's desire to keep us underneath the strict tutor all our lives? 01:14:44.780 |
And one of the maturities that we will see is when we have liberty, 01:14:48.780 |
when we have blessing, what are we going to do with it, right? 01:14:53.780 |
That's a very, very tangible application that we have here. 01:14:57.780 |
I asked an interesting question like, "Whoa, that's really interesting. 01:15:00.780 |
Did God take a fat risk giving freedom to a bunch of people 01:15:04.780 |
who have a nature prone to laziness, selfishness, greed, and pleasure?" 01:15:10.780 |
As you guys would know, praise be to God, God doesn't take just like risks. 01:15:16.780 |
In his perfect fatherly love, he's sanctifying us. 01:15:24.780 |
Now, as we continue on, I want us to come to this next portion of verse 13 01:15:29.780 |
where it says, "But in contrast to you taking opportunities just to satisfy yourself, 01:15:35.780 |
through love you ought to serve one another." 01:15:40.780 |
And any time there's a command, I hope you get in a pattern of highlighting it, 01:15:43.780 |
circling it, and ask certain questions like, "Do I understand what he's telling me? 01:15:50.780 |
And do I know how I'm practically going to do it?" 01:15:55.780 |
As we think about that, you guys, if you've done a word study on the word love, 01:16:04.780 |
It would have sufficed for him to say, "I want you to love people." 01:16:08.780 |
But he adds another term that he wants you to, through love, serve one another. 01:16:14.780 |
And that's the one I want to take a little bit of time on. 01:16:16.780 |
You guys have probably heard that agape is a strong form of love 01:16:20.780 |
where it's unconditional, sacrificial, not contingent upon superficial things 01:16:25.780 |
like what you can do, how you look, and what status you are. 01:16:29.780 |
But here the challenge goes deeper for us, right? 01:16:33.780 |
Because it says, "Rather than taking the blessings as a cue for you to now go live it up, 01:16:40.780 |
he wants you to voluntarily become a servant of other people." 01:16:45.780 |
Look at this, the idea of the verb to--the verb comes from the noun doulos, 01:16:52.780 |
which means servant or slave, and it's to be in a position of servitude, 01:17:03.780 |
And I want to say, again, by way of application, 01:17:05.780 |
one of the more poignant signs of biblical maturity 01:17:13.780 |
As a matter of fact, you can teach all you want and be incredibly what? 01:17:19.780 |
You get annoyed that people aren't meeting up to certain standards 01:17:24.780 |
You want people to be better because in the end that serves you. 01:17:28.780 |
You're challenging other people to be submissive, servant-like, etc. 01:17:37.780 |
Who do you love most in that kind of scenario? 01:17:41.780 |
But rather maturity is often reflected in an ability to subject yourself 01:17:46.780 |
no matter who it is you're serving, to fulfill Christ's love for an individual. 01:17:53.780 |
Moving forward to verse 14 and 15, it's all a part of that first segment 01:18:00.780 |
We say yes to love that God has designed us to do and say no to the flesh. 01:18:04.780 |
What's really interesting is in verse 14 it says the whole law 01:18:15.780 |
He explains to us that these individuals who claim to be like, 01:18:23.780 |
and these people who are trying to get everybody to do a simple act 01:18:28.780 |
of both ritual and tradition for the sake of entering into the kingdom, 01:18:32.780 |
he's essentially rebuking them like, "If you really understood the law, 01:18:37.780 |
you would know that God's intent was for love 01:18:40.780 |
because the law reminded us of the great kindness and the love of God." 01:18:49.780 |
you know that the great command for you and me in this side of the cross, 01:18:57.780 |
"A new commandment I give to you that you love one another 01:19:00.780 |
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 01:19:04.780 |
By this all men will know that you are my disciples 01:19:11.780 |
So as we are entering into a very applicational portion, 01:19:15.780 |
I'm just going to talk to different pockets of our church people. 01:19:26.780 |
Some of you, you like nature, cars, tech, animals more than people. 01:19:39.780 |
Christ said that it's not just simply your ability to love anything, 01:19:51.780 |
Yes, even people who fall from your standards, whatever it may be. 01:19:57.780 |
But God has told us that our love for the people around us, 01:20:09.780 |
The Father delights to see us love the brethren. 01:20:13.780 |
What's more, I want to talk to another portion of the people. 01:20:17.780 |
I would classify myself not as an anti-social person, 01:20:27.780 |
I'm just assuming there's a bunch of you out there, 01:20:39.780 |
they constantly just cater to people all the time. 01:20:49.780 |
Just giving people what they want is not love. 01:20:53.780 |
Because if I am pleasing you so that you would accept me, 01:21:05.780 |
does good according to the will of God, amen? 01:21:08.780 |
Everything is in context from God's perspective. 01:21:25.780 |
but in verse 14, it is interesting that, again, 01:21:28.780 |
he quotes Old Testament, I think, to rebuke the people. 01:21:32.780 |
Do you guys really, like, know the Old Testament? 01:21:36.780 |
Because you would know it's not about your self-righteousness, 01:21:41.780 |
But notice how this passage does mention this idea 01:21:48.780 |
Do we need to love self first before we love other people? 01:21:51.780 |
To this group, I know it doesn't need to be said, 01:21:57.780 |
But as a reminder to you, the reason why this passage, 01:22:00.780 |
both from Leviticus, when quoted in Matthew 5, 01:22:13.780 |
It's already a given that we have as our first priority 01:22:16.780 |
our own well-being, our first preservation, et cetera, et cetera. 01:22:20.780 |
But God, he desires to see love for others in that vein. 01:22:26.780 |
Okay, now in thinking through this, verse 15, 01:22:35.780 |
There is a warning that rather than loving yourself, 01:22:42.780 |
Because in so doing, you're going to ruin the whole thing. 01:22:49.780 |
In verse 15, it says, "If you bite and devour one another, 01:22:52.780 |
"take care that you are not consumed by one another." 01:22:55.780 |
Now, I think that little portion where it says, "Take care," right? 01:23:01.780 |
It's like, what is this passage actually saying, you know? 01:23:04.780 |
But in contrast, if you guys remember just a couple passages ago, 01:23:08.780 |
it talked about how a little leaven ruins the whole dough, yes? 01:23:17.780 |
If you give in to the ideology that you get to do whatever you want 01:23:22.780 |
if you think that Christianity means you're kind of free 01:23:26.780 |
because you can sin and you're going to be forgiven, 01:23:31.780 |
what that eventually turns into is a kind of licentious living 01:23:42.780 |
In legalism, the kind of fruit that's born is self-righteousness. 01:23:46.780 |
In licentious living, the kind of fruit that's born is self-preservation. 01:23:50.780 |
I secure my own, I secure myself, I secure my rights, 01:23:55.780 |
and what ends up happening is people devour each other. 01:24:02.780 |
Don't you understand where this is going to lead to? 01:24:05.780 |
So, I'm not going to go into all the details of what does it mean to bite 01:24:11.780 |
Essentially, it's like a strange play on words 01:24:13.780 |
that means you're just going to eat each other up. 01:24:16.780 |
You're going to be like wild beasts out there in the wilderness, 01:24:21.780 |
You just do whatever you want and watch what the animals do. 01:24:26.780 |
They end up eating each other. Dog-eat-dog world, right? 01:24:29.780 |
And so, I wanted to just highlight a quick passage 01:24:33.780 |
that when the Scripture warns us about the false teachers 01:24:36.780 |
who are going to essentially teach us the spirit of the age, 01:24:42.780 |
"And especially those who indulge in the flesh, 01:24:45.780 |
in corrupt desires and despise authority, daring, self-willed, 01:24:49.780 |
they do not tremble when they revile against angelic majesties, 01:24:52.780 |
whereas angels who are greater in might and power 01:24:55.780 |
do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 01:24:59.780 |
But these like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct 01:25:03.780 |
to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge." 01:25:13.780 |
If we kind of think about our modern generation, 01:25:23.780 |
it literally is do whatever makes you happy, right? 01:25:26.780 |
And anything that doesn't make you happy, remove far from your midst. 01:25:33.780 |
like a generation of people who are living by that ideology, 01:25:40.780 |
Whatever floats your boat, I guess you'd be happy, right? 01:25:45.780 |
It's like hard not to comment on our current generation 01:25:51.780 |
because we live in such an angry, almost paranoid generation 01:25:55.780 |
where people are constantly feeling attacked. 01:25:58.780 |
They're like paranoid that someone's going to violate their rights 01:26:03.780 |
And people are essentially fighting each other nonstop. 01:26:09.780 |
It came from this do whatever you feel like kind of mentality. 01:26:13.780 |
Moving forward then, in contrast to the spirit of the age, 01:26:21.780 |
the scripture says to us, "But I say, walk by the spirit, 01:26:25.780 |
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 01:26:29.780 |
For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, 01:26:37.780 |
so that you may not do the things that you please." 01:26:44.780 |
"You know this command, 'Walk by the spirit,' right? 01:26:50.780 |
And I definitely hope that you guys, when you were talking through your observation, 01:26:53.780 |
asked the question, 'Do I really understand what that means?'" 01:27:01.780 |
through just a systematic study of the Bible or other passages 01:27:05.780 |
that will help me understand what it means to walk in the spirit? 01:27:10.780 |
"I want the word of God to richly dwell in you, right? 01:27:14.780 |
I want you to grow in wisdom, understanding, discernment." 01:27:17.780 |
Why? Because blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, 01:27:22.780 |
but rather he's going to be meditating on the word of God 01:27:28.780 |
Scripture talks so much about what it means to walk daily as children of light, 01:27:33.780 |
mimicking Christ, and I hope that we have an ability, 01:27:41.780 |
I think every Christian should be able to articulate, 01:27:45.780 |
"This is what it means for me to walk near and consistently with my God, 01:27:50.780 |
to be in tune and receive the benefits of the spirit." 01:27:55.780 |
Now, in thinking about this and how do we do it, 01:28:01.780 |
that there is an active nature to this, but also a passive nature to this. 01:28:05.780 |
Or, better yet, another way to think about it is 01:28:08.780 |
there's an active walking where you are fighting, 01:28:11.780 |
but there's also a surrendering and following. 01:28:14.780 |
We know we ought to pray unceasingly, as the scripture says, 01:28:18.780 |
in all seasons, in every way, different types of prayers. 01:28:22.780 |
And there are so many things you could be doing. 01:28:26.780 |
that there's an element to which a big part of you walking 01:28:33.780 |
And those of you who are constantly trying to secure your blessings, 01:28:37.780 |
and you're constantly trying to manipulate what's going on in your life, 01:28:41.780 |
there is like a cease and desist order for you to trust God. 01:28:46.780 |
That is a big part of you walking in the spirit. 01:28:53.780 |
this whole idea of walking in the spirit is referenced in Romans 8, 5-13. 01:28:58.780 |
Let's take a moment there and read it together very briefly. 01:29:07.780 |
And this passage kind of expands for us this idea of the flesh versus the spirit. 01:29:18.780 |
It says, "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, 01:29:25.780 |
but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. 01:29:28.780 |
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. 01:29:33.780 |
Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, 01:29:36.780 |
for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. 01:29:42.780 |
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 01:29:44.780 |
However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. 01:29:50.780 |
But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 01:29:55.780 |
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 01:30:02.780 |
But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, 01:30:06.780 |
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies 01:30:13.780 |
So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. 01:30:19.780 |
For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. 01:30:23.780 |
But if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 01:30:29.780 |
Okay, so let's take a moment to talk about this real briefly. 01:30:34.780 |
This portion that we just read in Romans 5 highlighted for us the conflict between our flesh and the spirit, right? 01:30:41.780 |
And the way it said it was, "I want you guys to understand how desperately you need the spirit." 01:30:46.780 |
Because if you think now that you're a Christian that things are supposed to happen naturally for you, 01:30:54.780 |
Your flesh has set itself against your spirit and the things of God. 01:31:02.780 |
And essentially, that's what he's saying here. 01:31:04.780 |
Verse 17 is telling you the reality is your flesh as a decaying piece of the body in which it is now encasing you, 01:31:13.780 |
and God is going to shed that so that you'll be glorified in the flesh, 01:31:17.780 |
you will have a glorified body in heaven, right? 01:31:21.780 |
But in this time, it is completely against you. 01:31:24.780 |
So we know that our enemy, Satan, is attacking us. 01:31:33.780 |
The fallen world and its ideologies can attack us, but so can our flesh, okay? 01:31:39.780 |
So in thinking about that, first just kind of way of application. 01:31:45.780 |
When we think about how we're doing, I want to just give you guys a challenge. 01:31:51.780 |
Sometimes I hear a lot of times where people will say, "Hey, you know, these days I'm doing pretty good." 01:31:58.780 |
When they're asked, "How are you doing spiritually?" they'll say, "I'm doing pretty good." 01:32:01.780 |
And then they'll admit, like, "Ah, but there are compromises here. 01:32:04.780 |
Maybe me and my, you know, significant other, we're crossing boundaries. 01:32:08.780 |
I'm sometimes, like, watching explicit stuff on the Internet, but overall I'm doing pretty good." 01:32:17.780 |
If you're compromising in the flesh and feeding it, you're not doing good just because it's few. 01:32:24.780 |
Why? That flesh is not going to be satisfied. 01:32:30.780 |
So we should be thinking red alarm, yellow alert, I am susceptible. 01:32:37.780 |
What we should be saying is, "Man, the fight is real, and it's getting really intense." 01:32:43.780 |
What's more, I want to talk to, again, by way of application, those of you who are maybe, like, newer to the faith, right, younger Christians. 01:32:52.780 |
I know that a lot of us sometimes feel so frustrated, right? 01:33:00.780 |
Just the other week I went to, you know, a praise night," or, "Oh my goodness, like, Sunday was just the other day. 01:33:07.780 |
How can I fall so easily, so soon, and so severely?" 01:33:14.780 |
It doesn't even have to be somebody who's young in the faith. 01:33:19.780 |
You probably feel that way at certain moments in your life, right? 01:33:25.780 |
We know and we believe the Holy Spirit is in you. 01:33:33.780 |
When you focus way too much on your failure, we almost hesitate to say, "I have the Holy Spirit that was at creation, 01:33:43.780 |
that guided the writing of the Scriptures, the inerrant, infallible Scriptures, 01:33:49.780 |
the Holy Spirit who is our comforter, who is our convictor and our helper in times of need. 01:33:57.780 |
And what this passage in Romans chapter 8 and what this passage is telling us 01:34:01.780 |
is when He comes first, then indirectly we will not follow the desires of our flesh. 01:34:14.780 |
We know that when we are building a deep, healthy, intimate, consistent and nourished relationship with Christ, 01:34:21.780 |
walking with the Spirit, clinging to His every word, indirectly the sin will fade. 01:34:32.780 |
And so, if you are a young Christian, don't be so discouraged and bewildered like, "Oh my gosh, what's happening? 01:34:42.780 |
I just thought that if I confessed it once, then boom, it's supposed to happen." 01:34:47.780 |
You know that it's going to happen in this way where we invest heavily into walking with the Lord. 01:34:53.780 |
So, by way of conclusion, in verse 18, it says, "So if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." 01:35:04.780 |
That portion is kind of interesting because we could bypass it as like, 01:35:07.780 |
"Hey, we've been talking so much about how you're not under the law. I get it." 01:35:16.780 |
"Hey, you don't have to obey the law for righteousness anymore." 01:35:19.780 |
I think this is a little bit different, right? 01:35:22.780 |
He's comparing and contrasting how daily you're supposed to be led, 01:35:27.780 |
and therefore you're not underneath the law, right? 01:35:31.780 |
One is seen as kind of like a general way of righteousness, etc. 01:35:37.780 |
But here I want to talk about this and just give you an example. 01:35:41.780 |
My guess is a bunch of you guys play sports, and sometimes when you are a newbie in playing sports, 01:35:47.780 |
when you're young, what do you most often feel? 01:35:51.780 |
You often feel kind of awkward. You don't know what you're doing, right? 01:35:55.780 |
A lot of times for a newbie player, what becomes the greatest hindrance to them actually playing is fear. 01:36:07.780 |
I'm going to mess up. I'm not going to do a good job. 01:36:09.780 |
People are going to laugh, and it's going to be miserable, okay? 01:36:13.780 |
And then when somebody from the outside watching, it's kind of frustrating. 01:36:17.780 |
It's like, "Just go for it. Just hit it. It doesn't matter, right? Just try." 01:36:23.780 |
And in that way, you guys understand, if you're led in the spirit, you're already in the game. 01:36:30.780 |
If you're focused on your failure and you're focused on the fear, what are you doing 01:36:35.780 |
but completely just stop blocking whatever is progress for you already? 01:36:39.780 |
And so likewise, I want to give you just a challenge and encouragement. 01:36:54.780 |
And in that way, perhaps maybe a lot of us may just sympathize with the disciples 01:36:59.780 |
when Jesus said to them, "I know your spirit is willing, but your flesh is so weak. 01:37:05.780 |
But nevertheless, we believe that the Spirit who is in us is greater, 01:37:10.780 |
is greater than all our failures, and is greater than anything that's in the world." 01:37:18.780 |
Lord God, we thank you for the challenge and the encouragement today. 01:37:24.780 |
We know, Lord, that it has been your design for us to be filled with your love to such a degree 01:37:33.780 |
I pray, Father God, that you would help us live as ones 01:37:37.780 |
who are not looking for more satisfaction because we already are blessed. 01:37:47.780 |
And so I ask, God, that we can give, and then we would feel what the Scripture says, 01:37:51.780 |
that it is more blessed to give than to receive. 01:37:54.780 |
And, Lord, we would mimic you in that kind of lavish self-sacrifice. 01:37:58.780 |
I also pray, Lord, you would teach us what it means, day by day, 01:38:02.780 |
to walk in the Spirit, to be renewed in the Spirit, 01:38:06.780 |
and, God, not to live with our head down, constantly afraid of failure. 01:38:11.780 |
I pray, Father God, that you would cause us to live in victory. 01:38:18.780 |
All right. So we're going to just do a quick announcement here. 01:38:32.780 |
And then you guys can get into your questions or discussions. 01:38:38.780 |
All right. Just by way of a reminder, I want to thank you guys, 01:38:50.780 |
the brothers who have been parking farther away, 01:38:53.780 |
so that we can give the sisters the closer parking lots. 01:38:57.780 |
But please continue to do that. The shuttle service is going to run. 01:39:05.780 |
The only announcement that I really want to highlight, 01:39:08.780 |
the Women's Conference has been announced, you guys, that's this Saturday. 01:39:12.780 |
The membership class, if you're not a member, but you want to be a member at the church, 01:39:17.780 |
it starts this next Sunday, the 21st, at 9.30 in the youth group room over there. 01:39:23.780 |
The thing that I want to highlight is we have a members' meeting at 2 p.m., 01:39:27.780 |
which is mandatory. So if you can't make it, you already know, 01:39:30.780 |
and it's a legitimate reason. We do keep track of this. 01:39:33.780 |
So if you've steadily missed a bunch, someone will probably give you an e-mail. 01:39:39.780 |
But it is mandatory where we actually do share with you the different things that are happening in the church. 01:39:45.780 |
For this one, in order to kind of help you with a lunch, 01:39:50.780 |
our Korea missions team for the summer is going to have a meal ready for you for $10 as a fundraiser. 01:39:58.780 |
And in addition to that, our cafe is serving for that day strawberry matcha. 01:40:04.780 |
No, strawberry lattes and matcha, something, something special. 01:40:10.780 |
But that is – so typically we ask for your coffee drink. 01:40:16.780 |
We do suggest a donation, so we're not losing money serving you coffee. 01:40:21.780 |
But that day it's going to be specifically for a fundraiser. 01:40:25.780 |
So the drinks on that day are going to be for that. 01:40:28.780 |
So a lunch and coffee service will be right before the members' meeting, so just please do keep that in mind. 01:40:36.780 |
We have about 400 people signed up for the abortion birth control IVF seminar, 01:40:43.780 |
but we do need a good headcount for the child care and for refreshments. 01:40:49.780 |
So if you haven't done so already but you're planning on coming to that, please do sign up. 01:40:53.780 |
There are two sessions that are different, and it's going to be a part one and part two with refreshments in the middle. 01:41:06.780 |
But again, the emphasis is if you're not a member but you want to be one, 01:41:10.780 |
the eight-week membership, of course, starts next week.