Galatians 5

Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.

0:00 The rest of us were on Galatians chapter 5. We've been working through Galatians this summer and it's been Good for me. I hope it's been encouraging for you We gave out a couple of those little Bible studies on Galatians to try and encourage you to read through it this summer But we're on Galatians chapter 5 and of course, you know, we could spend three times as long as we are on this It's just an overview, but Galatians chapter 5 has like the section about the fruit of the Spirit which I maybe quote more than any other place

0:35 I really love the fruit of spirit But we'll build up to it here if we start at the beginning of chapter 5 You remember the main Challenge that Paul has here he's He's trying to help people figure out how they Live as Christians in the way of Jesus and one of the things that Excuse me that we've been talking about

1:06 is that Paul goes into these communities Galatia is a region not a town and he goes to several churches in that region and It's kind of tumultuous, but whenever he goes there He starts in the synagogue the gathering of the Jewish families in a town and he announces what it means that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah Who was crucified dead raised from the dead ascended into heaven and is waving come back like we just told the kids He talks about what it means that Jesus is Rainy now and he's the king of all kings and he gathers a group of people who when they hear that gospel story

1:41 Want to hear more and live in the way of Jesus that he goes to the marketplace and says something similar But from a Gentile port and view and pulls together a church stays there for a year teaching them and then moves on to the next town Right and the challenge of course there is now they're following this way of Jesus But they don't have a new testament and Jesus didn't write down any writings And so now they're trying to figure out in what way what how might we live in this Roman world where we're not really Jewish We're this new thing following the way of Jesus or are we an offshoot of Judaism?

2:15 And some of these people are coming in and saying you need to now start keeping all of the Jewish festival and feast days and all of the Jewish laws Because there was an understanding in first-century Judaism that to be Jewish meant that you were selected by grace that God picked Abraham and Then Israel by his free gift of grace So the Israelites in the first century had the understanding that they did not merit a favored position with God in the world It was given to them But the way that they maintained their favored position in the world was by keeping the rules

2:50 And this is very close to what the the Mosaic covenant the Sinai Covenant where it says you can stay in this position in the world if you keep these commands and so there was a group of Israelites or former Jewish folks who were coming in the way of Jesus who said alright Gentiles great You can come in through Jesus a gift of grace now. Here's how we stay we stay by keeping the laws and Paul wants to write this letter back to the church in Galatia

3:21 They say Paul should we should we follow the laws of Judaism? should we get circumcised and keep the festival and feast days and Paul writes this letter back and says no because Jesus is doing something completely different What he starts to say in a couple different ways in the letter to Galatians is that Here's the punchline no matter how hard you try you won't keep the law If you're privileged position in relationship to God if the degree to which God loves you is

3:54 matched by your ability to keep his commands He will never love you enough because you will always break the commands But he says what Jesus accomplished is he went to the end of the covenant the Sinai covenant on your behalf and That all of God's displeasure and unsatisfaction on everyone who might fall short of the covenant of Sinai was placed upon the person of Jesus and then he Resolved the Sinai covenant so that the covenant of Moses was existed for a certain period of time

4:30 That we where we were bound by the law and Paul says in Galatians most clearly But in Romans and several other places now in light of Jesus You are bound by nothing You're obligated to nothing Much like Abraham Paul says God approaches you and says would you like To be a blessing to the world

5:02 Would you like to live a life of significance and meaning and And God says I this is the gift of grace to you Paul is trying to get the Galatians to Resist the urge to measure their Quality of life based on their own actions and instead to measure it based on the gift of God And he's in by Galatians chapter 5 he gets to this point that says

5:36 Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 is a very famous verse Probably because it sounds really good it says for freedom Christ has set us free Stand therefore firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery For freedom Christ has set us free the question remember here for the for the churches in Galatia that Paul is trying to address us not how do we get into right relationship with God they recognize that

6:07 They're in that they are brought into right relationship with God by his grace But now how should we live? How should we live as children of God in the world? And Paul says don't give in to the idea that you that you must just Be obligated to a set of rules You said Christ accomplished the work on the cross in order that you could be free outside of obligation It is for freedom that you could that you have set us free

6:40 So I was asking the question about if you got called up to Paris and could run on any field and shoot in any Competition swim in any pool. What would you go do? right When I was thinking about the feeling of it is for freedom that you have set us free Where is a memory or emotion that I connect to the idea of freedom? I remember I have told this story a couple times because it's kind of seared in my memory But when when we were in seminary we were in school in St. Louis and my

7:13 My parent my grandparents my dad's parents lived in Jefferson City Which was like maybe an hour and a half outside of St. Louis and my Grandpa and had retired there and they had like four acres in kind of Missouri men in Knight country It was like you know the roads were like you turned on a and then left on double Oh and then on 88 like all these long straight roads between big farms and then you could find men in Knight places and

7:45 We would go and see them on the weekends a lot because their house was really relaxing and I really loved them and and My granddad was a preachers whole life and liked to sing and my my grandma was perhaps the sweetest woman ever She's gone to be with the Lord now But they had this big window in their house big window that looked at this old Graveyard and she had all these little bird feeders out there And she'd sit in the little chair and had all her bird books to identify the birds that came and she'd sit there and pray

8:18 And we'd come and visit her and sit by the window and talk with her and they had this old oldsmobile that they'd drive and she had Clean X's around it You know and he had a little cup holder that went on the window and we they like to drive to the state park called Lake Minnehaha And it was a old Missouri state park and it took us maybe 30 minutes We'd sit in the back of an oldsmobile, you know like a early 90s oldsmobile where it's like a couch in the backseat right and kind of sit down in it and

8:49 And they would sit in the front grandpa would drive and grandma would ride with her tissues and everything and she was A little bit shorter than me They may be here kind of round kind of bow-legged. She'd had both both knees replaced and She'd carry a pitch pipe in her purse, you know and so that because she liked to sing sweet Adelaide She's saying barbershop quartet with people so when she put us to bed when we were little She'd teach us how to sing songs blow on her pitch pipe and give us each our parts and she still carry it even after she quit singing

9:20 This is all gets to it. So I Want you to get a picture of my sweet grandma She walks real slow and likes to sing and We pull up in her oldsmobile Her grandpa's oldsmobile to Lake Minnehaha. This is the memory that's formed in my brain and little section It's sunny in Missouri, so not too hot but warm and You pull up in Lake Minnehaha. We're gonna we're gonna let her out first and then go park We pull up and there's this big open field that goes to these ruins of this old really nice house and a little bluff

9:53 That looks over the lake of the Ozarks Which is why they liken you got to walk all the way across the field then through the ruins and then stand on the bluff And look at the lake and we pull up in their oldsmobile and I get out I'm sitting behind grandma and I get out and open the door for her and she's sitting there in her oldsmobile moves her little tissues Around and she just Hah, it takes a big sigh like that. I said, what is it grandma? She said sometimes Ben I I Just wish I could run You know

10:24 Just get out and run. She wanted to run through that field. I said yeah those needs don't work like they used to She said One day I'll run again. She said When I think about freedom I think about my grandma With her pitch pipe and her purse Running through Lake Minnehaha and the grass up to her knees Running just because she wants to she doesn't have any sense of urgency or no place that she has to get to

10:58 Just enough sun and breeze That Feeling that idea of grandma running through Lake Minnehaha This idea of freedom for me it is for freedom That you have been set free careless without urgency The Christians in first century in Galatia are saying to Paul wow God did this really good thing

11:32 Now we better keep up. We better keep it up. We better do all the right things right and Paul says no Now you get to live What a lovely idea Life as freedom From obligation or fear

12:06 Freedom from worry or failure Freedom to run and live Paul says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free Look he says I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision I was like the gateway law that they would follow to say now that their life is determined by the rules Christ will be of no advantage to you

12:39 For he said I testify to you every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law You severed from Christ and you would be justified. He's saying Remember there's one phrase where Jesus said the degree to which you show mercy mercy will be shown to you What happens when you start going my goodness my worth my value is Determined by how many rules I get right?

13:09 Then what happens is you start also judging everyone around you according to that standard And he says when you commit to that standard yourself You'll be judged by that standard all the way through and you'll never make it Don't start down the road of deciding that your worth or your value is Determined by how good you are Allow your worth and value in the world to be decided by the gift of Christ given to you It's a hard thing to believe

13:40 That though I sin I am not a sinner though I act in greedy ways Sometimes I am not a greedy person Though I act selfishly at times I am not a selfish person Though I respond in anger and judgment I am not a judgmental person

14:11 This Became clearest to me another seminary story when I was in seminary and I was very frustrated Because I had to write papers and I was tired of writing papers, you know By the time I went to seminary is four years of undergrad then four years of seminary When I finished they were When I finished undergrad already I had a professor I did an independent study who was Trying to convince me to stay for a master's fellowship and then do a PhD with him

14:47 And he's like why don't you just stay this is and I said this stuff is really interesting I like learning about it, but I'm tired of proving to you that I've learned it, you know I'm tired of having to write it and prove it to you I'll keep learning but don't ask me to keep proving it to you So I was tired of writing papers But then I got to seminary and was all papers and I was so frustrated because I just thought I I just I just I'm just a procrastinator I always do think if I would have if I would have a degree of willpower I could write a paper that reflected what I actually know instead I'm always writing it at the last minute and it's never as good as I'd hoped it would be I'm such a procrastinator

15:21 I wish I had willpower This is the narrative in my head until something stopped and in my head and said wait if I'm a new creation in Christ He doesn't recreate me in order to perform under my potential And so though I procrastinate at times, why do I continue to identify in my head as a procrastinator? Similarly, I've had friends who say I can't help but worry. I'm just a warrior You may worry at times, but God doesn't recreate you into someone who can't trust him with the future

15:57 It was actually in a room at the place we were at just before this one time a friend of the room Lottie Hillier saw me locking up and she could see she had stayed till the end and she could see I was very stressed And I had some things going on and she said Ben you look really stressed. I said yeah Lottie. I am and She said well why I said I started listening all these things and she said oh You don't think I can handle them? Well, yeah, I think that

16:29 She said well then why are you stressed? Paul is saying that Submitting to the law is a problem because it's something that kills That hems you in Identifying as a procrastinator locked me into procrastinating behavior Identifying with the law with your failures with your basis instincts to suggest that you are defined by your failures and your basis Instinct locks you into them and makes you a slave to the law, but he says instead

17:01 Recognize that the law is over that Christ has done something new and it is for freedom that he has set you free Yes, you procrastinate at times, but that's not who you are you live free open ended And so why go back to the ways of the law he's saying okay, we skip down verse I Can't read these numbers that's cuz I can't read these numbers doctor shot. They're too small

17:32 Ten for you were called to freedom brothers Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh But through love serve one another But the whole law is fulfilled in one word you should love your neighbor as yourself, but if you Live and devour one another and you Watch so that you are not Consumed by one another. This is a thing Paul has to come up with a lot He comes up with it famously in Romans one of the his his teachings that he's on a mission in the first century to get people to understand

18:08 Is that the law has been resolved you are now obligated to? Nothing do whatever you want Do whatever you want and when you fail there's grace enough to cover all failures So you don't have to make up for your failures or resolve your own problems God's resolve them all do whatever you want and there's grace enough for all and then he's always having to deal with this question Well, then should we just do anything?

18:39 Can we just do is there is there no nothing out of bounds? and Paul is always saying well you you've been freed How then would you like to use your freedom? What will you do with it? How will you use your freedom? What will you do with it? What is a What is a life worth?

19:10 The freedom bought by the cross look like It is letter to Corinthians he says explicitly Paul says follow me as I follow Christ His refrain is that we we end up looking at Jesus as an example of the type of life that we ought to live Here he says that the best move is to consider how can you love your neighbor? He says all of the positive direction for life can be summed up in

19:40 loving your neighbor and So he goes on to say that Walk by the spirit and he starts to separate out these two examples so that you can start to see Are you living out of your worst desires and basis instincts or are you living out of the freedom that's been given you in Christ? And he says don't worry about the law put it away But then how will you know if you're living a life that's worth it and he starts here just to the churches in Galatia?

20:10 He separates these two examples life according to the flesh and life according to the spirit and what I learned this week is that This life according to flesh One of the big Pools for these Gentile Christians was to go back to the life that they had before the life they had before Was in the culture of those towns in Galatia to do certain types of worship in temple Which looked like these things of the flesh right and they could see now with some distance that that was less

20:42 Fulfilling that what Paul was offering but he makes an explicit list and he contrasts them right and so he calls the life the prior life life according to the flesh and And then he calls the life following the way of Jesus the freedom of Jesus life according to the spirit So he says now the works. This is verse 19 now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity Sensuality adultery sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these

21:19 He says I warned you against and I warned you before that those who did such things will not inherit the reign of God There there It's evidence It's downward Examples that they are not living out of the freedom that Christ got for them that These things are Perpetuated by identifying with the wrong parts of us that don't lead us to life and he's then he says

21:52 But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires he's trying to contrast What a group of worshipers or practitioners look like over here versus what the Christians in Galatia could look like

22:22 Love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentle itself control the commentary I was reading groups that I I love the fruit of the spirit because I Don't know exactly where it occurred to me somewhere in college The pastor we had in college really loved the fruit of the spirit And I had learned them love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control, but kind of like

22:54 Like they would be embroidered like in a little cross stitch thing and framed on the wall You know the fruit of the spirit are love joy peace patience kindness. That's lovely right But the pastor we had in college suggested using them more like red flags for life like Like the things that were bought for you like Paul says against such things there is no law like

23:24 That you could actually experience these things Actually what Paul is describing is like here's what the community gathered under the old worship looks like It looks like life according to flesh. Here's what the church can look like love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentle self-control This is where I learned this week that he's first describing us together That we could be a place described by love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control

24:01 So that was the game How often is the American church described by love joy peace patience goodness it I? Mean not often enough at least right Love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control So the first thing I was thinking about for us today is like

24:33 It would be nice if we were that for each other And I was thinking of examples of how we are that I mean This little group is that just really special A really neat opportunity to be church for each other love joy peace patience

25:08 all of them But then the commentary said that Paul makes clear here and in a couple other places That the whole community our church can be described by the fruit of the spirit because each of us are that It's one fruit described with these words So it's not as though love is one of the fruits joy peace patience that there's like nine fruits. There's one fruit

25:41 That's described with these words So when they when someone looks at the shots in the summer vills of the vole commands the rizarius when someone looks at at each of us and Tries it ascribe. What is Terry like? Well love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control You see What is been like in my head procrastinator

26:18 No, not anymore self-control Okay, how many times I procrastinate What has been like kind of miserly and a loner now love joy He says against such things there is no law There is nothing Keeping you and I

26:50 From being described by these words as a matter of fact what Paul says here and in Corinthians and in Romans is in you already is the person fully described by these fruits This fruit it's inside of you It might be covered up and covered over it might be buried you might see it in little appetizers little Fits and starts you might grasp joy and peace in fleeting moments

27:22 But what Paul says consistently throughout all his letters is those fleeting moments are who you are really The rest of you is passing away that this is a foretaste of the feast to come in the language of the church That the fruit of the spirit will grow in intensity only grow now and often to forever That your particular brand of this fruit the particular mixture and outgrowth of love joy Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness general of self-control of which you are a representation

27:56 Will it only grow in a complexity and death a depth onto forever? Paul says it is for freedom explore the fruit of the spirit Embrace it Find which pattern love takes you joy discovers what what you might discover enjoy Self-control find the virtue and the peace that comes in self-control with freedom out rundown those roads

28:29 Because you can the message I wanted you to hear is that the fruit of the spirit is not Some lofty goal which you cannot reach Is it it is a reachable goal for you because of the work of Christ You'll start to explore it little bits at a time don't get discouraged When joy is gone and you find despair Don't be afraid when peace is fleeting and anxiety is winning

29:05 Because the little piece you've experienced the little pieces of joy out throughout your life are a foretaste of what's coming the anxiety is dying away The despair can't survive the grave, but your fruit The fruit of the spirit will endure with you forever. It's who you are Let's pray that we might believe it. Hey, Lord. Thank you for the gift of your son and the work of the cross Teach us to to receive the life of faith gratefully with open hands and

29:37 Live in the light of your resurrection and the power of your spirit to be defined by your fruit Not our basis in stinks and worst desires. We love you Lord. Love us today and Give us a foretaste of the feast to come in Jesus name. We pray amen