In Step with the Spirit: Living Out the Fruit

My friend, do you know today that when God looks at your life, he sees in full view who you could become through the spirit of the living God. That of me as as a broken father, I look at my daughter and already see what she's done, that when I'm in church and I'm worshiping and my arms are up to my father, he looks at me. And even when I'm faithless, he sees a faithful man. And if I'm an angry person, he sees a gentle man. And when I see a person that's out of control, he sees a self controlled person. So be encouraged today. That is his goal for your life. And if you would ask him to, he'll show you how you gotta speed up. He'll show you how you need to slow down. But he'll say you've gotta walk in step with me. [00:32:56] (59 seconds)  #WalkInStepWithGod

I don't write this message to defeat you, to make you frustrated, to make you feel like, man, here's nine things I gotta get better at. But the whole key to it is verse 25. It unlocks the entire passage. It doesn't say become a faithful, gentle, kind person tomorrow. He says, take a step that the spirit is leading you on. Says, some of you in here, you're gonna hear this, and God's gonna speak to your heart, and there's gonna be something you know that you need to step out into. Some of you have been running way too fast, and you need to slow down a little bit to get back in stride and back in step with the spirit. [00:28:58] (43 seconds)  #StepBySpirit

But it can be a really defeating feeling. Right? You look at a list like this and say, man, I I don't know how many of these characteristics people would describe me as. I don't know if my family and friends and coworkers would describe me as any of these things. That is the reality of a perfect God is that you look upon his perfection, and you sense the gap and the distance that you have. But there's a spirit that God gave you as a gift whose entire purpose is the regenerative work of the gospel. That while you were yet his enemy, exhibiting none of these characteristics and all of the bad ones, he said, you're worth it and you're a vessel of my holy spirit. [00:29:40] (51 seconds)  #RegenerativeGospel

Paul says that you have two natures inside of you. You have one that desires nothing but destruction, and then you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. It's almost like that those dad Facebook posts. There's two wolves inside of you. Right? Like, this is what is being described in this passage where Paul says, if you give provision to the flesh, you reap chaos, discord, and death. And he says, but if you sow into the spirit, it results in life. [00:10:14] (33 seconds)  #SowSpiritReapLife

I'm not trying to beat people up today. I'm trying to offer you pastoral understanding of why it is so hard to live these fruits of the spirit out. I'm trying to make you sit get into your car today and be like, oh, I'm not crazy. Paul writes these words to us, and they're the most beautiful words to me in the gospel that through the spirit's work in your life, the person that Jesus can see you becoming is a more loving, more joyful, more kind, more patient, more gentle, more self controlled, more faithful person. I believe today that how we do that, he spells it out for us in these last two verses, twenty four and twenty five. [00:27:50] (46 seconds)  #SpiritShapesYou

But this I really do believe Paul is trying to describe how chaotic sin's effect is in your life. It's not supposed to be this clean list. He's writing all of these things down and saying, guys, when you sow to the flesh, this is where sin wants to go. Can I tell you sin is a thing in your life that is never satisfied? There is not certain parts of your life it wants to touch, and then certain parts of your life it will leave alone. And I've seen people wreck their lives because they believe that. [00:13:34] (33 seconds)  #SinNeverSatisfies

He was an active part serving in our church, pretty much a staff member, and I was the first person he talked about some things that were going on in his life, and it was dark stuff. Like, I I I'm not here to throw judgment, but it was not as simple like, hey. We can pray this through today, and it's gonna be over. This is gonna really change and alter his life. And I remember him sobbing and sitting in my office, and can I just tell you, at the age I was at in my mid twenties, I didn't really know what to say to him? I probably didn't handle it perfectly. [00:30:44] (29 seconds)  #PastoralHardConversations

puts you in a place and become a person that you never thought you could be because it's supposed to feel chaotic as you read this. No one that I've ever met has woken up and said, you know what I'm really looking forward to doing this year? Destroying my life and business. You know what would be awesome? To alienate my kids so they stop respecting me. You know what would be really cool? To open up old wounds and old addictions. And yet I pastor people every month that have done that. [00:14:29] (30 seconds)  #DestructionSneaksIn

Encouragement today. Walking in step with the spirit will sometimes mean speeding up. It'll sometimes mean slowing down, but it always means yielding to the work of God in your life. It's gonna sometimes mean you gotta speed up. You gotta take some risks. You gotta step out in faith. Some of you, it's gonna mean you gotta slow down. You're going too hard. You've gotten distracted. You're focused on the wrong things. But what never changes for a single person, I don't care if you got saved today or you've been at the church since day one, it always means yielding to the Holy Spirit. And [00:18:03] (36 seconds)  #YieldToTheSpirit

if he wants control of my thoughts this bad, it must be powerful. Paul says it has to begin this way. Why? Because internal fruit will always lead to external fruit. If your mind is right, the conduct of your life will change. But I can just speak to my own life of how many times I have tried to focus on outside conduct when my mind is a mess. There's always an expiration date on that kind of fruit. Always comes a point where you can't push past. Here's what Paul will continue on and say. He will say that now we move external into patience, [00:20:36] (37 seconds)  #MindDrivesBehavior

There is not certain parts of your life it wants to touch, and then certain parts of your life it will leave alone. And I've seen people wreck their lives because they believe that. I've wrecked my life because I believe that that this is what I do. It's private. This is what I everything that is private eventually leads into public. Sin will take you further than you wanted to go, and it will keep you there longer than you wanted to stay. And so Paul is writing this chaotic list and saying, guys, this is what happens when you sow to the flesh. It [00:13:56] (32 seconds)  #PrivateBecomesPublic

Sometimes the way that I talk about it is that, like, that there's this spiritual cosmic boxing match going on. On one side, Jesus, the lamb of God, son of God, fighting the good fight, and on the other side, the devil. And they are in this fight, this rumble in the jungle, duking it out over my life. But that's actually not how Paul describes your sin nature. Paul says that you have two natures inside of you. You have one that desires nothing but destruction, [00:09:50] (31 seconds)  #TwoNaturesWithin

From the beginning here, Paul lays out an understanding of works of sin, works of the flesh, works of the body versus an opposing the work of the spirit. And I think that for us to have a conversation about the work of the spirit, we need to have a conversation about sin to begin with. And I sometimes think of the way that we have an understanding or a description of the reason why you and I struggle with sin is not very reflective of the Bible. Sometimes the way that I talk about it is that, like, that there's this [00:09:25] (30 seconds)  #TalkAboutSin

Why? Because enemy only has one plan for your life. It's steal, kill, destroy. And if it's not happening yet, he has a goal and a process to get it there. I love this because Paul lays this out for us. You don't even need me to teach you this because this is something that you understand. This is something that we have lived out. But then he contrasts it with some of the most beautiful scripture that I think in the entire bible because he says this, [00:14:59] (28 seconds)  #EnemyStealKillDestroy