The Gospel According to Freedom Part 5

In the garden, you have to pull all the weeds of the monocrop before they strangle the okra. Crucifying the flesh isn't just about stopping bad things. It's about killing the survival instincts of the plantation. He says, Paul is saying, will no longer define my value by my output. I will no longer react to my neighbor as competitor. This is stepping outside of the master's line and into the spirit's cadence. When you march in spirit, you're running an experimental plot in your own life. You're proving that love can grow in a place of hate. You're proving that self control can flourish in the culture of chaos. You're showing the world that you aren't just the product of your circumstances. [01:16:31] (56 seconds)  #GrowInSpirit

Then Paul ends in this final verse in verse 26. He says, let us not us not become conceited or competing against one another, envying one another. And that's how the end of this chapter ends. Why? Because conceit and envy are the fertilizers of the cotton field. They turn the garden back into factory. As we close this month of Black History Month, I feel like there is a call to look at our lives where we might identify parts or all as a waste place. Satan wants to tell you you're a waste place. The enemy wants to tell you nothing can grow there. [01:17:31] (46 seconds)  #NoToConceit

But today, I feel the call of the good news coming over my spirit as it comes over to you. You might feel like the system has extracted everything you have, but I came to tell you that the spirit specializes in rocky, uneven dirt that has been deemed a waste space. You don't need a thousand acres to be free. You just need three yards of soul and the courage to march to a different beat. Beyond the cotton field, there is a harvest that the world cannot take. There is a purpose that the chains of law cannot reach. Stop working for the master's monocrop and start growing for the spirit's provision realm. [01:18:34] (53 seconds)  #ThreeYardsOfSoul

You can't claim that you have love of the the love that came from the spirit while you refuse the self control of the spirit because it comes in one cluster. You can't harvest faithfulness by rejecting gentleness because it comes in one cluster. You cannot say that some people have this fruit and others have this fruit. Oh, I I think that so and so has the gift of gentleness, and I just don't have the gift of self control. I'm not talking about several fruits. Paul is being very specific, and he's talking about one singular fruit cluster that solves a myriad of problems. [01:05:01] (47 seconds)  #OneFruitCluster

Paul is not using the same language. Paul doesn't try to to to combat like with like by saying here the works of the flesh, and now here are the works of the spirit. Paul changes the game. Here are the works of the flesh. And in contrast, here is the fruit of the spirit. Paul's super intentional all about trying to get you away from the the the answer to the problem of these works is not more works. It can't be more works to solve this problem. These works, these this definite system that is that causes you to be so internalized with your pain, the answer to that isn't another checklist. [00:56:17] (46 seconds)  #BeyondMoreWorks

The works of the flesh operate exactly like a monocrop. Anger leads only to more anger. Factions lead to more factions. It's a spiritually exhausting where you work at maximum capacity but produce zero results. We're harvesting strife, but we're still starving. We manufacture a religious life, a pretense, but our hearts are still gray and depleted. But here's the term. Paul doesn't say by contrast the works of the spirit are. Paul, by contrast, says the fruit of the spirit is. [01:01:09] (47 seconds)  #HarvestingStrife

Freedom is the power to say yes to your purpose, but it requires a daily step, a daily cadence, a daily order that you have to keep employing. And the reason why we try to grow the fruit we struggle to try and grow the fruit of the spirit is because sometimes we're still marching to the beat of the cotton field. I'm talking about the institution of sin. I've always said it's difficult sorry, it's easy, Or should I say it's easier to ask for forgiveness from God for your sins. I'm not saying it's easy for everyone, but I find it easier to say, dear Lord, please forgive me of my sins. Do you know what's harder? Forgiving myself. [01:14:54] (51 seconds)  #DailyFreedomCadence

In nineteenth century in the South, cotton was a monocrop. There was nothing else that grew there but cotton. It was efficient for the slave master. But actually, biologically, it was a curse to the earth. I need you to know something. If you don't know it already, I did my research to back back this up. Nature does not grow just one thing. It loves a crowd. I know this because my wife constantly complains when she's trying to grow something in the garden. There's always an enemy weed trying to take over. [00:58:10] (42 seconds)  #NatureLovesDiversity