Transformative Speech: Building One Kingdom Indivisible

Here are the selected quotes from the sermon transcript:

1. "I commit to engage in political discourse that's marked by the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I will tame my tongue and my thumbs. Some of you are like, what is that about? Well, it's about your phone. And it's about the typing that we do with our thumbs in texting and social media. So today, what we examine is our engagement in political discourse through the lens of Galatians 5, that famous passage about the fruit of the Spirit. And James 3." [01:18] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The younger generation is watching. What? What will they see in us? We can't control what they see in all of the world, but only in our own speech. What will they see? If we speak of the love of Jesus Christ, but we sound like the world, then it will all seem like hypocrisy to them. They need to see that the love of Jesus Christ is transformative in our behavior. They need to see the love of Christ is transformative in their family life. They need to see the love of Christ to be finally transformed into something that they feel calmer and comfortable, that they protect themselves and improve." [11:22] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "And the effect that's described here is given with even yet another metaphor, the metaphor of fruit. If we are connected to Christ, the true vine, if we are walking in step with the Holy Spirit that Christ gives to us, then the closer we grow to Christ, this is the fruit that just naturally emerges from our lives. That's beautiful. From Galatians. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there's no law." [31:11] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "There's a war happening inside of us, and I think the biggest mistake that we make is we externalize the war, okay? We think, oh, the battle's out there between good and evil, between this political party, that political party, between that candidate, this candidate, and but between me and my neighbor, we think the war's out there, but actually there's a war inside, inside of us. Good and evil are fighting for us. Flesh and Spirit are fighting within us. Which way are we going to go? And probably daily we kind of flip between them, but the more we draw near to Jesus, the more we receive the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit, and those are very different ways of living." [25:04] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "I want to walk with you through two scriptures, James 3 and Galatians 5. We're going to start with James 3. It starts off and says, Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Lord have mercy. Verse 2. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who's never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. Just two early observations here at the beginning. The first one is we all mess up. Nobody's perfect. We all mess up. This is, I stick my foot in my mouth more than anybody that I know." [12:24] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Consider these giant ships, strong winds, stormy seas, with a proportionally tiny rudder. It's such a small piece of the ship, but you turn that rudder, you turn the ship. The scripture tells us it's difficult to turn the rudder. Our old habits die hard. But if you're able to change that rudder just a little bit, the ship goes to a very different place. Consider that ship we just saw. It might be heading thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, but if the rudder turns a little bit, the destination will be very, very different." [15:01] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "The Holy Spirit of God Almighty can do these beautiful things in you. The fruit of the Spirit will come into your life if you will receive it, if you will be willing to when you hear that you are in error, drop on your knees and say, I am so sorry. I reject that, Lord. I crucify that so that I might rise and live in you, Lord. May your Spirit exist in my life, and you will see in your life a wellspring of love, joy, peace, patience, and love. Kindness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control." [32:42] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "I commit to engage in political discourse that's marked by the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I will tame my tongue and my thumbs. Lord, I pray for you. Lord, we just pray this would be true. We thank you for the fruit available in our lives. We thank you so much for your mercy and your grace." [38:39] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "We thank God for the Holy Spirit who calls us back to the path, who softens our hearts, transforms us from within, and empowers a new life. So what can you do? What can you do? What can you do if you start seeing that in your life? You can repent. You can fall on your knees before God and name the sin in your life. Apologize to God and to anyone else who you've wronged. And in the presence of God, you declare that you reject that way of life. Oh Lord, I'm sorry. Oh Lord, I don't want to go that way anymore." [36:17] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "And then you're going to do it again, and you're going to do it again, and you're going to do it again, and you're going to snap again, right? And at some point, you might think, oh my gosh, I'm embarrassed to keep coming back. I've repented of this sin five times. God's going to be annoyed. God is never annoyed with your repentance. Maybe a little annoyed with your non-repentance. So we repent. No matter how many times it takes, we just keep coming before the throne. Oh Lord, forgive me. Oh Lord, help me. And as we do that, we draw near to the Spirit, and the fruit emerges." [37:47] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)