Living by Grace Pt 2

And read verse 7 with me. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion. When the Lord restores his captive people, Jacob will rejoice. Israel will be glad. And Lord, we do praise you so much that in the world that we live in, you continue to be with us. You continue to be our refuge. Lord, you continue to be our place of safety and security. And so, Lord, may we find that refuge in you.

And Lord, as we spend time in your word this morning, I ask that you would move on our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. As always, Lord, that you would teach us, convict us, correct us, and comfort us. And Lord, may we have a true experience of seeing you more clearly today. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles

to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. Galatians, chapter 5. We started into a new series last week called Living by Grace. And last week, we looked at the fact that living by grace means freedom. He told us that we needed to stand, that we needed to think, and that we needed to love. We needed to stand in the liberty. We needed to think about not only our walk of faith, but the consequences of legalism.

And that walking in liberty means walking in love for each other. Walking in liberty does not mean using it as an opportunity for sin. Using it as a base of operations for the flesh. And so, with that same idea, we now move into the second part of our series of Living by Grace. And I've put a subtitle to this called Grace Produces Fruit. Grace Produces Fruit.

Grace Produces Fruit. When I was growing up, my family, meaning extended family, had an orchard just south of town. It's where the River's Eagle something or other is now. There was an orchard there. My Uncle Emery owned it. And when I was a real little kid, I would go out there with my grandpa and pick apples with him, or sometimes we'd pick watermelons or cantaloupes.

And I'd go out there and work with him. And when I was a little kid, I would ask him, Hey, Grandpa, what kind of tree is that? And he would tell me. And I'd say, How do you know? And he'd say, Because this is the type of apple that it produces. He could tell what the tree was by the type of fruit that it put off. And that's what we are as believers in Jesus Christ.

We're kind of like those trees. We bear fruit. And it's easy to tell what kind of person we are by the fruit that we bear. And so, grace, one of the things that it does in our lives through the working of the Holy Spirit, is it produces fruit that matches up with the Holy Spirit. It produces that good fruit. And so, as we look at this as a theme, he's going to tell us three things.

He's going to talk to us about our walk. He's going to talk to us about our works. And then he's going to talk to us about fruit. And so, we pick up in verse 16 as he talks to us about our walk. Notice what he says. He says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. Now, the thought actually began earlier in the scripture, or earlier in the chapter in verse 13, where he said, For you were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love.

Serve one another. With that thought, he comes down and says, But I say, walk in the Spirit. Now, that word walk literally means to habitually order your manner of life. That's your walk. Your walk is your manner of life. The way that you live your life. Again, I'm a really big fan of sports, and so I love to hear stories about athletes. But every athlete has a walk that they have to walk.

They have a manner of life that they have to live. Especially the older that you get. If you're going to be an athlete, if you're going to be one of those elite athletes, you have to order your life a certain way. You have to choose a certain pattern that you'll live your life according to, because they not only have to keep themselves healthy physically, but we know, especially in the 24-hour news cycle that involves phones and Instagram, you have to keep your life right physically.

You have to keep your life right in the way that you live. And that's what these athletes do. They have to have a manner of life that they order themselves according to. Well, it's the same with us. He says, I say, then habitually order your manner of life in a particular way. And I suppose as we get into this, you should ask yourself a question. What is my manner of life?

How do I live my life? You ever been through a really busy season in life? We're kind of coming through this in May right now. May is a really busy season, at least in my own life personally. And it's busy because I'm running to and fro because school's ending and graduations are happening. And my daughters have events that they're in. And you ever go through a week and look back and go,

what did I even do last week? Like you knew you were really busy. You knew you didn't sit down very much, but you don't really know what you did. Well, I think sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, that's what we do in our walks with Jesus Christ. We just sort of float through life and we don't think about what we did. We don't think about what we do. We don't think about what our life actually looks like.

One time, just one week, you should do this. You should just keep a little journal of everything that you do. All of the things that you do. How much time you spend on your phone. And listen, I hear this a lot. All these young people are on their phones all the time. Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, I'm not really a young people anymore, at least not as far as I can tell.

And I know just as many people over the age of 50 that spend more time on their phones as I do people under the age of 50. I was actually getting my car worked on here about a year or so ago. And I'm sitting in the Walmart while they're rotating my tires and all that kind of stuff. And I was the only person under the age of 50, inside of, of this room. And I was the only person holding a book in my hands.

Everybody else over the age of 50 was playing candy crush on their phones or something like that. Right? And so, and so listen, these things that I'm going to tell you that they're not just the young people. Okay. He, how much time you spend on your phone? How much time you spend watching TV? How much time do you spend in the word of God? How much time do you spend working all those different kinds of things to

think about? How do I order my manner of life? Because he tells us the way that we're supposed to order our manner of life. He says, I say, then walk. By the spirit. That should be the way that we order our manner of life is according to the spirit. And I love that the way the amplified Bible translated this, because I feel like it best carries the idea of what he's saying

here, walk habitually according to the spirit and in parentheses, it says, seek him and be responsive to his guiding. That's exactly what that means. It means we are to seek him and be responsive to his guiding. It's a much more natural thing than sometimes we make it. Sometimes we make the idea of walking in the spirit, this very difficult, overly spiritual thing.

And listen, it is, but the spirit moves in very natural ways in our lives. Let me give you a, for instance, perhaps you get up in the morning and the spirit says, I want you to spend a little bit more time in the word this morning. I think you're really going to need it. Well, I really don't have time for that. It's going to make everything else take a little bit longer in my morning.

That's okay. You need it. I wonder why I need this extra time in the word. Well, then you go to work and everything at work just blew up and everything about your day goes absolutely wrong. And if you hadn't spent that extra time in the word of being poured into by the Holy spirit, you would not have been prepared for the day. And then perhaps as you're going throughout your day,

you're getting ready to say something. And on the insides, you just hear this little voice say, right? Because you spend extra time in the word that morning because you sought the Holy spirit that morning. And now the Holy spirit's guiding you. And when you're getting ready to you, you just kind of be quiet. And the Holy spirit says, I just saved you. You don't realize it yet,

but I just saved you from something. Perhaps you're like me and you start to type things out. And the Holy spirit says, hit delete, right? That's why I think that there should be an, are you sure button when you get ready to post something on social media, like, like Twitter needs an, are you sure button? And you have to hit it like three times to put a code in to make sure that

you're really thinking about what you're about to post, because that's kind of what the Holy spirit is for us, right? He's the, are you sure button? Because sometimes he'll tell you, you delete the whole thing. And for some, for some of you, perhaps the Holy spirit says, don't, don't get on your phone right now. It's really late at night. And that's going to lead you to do something you shouldn't do.

You're going to end up going to websites. You shouldn't go to, why don't you just put your phone away and spend time with me this evening. Perhaps for some of us, it means that the Holy spirit will say, that's not the right group for you to hang out with anymore. You need to distance yourself from them because you're going to end up falling into things that you shouldn't be involved in.

If you go hang out with that group and you're like, I don't know why, but the Holy spirit saying distance myself. So I have to, I have to distance myself from them. Perhaps the Holy spirit calls you to get more involved in a Bible study. And you don't know why you're supposed to, but you go and you get involved in that Bible study. See that's walking by the spirit.

That's habitually ordering your manner of life, speaking and being responsive to the guiding of the Holy spirit. And that is how we overcome the flesh. Listen, you can make rules for yourself all you want to, but you know what you'll do with the rules you make for yourself. You'll break them. Allow the Holy spirit to be the one that guides you. Allow him, to be your guide for the things that you watch for the things that you listen

to for the things that you say for the people that you hang out to you for the beverages that you intake. If you allow the Holy spirit to lead you in those things, then you can't fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's actually impossible to fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you're being led by the spirit. And that's exactly what Paul says. I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out.

The desires of your flesh. Why? Because the Holy spirit's leading you towards Jesus and the things of the flesh are in the opposite direction of Jesus. The entire work of the Holy spirit. We were told by Jesus. He said, I'm going to leave, but I'm gonna leave you with the Holy spirit, but don't worry. He will lead you to me. He will guide you in all truth and he will empower you as a witness to the

truth that I have to the truth of God's word. So if we're, if we're seeking that Holy spirit being responsive to the Holy spirit, he'll be guiding us towards Jesus, which guides us away from the flesh. Now, why is it so important that we seek and be responsive to walk in the Holy spirit? Well, he tells us in the very next verse, he says for the flesh, that's its desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

But these are in opposition to one another so that you may not. Do the things that you please. Why do we need to do this? Because you brothers and sisters got into a war. You got into a war the day that you got saved. You may not have fully realized that you got into a war that the day that you got saved, but you did because when you got saved, your desire to do the right thing was made alive by Jesus Christ.

Your desire to follow him was made alive because your spirit was made alive. You were raised with him. And when you were raised, raised with him, you became born again. And all of a sudden you started going, man, I want to follow Jesus. And I bet for the first two weeks, maybe the first six months, it went amazing, right? Man, you are just shedding off garbage left and right.

And you are pursuing Jesus. But at some point in time, you found something else to be true, but I still want to do sinful things. Why? Because we have flesh. I appreciated this definition of the flesh. It says the flesh is the sinful nature, which responds impulsively without regard for God or his rules. The sinful nature, which responds impulsively without regard for God.

You see, we all still have that. We also have that flesh. You say, Ryan, I thought, I thought my flesh died with Jesus. It did, but it's still there because you're still wearing the human body. Because you still have this in you that desires to follow the things of the flesh. And now there's a constant war. You see, the constant war is this. The, uh, it says right here for the flesh sets its desires against the spirit.

Your flesh is like, Hey, that's a terrible idea. Following Jesus. You're not going to like that at all. As a matter of fact, there's something else I'd really like to do. And it's going to feel so good. It's going to be so fun. You're going to love it so much. And you know what the problem with the flesh is? It's right for the first 15 minutes, right? It, it feels really good for a little bit until the reality of what just happened sets in.

And you go, ah, that was the opposite of peace. That was the opposite of joy. That was the opposite of love because the flesh sets its desires. Or as some of your translations say it lusts against, or as some of your other translations say it wars against the spirit. But also you have inside of you, the spirit, the Holy spirit of God, that's made you alive.

And it wars against the flesh, right? Again. So I think of everything as a cartoon because I grew up watching cartoons. And so, you know, in all of the cartoons, there was always the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder. He's like, show him love, smack him in the face, show him love, smack him in the face, right? That's basically the word that we all have going on on the inside of us.

It's, it's two. I think it's the old Eskimo Proverbs that says it's two dogs that are fighting inside of you. And you know, and the one that will win is the one that you feed the most. We have to walk in the spirit because I have a war going on on the inside of me. And the war going on on the inside of me means that there's things in opposition to each other.

The weest translates it like this. They are entrenched in an attitude of mutual opposition, entrenched in an attitude of mutual opposition, man. I can't think of a better word. Way to put what goes on on the inside of me than that. There are two things that are mutually opposed to each other and they've drawn up the battle line. Neither one wants to give in so that sometimes I don't do the things that I plead so that sometimes I don't do the things that I want to do.

Paul described this to us perfectly in Romans chapter seven when he said, the things that I want to do, those are the things that, those are the things that I don't do and the things that I don't want to do those tend to be the things that I do a wretched man who can set me free from this body of death. I praise God through Jesus Christ my Lord because as I walk in the spirit I walk in peace as I walk in the spirit. I walk in all these things that are true brothers and sisters. You have that war going on on the inside of you and you have to realize that the dog that you feed is the one that's going to win.

You have that war going on on the inside of you and you have to realize that the dog that you feed is the one that's going to win. Therefore walk habitually order your life by seeking and responding to the Holy Spirit and you won't fulfill the lusts of your flesh. He goes on to state it one more time in verse 18 where he says, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. If you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

You know what that means? If the Holy Spirit's guiding me, I don't need someone to set rules for me. If the Holy Spirit's guiding me, I don't need someone to set rules for me. Again, I tell this to kids all the time. You want your mom and dad to trust you. You follow Jesus with your whole heart and they can trust you with anything in the world because they know now that they don't need to set a rule because you respond to a higher level of accountability than even them.

You are seeking to pursue God. And when they see that in your life, they will give you more freedom. They will give you more opportunity because they know that you're, you're seeking ultimately the things of God because you're being led by the spirit. Therefore, you don't have to be under the law. But do you know that the reverse of that is also true? If I slip back into the flesh,

I'm no longer being led by what I'm no longer being led by the spirit. Therefore, what do I automatically put myself back under? If I walk in sin, if I walk according to the flesh, I automatically put myself back under the law. Why? Because I'm no longer being led by the spirit. Then the law has to do its work points out what's wrong in my life. I get back into walking with the spirit and then the law is like,

well, we're done now. We've done our job. We've led him back to Jesus. If you're led by the spirit, you're no longer under the law. Well, in case we wondered what that looks like, he's now going to talk to us about it. So we've seen our walk that the walk needs to be according to the Holy Spirit. But now we see the works. He says in verse 19, he says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident,

which are, uh, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice these things will not inherit the faith. They will not inherit the faith. They will not inherit the faith. They will not inherit the faith.

They will not inherit the faith. They will not inherit the faith. kingdom of God. Now the new American standard, it translates at the deeds of the flesh, but in the new King James, it translates at the works of the flesh. And I do prefer that word works because isn't it interesting? What does our flesh produce? When we work in our flesh, what does it produce?

Well, he just gave us a list of everything that our flesh works for. Everything that our flesh produces when we work and brothers and sisters is pretty ugly. He says, now the works of the flesh are evident. That word evident literally means clearly seen. The works of the flesh are clearly seen by everybody. In other words, everybody can see them in your life. And I

think that that's an interesting point for us to pay attention to is when we're walking in the flesh, you may think you're hiding it, but people notice. People notice when you're walking in the flesh. People notice when you're giving in to the things of the flesh because you're just different than you used to be. You act different than you used to. I used to always tell kids,

when you want to quit talking to me, when you no longer want to have a conversation with me anymore, that's how I can usually tell you're walking in the flesh. When you stop answering my phone calls, when you stop answering my text messages, and when you see me in person and you're really cold to me, I can pretty well guarantee you're doing something Jesus doesn't like. Because otherwise, why are you ignoring me? And you know what was right 100% of the time? That.

And I would be like, it's okay. When you're done walking in that flesh, you come back, we'll talk and you can get restored. But until then, I know you're always going to be the same because the works of the flesh, listen, are evident. But there's also something that's interesting to pay attention to. The works of the flesh are evident. We really don't need anybody to tell us what the works of the flesh look like, right? People know what sin looks like.

When they see it, which is why when most people, even people of the world sin, they look at somebody who's a Christian and they say, I'm sorry, you heard that. I'm sorry, you saw that. If I would have realized you were a pastor, I would have never talked like that in front of you. I did a wedding last year. And at this wedding, the groomsmen, the groomsmen got rambunctious. We'll put it that way. And one of them, and they use some

colorful language. Now, listen, I lived a good deal of my life around construction workers. So colorful language doesn't really matter. I lived a good deal of my life around construction workers. It doesn't really faze me too much. I don't like it, but I'm not like, I can't believe they said that. So he comes up to me, one of these groomsmen comes up to me the next day and goes, man, if I'd

had any idea you were the pastor, I would have never talked like that in front of you. Because he didn't realize until we all got down to actually where the ceremony was taking place. And they're like, all right, pastor, step up. And he goes, next day he goes, man, if I'd had any idea you were the pastor, I'd have never said any of those things, right? You know why he felt that

way? Because the works of the flesh, listen, are evident. They know. So, but he goes through and lists them just in case we wonder. So let's go through this list. I won't take an incredible amount of time on this list, but I do want to go through it. So he lists 16 things. The first one he lists is immorality. The word immorality is from the Greek word pornea, which is of course where we get our word pornography. And it speaks

of any kind of illicit sexual intercourse. It can have the idea of adultery. It can have the idea of sex before marriage. It can have the idea of adultery. It can have the idea of sex before marriage. It can have the idea of sex before marriage. It can have the idea of homosexuality, transgenderism, use of pornography, any of those kinds of things. It is an all-encompassing word, and he calls it the work of the flesh.

The second word that he uses is the word impurity. The word impurity means a moral uncleanness in either thought, word, or deed. In other words, these are the evil thoughts that we entertain. And listen, especially, you fellas, the dirty jokes that we tell. He says those are all in the word impurity, and it's a moral uncleanness. The third work of the flesh is the word sensuality. The word

sensuality can also be translated debauchery. And the definition of the word is a brazen and shameless display of immorality and impurity. In other words, it's living according to those things and being proud of it. If there's anything that I was saying encapsulates our world right now, it would be the word debauchery. But brothers and sisters, before we start looking at the world,

we must first look at our own hearts and see if there is any of that going on in us, that maybe we don't live according to brazenly, but we definitely live according to without concern. The fourth word that he uses is the word idolatry. Idolatry, of course, is the worship of a full-time, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, foreign God. And I've always liked to define idolatry this way. Idolatry can be defined as

anything that you either find your security in or your joy from that is not God. Anything that you find your security in or that you find your joy in that is not God. Because some people find their security in an idolatrous thing in this world, the money, the house, the cars, or even the foreign God that they worship. And some people find their pleasure, joy, their happiness from the things of this world. Because we look at the world and we live

a hedonistic sort of lifestyle, pursuing pleasure as a God in and of itself. He says that is a work of the flesh. The next word that he uses is the word sorcery. The word sorcery can also be translated witchcraft, which of course speaks of anything in the occult realm. But do you know what the word sorcery actually comes from? The word sorcery comes from the Greek word

pharmakia, which is where we get our word pharmacy from. Because it speaks of drugs. Because you know what was used oftentimes in the witchcraft in that day? Drugs were used to reach certain altered states in order to worship foreign gods. And in the world that we're living in today, that listen, is not only over drugged because of prescriptions, not because some prescriptions are

bad, but because we're over drugged from prescriptions. But what I'm more concerned about is those who are suffering from it. And I'm more concerned about those who are suffering from self-medicating. And listen, there's a lot more of it going on than any of us realize. There's a lot more of it going on, unfortunately, in our kids and in adults than we even realize. It was about 10 years ago that I read a report

that the most used drug across all socioeconomic spectrums and age groups was heroin. It didn't matter how much heroin you took, it didn't matter how much you took, it didn't matter how much you took, it didn't matter how much you took, it didn't matter how much you took. It didn't matter how much money you had, it didn't matter what kind of family you came from, and it didn't matter how old you were. That was the most used drug. It's a pretty scary thought. So he says

that's a work of the flesh. Now, the next one that he comes to has to do more with people. He says the next word is enmities, which of course is just the word hatred, man. Brothers and sisters, I think this is one that we have to be aware of as Christians sometimes. Because as believers in Jesus Christ, sometimes we justify our hatred by calling it righteous indignation, when really all it

is is hatred. You don't understand. I hate them because of their sin. But Jesus loved them and died for them. So are we supposed to hate them? Well, you don't understand. They don't believe like I do. Why do you think Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan? Because they came to him and he said, what's the greatest commandment? And he said, love your neighbor. And he said,

who's my neighbor? And so he tells the story about the Good Samaritan, somebody that hated the Jews and the Jews hated. And he said, that guy acted just like a neighbor. He loved his neighbor as himself. And while it's easy for us to say, well, that's one that I don't deal with, I actually think it's something that we need to pay attention to as the church today, because I fear that sometimes when we see people living according to the sinful

things of the world, or listen, people living according to the sinful things within the church, instead of loving them and telling them the truth, we hate them and we reject them. He says, that's the work of the flesh. The next one is the word strife. Strife means contention, rivalry, or an argumentative spirit. Listen, y'all, you ever been around somebody that everything you

say they argue against? You're like, dude, you just agreed with me two minutes ago. But once I said it, you decided to argue with me. You know why? Because some people deal with, some people struggle with this strife. They just have that argumentative spirit. They just want to argue with everybody. He says, that's a work of the flesh. He says, that's a work of the flesh.

The next one is the word jealousies. The word jealousy is a desire to have what someone else has. Now, I'm going to correct something I've said in the past. I've always said that our economy is built on envy. But as I've studied these words, I actually disagree with myself on that. I actually think our economy is built on jealousy, because we want what somebody else has, right? I look at

them and I'm jealous. And you know what jealousy always causes me to do? I don't like somebody else. And we'll get into that with envy, because envy takes it that next step further. But we just have a hard time with other people because we're jealous of what they have. You see somebody lash out and you're like, dude, why are they so angry with them? What did they do? And you realize that

when it comes right down to it, they're just jealous. They're jealous of the fact that they have the nice car. They're jealous of the fact that they have the good job. They're jealous of the fact that they have what they consider the perfect family, even though we all know the perfect family doesn't exist. They're jealous of the fact that they have the good job. They're jealous of

those things. And they just want what everybody else has. And they're never content in life, because they're always wanting the next thing. The ninth thing that he says is outbursts of anger. Feel like that one's pretty self-explanatory. So we'll go on to number 10. Disputes. Now, this is kind of an interesting one. The word dispute can also be translated selfish ambition.

Selfish ambition. The idea behind the word is a self-seeking pursuit. In other words, you start off for a really good reason, but it turns into you doing it for yourself. Listen, we can do this with anything in the world. You can do this with your job. You can do this with the ways that you serve other people. You can do this with ministry. You can turn it into a self-seeking pursuit. And anytime myself gets involved, it turns into

a work of the flesh. The next word that he brings up is the word dissension, which simply means division. The twelfth word he uses is factions. Oh, and this is one you have to pay attention to in the church. The word factions literally means taking sides. Uh-oh. He just nailed the entire church altogether, right? Now, to a greater degree, it means particularly in the area of doctrine or

heresy. But the idea behind factions is taking sides. Boy, if there's anything that could define the flesh in the church, this would be it right here. You don't understand. I'm a part of the hunting club. You don't understand. I'm a part of the fishing club. Oh, no, we're the golfers. Oh, we're the, we sit on the west, southwest side of the sanctuary, and we don't let anybody else in our group. We sit on the northeast side of

the sanctuary. We don't let anybody else in our group. We're the young people. We don't let anybody else in our group. Listen, I'm going to tell y'all, we're the old people. We don't let anybody else in our group, right? That's what we do. Oh, all those young people, I just hate them. They just, they just... They just think they're the best. Oh, those old people just think that they know everything.

Listen, old people don't know everything, and young people don't think they're the best, okay? We all just need to be the church, and these factions are the things that destroy churches. These divisions are the things that destroy churches. Now, I'm just going to say something, and I really genuinely mean this. I don't see an incredible amount of this in our church,

and I appreciate that. I actually see a great deal of people working together in our church across all of the lines, and it's a blessing to me, but it can happen, and I have to pay attention to it. The next word that he uses is the word envying. Oh, that was where it gets serious. Being angry that someone has what you want. Being angry that someone has what you want. I have a question for you. It goes along with this.

Have you ever just hated somebody for no reason? Now, listen, don't give me the right answer. Give me the real answer. Have you ever just hated somebody for no reason? You're just like, I just don't like them. I don't like anything about them. Now, I want you to think about that. What do you think? Why? Why don't you like them? You know what I'll guarantee you about 98.9%

of the time? It's because they have something you don't. It's because they have the things that you want, and you can't have it, and so you hate them because of it, or maybe it's just a really strong dislike, but that's the idea of envy, and envy is one of the most dangerous sins that we deal with. After all, why did they crucify Jesus? Why did they bring him on trial before Pilate? He knew

that they had brought them up on trial. He knew that they had brought them up on trial. He knew because of envy. Envy is a pretty dangerous sin, because if you want to see factions in a church, you better look at envy, because usually that's what happens. He goes on from there to the next one. He uses the word drunkenness. Now, of course, the word drunkenness speaks of exactly what it

sounds like, getting drunk with alcohol. Now, there's a lot of different opinions about what we as Christians have as far as the liberty with alcohol is concerned. Christ, you have liberty. You have the liberty to drink or not to drink. You do not have the liberty to get drunk, but I'm going to tell you what Chuck Smith always said. He said, I will promise you one

thing. If you never drink, you will never get drunk. It's as simple as that. You want to keep from walking in the flesh by getting drunk? I'd stay away from alcohol. I'd stay away from all of it. That's just me. That's my own personal conviction. I won't go near it. First of all, because I'm a pastor. Second of all, because I've grown up in a church. I've grown up in a church.

I've grown up in a family, not my own dad, praise God, but I've grown up in a family where I've seen the effects of alcohol. And I'm like, I just don't want any part of it. It tastes terrible. I don't want to have to develop a taste for something that is just going to cause me problems anyway. It's between you and Jesus what you do with that. I'm just telling you what the

Bible says. And the Bible says that drunkenness is the work of the flesh. As a matter of fact, Paul will later on to call it, will later on call it dissipation. Instead, we are to be filled with the spirit. Number 15, he uses the word carousing. I don't know about you, but when I hear the word carousing, I picture a guy from 1978 wearing a leisure suit. That's what I think of when I think of the word

carousing, but that's not what the word means. Well, maybe that guy does this, but that's not what the word means. The word means revelry or riotous parties. Actually, it can also be translated orgies. It's a pretty bad word. It's the idea is a party that overflows into debauchery. Now, listen, I went through a stint in my life where I was not walking with Jesus and I went to parties. And you know what I never saw

happen at a party? Anything good because they always devolved into something wrong. You ever notice where most shootings happen outside of bars, nightclubs, and strip joints? You know, why? Because those people are carousing. It's revelry. It's riotous parties because something went too far. Somebody disrespected somebody's mom or their girlfriend. One thing leads to another

fight start. And in case he didn't cover any of them, in case there's one that he missed, he also includes the words number 16 and the like. In other words, this is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. You get the idea of what the word is. What the words of the flesh are. I don't know about y'all, but after you read through that, aren't you just like, I just need a shower now. But I have a question for you. Which of those

works of the flesh seems to dominate your life? Which of those works of the flesh seems to dominate you? Because you can look and go, those are horrific things. I guarantee something in there hit you. I guarantee something in there got you. Because you know what we all have? Flesh. We all have that part of us that, as it says, that sinful nature, which responds

impulsively without regard for God. And unless we put that to death, unless we walk in the spirit, those are the things that will occupy our lives. Okay, it's going to get better. He goes on to say, but the fruit of the spirit, verse 22, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Now,

those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Y'all feel like we just watched a political commercial, right? I'd like to tell you about my opponent. He's the most evil guy on the face of

the earth. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap people. He likes to slap puppies. He hates all kids. He's an evil person. But let me tell you about me, right? He just told us all of the garbage about the flesh. He's like, but let me tell you about the fruit, the fruit of

the spirit. I want to point, before we get into this list, I want to point out the fact that first of all, he uses the word fruit. He just went from works to fruit. You know why I love that he uses the word fruit there? Because fruit is not made in a factory. Fruit is grown in a garden. It's not something that a tree produces. It's actually something that a tree bears. All they do

is just hold on to the fruit. They don't do anything. You ever notice that? I have never seen a stressed out tree unless I'm not taking care of the tree, unless I'm not giving the tree what it needs. But once I give the tree what it needs, it no longer looks stressed out. It just grows. It just grows and produces leaves. You know what I've been fascinated about this year?

We've had like one inch of rain in the last year, right? Or something like that up until the past few weeks. And you know what still happened to the trees? They put out their leaves. That's not the most fascinating thing you've ever seen in the world. Like, dude, we literally just made life on you as hard as we possibly could have with no rain and like army worms and all the other

garbage that's happened over the last two years. And they still produced leaves. They weren't trying. You know what I didn't see one time over the winter? A tree going, rubbing its limbs together going, what if it doesn't rain? What are we going to do? You know why? Because all that tree has to do is take in the nutrients. Bear the fruit. And that's what we're to do as believers in Jesus Christ. We are to bear the

fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. We're to bear the fruit that grace produces in our lives. It's not produced in a factory. It's born in a garden. And this fruit is what? It's fruit of the fruit of the spirit, not of anything that I do, not of anything that I strive for. So now we go through this list of the fruits of the spirit. Now, the word fruit that's used there

is actually a singular word. It's not fruit of the spirit. It's fruit of the spirit. And even in its Greek structure, it's a singular word, meaning that there's one fruit that is produced. Now, some people will say the fruit that's produced is the fruit of the life of Jesus Christ. I feel differently. And I feel this way because I was taught by Chuck Smith, because Chuck Smith and

his teaching will tell you that there is one fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit. And all of the other things that are mentioned are an outflowing of that fruit and the fruit that is produced by the spirit. Now, the fruit of the spirit is love. That's the first one that's given to us here. Now, the fruit of the spirit is love. That word love is the word agape, and it is an unselfish concern for others.

Now, I debated with the idea of whether to put a Mother's Day message together or whether just to keep going. And I decided just to keep going. But as I was studying this and I studied this word love, I thought, man, is there a better word for the moms that we have? For the mothers that we see than the word love, an unselfish concern for others. And I'm just going

to tell you moms right now how appreciative we are of the fact that you are the ones that got up in the middle of the night with your kids. You know, when your kids were throwing up, your husband was going, that sounds like a problem. Let me know if you need any help, right? While you were up with the kids. I remember when Violet was real, real tiny. She got pneumonia. And my wife would not leave her side the entire night because she didn't want

anything to happen to her. She stayed up all night with her hand on her back to make sure that nothing was going wrong with her breathing the entire night. I was like, you do that. I'm going to go to sleep. Let me know if you need anything, okay? But that unselfish concern for others, I think it's literally one of the greatest ways that we can define mothers. But it's a fruit of

the spirit. This agape love is something that we can't produce in and of ourselves. We can't produce in and of ourselves. As a matter of fact, Kenneth Weiss translates it as divine, sacrificial love produced only by God. Because it's a fruit. It's something that we bear. And listen, you can't try harder to love people. You know what's going to happen if you try really hard to love people?

They will become obnoxious to you. No, but I want to try to love you. Stop making it so hard. Once you've gritted your teeth to tell somebody you love them.

An unselfish concern for others that's produced by the Holy Spirit. You know, it's the most beautiful thing in the world, in my opinion, is to see somebody who at one point in time was just a selfish knucklehead. Somebody that only cared about themselves. And all of a sudden, you see them begin to ask about other people. I wonder how they're doing. Maybe I should do something for them.

And you look and you just go, man, you were the biggest knucklehead in the world. And now look at you. Here you are reaching out to other people. It's not because of you. It's because of the Holy Spirit at work. In you. Because the fruit of the Spirit is love. The second word that he uses is the word joy. The word joy is an inward attitude of rejoicing. Joy is different than happiness because happiness

comes and goes. Joy is something that is steady in our lives and it's produced by the Holy Spirit. It's something that is produced inside of someone because the Holy Spirit is at work in them. And no matter what's going on in life, there's an inward rejoicing that takes place. Because you know that no matter what's going on in life, there's an inward rejoicing that takes place.

God hasn't changed. You know that no matter what's happening in your life, God is still the same. God is still good and he's still worthy to be praised. And it's born in your life by the way that you act. That inward attitude of rejoicing. The third word that he uses is peace. Peace is an inward personal peace. That's the idea behind that word. An inward personal peace. One of the

greatest things that happens to us as believers in Jesus Christ is that we finally come to a place where we're at peace. We're at peace with ourselves because we're now at peace with God. Again, I do feel like one of the big things that's going on in our world is people are not at peace with themselves because they're not at peace with God. I think so much of the anger and the violence that we're seeing take place in our world today is because people have no peace in their lives. Because that inward peace

results in peace with the people that are around me. See, if I'm at peace with myself and I become somebody who spreads that peace to others, I'm at peace with myself. I'm at peace with myself. I'm somebody who spreads that peace to the people that are around me because I don't lash out in anger all the time because I know that I'm secure in who I am in Christ. The fourth word that he uses

is the word patience. Again, I love the way the Amplified Bible translates this because the word patience, it says not just the ability to wait, but how we act while we wait. But how we act. I thought that's not true. Patience is the ability to wait. wait for something. So I really meditated on this word quite a bit this week. I thought, you know what? Everybody has to wait. We all have to wait. Went to Young Christians weekend a few weeks ago.

And you know what we did the entire time we were there? We waited. Hey, look, there's a roller coaster. Let's wait. Do you know there's an app now that'll tell you how long the wait is? You know what's never right? That app, right? 15 minute wait. Perfect. Let's go to that ride. You get there and you're like, 15 minutes just turned into an hour. Son of a gun. I guess I'm

here for a while now. And you wait. Now, some people wait and they're just amazing. You know, we tell jokes, we have fun, we play games. I actually like to watch all of the other people that play the games because they come up with really stupid games. And I think they're hilarious and I make fun of them later. Anyway, that's just what I do. That's just me. But then there's other

people like, oh my gosh, this line is taking forever. Right? See, patience is not only the ability to wait, but how you act while you wait. Some of you are like, I'm waiting on God. We're like, yep, we can tell. We can tell. I'm waiting on my husband to finally figure it out. I'm waiting on my wife to figure out what my needs are. I'm waiting on my kids to finally

learn something. Just not very well. The Holy Spirit produces that patience inside of us that allows us to be calm, even in the process of waiting. The fifth word that he uses is the word kindness. The word kindness is benevolence in action. Listen, both towards our friends and our Hey, Ryan, we need to stand up for what's right. We need to stand up for what's true,

even if we make enemies. I agree with that, but we have to do it with kindness. Oh, Ryan, the Bible's real serious about these things. Yeah. Kindness. You know what the Bible says? It says that it's his kindness that leads us to repentance. Those are God's words, not mine. I didn't make that up. We're to be kind in the way that we treat people. Now, are you going to make enemies when you stand for the truth?

Absolutely. But let it be because of the truth, not because you're a jerk, right? Because we're to be kind to everyone. It comes to the sixth word, and the sixth word that he uses is goodness. The word goodness literally means uprightness of soul. It does good even when undeserved. You ever keep a list in your mind of the people that deserve good things done for them

and the people that don't? And when bad things happen to the people you think, don't deserve goodness, you're like, it's about doggone time. That's called a work of the flesh because God calls us to be good to all people, to show kindness and mercy to all people. Listen, even the obnoxious people, even the people who have rubbed your sins in your face, we still are to show kindness and goodness to them. And you and I can't do, I can't do that.

The only one that can do that in me is if the Holy Spirit produces that fruit inside of me. Is if I am walking by the Spirit so that I don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The seventh word that he uses is the word faithfulness. The word faithful means trustworthy or reliable. Again, I think this is one of the greatest needs we have in our culture right now, because in our culture right now, everybody just says,

I know I said I would do that. I don't have time. I don't feel like doing that. You don't mind, right? I can just bail on you. That's no big deal, right? And you know, it's one thing to do that. It's another thing to do that. It's another thing to do that. It's another thing to do that. It's another thing when the world does that to us, we should expect unfaithfulness from the world

because that's a work of the flesh. That's a whole other thing when it happens within the body of Christ. Because within the body of Christ, God is calling us to be faithful. And listen, we can't be that. Flakes is who we are by nature, right? We're all flakes by nature because we're selfish human beings. That's what causes us to be flakes. But as the Holy Spirit works inside of you, he produces

faithfulness. Faithful to the things that he calls you to do. Reliable. The eighth word that he uses is gentleness. The word gentleness can also be translated meekness and it means power under control. I don't know how, this is how I've always pictured this. I always pictured the incredible holding a puppy, right? Like that's how I always picture meekness. Like you have the ability,

but you don't, right? Because that's what meekness is. It's power under control. And then the last one is self-control. The word self-control literally means to hold oneself in. That's that time when the Holy Spirit says, and we have to be like, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. Actually, in general, it speaks of sexual sin, holding yourself back, holding yourself in from a desire to fulfill

yourself sexually. But it also speaks of every other area of the flesh that we can sometimes deal with. It speaks of the way that we eat food, the way that we drink things, the way that we live our lives, to live a self-controlled life. As that Holy Spirit produces that self-control inside of us, the ability to say, no, no, I don't need that. I don't need any more of that. I'm done with that. No, that won't help me in my walk with

Jesus. I'm going to exercise self-control. He says, those, those are the fruits of the Spirit. He closes up by telling us what it looks like to walk by the Spirit. Verse 23, or excuse me, verse 24, he says,

Those of us that belong to Jesus have crucified once for all our flesh. You know, when we do that, when we did that, we did that the day that we got saved because we were united with him in his death. Now we have to live every day like our flesh has been crucified. Now we have to live by faith every day that when we put our faith in Jesus, it crucified our flesh, living according to what's true of us. After all, if we live by the Spirit, verse 25,

let us also walk by the Spirit and not become boastful, challenging one another or envying one another. So brothers and sisters, grace produces fruit. We're to walk in the Spirit. Watch for those works of the flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to produce the peaceable fruits in our lives that only he can produce. Amen. Let's all stand. Moms, make sure you go talk to the

ushers afterwards. Get yourself a gift. Everybody else, make sure that you love on your moms really well today. Mom gets to do what mom wants to do today, whatever that is. If mom wants to take a nap today, mom gets to take a nap today. If mom wants to just chill today, mom wants to chill today. Mom wants to get coffee, you take her for coffee. It's just all that there is to it. So

Father, we come to you and I thank you. I thank you for your word. And Lord, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would do the work in our lives that only your Holy Spirit can do, producing that fruit. Lord, I lift up the believers in Jesus Christ that are here this morning. And Father, I pray that if they have seen those areas of the flesh in their lives, that today would be the day that

they confess those areas and begin to seek the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome them. Lord, begin to seek that power of the Holy Spirit to live in victory. And Lord, I just ask that you would show us what it is to walk by the Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. Jesus, who can you be Lord? Riches and houses, cars and land will all pass away,

but my life will be yours. My life will stand. Jesus, you can use me, Lord.

For your glory, for your glory, for your glory, you can use me, Lord. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And Lord, I just ask that you would show us have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. Jesus, who can you be Lord? Riches and houses, cars and land will all pass away, but my life will stand. Jesus, who can you be Lord?

For your glory, for your glory, for your glory, for your glory, you can use me, Lord. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. And only what's done, Christ will bless. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless.

We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless. We have only one life and it soon will pass. And only what's done, Christ will bless.

Lord We say yes Lord You can use me Lord We say yes Lord We say yes Lord We say yes Lord You can use me Lord We have only one life and two will pass and only what's done for Christ will let Jesus You can use me Lord Yes Lord As we're walking Lord may we walk in the spirit yielded to you May your love reign in our ears In Jesus name Amen God bless Have a good week