Life in the Spirit

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Well, good morning. It's good to be here. And we had a great retreat on the beach outside of the smelly fish and the red tide, but great fellowship, good connections with a lot of people, but it's good to be in my own bed. You know, and to be able to just kind of, to this morning, be here with all of y'all. As we are in the eighth week of our series on Galatians, we only have two more. And I want to read the text and then have a prayer. We're going to be in the rest of the chapter five of Galatians, okay? And so we're going to need you to turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5, verse 13, or possibly as well turn to the Bible app on your smartphone. And there's notes for Thrive Community Church in this sermon there. So let's read this. 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. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Let's pray. Lord God, this day is yours. Holy Spirit, we need you to bear your fruit in us, to produce what you want, to draw us closer, Lord. To become more and more what you want us to be. And we ask for your presence here that you would inspire and be involved in the exposition of your word. As you inspired this word through the author, Paul, that you would now fill us with your truth and your grace. So that we see, that we hear, that we are open to everything that you are about. Lord God, we not only pray for here, but for every church that preaches your gospel, that shares your good news, that knows your truth across Southwest Florida. And we thank you, Lord, that there is one church in many expressions and that we are just one of them. And we thank you, Lord, that you are working your kingdom work in this area. And we pray that we would just be a part of it. That we'd be in step with your spirit as to what you want to have accomplished in our lives, in our neighborhoods, and in this community. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So last week, we got to our theme verse that we've used from the beginning of this series till now. So if you're new here or if you haven't been, it doesn't really matter. The theme verse is the same and it's been from the beginning to the end. Galatians 5 verse 1, for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. And I love that verse and I think it's hard to even, I mean, that's a great one to memorize. If you haven't memorized it by now, this would be a good one to just kind of let soak in and know. And what we pointed out last week in this passage is a lot of people know what they're freed from. I'm freed from sin. I'm freed from all of this stuff that Jesus freed us from and that's great, but we are also freed for. And we are freed for freedom last week, to enjoy that freedom, to celebrate that freedom, to freedom, to grow in this relationship of faith, hope, and love with our God. And boy, that is just marvelous. Marvelous. And what that really means is our motivation changes in life. Our motivation changes from, well, from fear to love, and from guilt to joy, from obligation to hope, and from force to freedom. And that makes the whole difference. For freedom, you have been set free. But you might be saying to yourself, well, that sounds good, John, but I'll tell you, how do people really change in this world? If I notice how I've ever done anything different or anybody else, it's because I felt like I was forced into it or I had to do it. You know, yes, but is kind of the way you might be saying right now about, oh, this sounds good, but that's the ideal. The reality is the way it works in this world. And you...