Walking With The Spirit Together

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Today marks our last Sunday in the book of Galatians, our last Sunday in our sermon series that we call Breaking Free. And today, we are going to dovetail right off of something that we left off with last Sunday. And the first that we left off of last Sunday—it's not going to be up here, but it's going to be in your Bibles—it's going to be Galatians 5, 13. And we're really today, and really how the text flows, it is an extension of Galatians 5:13. We're going to be in Galatians 5:16 and we're going to move all the way through 6.10. But today, I want to just begin with Galatians 5:13. It says, 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." It says, you were called to freedom. This is a good kind of overview of where we've been in the book of Galatians. It says, you were called to freedom

and to help these Galatian churches, right? This region of Galatian, all the churches that are in it, to help them understand what the freedom is that they've been called to. Paul, all throughout Galatians, uses these really heavy contrasts. In Galatians 1, I received the gospel, not from man, but from Jesus, right? In Galatians chapter two, we are not justified by works, we are justified by faith. Galatians three, we saw there's a, God has a law, but God has also given us a promise, and the law is not like the promise. Last week we talked about heirs and slaves, or two weeks ago, we talked about heirs and slaves, you're an heir and not a slave. And in all of it, what he's trying to do with these heavy contrasts, what he's trying to help us see is how our lives will look when we engage that freedom, when we are breaking free, when we are using the freedom that we have been given. And so just like it says at the beginning of

Galatians 5 13, it says, for you were called to freedom, brothers, you were called to freedom. And it's saying, don't use your freedom to go back into slavery. Don't use your freedom to go back to justifying yourself. Don't use your freedom to lose your freedom. Use your freedom, engage your freedom to gain more, to be free, to stay free, to grow in that freedom. And so, So, a way that we kind of are looking at it here in the end of Galatians starting with verse 16, 5.16 and then going through 6.10, we're engaging this freedom. And we see it as an extension of 5.13, like I said, so it breaks out into two parts. And the first part that I want to look at is the part where it says, it says, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. So don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. And so that first, this first part that we're gonna be looking at,

beginning in verse 16, is about our hearts. It's about our hearts. So Galatians 5, 16 and 17. It says, 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." We'll stop there for now. It has to do with the heart because it's talking about gratifying desires. Where do your desires reside? Well, in your heart, right? If you're gonna use your freedom well, if you're gonna use your freedom not for an opportunity to gratify the flesh, then you need to understand that the first battle that you're going to be fighting is in your heart. That if you were going to engage your freedom, but you don't have this thing kind of won, this thing decided in your heart to begin with,

that is a losing struggle. Every choice that we make is about which desires that we gratify. Now, excuse me, on this point there will be some people who will try to make this about them. They'll try to become, you know, a humanist where we begin preaching grace in Jesus, but what we end up preaching is some kind of self-salvation, right? So we say some version of try really hard and then Jesus might like you, or Jesus may support you if you kind of white knuckle it really hard. You know, if you're just trying really hard to oppose the desires of the flesh and to engage the desires of the spirit. However, simply behaving differently, simply making yourself not do something and making yourself do something else is not the battle of the heart. It's not. That's not where the battle is. And really the only way I know to talk about this is with an example. And so

I want to set up an extended example with you, and it's about a promotion at work. Now some of you, you know, you may not have dealt with this in a long time, but you can at at least remember what it was like. You're up for a promotion at work. Now, you very much desire this promotion. You very much desire this promotion for the use of this illustration. But when you are up for this promotion and you know that you desire this promotion, you must ask yourself a question. If you're going to fight the battle in your heart, you must ask yourself the question, which desire is at play? Which desire is at play? How am I going to position my heart upon this desire so that I can basically discern if this is a desire of the spirit or if this is a desire of the heart? And so what we must do is work to position our heart on the gospel. And again, in saying all this in this extended metaphor, I'm not trying to say we

shouldn't desire a promotion at work, or that we shouldn't desire to make more money, or that we shouldn't desire, you know, to get married, to have children, to retire, to whatever, to buy a car. That's not, I'm not trying to vilify desires. What I'm saying is that when we desire something, and we don't know if it's good or bad. When we don't know which desire is at play, my encouragement to you is to begin to fight the battle in your heart by setting your heart on the right thing. So if you wanna set your heart, position your heart on the gospel, then you are going to rehearse specific kinds of truth.

You're gonna rehearse the truth that Jesus does not ignore me. It is true, it is gospel true that Jesus does not ignore me. So he identifies with my heart. He knows the hairs on my head. He knows the thoughts and the intentions of my soul. Also know it's true that Jesus does not withhold good from me. Jesus does not withhold good from me. Now, it might feel like that sometimes because I want something and I don't get it. I feel like Jesus is withholding it from me. However, I know because the gospel tells me so, that Jesus does not withhold good things from me. In fact, to believe otherwise is to fall for the exact same lie that Adam and Eve fell for in the garden. God says that He makes all things work together for my good. And I can understand that, and I can have faith in that, and I can believe in that, even when it doesn't seem like it. Also know that Jesus is completely trustworthy.

So I can pray for what I desire and not feel like if I somehow say it or if I somehow like ask for it, now I won't get it, right? Somehow like trying to do reverse psychology with God. Good luck with that. Also know this, that Jesus schedules everything in its season. Schedules everything in its season, and I can live with the results. I can live with the results because I know that even when I go through something hard, even when I'm in the winter of my soul, that it is on time, that there are seasons appointed for me to go through for a reason. The pandemic did not overtake us by surprise to the Lord. Jesus did not gasp from his throne and go, oh, I did not think of this. I didn't know we were going to have a pandemic. No, this is appointed for our church, for our season, for your life, for what you're going through. There is a spiritual growth that should be,

that can at least can happen in the midst of a pandemic. Why? Because Jesus schedules everything in a season. That Jesus does not withhold good from me. He's completely trustworthy and he does not ignore my needs. All those things are true. And when my heart is set, when my heart is set on those things. This, this is how I fight my battles. This is how I fight the battle for my heart because when my heart is at rest in Jesus, I am free. I am free to do what? Well at work, and let's just say we're at work and it's the promotion again, I am free to work hard. I am free to problem solve. I am free to be a blessing to my coworkers. Why? Because, because I already have everything I need, promotion or not. I already have everything I need. When my heart is at rest, when my heart is... When I'm walking by the Spirit, this is what it is to walk by the Spirit,

is that your heart is at rest because you are rehearsing, you are walking in the truth that you have everything that you need. You have a creator God who knows your life, who sees you, who doesn't ignore you, who is trustworthy, who will not withhold good from you. All those things are true no matter how you feel, no matter what's going on in your life. I don't care if I'm talking to a cancer victim, somebody who just lost a child, somebody who just lost a job, somebody who just got kicked out of their home. I don't care. It's all the same. It's not to say I'm not compassionate toward those things. I'm saying no situation is so bad that I raised my hand and go, you know what, I was wrong. God's not in control of that. You know what? Oh, there's nothing, there's nothing good to be discerned from here. No, just, just curse God and die. Like Joe's wife told me.

There's never a situation like that. And yes, seasons are difficult to go through and we should be compassionate. I am compassionate. I don't mean to sound like I'm not. I'm afraid I have sounded like I'm not. I am. But when our heart is at rest, when we have rehearsed the truth of the gospel, this is walking by the Spirit. And when you walk by the Spirit, verse 5, 16 comes true. It says, you will not gratify the desire for the flesh. When you are walking by the Spirit, it's not like it's not saying you won't want to, it's not saying you kind of won't, it's not saying you're going to be... It's saying you won't, you can't. When you are walking by the Spirit, you cannot gratify the desires of the flesh because you see them for what they are. And that is a terrible surrogate, a lesser choice. Because if you...let's go back to that promotion, if you leave your heart in the default position, if you are

trying to gratify the desires of your flesh, you don't rehearse gospel truth. You rehearse another set of truth. Now it's different for everybody, but I'll lay out some common ones. You've probably heard some of these. You rehearse something like the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Well, if the squeaky wheel gets the oil, then I've got to go out of my way and I've got to grab the attention of my boss to let him know that I am deserving of this promotion. Maybe you're rehearsing nice guys finish last. Well, if you're rehearsing that you're going to position your work as superior to your co-worker's work. Or you're just going to cast your co-worker's work as inferior to yours. Either way. Nice guys finished last. Maybe you're rehearsing, you know, you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Yes. You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. So you are prepared to sacrifice

friendships, your integrity, whatever you need to do to get it done. Because what you believe, what you are rehearsing is, it's some version of this, it is only fair that I get this promotion. It's only fair. The desires of the flesh will take something like a promotion. Take any object that you desire, Good things, bad things, bad things, promotions, marriages, getting into a certain college, retiring at a certain age, being able to travel a certain amount, whatever. Whatever that is, the desires of the flesh will make that thing about your identity. Because it's not just about, this promotion is not about money, it's about prestige, it's not about influence. The desires of the flesh turn anything that you want, promotion or otherwise. It makes it about getting what you deserve. It puts you on the throne. If you are listening to the desires of the heart, then you will erupt in your heart.

Your heart will erupt with thoughts of, they can't do that to me, I don't deserve that. I deserve more respect than that. I don't know about you, but the desire to the flesh come to play in my heart when I'm driving on the road. Do I hear an Amen? Oh, mercy. Goodness gracious. I deserve to be on my side of the road. I deserve to be not behind somebody going 15 miles under the speed limit. I deserve, I don't know if I'm the only one who rehearses those things while I'm driving. I think that I am not. But when I'm driving, the desires of the flesh just come out. I call people idiots. I didn't realize I did this until my kids started calling people idiots on the road. They were like six or something. They were way too young to really understand what was going on. And they were like, dad, that guy's being an idiot. I'm like, oh man. It's funny, but it's shameful.

It's shameful. It convicted me. It let me know. I assume the worst of these people. My wife, to try to redirect that behavior lovingly, carefully, in a gospel-oriented way, she'd say, well, maybe they're in a rush. Maybe they're just enjoying the drive, they're going slow. Maybe they're in a rush and they've got to get to the hospital where they see, you don't know. You don't know why these people are doing what they're doing. Don't call them idiots, basically. And I will say that should have worked more often than it did. But bless my wife, and I think, I don't know if I'm just going to make this a generality, but bless most wives for calling and saying, just calling out and saying, hey, hey, you, don't make them a villain, don't do that. The desires of the flesh will make everything about getting what you deserve. And when you are calling people idiots, you're probably, you probably have your

heart set on some things that are not gospel driven. In both scenarios, here's the irony, here's the irony. Let's say you're going for that promotion. In both scenarios that I laid out, if your heart is set upon the gospel, the position on the gospel, and you believe these things about the Lord, you are free to work hard, you're free to be a blessing to your coworkers. You're free to do all of that, so you're still free to do that. In the second, right, you are still gonna be working hard to get what you But you will never be free. Ever. If you get the promotion, still not free. Why? Because there's another desire. There's another apple of your eye that's coming right around the corner that you will then, the desires of the flesh will then overtake you again for this next thing. And it will be thing after thing after thing after thing after thing. You will look back upon your life and you'll say,

I wanted all these things and now I don't want any of them. of them. Why did I try so hard? Why did I sacrifice friendships? Why did I sacrifice family time? Why did I sacrifice my integrity to get all those things that I don't even want anymore? That is the life, the legacy of somebody that has lived according to the desires of the flesh. From the outside though, it looks the exact same. People still work hard. You just don't know why they're working hard. The battle is not to make people work part, the battle is in your heart. We fight this battle in our hearts by what we rehearse. Our actions then, where do our actions belong? Well, our actions are simply an outflow of what's going on in the desires of our heart. Okay? So we look at verses 19 and 21, 19 through 21, excuse me, talks about the works of the flesh. And so when our desires are set on the flesh,

here's what it's going to look like. The works of the flesh are evident, it says in verse 19, and then gives us a huge list, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fists 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. That's a really interesting way to put it because sometimes we read that differently at the very end. It says those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That makes it sound like if I have a fit of anger, I'm now disqualified from heaven. And that's not really what we're talking about here. In verses 19 through 21, it's saying that when your heart is set on the flesh, when you are gratifying the desires of the flesh, this will happen. This list, sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, etc. But what

we do with this list, we look at it like it's some checklist. And so we look at this list and the first thing we do, and maybe some of you did this as we were reading, is you You clear yourself of most of it. So I'm not given a drunkenness. I'm not given to orgies. I'm not given a fits of anger. Okay. But the rest of it, the part that is close to home, that's the part, you know it's close to home when you rationalize it. So like, yeah, you know, drunken orgies. Not close to home. Fits of anger, you rationalize it. So for me, a fit of anger, I'm given to a fit of anger more than I'm given to drunkenness, that is for sure. But I rationalize it. I say something like, well, who doesn't get angry every once in a while? Who doesn't deal with jealousy? Who doesn't envy? I mean, you can't get along with everybody. You rationalize it. If it's close to home, you rationalize it.

If it's far away, you clear yourself of it. But this is, make no mistake, no check list. This is not the 10 commandments, okay? These aren't rules that we live by. This is a description of the fruit that comes. And that's why the list ends with, and things like these. It's not an exhaustive list. It's saying that when you have a life that is bent on gratifying the desires of the flesh, it will look like this in some way, in some form. There is a young woman who speaks against, She did for a long time, she spoke against pornography and its effects.

And her name was Ann Jackson. And she spoke against pornography, and she talked about, she gives her testimony, and she said, what I would do is I would look at pornography, or I'd read pornography, and I would play out these fantasies in my mind. And I believed that those fantasies in my mind were just there in my mind. But then it got a little more and a little more and a little more, and when she was engaged to be married to somebody, she had a one night stand with some other guy that she actually didn't even know.

And she wouldn't have been caught, but on her way home she was in a car accident. And she threw that car accident, and all these people were being really sweet to her, she was convicted, and she told her fiance what happened, And he left her. He was done, gone. And what she said was, you know, sexual immorality or impurity or sensuality, like the first three that are listed right there, I would have never thought I was the one, I would be the one to do something like that. But lo and behold, right, she just played with it long enough, and pretty soon she was given to it before she even realized it. The deception that we fall under whenever we are living by the desires of the flesh is that we are in control, that we know what's going on, that we can stop any time we want to, or that we really hate it when we do it, but we don't really give it up. We don't really begin to fight the battle in our hearts.

We just feel bad about doing it. But when you live according to the desires of the heart, when you do not rehearse what is true and begin to live by that, That is how your life will end up. To the Galatian churches, Paul is saying the exact same thing. This is what you will turn into. By contrast, again, heavy contrast. He's trying to help them see what's free, what freedom looks like. Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. against such things, there is no law. He's telling the Galatian churches, this is what spirit cooperation looks like. Here's what it looks like when you keep in step with the spirit. And there's two things I wanna say about this. First, is that you cannot fake any of these. You can try, you can try.

But people aren't half as dumb as we think they are. You can try to fake loving somebody, but then there's going to come a time when you will do something unloving because you do not love them. You can fake joy, but it's going to fade. You can fake peace by being quiet, but it's not real peace. You can't fake them. This list, for example, does not include generosity, hospitality, or praying, all of which would be evidence of the Spirit working in somebody's life, right? Like if somebody's being generous, okay, maybe, you know, that might be evidence of the Spirit. That's not on this list. This list can't be faked. You can give money away and not be generous. You can invite people into your home and not be hospitable. You can close your eyes, talk out loud and put your hands together and not be praying. All those things are true. And all those things These are easy to fake, easy.

This list you cannot fake. To be kind and good and faithful and gentle, to have self-control, it's evident, it's there. It's either present or it's absent. There's no halfway on it. The second thing about these is that they are all intended for community. They're not intended for isolation. And we see this develop more in the next few verses. So look with me in verses 25 and 26 of Galatians chapter five. It says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

And here we're making the transition into the second part of Galatians 5:13. Remember I opened with saying that this is, these verses are all kind of a flow out of Galatians 5:13. And so we said, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. We talked about that, but now we're talking about, but through love, serve one another. Through love, serve one another. Um, these gifts of the, this, this fruit of the spirit, as we walk with the spirit, we don't walk alone.

We don't walk alone. We through love, we serve one another. And this is, this is why I believe Galatians ends on this kind of note because breaking free happens as a church family serves one another. Breaking free happens when a church family serves one another. Last week we talked about that just a little bit, how breaking free, one of the evidences that you're breaking free is that you begin to serve other people. And Galatians 5 13 was our context for that. But I want to put it a different way today. I want to say that our freedom, our freedom as a church is either going to be a hindrance or a catalyst for our freedom individually. Let me say that again. Our freedom as a church, to the extent to which we are breaking free as a church, is either going to be a hindrance or it is going to be a catalyst for how much we are are personally breaking free. Church, we together, we together can demonstrate,

encourage, provoke one another to love, to good deeds, to being kind and considerate, to being hospitable and generous. We can do that by loving and serving one another. What Galatians finishes with is three encouragements and one promise. when it's talking about breaking free. And it talks about breaking free in the context specifically of community. And the first encouragement is right there in verse 26. It says, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Okay? That when you are, when you are conceited, and we tend to think of being conceited as a private thing. If someone is conceited, maybe it's just a sense we have about them. But what the conceit that this is talking about, when we are conceited, it leads us to provoke one another and envy one another. It is a picture of rivalry, all right, which is listed in the works of the flesh.

Rivalry is one of them. But the reality of the encouragement is that we are a spiritual family with no rivalry, okay? We're brothers and sisters in Christ. God does not love you more than me. And God doesn't love me more than you. You don't deserve God's love more than I do, and I sure as heck don't deserve God's love more than you do. When God is our common denominator, we're all dumb. We're all unholy. We are all dogs returning to our vomit, the wonderful word picture from the book of Proverbs. That's all of us. You might be a cuter dog, but we know where you went. It's where I went. I'm not more in need of less in need of grace than anybody else. And however much progress I make in the faith, however sanctified I become, glory to God for that. But what am I going to do? Pat myself on the back for that? Like I somehow earned that? For example, I know a lot of Bible.

I just know a lot of Bible. God has given me a mind to just know the Bible. I can't really explain it to be perfectly honest with you. I have an easy time memorizing things, remembering where they are. I remember names really well. It's just a God-given ability. I don't go home and practice even. I just remember. I don't know why or how. But for me to sit there and just like load it onto my back like it's some kind of trophy like, hey, look what I can do. Man. I mean, adventures in missing the point. Gosh, it is a gift. It's a gift given to me. I don't deserve it. I use it. When we understand that we are a spiritual family with no rivalry, we begin to understand a bigger picture in that we are at war, and we are all on the same side. We're at war, though. Let's not, let's not, let's not bicker about the sideways look somebody gave us when we're in the foxhole. Because we've got fire coming over our head.

And you know what? Whatever that guy did to me yesterday, he's a brother and we're at war. How can I serve him? How can I love him? No rivalry in a foxhole. None. This is our first encouragement. be rivalry oriented. Here's the second. It's in Galatians 6:1. It says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself lest you two be tempted. This is great. I love this verse. In part, I love it because it is so counterintuitive. When we see that somebody has fallen, our first inclination is to say, oh, man, it's so glad that's not me. Or at least it's mine. I mean, you might be better than me. I'm okay with that.

Man, at least that's not me. And yeah, I feel compassion. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think about the fact that I would not wanna be in the position that they're in. What we see in Galatians 6-1 is an encouragement to restore each other gently and humbly, which is keep watching yourself lest you two be tempted. It's as if to say, hey, remember, remember that was you like yesterday. Don't think how great you are now. I will, I want to, the other reason I like this verse is because I'd like to unravel and undo an illustration that is commonly propagated on this verse. So the illustration is when you need to restore a brother, that that brother who's fallen is like hanging off a cliff or something. And what you've got to do is you've got to reach down, you've got to bend down, and you've got to pick them up. The reason I don't like that illustration is because it assumes you have a high ground,

that you somehow are better or are more lifted up than they are. Now, I don't mean to throw rocks at anybody that has used that illustration. I'm sure they weren't trying to say something like that. But it's an illustration that, 6-1 is probably better illustrated in a wartime scenario. Let's say you're in the jungle fighting a war. And one of us snaps. One of us just can't take it anymore. And they begin to act like the jungle is home. And that war is normal. Restoring that brother, it's not bending down to pick anybody up. Restoring that brother is a look at him square in the face. Slap him gently if you have to. And you say, wake up. This is not home. We are at war. Home is coming if we wait, if we are patient, if we understand and put our hope on the fact that this battle will soon be over, this war. It's already won by the Lord. Don't believe that the jungle is home.

Don't believe that the war ground is where you're supposed to finally be. When we are in community, we will have to remember that we are at war and that bickering really has no place. We will also have to remember that because we are at war, there are times when we need to wake each other up. And our third encouragement is found in Galatians 6, two through five. It says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason abose will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. Now, part of this is confusing because in verse 2 it says, bear one another's burdens. And then in verse 5 it says, for each one to bear his own load. That's confusing to people. What was going on in the Galatian church was that teachers were saying,

Oh, look, this person over here believes what I believe. So I'm going to boast in their life. I'm going to take credit for their work, right? Like I'm going to somehow count their goodness as my goodness, okay? And what he's saying is you don't take away goodness from people in Canada as your own. You actually take away burdens from people and count them as your own, right? And so when we are in community together, the encouragement is to carry each other's burden. And the most, let me just be super practical, the best way that you can do this, the best way that you can carry another person's burden is not to expect them to just come upon you in tears and go, oh, I've just got to tell you something. The most obvious way to do this is to make time for other people and to listen to them. I realize that sounds very elementary. However, it is also very scarce, making the time for another person and listening to them.

Ask yourself, do you listen to the stories of others? Do you care? Do you wanna become a servant? Do you wanna help this church grow? This church family, do you wanna do that? Make time for people, listen to them. Start listening intently. And in all these encouragements, And all these encouragements where we are not given into rivalry, we are waking each other up, we are bearing each other's burdens, it's the reality that the Spirit keeps us walking with each other. The fruit of the Spirit are all those things listed in 5.22 and 23 and together as a church that we don't keep in step with the Spirit alone. We keep... We're not individual soldiers, we're not mercenaries, we're an army. We walk together, keeping in step with the Spirit happens together. We are wasting our freedom if we are just trying to spend it on ourselves. And we end the day with a promise.

It's in Galatians 6, 9 through 10. And I think it's a good thing to end on. In a small way, it sums up the book of Galatians. Galatians 6, 9, 10 says this, it says, let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will ring if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are in the household of faith. Our call as a church body,

and we see it right here, it is to sow seeds, Not in some nebulous theory, not in some big idea. We don't sow seeds in things or in ideas. We sow seeds in people. Sow seeds in people. Our vision, I don't know if you've heard me say it in the last 10 minutes, but I'll say it again, just in case you forgot. Our vision is to sow gospel seeds in people. This is the only This is the only way that we will truly love people. It's the only way that we will invest in people. It's the only way that our church will grow and thrive. It's the only way that the kingdom of God will advance is if we are willing to sow gospel seeds in people, in relationships, that cannot happen outside of intentionality, that cannot happen outside of a conversation where you listen to people. Our vision is to sow gospel seeds. It is to pack the soil of someone else's heart with blessing and faithfulness.

It is to water their hearts with prayer and encouragement and hospitality and hope. And if there's a weed, you gently, gently help them remove it, just like you needed one removed. And if there's lots of weeds, you pack in more time and more gentleness. As we do these things together, we have a promise. right here in Galatians 6, 9, and 10, and I am so thankful that it is here. When we do this, we will reap a harvest. And I need to tell you, just in case you're confused, we are not in this for a two-year return on investment. We're not in this for a five-year return on investment. We're not on this for a 25- year return on investment. We're talking generational return on investment here. The things that we do now, we might not ever see the fruit of. Moses didn't. Abraham didn't. In many ways, Paul didn't. He didn't see it. He didn't see the fruit. Because what he was going for was generational.

What we are called to do here today is to sow good into one another, into one day. And it might not be us holding the sickle. One day, reap a harvest. And that will be a beautiful day. But we've got to stay faithful. We've got to plant those seeds. We've got to be about making disciples. As we move into our time of invitation, I want to ask, I want to ask that you just consider where you are with making disciples. Consider where you are with sowing seeds.

Consider how you spend your time. Consider how you invest in people. Consider how you make time to listen or not. Consider the desires of your heart, are you just chasing after the flesh? Or are you seeking to gratify the desires of the spirit in you? In all those things, you might need to take a next step. Baptism, church membership, you might just want some prayer, it's fine. But I would encourage you to do as we sing these songs, I'm gonna be up here. And you can make your way down to me and we can pray. And if all you wanna do is pray and then go sit back down, But as a body, let's respond. Even if you're just praying where you are, let's respond. Let me pray for us. Jesus, we thank you. We thank you that you are the Lord of the Spirit. It's your name that we pray. Amen. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene And I wonder how He could love me A snare condemned of me

I'm singing how marvelous, how beautiful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Galvry And suffered and died alone I'm singing how marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me And something glory His face I at last shall see Still be my joy through the ages To sing of his love for me Singing, How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful in my song she'll ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. Is my Savior's love. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this day. We just thank you for letting us worship. We pray that we take to heart what you have for us in your word. There's so gospel seeds as we go out today.

Jesus' name, Amen.