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Mar 18, 2018

Free Living

Passage: Galatians 5:16-25

Speaker: Ben Seneker

Series: Galatians

Category: Grace Brevard

THEME:

“Walk by the Spirit.” Our behavior doesn’t impact God’s love for us, but God’s love for us impacts our behavior. We are called to live out of our new nature. Flesh and Spirit war against one another (but it’s NOT the one you feed that wins...the Spirit absolutely wins!). Fruit of the Spirit.

Worship Order

Call To Worship: Psalm 1:1-3 & Psalm 25:4-5 ESV

Prayer: Psalm 23:1-6 ESV

Sermon Title: Free Living

Central Text:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 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. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Illustration: This Is Us

Response:  John 15:5,9,11-12 ESV

Benediction: Philippians 1:6,11 ESv

Related Scriptures:

Romans 8:1-16 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 NIV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. 

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. What do you most “desire”?
    1. What are you trying to get out of that? What does it do for you?
  2. Why do we all want to “belong”?
    1. To what or to whom do you want to “belong”?
  3. Analyze these:
    1. “We behave in accordance with who we think we are.”
    2. “If you want to know what you believe, look at what you do”
  4. If you had absolute, unwavering security in your Jesus-Given Value, how would that impact your life?
    1. Why is there a gap between that answer and your actual life?
  5. If you really believed you belonged to the King, how would it impact: a) Your family (marriage, kids, parents)
    1. Job - what is your vocational motivation? Attitude? Goal?
    2. Obedience - Do you obey out of duty or God’s beauty?
    3. Generosity - How do you divy up your Time, Talent and Treasure? How much do you hold on to your resources in order to sustain your identity and value? How much are you able to be open-handed?
    4. brokenness - are you able to see, admit and repent? To the level that we aren’t secure in Him is the level that this “death” is too painful.

Docs & Quotes:

“Make sure your passion isn't your sickness.” - Raymond Reddington in The Blacklist

“You want to be in control, but you are not. Because of this, the heart-felt experience of faith will always entail a kind of personal deconstruction, rather than some kind of building up. The more you get to know the God who loves sinners, the more you will see your own need for Him. Sometimes people ask God to build in them all the things that they think they need in order to face life successfully. He will do no such thing! Why would He turn you into a vessel that has no need for Him? Faith means trusting Him to be all the things you need Him to be, despite your own inadequacies, and, for that matter, in light of the fact that you don't actually know what you need or what success actually looks like. He won't give you strength; He will be your strength. God deconstructs. God intervenes. God prevents.” - John Zahl

"Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Sermons:

The Fruit of the Spirit by Alistair Begg

The Fruit of the Spirit by Tim Keller

The First Fruit of the Spirit by Charles H. Spurgeon

Songs:

We Cry Out - Jesus Culture

Nothing But the Blood - Robert Lowery

Lead Me to the Cross - Brooke Fraser

Oceans - Matt Crocker, Joel Houston, Salomon Ligthelm 

Media Album 

3.18.18 Album