The Satisfying Spirit

Passage: Galatians 5:16-26.

Point:
1. We should walk by the Spirit so we will not gratify the flesh because the flesh draws us away from what we want to do.
2. 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.
3. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Let us walk in the Spirit.

Personalize
There is a constant battle raging within our lives. It is the battle for the control of our thoughts, purposes, and actions. The battle rages between two factions: the Spirit and the flesh. Before Christ ruled and reigned in our lives, our direction was determined by the want of the flesh and it’s desire to be satisfied. We pursued things of life that would bring prosperity, power or position. The flesh promised a tangible satisfaction that could be measured based on human standards and efforts. This control leads to a life of physical and personal effort to obtain satisfaction.

The pursuits of the flesh always lead to excessiveness because it is never satisfied and never rest. The flesh continues to thirst for more. Because of its unending hunger and thirst for more it leads to “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these”. These are contrary to the Spirit’s way of doing business and stands in the way of the rest and peace the Spirit can bring. The Spirit always quenches our thirst and leaves us full and satisfied. As Jesus told the woman at the well, when you drink of the Spirit, “you will never thirst again”.

The control of the flesh has now been challenged. It is challenged by the satisfying presence of the Spirit. The Spirit always quenches our thirst and hunger. When we walk in the Spirit we walk in contentment because our needs are fully met. Because we walk in the Spirit we are satisfied and the results are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”. As Paul states, “if we live by the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit”. The inner transformation brought about by the Spirit should result in an outer transformation of the way we walk before others.

Prayer
Lord may we discover the hunger filling and thirst quenching of the Spirit that results in our walking in the Spirit before others. Lord may Your Spirit be evident in our lives as we demonstrate: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”.

Choose Freedom

Passage: Galatians 5:1-15

Point
1. For freedom Christ has set us free, so we should stand firm and not commit to the yoke of slavery.
2. If we accept certain rules rather than Living by grace we will have to keep the entire law because only “faith working through love” counts when it comes to Christ.
3. We have been called to freedom and we are not to use this freedom for the flesh, but through love we are to serve one another. The law is summed up in”love your neighbor as yourself”.

Personalize
We have been set free in Christ and for freedom we have been given this abundant life. If we are free, why then do we seek to be enslaved again by religious demands and personal efforts? The gospel is simple, “trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”. It does not say do something to become more religious. It simply says trust and place our faith solely in Christ. Paul is disturbed at the brothers who have been set free in Christ, but they use this opportunity to enslave others by religious duty and qualifications like circumcision. He lets them know if you require circumcision then you are required to keep the whole law which is impossible.

To be free is a great place to be. Free from obligation of service yet free to choose to love the Lord with “all our heart, soul, mind, and strength”. We are not bound by the law and the impossible demands of the requirements, but Jesus has overcome them all. Through Adam came the unrighteousness, death, and condemnation, but in Christ we are free and He has clothed us in his righteousness. We have a choice. We can live by works and always fall short or we can resign from our efforts and place our faith solely in Christ and receive what we are in need of, forgiveness and life.

Prayer
Lord, may I live by faith and place my trust in the righteousness of Christ. May I walk in freedom and not return to a life of enslavement.

Way of the Promise

Passage: (Galatians 4:21-31)

Points
1. Ishmael was the son of a slave woman and according to the flesh; while Isaac was the son of a free woman and born according to a promise.
2. The Old Testament told the barren ones to break forth and cry out for there was a promise of a greater future.
3. The one who was born of the flesh persecuted those who were born of the spirit. The slave will not inherit what has promised to the free.

Personalize
We have the tendency to venture back to enslavement. We loose sight of the way things were and we drift back to those things that will never lead to freedom. Paul points out that we have been born spiritually because of a promise and not of the flesh, yet we drift back to the flesh or the tangible because we are unwilling to wait on the promise. If Abraham and Sarah had waited on the promise then they would not have sought a short cut to the promise by taking Hagar, their slave, and seek a descendent the easy way, the natural way, or by the flesh. Abraham took his slave and Ishmael was born in the flesh and did not fulfill the promise. If they had only waited, the promise would be fulfilled.

The way of the flesh is physical and touchable, but the way of the promise is spiritual and received by faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God”. When God has made a promise He will fulfill it in His time and in His way. It is our tendency to trust in what we can control rather than wait on God’s control. Paul is reminding his readers that the law is the way of the flesh and the gospel is the way of the promise. We rest in what Christ has done alone and not in our own efforts.

Prayer
Lord, may we rest in Your promises. Give us an insight into the promise and the vision You have for our future. We yield to your leadership in our lives and we seek to walk by faith in the promises and not by the flesh.

Known by God Living

Passage: Galatians 4:8-20

Point

1.  They have come to know God and to be known by God.  Why did they return to their gods that are not God?

2.  It was because of a bodily ailment that Paul preached the gospel to them.

3.  Paul is wondering why they have become bitter with him.

Personalize

We often venture through life holding on to old ways of thinking and ineffective ways of living.  We grasp onto what we have known without ever thinking what we are doing is holding us captive.  God has entered our world and has made Himself and the Gospel known to us through Jesus Christ.  Once we come to Christ we can no longer claim ignorance because we “know God and are known by God”.  In order to move from captivity to freedom we must live life as one who knows God and not as one who does not.

Paul points out that they should not return back to their old ways because they “know God or rather they are known by God”.  God initiated the contact and they responded with faith.  So why do they go back to their old ways when they did not know God and lived by natural laws and societal expectations?  The reason is that the Galatians were looking for something “to do” rather than rest in their relationship with Christ.  ”You observe days and months and seasons and years!” (v.10). It was in these special days and events they sought fulfillment and righteousness from the ritual.  While in Okinawa, I have observed this as well.  People are looking to appease their ancestral gods through special days and events.  This past week, following the new year, there were lines of people trying to reach the Buddist temples in order to receive good fortune or a blessing from their ancestorial gods.

The effort to obtain a right relationship with God through our works is prevalent in the religius and the secular.  ”Therefore there is no difference at all between a Papist, a Jew, a Turk, and an heretic. Indeed there is a difference of the persons, the places, religions, works and worshippings; notwithstanding there is all one and the same reason, the same heart, opinion and cogitation in them all. For the Turk thinketh the self-same thing that the Charterhouse Monk doth: namely, if I do this or that [work], God will be merciful unto me; if I do it not, he will be angry” (Luther, Commentary on Galatians).   When we live by works rather than by faith we are no different than the non-believer because we are seeking a right relationship or direction in life by what we do rather than by our faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Prayer

Lord may we find rest in You alone.  To be known by You is amazing because we are unworthy of your love but we have been made worthy through Your son Jesus.  Lord reveal to us how to live by faith and not by our works.  We desire to walk as individuals who know You and are known by You.