Walk This Way - Galatians 5: 13-26

1:06This was always a family trip for us because I have two sets of uncles and aunts who live down here, and it was always fun to leave West Texas and come down here where there are trees. If you've been up to Lubbock at all, you know there's not much trees. There's not many trees up there. In fact, this year, there's not much of anything up there. There's a whole lot of dirt. So, it's always good to be down here in the Brazos Valley. And it was a wonderful time yesterday with the local association talking about church health and church strengthening. And so, what I do is I work with rural churches all over the United States that are, for one reason or another, on the verge of closing their doors.

1:53Sometimes that is decisions that they have made, sometimes that's decisions that others in previous generations have made, but through the course of the decades, they've dwindled down and are on the verge of closing their doors. And so, I was so encouraged yesterday by the story that was shared at the association meeting about Emmanuel and the work that you have done alongside Southern Oaks. And so, let me commend you for that because I've seen, I know firsthand the sacrifice that it takes when you say we're going to partner with a church. And we're not just going to give them a space to meet, but we are going to send some of our best people to be a part of that.

2:32And so, I'm so grateful for churches like Emmanuel who are willing to say, We're not interested in growing the kingdom of our church, we're interested in growing the kingdom of God. And across the Southern Baptist Convention, we close somewhere around 800 churches a year. Most of those are in urban or suburban areas, and so in the areas where we have the most people living and moving, we are closing churches. In my role, the The number that I wake up thinking about every single day is at least one of those. We close at least one church every single Sunday in a rural area.

3:10I spent my entire life in rural communities, and I know that if you close a church in an urban or a suburban area, we don't want that to happen, but there's typically another Southern Baptist church within 10 or 15 minutes. If you close a church in a rural community, there may not be another church for 50 miles. Not just another Southern Baptist church, another church, period, for another 50 miles. And so we want to come alongside and help churches experience new life and new growth, be reawakened to the power of the gospel in their church and in the community. And so that leads me to where we'll be this evening in Galatians 5, looking at a familiar passage that you will know as the fruit of the Spirit. And we'll talk about why that matters, especially in the work of church revitalization. This doesn't have anything to do with church revitalization, right? Except that revitalized churches require revitalized people and people who are keeping in step with the Lord. And so I want to do a little experiment here. So if you saw on your note card tonight, or the title of this message is Walk This Way. And so I want to do just a little bit of crowdsourcing here. Because I have a feeling that phrase hits you in a couple of ways. So, if you're a child of the 90s and you hear walk this way, how many of you immediately think of Aerosmith or Run DMC? Okay, now it's confession time.

4:46How many of you thought Mel Brooks when you heard walk this way? Anybody? It's okay. It's a safe place. You can be honest here, right? All right, yes, we got one. Amen. There you go. Okay. Look, it's. We want to be people who are following what Jesus has said, right? We want to be people that are walking in step with the Lord. Back in the spring, I went with my son's eighth-grade science class, and we went to a news station in Lubbock and got to meet with a meteorologist, and he was explaining that kind of how pressure, how the barometric pressure affects the weather, and how, even with all their sophisticated tools and everything that the meteorologists have, they still rely on a barometer to be able to tell kind of what's going to happen with the weather. A fairly simple tool. And I'm going to think, wouldn't it be so great if we had a barometer that would sort of give us the state of our Christian life? Wouldn't it be great if there was just a tool that we could look at that would help us to gauge how we're growing as believers? See, barometers tell us something important about the characteristics. Condition of our physical world. It would be really great if we just had a simple tool that would tell us the condition of our spiritual lives. And so I got to think, I wonder what kind of things we would include in a spiritual barometer. And I immediately had this image that came to my mind of something that I saw every single Sunday in the First Baptist Church of Tahoka, Texas when I was growing up, and that was the offering envelope. If you grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist church, you might remember these envelopes, and they had these handy little checklists on them. And here are the items that were, I had to Google this because I walked all over our church in Lubbock and I could not find an offering envelope.

6:43And so I had to Google this. This is what was on those offering envelopes. Present. Yes, I am present. That would be very difficult to lie about at church, right? Yes, I am present. Bible brought. Yes, you bet, amen. I had either my King James kids Bible or my student Bible. Yes, I have my Bible. Bible read daily. Hmm, maybe, but I feel like I have to check that. Like, is that a lie? Yes, but can I say I don't read my Bible? Like, I just remember feeling conflicted about this as a kid. Like, is that feels like something I should do, something I shouldn't say no to? Lesson studied. Did you study your Sunday school lesson? I was in a church one Sunday. Working disaster relief, and all I will say is it was a church in Texas. That's all that's all I'm gonna give, right? Working disaster relief one Sunday, and I was serving as a pastor at the time, and I just said I never got to do this as a pastor, so I said, I'm just gonna drop in on a Sunday school class, and all I'm gonna tell them is I'm there working disaster relief. I'm not gonna tell them I'm a pastor, I'm just gonna kind of be a secret shopper.

7:53It was an interesting experiment for me, I never got to do that. So, I drop in, and I kid you not, the teachers arrived that morning. There were like three different couples who showed up that morning, and the conversation was, Are you teaching this Sunday? No, I thought you were teaching this Sunday. Where are the books? So, there was a little bit of searching. One of them found their books, and he walked outside for five minutes and came back in. I was like, okay, now we're ready to now ready to teach the lesson. And as a pastor, I'm sitting there going, hmm, I need to go back and do some training with my teachers when I get back home to Alan Mogordo.

8:35But that was on the offering envelope. Did you study your lesson? Giving. It was an offering envelope after all, right? Am I giving today? And then, lastly, was worship attendance. So, these were the check boxes that were on these offering envelopes. And even as a kid, like, I remember looking at those things and going, I'm not sure that measures the state of my spiritual life. Because I can do all these things and still be an angry, bitter person. I can do all these things and still not love God and love others the way that I've been commanded to. I can do all these and not deal with the sin that's in my own heart. Now, it's not that these are bad things, not at all. In fact, I would say they're good things. Things like being present in a worship gathering with other believers. Those are good things. That's a good thing. It's good to study your Sunday school lesson ahead of time so you'll have some idea of what on earth is going to be talked about, right?

9:46It's good to give. It's good to attend worship, but there's a lot of things that are missing. Like, there's nothing there about our attitudes. The Bible talks a lot about love. There's nothing at all on there about how you're to love your neighbor. Now, giving is listed on there, but the Bible says something really important about giving, and that is that God wants us to be cheerful givers. The Lord delights in cheerful givers. And I'm not sure how we would judge that. Like in the old days, before COVID, when we passed offering plates, at least we did it in our church. Like, can you imagine the ushers kind of like judging? I don't know if that person was happy enough. Better give them their money back. I mean, I guess we could put a box like on online giving of, Are you cheerful today as you're giving? Yes, check.

10:40Maybe you get a sticker if you feel like a cheerful giver, a smiley face. There you go. Congratulations. I'm a cheerful giver. You weren't a cheerful giver. I was a cheerful giver, right? Now, these are external things. External things are important, but far more often the Bible addresses our internal motivations. Why do we read our Bible? Why do we attend worship? Why do we give? And those motivations will say a lot about our growth as believers. Now, in the passage before us this evening, we're going to see two different lists.

11:16It is a list of do's and, or I guess don'ts, because we're going to start there, don'ts and do's. And while you can't just hold up a barometer or a thermometer to measure where your spiritual life is, the things that we're going to see will expose a lot about our growth in Christ Jesus. So if you will stand as we read the word of the Lord this evening, we'll be in Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 26.

11:47Apostle Paul's writing here, he says this, I say then, walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh, for the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh. These are opposed to each other, so that you don't do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I'm warning you about these things as I warned you before that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 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 keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this evening. I thank you so much for the opportunity to open up your word. I pray you would use it to shape and mold our hearts, our minds, our actions, and our attitudes where they are needed. May everything that we say and do bring glory and honor to the mighty name of King Jesus this evening. We ask all these things in His name. Amen. Thank you. You can have a seat.

13:25So, as I said, we're going to get into two lists of things here. But the first thing that that we see in the passage is that Paul wants us he wants believers to be conscious of the struggle that we're in he reminds us that as we live in the world we are in a fight he uses the this this struggle language beginning in verse 16 I say then walk by the Spirit you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh desires what is against the spirit the spirit desires what is against the flesh they are opposed to each other now when when Paul is talking about the flesh he's not talking about just about our physical bodies he'll use the word flesh to refer to this fallen sinful nature that we have apart from Christ Jesus and this the sinful nature that wars against the things of God now keep in mind Paul's audience here are local church bodies he the the letter of Galatians is written to a group of churches in a region and so these are these are folks who know Christ Jesus these are folks who are seeking to follow Christ Jesus and yet he's telling them you need to be aware that you live in a struggle maybe they were not unlike the church at Ephesus that in Revelation 2 we see Jesus himself telling them, they began well, but they had lost their first love.

15:09And Paul was familiar with this struggle. In fact, later in his life, in his letter to the Romans, he'll talk about this struggle even more. And listen to this. I've always identified with Paul in this language because it's just something I hear him say, and I go, I've understood that. I've experienced that. He said, for I do not understand what I'm doing because I do not practice what I want, but I do what I hate. Now, if I do not do what I want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I'm no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Can anybody relate to that? I know as a follower of Christ, there are things that I should not do, and yet I find my flesh, my sinful nature, wanting those things. I know as a follower of Christ, there are things I should do, and yet my flesh will say, I don't want to do that. We talked earlier about Bible reading. I know I should read my Bible, but there are certain days I wake up and it's like, really? Again, I did this yesterday.

16:25I know I should go to church, but does the Lord know that the cowboys play at night? Noon today. Like, is he aware of this? Can't we adjust our church schedule to accommodate? Right? We feel this struggle. And Peter in 1 Peter 2:11 will say this: Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. So it's helpful for us as believers to understand the reality of the spiritual war that we find ourselves in.

17:07It doesn't do us any good, I don't think, to pretend like there's not things that war against us in the world. If you are on social media at all, if you are going to work in the world, if you're in college in the world, I think you're well aware that there are things in the world that fight against the things of the spirit. There are realities in the world in which we live that are opposed to the things of God. So, the first thing is, Paul wants us to be aware of that struggle. Then, secondly, Paul says that believers must crucify sinful desires. And starting in verse 19, he gives us a list of these things. And I'm going to jump ahead to verse 24. This is the reality that we're given of how we are to respond to these. Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

18:11I don't have time to walk through each of the items that Paul lists individually. In fact, I mean, we could take a sermon series just to spend on these sinful desires. But I found it helpful as I was studying this message. Charles Spurgeon broke these down into what he called four classes of sins. And those were the sins of lust. It's listed as sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, sins of idolatry and witchcraft, idolatry and sorcery in the list. Sins of temper, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, and envy.

18:54I told you at the beginning I would explain a little bit about how this applies to the topic of church replanting and church revitalization. Can I tell you that in every single church that is on the verge of dying, the items in this list are very prevalent? I've yet to walk into a church that's on the verge of closing its doors and think to myself, man, these people really love each other, and they love the community around them.

19:30Folks, you know, they've more than likely, in every church that I've encountered anyway, at some point there was a faction that left the church. There was anger, there's bitterness from decisions made years ago. And this is true of all the sins that are listed in this section, but especially these will absolutely take over and rule your life if you let them. And then the sins of appetite at the end, drunkenness, carousing. And then there's a fifth list, a fifth group that Paul doesn't go in and mention specifically. He just simply says, and anything similar. So this is if you're familiar with Broadway, the King and I, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? And so on and so forth. Anything like these. So Paul's not trying to give us an exhaustive list here. He's just simply saying, here are some things to avoid and other things like them. So this doesn't let you off the hook, right? If you're thinking, man, good, the sin that I struggle with is not listed there. No. It's anything like these.

20:57I love singing hymns, so I'm so grateful. I was here on hymn night. Love it. Because hymns, in a special way, connect us to generations of past believers. We're able to sing the same words that believers have sung, in some cases, for hundreds of years. And one of the hymns that we sing has a line. It says, Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. All of us. This is why Paul wants us to be aware of the struggle, because all of us, every single one of us, are capable of the things that are listed in the first section here.

21:42He's trying to give us a glimpse of what the sinful nature desires. And this is why the writer of Hebrews, Hebrews 2, 1, will tell us, we must pay all the more to what we have heard so that we will not drift away. I've always found it interesting the way the writer of Hebrews describes that because he doesn't describe an active walking away from the faith, although we see that happen. He says, we must be careful so we don't drift away. If you've ever been to the ocean, you get there, you have all your stuff, you know, your lawn chairs and blankets and whatever other items that you bring with you to the beach, and you set it down in a spot. You go play in the water. If you're not paying attention, 30 minutes later, you can look back and all your stuff is gone. And if you're like me, you have a brief moment of panic of thinking, oh my gosh, who stole everything I own? Oh, wait.

22:46It's not there anymore. It's over there. Well, what happened? What moved? Did someone come up and grab all your stuff and move it 100 yards? No. You drifted. You got caught up in the current and drifted. And the scary thing about it is that you probably didn't even realize you were drifting. And it's the same way in the spiritual life. If we're not diligent to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit that we're going to talk about in just a second, we can drift away.

23:21And so Paul has a strong word for us when it comes to how we handle the desires of the flesh. He says that we must crucify them, put them to death in verse 24. But I'm glad he doesn't end it there. I'm glad he doesn't just stop listing out kind of these works of the flesh and saying, put them to death, the end, let's move on. No, he gives us a list of things that we are to cultivate in verses 22 and 23. Now, look at these. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. And self-control. The law is not against such things.

24:06There's a very interesting contrast in the way Paul talks about these things versus the first list that we looked at. See, he calls the first list the works of the flesh. He calls these the fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh can be done in a moment. Right, we look at what Spurgeon called the sins of temper: hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy. How many of those can come up on an impulsive decision?

24:47Have you ever been in a relationship that was harmed by a word that was spoken in anger, by a word that was spoken out of place? These are things that happen in our sinful nature. And the scary thing is, we don't even have to think about them in order for them to come out. In some cases, that's what's going to come out. Paul contrasts that with the things that we are supposed to cultivate, the fruit of the Spirit.

25:20Fruit doesn't grow overnight, it takes time. What I found interesting is these are also specifically. Christian attributes. These are specifically things that the Spirit develops in the life of a believer. You can't grow these things on your own. We need the Holy Spirit's guidance in our lives to develop them. Quickly, I want to walk through this list as we wrap up tonight. Love, it's the first thing that's mentioned. And I even read some commentators who said, not only is it the first thing in the list, but it sort of encompasses everything that comes behind it. In other words, if you pursue love, true in the Greek the agape, this selfless, unconditional love for God and for those around me, then everything else sort of falls into place if we understand this. Remember, Jesus, when asked, what's the greatest law?

26:24What is the greatest command? He went and said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command, and I love what he does next because he tacks like a 1B onto it. The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law, he says, in the prophets, depend on these two commands. Loving, and Jesus even said this as well: loving those who are like us is easy. The True test of Christian love comes when we love those who are not only not like us, but who hate us.

27:07Love those who hate what we stand for. Second thing in the list is joy. It's not just happiness, which of course is fleeting, but a constant source of joy in the Lord that is not based on circumstances. So where happiness may rise and fall with your circumstances and whether or not the cowboys win tonight, I'll be happy. And if they lose, I'll be less happy. My Rangers fell apart in baseball, so I've not even watched the playoffs because I'm less happy about who's in there.

27:44Life circumstances, I got a raise, that's great, and then I got fired, that's bad. If my life is based on whether or not I'm happy, it's going to be very tumultuous. But there is a joy that comes from knowing that my eternity, my future is secure in the Lord. And so whether my job is great and I just can't wait to get up and go to work on Monday mornings, or if I hate every moment of it, I can still find a joy in the Lord that sustains me on the good days, on the bad days.

28:22You're familiar with this, Philippians 4, 4. Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. And in case we missed it the first time, he says, what? I'll say it again. Rejoice. A peace. Love, joy, peace is the next one. Again, it's not based on circumstances, but based on a deep trust in Christ that He's in control. In fact, Paul in Philippians 4:7 will even call it the peace which surpasses all understanding. If you've ever walked through a difficult season of life as a believer, I hope that you can say you've experienced this. If you haven't yet, you will, because that's the human experience.

29:04And there is a peace that comes from following Christ. It doesn't mean every experience we walk through is good, doesn't mean every experience is something we want to go through again, but there is a steadying peace that comes in following Christ. Patience. Should I move on? It's the ability to deal with frustrating circumstances without blowing up. Has anybody experienced frustrating circumstances in the last, say, two years? As I said, I, in the middle of raising two teenagers, I think I live in the middle of frustrating circumstances.

29:48The ability to deal with frustrating circumstances without blowing up. I had a professor in college, I remember she said very specifically, jokingly, she said, you should never pray for patience. And I remember thinking, My professor is telling me not to pray for one of the fruits of the Spirit. She said, but if you do, here's what you need to know. There is a specific way that the Lord grants patience. And that is by presenting you with opportunities to practice patience.

30:21See, I think most of us would have this ability, Lord, I want patience and I want it now. I don't want to have to wait for it. Can't you just give me, like, like, you know, just through osmosis, like, just transfer this, download patience to my brain? But instead, the way it works is we are gifted with opportunities to practice patience. I think over the last two years, we'd all say we have been, we have experienced those opportunities to practice patience. And I don't know about you all. I'll just admit, sometimes I did really well, and sometimes I did not so well.

31:04Romans 12, 12, Paul will write, rejoice in hope. There's that word again. Could it be that joy and patience are linked here? Rejoice in hope. Be patient in affliction. Be persistent in prayer. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. The ability to consider others before yourself. So the opposite of this would be envy and conceit, which you mentioned. In the other list. You know, kindness is a funny thing. If any of you saw the interview that the SBC president Bart Barber did last week on 60 Minutes, if you haven't watched it, it's a 15-minute segment. I would encourage you to watch it. I thought Bart represented us very well as Southern Baptists with Anderson Cooper, who is not a right, a conservative, Bible-believing individual.

32:0460 Minutes is not known for their being soft toward Christianity. And yet, after the interview, Bart said the producers of 60 Minutes were so blown away by the kindness that they were shown, not just by Bart, but by First Baptist Church Farmersville and the people that they interacted with. Folks who are probably as far apart on the political spectrum as you can be, and yet they were treated with kindness. They were treated with respect. And there was a respect that went both ways. And there are some people in our world today, sadly, I've even come across some believers who would say, who would almost have this idea that being kind means that you are somehow soft. That if you're kind, you're not willing to take a hard stand on difficult issues.

33:07And I look at this, and I see kindness in the fruit of the Spirit, and I see Ephesians 4:32, where Paul writes, and be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. And I've just been reminded that if you're on social media, particularly Twitter, there is enough anger and hatred that goes around in our culture. I don't think Christians make an impact by adding to that. I think we make an impact when we respond to anger and hatred with kindness.

33:48Now, that doesn't mean we don't speak the truth, right? It doesn't mean that we refuse to share the gospel, that we refuse to say, no, we do take some hard lines on issues. But we don't have to yell and scream and point fingers at people as we do it. There is a way to respond even to tough issues in kindness. And to treat people kindly, even when that's not reciprocated. Last you hear, goodness is integrity, being the same person, regardless of where you are and who you are. Is or isn't watching.

34:33Faithfulness, to be trusted in good times and bad, not a fair weather friend, not a fair weather believer, but one who's one who sticks around through good days and through bad days. Again, share about church revitalization. I've seen folks when things get tough in church, they'll say, we're out. This isn't what we signed up for. There's a church down the road that has a better children's ministry, that has a better youth ministry, we like the music better, the sanctuary is less cold or less hot, the chairs or the pews are more comfortable, right?

35:16We have a lack of faithfulness to almost anything in our world. We see this in the breakdown of marriage. Well, I'll be, in fact, I've kind of joked that some weddings, the vows need to be, I vow to be faithful to you until something better comes along, because that's the attitude that we have. That's the attitude that much of our culture has. The faithfulness that Paul talks about here, that's to be expected of Christians, is faithful through thick and thin. No matter what happens, we're sticking together. No matter what happens, I'm going to keep on following Jesus.

36:02Gentleness, a humility, not being a pushover, but one who deals gently with others, goes back to the kindness. And then finally, self-control, the last item on the list. This is what Pastor Tim Keller said: this is the ability to pursue the important over the urgent, rather than to always be impulsive or uncontrolled. I think this is one of the distinguishing marks that should set believers apart, especially in our current age, because we live in an age of impulsiveness.

36:39Not that impulsiveness has always been easy, but there's so much that's available at the click of a button where we can find information, we can find someone to affirm whatever view we're looking for someone else to affirm. This is what I think. I'm going to go on and find someone on the internet who agrees with me so I can feel better about myself. Impulsiveness to satisfy any number of the sinful desires that he mentioned in the first part.

37:12The mark of a believer, one of the marks of a believer, is self-control. To say, I'm following after Jesus because of that, I'm not doing certain things, because of that I'm trusting him and waiting, not trying to force, feeling like I need to help God's plan along in my life. Abraham is a really good case study about what happens when we decide that God needs a hand in fulfilling his plans. So, one more time, as a wrap-up, let me stress this. These aren't just good things.

37:49These aren't just things that are nice for Christians to have. These are things that must be cultivated in the believer's life by the Holy Spirit. That isn't to say that we have no part in developing them, but we must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us continually grow in them. Because you're never going to hit the point where you don't need more love or more patience or more kindness in your life. There's always room to grow.

38:21He wraps up in verse 24 and 25. 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 keep in step with the Spirit. And so, what's the spiritual barometer that we mentioned at the beginning? I think it's pretty simple. Am I putting to death the works of the flesh? Not am I no longer struggling with these things? Not am I no longer tempted to sin, but when I find myself tempted or when I find myself having fallen into sin, am I working to put those things to death?

39:01How do I respond when I do sin? Do I run from Christ or do I run to Christ? And then, how do I see the fruit of the Spirit growing in my life on a daily basis as I'm given the opportunity to love people that are maybe difficult to love, to show joy and peace in the middle of circumstances where that makes absolutely no sense? When I'm blessed with the opportunities to practice patience, am I seeking to do so? Am I asking the Lord to help me walk with patience through even the most trying of circumstances?

39:47There's work for us to do to cultivate these things, yes. It's one of the things that we mean when we talk about the work of sanctification, growing into the image of Christ, this lifelong process of being shaped and molded into the image of Christ. There's work to do, but it is spirit-driven work. This is how Paul would encourage the believers at Philippi. He would say, Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Get this? For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work. According to his good purpose. And so, as we seek to cultivate these things in our own lives, as we seek as local churches to see these attitudes, the fruit of the Spirit cultivated in the life of our church, we can rest assured that if we are in Christ Jesus, we have the Spirit growing them in us and propelling us to walk in them day by day. Be encouraged this evening, brothers and sisters. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather together. And I pray as followers of Christ, as those who have raised the banner and said, we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but our lives will reflect the realities listed in Galatians 5, that we would seek to put to death the works of the flesh in our lives. We would seek to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, believing that you are at work helping us to do both. And as we do that in our individual lives, may you make those ongoing realities in the life of our churches.

41:47So our churches proclaim to the watching world not just we believe that Jesus is good, we follow him, but that they see there's a Difference in how we respond in difficult circumstances, and how we live out the peace, the joy, the love of Christ among a watching world that doesn't understand these realities. So, give us the boldness to declare the gospel. Give us kindness even as we encounter opposition. Help us to follow after you faithfully each and every day. We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.