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Again, good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5. We'll be looking at the last three verses of chapter 5 this morning. Galatians chapter 5, beginning in verse 24. Chapter 5, verse 24. 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 walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. You know, as you survey the life of Christ and his call to his disciples, over and over, we see this call of Jesus to a crucified life.

He repeats it again and again. In Matthew 10, 38, he says this, and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Meaning, the one who doesn't take up his cross and follow him is not compatible with Jesus. Can't be his disciple.

Incompatible. In Luke 9, 23, he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, He must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.

Now, what a paradox. A crucified life. And this paradox is throughout the New Testament, scripture, idea that we are to be alive, but we are to be dead. And there's a kind of life that follows death. In dying, there's a kind of living. In living, there's a kind of dying.

It's a paradox. How do you live at the same time you're crucified? What is Jesus really calling us? What does his call to discipleship mean? What does it involve? What does that look like for us on a day-to-day basis? What does a crucified life look like? Well, that's the question I want to answer this morning in the title of the message, A Crucified Life.

So we go back into Galatians 5. We recognize in what Paul has been saying all along, there's a war going on. And that war is going on right here in this room. It is hidden influences, the hidden influences. Of the flesh is very much at work here today.

There is also the hidden influence of the Spirit of God at work in this room. It's an hot conflict, even though we don't see it. And all of us here today, even as you sit this morning and even as you got ready to come over here, we're engaged in this hot war between the flesh and the spirit.

He's already spoken about this war in general terms. In verse 7:17, he says, For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another. Very generally, there is a war going on. But then he goes on to specifically talk about this war and what it looks like on the outside.

He talks about the fruits of the flesh, I mean the deeds of the flesh, in verse 19. The deeds of the flesh are evident: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and the things like these. Those are at work.

Those are the outcome, the output when you operate on the principle of the flesh. But then he also went on to speak about the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And then he goes on in our passage this morning.

So we have this conflict going on, this hidden principle of the flesh that's operating on all of us. There is the Spirit of God who is in the world, who is calling us into a godly relationship with our Heavenly Father. There are works of the flesh. There are the fruit of the Spirit, and the many facets associated with that.

And in our passage this morning, Paul focuses on our responsibility. There's a war. There's the flesh. There's the Spirit. What is our responsibility in this great conflict that we are all caught up in? Notice the subject, verse 24. Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus. That's who he's addressing.

Those who are of Christ Jesus. Literally, those who are of Christ. Those of Christ. Those who belong to Christ or of the same Spirit of Christ. Those who belong to him. Those who are compatible with Christ. That's who he's addressing. And if you are. You belong to Christ, then Paul is going to outline three basic attitudes that's going to characterize your life.

Three basic attitudes of the Christian life. What is our responsibility in light of this contract, in this big war that's going on? What is our responsibility? Well, we have to maintain a proper attitude towards our flesh, a proper attitude to God and His Word, and a proper attitude toward each other.

And these are consistent with the fruit of the Spirit that we looked at last time. There was the Godward fruit, love, joy, peace. There is the man-word fruit, patience, kindness, goodness. Then there is the self-ward fruit, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And so it's no wonder as he goes on and we keep talking about, and he keeps talking about our responsibility of life in the Spirit, what that looks like, it's no wonder he's going to mention these again.

What is your attitude towards your flesh? What is your attitude toward God and His Word? What is your attitude towards each other? Are your attitudes compatible with Christ, or are they antagonistic against him? Our duty, your duty. As a Christian, is to cultivate godly attitudes as you go through this life.

That's what it's about. That is his calling. Cultivating godly attitudes. I mean, we're all unique, aren't we? We all have different circumstances into which we were born. We all have different giftings. We all have different interests. And yet, all of us are called to grow in the godly attitudes as we go through life.

What do you do with all these unique circumstances? What do you do with them? Well, you cultivate godly attitudes as you go through. That is his will for you. And that is how you maximize his glory during your stay on this earth. So, what is a crucified life?

Well, our text this morning is going to show us three aspects. What is the objective of those who live the crucified life? Well, it's to cultivate godly attitudes towards the flesh, toward God, and towards each other. And so, what I want to do this morning is describe three aspects of a crucified life and the attitudes behind them so that you will understand what the Christian life is all about.

So, first of all, a crucified life is a nail-driven life, a nail-driven life. Look at verse 24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. The attitude behind a nail-driven life is an intense disdain for the passions and the desires of the flesh.

Do you see that? Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh, that's it's with its passions, along with its impulses, sinful impulses, and knee-jerk flashes, and its desires, that it's its evil cravings, its affections. Those who belong to Christ have crucified it. Now, the tone, I mean, the tense and the voice are very important in this verb.

You know me, I like to pay attention to details. Just because he uses a metaphor of crucifixion in one place doesn't mean he's using it the same way in another place. No, you've got to pay attention to the details of the text to really understand what it's getting at and the nuance meaning.

Notice he is saying crucified, which literally means to nail to the cross, nail to a cross. That's what a Roman crucifixion is, and this is the metaphor he's using. To nail to the cross. Notice those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh, not. They will crucify the flesh, future tense, not a present tense, they are crucifying the flesh, but what we would call a simple past in English.

They have crucified. That's the tense. They have something that has taken place. Something that, but it's also, notice the voice. Notice they have been, not, it's not saying they have been crucified as if something has happened to them, but they have crucified. They were active in the crucifixion.

So that's very important to understand. And don't confuse this teaching with what Paul said back in 2:20. You look back at 2:20, what does it say? I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

There in chapter 2 and verse 20, he is saying, I have been crucified. That's a passive. Something has happened to me. And this describes something that happens to the believer the moment he or she is joined to Christ. And another thing about chapter or 2 and verse 20 is Paul is unquestionably.

Talking about death. In that, in the way he's using the metaphor of crucifixion in chapter 2 and verse 20, he is saying it's clear he's talking about death. In verse 19, he says, For through the law I died to the law, so I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live. So he's talking about the crucifixion here in the context of death. Christ's crucifixion and faith in that crucifixion brought about a death in the believer. And so it does. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, a new nature takes hold.

The same nature of Jesus Christ takes hold in your soul. And this is the truth that what Paul is talking about in chapter 2 and verse 20 is the truth that concerns the moment a person is saved. Theologically, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and you come to understand who He is, you are born again.

Something dies. We see it in the baptismal waters all the time. Something dies. Something is raised again. And that's what Paul is talking about in chapter 2 and verse 20. But when you come to chapter 5, verse 25, verse 24, he's talking about something else. Paul is using the metaphor of crucifixion differently.

First, he's talking about active, something that the believer does. Those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh. It's something that the believer did to his flesh. But second, it's not simply a metaphor of death, but a crucified existence until one physically dies. That's what we are in, friends.

We are living now in. If you are in Christ, you are living a crucified existence, waiting to be taken down off the cross when you physically die. And what this nail-driven life does is it expresses the Christ-like attitude toward the flesh. I read the excerpt, or I read Mark's account of Christ's crucifixion earlier in the service.

But here's some of the high points: what does it mean to be crucified? It means to be nailed to the cross. All of the accounts of the crucifixion speak of Christ being on the cross from the third hour to the ninth hour, six-hour period. He lived, he literally lived a crucified life.

Life. He was crucified, yet he was still alive. That's the crucified life. That's the metaphor that Paul is using here: Christ on the cross. And what was the major temptation that kept coming up to him? Come down off that cross. We heard it with those passing by hurling abuse.

Oh, you said you're going to destroy the temple. And we build it. Come down off that cross, if that's who you are. And even the chief priests, they were all getting into it as well. They were mocking him, saying, Look, he cannot save himself. No, he could save himself, but he wouldn't save himself.

But they kept saying, Oh, the king of Israel, come down now. And in the same way, there were those who were crucified with him that were insulting him. It was just this, come down off the cross. There's the temptation. And then he died. Each of the gospel accounts indicate there was a period of time that Jesus literally lived a crucified life.

You see, when a person initially repents of their sins and looks to the cross, to Christ's cross for pardon, that's when we crucify the flesh. We crucify it. By faith in Christ, by putting our faith. Yes, it is something that God does. Galatians 2:20, but it is also something that we do by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

How does that work? Well, you think about it. By agreeing with God about the wrongness of your sin and His just punishment upon your sin and your need for forgiveness, guess what? You die to your sin, you crucify it. That's an agreement. That's by faith. God, you're right.

I am wrong. God, forgive me. And that principle of the flesh is no more there. Instead of defending it, excusing it, blaming others for it, there's a whole different persona that takes hold. And that's what Paul is talking about. We who are in Christ, we have agreed with God about the wrongness of our sin and the guilt of our sin and his just punishment and our need for Christ.

And in so doing, we have crucified ourselves to Christ and His cross. And this, by the way, is the ongoing disposition of a true believer. Even though we continue to live in a fallen, fleshly body and we continue to feel the draw and pull of sin, our existence is no longer friendly toward our sin.

And that's the point Paul is making. The believer is no longer friendly toward the sin. I mean, before we were believers, I mean, I was friendly toward my sin. I cherished my sin. I sought to advance and excuse and walk in the way of my sin. But coming to Christ, I was no longer friendly with my sin.

There was an internal hostility. I didn't feel the same about it. That's what happens. And we're going to live this crucified existence. But think about Christ on the cross. The greatest temptation that the flesh kept presenting or taunting him with was, come down. The thirst, the pain, the humiliation, the retaliation, and the wrongness of it all cried out, come down off the cross.

But he stayed. He didn't grant the flesh the tiniest jurisdiction over his life. He yielded himself not to his fleshly impulses, but he made himself stay fixed to the cross according to the will of his heavenly Father until he died until somebody else removed him from the cross.

What a glorious display of a heart resigned to God. That's our king. Behold him. And that's the life that he calls you to live. A nail-driven life. This is the same temptation that you and I are going to face. You've already felt it, probably on your way getting ready for church this morning.

That flesh will cry out many times, Come down off the cross. You who have taken up your cross, you who have crucified the flesh, come down now. You know, there's going to be a time when your physical body will die and somebody will take you away and place you in your grave.

At such time, your war with the flesh will be over. But not until then. Until then, your attitude towards your flesh is to be like Christ's attitude toward his flesh. And your job is to be like one of those guards who is stationed there at the cross to make sure that nobody came and took him down.

That's why they were there. They weren't really so much concerned about him taking himself down. They were concerned about others coming and taking him down. But that's our role: to sit there to keep watch. Make sure nothing takes your flesh down off the cross. You are to keep watch over your flesh until it dies.

You see, this is the reality of the Christian life that has been misunderstood by Christians throughout Christianity. Does the struggle with sin indicate that you have not been saved? I've heard many times, why do I still have this desire? Why do I still struggle in this area? Why do I still have these sinful impulses and cave in to them sometimes?

Well, sometimes the struggle itself is an indication that you have been saved. Why did Jesus tell us that if we want to follow him, we're going to have to take up our cross daily, daily? Jesus is using the metaphor a little differently, isn't he? Paul's using it in Galatians 2.20.

He's using it again in 5.24. And Jesus uses that same thing, but it's all about the aspects of a Roman crucifixion. Certainly it ends in death. Certainly there's a period of time. But Jesus, the way he uses it is that, yeah, you're going to be taking up your cross daily.

In other words, you're going to be. Nailing yourself daily. The nail-driven life is daily sending the passions and the desires of the flesh to the cross. And even after times of personal failure, even in times when you yield to the temptation of the flesh in whatever way, what do you do?

You confess. You repent. You drive restitution. You receive forgiveness. You learn from it all. You learn from the fall. You redirect your path to stay in step with the Spirit and not giving in to the flesh. All that is part of what is a nail-driven life. So a crucified life is a nail-driven life.

Get used to it. But second, a crucified life is a spirit-breathed life. Look at verse 25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. A Spirit-breathed life speaks about an attitude towards God's Word. A nail-driven life speaks about our attitude to the flesh.

A Spirit-breathed life is our attitude toward God and the words that He speaks. Notice the word spirit, if we live by the spirit, I love it because the word spirit is also breath. If we live by the breath of God, then by the breath of God, we should be walking.

Make sense? We should be going about. Word for walk is here is the word of falling in line behind. We should be walking. That is, we should be advancing in line with the Spirit. The idea. Look, if you live by the Spirit, in other words, if you have life that is breathed into you by the Spirit of God, God's given you life, then also by that same Spirit, you should be advancing through life with.

Let Him lead you. Fall in line behind Him. Let Him lead you. We should be advancing in the way that the Spirit of God sets before us. His truth, that is, the inspired word, is to define our way. And you can be sure when you step forward in His way, you can be sure, just like the priest who stepped into the Jordan, that it will part and it will allow you to walk.

Walk in the way that he has called you to walk. So, how does a spirit-breathed life come about? Well, first of all, you must begin in the spirit. You begin a spirit-breathed life when you accept Jesus Christ as God's appointed Lord and Savior for humanity. Remember what John the Baptist said.

In John 3:31, he says, He who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies. He who has received his testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. And in verse 35, he says, This, the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. See, you must begin in the Spirit by being obedient to the Son. He who does not obey the Son will not see life.

A spirit-breathed life is about obedience to the Son. He tells all to come to him. That's one of the very first things he says. In John 7:37, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me is the scripture. Say, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

And it's clear he's talking about the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, without his breath in your sail, you will not live a fruitful life. And the gospel is the seed. It's that root cause that causes the fruit of the Spirit to develop. If you do not receive the gospel, that first breath, there will be no fruitfulness in the Spirit at all.

You must begin him. Begin there. Because without the gospel, without receiving the gospel, your life can only produce the deeds of the flesh. Even your religion will be a work of the flesh. No matter how religious you are, if you do not have this living and dynamic relationship with the Spirit of God, you are in the flesh.

Period. That's why you must be born again. And this is why Paul has been so aggressive in defending the gospel in Galatians. You remember what he said in chapter 1 and verse 6? I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only the There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. You see, a perverted gospel is not from the Spirit, and it will not bring about a Spirit-breathed life. And that's why Paul has been so adamant through this book about defending the gospel.

So, how do you live a Spirit-breathed life? Well, first of all, you must begin in the Spirit by believing the gospel that Paul proclaimed. Second, you must understand the means of the Spirit. How does the Spirit communicate to you? And Jesus made it very clear. John the Baptist, testifying to Jesus, said this, for he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

You see, there's a connection between the words of God and the Spirit of God. What John the Baptist was saying, look, he's the true baptizer, he's the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And he says, the one who, and God has sent him to speak the words of God for, because he gives the Spirit.

Without measure. The Spirit of God is connected to the words of God. When you receive the one, you really receive the other. When you truly receive one, you truly receive the other. They go together. That's why Jesus said, you cannot see the Spirit, but like the Spirit, you can see His effects, can't you?

The Spirit of God is an unseen influence here in our midst this morning. And His effects are clearly seen in those who listen to Him. Spirit of God leads. That is, like He blows the breath of God. It is the picture of a wind blowing a sail. It's a literal picture of that.

Third, not only do you must begin in the Spirit by believing the gospel, and you must understand the means of God's Spirit, you must cooperate with God's Spirit. Number three, how do we cooperate with Him? Well, Paul has already given us the answer in chapter 5. Look back at verse 16.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Look at verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. What does cooperating with God's Spirit involve? Being led by Him. And then walking in the way he leads by listening to his counsel and then letting that counsel shape your life, drive your motivations and your thoughts and your course of life.

That's what walking in the Spirit, you must be led by the Spirit and you must walk in that in the way he leads. Fall in line. That's the idea. Fall in line and march in cadence with him. That's a spirit-breathed life. You remember, you used the analogy from last week.

The Holy Spirit is the master diamond cutter. And he knows how to make the right cuts. And he knows where he's going. He's creating in you fruitfulness in glorifying God. That's where he's taking you. And you can trust him. He will bring about God's greatest glory in your life.

He will bring about your greatest good. So cooperate with him. Let him lead. Let him breathe his ways into you and let them set your life to its course. That's how you live, a spirit-breathed life. But a crucified life is more than that. It is a nail-driven life.

It is a spirit-breathed life, but it is also a competition-free life. Look back at verse 26. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. This describes the Christian attitude towards people. A nail-driven life describes an attitude toward the flesh. A spirit-breathed life describes the Christian attitude to God and his word.

And a competition-free life describes the attitude that Christians have toward people. You see, a crucified life is not about a life of competing with your fellow man. Listen, rivalry characterizes this fallen world, doesn't it? You know why? Because it characterizes the fleshly mindset, rivalry. Love and service characterizes the spirit's world and the Christian mindset.

And this verse 26 is going to take us into the law of Christ in chapter 6 and bearing one another's burdens. But it's also a good conclusion to what Paul is saying in chapter 5. But notice what he's saying. Let us not become. If I really butchered... The English, I would translate it like this.

Let us not be becoming. That's bad English, but it captures the effect here. We should not be in the process of becoming something. The word become, we should not be in the process of developing in a certain direction. We should not be becoming this. We should not develop in the way of the flesh.

You see, because those of Christ are on a different trajectory than those of the flesh. There is a trajectory according to the flesh that's going to create rivalry and competition in the world. But then there's a trajectory of the Spirit that's going to set that at peace and do more.

Create a mentality and a spirit of loving and serving one another instead of competing. Look at what he says, verse 26. It's the idea: since we have crucified the flesh and since we are falling in line behind the spirit, we are those who are cultivating the right relationship to our fellow man.

We should be advancing. This is who we are. We've crucified the flesh. We're in line behind the spirit. And so, guess what? We're advancing in his way, not the fleshly way. And there are two basics of human rivalries that it all boils down to that at least Paul certainly brings here to the front, and that's pride and envy.

Pride and envy. Let us not become boastful. Let us not become those who are arrogantly challenging other people. The idea for being boastful is proud, conceited. Do not let us be conceited. Do not let us be puffed up. This is an attitude of superiority over somebody else. That's what pride is, really.

And it's a source of great conflict when somebody exalts themselves over somebody else. When you think about all the conflicts that have happened on planet Earth, it really boils down to somebody exerting their superiority over somebody else, or one people over another, or one nation over another. That's really what it boils down to: an advance or an exertion of one superiority over the next.

And that's where conflicts envying is another that provokes rivalries. What is envy? Well, it's that spite or resentment towards somebody else. What they have, or their success, or their giftings, and to envy them. And you want to see them brought lower. That describes an attitude of inferiority. Think of all the conflicts that you've been part of, or all the negative thoughts towards somebody that you've had that's dealt with your sense of inferiority over somebody in relation to somebody else.

Look, this is what the fallen world is about. People approach each other from a vantage point of superiority or inferiority, and in any either case, it creates this competition. These are the two desires of the flesh: pride and envy, that sets us at odds with each other. Fallen earth will always be populated by the ones who feel their superiority over, and those who feel their inferiority.

But Paul is saying, Look, let us, since you and I have crucified the flesh and am falling behind in line with the Spirit, let us not be the ones challenging one another by arrogance. Let us not be the ones envying. That's not who we are. That's what the world produces.

That's not Christ. You see, we should not be growing in the mindset of superiority over people. None of us should. That's the fleshly work. Nor should we be growing in a mindset of inferiority. Christ died for us all. Those who are led by the Spirit and walk in his way are free from competing with each other.

Isn't that beautiful? We all have this common calling. What is that common calling? To reflect the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God, regardless of the or from the vantage point of our unique circumstances and our unique giftings. That's what the Spirit of God is doing.

We do not have to contend for superiority over one another. We do not have to lilt under our inferiority. We are free to love and serve one another. That's the gospel. That's how it sets us free from a world of competition to a world of love and serving.

And this is a life, a nail-driven life, a spirit-breathed life, and a conflict. Competition-free life. This is the way we are to advance in life. This is what the gospel does. You see, as we come to the end of chapter 5, chapter 5 is about life in the Spirit.

This is what the theme has been through the whole chapter: life in the Spirit versus life under the law. And the only way to a fruitful life is through a crucified life. Crucified life is a nail-driven life, speaks of an intense hostility against the flesh. It is also a spirit-breathed life, underscoring the attitude of a joyfully submission, a life of joyful submission to God's word.

It's also a competition-free life, indicating that attitude of that grace-filled peace towards all people. Is that you this morning? Do you have a grace-filled peace toward all people? Do you have an attitude of joyfully submitting to God and His Word? Do you have a strong aversion to the Works of your flesh.

How do we respond to this life in the Spirit? Well, you embrace the crucified life. Eventually, you're going to come down off that cross. Meanwhile, put yourself into a state of fruitfulness by letting the gospel breathe Holy Spirit life into your daily routine. You want Holy Spirit life breathed into your daily routine.

Well, what does this practically look like? Sounds good up there, but how? I would submit that we probably need to take a whole year and just discuss the nail-driven life and the Spirit-breathed life. And maybe God will open an avenue for us to do so. But in short order, let me say a few words that may give you an idea of what I'm talking about here.

You see, when you begin to think that your life doesn't matter to anyone, or if you believe that maybe God doesn't love you, and that's more of us here than we might think, or that you believe that maybe the gospel is really only Only for good people. It's good for, it's true, but it's just not for me.

Then let the Spirit of God breathe these words into your soul. Romans 5:8, but God demonstrates his own love toward me, in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Put that wind into yourself. Next time you hear a voice telling you that you have sinned beyond God's ability to forgive, let God speak these words into your soul.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am for most. This is what he did. He came to save sinners. When you find yourself feeling jealous or envious of something that he has given to someone, then let the Spirit tell you, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

When you're tempted to indulge sinful appetites of any sort, let the Spirit say to you, and my God will supply all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. I shall not be lacking. The next time you're about to blow a gasket in anger and you hear that voice, come down off that cross and take care of.

Of this right now. Let that still small voice have preeminence. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, showing itself through patience. And then thank God for the patience that He has shown you. The next time you say to yourself, I'm done with you, I'm done with that person, let these words echo through your being.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love showing itself in kindness. And then thank God for His warm-hearted kindness toward you. Next time someone offends you and you feel that need to canvass the neighborhood and create a stink and to make a spectacle out of this person. Remember, let these words ring out, but the fruit of the Spirit is love expressing itself in gentleness.

And then thank God for His gentle manner toward you. When someone lets you down, let the Spirit say to you, but the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness, even if they've let you down. And thank God for His faithfulness to you. When someone harms you and you You want to return evil for evil, and you want to bury their head in the sand.

Say this, but the fruit of the Spirit is love expressing itself in goodness. And then thank Him for not giving you what you deserve. You see, in these ways, and it's daily, we must put the nails in our sinful flesh. We must let the Spirit inform our minds and push our lives forward, breathe wind into our cell, and cause us to relate.

See, our struggle isn't with each other, our struggle is with the flesh. One more word, and we'll be done. One more word about the crucified life. It's also a joyfully victorious life. John read this passage a little bit earlier. I'll read it again: Hebrews 12, chapter 1. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

What is that race set before you? A crucifix. Crucified life until somebody else comes and takes you down and puts you in your grave. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Yes, the crucified life is a victorious life. It is a life of power. It is a life of great strength. Is it a life of great joy? It is a life of great fruitfulness. It is where you will find that the Spirit of God will produce the maximum glory to God from your life and the maximum good for your own life.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow our hearts before you. You've set before us all morning the way of the crucified life, what it means to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow you, what it means to crucify our flesh, what it means to live crucified while we wait.

Father, help us to keep an eye on our flesh, but more importantly, Father, help us to keep an eye upon your gospel truth. Father, transform us. By the words you've breathed, by the truths that you have revealed in Jesus Christ, by the settlement of our sins against you, by a holy and good and glorious purpose for our lives, we thank you.

You've known exactly all along where you put us and why you put us and the things you've caused us to face. Father, we know that all that, Father, in the big picture, Father, we know that it is your Spirit of God who are using these things. Though you may not be the author of the things that happen in this fallen world, Father, it's your good purpose to transform us as we experience life in the flesh and we come to an end and say it is not good.

We want the life in the Spirit. We want wholeness and newness and goodness. Father, we see the devastation that the flesh has caused. We see the devastation that our own flesh has caused and the pain that it has caused others. Father, I pray this morning that we would truly repent, help us, forgive us, where we let the Spirit, we come down, we're tempted to come down off the cross, forgive us for those times.

And also empower us to live the life you've set before us with your breath in our sail to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We lived exactly the same way. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.