Let Us Walk in the Spirit

Let Us Walk in the Spirit

For our scripture reading this morning, let’s turn in our Bibles together to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5 for our scripture reading this morning. And I’d like to read beginning in verse number 14, Galatians 5, beginning in verse number 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed. One of another. This I say, then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other. So that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.

I think we’ve made it clear over a number of messages in the past that our walk is not referring to necessarily physically putting one foot in front of the other in the horizontal sense, but it’s talking about our spiritual progress as it relates to our practical daily lives. Every day that we live, we’re walking. I think about a marriage relationship. You know, with a marriage is something that you have to work at. You have to grow in your love to each other. If you’re not growing in your love for your spouse, you’re probably waning in your love. You’ve got to feed that love. You’ve got to feed that marriage. And in our walk with the Lord, he’s always drawing us. He’s always wooing and working in our lives. But are we walking? John tells us, walk in the light. If we walk in the light, as he’s in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Are we growing in that fellowship? Are we growing in that grace? Are we growing in that knowledge of the Lord? But as it says here, to walk in the spirit, our Christian life is a journey. We can’t just sort of hang out and find a place on the shelf and say, well, wake me up when the Lord’s coming back kind of thing. We’re living. We’re going somewhere with this thing. And we don’t always know exactly where it’s going. We know ultimately where we’re going, but we don’t know where the Lord might lead us in our Christian walk. We don’t know exactly what tests and trials he might bring across our path. But that’s not really for us to know. His Word is a lamp to my feet. It’s a light to my path.

Sometimes in our Christian walk, we’re able to come to sort of a mountaintop, if you will, where we can see back clearly over the past and see how God has been working in our lives. And we can even see what appears to be coming in the future may not always actually materialize. But then other times we feel like we’re walking in a fog. You know, you can’t see. You’re walking through such difficulties that all you can see is the next step, where you put your next foot in front of the other and you just have to cry out to God, give me wisdom. I want to take the right step. I want to do the right thing in this next step. But I’m going to have to have wisdom because I’m sort of in a dilemma here. I’m in a quandary about what I should do in this next step. Well, whether we’re on the mountaintop or whether we’re in the fog in the valley down there, we need to walk in the Spirit. We’re commanded to walk in the Spirit. As opposed to what? Walking in the flesh. Walking according to our own understanding. Right. Not leaning on our own understanding, but walking in the Spirit.

Now, this in the Spirit, the idea of in the Spirit is very much like the idea of we are in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. There’s this little rule when we see this phrase in the Greek. The idea is that it’s called the locative of sphere. In other words, you think of a sphere that’s like a ball, right? A plate is a 2D object and it’s a circle, but it’s not a sphere. A sphere is a ball. And we can imagine ourselves here. We’re in Christ. We’re standing in grace, as we saw the other week. But now we’re to walk. The Spirit of God dwells in us if we’re a believer. But we’re to walk in the Spirit. Think of yourself inside of a sphere. You’re walking in the sphere of the Spirit. If we were born of the Spirit and we’re now in Christ, but the Bible makes it very clear we’re to walk in the Spirit. Paul said that to the Ephesians. He says it certainly here to the Galatians as well. This morning, I want to take some moments to see what does that mean? What does that look like, to walk in the sphere under the control of the Spirit? What does that look like in the direction of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit?

Let’s look over, if you will, in John 1. John 1:12. I want us to see here in John 1, verse number 12. You probably could quote it without me even turning over here, but John 1:12, it says, but as many as received him, Jesus Christ, as many as received Jesus, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on his name. He gave us the enabling power to become one of God’s children. Why? Because we did enough good things to inherit eternal life? No, because we believed we received him, which, when we were born, we were given that power to become sons of God. We were born again. We were born from above, but we were not born of blood. This was not like Nicodemus was thinking here, you know. Nicodemus thought in chapter three, wasn’t it? He thought, do I need to enter into my mother’s womb again and be born again? No, that’s not what this is talking about. Not born of blood. What does it say here? It also says, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. This is not anything to do with any ability of man. But it is of God. It’s the gift of God. It is the enabling of God. It is all glory due to him. That we are a child of His. We were born of God, and we cannot grow without God. We cannot walk in a way that pleases God without walking in the way he’s prescribed for us to walk. If we lean to our own understanding, we will backslide. Right? We will not walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. But instead we’re told, here’s how you need to walk. You need to walk in the spirit. Why? So that you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The lust is these burning desires that we have apart from God. These desires that we have that are even influenced by sin. No. Instead, walk in the spirit. Walk in the spirit.

In Hebrews 11:6, we’re told familiar passage once again. But we’re told that without faith. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. It’s impossible to please God without faith. Well, he goes on here and says, for he that cometh to God must. I’m inserting the word first. First, he must believe that he is that God is. That’s his name. Yahweh, the existing one. He is. He is. He didn’t begin, he just is. He is the beginning. He is the ending. He is the alpha. He is the omega. We must first of all believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. In other words, if you Seek him by faith. You do not seek him in vain. He will not turn a deaf ear. He will not rebuke you for asking. He is pleased. In fact, when we come to him in faith, believing that he is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do, he is pleased by that. We might say that that’s part of what we will talk about in a few moments, even as praying in the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is never going to lead us to think, do, say anything that is apart from what God’s will is for us. He’s not going to lead us to think, say, or act in any way that is going to be displeasing to the Lord. But you know, it’s impossible without faith for us to even please God, because we’re going to have to walk in the Spirit to do it. It’s not of ourselves. Just as the fact that we’re even born of God is not of ourselves. It’s not of ourselves that we can please God in our own strength.

In Galatians 5, back here in our text, though, Paul says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Because if you weren’t walking in the Spirit, what would you naturally do? You would do the things that you naturally do. You would get upset and you would get bitter and you would get angry and you would get frustrated and you would be anxious about things and instead of praying about them, you would just blow up and just do all the things that man naturally does apart from God’s grace. But we’re in newness of life and we’re to walk in newness of life. Doesn’t the scripture tell us that if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature? Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And now we’re to walk in that newness of life and we can no more walk in a way that’s pleasing to God. Then we could be born again. Because it’s not of ourselves. It’s the gift of God. It’s all of grace that we are anything that we are. Paul said that. He said, in me that is in my flesh there is nothing good. There’s nothing good in me. Paul said, not even now that I’m a Christian. There’s nothing good in me in Paul. But I am what I am by the grace of God and giving glory to the grace of God. Paul was an example to the believers, wasn’t he? He was an example for us. So let’s look for a few moments at what the Bible describes as walking in the spirit, or how the Bible tells us that we should walk.

I think of a number of times. Jesus made a statement in the Gospels, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. He that hath ears to hear. Well, we all have ears, right? I mean, unless there’s something unnatural that you were born with a deformity. But he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And then we remember what John said to the churches of Asia Minor and ultimately to all the New Testament churches. He said, hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Hear what the Spirit saith. He said, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. In fact, if you look in Revelation, chapter one, this book, the book, the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, the book of last things, is the capstone of the canon of Scripture. It is the latest. Not all the books in the canon that we have in the Bible are necessarily in chronological unfolding in the way they’ve been ordered canonically. But this is, we believe, the last book that was written. It was the final book that was written just before the turn of, just before 100 A.D. and it’s here in John, I mean Revelation, that John writes in verse, verse three of chapter one, Revelation 1:3, he says, and really this is Jesus speaking, isn’t it? Delivered by his angel to John to write, to put down. Blessed verse three is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. This not only speaks of this particular book, Revelation itself, but the entire, it’s true, of the entire Word of God. In fact, no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. In fact, every word that was given to us was given by divine inspiration. God moved upon holy men to write these things down for us so that we might have God’s very thoughts and God’s very love letter to us. And if we read these things and we hear them, the very Spirit by which these words were inspired will also illuminate our understanding and open our ears to hear what is being said to us.

Look over in Hebrews 4, verse number 12. If we’re going to walk in the Spirit, we’ve got to hear what the Spirit is saying. In Hebrews 4, verse 12, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 12, we’re told here. For the word of God is quick. That means it’s alive and powerful and sharper than Any two edged sword, piercing even through the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. That’s a fine difference, isn’t it? And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God is searching, it’s alive, it’s powerful. In fact, Jesus would say of his own words, and he said, the words that I speak are not my own words, but the words of Father and has given me to speak. And he said in John 6:63, it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, what are they? He said, they are spirit and they are life. The words I speak unto you are life, they are spirit. In other words, when we look at the words of scripture, they don’t change. They’re the same words. They have been. They’re right there. The last time you read that passage is the same thing. But you know what? It is a living, breathing document. Not in the sense that it changes every time you look at it, but in that there is immeasurable wisdom found in the Word because they come from the heart of one who is immeasurably wise that we cannot. He is not only immeasurably wise, but he’s all knowing. He’s all powerful. He knows what’s going to happen with great certainty in every individual life and throughout the extent of human history. And he has given us this book to guide us. We lean to man’s philosophies and understanding. They will crumble and fail, and they have again and again. But God’s word will not lead us astray. Sometimes we may look like fools because we follow God’s word to the world and we will look like fools. In fact, the Lord says, be prepared. The world’s not going to like you. If you believe my word, they’re actually going to hate you. That’s what the Bible says. Jesus sinned. Maybe not in every situation, but in some situations when what you do diverges from what the world would be doing in that situation, that guy’s a fool. He’s off his rock or he’s lost his mind. But look at what Noah did. Noah just obeyed God. He was moved with faith in the fear of the Lord. He prepared an ark, right? That was foolishness according to the world’s wisdom. But in actuality it was great wisdom because God was leading him to make that decision to do that. Well, God hasn’t called us to build a physical ark, but he’s given us directions on how to live. And it looks sometimes foolish to man around us, but that’s okay. Because who are we trying to please again? Are we trying to please the world? Are we trying to please the one who died for us and gave his life for us? We’re living to please Him.

So one thing the Holy Spirit will not do when he speaks to us through this Word is He will not. He’s not trying to discourage us. He is bringing comfort and even conviction, but not discouragement. Comfort and conviction. Comfort and conviction. When he speaks to us through this Word, he will get right down to the. To the ground level of right, where our motives are and what our thoughts are. And he’s going to pick them with that living word. He’s going to bring some light onto the situation. He’s going to help us to understand even if our thinking is wrong in a manner. So he convicts us. Why? So that we’ll confess sin. If there’s sin in our life that’s unconfessed, let’s confess that and get it right. And he comforts and encourages us if we are discouraged and gives us the strength to do what is right. Because sometimes we get our eyes like the two on the road to Emmaus. We get our eyes on the circumstances. We listen to the common report and we think, oh, this is a hopeless situation. I don’t know how we’re going to make it, how we’re going to do this, how are we going to face this? How are we going to get through this troublesome patch? Well, we can’t in our own strength. But with the Lord’s strength, with the enabling of the Holy Spirit, we will get through it. If we’re listening to the word of God and we’re not listening to our own thoughts and our own feelings, God may use a sermon. He may use a book you’re reading. He may use a conversation you have with a brother or sister in the Lord. He may use any number of things to. The Holy Spirit can speak to you through all those things. But something that I’ve noticed is that even when the Holy Spirit does speak to us through those different avenues, if you really trace it back to the root, it’s because there’s something true. There’s some truth that was communicated to you that can ultimately be traced back to God’s revealed truth that was used. Maybe it was said in a different way and it caught your attention, but God used that thing to guide you. You were asking, lord, I need your wisdom. And the Lord may have, I don’t know what to do in this situation. The Lord brought this conversation. He brought some thought out in the book you were reading, or certainly if you’re reading His Word. But there was. He gave you light and he quickened your thinking on that matter. And you said the light came on and you realize that’s the next step. That’s the thing I need to do. Well, if you’ve experienced that, if you’re a child of God, I trust you have experience of that. And you do experience that. What a blessing that is when you know God is leading me. I am being led by the Holy Spirit in this thing, in my thinking.

But then, as we say, we need to have our eyes open. We need to have our ears open to the word of God. We need to have our eyes open to the Word of God. And one of the main things that we need to do in order to hear and to see what God’s saying to us through the Holy Spirit is we need to have the heart of Mary. Remember Mary, how she sat at Jesus feet? I think it’s been said many times before. We feel kind of like Martha in this world, don’t we? We’ve got so much stuff to do, and we’ve got to do many of these things. But we need to have the heart of Mary to be able. We need to have the good things about Martha, but also the heart of Mary to just stop. We need to sit still and listen to what is it the Lord is saying to us so we don’t get so busy that we get all worked up and we don’t actually accomplish what the Lord would have us to accomplish. We need to sit still and feed on the truth of God. We need to obey the commands as we understand them, as he brings them to us. We need to trust his promises and heed the warnings. And only as we do this, as we’re listening, as we’re looking and saying, show me, tell me what you would want me to do. And we yield to that. Can we grow and produce and experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Only then can we experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We can try our hardest to mimic the fruit of the Spirit, but we’ll never be able to. It won’t last. It will be fake, it will be imitation, but it will not be the real thing. It will only be as we say. I’m relying fully on the Holy Spirit here to help me because I can’t have the peace that I need to have. I can’t have the joy. I can’t know the love that I ought to have unless you enable me to have it. When we claim and when we recognize that we’re not in the flesh anymore. The Bible says that we could walk in the flesh, but we’re not in the flesh. We’re not debtors to the flesh to serve the flesh. The fleshly impulses and lusts and desires that we used to live in. We’re not in that anymore. We can still walk in that, but we shouldn’t walk in it. Because God, through Christ, has nailed that to his cross. And now he is the rightful Lord. And the Holy Spirit is our rightful guide through this life. We’re in Christ, and we’re to walk in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, Paul said, let us also walk in the Spirit.

What are the things that are coming out of the flesh? Well, to say it quickly, it’s adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. All these things are fruits of the flesh. And they proceed out of a heart, a sinful heart. But on the other side of that, we have the. The fruit of the Spirit. Don’t we notice in our text here In Galatians, chapter 5, what it says there in verse 17? Look in verse number 17, what does it say? For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other. So that ye cannot do the things that ye would or that you want to do. Why would we even want to do the right thing in the first place? Because God’s put desires in our hearts to do the right thing. He gave us a new nature, given us new desires. But sometimes even having those desires, we find ourselves unable to fulfill them. But here’s the key. If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If you’re led of the Spirit. Walking of the Spirit. But here’s another aspect to that walking in the Spirit. We are to be led of the Spirit. I can tell my son. Lucas, follow me. Come here, buddy. Come with me. And he might look at me. He might say, okay, yes, sir. But unless he follows me, he’s not being led by me, right? The sheep, they can hear the shepherd’s voice, but they’ve got to follow the shepherd, right? We must hear what the Spirit is saying. And what is to be the result of hearing what God is saying to us? What is the result of that to be. It’s to be led by what he’s saying to us. This will be the evidence that we are trusting, right? We’re trusting the Word and knowing that apart from his leading, apart from hearing him and being led by him, we cannot produce the fruit that’s found in Him. We cannot have that fruit that he promises unless we say yes to the Holy Spirit and no to the flesh, no to our own selfish desires, sinful desires, and say yes. I believe this is the pathway of blessing for me. I believe this is the pathway that God has appointed. Then, and then, and only then do we begin to see these fruit, this fruit of the Spirit that we read of. In fact, it’s interesting that the Bible talks about. Jesus talked about how the word sown in good ground sometimes brings thirtyfold, sixty hundredfold. You know, we need to be praying for a bounteous harvest, right? We need to be praying for bringing forth much fruit, right? As his disciples. I know that’s what I’m praying for. When I look at my garden out there, I hope that the squash bugs don’t. And the squash vine borers and the, you know, cucumber beetles and all those things. They don’t eat up all my food this year in the garden. I want to have a fruitful garden. The Lord wants us to be fruitful. He wants to have a bounty in our lives.

But here we see that the fruit of the Spirit. Well, not in our text, but Paul here in Galatians does say that the fruit of the Spirit is love. Love, love for God and love for my brothers in Christ. Showing affection to others, even regardless of what I might get in return, right? That’s the love God shows to mankind, isn’t it? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That is not natural, is it? That doesn’t come naturally to us. Doesn’t come naturally to me. But this love. Our text this morning said, all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. If you love your neighbor, you will not sin against your neighbor. Love. But this must be produced by the leading of the Spirit in our lives. It can only come as we hear and we say, yes, yes, Lord. Not no. I’ve got some other agendas I want to fulfill. No. Yes. I believe this is the right and the best way. I do not trust at all. I have no confidence. Paul says in the flesh. I have no confidence in the flesh. Therein. The Spirit is also the fruit of joy. This is that godly optimism that comes when we walk in the way the Lord would have us to go in. Even if we’re in trying circumstances. There’s a joy that floods our soul, right? That’s more than just giddy, happy kind of happiness. No, a joy that’s even stable and continuing to flow even when there’s difficulty that we’re facing. There’s that peace, that godly contentment that we find knowing that God is in control. There’s the long suffering that we exercise when we are walking in the Spirit. We exercise this fruit of the Spirit, which is long suffering toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. And sometimes that long suffering is. The biggest challenge is with those that we’re most familiar with. Right? Because we remember the devil like to remind us remember how he or she failed in the past. And they weren’t long suffering towards you. Well, you really don’t have to be toward. No, Jesus didn’t have to die for you either, but he did. Long suffering, in other words, enduring through difficult or adverse circumstances. Maybe someone’s making it hard on you to be long suffering with them, but you must be anyway or it might be the circumstance itself that might not be. Someone is being harsh to you. But why does God allow this to come in my life? Why is God allowing this to drag along so long? Well, I don’t know, but I’m going to experience the long suffering the Lord gives to bear up under this test. There’s the kindness that the Spirit produces. There’s the goodness of the Spirit. There’s the faith or faithfulness, the dependability that we experience in the Spirit. There’s the meekness. This is not weakness, but it’s power under God’s control. It’s not responding with bitterness towards provocation, but being gentle in my spirit and my responses to my brethren and to those that I come in contact with. There’s this self control. It’s very much in the same spirit. Self control is like a horse that’s, you know, it has the power to do certain things, but it’s not just. It’s not a wild stallion, it’s not a wild and a rogue horse out there. It’s using that strength, but it’s using it in a way that’s controlled, not just aimlessly using that power in whatever way it feels like. No, self control is my spirit under the control of God’s spirit. And that’s what the Lord wants in our lives. He doesn’t want us to be out of control. He wants us to be under his Control.

Well, and there’s also this matter, and I know we must conclude here, but there’s this matter of praying in the Spirit in Ephesians chapter 6. If you look there in verse 18, Ephesians 6, number 18, it says there, Paul says that we are to be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Ephesians 6, 18, it says, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all sins. Saints, there’s never a time that we’re not to be praying. There’s not a situation that arises in our life, whether it’s big or small, that we say, well, you know, I prayed about all the other things, but I’m not going to pray about this. When did Joshua and the people of Israel fail? Was with. One of the obvious times was when they went up to AI. It’s just a little city, right? But we don’t read that they were seeking the Lord and praying about that. I think the one thing that the longer that I live, I realize is that it doesn’t matter how much somebody has done for the Lord or in his service. If we’re not being led of the Lord, we are going to fail. We are going to bring shame to the name of the Lord. It’s going to happen the only way. The only way to be great in God’s sight and to be greatly used for him is to be little and humble before him. Like John said. John the Baptist said, he must increase. That must always be our motto. He must increase, I must decrease. And when we have that mindset, we say, leave me, Lord, I don’t know what to do. I will make a mess of this. You’ve got to help me. I will bring shame to you. But Lord, by your grace and by the leading of your spirit, I believe as I’m listening to you, not leaning on my own understanding, but I’m listening to your leading and I’m listening to what you’re saying. Not only when you comfort and encourage me, right? But also when you convict me and I need to confess. Because what happens is when we don’t confess sin and we don’t listen to the Spirit, we just want to hear the good and rosy things. But we don’t listen to the warnings and we don’t listen to the convictions of the Holy Spirit, then we just sort of glaze over sin and we glaze over sin and we just act like, well, you know, nobody else sees it anyway. Only the Lord sees it. But we don’t submit to his leading and his dealing in our lives, then, you know, what does it say? I think it was a great trumpet player one time said, if I. Maybe it was. I can’t remember which one it was. I think it was a great trumpet player that said, if I skip practice for one day, I know it. If I skip practice two days, everybody else knows it. And as Christians, if we’re not walking in the Spirit, sooner or later, even just the lack of the fruit of these good things in our lives, it will start to affect our brothers and sisters. It will affect other people in our lives. We don’t ever get to a point where we sort of accrue enough merit that we don’t have to walk in the Spirit anymore. You know, I walked in the Spirit so long, I’m going to kind of do what I want to do. No, in fact, we should realize what a blessing it is that we’ve been able to walk in the Spirit. But I’ve got to keep on listening and hearing what God’s saying to me. The Holy Spirit is saying to me, praying in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit.

You know, as we listen to God speaking to us in His Word, and we yield our hearts to his leading rather than resisting, the Spirit will also put upon us a burden for prayer for certain people and certain things that we need wisdom for in our lives. He’ll show us what we need to pray for. He’ll help us and give us clear understanding. You need to pray for this if we’re leaning on our own understanding. You ever done that and you realize, I don’t even know what to ask for. I don’t even know how to proceed. But the Lord will help us. He’ll give us that wisdom and he’ll prompt us to pray. And he will shape and form our prayers according to the Word. If we ask anything according to his will, we know that he hears us. Right? And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the potential petitions that we asked and desired of Him. Sometimes the Spirit translates our prayers into words. Even when we can’t put it into words, we just groan. Lord, I don’t even know exactly how to say it. But you know what it is. And he helps us with that. So let’s walk in the Spirit. Think of it as that sphere, right? We want to stay in the midst of that sphere. We are in the Spirit. Yes, and the Spirit is in us. But we want to walk in the Spirit. That means we can walk outside of the Spirit. We can walk instead of Walking in the Spirit. We can walk in the flesh. We don’t want to do that. We cannot please God like that. It’s impossible to please him in the flesh, right? And if we’re not living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, going to. We don’t live unto ourselves, right? It’s going to affect others. It’s going to affect them negatively. We would like to think that we just kind of live in our own little, our bubble. And even if we do something that we shouldn’t do or we don’t do the things that we should do, that it’s not going to hurt anybody else, but it does. It affects others. It affects the husband and the wife, it affects father and children, mother and children, it affects brother and sister in Christ. But let’s not focus on the negative side of that. Let’s focus on what God has promised that we can have if we will just follow his leading. He has great blessings laid up for us and he will use us to be a blessing to others. So may we pray to that end that we will walk in the Spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We will experience the liberty from our own fleshly ways and sinful ways and be used of God in wonderful ways to help our brothers and sisters, to point people to the Lord, and most of all, first of all, to please the Lord, the one who loves us.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we’re so glad that you loved us enough to send your son. That should be enough reason for us to live in the Spirit right there. That’s the only reason that we need, that we are born again because of everlasting love. And now we have a life to live. But really that life is not even ours to live. It really belongs to you. And we pray that you’ll help us as we live it, knowing that it’s not really our own life any longer, but it’s yours. That we’ll be good stewards of the time, the energy, the thoughts, the actions, the words that we have in this life, that we would steward them well. And as good stewards, we know the best way and the only way to properly steward be stewards of this life you’ve committed to us is to live according to the instructions you’ve given us. And those instructions tell us that we are to walk in the Spirit. We would certainly not buy a brand new car and not put the proper oil in that car because that would be foolish for us to not follow the instructions in the owner’s manual. But Lord, it’s true that we have a tendency not to follow the instructions in the owner’s manual of our soul, Lord. And we have a tendency to try to walk in the flesh. And it produces great trouble. It produces great displeasure. But Lord, on the other hand, oh, what a blessing it is when we do walk in the Spirit. Help us to listen, open our eyes, Lord. Help us to be led even to pray in the Spirit. And Lord, help us to produce the fruit, fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Through your enabling, guide us and direct us the remainder of this service and this day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.