Walk by the Spirit

Happy Sunday! Today we're going to begin a series on the fruit of the Spirit. For the next couple of months, we're going to look at a list found in the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians of attributes or characteristics that should be most evident in the lives of believers. Before we get to that list, there's a list of things that, well, should not belong in our lives.

In your personal study, I encourage you to read from Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through verse 23. Will be camped out there for a while. Let me begin with verses 16 and 17, where we are told, "Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires as opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires as opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want."

Now, if you're honest, I bet you can relate to this. If you're a Christ follower, you know that there is a struggle going on in your life between your flesh and your spiritual side. It's an ongoing battle. Every day I have to make a choice to follow God's way or my way.

We live in an angry, divided world. Five days a week I try and post a positive thought on Facebook. Now, to be honest, I don't read a lot of things on Facebook. Why? Well, there are people posting their own thoughts that do not reflect God in their lives at all. They're posting in the flesh.

There are so many unkind and even rude things posted plainly in sight. It can be depressing. People need to know that God knows what they're posting. Have you ever seen someone who professes to be a Christian live a horrible life? It's confusing, and biblically it's impossible.

What believers need to know is that we must put our old ways behind us. We need to live, as scripture just said, by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit of God, yielding our own selfish nature to Him, our lives will be starkly different from this world.

Now, if we're just like the world and there's no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, and we'll get to that list shortly, if there's no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we're in trouble. We're living on our own without our advocate, Jesus Christ, and that's dangerous. That leads us to the next verse, Galatians 5:18, where it says, "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law."

Now, if we are led by the Holy Spirit, we're in good shape. We're not subject to the law because Christ is our advocate. But on our own, we're under the law of God, and we can't live up to it. If you want to know more about that, read Galatians chapter 3 or Romans chapter 8.

Before the list that I want to get to with the fruit of the Spirit, there's another list. It's found in Galatians 5, verses 19, 20, and 21. I begin at verse 19: "Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I'm warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Now, that list that I just read is a reflection of unbelief. God's people are to get over those things and to stay away from those things. Those are things of the flesh. With God in our lives, there's a new sheriff in town, and we're to be different from our old ways.

Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us, "If anyone is in Christ, there's a new creation. Everything old has passed away; everything has become new." I love that verse. Everything has become new. When we become Christians, we become new, and we put the old away.

Now we get to the good part. This has been a long, necessary introduction to get to the list that I love in Galatians 5:22 and 23: "By contrast to what we just talked about earlier, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There's no law against such things," scripture tells us.

Verse 22 began with the words "by contrast." Our lives should be a huge contrast to the lives of non-believers. Those old ways are gone, and now we are truly new creations. Now, the list I just read of the fruit of the Spirit is a list of characteristics that all should be in our lives as Christians. Not just a few of them; all of them should be evident in our lives.

We can't just pick and choose. We can't say, "You know, today I'll try patience, and next week, if I feel good, I might do some kindness." It doesn't work that way. We're to have all of these.

It's interesting how this series came about. A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine went to heaven. His name was Hunter Huff. We went to college and seminary together, and then Hunter spent most of his life in Thailand with his family, loving folks and bearing fruit.

He was truly a man of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and generosity and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And so, because of him and others like him, I wanted to talk about how we should be. You know, I use this list to ask myself often, uh, how am I doing? Do people see those qualities in my life?

We should all use this list to see that we're walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. And we walk in the Spirit and bear fruit, we change the world. Jesus said in Matthew 12:33, "A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad."

In John 15:8, Jesus said, "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." It's my prayer that all of us bear fruit, because this world needs good examples. Can you imagine if everyone was a person of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and generosity and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control? What a world this would be.

Can you imagine how churches would be different if everybody lived this way, the way God expects? Next week we'll look at the fruit of love. Until then, God bless you as you bear good fruit.

Let's pray together. Lord, help us to walk by the Spirit, to put those old things behind us, and to be new, not on our own strength but by Your strength, because You are always with us. God, help us to stop with the excuses and to be the men and women of God You would have us to be. In the powerful name of Jesus I pray, amen.