\Well, good morning, Church. It is great to be with you this morning. Before we jump into the message, I want to tell you about a Sunday that is coming up in a couple of Sunday's on the 28th of this month. We are going to have a Sunday where we celebrate baptism. Now, I know a lot of you are like well Matt, we do baptism all the time. Yes, we do. But this particular Sunday is going to be all about baptism, All right? It's going to be all about baptism. We're going to talk about it. I'm going to speak on it. We are going to have baptisms and every service and we are going to have an incredible day of celebration and excitement that day. Now, I tell you that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I know there is a lot of new people that are at Burnt Hickory, and with that comes a lot of you that have never taken that step to publicly proclaim your faith. You have never since you have given your life to Jesus, you have never been baptized. Now a lot of you are like, I handled that when I was a kid. I did that when I was a baby. That's not what I'm talking about. I am talking about believers' baptism being in the waters of baptism by immersion. And we are going to have a day that we celebrate on the 28th of October. And here's what I want you to do. Number one, if that is you, I want you to get signed up. You say Matt, how embarrassing is that? I'm old. I've gone this long. I've made it this long. Okay, It is time for you to step into obedience. Amen. This is your day. We're going to baptize people that are young in the middle ground, and we are going to baptize some old people that day. All right? It's going to be for everybody that day. So there's a QR code on the screen. If that is you, we want to make sure we're making all the preparations possible for that. We want to give you a couple of weeks to get the family here, to give them the online access to how they can watch that. And we want to have a day that we celebrate. It's a great day for your whole family. If y'all haven't chosen to do that or if you have just been putting it off. All right, So there's your public service announcement for the day is going to be a great, great day. Amen. If you have any questions, reach out to us. If you want to reach out on that QR code. Somebody will follow up with you in the next couple of days. All right. Deal. All right. There it is. 

Let's jump in to our message today because we have a huge day today. All right. So far we have been walking with the apostle Paul through this little bitty letter that he calls Galatians. Why? Well, because he wrote it to these gentile churches in the Galatia area in modern day Turkey. We've been working our way kind of text by text chapter by chapter through this book over the last four, this is the fifth week in this book. So far, just in case you haven't been here. That's okay. Let me just kind of get you caught up to where we are. So far, we've looked at chapter one where he defined, the Apostle Paul, defined what is the gospel. And the gospel is the good news of what Jesus has done for us, that he came and he lived. He died. Then He rose from the grave to give us life. And that offer is there, literally. The good news is what the word gospel means. In chapter two, we looked at this idea of being justified. In justified means that through the Gospel and what Jesus has done for us, when we turn our lives over to Jesus and only when we turn our lives over to Jesus, Jesus has given us freedom. God, the Father has stamped on our lives the rightness of who Jesus is. That's where righteousness means. That's what justification means. And God justifies us. The judge, God proclaims over our lives, not guilty. Chapter three We looked at this idea that because God has given us this freedom, that He hasn't just created us, saved us and led us to walk out on our own. Chapter three was an incredibly hard text to kind of work our way through. But at the end of the day, Paul looks at these Galatians and says, Why in the world would God send Jesus to die for you, but then not give you the power through the Holy Spirit to live out this life in Christ? Why would you think that? Why would you think you need to do it? Why would you think it's in your power? 

Paul looked at them and said, It's not in your power. It's on his power. So we looked back at the finished work of Jesus and said, That's what gives us power. Last week we turned the corner a little bit and we saw Jesus. We saw God from a different perspective, right? All the way up to chapter four, we saw God as the judge that proclaims us righteous. Last week, we got to see God as the father that adopts us, the father that gets down off of the podium and he wraps his arms around us and he invites us into his family. We see this through the power of Jesus. We see this through the privileges that the Holy Spirit gives us. And then we left last week on this idea that God has done all of this, and our role is now to live it. Our role is to walk it out. Our role is to, as family, as the family of God step into the life of a believer in his power and not on ours. So all of that gets us to chapter four, The End and chapter five. You got to copy Scripture today. I want you to go ahead, turn with me to Galatians Chapter five, Galatians, Chapter five. And we are going to watch today the Apostle Paul described to us exactly what it is The Holy Spirit plays and what his role is in our spiritual life. And Paul is about to show us how necessary the spirit is and what the spirit can do and how that we as believers in Jesus, we have access to God's power and to His promises. 

Now, if you've been in Bible land for a while and you've studied Scripture for a while, any time someone says Galatians Chapter five, the first thing that pops into your mind is the fruits of the spirit. All right? It's the fruits of the spirit. And I want to tell you, we are going to get to the fruits of the spirit. All right. But I also just want to tell you this. Don't write this passage off just because you've heard it. I want you today to do everything you can to try to see it just through a fresh perspective in chapter five. And in order to do that, just like I feel like I've done every week, I need to go back to chapter four for a minute and I need to bring us into where we're going to start in chapter five. All right. So God willing, we're going to recap chapter four and all of chapter five. But I'm going to tell you the story of what happens in the backside of chapter four. All right. In chapter four, Paul, where we left off last week, tells us that we are adopted as God's sons and daughters. But then after that, Paul goes back and he references this guy named Abraham. All right, this guy named Abraham. And he tells us that Abraham is an incredible example of the right and the wrong way to pursue spiritual growth in our lives. 

Now, Abraham, as we've said over these last couple of weeks, and as we join him in Genesis 12, Abraham is this old guy. He's 80 years old. His wife's name is Sarah. They're childless and they're barren. And God appears to them in the Old Testament, and God gives them this promise that they are going to give birth to a son, that not only are they going to give birth to a son, they're going to be the beginning of a nation that brings salvation to the whole world. Now, that's a pretty big promise for anybody, right? But it's a huge promise if you're a couple that is in your eighties already, right? In your eighties. But God speaks to Abraham. And in fact, Abraham then believes God in faith. Let me just read you a quick verse out of Genesis 15, where we catch up to Abraham. It says this Genesis 15, verse six says, Abram believed the Lord, and he credited, That's the God and God credited to him as righteousness. So when Abraham believed God, God placed his righteousness on Abraham. Why? Because he believed God. He trusted in God. God gave him that righteousness. But God also did something else in His life. God secondly, gave Abraham and Sarah the ability for their sterile bodies to produce life right. To produce life. And Paul looks at this message and looks at this story all the way back to the beginning of the nation of Israel and tells us and tells the Galatians that this is exactly what your salvation looks like. You say Matt, how does that look like my salvation? It's exactly like our salvation. You see, Abraham believed God and God proclaimed him righteous. We believe God through Jesus and what Jesus has done for us and God proclaims his righteousness over our lives. Abraham believed God and God gave him the ability to produce fruit, to produce spiritual life, and to walk in him and to have a son. 

God does the same thing in our lives. When we believe Jesus, He gives us the ability to walk out our faith to produce fruit, to give life, and to walk with him. But here's the problem that Paul says in chapter four, and I got to build this to get into chapter five. The problem is, even though God gives us those things, we as believers, as well as just people, we try to take matters into our own hands. We try to live out our faith on our own. We try to live out our faith by trying harder or maybe even helping God out. Well, that's exactly what Abraham and Sarah did. Some of you know the story in chapter four. Paul goes back and he tells the story of how Abraham, even though he was gifted, righteous, even though God had given him this promise of a child that Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands. You say Matt, how did they do that? Well, God, for 25 years made Abraham and Sarah wait. But after 25 years, Abraham and Sarah said, Hey, enough's enough. God, we're going to help you out with producing this child. And so, Matt, how do you do that? Interesting you ask that. Here's how the story went down. Sarah Abraham's wife, came up with a plan. 

She said, okay, Abraham, I want you to take our young, beautiful servant named Hagar, and I want you to have a child with her. Abraham obviously didn't argue a whole lot with the plan, right? And so Abraham and Sarah end up coming up with this plan. And Abraham has a child with the servant Hagar. But once again, God is looking at them going, Listen, I had a plan and I'm so much better than that in accomplishing my plan. And God looks at him and says, This is only going to cause you strife and it's only going to cause you more work. And this child that he had with the servant named Hagar. This child's name was Ishmael. Ishmael. Now, if you know anything about history, Ishmael is where the nation of Islam, the Islamic nation, looks back to their whole heritage. So when we look at this whole heritage and trace the religion of Islam, we see it through this historic event. And Paul is reminding the Galatians and us that when you try to take matters into your own hands, into your own power, it always brings strife and hate and fatigue. It always brings this works-based living and it always brings consequences. Why? Here's why. Because all of us, if we operate in our own striving and our own zeal and our own knowledge, none of that stuff will bring us any closer to God than we already are, apart from the Holy Spirit. And it's the struggle that's been on this planet from day one of Muslim and Christian relationships. See, the whole Muslim religion is based on works. It's based off of I will do this and I will handle that. But God is telling us and Paul is telling us, even in this story, when you try to take matters into your own hands, it does not produce salvation. Now, that leads us to chapter five. All right. That leads into chapter five. But I just couldn't leave that out because it's such an integral part of who we are and our world is. 

Chapter five is where Paul begins his conclusion to this small little six chapter letter now. So, Matt, he's starting his conclusion already. Yeah, Paul's a pastor, and any time a pastor says in conclusion, it means nothing, right? That's just kind of how things work. But Paul jumps into this letter, and so for the next two weeks, we're going to see if we can work our way through it. But let's jump in Galatians chapter five and let's see what Paul is telling us after he says, Quit trying to strive on your own. It'll never work. Jump in and follow the spirit. Galatians five, verse one says this He says, For it is, for it is for freedom, he says, that Christ has set us free. Now, listen, that one verse right there should be enough for the morning. It is for freedom that Chrst has set us free. Now, in my mind when I read that there's two conversations or there's two questions that I have to answer in order to move on. And the first one is what have we been set free from? What have we been set free from? And that's an easy one if you've been following the letter. First, we've been set free from this idea that I am the God of my life, because I'm not. Or that I am the one that is in control, or I am the one that needs to set the purpose of my life. Listen, Church God is telling us that this whole letter, that that is not our role. Our role is not to set the purpose of our lives. My role is to rely on the one that does set the purpose of my life. And his name is Jesus. That is what he has set me free from. But the second thing is, he's set me free from this rules-based, fear-based, behavior modification of religion. That's what he's set us free from. You say Matt, what does that mean? 

That means that God has set us free from living our lives in the fear that God doesn't love us, that God doesn't want us, that God at any moment because of something in my life is about to rain down his hellfire and brimstone on us. And then he's coming for us. What Paul is saying is, No, no, no, no. Jesus has set you free from thinking that you are God or thinking that God is about to just come rain down on you. Jesus has given you life. Jesus has given you vitality. Jesus is the one that is going to perform salvation in your life. And then Paul tells us this: What have we been saved to if we've been saved from that? Paul says we've been saved to something incredibly simple, and that is just to joyfully love God. That's all. We've been saved to. Church, listen to me real close. We haven't been saved to this, this bondage and fearful relationship in Jesus. No, we've been saved to this ability knowing that I'm a son or I'm a daughter of the king. Just being able to jump up into the arms of my father and know that he has given me his spirit to walk in him. In fact, look at the rest of this verse. It says this. For it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. He said stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. 

So what Paul is saying here is that we are freed up to love God. We're freed up to love God. Why? Because the sole reason that He's worth loving. That's why we're not freed up to love God, out of bondage, out of slavery, out of fear. Why? Let me get real practical just for a second. I want you to hear this. You do know that when you love something, you don't need to be commanded to do it. Does that make sense? When something has your heart, when something has your affection, when something has your desires, nobody has to tell you to enjoy it or to pursue it or to run after it. But the opposite of that is true as well. If you don't love something, what Paul is telling us here, no command to try to make you love can change your heart. It can't do it. It might force you into obedience for a minute, Right? But no command can force you to love something. That's Paul's argument here. Let me bring it down even one more level in practicality. Right. And say it like this. I hate sauerkraut. I hate it. I can pretty much eat anything you put in front of me. Especially if I'm at your house. I will eat it. I probably even eat sauerkraut based upon our relationship. I probably. Right. But listen, I. I hate it. I have tried it. I've tried it in every season of my life. I tried it as a kid. I tried it as a teenager, tried it as a young adult. And I'm 46 years old and God bless it. I would never like it. Right? I won't. I've tried every one of the things that somebody has told me will, if you'll do it like this or if you'll eat it with this. If you'll have it with this, I don't like it. There's nothing that you can say that will ever make me want to even be around that nasty stuff. It is gross. And I know that we serve it here. Sorry, Miss Martha, I love you, but it is gross. I hate it. You can't convince me to like it no matter how harshly you tell me to. Does that make sense? But the converse of that is true. The opposite is true. I love ribeye. Mm hmm. It's 11:49 right now in my life, and I'd love one right now. Amen. I love ribeye. I mean, when I bite into a medium rare, a little bit seared and seasoned, right? Hunk of beef. I mean, I just about get my second born child for it. I'm telling you, I. I love ribeye. I never have to be commanded to eat a steak. Why? Nobody has to tell me that. Why? Because I love it. I love it. It's who I am. It is the core of who I am. In fact, if you tell me right after this service, man, I think God has led me to take you to LongHorn, I'd go right now. I mean, we would close this thing down to have an invitation. Right now I'm in. I love it. It's just. It's where I am. I enjoy that freedom, and nobody has to tell me to love it. You see, let me, let me give you a principle that ties all of this together, because that took us way off track. 

Here it is. All right. Here's the principle. God's desire is for our heart to be so in love with Him that the commands to love, to experience and to submit to God, they feel like freedom because it's who we truly are and what we truly desire. Do you feel that? That's what the Apostle Paul is saying. That's what. We have been set free. You see, the world looks at us and says, You're under bondage, you're under a bunch of rules, you're under scrutiny. But if we have the spirit, well, we are able to do and I hope we can articulate this as No, no, no, no. That is not bondage. This is who I am. This is who God has made me. This is who God has redeemed me to be and what God has asked me to walk out. That's how Christianity really is freedom, and all the other works based religions on the planet, including Islam, are not. It's bondage. But in order to live that way. What does Paul say? Paul says that we have to stand firm. That's what we just saw in the verse, right? We had to stand firm. Now, you know, the words stand firm is really a military term that means that we need to fight to stay within the faith. That's what he means. And interestingly enough, what Paul is saying is that we have to protect ourselves from going back to the bondage of who we used to be. Why? Prior to being adopted, prior to being justified, prior to knowing what the gospel is. So Paul was looking at us and going, Look, you have to fight for that because there is a battle for your soul going on. And unless you actively keep yourselves in that lane, we as human beings, we are all the same. We will drift back into oldness. 

And the oldness is either legalism thinking that I can do it on my own because I'm God, or it's the legal-ness or it's me just doubting God even likes me. That's where we'll drift to. It's kind of like that with a car. You've had a car with a bad alignment. No, Matt, this is West Cobb. No, no, I know. I grew up, right? Have you ever had a car with a bad alignment that the moment you let go of the wheel, you're in the peanut filled ditch, right? No, I'm talking about? That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying that we are being pulled. We are being pulled all the time. And our role is to keep our hand on the wheel. Because if we don't keep our hand on the wheel, we're only going to see God as judge and never see him as father. And we're only going to see God as an out of date tyrant in the sky with a bunch of rules that wants to rain on our parade. But Paul is saying no, no. You have been set free from something new. You've been set free from the falseness of this world and you have been set free as sons and daughters of the King to endure away the empowering of the Holy Spirit in your life. So enjoy it. In fact, go to verse six and watch what he says because we have the spirit. It says, For through the spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. In other words, Hey, it might be good right now. But there's coming a day, Amen. It's coming, a day we'll be fully sanctified. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcised. And that's their issue. They're dealing with a little issue, not ours, but right? For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcised ism has any value. The only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love. 

Now, this is important because notice what it is that spurs our growth in God. What spurs our 
growth in God is the fact that God has planted into us the Holy Spirit. And it's our desire to see Him move, to see Him work in us, to move through us. In what Paul says? Paul says it's in love. It’s in love. Right. So what motivates us to walk with Jesus, listen closely, is not a try harder attitude. It's not. I know some of you grew up in this church. Maybe not this one, but a church that this was life. Right. What motivates us to walk with Jesus is not a try harder attitude. All a try-harder attitude does is, it doesn't last. It turns us into a legalist. It makes us burn out. It gives us pride. And really and truly just makes us a judgmental jerk. That's what it does. But also what Paul is saying is what motivates us is not just seeing the scary judgment day that's coming right? Because that's the church that some of us grew up in, that it was all about God will judge you and God's judging you and God's judging you. 

Well, listen, I get that there may be a little bit of a, hey, I'm going to scare the hell out of you a little bit, kind of conversation, right? Trail of Tears, whatever it is that's out there, I get it. But what it's saying is this. While those things may be good, like little hey, jolt you for a second, those are not the motivators in our lives that are going to cause you to continually fight for the faith. They're not. But what is? It's the love of God. It's what Christ has done for us. It's what Christ is doing in us. Real love and real faith for God only grows in the security of who God is and how He loves for us. And real love only comes from us realizing that, yes, God is the judge, but yes, God is the Father. He reaches in and He grabs us and He takes us home. He takes us home. One writer said it like this this week. I don't have a whole lot of time. I'm going to say it anyway. He said it like this: God does not primarily motivate us with the carrot of heaven to entice us, I love that imagery in my mind, or the stick of hell to scare us. No, he said God took the stick of hell and beat Jesus with it, and he gave us the carrot of heaven because that's what Jesus deserved. And therefore we should walk our lives out in love and devotion inside the spirit of who God is. 

You see, the only lasting motivation is that God has given us His Spirit and God has placed it inside of us. And He took the punishment that I deserved. And now my life should be lived in submission to him. In fact, right this other principle down, you simply cannot truly experience the gospel, justification, adoption and let's just roll in this whole book and the infusion of the Holy Spirit into your soul and not be a free person that overflows with God's love. You can't. That's what the whole book has built towards, that one principle. Here's what that says. You cannot claim to be fully justified. To be fully adopted to have the Holy Spirit infused into you and it not make a difference in you. It changes you, it changes you. You're not perfect, but you have this desire to run after it. After all, verse six says, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. So how do we walk in the overflow of that love? Well, Paul tells us in verse 16, he gives us the secret sauce of how that overflow works itself out in us. Here it is. Listen to this. Galatians 5:16 Paul says. So I say, walk by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 

Now, this word flesh is a confusing word is the word sarx in Greek. It doesn't mean, like the stuff that covers our body. That's not what he's talking about here. The word flesh right here is. Is the unrenewed part of us that still desires sin. I got news for you. I know you have been fully justified, but there is still a battle that is in your soul. It is still happening in your soul. And flesh is this unrenewed part of us that is yet to be filled with resurrection power. He goes on like this in verse 17. He says, For the flesh. Listen to this man, teenagers, please take your earphones out and listen to this just for a minute and then you can put them back in. All right. Here it is. All right. He says this. He says, for flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. And the Spirit is what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not able to do whatever you want. Oh, my goodness. If we could just hear that over us. Right? You're not. That means this. There is this internal battle in your soul. There's an internal battle between the spirit that has set you free and the flesh that is dragging you down. And here's the problem with the battle. Both of them are trying to promise us the same fulfillment. You do realize this, right, that everything that God creates, Satan counterfeits. And everything that God is so richly giving us, Satan has come up with a counterfeit of it to try to entice us. 

And both of those things are battling in our souls, Christian or not, in trying to move us in a direction of fulfillment and the counterfeit things that are in our life are the flesh. And they will not tell you. They won't. You say, Matt, what are you, what are you talking about? Okay, let me give you some examples. No, I'm not going to give you some. Let's let Paul give us some examples of the flesh, of these fruits of the flesh. Let me read it to you. Here's what he says in verse 19. He says, The acts of the flesh are obvious in the words, Hey, we shouldn't have to cover this, but we are right. That's what Paul says, You probably know them. Let me walk through them. The acts of the flesh are obvious. The first three are sexual. Why? Because fleshly living often shows itself more in this area than most. He says the works of the flesh are sexual immorality. That's any sexual intercourse outside of two married people. Right. The second one is impurity, he says, And that's any unnatural, as God has created it to be, sexual relationship. That's what it means. The third one is debauchery, he says, and that is just uncontrolled sexuality. I will go where I want. I am free to do whatever I feel. God says, No, no, no. Those are fleshly. And while they may seem to satisfy you, they will not. 

He keeps moving the next two in verse twenty deal with corrupt religion. The first one is idolatry, right? That's worshiping or loving anything more than God. The next one is witchcraft. You're like, Matt, I don't know any of those. But that's not really what it means, right? Witchcraft or sorcery just means any way of trying to manipulate God through dark powers, through circumstances, or even through rituals or superstitions in this. He’s saying look, you can look to those things all you want, but only God can give you what you need. Those will let you down. So He walks through the sexual ones He wants through corrupt religion ones. The next eight are super self-explanatory. They're all the relationship conflicts. He has to give us eight of them cause we're pretty much dysfunctional in this as human beings, right? He says the acts of the flesh are hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. Some of you are like Matt, where you in the car with us on the way to church? No. But this is it, right? This is it. Those are relationship conflicts that come up in our lives. Those are fleshly. They will not fill you. And then the last three have to do with substance abuse. Verse 21, drunkenness, orgies. And then I like the last one and the like. Like he's kind of throws that one into like, Hey, there's a bunch of other stuff I don't even want to talk about, Right? And these are describing anything in our lives, these last three that make you feel like you need something to lift you up to give you some hit of dopamine to bring you down. Or maybe this will calm my nerves after that day that I just had. Am I leaning into anybody right here? Or maybe this will take the edge off, or maybe this will make me feel like I'm truly alive. Or maybe this is what helps me cope. This could be drugs, alcohol, pornography, prostitution. 

Let me step on some other toes. This could be impulsive shopping because it gives you that hit of dopamine. It could be posting online on Insta, on Facebook, on Tik tok, anything that is giving you that sense of worth. This rolls into the point of anything that one soul, that feels dead, empty, stressed or bored. That chases after to give them hope. That's what he rolls into those three. And then he finishes the verse with this verse 21, Paul says, I warned you, as I did before. Those that live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Whoa, whoa. Matt, wait a minute. I thought you said that our salvation was by grace through faith and we are locked into Christ. Yes, we are. That's the point right here. That's why I said live like this. Here's what living like this means. It doesn't mean like, Hey, does this kind of focus head every now and then. Is this a struggle for me? Live like this means this. This is how someone that is closest to you defines you. You probably need to check up. If this is something that someone would stamp on in your life of, that's who they are or this is the thing that you delight in. Paul says, Listen, you better watch out because you have no part with the Kingdom of God. In fact, write the principle down that may help you kind of summarize this for this weekend or for this next week. Paul just basically says, Hey, show me your fruit and I'll show you your future. That's what Paul says, You see, your life is categorized. 

I'm not saying you will struggle. We all struggle. But if this categorizes your life, if worldly sexuality, corrupt or corrupt religion or relationship strife or substance abuse defines who you are, then Paul says you better check up. And you might need to have a little fear because the spirit may not be in you. Because if I really know Jesus, if I've really been made new, Paul says this, that I will point to a completely different fruit. You say Matt, what kind of fruit is that? Well, I'm glad you asked the verse 22 right. Because Paul's about to give us the opposite of what I just talked about. He's saying, give us the fruit of the Spirit, and what are they? He says, If you want your life to point to Christ, here they are. The fruit of the spirit is love. The word is agape. It is the greatest kind of love. It's the primary indicator of if you're walking in the Spirit. Love, joy. What is joy? Joy is just delighting in God for the mere sake that He is beautiful and his presence is incredible. The next one is peace. Peace is when your soul just feels at rest, a freedom. Are you seeing how both of these are working together, how both of these lessons are actually mirroring each other? The next one is patience. Patience is when any kind of trouble comes your way. You look at it, any kind of setback that comes your way, you're not blowing up. You're not going deeper in despair because you know that God has a plan for you. What's the next one? Kindness, kindness, kindness is the dispensation that I will take care of those people around us. Then there's goodness. Goodness is pointing towards our integrity that you're the same person everywhere, no matter what the circumstances are, and you want the goodness of other people. Keep going down the list. There's faithfulness. Faithfulness is the loyalty, the reliability, the dependability that you have. And when other people see you, they're like, Man, that person cares and they will be there. What's the next one? Gentleness. Gentleness can be seen as humility. If you want another word for it, it means that I don't not think of myself. I just think of myself less. That's what that means. And I want what's best for you. And then the last one is my favorite is the word self-control. Self-control and self-control is the ability to bring whatever situation that there is into the promises and into the love and into the control of who God is and what He's done. 

What Paul does in his is absolutely masterful. He shows us what it looks like to chase the counterfeit, and then he shows us what it looks like to chase the one that can actually give us life. And these are the descriptions of the Christian life. And then Paul finishes verse 23, I might add, a little bit spark a little bit arrogant, but I kind of like it. Here's what he says. He goes, against such things there are no laws. In other words, he looks at them like, You don't need a law. Nobody's gonna put you in jail for loving too much or being too good. He looks at them and says, Hey, you want to know that the spirit is working and you want to know if you're walking in the Spirit? Man, check up and see which list it is that you're pulling from. Check up and see which list it is that defines your life. Check up and see what list it is that rules your heart. And if you want the spirit to rule you, step in to the Spirit. That's what he says. He says people like this don't need laws because they're walking in the spirit. So with respect to Paul's heart and the respect of us eating a ribeye, let me give you two walk away Holy Spirit truths that will kind of lead us into closing up this chapter. Number one. I want to remind you that spirit filled fruit is only produced through deep spiritual roots. You want to know how to produce spiritual fruit in your life? 

Here's what he's saying. Drive your roots into who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. This is what we talked about two weeks ago. Listen. The idea here is not to focus on the fruit. Don't focus on the fact that man, I need to be loving better. I need to be a better, joyful person. I need to be a more faithful person. That is not how you do it. That's rules based. What he's saying is, is the more we fall in love with Jesus, the more we know who Jesus is, the more we drive our roots in our life into the light and love of Jesus, the more our roots will tap into who He is. Most of us have had the opposite view of growing spiritually our whole life. You say Matt, what are you talking about? Most of us, when we look at the fruits of the Spirit, here's what we say. Well, you know what? I don't. I don't have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, going to statements, self-control. I practiced that all week. Got it. All right. I don't have that. And so, Matt, I guess what you're telling me is I need to start working on that. No, that's not what I'm telling you. What I'm telling you today is that's not the start. What I'm telling you today is that we need to look at Jesus instead of looking at ourselves. What I'm telling you today is that we need to take our minds off of who we are and put our minds on who He is, and what He died, listen closely, to make me. Here's what we need to put our minds on. We need to put our minds on the fact that as a child of God that I am righteous, that I'm chosen, I'm not forsaken, that I've been adopted and I've been set free. And I'm no longer a slave, but I'm a son and I'm precious to God. I've been given this spirit and it's God and God alone that can infuse His spirit into me to begin to walk in His life in love and promise. 

Church, as we drive our roots deep into these truths. Let me promise you something. Fruit will come. Why? Because a tree always produces the fruit that it was made for. John Piper says it like this. For every one look that we put on it to ourselves, we should put ten back onto the finished work of Jesus, and that will transform our lives. Let me ask you something. Where's your roots planted? Are you planted in trying harder, or are you planted on I have been redeemed? Number two, let me remind you, it's only by first walking in the Spirit that we will avoid producing the fruits of the flesh. Now, I kept this last because I think this is one of our biggest troubles right here. It's only by first walking in the Spirit, will we avoid producing fruits of the flesh. Now, notice the order of that statement. It's important because the reverse order doesn't work. The reverse order causes pride. Causes me to try to work harder and drives me to be burned out, Look at verse 16. I'm going to read it again, Paul says. 

So I say, Walk by the Spirit. And all right, you can write the word “then” above that, if you want to if it helps you in your Bible, and then you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. You see, most of us, our whole spiritual lives, we've tried this the other way around by saying this I need to escape the flesh. I need to escape the flesh. I need to escape the flesh so that I can be filled with the Spirit. I need to avoid these sins, and then I'll be filled. I need to avoid this trouble, and then I'll be filled. No, Paul says. Paul says walking in the spirit always comes first. Always. And as long as we're not walking in the Spirit, we will always walk in the flesh. Why? Because when we begin to walk in the Spirit, here it is, our desires change. And it's only when our desires change, that we begin to see our lives begin to point in a different direction, and we begin to see spiritual fruit. So the more that we soak ourselves in the love in the person of Jesus, the more these fruits will appear naturally. Why? Because you cannot truly experience Jesus and not produce these things. You can't. You say well how? Matt, what does this have to do with Jesus? This has everything to do with Jesus. Why? I want us to relook at those fruits of the Spirit for a minute. But I want us to look at him through the lens of Jesus. Why? Because these fruits are who Jesus is. They're who Jesus is. 

They are literally the character of Jesus. In fact, look at them. Jesus is love, right. This is the first one He's love. The greatest act of love is what Jesus did for me. God is love. Jesus is joy, love, joy. Jesus is joy. Hebrews 12 For who? For the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and is sitting at the right hand of God. He is the joy to the world. Jesus is peace. He's not only the Prince of Peace, but He is the savior that came to bring peace. Jesus is patient. How many times could Jesus have just walked away from me and walked away from you? But he's chosen not to. Jesus is kindness. Jesus is kindness. He is kind to us. In fact, it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Jesus is good. Mam. He is good. He is all good. Not only Is he good, He is faithful. His arms are always open to those who come to him, who turn back to him. And Jesus, lastly, has more self-control than any other person on this planet. You say Matt, why is that? Number one, He never sinned. He never failed a temptation. And number two, He did not take Himself off the cross. You realize at any point Jesus could have saved Himself and not saved you? But His self-control held Him back. Jesus was and Jesus is these things for me. And now Jesus has infused into us that know Jesus His Spirit, which means we don't need to look at the fruits first. Let's look at the one who gave them to us. And let's mimic His life. Let's walk in His life. Let's walk in His love. And then what we say is: Then the roots of the flesh begin to decay and the fruits of the Spirit begin to be produced in our life from what Christ has done. Church, this is the role of the Spirit in our lives. 

Lord Jesus today, God you've not only saved us, but you've given us your Spirit. You've given us your hope, You've given us your promise. And God, you have said we can now walk in You. God through this text today, God I've shown us, God that we don't need to take matters into our own hands because your Spirit is better. The counterfeit that Satan offers is temporary. The holistic nature of what God has done for us is eternal. God, two prayers for the next couple of minutes. Number one, save people that don't know you. Bring them into a relationship with your Holy Spirit. God knock on the doors of their heart, help them God, surrender their hearts to you so that they may have life, and life more abundantly. And second God, those of us that do know you today, Jesus help us to not walk in the flesh, but walk by the Spirit. Show us who you've made us. Jesus it's in your name, Amen. Amen. 

Let's stand together and sing. I'm going to be over here by the next steps banner if you need to give your life to Jesus. I can't think of a better day. If you need to say, God, take the flesh and pour your Spirit into me today, go for it. Man, we'd love to pray with you. We'd love to walk with you.