This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day five of our look together through Galatians 5, this
incredible, incredible chapter of scripture. We're going to look at verses 19 to
26 today, and as we do that we're following up on yesterday this look in the
mirror, the spiritual mirror of our lives that shows you and I how do I walk in
the Spirit? How do I live out this life, this life of freedom that God has given
me to live?

Yesterday we looked at sort of the bad news. I've got to be honest that there is
a crisis in my life. I have a problem with the fact that I want to do the wrong
thing sometimes.

I admit that problem. I have a civil war in my life that I'm even battling to do
the wrong thing, but as you and I turn to verses 19 to 23, you begin to see the
picture of the new thing that God can do in our lives. Now, he begins by talking
about the bad side of things, when I choose the wrong direction, but then he
talks about what happens when I choose the right direction.

Listen to verses 19 to 23. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature,
your lives will produce these evil results, sexual immorality, impure thoughts,
eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities,
hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition,
divisions, and the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own
little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me
tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not
inherit the kingdom of God, but when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will
produce this kind of fruit in us, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Here there is no conflict with the law. In these verses, as we look at the
mirror of our lives, and Paul contrasts the deeds of the flesh of the selfish
sinful nature with the fruit of the Spirit, he's saying you look in that mirror
and you see not only a crisis and a civil war, you see a choice. What is this
war all about?

What are we fighting over anyway? It's you. That's who the battle is all about,
your character, your direction in life.

That is what is at stake in this battle. What does victory mean? What does
defeat mean?

Victory means that the Spirit wins. When your flesh wins, when your selfish
nature wins, what's going to happen in you? What's that going to look like?

Well, Paul is very clear. He says everybody knows what's going to happen when
you're selfish. Sexual immorality, impure thoughts, lustful pleasure, idolatry,
demonic activities, hostility and quarreling and jealousy, envy, drunkenness,
wild parties.

Now the problem with this list, as you and I read through it, is there's some
things in this list you think, "Oh, I would never do that. I would never have
that kind of a deed of the flesh in my life. " But then there's other things in
this list as we read through it, different ones for different ones of us, that
we think, "I am doing that.

" Who of us can't think quarreling, jealousy, selfishness, selfish ambition?
We've all struggled with that. That is the result of selfishness.

When I depend on myself, whether it's my good works to get what I want or
whether it's me saying I can do anything I want, I can live any way I want
because I'm forgiven by Christ. Whether it's legalism or license, either way
that I go, if I'm depending on myself, in the end, this is going to be the
results of depending on yourself. And Paul calls them the deeds of the flesh.

Your lives will produce these evil results. Now what would you like in your
life? You want that?

No, nobody wants that. And Paul says, "Here's the picture of what happens when
you depend on yourself. " But he says then, "Here's the fruit of the Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit controls your life, here's the picture, love, joy, peace
and patience and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Who
wouldn't want that in your life? " Paul is saying you look in the mirror and you
realize you've got a choice.

And the choice isn't between what you do. The choice is between who you trust.
Trust in yourself, you're going to get the first list.

Trust in the Holy Spirit, you're going to get the second fruit. That's what
happens. Here's the key with the fruit of the Spirit that Paul is talking about
here.

You don't try to have this fruit. You trust to have this fruit. It's not a
matter of what you do, it's a matter of what he has done.

When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, you say, "I trust you, Holy Spirit. I
trust your direction, your guidance. I'm going to trust you based on what you've
written in your word.

How do I trust the Holy Spirit? I do what he said. I'm going to trust you based
on the promptings you put into my life.

How do I trust the Holy Spirit? I love like he tells me to love. How do I serve
like he tells me to serve?

And when I do that, this is the fruit that comes out of my life. " Now, Satan
will lie to you. He'll tell you the way to get what you want is to be selfish.

And in the end, you're going to be a happy person. It's a lie. The only way to
love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, the only way to live through
your life the character of God is for you to trust in the person of God in your
life.

If you trust in your selfishness, you get the first list. If you trust in God's
Spirit, you get the second fruit. Now what's going to last?

What's going to last is the fruit of the Spirit. The interesting thing to me
about this these days is looking at what gets more press. What gets more press?

The deeds of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit? Well, it's the deeds of the
flesh every time. Every newspaper you pick up, it has all these evil things that
people are doing.

Most of the movies that you watch are about the deeds of the flesh. It seems to
be that's what people are interested in. You never see a newspaper story about
John Smith had a joyful day yesterday.

Joy isn't news. It's not exciting to people seemingly, but joy is the only thing
that's going to last. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, these fruit of the
Spirit, these are the things that are going to last.

The deeds of the flesh, they are burned up in a moment. They are meaningless and
evil. It is the fruit of the Spirit that's going to last.

So whatever the world puts its attention on, you and I are to put our attention
on this fruit. And Paul says the reason to do that is in this fruit there is no
conflict with the law. The deeds, they all have to have a law against them.

And the law that's against them creates conflict. And that conflict draws you
into a losing battle every time. If you're trusting in the law, trying to say no
to doing the wrong thing, you're drawn into focusing on the wrong thing.

And by focusing on the wrong thing, you're tempted to do the wrong thing and you
end up doing the wrong thing. It's a losing battle, losing proposition from the
beginning. Paul says there doesn't need to be a law against the fruit of the
Spirit.

So there's no conflict there. It's just the invitation of God's Spirit in your
life to love, to have joy. It is a choice.

You want the flesh to win, it's easy. Just do what you please. Just do what you
want.

You want the Spirit to win, it's easy. You follow his leadership. You walk with
him.

Now, it's easy to say. It's easy to know. Is it easy to do in daily life?

Yes. Yes. Oh, I'm not saying I'm not tempted.

I'm not saying I don't do the wrong thing. I'm not saying I don't fall. It's
easy to fall.

But I'm saying when I do choose his way, the joy that's at the end of that, the
pleasure that's at the end of that makes me realize that is the right thing to
do. But how do I make that choice? How do I make the choice to follow the Spirit
on a daily basis?

When I look in the mirror, I see these four things. I see the crisis. I see the
civil war.

I see this choice that I have, but I've got to see a fourth thing if I'm going
to live out this life of the Spirit. The fourth thing I have to see in the
mirror is a crucifixion. Paul says this in verse 24.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their
sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there. You see, he's saying here
that choice alone is not enough. You must have the power to make a new and
different choice.

And that's what happened at the cross. At the cross, Jesus died for you. He
forgave your sins, but he also crucified this passion at that place.

Now you think, what do you mean he crucified it? It's dead. I mean, I look at my
life, wait a minute, it still feels alive and kicking in me.

I still want to do the wrong thing. What does he mean here when he says the
passion, the desire of the sinful nature has been crucified? It means that the
power of sin in your life to make you do the wrong thing, it's gone.

You do truly have a choice now. Through the cross, God has given you a choice
that you did not have before. And you can choose to do evil.

You can choose to sin as a believer. God will allow that because he has allowed
his choice. But you can also, through the crucifixion of Christ, choose to
follow him.

You can choose to follow the power of the Spirit. The crucifixion gives you the
power to say yes to God. Now that says to me, and I've often made a habit of
doing this in my life, that when I'm tempted, when I'm in conflict, when I want
to go the wrong way, one of the places I need to think about is the cross.

I need to remember the crucifixion, what Jesus did for me there, what happened
there, and that that is where the power is. That's where the power is. There's
no doubt that your dead old way, selfish way of living will still try to exert
power over your life, still try to get you to choose to do its deeds above God's
fruit.

And there's no doubt that sometimes you're going to choose to do the wrong
thing. Before you get to heaven, you're not going to be perfect. But there's
also no doubt, because of what happened at the cross, that you now have the
power to choose the way of the Spirit in every circumstance.

That's the power that he's given you. That's what happened at the cross. Paul
ends this great chapter scripture by saying simply this, "Since the Spirit is
the source of your life, let him direct the course of your life, especially," he
says, "in the way that you relate to others, especially in the way that you
relate to other believers.

" Listen to what he says in the last two verses of Galatians 5, verses 25 and
26, "If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's
leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited or irritate one
another or be jealous of one another. " Our life is in the Spirit.

Your life is in the Spirit. And so you should follow the one in whom your life
is. Follow his leading.

And one of the main ways you do that is in the way you relate to other people.
Instead of pridefully, you relate to them in love. You serve other people in
love.

So as we end this look at Galatians 5, pick up the mirror one time, what do you
see? All crisis? All civil war?

Or because of what God's Spirit has done in your life? Are you beginning to see
the choice? Because of what God's Spirit has done in your life, maybe for the
first time today as we've gone through this, are you beginning to see, as you
look in that mirror, a crucifixion?

What Christ did for you is also what Christ has done in you. Let's take a minute
to talk to him. Jesus, I know I need you if I'm going to see this.

I can't see it on my own. I need the power of your Spirit even to see this, to
see the power of what you did for me on the cross. And to live that out of my
daily life, I can't do that on my own.

I need your strength. I need your Spirit. And I praise you that you've given
your Spirit to me.

So I pray that today when I see the crisis, when I see the civil war, when I
feel the conflict, I would know that I can make a choice for the fruit of your
Spirit. And then instead of trusting myself to make that choice, I would trust
in what you've done. Help me to think about the cross.

Help me to think about the resurrection. Help me to think about your Spirit
living in me. Help me to abide in you, Jesus Christ, in your love for me.

I pray today that no matter what happens, I would know I can live the life of
the Spirit. And I pray today that as I walk step by step through this day, you
would show me how to live the life of the Spirit. Teach me how, Jesus.

I need you to teach me how. And I ask you to teach me in your name. Amen.

Well, be sure to join us next week. We're going to finish our study of the book
of Galatians, Galatians 6. And in Galatians 6, we're going to look at some more
particular, some more details about how walking in the Spirit works, how it
looks in your daily life.