July 20, 2025 • 19 mins
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the complexities of our world—political divisions, global conflicts, economic injustice—wondering what God expects from you in such confusing times? This exploration of Paul's letter to the Galatians cuts through the noise with refreshing clarity.
At the heart of Paul's message lies a fascinating paradox about freedom. Unlike our American understanding of individual liberty, Paul describes a freedom that comes through willingly "enslaving" ourselves to one another in love. "For freedom Christ has set us free," he writes, not so we can indulge our own desires, but so we might serve each other. The entire law, complex as it seemed, can be distilled to a single commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
What makes this teaching so powerful is how it speaks directly to our fractured society. When Paul warns against "biting and devouring one another," we can't help but see reflections of our political hostility and economic self-interest. Instead, he invites us to examine the fruits our lives produce. Are we generating love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? These qualities aren't virtues to strain toward through willpower, but natural outcomes that flow when we're connected to God's Spirit. The simple test becomes: what are you bringing to the party? Listen in as we discover how this ancient wisdom provides exactly the guidance we need for today's complex challenges, showing us that when we live interconnected with others, we become "more than we are alone."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
We're in Galatians and I open with some
questions.
Have you ever been in thisplace of just getting
overwhelmed by the complexitiesof the world around us?
I know sometimes for me I getin this space where I do feel
that way.
I feel overwhelmed, I don'tknow exactly what God wants me
(00:22):
to do, what God wants me to say,I'm not sure which direction
I'm supposed to be moving, andit's just such a complicated
world we entered this month.
We were praying for bombing inIran and Israel, and this was
after a couple of years of Hamasand Israel and their violence,
(00:48):
of years of Hamas and Israel andtheir violence.
We're living through a timewhere we're trying to overhaul,
or the current leadership wantsto overhaul, how we run the
country and we're feelingnervous for those that the
country's been taking care of.
And now we even have this kindof ugliness of trying to figure
out there's a really bad guy,this Jeffrey Epstein, and we're
trying to figure out whatsomebody connected to this and
(01:09):
how, in our government, we'reconnected to it.
And so it's this space.
That's just very huh.
What do you want from us, god?
How am I supposed to live intoall this complexity?
How am I supposed to discernyour will and live out who I'm
(01:30):
supposed to be in the midst ofwhat feel like just complex
situations that we're livingthrough.
So Galatians, paul's letter tothe church in Galatia, I feel
like, brings some simplicity,some straightforwardness to this
conversation.
You might remember a few weeksago the wisdom from Micah that I
(01:54):
felt like really did a good jobof simplifying the instruction
from God do justice, lovekindness, walk humbly with God.
I feel like this basic guidance.
Here's another version thatcomes from Paul here in the
letter to the church in Galatia.
I have found it to be like coolwater on a warm summer's day.
(02:18):
Anybody want any of that.
Okay, I hope you enjoy my coolwater of some sort.
As we move into this, first ofall, I want to tell you two
Theologically meaty letter.
Sometimes Jesus, he would teachin parables there'd be stories,
(02:39):
but Paul theology, so it'sgoing to be a little bit meaty.
I hope you can enjoy that.
We're going to get ourthickness, our oatmeal, this
morning.
Are you excited?
Now some of you those of youwho pay more attention might be
looking and going.
(02:59):
I see we did Galatians 5, verse1, and then we jumped a bunch
and then started on 17.
Right, so just to let you know,that's how the lectionary goes.
So we're following sort of thelectionary.
This happened in June, not now,but I wanted it for this month.
I liked it for this month.
Also, those passages have a lotto do with circumcision and I
(03:24):
promised the fellas I wouldn'tdwell on that too long, so we
jumped kind of right over that,but it does.
Verse 1 kind of sets up therest of it, so that's why it
appears as it does.
So I'm jumping in here.
(03:44):
Here is the first verse, forfreedom Christ has set us free.
Sorry, I have it on paper.
I needed to get it in officialold guy font so big enough for
me to read it.
Sometimes you get up here andit's a little too small.
For freedom Christ has set usfree.
Stand firm, therefore, and donot submit again to the yoke of
(04:06):
slavery.
I don't know if you remember, acouple of weeks ago we were
talking about what Paul meant byfreedom.
It's not generally how weunderstand the American sense of
freedom, the freedom to be ableto do or create a society where
people can be as free to dowhat they want as possible.
That's kind of the Americansense of things.
(04:29):
That's not really what Paul wastalking about.
That's not the freedom he wastalking about.
He was talking about freedomfrom religious law, law being
the ordered instruction of howwe followed faith that we have
in our Old Testament, in ourHebrew Bible, right.
That that was what law was.
(04:51):
That's what faith was was tofollow the law and do all of the
rules.
And so Paul was saying we cansimplify this.
The spirit of this is love God,love neighbor.
Everything can fit into there.
So we're freeing you up fromthat sense of law and the
complexity of law.
That's part of what the freedomis, but also the freedom that
(05:13):
comes with grace and forgiveness.
We are free to live in theconfidence of God's love, god's
forgiveness, despite ourimperfection.
So that's what Paul's talkingabout with freedom here.
So it's important as we go intothe rest of it.
(05:35):
All right, this next section,talking a little bit more about
this freedom, and it's going totake a twist.
I hope you're ready, for youwere called to freedom and it's
going to take a twist.
I hope you're ready, for youwere called to freedom.
Brothers and sisters, only donot use your freedom as an
opportunity for self-indulgence.
(05:55):
But through love, become slavesto one another, but through
love, become slaves to oneanother.
Remember when we were talkingabout freedom and now Paul's
saying no, I want you to acceptenslavement.
(06:16):
Accept enslavement to eachother.
Right, it's simplified when wesum up the commandments and all
that God was trying to instructus.
The law, for the whole law issummed up in a single
commandment.
This is what Paul wants us tounderstand you shall love your
(06:37):
neighbor as yourself.
That's why he's talking aboutenslave yourself to each other,
and in that way we becomesomething better.
We become what God wants us tobe.
We become what God wants for us.
I hope we're okay with that.
(07:02):
This idea of enslaving ourselvesto each other, not just
something we do while we're onthe journey of faith, but that
that is the journey of faith,that enslaving of ourselves,
that commitment to others, isreally what Paul is kind of
(07:22):
pointing to.
But then he does this twist,this pivot If, however, you bite
and devour one another, takecare that you are not consumed
by one another.
If you, however, bite anddevour one another, you ever
(07:45):
wonder how we would do if thatwas a test that was given to us.
Are you abiding and devouringeach other as a society?
Politically, I don't know thatwe would want to take that class
in any other way than pass-fail, any other way than pass-fail,
(08:12):
right, I mean, we're certainlynot getting an A in not
devouring each other and bitingeach other.
Economically it's kind of achallenge too, aren't we in a
place where we're actuallysurprised when someone doesn't
rank money as the highestpriority, when other folks don't
give all kinds of grace forsomebody who's looking to make
(08:33):
as much as he or she can?
We're kind of reallycomfortable with this idea of
hey, it's an open market, getwhat you can, get what you can.
It's an interesting place to bewhen we're looking at that
phrase, if you bite and devourone another.
(08:59):
I think Paul's talking hereabout something bigger than that
kind of reality, something thatis about looking at a broader
good, a common good.
What does it mean to love yourneighbor?
What does it mean to enslaveourselves to each other?
What I hear him saying isPaul's trying to tell us
(09:21):
society's going to be better ifwe do that and you know what
else?
We as individuals are going tobe better with that mindset.
All right, we're moving on Moretheology.
I told you it was meaty Fleshversus spirit versus spirit,
(09:46):
flesh versus spirit.
How many of you have?
Well, you guys walked thejourney with Pastor Walt, right?
You know your Pauline letters.
You know what he means by flesh.
It's not generally what weunderstand flesh to be.
We often think, oh, flesh.
(10:07):
Well, yeah, talking aboutsexuality?
Oh boy, that's pretty obvious.
When we read this passage, wefind he's not talking about
sexual desires necessarily.
He's really talking about humantendencies versus God's desires
, our human desires versus God'sdesires, our human desires
versus God's desires.
(10:28):
You're probably hearing aduality in that.
Oh, it's this way or it's theother way.
And, by the way, human, bad,god, good.
Sometimes that duality ishelpful for people.
Sometimes it's a little bitproblematic when we're looking
at her, our humanity, as beingbad and the divine parts of us
(10:54):
being the only good parts of us.
But that's a bit of what Paul istrying to get across.
The human part of you doesn'tmake all the greatest decisions.
It's got other impulses, otherthings it's trying to get done.
But there's a part of youthat's divine, god inside of you
, and that's the part that'sgood and we need to listen to
(11:18):
that side.
Do the God stuff?
I think, is what Paul is tryingto get across.
So listen to what he says hereLive by the spirit, I say, and
do not gratify the desires ofthe flesh Again, not talking
about sexuality necessarily,just talking about our human
desires that go against what Godwould have for us, for what the
(11:40):
flesh desires is opposed to thespirit and what the spirit
desires is opposed to the flesh,for these are opposed to each
other.
To prevent you from doing whatyou want.
You hear that duality.
Would anybody argue with Paul alittle bit on that?
Or is that just me?
Me and Stephen?
The rest of you, yeah, it allmakes sense.
(12:00):
Anyway, and feel free to arguewith Paul, deep man of faith,
but still a man.
But if you are led by theSpirit, you are not subject to
the law.
Remember the orderedinstruction of faith from the
Old Testament.
Now, the works of the flesh areobvious.
I have preached this sermonbefore and I like to offer this
(12:26):
as an opportunity for fullconfession to anyone who is
interested.
So if any of this pertains toyou, feel free to stand up,
raise your hand.
Now, the works of the flesh areobvious.
Fornication Okay, impurity,impurity.
(12:49):
Licentiousness Okay, runningclean, running clean.
Idolatry, sorcery, enmities,strife Okay, those are easier.
Okay, I get it here.
We're going to get into sometougher ones here.
(13:11):
Are you ready?
Jealousy, anger, but only onthe road Right.
It's different.
It's different Quarrels,dissensions, factions, envy,
(13:39):
drunkenness, carousing andthings like these.
I am warning you, as I warnedyou before those who do such
things will not inherit thekingdom of God.
I think in the midst of this,paul really wants us to hear
that we can move away from thisstructured way of living faith
(14:03):
with all these laws and justfollow the laws.
But we move into this new arenawhere it really might be just
one, maybe two laws that it allbarrels down to.
We've said it before it's thislaw that says we need to love
(14:24):
God and we need to love neighbor, and everything else will
dovetail into that.
That is really, I feel, likewhat Paul is trying to get us to
understand.
And if we are people who aretrying to live into that spirit,
to know God deeply, to feelthat comfort, to feel that peace
, to feel that sense of justiceinside of us, then we need to
(14:49):
focus ourselves into that onelaw or those two laws.
And here's the deep irony ofall of it that Paul is trying to
get across.
The irony is our enslavement toeach other with these kinds of
behaviors to each other, lovingeach other, loving God, our
(15:10):
enslavement to each otheractually is what leads to that
true freedom.
But it's not freedom in the waywe usually understand it.
It's a spiritual freedom, thefreedom of knowing we are in
step with God and we are beingthe people that God wants us to
be.
All right.
(15:31):
Finally, the fun part Fruits ofthe Spirit.
Enjoy this.
By contrast, the fruit of theSpirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,faithfulness, gentleness,
(15:53):
self-control.
There is no law against suchthings, and those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified theflesh with its passions and
desires.
If we live by the Spirit, letus also be guided by the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited,competing against one another,
envying one another.
(16:14):
I love that list one another.
I love that list Especially.
What I like about it is how itwas written.
Paul could have said you guysneed to be better at showing
love and you need to be betterat showing faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control, and wewould have taken it.
Yep, you're right, paul.
(16:35):
You're right, I'm going to domy best.
But he doesn't do it that way.
He talks in a way that impliesa desire that we have and
instead he refers to the fruits.
He refers to these things asfruits, things that are produced
(17:00):
in the world, love beingproduced, joy being produced.
And he tells us that you canidentify the Holy Spirit in your
actions, in the world aroundyou, by these fruits.
We all want meaningful lives, weall want to know God, we all
(17:22):
want to know the Holy Spirit.
We want to look in the mirrorin the morning and see somebody
that God appreciates.
We want to look in the mirrorand see somebody we appreciate,
(17:42):
want to look in the mirror andsee somebody we appreciate.
We all have that need to beable to see somebody good in
that mirror.
And Paul is in front of ussaying when you see these things
love, joy, gentleness, patiencewhen you see those things, then
you are in the presence of theHoly Spirit.
You are producing it, you areseeing it being produced.
(18:05):
When you see love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,self-control, there is the
Spirit.
It might be a little bit toostraight forward, but the answer
to the question we all wonderabout are we in the spirit?
(18:29):
Well, we can just ask ourselveswhat are the fruits of our
presence?
What are we bringing to theparty?
Because to me it spoke exactlyto what Paul was trying to get
(18:49):
at.
When we live interconnected,even enslaved, with those around
us, we're able to become morethan we are alone.
Interconnected, even enslaved,with those around us, we're able
to become more than we arealone.
I see the fruits.
I see the fruits in that storyand I know I started with this
(19:10):
thought, this concern that itwas hard to understand exactly
what God was looking for in acomplex world.
And I see a video like that andI hear a scripture like this
and I think, maybe, maybe it'snot as hard as we think it is.
Amen.
We're in Galatians and I open with some
questions.
Have you ever been in thisplace of just getting
overwhelmed by the complexitiesof the world around us?
I know sometimes for me I getin this space where I do feel
that way.
I feel overwhelmed, I don'tknow exactly what God wants me
(00:22):
to do, what God wants me to say,I'm not sure which direction
I'm supposed to be moving, andit's just such a complicated
world we entered this month.
We were praying for bombing inIran and Israel, and this was
after a couple of years of Hamasand Israel and their violence,
(00:48):
of years of Hamas and Israel andtheir violence.
We're living through a timewhere we're trying to overhaul,
or the current leadership wantsto overhaul, how we run the
country and we're feelingnervous for those that the
country's been taking care of.
And now we even have this kindof ugliness of trying to figure
out there's a really bad guy,this Jeffrey Epstein, and we're
trying to figure out whatsomebody connected to this and
(01:09):
how, in our government, we'reconnected to it.
And so it's this space.
That's just very huh.
What do you want from us, god?
How am I supposed to live intoall this complexity?
How am I supposed to discernyour will and live out who I'm
(01:30):
supposed to be in the midst ofwhat feel like just complex
situations that we're livingthrough.
So Galatians, paul's letter tothe church in Galatia, I feel
like, brings some simplicity,some straightforwardness to this
conversation.
You might remember a few weeksago the wisdom from Micah that I
(01:54):
felt like really did a good jobof simplifying the instruction
from God do justice, lovekindness, walk humbly with God.
I feel like this basic guidance.
Here's another version thatcomes from Paul here in the
letter to the church in Galatia.
I have found it to be like coolwater on a warm summer's day.
(02:18):
Anybody want any of that.
Okay, I hope you enjoy my coolwater of some sort.
As we move into this, first ofall, I want to tell you two
Theologically meaty letter.
Sometimes Jesus, he would teachin parables there'd be stories,
(02:39):
but Paul theology, so it'sgoing to be a little bit meaty.
I hope you can enjoy that.
We're going to get ourthickness, our oatmeal, this
morning.
Are you excited?
Now some of you those of youwho pay more attention might be
looking and going.
(02:59):
I see we did Galatians 5, verse1, and then we jumped a bunch
and then started on 17.
Right, so just to let you know,that's how the lectionary goes.
So we're following sort of thelectionary.
This happened in June, not now,but I wanted it for this month.
I liked it for this month.
Also, those passages have a lotto do with circumcision and I
(03:24):
promised the fellas I wouldn'tdwell on that too long, so we
jumped kind of right over that,but it does.
Verse 1 kind of sets up therest of it, so that's why it
appears as it does.
So I'm jumping in here.
(03:44):
Here is the first verse, forfreedom Christ has set us free.
Sorry, I have it on paper.
I needed to get it in officialold guy font so big enough for
me to read it.
Sometimes you get up here andit's a little too small.
For freedom Christ has set usfree.
Stand firm, therefore, and donot submit again to the yoke of
(04:06):
slavery.
I don't know if you remember, acouple of weeks ago we were
talking about what Paul meant byfreedom.
It's not generally how weunderstand the American sense of
freedom, the freedom to be ableto do or create a society where
people can be as free to dowhat they want as possible.
That's kind of the Americansense of things.
(04:29):
That's not really what Paul wastalking about.
That's not the freedom he wastalking about.
He was talking about freedomfrom religious law, law being
the ordered instruction of howwe followed faith that we have
in our Old Testament, in ourHebrew Bible, right.
That that was what law was.
(04:51):
That's what faith was was tofollow the law and do all of the
rules.
And so Paul was saying we cansimplify this.
The spirit of this is love God,love neighbor.
Everything can fit into there.
So we're freeing you up fromthat sense of law and the
complexity of law.
That's part of what the freedomis, but also the freedom that
(05:13):
comes with grace and forgiveness.
We are free to live in theconfidence of God's love, god's
forgiveness, despite ourimperfection.
So that's what Paul's talkingabout with freedom here.
So it's important as we go intothe rest of it.
(05:35):
All right, this next section,talking a little bit more about
this freedom, and it's going totake a twist.
I hope you're ready, for youwere called to freedom and it's
going to take a twist.
I hope you're ready, for youwere called to freedom.
Brothers and sisters, only donot use your freedom as an
opportunity for self-indulgence.
(05:55):
But through love, become slavesto one another, but through
love, become slaves to oneanother.
Remember when we were talkingabout freedom and now Paul's
saying no, I want you to acceptenslavement.
(06:16):
Accept enslavement to eachother.
Right, it's simplified when wesum up the commandments and all
that God was trying to instructus.
The law, for the whole law issummed up in a single
commandment.
This is what Paul wants us tounderstand you shall love your
(06:37):
neighbor as yourself.
That's why he's talking aboutenslave yourself to each other,
and in that way we becomesomething better.
We become what God wants us tobe.
We become what God wants for us.
I hope we're okay with that.
(07:02):
This idea of enslaving ourselvesto each other, not just
something we do while we're onthe journey of faith, but that
that is the journey of faith,that enslaving of ourselves,
that commitment to others, isreally what Paul is kind of
(07:22):
pointing to.
But then he does this twist,this pivot If, however, you bite
and devour one another, takecare that you are not consumed
by one another.
If you, however, bite anddevour one another, you ever
(07:45):
wonder how we would do if thatwas a test that was given to us.
Are you abiding and devouringeach other as a society?
Politically, I don't know thatwe would want to take that class
in any other way than pass-fail, any other way than pass-fail,
(08:12):
right, I mean, we're certainlynot getting an A in not
devouring each other and bitingeach other.
Economically it's kind of achallenge too, aren't we in a
place where we're actuallysurprised when someone doesn't
rank money as the highestpriority, when other folks don't
give all kinds of grace forsomebody who's looking to make
(08:33):
as much as he or she can?
We're kind of reallycomfortable with this idea of
hey, it's an open market, getwhat you can, get what you can.
It's an interesting place to bewhen we're looking at that
phrase, if you bite and devourone another.
(08:59):
I think Paul's talking hereabout something bigger than that
kind of reality, something thatis about looking at a broader
good, a common good.
What does it mean to love yourneighbor?
What does it mean to enslaveourselves to each other?
What I hear him saying isPaul's trying to tell us
(09:21):
society's going to be better ifwe do that and you know what
else?
We as individuals are going tobe better with that mindset.
All right, we're moving on Moretheology.
I told you it was meaty Fleshversus spirit versus spirit,
(09:46):
flesh versus spirit.
How many of you have?
Well, you guys walked thejourney with Pastor Walt, right?
You know your Pauline letters.
You know what he means by flesh.
It's not generally what weunderstand flesh to be.
We often think, oh, flesh.
(10:07):
Well, yeah, talking aboutsexuality?
Oh boy, that's pretty obvious.
When we read this passage, wefind he's not talking about
sexual desires necessarily.
He's really talking about humantendencies versus God's desires
, our human desires versus God'sdesires, our human desires
versus God's desires.
(10:28):
You're probably hearing aduality in that.
Oh, it's this way or it's theother way.
And, by the way, human, bad,god, good.
Sometimes that duality ishelpful for people.
Sometimes it's a little bitproblematic when we're looking
at her, our humanity, as beingbad and the divine parts of us
(10:54):
being the only good parts of us.
But that's a bit of what Paul istrying to get across.
The human part of you doesn'tmake all the greatest decisions.
It's got other impulses, otherthings it's trying to get done.
But there's a part of youthat's divine, god inside of you
, and that's the part that'sgood and we need to listen to
(11:18):
that side.
Do the God stuff?
I think, is what Paul is tryingto get across.
So listen to what he says hereLive by the spirit, I say, and
do not gratify the desires ofthe flesh Again, not talking
about sexuality necessarily,just talking about our human
desires that go against what Godwould have for us, for what the
(11:40):
flesh desires is opposed to thespirit and what the spirit
desires is opposed to the flesh,for these are opposed to each
other.
To prevent you from doing whatyou want.
You hear that duality.
Would anybody argue with Paul alittle bit on that?
Or is that just me?
Me and Stephen?
The rest of you, yeah, it allmakes sense.
(12:00):
Anyway, and feel free to arguewith Paul, deep man of faith,
but still a man.
But if you are led by theSpirit, you are not subject to
the law.
Remember the orderedinstruction of faith from the
Old Testament.
Now, the works of the flesh areobvious.
I have preached this sermonbefore and I like to offer this
(12:26):
as an opportunity for fullconfession to anyone who is
interested.
So if any of this pertains toyou, feel free to stand up,
raise your hand.
Now, the works of the flesh areobvious.
Fornication Okay, impurity,impurity.
(12:49):
Licentiousness Okay, runningclean, running clean.
Idolatry, sorcery, enmities,strife Okay, those are easier.
Okay, I get it here.
We're going to get into sometougher ones here.
(13:11):
Are you ready?
Jealousy, anger, but only onthe road Right.
It's different.
It's different Quarrels,dissensions, factions, envy,
(13:39):
drunkenness, carousing andthings like these.
I am warning you, as I warnedyou before those who do such
things will not inherit thekingdom of God.
I think in the midst of this,paul really wants us to hear
that we can move away from thisstructured way of living faith
(14:03):
with all these laws and justfollow the laws.
But we move into this new arenawhere it really might be just
one, maybe two laws that it allbarrels down to.
We've said it before it's thislaw that says we need to love
(14:24):
God and we need to love neighbor, and everything else will
dovetail into that.
That is really, I feel, likewhat Paul is trying to get us to
understand.
And if we are people who aretrying to live into that spirit,
to know God deeply, to feelthat comfort, to feel that peace
, to feel that sense of justiceinside of us, then we need to
(14:49):
focus ourselves into that onelaw or those two laws.
And here's the deep irony ofall of it that Paul is trying to
get across.
The irony is our enslavement toeach other with these kinds of
behaviors to each other, lovingeach other, loving God, our
(15:10):
enslavement to each otheractually is what leads to that
true freedom.
But it's not freedom in the waywe usually understand it.
It's a spiritual freedom, thefreedom of knowing we are in
step with God and we are beingthe people that God wants us to
be.
All right.
(15:31):
Finally, the fun part Fruits ofthe Spirit.
Enjoy this.
By contrast, the fruit of theSpirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,faithfulness, gentleness,
(15:53):
self-control.
There is no law against suchthings, and those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified theflesh with its passions and
desires.
If we live by the Spirit, letus also be guided by the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited,competing against one another,
envying one another.
(16:14):
I love that list one another.
I love that list Especially.
What I like about it is how itwas written.
Paul could have said you guysneed to be better at showing
love and you need to be betterat showing faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control, and wewould have taken it.
Yep, you're right, paul.
(16:35):
You're right, I'm going to domy best.
But he doesn't do it that way.
He talks in a way that impliesa desire that we have and
instead he refers to the fruits.
He refers to these things asfruits, things that are produced
(17:00):
in the world, love beingproduced, joy being produced.
And he tells us that you canidentify the Holy Spirit in your
actions, in the world aroundyou, by these fruits.
We all want meaningful lives, weall want to know God, we all
(17:22):
want to know the Holy Spirit.
We want to look in the mirrorin the morning and see somebody
that God appreciates.
We want to look in the mirrorand see somebody we appreciate,
(17:42):
want to look in the mirror andsee somebody we appreciate.
We all have that need to beable to see somebody good in
that mirror.
And Paul is in front of ussaying when you see these things
love, joy, gentleness, patiencewhen you see those things, then
you are in the presence of theHoly Spirit.
You are producing it, you areseeing it being produced.
(18:05):
When you see love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,self-control, there is the
Spirit.
It might be a little bit toostraight forward, but the answer
to the question we all wonderabout are we in the spirit?
(18:29):
Well, we can just ask ourselveswhat are the fruits of our
presence?
What are we bringing to theparty?
Because to me it spoke exactlyto what Paul was trying to get
(18:49):
at.
When we live interconnected,even enslaved, with those around
us, we're able to become morethan we are alone.
Interconnected, even enslaved,with those around us, we're able
to become more than we arealone.
I see the fruits.
I see the fruits in that storyand I know I started with this
(19:10):
thought, this concern that itwas hard to understand exactly
what God was looking for in acomplex world.
And I see a video like that andI hear a scripture like this
and I think, maybe, maybe it'snot as hard as we think it is.
Amen.
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