Greg Rains: So it's been a long day and you're home. The house is loud. Some of you can relate to that. Kids are crying. It's already chaos. Dinner hasn't even been started yet. And she looks at you and you know. But a voice in your head says you're tired, you've worked all day, you've earned a break. Just ten minutes. So you take ten. An hour later, you're still there. She's getting dinner going finally. Bedtime's in fifteen minutes. You knew better. You meant it. And you lost. Or it's Saturday. Been a long week. You pour one and sit down to watch the game. And then the voice in your head says, Maybe one more. You told yourself just one, but now it's midnight and you don't even remember the fourth quarter. You knew better, you meant it, and you lost. Or maybe you're dating. You really love each other. You're gonna get married anyway. Maybe. Probably. So why wait? And you don't. Or you are married. Everybody's already in bed, they're asleep, the house is quiet, the phone's right there, and the voice says Nobody will know. It's not gonna hurt anyone. You knew better. You meant it. But you lost. Now at the time, none of those voices in your head, they sound they didn't sound evil, they sounded reasonable, they sounded fair, even deserved. But you tried to beat a reasonable voice with sheer willpower, and you lost. So what is the plan now? Well, try harder, right? Grit your teeth, pull up, pull yourself up by your boot bootstraps, and get to work at doing what you gotta do. But the truth is, a person who keeps their head down trying to work their way through the problems never sees the ditch you're about to fall in. The idea of today's message is simply this follow the fire and the flesh falls behind. That will make sense to you here in just a few minutes. You're in a fight every single day, and you lose that fight enough times, and you land in one of two ditches. One ditch is I'm gonna try harder, grip it tighter, and get better. More rules, bigger promises, and you tell yourself, I will beat this even if it kills me trying to do it. On the other side, you're just tired, you give in, you you say, It's just who I am. You shrug it off. On one side you're buried under rules, on the other side you're buried under excuses, and both of them leave you stuck. Not going anywhere near the life God has called you to be, neither is living in the abundant life. The enemy's ploy is to steal, kill, and destroy you. His goal is to take you out so that you cannot be effective for the kingdom. In many ways, how he does that is he finds what your temptation is. And he puts it in front of you. And then it's either I gotta build rules or I just quit. Either way, you're stuck. Paul is writing this letter to the Galatians. We've been going through this, I think this is week seven now. And Paul's wrote to a s a church that's stuck between these two ditches. And he doesn't tell them you got to grip harder, you gotta try harder. He didn't tell them to quit. He told them you need to let somebody else lead. As Paul wrote this letter, it kind of parallels to the Exodus story. And if you don't know the Exodus story, the Israelites were in Egypt under slavery, and Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, Let my people go. And he does it over and over and over again. And finally, Pharaoh lets the Israelites go. So let's look back as it parallels with Galatians and this journey that Paul is showing us. Let's look back at what that first night of Egypt now. out of Egypt might have looked like. They're finally free. Put yourself in their spot. They've been under slavery for four hundred years and now for the first time nobody owns them. Finally free. There's no whip. There's no quota. There's no one looking over their shoulder every time they need to take a breath. There's no more fear of punishment just because they didn't meet the quota. They're free. But in that freedom, they don't know where this is going. They have no roadmap. They don't know what this is going to look like. They just know God is taking them somewhere. And then all of a sudden, this pillar of fire shows up. In Exodus chapter 13, verse 21. The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night, and the Lord. Did not remove the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire from its place in front of the people. He guided them and he it says, the fire never left. He was leading them to the promised land, taking them where he wanted them to be, and he stayed with them. The fire never left. But it didn't take long. Israelites got hungry. Sure, God's been providing food from heaven, but it's the same thing every single day, and that's kind of getting old. They're hungry, they're tired, they're scared, they don't know where this is going. And they start looking back on that time in Egypt like we were on vacation. A distorted view of what it actually looked like. In Numbers 11, it talks about how they they were looking back at the fish that they ate and said, Remember that free fish we used to always get? How awesome was that? They talk about cucumbers, melons, the leeks. For some reason, they're stuck on onions. I haven't figured that one out yet because onions are terrible. And garlic. They they mention all these things. They're they're remembering slavery and they're looking back on this time when they were in slavery in Egypt and looking back saying, That was kind of nice. We were kinda they were looking at it like they were free. And it's the same thing we deal with. The the flesh, it doesn't sell you on the chains, it sells you on the onions. It makes you think they were good and they're not, trust me, onions are terrible. If you like ⁓ I'll pray for you. These were free men who had slave appetites. So were you. We are free. But we still desire the things of our old life. We are free people with slave appetites. Verse 16, so I say, Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. We've been walking through Galatians for these first four and a half chapters, and Paul has been laying out the diagnosis that they are stuck. Trying to follow this law that doesn't save them. It doesn't get them anywhere. The law in itself isn't bad, but it doesn't save you. The principles of the law, yeah, you should probably follow many of those principles, but it's not going to save you. And he says, So let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. But look at that last word, craves. It's that appetite again. Looking back at the old things, craving what used to be. Paul isn't changing subjects here. You look back into verse 13. He's just told them, you are called to live in freedom. But don't use that freedom to feed your sinful nature, he says. Serve one another and love with that freedom. So they're free. They're out of Egypt. You're free. You're out of slavery. And verse sixteen tells us how free people actually get through the wilderness. Walk with the Spirit. The word Paul uses literally means walk. Let the Spirit guide your steps. Every single step. The same way that that fire guided every step of the Israelites out of Egypt, walk in the Spirit. And Paul uses that word in in the NLT, it's sinful nature, but it's cr ⁓ flesh. And he doesn't mean your skin. He means that part of you that still wants to go back to Egypt. That part of us that still wants that old life before we knew Christ. And we look back on those days and say, I was free. I could do whatever I wanted. And don't shriek it down to what happens in a bar or what happens in a bedroom. Martin Luther said the flesh includes sexual sin, but it's bigger than that. It includes pride, hatred, greed. Patience. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the categories that all sin falls into. The flesh. So the flesh isn't just some guy sitting there on his fourth drink. It's also the person seething with anger because nobody acknowledged them or thanked them for what they'd done. Look at the order in verse 16. Paul doesn't say, beat the flesh, and then the spirit will guide you. That's the first ditch. That's rules. That's the law. He says, follow first, then you won't do what the flesh craves. Israel didn't fix their Egypt appetite before they broke camp. They got up and they followed the fire. And the fire took them to places that their appetite never would have or never could have. And that word that Paul uses there that you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves, that word won't, it's a promise. It's not a pep talk. It's a promise that when you walk and step with the Spirit, you won't give in to the temptations of the flesh. Follow the fire, and the flesh falls behind. Verse 17, chapter 5. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. Two natures. We have within us that sinful nature, and now we have the Holy Spirit within us, and they're at war. The Spirit gives us desires, he says, that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Read that last line again. You are not free to carry out your good intentions. You knew better. You meant it, and you lost. In that last sentence, Paul is describing that Saturday night that went sideways. He said it's constantly fighting. That's present tense. That means this fight is ongoing right now. Constantly fighting, not once, every single day. to war. And here's the part that we don't ever really focus on. War is good. The fight is a good sign. Because the fight means there is something in you that's drawing you to him. And dead things, they don't fight. The war that you face spiritually every single day is proof that there is life in you, that the Holy Spirit is in you. Before Jesus, nobody wanted to argue with our appetites. If you wanted it, you took it or you did it. Whatever you wanted. But the war started the day the Spirit moved in. If you are in Christ, you are indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit living within you right now, and there's a war. So if you feel that fight, it's because the Spirit's in you. It hasn't left you. The Spirit is in you. The Spirit is leading you. Exodus 13 says that the Lord did not remove the pillar of fire from in front of his people. So when they complained, he didn't remove it. When they craved Egypt, he didn't remove it. He stayed. Here's what you need to know: you are not a slave losing a fight. You are a free person in a war. Every day. Verse 18, but when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. That closes the first ditch. The law can show you where the ditch is, but it can't pull you out. Verse sixteen, it's already closed ditch two. The the spirit doesn't leave you where you are. He continues to lead you. There's a road between rules and excuses and there's a fire in front of you leading you. To be in God's presence, to the righteous life, the abundant life He's called you to. So you follow the fire, and the flesh falls behind. Remember the fish? The Egyptian or the the Israelites were like, hey, there were some really good fish in Egypt. Remember those cucumbers? I I don't I told the early service I don't understand why cucumbers either, because that's like the worst vegetable ever. There's no flavor. I mean, it's just there. What's a cucumber for? Pickles. That's what a cucumber is for. They're not bad, they're just there. Remember the garlic? Remember the onions? Tell you what though Egypt's menu it looked pretty good from the wilderness. And Paul tells us for us what's that menu look like? Verse 19, he lays it out for us. It's not onions and cucumbers and fish, it's this. When you follow the desire of your sinful nature, the results are clear. The results are very clear, he says: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy. Outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these, just in case he missed one. That's not a buffet, that is chains. That is putting us back in slavery. Don't hear that list like it's all about somebody else. Think about your r worst night this week. The screen at midnight. Sexual immorality. That's lustful pleasures. That's on the menu. That fourth drink that's drunkenness that's on the menu. Sitting on the couch while your wife's drowning. That one's a little sneakier. It's really selfish ambition. Me first. My comfort. My 10-minute break. But look what's sitting right in the middle of the list. Hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, division, envy. I know that some of you in this room, you've never been drunk a day in your life. You'd never touch a phone and look at something on it inappropriate at midnight. But I also know there's some of you in this room that there's a name that when you hear it, it makes your jaw clench in anger. I know for some there's a family member that you haven't called since the funeral. I know for some there's an ex, or there's a former business partner or former co-worker, or there was the guy at work who got the credit for everything, and you did the work. And you replay the conversation every day on your drive and you win the argument every single time. You keep score. And when their name comes up, anger just boils up. You seethe. Same menu. Y you're dealing with a different dish from the menu, but it's the same menu. In verse 21, let me tell you again as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul doesn't pull any punches. If that is the life you are living, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's not saying anyone who ever did these things, because if that's the case, I'm out. You're out. Nobody's getting in. That's not what he says. He says, anyone living that sort of life, you're out. And here's really what he's talking about. If if we walk along that same imagery of of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, a Christian, you can fall into that ditch in Egypt, but you can't move back to Egypt and build a house there. You can't go back to that old way of life and set up camp. You can't say I'm a Christian, but I'm still going to do these things. When Jesus saves you, he doesn't just forgive you, he changes you. Has he changed you? He doesn't change you all at once. It's a lifelong thing. And you will never be perfect on this side of heaven. But he does change you. And the goal is completion in you. And the completion is you in the image of your Savior, Jesus Christ, becoming more and more like him. So the question isn't, can I lose it? You can't. The question is, has the fire ever actually led me anywhere? If you've been sitting in Egypt, if you've been sitting in slavery for years, if you go back to that old way of life and you camp out there and it doesn't bother you, don't just check your behavior. Check whether you've actually followed him at all. Whether you've actually surrendered to him at all. Because Paul is telling us you can't live that kind of life if you're in step with the Spirit. Follow the fire and the flesh falls behind. So fast forward a little bit. Israel, they're on the edge of the promised land. And Moses, he sends some scouts out to find out what's going on there. And they come back carrying something. Numbers 13 says that they cut down a cluster of grapes, and the cluster was so big it required two guys to carry it on a pole. Now picture that. They're coming back into the camp. All these people who had grown up on slave rations, people who'd Who'd spent this trip complaining and wishing they still had Egypt's cucumbers and onions? And here comes two men walking back into the camp, sweating under this big bunch of grapes, and they also, just for fun, they got pomegranates and figs in their pockets. That's where the fire was leading the whole time. It wasn't leading them just away from Egypt. It was leading them to the promised land, to the land of fruit. The onions behind you, where they should be. The fruit in front of you. Don't go back to the onions. The Holy Spirit Verse 22 produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. You know, every time I read that verse, that old Sunday school song pops up in my head. Fruit of the Spirit's Not a Banana. Y'all know the song, right? Do we need to sing it, Megan? Fruit of the Spirit's Not a Banana. You gotta do the motions and everything. And you know, that's a good song to help you remember it, but it really it takes the weight off of it. Notice what Paul calls this. Yeah, when he talks about the flesh, he talks about the results. It's works that he's talking about. Paul's word is works. Work is what you do. Work is what you accomplish. You grind it out. The spirit, he says, produces fruit. Have you ever seen a farmer stand at an apple tree and say, hey, grow! And an apple pops out. That's not how it happens, is it? Fruit grows. Fruit is what shows up on the outside when there's life flowing in the inside. Notice he says fruit. It's singular. This isn't nine separate fruits that you grow. This is one life from the Spirit showing up in nine different ways. It's fruit. What your life looks like as a believer. And look at that last word self-control, he says. That's the one thing that you can't pull off with willpower. You can't grind it out, grit your teeth, and fight through it. You can't do it on your own. There is no trophy for trying harder. Fruit and only the Spirit produces it. You can't do it yourself. So what do we do? We sit back, we grab a seat. And we wait. Spirit doing anything? Yeah. That's not what Paul's saying. The spirit life or the Christian life, the spirit-filled life, it's not passive. He uses that imagery of agriculture. And what does a farmer do? He doesn't just wait for something to grow, he works. He plows. He pulls the weeds. He plants. You know what he's never done? He's never made fruit. He's never made an apple. Your job isn't to make the fruit, but your job is to draw closer to the God who does. Till the ground to make sure your soul is ready to receive however the Lord is leading you. That you stay planted, that you're in Scripture, that you're building that relationship with the Lord, that you're surrounding yourself with other believers. you produce in you an environment where the Lord can work and He will work. You just need to be available, be close. Be honest. He says there's no law against these things. That's again, he's closing that first ditch. The rules, they can tell you where the line is, but they can't produce fruit in you. They can't make you love. They'll actually do the opposite. Verse twenty four Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Have nailed the passions of their sinful nature. That's past tense. It's not something that you're doing every day. Those have already been nailed, it already happened. You belong to Christ, the old master. He's not coming to take you back into slavery. You've already nailed those passions to the cross. But here's what we need to understand about a cross: it was not a quick death. A man could hang there for hours, sometimes days, maybe even weeks, hanging on the cross. And you know what he could still do while he's there? He could talk. He could yell at the passers by. He could hurl insults, he could beg, he could curse at anyone coming by. You know what he couldn't do? He couldn't take himself off a cross. That's why the flesh sounds so loud sometimes. It's nailed to the cross and it's dying, but it can still talk. And it talks louder and louder because the enemy knows it's dying. So you need to hear who you are. Are not a slave trying to escape an old life. You are free. You are a son of the one true God, a daughter of the one true God. You have been set free. You are not what you crave. You belong to Christ. You are not those sinful desires and those sinful pleasures, those temptations. You are in Christ Jesus. Your flesh can talk, but it can't come off the cross. It's already been crucified. Follow the fire, and the flesh falls behind every single time. If you draw close to Jesus, those desires are stamped out. When you drift away, they come roaring back. Verse twenty five, since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. And that's pretty key. Every part. That means it's not just a Sunday morning kind of thing. That means we follow the the spirits leading everywhere, everywhere, not just the parts that people see. On the couch. When you're ready to pour that next glass, when you got your phone in your hand, we follow the spirit. That name that just makes you so angry every time you hear it, we follow the spirit. Paul's word that he uses here, it's soldier language. It's marching in rank, keeping in line, staying in step. Because Israel, they didn't follow the fire one man at a time. When the fire moved, they all moved. Together. Nobody went to the promised land alone. That's what we do together. Yes, we fight sometimes, and we move forward together. Verse 26, since we are living by the wrong one verse, let us not become conceited or provoke one another or be jealous of one another. This is where Paul ends it, not with drink. Not with drunkenness, not with what happens in your bedroom. He ends it with how you treat each other. And he ends it that way because you can't keep in step with the spirit if you're out of step with a brother. You can't keep in step with the spirit if you're letting anger, dissension, Take control of a relationship. Conceit says I'm ahead of you. Provoking says, come at me. Jealousy says, why did they get that? All three of those break the line. And it happens in your home, it happens in your work. And it even happens in your church. Yeah. When a soldier breaks rank, they don't just put themselves in danger. They open up a hole for everyone next to them. You are not a lone survivor out of Egypt. You were part of a camp. We fight together. We follow the fire together. We support each other. When we follow the fire. The flesh falls behind. You are in a war. When Paul says the spirit in you, it protects you. But it doesn't just happen. Walk and step with the Spirit. Some of you, you have no idea what that even feels like. You've never experienced any sort of spiritual life because you've never given your life to Christ. And you hear me say it every week and you're like, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but you don't. You've not surrendered to him. And you hear something like this, and you're like, well, that's that sounds good. This is the abundant life. Walking in step with the Spirit. Scripture says that we are all sinners in need of a savior. It says that you are dead. There's no way out of it. And that death leads to only one place, and it's hell. Separated from God forever. But Scripture also says that that's not the end of the story. But Jesus came as a sacrifice for that. He Paid that penalty of death for us so that we don't have to experience separation from God. We can be in Him and walk in step with the Spirit. And scripture says, how do you do it? Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That means you surrender your whole life to him. Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe that he is who he says he is, that he defeated death, that God raised him from the dead, and scripture says you will be saved. Have you ever surrendered to Him as Lord? Fully. If not, you can this morning. If not, you can pray right now. There's not a magic prayer, it's just a confession, Lord. I know that I'm broken. I know that I'm a sinner, however you want to word it. Lord, I know that I need you. Save me, Lord. My life is yours. And in that moment. You're not only saved, you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit. If that's you this morning as we close here in a moment, I beg you. Tell somebody. I'll be around. Come up here, talk to me. Grab somebody close. Tell somebody what God's doing in your life. Those of you in here who do know Christ, are you walking in step with the Spirit? Are you giving in to those sinful temptations? Are you going back to the chains of slavery and making excuses along the way? I ask everybody to bow your heads. I'm going to pray over you and I ask you to pray this with me. In your head, just kind of, however the Lord leads you, just pray something like this. Father, I know that I've been walking with my head down. Thought I could fix it. I just try harder. I could take care of it. But I've lost. I've given in to temptation. I've hurt people. I've held grudges. I've drifted from you. Lord, I don't want that anymore. I want to live the abundant life you've called me to. Draw me closer, Lord. Give me a passion for Scripture. Give me a passion for prayer and a relationship with you. Give me a desire to be surrounded by other believers, Lord. Help me to to put myself in a position to fertilize the soil so that you can grow fruit. Lord, I know it's all you, and there's nothing I can do but be available. So Lord draw me closer. Lord, for anyone in this room who's never surrendered their life to you, I pray right now. Pray, God, that you would draw them so close that they can't say no. That you would save their soul this morning. Father, we thank you for your love. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for showing us mercy. All at the same time you are a just and a righteous God. Through our prayer today, for those who are in Christ, make us more like Jesus. For those who haven't accepted him yet, God, draw us to yourself. Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together.