Okay, well, good morning. Uh, I'm feeling much better, thanks for asking. Oh, you guys are so kind. Uh, seriously, uh, some of you were, were just, uh, texting me and, and emailing me and saying, they're, you're praying for me. Thanks. I, it's that time of year, right where the bug is just jumping from human to human. And, uh, I caught it. My family's fine. I feel much better. I have a little bit of a cough lingering, so I'll ignore it, if you will. Uh, but, uh, we're, we're praying for our students who are all at winter blast right now. We're so excited for them, and we're just praying that God would keep them healthy, uh, that they wouldn't pass it to each other, although, I mean, we're, we're praying for that. Um, but, um, can I just say thank you to my dear friend Angela for covering for me last weekend and doing just such an amazing job? How, yeah. I, I, first of all, first of all, see, at this point, Angela would usually like throw in some snarky comment about me. And I just want you to know that I'm gonna do better. I'm gonna do better. Um, but, uh, Angela, I, I'd love her. How blessed are we as a church to have so many amazing teachers and pastors here who can just step in, in a moment's notice and do that? It's such an amazing thing. So, uh, we're gonna, she was helping us kind of continue in this Galatians series. I'm going to kind of wrap this thing up today, and before we dive into it, I wanna pray. So, would you join me, father, um, you meet us right where we are. Thank you for being so gracious to us. For those who are here, God, I know there are some who are, uh, barely in the door who, uh, are, are tuning in, but have questions and are trying to figure all of this out, God. And, uh, I pray that we would hear glimpses of your truth today, that we would get a sense of this life that you have for us, that you would speak to us through your words. So now, God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, speak to us. Meet us where we are. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So, uh, like I said, we're wrapping up our series on Galatians. Uh, it's been kind of a, a little bit of a rollercoaster getting through it all. But, um, today I want to go back and, and pick up with a verse that we actually started this whole conversation with several weeks ago, uh, because, uh, it, it's gonna help us where we're, where we're going today. This is in Galatians. Paul says this, he says, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Now, we will get back to the bigger context of what Paul's writing about and what he's talking about here in a minute. But let's just talk again about this idea of freedom. I said to y'all, uh, several weeks ago that I think that deep down, we all have a sense that this is the life we want. That we were made for a life of freedom. We, we wanna live our lives where we're unconstrained, where we're not limited by somebody else's rules or what somebody else wants for us, but we wanna be able to do this in a way that brings life to us. We wanna live our lives unleashed. And so that's what we've called this series. And we even said that ultimately what Paul's writing about in this letter is you unleashed. And that's what we want. So each week we've been talking about what this looks like, and I think this week we're gonna get right to the heart of it. And I hope when you hear that, I just hope it makes you wanna lean in a little bit. My hope is that there's some of you that are going this idea of freedom, this idea of life as it was intended. Yes, I want that. Where do I sign? What do I do? And at the same time, there are some of us who are here who are a little bit skeptical about all of this. And I just wanna say, that's okay too. There's some of you. Uh, now let me just back up and say this. I know, uh, I believe firmly that this is what all of us are longing for. That deep down, this resonates with each of us because we're all searching for answers. In fact, I think these days we are more, uh, hungry for spiritual answers and spiritual conversations than we've ever been. So, I know this is something that all of us long for, but sometimes we do a pretty good job of keeping that under wraps, don't we? Now, why is that? I think it's because, um, we don't want to admit out loud that we don't have all the answers. That we don't have it all figured out. I, I, I think that's one reason is we wanna have the appearance that we're okay, that we're doing just fine. Um, but there's another reason, and I think this is even deeper for some of us, is because, uh, we've all heard this promise before and it never delivers. I mean, there's some of you who are going, Tim, you're telling me that you have the answer to life and the universe and everything, and you think, you know how we're gonna experience hope and freedom and all of that. Come on. I've heard this song and dance before. Now I just wanna call out. I think you're justified in feeling that way because we absolutely live in a time where we hear this message from every direction, don't we? I mean, we've heard this before. Now sometimes it's like the voices we hear in advertising. You guys have, have heard those voices where it's like, Hey, you know, what you really need is the good night's sleep you've always wanted. So buy our mattress, right? This is how you're gonna get there. Or, uh, you know, what you, what you need is a vacation or a service where people will treat you the way you deserve. Which is always funny to me. 'cause I don't know what I deserve. I don't know that I deserve anything, but, but we've heard these promises before. Now sometimes these things run a little bit deeper, and it's even more insidious like on social media where you're scrolling through and you're going, man, how come I don't look like that? How come my life isn't that perfect? How come my vacations don't aren't that beautiful? And you start to think that maybe they've got it all figured out, and it's a message that you haven't gotten there yet. If you go even deeper, sometimes there are these promises that are made that the life we're always looking for can be found through politics. Uh, that, that, that ultimately the answers are just around the corner there, guys. It's an empty promise no matter who you voted for a couple months ago, uh, and whatever you think of the last few weeks, whether it's got you thrilled or terrified, I'm telling you it's not the answer. Government isn't going to be able to give us this life that we long for. It's just not, what about technology? Do we think that technology is gonna be the thing that like it, it's the promised life that we are looking for? I wanna share with you this quote. I was reading an article earlier this week, um, and uh, this guy was quoting, um, another article from a couple years ago where this Silicon Valley, uh, venture capitalist, this guy who invests in lots of technology, was writing about, uh, AI and the promises of ai. And I wanted to read to you what he wrote. He said, I am here to bring the good news that there is no material problem, whether created by nature or by technology that cannot be solved with more technology. Guys. He's being serious. I do, I think that word, the language he's using there, I'm bringing the good news. That is intentional. That's intentional. We've been talking about good news here the last several weeks. We use the word gospel. It's the same thing. It just means good news. But this guy's saying the good news is technology. In fact, he goes on to say in this article, our tech is what will make everyone rich, everything cheap and everything abundant technology, he says, is what'll get us to an understanding of what it can mean. Listen to this to be free, to be fulfilled, to be alive. There it is. It's the same old empty promise. It's the same old song and dance. See, uh, quick side note, some of you, uh, have more questions about this. I, AI and technology and all that kinda stuff. I just want you to know, we don't shy away from these conversations. I mean, we talk about this stuff all the time. In fact, I'd refer you back to a series we did in the fall of 2023, called On the Edge. You can go back and watch those messages. We talked about AI and a few other subjects that are related to that. This series that we're gonna kick off next weekend, three weeks that we're calling a and q. You guys should come back for that and you should invite your friends. We're, we're not gonna talk about technology per se, but we're gonna talk about some other hot button questions that everybody's got about the spiritual life these days. It's gonna be so good because we love digging into these really difficult topics. So you come back for that. I'm just saying that I, I I, when it comes to this idea of technology, I agree with Andy Crouch who says that the promises that technology makes, um, are just echoes of the same things people were talking about back when they were doing alchemy. Do you remember alchemy? Do you remember learning about this in history? It was this pseudoscience where they believed they could turn different materials into gold. He says it's that. Now, I think it even goes back further than that. I think there are echoes in this conversation today that sound like the Tower of Babel. And the truth is, I think it even goes back further than that, ever since the very beginning when there were promises of freedom, uh, uh, the promises of freedom we hear today are just echoes of this moment where a serpent came to the man and woman in the garden and said, I have a quick fix. He said, you'll certainly not die. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Now, the Apostle Paul believed in a different kind of good news. He believed in the gospel of Jesus, and he was absolutely convinced that not only does the gospel of Jesus Christ offer hope to everyone who is looking for it, but it actually has the power to transform our lives. Now it can transform our communities, and ultimately it's going to transform the whole world. Paul believed this, and it's the backdrop of his letter to the Galatians. I wanna remind you now how he kicks off this whole letter, chapter one, verse three. Paul says, grace and peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. Paul believed there was a rescue operation that was going on, and that it was ongoing, and that ultimately it was going to make things right. Ultimately, the life and hope and the freedom that we long for comes to us straight from the God who created us. That's the good news, this rescue operation that Paul's referring to, he, it isn't just the backdrop of the of Galatians, it's the backdrop of the whole Bible. And what I love about it is how honest it is. Because it's not a quick fix. I am not saying that if you trust in Jesus, that your life will suddenly be perfect and you'll have everything you ever wanted. What I am saying is that Jesus tells us that if we will trust in him, we will begin to experience some of this life and this freedom and this joy now. But we will also have hope that this is not the end of the story. Jesus tells us you're gonna experience trouble in this life. You just are. But you can experience it. You can live through it, not alone, but with hope that this isn't the end of the story. In another passage, he says, behold, I am making all things new now. That's good news. And it leads me perfectly into my first question that I have for you all. Who do you have winning the big game today? You guys think that's like a hard left turn, like segue, I'm telling you it connects. Who who do you have? Let's just, we're gonna have fun with this now in all the rooms. Let me hear you cheer. Should we start with the Chiefs? Who's rooting for the Chiefs? Now listen, don't be shy. Who's rooting for the Eagles? Good for you guys. That's good. That's good. Uh, who doesn't care? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, earlier this week, I promised I would not out this person, but I will just say somebody on our staff here at the church, uh, was in that I don't care category. And I was talking to her and I said, well, I mean, at least Kendrick Lamar will be entertaining. And she said, Uhhuh, does he play for the Chiefs or the Eagles? He's the halftime show. In case you didn't get the joke, um, won a Grammy a couple Grammys not too long ago. So anyway, uh, it's, uh, it's gonna be really good. Here's what I want you to do. Get it outta your system. Turn to the people around you. What are you, what are you serving at your Super Bowl party? Are you doing, are you doing cheese, steak or barbecue? All right. Are you, is it the commercials, the halftime show? Talk to each other a little bit. Okay, I'll give you guys a chance to talk to each other more here in a few minutes. But, um, but uh, I, this is why this fits perfectly with Galatians and where we're going today, because this is a part of what this letter's all about. Here we are, think about this. Now we're a community of people who've gathered together in different locations watching online. And we all are cheering for different teams. We've got different things. We're looking forward to have really strong opinions that don't agree about what's the best, like what's the best snack? Is it potato skins or wings or buffalo dip, right? Like we have all these opinions and yet we've all come together around a shared experience. As Diego reminded us of a few weeks ago, a shared experience around Jesus and what he's done for us. Some of us have have received this gift of grace from Jesus. Some of us are exploring who he is and what that means for us. But we're all here together because of Jesus. And we have that in common. And that's a picture of this beautiful community that Paul believed Jesus had come to create. This is what Galatians is all about. Football. No, it's about the churches of Galatia where Paul had visited and he'd shared with them the message of Jesus. And they had received this message. And now there are followers of Jesus who are starting to exclude other followers of Jesus from the party because they were on the wrong team. And this whole thing circled around this conversation about circumcision. So once again, let's just remind you of what's going on in this, this letter. There are these agitators who come into these churches after Paul has left and they're stirring stuff up and they're saying, you have to be circumcised if you're a gentile, if you're not Jewish, in order to follow Jesus, you've gotta be circumcised first. You've gotta become Jewish first. Now, we haven't talked about this, but there's a good chance these agitators might not even have been followers of Jesus themselves. They just wanted to sneak into the church and start to stir up dissension for political reasons there. And they're just making a mess of this whole thing. And apparently it's working because the Jewish followers of Jesus are starting to get intimidated by these guys. And so they're starting to distance themselves from their gentile brothers and sisters. And Paul is doing everything he can to try to stop this division in the church because it goes directly against what Paul believes the gospel is all about. See, the thing we've gotta understand is that when we talk about the gospel of Jesus, yes, we absolutely affirm, we believe, we talk about this all the time, that Jesus came to set us free from our sins to forgive us for what he did on the cross, to be applied to our lives so that we might be with God for all eternity. That is the good news. But it is also that God is reconciling all things to himself. He's reconciling us to him, and he's also reconciling us to each other. This is a part of the good news about Jesus. I'm telling you this is, this is what Paul's all about. This is what we, this church is all about. We're learning about this right now in the genius of one course all over our campuses. It's one of our core values that the redeemed of God, the people of God are many, and yet they are all together one, one. This is what we're called to. So what what happens is we, we see Paul speaking into these divisions and he gets so angry, which is really fun for us because now we get to see Paul be really hotheaded about some of this stuff. Sometimes he's really funny. As Paul's writing this letter in chapter five, this whole thing just kind of boils over. So I wanna read to you now, uh, verses seven through 12. This is five verses. Uh, and I want you to see how Paul is just kind of getting fired up here. And um, when, when I read the last verse, verse 12, I, uh, we're going to have to talk about it. So let me just read this. Paul says, you were running a good race who cut in on you to keep from obeying the truth real quickly. The whole subject is around circumcision. And Paul is intentionally using a pun here. I just want you to be aware of that as I keep reading who cut in on you from obeying the truth. That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view, the one who is throwing you into confusion, what whoever that may be will have to pay the penalty. Brothers and sisters, if I'm still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go to whole way and emasculate themselves. What Did he just what? Yeah. Whoa. Does he get to say that in the Bible? I mean, what's going on here? Somebody ought to wash that guy's mouth. That was soap. Some of you aren't getting the joke. Read it again. That's in your Bibles. It's like the most colorful line in the New Testament. And I didn't wanna just skip over it and So let's talk about it 'cause I think it's important. Um, so lemme just give you a, a few things here to think about and then we're gonna keep going because the truth is, what Paul's doing here is he's building up steam on purpose. He's building up momentum so that he can get to his main point. And I want to get to his main point. But first, let's talk about this. Um, you need to know that to the readers who are seeing this for the first time in the first century, they would have thought that Paul was being absolutely hilarious. In this whole paragraph, he starts with a pun. He ends with a pun. And in between Paul is mixing all of his metaphors. Remember how we've talked about context is important. We have to study the world within the text. Some of you'll remember that this is the world within the text. Paul talks about running a race. Then he talks about mixing yeast into a batch of dough. Then he starts using like legal court of law type terminology. He's just going from metaphor to metaphor. And it's like, it's punchy, it's funny in the first century. And then you get to his punchline. Now the punchline there is multi-layered. As scholars are looking at this, they're saying, look, if, if people did what Paul's suggesting they do here, a few things would be in play. First of all, that would effectively carve them out of the community that they were in. So, so he's kind of turning their argument back on them. Uh, it also would've meant that this would've been the end of their, of their lineage. They would not have been able to pass this on to future generations. And then the other layer to this is what was going on culturally in Southern Galatia during this time. There was all kinds of pagan worship, all kinds of dark practices that were happening to different pagan gods. Uh, one of those gods was a goddess named Sibley. And you can go look her up and you can read about her, but, uh, there were, uh, temples in this region where people would go to worship the little g goddess Sibley. And there were all kinds of practices that were around this that were famous in this region. One of those practices was these worship, um, rituals where people would work themselves up into a huge frenzy. And the whole thing would end in like, the climax of the whole thing would be with a bunch of the men that were there doing exactly what Paul is suggesting these agitators do. It's dark stuff and Paul's kind of calling them out. Even as he calls out these agitators, he's saying, the agitators, I just need to go be like the pagans. See what he's doing? So many different things. Now for us, when we read that, we go, well, that just sounds harsh and divisive. And it's like the opposite of what Paul's telling us to do. And whatever I'm saying, he's being funny here. And for the people who would've read it in those days, they would've totally got the joke. Now, maybe that's helpful to you guys. Maybe it's not. Maybe you're still going. I just don't know how that's in there. Well, let me just tell you, I, this is what I love about scripture. 'cause it leaves these little awkward things in the text. It doesn't clean it up for us. What this means is that when the early church started to distribute the letter to the G Galatians to other churches, they didn't edit it. It's still there. And what you see is these really imperfect people, including Paul, trying to tell people the good news about Jesus every way they know how. And for me, for this little detail to be in the, in the text, it makes his message more trustworthy, not less. 'cause there's just, it rings of authenticity. So, uh, wherever you are with all of that, I'm not saying we can totally defend Paul's use of language here, but what's abundantly clear is that Paul thinks these agitators have stirred up controversy in the church and they're creating conflict among the followers of Jesus. They've created division between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. And Paul thinks that that is violating the truth of the gospel of Jesus. And so he's bound and determined to set the record straight. So he's using all of these rhetorical flourishes and he's building his way up to the most important thing. So what is the most important thing? Last weekend, Angela showed us how all of us, regardless of our ethnic background in Jesus, when we place our faith in him, we get to say that we are children of Abraham. Now, that might not sound like much to us today, but when you understand the promises that were made to Abraham's children, it's everything God said to Abraham, you're gonna be a blessing to the nations, your children, all of the nations will be blessed through you. God made promises to Abraham that we are still counting on today. And what Paul says is that it is by faith in what God was gonna do, that Abraham benefited from those promises. And for us today, it's the same thing. It's by faith that we now get to call ourselves children of a Abraham heirs to the kingdom of God, members of the family of God. It's huge. So here's what Paul says in, in, um, uh, chapter three, because now he's starting to hint at this life of freedom that we were created for. Paul says he redeemed us. Jesus redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. So that by faith we might receive the promise of the spirit. Now again, you may not see it yet, but I'm telling you, if what Paul is saying here is true, it's a surprise. It's a beautiful surprise. And when was the last time that you were like really surprised by something? Can you remember? There's different kinds of surprises. Yes, there's bad surprises, which some of you are like going through right now in different ways. There's, there are bad surprises, but what about the good ones? Sometimes things happen that you didn't see coming and it takes your breath away. Do you have those stories? Alright, go back to the people you were talking to just a minute ago and tell them when was the last time that you received a really good surprise? Tell that story and we'll pick back up. Okay? Uh, can I, can I tell you one of my surprises real quick? So this was two years ago, now it's been a minute, but, um, my son Micah graduated from high school two years ago. And, uh, here's, here's what you need to know. So when Kim and I came to the crossing, Micah was 1-year-old. I think he was maybe not even quite 1-year-old. And, uh, and right away he met two other boys his age. I mean, they started playing together and they grew up as friends together. They've been lifelong friends. So Isaac and Caden and Micah have been friends through their whole life now, just, it's been such a cool thing to watch them grow up. And I just wanna start by saying I love these lifelong friendships that happen in the church, and I want that for all of you. But Micah and Isaac and Caden grew up as buddies together. And so a a little more than a couple years ago, Caden and his family moved back to their hometown of Indiana. And so, uh, after they moved away, Isaac and Micah, my Micah's, my son, they were graduating from high school. And so our par the parents got together and said, why don't we just combine the graduation party and we'll just throw one big graduation party for Micah and Isaac. And so that's what we did. And uh, the surprise is that Caden and his dad decided to cut their vacation, their family vacation a couple of days short, and they flew to St. Louis so that Caden could surprise my son and Isaac at their graduation party. So now you have the backstory to this picture. Now, oh gosh, it gets me every time. Can I tell you what I love about this picture? That is a picture of lifelong friends who grew up in the church. I think that's awesome. But even more than that, you cannot deny the joy on their faces in this picture. You know why this was such a wonderful surprise for Caden to do this? These are the best kinds of surprises because when people surprise you like this, it reminds you that you are not alone. It reminds you that you are loved enough that somebody would go to trouble to surprise you. In this way. It reminds you that you bring joy, you bring delight into somebody else's life. I'm telling you, these are the best surprises. There's somebody who cares about you so much. Well, guess what? Church, this is the kind of surprise that Paul's talking about in Galatians when he talks about the Holy Spirit. Look at it again. He says, by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a surprise In the gospel of John, Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples what's gonna happen when he sends the Holy Spirit and, and the counselor, the advocate comes and it's clear the disciples don't understand what he's talking about. It doesn't make sense. It's not until you get to Acts chapter two that all of the puzzle pieces start to finally fall into place because the spirit shows up. But even then, and even after that, he continues to surprise everyone because more and more people are coming into relationship with Jesus and they're receiving the Holy Spirit. Gentiles, people who had previously been outside of the story of God in according to their understanding at the time, are receiving the Holy Spirit. This is a part of Paul's argument in Galatians. He's saying to them, listen guys, these gentiles have clearly already received the Holy Spirit, and now you're telling them that they've gotta do something else to be a part of the family of God. Come on, they have the Spirit. What else is there? So let's just talk for a moment about the Holy Spirit and who he is and why he's so important. So the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, which means that he is fully God just as much as God the Father and God the Son. We call this the Trinity, which is a word that does not appear in your New Testaments. But when you read what the New Testament writers are saying, they all testify to this reality. We just put a word to it and we call it Trinity. It's a mystery, but it is not up for debate. In fact, since the very beginning, the church, the people who follow Jesus, have collectively said, this is a core tenet of our Christian faith. God is one, and yet there is three in one. And that's the Trinity. And it's a mystery, but we believe it. And so the Holy Spirit is fully God. Now, he's he's not a it, he's a he. You'll, you'll, you'll hear me say that He, it's not a, it's not a what is it? It's a who is it? He's the Holy Spirit. And there are people who would say, ever since he came, we have been living in the age of the Holy Spirit. That's the age that we are in right now. Now, what's really important to understand is that in the New Testament, whenever you read about the Holy Spirit, the writers almost always talk about him in the context of Christian community, there's something about the presence of the Spirit that you and I do not experience fully unless we are in community together. This is a part of what the Holy Spirit does. Now, yes, absolutely. When an individual chooses to follow, Jesus allows what Jesus did on the cross to apply for them. And they receive this gift of grace. Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit moves in, in a powerful L way. And now God is so close that it is almost as though he is in you. We say around here, he's as close as your next breath. He's guiding you and leading you and convicting you of truth and pointing you to Jesus and empowering you for ministry and so many other things. This is all true. This is a part of the promise of the Holy Spirit, which again, is such a beautiful surprise because what did we sing just a few minutes ago? Hallelujah. I am not alone. The Spirit is with me and he delights in me, and he's gone to great trouble in order to come and surprise me in this way and to remind me that I am loved and I'm delighted in and I'm not alone. So that is true. But over and over again, the New Testament writers talk about how the spirit of God makes his dwelling place among the people of God. So it's when we are doing life together, when we're worshiping together, praying together, loving one another, serving one another. This is where the Holy Spirit shows up in a really beautiful way. Because as we are reconciled to God and the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, he also does the work of helping us reconcile to one another. So can can I show you a picture of what this looks like? Can I just have Ron and Jeff? Will you guys just come up here for just a second? Just thanks. Which one of you wants to be the Holy Spirit? All right. He gave, he, he threw you under the bus. So there's gonna, all right, so you go between us. And so Ron and I, Ron and I are friends, Ron, we've been friends for a long time, right? And we do life together. But in Matthew 18, Jesus says that whenever two or more are gathered in my name, I'm there. And so what that means is that God is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so now we get to do life together and we to experience community. God and Ron and I are doing this thing together, and the Holy Spirit is loving us and pointing us to Jesus. He's also helping us to love one another and to enjoy being in relationship with one another. And what starts to happen is this really cool. Some people would even say it's almost like a dance of community where we get to do this together with God. Do you get the picture? Okay, thank you guys. I think when you look at this, it, it, it points to the life of freedom that we were created for. It's a hint of what life looks like now with God and of what is to come. So look at how Paul says this. Uh, in, uh, in verse 13, he says, you, my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another. Humbly in love for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. This is what I think we so often misunderstand about freedom. See, we often talk about what we've been set free from. And that's really important 'cause it's true. We've been set free from things. Paul would say, you've been set free from sin, you've been set free from condemnation, you've been set free from all kinds of things from a law that you could never live up to. We would probably add to that list and we could talk about being set free from tyranny or, or or from all kinds of things. But the reality is what Paul's saying here is, yes, you've been set free from those things, but you have been set free for something. And it's not to indulge the flesh. You have been set free for what? Love. There's a word play again in what Paul's saying here when he says that we're to serve one another humbly in love, the Greek word there is de luo. And it's the root word is duos, which is the Greek word for servant or honestly slave. What Paul's saying here is he's saying, listen, use your freedom to be a slave to one another in love. It's this beautiful word play that he's saying. This is what we get to do is we get to fulfill the law by loving one another in this way. So what does that have to do with the Holy Spirit? Well, Paul continues here. He says, when we walk and step with the spirit, this is imp. This is exactly what the spirit helps us do. In verse 19, he says, the acts of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions faction and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. Now, when you look at that list, first of all, this is what happens when we use our freedom to do whatever we want to just indulge the flesh. This is what it looks like. And let me ask you, do you want to be a part of a society or a community that's like that? No, Tom Wright says this so well, he says, A moment's thought will indicate that it is society in which many people live in the way just described will be an unhappy and dangerous place. This is not the life that we are looking for. We wanna live life guided by the Holy Spirit. So what does that look like? Well, that gets us to what I think is probably the most famous verse in Paul's letter to the Galatians. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Paul says against those things, there's no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Now, there is more to unpack here than we could. We have done an entire series on the fruit of the spirit, and we probably should again. So we're barely gonna scratch the surface. But lemme just say a couple of things about this list here. First of all, did you notice how every one of the fruit that Paul mentions here, um, is connected to this idea of community and relationship? It's all things that we live out together. Again, Tom Wright says that, that Christian virtue is a team sport. The Holy Spirit is helping us to love one another. Uh, Paul didn't change the subject here and stop talking about freedom and love. He's still saying this is how the spirit helps us. So you start to get the sense of how this is the opposite of what the circumcision group was doing. They were creating the vision. Paul says, the spirit of God reconciles us to one another. But now here's the second thing. Some of you have read this list before and you thought, this is what it means to be a good Christian. And so you've picked it apart one by one and said, I am gonna strive to make these things more a part of my life. I am going to be more joyful. I am gonna do this. And we start focusing on it and we pick it apart. And I'll tell you, that is not what Paul's saying to do here, and it doesn't work. I don't remember where I first heard this illustration, but I remember a pastor saying that when we try to live out this verse in that way, it's like trying to staple fruit to a dead tree. Fruit is beautiful, right? It's, it's healthy. It's full of vitamins and things, micronutrients things that we need. It's colorful, it's pleasing to the eye, it's sweet to the taste. Fruit's a good thing. But what if we said, listen, I wanna bear more fruit in my life. And so what I'm gonna do is I am gonna just start stapling some of this fruit. Like I'm just gonna, I'm gonna take care of this myself. 'cause I think I can be more joyful, more loving. Uh, Randall, I'm just gonna help you with this because I'm gonna, oh, I'm just kidding. There's no staples in it. What would happen if we started to do this? We'd make a mess, wouldn't we? Eventually that fruit would rotten. It would stink. And it's, this isn't how this works. What Paul's saying is that when we keep in step with the spirit, when we follow him and we do life with him, the fruit will just be born in our lives. We will bear fruit. It's very, almost exactly what Jesus is saying. John 15 five, when he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me, if you abide in me and I in you, you'll bear fruit. Now we can ask God to help us with this, with each of those things, and he can begin to cultivate that fruit in our lives. Sometimes it requires pruning, sometimes it requires careful attention. But it is with God's help through the spirit that we live this out. What Paul is saying is this is what it looks like for you to live your life unleashed. It's the life of freedom and joy and meaning and purpose that you've always wanted. It's what you long for life in step with the spirit. I'm telling you, it's not an empty promise. It's not a promise that things will suddenly be snapped perfect in your life and you'll never have trouble again. It's a promise that God will help you take steps to becoming more and more who he created you to be. And in the meantime, you can live your life with hope that this is not how the story ends, but it's headed somewhere. Here's how Paul ends his letter to the Galatians. It's like the third to last line. He's wrapping up his argument and he says this, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is new creation. Truth is he's bookending his letter with this idea. He's saying the same thing here that he was saying up at the beginning when he said, Jesus came to rescue us from this present evil age. This story's headed somewhere the new heavens and the new earth. You wanna know what that looks like? It looks like a life reconciled to God where he's with us, guiding us, convicting us. This is why in another letter, Paul says, the Holy Spirit is like the first fruits of the ner new creation. It's the down payment on what is to come. We get to do life with him and with each other. So here's how we're gonna kind of wrap up this conversation on Galatians. I want to end this with a time of prayer and worship because maybe you, um, maybe you have not reached out and, and received this gift of grace that Jesus offers us. Maybe you have not allowed this rescue plan to include you. Maybe you're still, um, wondering what life with the Holy Spirit could be like. Maybe some of you have been following Jesus for a long time, but the truth is that somewhere along the way, for whatever reason, a bad surprise, Discouragement in some area of your life, a broken relationship, a career that's fallen apart, whatever it might be, somewhere along the way, you forgot what the Spirit does in our lives and will do and can do and will do. Like now, I wanna invite you to just pray with me. Would you? Holy Spirit, you are here, you are with us whether we sense it or not. I'm asking that you would speak to us, that you would open our hearts and give us ears to hear. How could I know the specific needs that are in each of our rooms? How could I know the truth that people need to hear God, but I know that you know. So Spirit, would you speak for those who feel alone? May they experience your love. For those who are disheartened or anxious or worried, God, may they experience your joy, your peace God, in a world that is just, it's dis, it's desperate for kindness, for goodness, for gentleness. God, would you show us how you are kind? You are good. You are gentle. And may that experience of you and our lives begin to heal us and put our, our broken pieces back together. God, may it heal relationships in our lives. May the life that we live now look more and more and more like the life that is to come on earth as it is in heaven. God, holy Spirit, would you fall on us? We're listening.