Get In Step With The Spirit
Gal 5:13-26 Sept 17, 2006
Intro:
How many of you have ever danced – and before you answer, I don’t mean like turning your stereo on in your house when you are all alone with your hairbrush in your hand like a microphone; and I don’t mean like the way people dance today where all that really matters is that you move your body around and don’t smack anybody else; and I don’t mean like the way people danced when I was in junior high and you would ask someone to dance and, assuming she said yes, you would then go and join “the line” – 6 feet away from your partner, with a wide aisle… pretty pathetic…
How many of you have ever danced, where the way you moved was interwoven with the way others moved – whether a partner in a classic ballroom dance, a 50s jive, or even a choreographed country line dance? Ok, now what kind of Baptists are you?? Whether you have experienced that or not, I think you get the image – it is about being in step, together, becoming one, and the result is something beautiful, joyful, and full of life.
Review/Context:
This is week two of our five week fall series, entitled “A Life of Love – God’s Road to Fullness.” It jumps out of the very purpose which Jesus said He came for – “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10), and in it we are going to explore how to live a life of love, which leads to that fullness Jesus was talking about. We started last week by getting on the right road – not the broad road that leads to destruction, but rather the narrow road that leads to life. This week, I want to look at a life of love, lived “in step with the Spirit”, and see how that leads to fullness of life. “Get In Step With The Spirit”.
Gal 5:25
The concept comes from Gal 5:25: “25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”, and to me the “dance” analogy gets us a little closer to understanding the concept of living “in step with the Spirit.” – it hints at the beauty, the joy, the unity, and the life that is ours when we live our lives that way. We can imagine a life, embracing God, dancing together.
For those of you who find the “dance” analogy a little to feminine, there is another. In the original language, the word that we have translated as “keep in step” was first used as a military term, meaning “to proceed in a row as the march of a soldier, go in order” (Thayers’ Lexicon), and over time it came to mean “be in harmony with” (TDNT: 7, p. 669). We can imagine a life, marching in time and with determination, for the glory of God and His Kingdom.
Both the dance image and the marching image, the idea is the same – the Bible is telling us that the road to fullness of life comes when our steps are in step with the person of the Holy Spirit, guiding us moment by moment, setting the pace, and the direction, and leading us into a full life of love. And that is, truly, a glorious thing.
The Challenge:
But it is also a really difficult thing. We all find the idea of letting God set the pace, and the direction, and leading us, somewhat difficult because we want to be in control of our lives – we want to set the pace, we want to set the direction, we want to be in charge. This comes from both our insecurity – “look out for #1, cause nobody else is looking out for you”, and our lack of trust that God really does have our best as His goal – “if I let God lead, well what if He makes me do all kinds of stuff I don’t want to do???” Both of those are overcome by God’s love.
It is a challenge, and the rest of the passage around Gal 5:25 tells us a little bit about why: (from NLT):
“13For you have been called to live in freedom--not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. 14For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
16So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. 18But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.
19When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.”
Breaking It Down:
I know that is a long passage, with a lot of stuff in it, and after our service you are invited to dive into it a little deeper in the adult part of our education hour. But for now, let me break it into 3 pieces:
The first piece is vs 13-15: This is the big picture piece – what is this all about? It is about living in freedom – true freedom. Here it is – freedom to serve one another in love. You see, the way it works is this: before we are free, we are constantly seeking and striving and trying to get to some place of feeling good, of feeling important, of feeling secure, of knowing there are places of intimacy where we are loved unconditionally, of believing that life matters and that we matter and that we have a place and we are not alone. But the only way we know is through pursuing a whole bunch of desires that we think will bring us those answers – we have a desire, and we believe that if we satisfy it we will find all those things we so desperately need. But they don’t – at least not in any way that lasts – and we eventually discover that pursuing all those personal desires only leaves us feeling more empty and desperate. It is kind of like drinking salt water – it might satisfy in the moment, but it dehydrates even more, and leads to death. God has something else in mind, and here it is: “freedom to serve one another in love” – you see, in Jesus we find acceptance, forgiveness, adoption, complete newness, we find security because we know God loves us unconditionally, we find significance because we discover that God can and will use us to share love with other people, we find belonging as God adopts us as His children and then places us in community with one another, and in all of those things we discover what real freedom is, and we find that as we serve one another in love. And as we do that, we discover a true life of love, which is God’s road to fullness.
The other two pieces are simply a contrast – first the life lived in our own strength – what is here called “the desires of our sinful nature”. And the main point here is that these things lead us not to any kind of lasting pleasure, but to emptiness and lifelessness and depression and loneliness and judgment and a whole host of other highly unpleasant things. That “selfish” life is contrasted by the third part of the passage, which describes the kind of life we have when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, which is vs. 22-26.
The passage makes it pretty clear that these two are opposites, and in conflict with one another. And all of that makes good sense to us, and we can nod our head because we understand the reality of the conflict, because we have felt it and experienced it. The concept is not hard – “get in step with the Holy Spirit” and that will lead to a full life of love. The bigger question is “how”?
A Personal Story:
Let me share a personal example. A number of years ago, I used to get really, physically sick before speaking in public. I remember one summer day camp Sunday in 1995 and I had to preach the sermon, and I had to get my buddy Brian to run out and find me some Rolaids because even though there was nothing left in my stomach, it was still churning around like mad and I didn’t think I’d make it through. This is not good for someone who is a pastor…
Now, at first glance it is easy for you to think, “a little nervousness? what is the matter with that? completely normal, don’t be so hard on yourself…”, and while I appreciate your sympathy, the reality is a whole lot worse. I was nervous because of one of the sins listed in vs. 20 – “selfish ambition”. I felt ill because I wanted to be the best, I wanted to look really good in front of people, I wanted to preach a sermon and have everyone say “wow!! that was the best sermon anyone ever preached, why we should sell the tape and translate it into 50 languages and then everyone can hear how great it was!” It was around the same time that I was working in the school across the road, and when other youth pastors would ask about the size of my youth group, I’d be incredibly tempted to reply “well, our youth ministry touches the lives of about 150-200 junior high students…” During that period of time, too often I was living out of the desires of my sinful nature, out of selfishness and ambition. Of course, I didn’t realize that was the root cause at the time.
One day I was in a car, on the way to a place where I was supposed to speak, and I was starting to feel that familiar churning stomach, and I really didn’t like it and so I started to pray, and seek God and ask the Holy Spirit to help. The response I got from the Holy Spirit was swift and sharp: God said, “why do you think this is about you?” I responded, “I don’t! It is not about me, it is about You, I’m doing all this for you, I only want people to see You and hear You…”, but my nervousness was the evidence that convicted me – I had been making it about me, about my selfish ambition, about my desire to be successful and have a big youth ministry and be admired and sought after and praised. I had been making it about me, and not about the people I had the privilege to minister to, and certainly not about God.
Now, I try much more to live in step with the Spirit. When I speak, when I lead, when I minister, I try hard to base my personal measure of “success” on my obedience to God, to leave the rest to Him and trust Him to use me and my gifts however He desires. Of course, I am not always successful – “These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” (vs 17). But let me tell you from my own experience – my life is much more full, the love is much stronger and better, when I live in step with the Spirit.
So, how?
It starts here: do you really believe that it is possible to “live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”?
When I say, “believe”, I mean in action as well as intellectual assent. Are you willing to let “the Holy Spirit controls our lives”? Are you willing to “nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there”? When we really understand how those “passions and desires of our sinful natures” lead away from life, and away from fullness, it becomes much easier to turn away from them. When we begin to see things as God sees them, then the “Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires.”
That is a key verse, because it reminds us that this is not about striving or working hard, it is about being transformed by God. I wasn’t nervous because I was unprepared – I had worked extremely hard to be exceedingly well prepared – what I needed was for God to transform my desires, replacing my selfish ambition with a love for God and desire for Him to be pleased.
The place to start is to ask. “Holy Spirit, I choose to surrender to You, and ask you to give me desires that lead to the full life of love which You promise.” After asking, carve out space and time to allow God to do that transforming – 2 hours on Sunday is not enough!
Conclusion:
God’s Road To Fullness is to lead us into A Life of Love. To find that, we need to get in step with the Spirit.
Imagine that you have been invited to the best party imaginable. Even though you don’t feel like you really deserve to go, or that you are really “likable” or “cool” enough, and even though you are a little self-conscious, you decide to accept the invitation and you go. Now imagine this – the host, the master, the one everyone is there because of, crosses the floor and asks if you would like to dance. As you take His hand, you hear Him say, “my child, I delight in you, you bring me joy. Keep in step with Me. Let me lead, your life will be full.”
Or, imagine this: the warrior King has come, and is knocking on your door. You open it, you see the dust of battle on your King’s face, and you hear Him say, “I could use another strong fighter at my side.” He tells you of a bunch of innocent children, kidnapped and being tortured, dying, and says, “will you fight with me?” Even though you feel weak, and you are not too sure how and where you can really help, you see the look in His eyes and you want to respond. You hesitate briefly, and your King says, “it is ok, I’ll be right at your side. We’ll fight together. Keep in step with Me. Let me lead, your life will be full.”
