Introduction

Life is full of choices. We have to make decisions every single day, all day long. And in your choices, you can love God or you can not love God. But either way, we constantly choose what we're going to do, how we're going to do it and why we're going to do it.

Really, what we want to come to terms with is this: the crazy happy life actually happens on the other side of the choices we make.

If we've chosen to put our faith and trust in Jesus, then we've chosen to honor the Lord in all these different areas of our lives. Or we've chosen to live in rebellion against God because of any number of reasons.

Today, we're going to explore the choice we get to make to live a crazy happy life––or not.

the crazy happy life actually happens on the other side of the choices we make.

Main Teaching

The choice is yours. Galatians 5:16-18 says; 'I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.'

These verses teach an important principle: the choice is yours. You are either going to walk in the Spirit, or you are going to walk in the flesh. It's very important we choose to walk in the Spirit. When we choose to walk in the Spirit, we're not going to fulfill the lusts, or passions, of the flesh.

Now the idea of flesh here is not literally speaking of our skin. It is speaking of the part in our nature that is in rebellion against God. The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh.

They are completely contrary to one another. The two cannot co-exist.

It makes me think of the old view of the cartoon where there is an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other––we have to choose one or the other! So we want to lean into the finished work of Jesus and walk in the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If you are led by the Spirit, then you've actually been freed from the constraints of the law because you're walking in the law of love.

We see this same kind of choice so clearly in Joshua 24:14-15.

'Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium