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Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 8th January 2006 AMKEEP IN STEP WITH GOD'S SPIRIT Pastor Colin Meadows Bible Readings: Galatians 5:16-26, Zechariah 4:1-7
Ø Learning to keep in step: Difficult for me when I was an air cadet with the Air Force. Trying to keep in step when marching. Others made it look easy. Slowly however I found I could do it if I kept my eye on the leader. This is what is being spoken of here. Paul continues his conversation with the believers concerning their Christian living. They had been set free from their sins to live in Christ. This task is impossible apart from the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The righteous live by faith under the new covenant of grace. We are not justified by law, so let us stop trying in our own feeble strength to attempt to do so. Instead, cast us upon the mercy of God, live by faith, a faith that is expressed through love. In fact, says Paul, the whole law could be summed up by the single command ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The whole Christian life is impossible apart from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As believers, we each have received the Spirit. We are now to keep living and walking in the Spirit. Ø Keeping in step with the Holy Spirit: the Apostle Paul carefully explains our task as believers: Gal 5:25 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Our new life can come from the Holy Spirit. We are now to walk with Him. Literally we are to walk in step with the Holy Spirit, to walk in line with Him, hand in hand. If we do this, then we will produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This wonderful fruit is a snapshot of the character of Christ himself – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. One meets Christians from time to time who are just like this. They are a tonic to our hearts and refresh us with their presence. However, for much of the time, we find ourselves in a tug of war. Sometimes we are willing to walk with the Holy Spirit but at other times, a different side appears. Ø Walking as we did in the past: Paul warns us that we are easily drawn back to our default position. If we choose to let go of the Holy Spirit’s control, then another side of our nature appears and it is not pretty. Paul gives a short snapshot for us to consider - sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, etc. We fall back to that position because that is where we are being led. Our culture is slanted to live that way. As one reads the local newspaper, we see this lifestyle at times lived out before us. It is almost accepted as the norm. If one speaks out against such things, then you may be called a wowser or worse. Yet such living is far from what God intended. It in many ways such a lifestyle damages our bodies and minds. George Best, the famous English footballer that died last year said he spent most of his money on drink, girls and fast cars and the rest of his money he just wasted. Much of Best’s life speaks of a wasted life, in spite of his immense talent as a footballer. What about us? We have talents and abilities that God has given us to use for his glory. What are we doing about these things.? God’s desire is that we walk in a different way, in the way that Jesus walked. As we do that then we honour him and are blessed. But how can we do this? What decisions do we need to make so that we live in God’s ways? How do we learn to live in God’s strength, to keep in step with the Holy Spirit? Ø Living in God’s strength: How do we strengthen our walk with the Holy Spirit? Can we do anything to avoid this oscillation between godly living and the lapses into the past? The Apostle Paul himself told of his struggle in this regard in his letter to the Romans. In Romans 7:15 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” He was caught in the struggle that each of us face, day after day. How can we move towards living in God’s strength and not going back to our old patterns? The story is told of an Eskimo fisherman who used to come into town with his two dogs every Saturday. One of his gods was a white dog and the other black. He had taught them both to fight on his command and he would take bets from the local people as to which dog would win. Sometimes the black dog would win while at other times the white dog would win. No matter which dog won, the dog owner always knew and he bet that way and thus made a lot of money. Finally the village people could bare it no longer and asked him how he knew which dog would win. It is easy, he replied. One week I starve one dog and feed the other. Then another week, I will starve the other dog. The dog I feed always wins because he is stronger. It is similar with our inner lives. If we feed our old self-centred natures then that side of us will be strongest. We will produce the negatives that characterise such a lifestyle. If we feed it rubbish then we will produce rubbish. However, when we feed our new natures in Christ, then a different story emerges. We draw on the strength of God’s Holy Spirit, and walk hand in hand with him. We have chosen a different pathway. We have learnt to feed the right dog. Ø Feeding our inner self: Feed your inner self on the Word of God. Psalm one gives us a clear insight in this regard. A person is blessed if they choose not to walk with the unrighteous but rather to seek strength and guidance from God’s word. Psalm 1:2,3 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD and on his law he meditates day and night, He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields it fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prosper.” Feed the inner self with God’s Word. Read and meditate on what God has said. Allow his Word to filter down into the recesses of our lives. To meditate is more than just reading. IT is mulling over what you have read and seeking to apply it to our lives. Then the Holy Spirit will apply God’s Word to our lives, bringing about fruit. The Holy Spirit is the source of all fruit in our lives. Billy Graham noted, “Apart from the Word of God there will be no lasting spiritual growth or fruit bearing in our lives.” But there is another aspect to bearing fruit that is vitally important. We not only meditate and internalise God’s Word. We obey the Word. As we live in God’s Word, so we become more like God’s Son, Jesus. In fact we read in John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Abide in Christ, the Word of God and thus grew to be all that God intends us to be. John 15:4,5 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me… apart from me you can do nothing.” Ø Feeding the right dog: Which dog have you fed this morning? Through the everyday events of life, we take in food for our inner lives. Much of it is feeding the wrong dog! That dog will grow strong and seek to take us back to our old way of living. What we need to do is feed the right dog, to allow our inner lives to be fed by the Word of God, to meditate on it and then to obey it. As we do this, then we will produce fruit that will last, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Which dog will win the fight today? The one that you have fed this morning.
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