Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness: Walk By the Spirit

Galatians 5:16-25 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The Holy Spirit is the source and power of our holiness

The desires of the flesh does not oppose us...they oppose the Spirit.
When we sin, we give control from the Spirit to the flesh. We are free, but sometimes we listen to our old master, sin.

Our sin is fighting with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of sin are listed followed by the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the cause of these fruits. The Holy Spirit is necessary for our sanctification.

Growth in Holiness happens in learning to walk in the Spirit

When we walk in the Spirit, this is how we grow holy.

Walking in the Spirit means following in the Spirit's lead.

We are like soldiers. We are to follow the leading of spirit. Much like how soldiers listen to the commanding officer.

Setting your mind on the things of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit ministers by spotlighting. It highlights. It draws us to dwell on Christ and the work he has done on our behalf. By winning of attention, it wins our heart. Sinful desires are pushed out by greater desire for God.

Where does the spirit lead us? It leads us to the Father. It reminds us that we are children of God. Over and over again. Why? We fail alot. We stumble alot. We experience hardship. God loves us. Not because of our performance, but in Christ. We easily forget and question God's love. Hardships make us bitter. Failures make us want to hide from God. But the holy spirit reminds us of the unconditional love, the grace, and the mercy of God.

Fruit of the Spirit = Holiness

The holy spirit shows us the father's...this makes us want to love. But even more than that, it makes us love our enemies. It mirrors the unconditional love of God.

The Spirit shows us the all encompassing fulfillment of God. We become filled with thankfulness for the giver rather than the gifts. We are filled with joy, even when God takes away those gifts.

Closing Remarks

Christians should be the most patient and humble people.

The more we are in the Word, the more ammo we give the Spirit to kill sin in our lives.

Listen to the leading of the Spirit.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness: Praying in the Spirit as the Spirit prays in us

Romans 8:26-27 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Prayer is one of the most powerful tools God gives to change.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 calls us to continually pray. APTAT finds its foundation in prayer. It is a model imbued with prayer. We know the importance of prayer. We don't struggle with comprehension, but execution. Two things the modern church struggles with: prayer and evangelism. Any discussion of these brings feelings of guilt.

We may feel strange or confused about what to pray about. But we have a helper, the Holy Spirit. He helps us to pray. He prays for us. The spirit strengthens us. We are weak in prayer because we don't know what to pray for. There are many obvious things to pray for. So what is Paul talking about? We are in a broken world, we are not saved from it. God saves us through the brokenness. In the difficult times, the painful times, or horrible times... We don't know what God is doing. We don't know why. So we don't know what to ask for, we are in confusion. That is what Paul meant. We don't know what God wants.

The Holy Spirit prays for us. He prays in the will of God. And all prayers in the will of God are always answered. So even when we are confused, be reassured, the Holy spirit intercedes for us. God continues His work in us, even when we don't pray rightly.

"with groaning too deep for words" has many different interpretations. I think this refers to our groaning in a broken world that waits for redemption. But the Holy Spirit also groans. The deepest longing of the Spirit is for the glory and return of Christ. Not only that, but our groans over our sin and brokenness also originate from the Spirit.

We start out not knowing how to pray. The Holy spirit prays for us. We pray unknowing and uninformed. Then as we learn to pray, the Holy spirit starts to pray through us as well as with us.

Application

Be mindful of the Spirit as you pray

Even when you have a list of prayer items, ask the Holy spirit to lead and teach us to pray. We can get convicted to ask for forgiveness. We can get convicted of sin.

Allow God's general will to shape your prayer life

Pray according to what God wants, generally. God's kingdom come, the growth of the kingdom both in our hearts, lives, and the world. "Hallowed be your name" "your will be done"

The Spirit points us to the gospel

We are weak, He is strong. We were sinners unable to do anything, so the Son had to come save us. Prayer is the language of weakness and dependency. So as we grow, we learn how weak we are.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Holiness: The Spirit by whom we cry"Abba"

Romans 8:14-17

Romans 8:14-17 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Rev. Dan Whang

We don't all have good pictures of fathers in media and even in our own lives. Some of us may have had less than good relationships with our earthly fathers.

Preceding our passage, Paul talks of killing and fighting sin in our lives. How sin is out to kill us. Here, Paul lays out a greater motivation. We are introduced to the spirit of adoption. We are the same as the physical relations.

The counter point is slavery. They live in fear, with actions done out of duty, and a relationship based on performance.

Children are different. They are entitled to an intimate relationship with the family. They will always have a place in the family. They act out of love. We are children of God.

Abba is an intimate term for father. It denoted intimacy and respect. How have you addressed God, our heavenly father? If your prayers are not in this spirit, you are missing out.
The Spirit empowers us to call God,Abba. It cries out with us and for us in our battles with sin. Galatians 4:6-7 also speaks of this.

Application / Lessons

We are able to cry out to God and pray to Him about anything and everything.

Joking, anecdotes, little things, big things... More than just asking for things or blessing.

Crying out Abba gives us tremendous power to put our sins to death and truly change.

We are empowered by God. What can we not do? He wants us free from sin, what can stand in His way?

Our father can discipline us for our good.

Hebrews 12:6-8

God shows us our sin so that we can grow. So that we become more like Him.

We must treat others in the family of God with grace as fellow adopted children of the same Father.

We are all adopted. Not of our own merit. Of grace. We are a single family in Christ. We are united in hope and in our faith. We are all heirs of a heavenly inheritance who can forsake the world for Him.

Missions: For Him, Through Him, Like Him

1 Colossians 1:15-29

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Those who  think of God as  small, don't think of missions.

For Him

Missions is for Christ. He had always been. When He is called first born, it speaks of His ownership. He created it all. Angels are His as well. The point of all creation is for His praise and glory, forever. Not only that, but also for His dying work. He died for the re-creation, redemption of  creation.

Where  worship is weak, missions will be weak.

Through Him

Our God is in control. When we are on mission for Jesus, God is also at work. He holds His servants together. When the ministry is too much, God holds us together. He keeps us in one piece. When situations are tough, we need to remember that God is working it out to His glory. Then we can rest. He holds His sheep together. When we want to share the good news, we are reminded that God watches over His sheep. So we can share without fear. Even authorities, evil spiritual authorities are under His control. They are not His equal.

Like Him

Missions work is not easy. Ministry is the same. The way includes suffering. Jesus suffered in His ministry. We can expect no less for those who seek to follow Him. Through our suffering and sacrifice, Christ's worth and greatness is made known. Our lives can witness to the greatness of our God.