Pastor Darren: We're in Galatians and I open with some questions.
Pastor Darren: Have you ever been in this place of just getting overwhelmed by the complexities of the world around us?
Pastor Darren: I know sometimes for me I get in this space where I do feel that way.
Pastor Darren: I feel overwhelmed, I don't know exactly what God wants me to do, what God wants me to say, I'm not sure which direction I'm supposed to be moving, and it's just such a complicated world we entered this month.
Pastor Darren: We were praying for bombing in Iran and Israel, and this was after a couple of years of Hamas and Israel and their violence, of years of Hamas and Israel and their violence.
Pastor Darren: We're living through a time where we're trying to overhaul, or the current leadership wants to overhaul, how we run the country and we're feeling nervous for those that the country's been taking care of.
Pastor Darren: And now we even have this kind of ugliness of trying to figure out there's a really bad guy, this Jeffrey Epstein, and we're trying to figure out what somebody connected to this and how, in our government, we're connected to it.
Pastor Darren: And so it's this space.
Pastor Darren: That's just very huh.
Pastor Darren: What do you want from us, god?
Pastor Darren: How am I supposed to live into all this complexity?
Pastor Darren: How am I supposed to discern your will and live out who I'm supposed to be in the midst of what feel like just complex situations that we're living through.
Pastor Darren: So Galatians, paul's letter to the church in Galatia, I feel like, brings some simplicity, some straightforwardness to this conversation.
Pastor Darren: You might remember a few weeks ago the wisdom from Micah that I felt like really did a good job of simplifying the instruction from God do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.
Pastor Darren: I feel like this basic guidance.
Pastor Darren: Here's another version that comes from Paul here in the letter to the church in Galatia.
Pastor Darren: I have found it to be like cool water on a warm summer's day.
Pastor Darren: Anybody want any of that.
Pastor Darren: Okay, I hope you enjoy my cool water of some sort.
Pastor Darren: As we move into this, first of all, I want to tell you two Theologically meaty letter.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes Jesus, he would teach in parables there'd be stories, but Paul theology, so it's going to be a little bit meaty.
Pastor Darren: I hope you can enjoy that.
Pastor Darren: We're going to get our thickness, our oatmeal, this morning.
Pastor Darren: Are you excited?
Pastor Darren: Now some of you those of you who pay more attention might be looking and going.
Pastor Darren: I see we did Galatians 5, verse 1, and then we jumped a bunch and then started on 17.
Pastor Darren: Right, so just to let you know, that's how the lectionary goes.
Pastor Darren: So we're following sort of the lectionary.
Pastor Darren: This happened in June, not now, but I wanted it for this month.
Pastor Darren: I liked it for this month.
Pastor Darren: Also, those passages have a lot to do with circumcision and I promised the fellas I wouldn't dwell on that too long, so we jumped kind of right over that, but it does.
Pastor Darren: Verse 1 kind of sets up the rest of it, so that's why it appears as it does.
Pastor Darren: So I'm jumping in here.
Pastor Darren: Here is the first verse, for freedom Christ has set us free.
Pastor Darren: Sorry, I have it on paper.
Pastor Darren: I needed to get it in official old guy font so big enough for me to read it.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes you get up here and it's a little too small.
Pastor Darren: For freedom Christ has set us free.
Pastor Darren: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Pastor Darren: I don't know if you remember, a couple of weeks ago we were talking about what Paul meant by freedom.
Pastor Darren: It's not generally how we understand the American sense of freedom, the freedom to be able to do or create a society where people can be as free to do what they want as possible.
Pastor Darren: That's kind of the American sense of things.
Pastor Darren: That's not really what Paul was talking about.
Pastor Darren: That's not the freedom he was talking about.
Pastor Darren: He was talking about freedom from religious law, law being the ordered instruction of how we followed faith that we have in our Old Testament, in our Hebrew Bible, right.
Pastor Darren: That that was what law was.
Pastor Darren: That's what faith was was to follow the law and do all of the rules.
Pastor Darren: And so Paul was saying we can simplify this.
Pastor Darren: The spirit of this is love God, love neighbor.
Pastor Darren: Everything can fit into there.
Pastor Darren: So we're freeing you up from that sense of law and the complexity of law.
Pastor Darren: That's part of what the freedom is, but also the freedom that comes with grace and forgiveness.
Pastor Darren: We are free to live in the confidence of God's love, god's forgiveness, despite our imperfection.
Pastor Darren: So that's what Paul's talking about with freedom here.
Pastor Darren: So it's important as we go into the rest of it.
Pastor Darren: All right, this next section, talking a little bit more about this freedom, and it's going to take a twist.
Pastor Darren: I hope you're ready, for you were called to freedom and it's going to take a twist.
Pastor Darren: I hope you're ready, for you were called to freedom.
Pastor Darren: Brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.
Pastor Darren: But through love, become slaves to one another, but through love, become slaves to one another.
Pastor Darren: Remember when we were talking about freedom and now Paul's saying no, I want you to accept enslavement.
Pastor Darren: Accept enslavement to each other.
Pastor Darren: Right, it's simplified when we sum up the commandments and all that God was trying to instruct us.
Pastor Darren: The law, for the whole law is summed up in a single commandment.
Pastor Darren: This is what Paul wants us to understand you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Pastor Darren: That's why he's talking about enslave yourself to each other, and in that way we become something better.
Pastor Darren: We become what God wants us to be.
Pastor Darren: We become what God wants for us.
Pastor Darren: I hope we're okay with that.
Pastor Darren: This idea of enslaving ourselves to each other, not just something we do while we're on the journey of faith, but that that is the journey of faith, that enslaving of ourselves, that commitment to others, is really what Paul is kind of pointing to.
Pastor Darren: But then he does this twist, this pivot If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Pastor Darren: If you, however, bite and devour one another, you ever wonder how we would do if that was a test that was given to us.
Pastor Darren: Are you abiding and devouring each other as a society?
Pastor Darren: Politically, I don't know that we would want to take that class in any other way than pass-fail, any other way than pass-fail, right, I mean, we're certainly not getting an A in not devouring each other and biting each other.
Pastor Darren: Economically it's kind of a challenge too, aren't we in a place where we're actually surprised when someone doesn't rank money as the highest priority, when other folks don't give all kinds of grace for somebody who's looking to make as much as he or she can?
Pastor Darren: We're kind of really comfortable with this idea of hey, it's an open market, get what you can, get what you can.
Pastor Darren: It's an interesting place to be when we're looking at that phrase, if you bite and devour one another.
Pastor Darren: I think Paul's talking here about something bigger than that kind of reality, something that is about looking at a broader good, a common good.
Pastor Darren: What does it mean to love your neighbor?
Pastor Darren: What does it mean to enslave ourselves to each other?
Pastor Darren: What I hear him saying is Paul's trying to tell us society's going to be better if we do that and you know what else?
Pastor Darren: We as individuals are going to be better with that mindset.
Pastor Darren: All right, we're moving on More theology.
Pastor Darren: I told you it was meaty Flesh versus spirit versus spirit, flesh versus spirit.
Pastor Darren: How many of you have?
Pastor Darren: Well, you guys walked the journey with Pastor Walt, right?
Pastor Darren: You know your Pauline letters.
Pastor Darren: You know what he means by flesh.
Pastor Darren: It's not generally what we understand flesh to be.
Pastor Darren: We often think, oh, flesh.
Pastor Darren: Well, yeah, talking about sexuality?
Pastor Darren: Oh boy, that's pretty obvious.
Pastor Darren: When we read this passage, we find he's not talking about sexual desires necessarily.
Pastor Darren: He's really talking about human tendencies versus God's desires, our human desires versus God's desires, our human desires versus God's desires.
Pastor Darren: You're probably hearing a duality in that.
Pastor Darren: Oh, it's this way or it's the other way.
Pastor Darren: And, by the way, human, bad, god, good.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes that duality is helpful for people.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes it's a little bit problematic when we're looking at her, our humanity, as being bad and the divine parts of us being the only good parts of us.
Pastor Darren: But that's a bit of what Paul is trying to get across.
Pastor Darren: The human part of you doesn't make all the greatest decisions.
Pastor Darren: It's got other impulses, other things it's trying to get done.
Pastor Darren: But there's a part of you that's divine, god inside of you, and that's the part that's good and we need to listen to that side.
Pastor Darren: Do the God stuff?
Pastor Darren: I think, is what Paul is trying to get across.
Pastor Darren: So listen to what he says here Live by the spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh Again, not talking about sexuality necessarily, just talking about our human desires that go against what God would have for us, for what the flesh desires is opposed to the spirit and what the spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.
Pastor Darren: To prevent you from doing what you want.
Pastor Darren: You hear that duality.
Pastor Darren: Would anybody argue with Paul a little bit on that?
Pastor Darren: Or is that just me?
Pastor Darren: Me and Stephen?
Pastor Darren: The rest of you, yeah, it all makes sense.
Pastor Darren: Anyway, and feel free to argue with Paul, deep man of faith, but still a man.
Pastor Darren: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.
Pastor Darren: Remember the ordered instruction of faith from the Old Testament.
Pastor Darren: Now, the works of the flesh are obvious.
Pastor Darren: I have preached this sermon before and I like to offer this as an opportunity for full confession to anyone who is interested.
Pastor Darren: So if any of this pertains to you, feel free to stand up, raise your hand.
Pastor Darren: Now, the works of the flesh are obvious.
Pastor Darren: Fornication Okay, impurity, impurity.
Pastor Darren: Licentiousness Okay, running clean, running clean.
Pastor Darren: Idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife Okay, those are easier.
Pastor Darren: Okay, I get it here.
Pastor Darren: We're going to get into some tougher ones here.
Pastor Darren: Are you ready?
Pastor Darren: Jealousy, anger, but only on the road Right.
Pastor Darren: It's different.
Pastor Darren: It's different Quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.
Pastor Darren: I am warning you, as I warned you before those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Pastor Darren: I think in the midst of this, paul really wants us to hear that we can move away from this structured way of living faith with all these laws and just follow the laws.
Pastor Darren: But we move into this new arena where it really might be just one, maybe two laws that it all barrels down to.
Pastor Darren: We've said it before it's this law that says we need to love God and we need to love neighbor, and everything else will dovetail into that.
Pastor Darren: That is really, I feel, like what Paul is trying to get us to understand.
Pastor Darren: And if we are people who are trying to live into that spirit, to know God deeply, to feel that comfort, to feel that peace, to feel that sense of justice inside of us, then we need to focus ourselves into that one law or those two laws.
Pastor Darren: And here's the deep irony of all of it that Paul is trying to get across.
Pastor Darren: The irony is our enslavement to each other with these kinds of behaviors to each other, loving each other, loving God, our enslavement to each other actually is what leads to that true freedom.
Pastor Darren: But it's not freedom in the way we usually understand it.
Pastor Darren: It's a spiritual freedom, the freedom of knowing we are in step with God and we are being the people that God wants us to be.
Pastor Darren: All right.
Pastor Darren: Finally, the fun part Fruits of the Spirit.
Pastor Darren: Enjoy this.
Pastor Darren: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Pastor Darren: There is no law against such things, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Pastor Darren: If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Pastor Darren: Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Pastor Darren: I love that list one another.
Pastor Darren: I love that list Especially.
Pastor Darren: What I like about it is how it was written.
Pastor Darren: Paul could have said you guys need to be better at showing love and you need to be better at showing faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and we would have taken it.
Pastor Darren: Yep, you're right, paul.
Pastor Darren: You're right, I'm going to do my best.
Pastor Darren: But he doesn't do it that way.
Pastor Darren: He talks in a way that implies a desire that we have and instead he refers to the fruits.
Pastor Darren: He refers to these things as fruits, things that are produced in the world, love being produced, joy being produced.
Pastor Darren: And he tells us that you can identify the Holy Spirit in your actions, in the world around you, by these fruits.
Pastor Darren: We all want meaningful lives, we all want to know God, we all want to know the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Darren: We want to look in the mirror in the morning and see somebody that God appreciates.
Pastor Darren: We want to look in the mirror and see somebody we appreciate, want to look in the mirror and see somebody we appreciate.
Pastor Darren: We all have that need to be able to see somebody good in that mirror.
Pastor Darren: And Paul is in front of us saying when you see these things love, joy, gentleness, patience when you see those things, then you are in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Darren: You are producing it, you are seeing it being produced.
Pastor Darren: When you see love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, there is the Spirit.
Pastor Darren: It might be a little bit too straight forward, but the answer to the question we all wonder about are we in the spirit?
Pastor Darren: Well, we can just ask ourselves what are the fruits of our presence?
Pastor Darren: What are we bringing to the party?
Pastor Darren: Because to me it spoke exactly to what Paul was trying to get at.
Pastor Darren: When we live interconnected, even enslaved, with those around us, we're able to become more than we are alone.
Pastor Darren: Interconnected, even enslaved, with those around us, we're able to become more than we are alone.
Pastor Darren: I see the fruits.
Pastor Darren: I see the fruits in that story and I know I started with this thought, this concern that it was hard to understand exactly what God was looking for in a complex world.
Pastor Darren: And I see a video like that and I hear a scripture like this and I think, maybe, maybe it's not as hard as we think it is.
Pastor Darren: Amen.