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Keeping in Step with the Spirit ~ Galatians 5:16-25! April 6, 2014 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson!

Intro1: The childs fantasy book, Peter Pan: The Boy Who Refused to Grow Up is more than a fantasy. Its also a tragedy. All children, except one, grow up. Popularly it is said of a person who never grows up is displaying the Peter Pan Syndrome.! If this is tragic in terms of normal social development, it is especially tragic when it comes to spiritual ! ! development. When a person becomes a Christian, they are newborns in Christ; but they are meant to !! ! matureto grow upto become more like Christ. ! 2 Peter 3:18, Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.! But how do we grow spiritually? !

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Exploring: You will learn something that the seasoned Christian knows all too well, ie., The Christian life is both harder and easier than you imagine.! CS Lewis, The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, Give me All. I dont want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I dont want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires you think innocent as well as the ones you think wickedthe whole outt. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself; my own shall become yours.! The Christian life is not so much about amending our lives as if it were all about quitting some bad habits and starting new ones (though true). Rather, it is about living out the new life that God gives to us as a gift. !

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Christian: You will learn afresh what it means to live out this new life in Christ, and what the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to give to his disciples has to do with it. ! Series of Lent: Keeping in Step with the Spirit to Live the Kind of Life Jesus Died to Give Us! 1. The Gift of the Holy Spirit! 2. The Indwelling Presence! 3. The Spirits Work: Seeing & Savouring Jesus! 4. The Spirits Work: Enabling Us to Kill Sin! 5. Keeping in Step with the Spirit ~ Galatians 5:16-25!

! 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the esh. ! ! 1. Walk is a predominant metaphor for the Christian life !
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Rom. 8:4, who walk not according to the esh but according to the Spirit! Col. 1:10, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

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2. the flesh is that part of us that resists Gods will for our lives; its that part that says, I want to do what I want to do!

This idea is from Brian Hedges, Christ Formed In You, p. 147-8.

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17 For the desires of the esh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the esh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. !

! As we saw last week, there is an internal spiritual battle raging in the life of every Christian.! ! 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

1. The Christian life is not so much about conforming to a list of rules as much as it is living out the new life of Christ that has been planted within us by the Spirit. ! Romans 6:4, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.! 2. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit connects you to the resurrected life of Jesus himself, so that the very life of Christ begins to ow through your life. Its resurrection power. Its supernatural fruit.!

19 Now the works of the esh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, ts of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 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. ! 1. This is rotten fruit: against the grain of the universe, and against Gods design for human ourishing. ! 2. Strong warning: the person whose life produces this kind of fruit will not inherit the kingdom of God.!

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ! 1. The fruit not fruits of the Spirit.! Ryken, the virtues are not nine different gems, but nine different facets of the same dazzling jewel.! 2. That dazzling jewel is the life of Christ being formed in us.! J. Dunn, the fruit of the Spirit is a character sketch of Christ.!

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucied the esh with its passions and desires. ! """"! 1. We rst crucied the esh when we came to faith in Jesus. It was there that we died to our old master Sinand came alive to our new masterKing Jesus. ! Romans 6:11, Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.! 2. The problem is we keep returning to the scene of the crucixion of our sin and seek to nurse it back to health. We remove the nails, administer rst-aid, and bring it back to full strength in our lives. !

! 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.! ! ! For the Christian, this is what it means to be spiritual, to live by & to keep in step with the Spirit.! ! 1. Mortication: putting to sin to death in our lives.! !
2. Vivication: cultivating the life of Christ in our lives = keeping in step with the Spirit.!
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! Main Idea: If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.! ! Application: ! ! What does it mean to keep in step with the Spirit?! ! 1. Root yourself deeply in the Gospel. ! ! ! Note vs. 24, Those who belong to Christ Jesus.! ! ! !

Colossians 2:6-7, Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.! B. Hedges, Christ Formed In You, Spiritual growth is not about moving on from where we beganthe gospel. Its about growing deeper in the gospel. Or rather, getting the gospel deeper into us.! Horatius Bonar: The gospel does not command us to do anything in order to obtain life, but bids us live by that which another has done; and the knowledge of its life-giving truth is not labour but restrest of soulrest which is the root of all true labour; for in receiving Christ we do not work in order to rest, but we rest in order to work. In believing, we cease to work for pardon, in order that we may work from it; and what incentive to work, as well as joy in working, can be greater than an ascertained and realized forgiveness?!

! 2. Cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. ! ! ! Note vs. 25, keep in step with the Spirit.! ! ! !

We have a part to play, we have a responsibility. We must put sin to death, and we must co-labor with the Spirit to cultivate the fruit of the Spiritthe life of Christin our own lives.! 1 Timothy 6;11, Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.! 2 Timothy 2:22, So ee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.!

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JC Ryle, When I speak of growth in grace I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigor and power of the graces which the Hoy Spirit plants in a believers heart When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply thisthat his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart. He manifests more of it in his life. He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace. !

! My friends, we are called to not display the Peter Pan Syndrome when it comes to our Christian lives. ! !
We are not called to a life of perpetual spiritual childhood, but of growth into spiritual maturityto grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the way we do that is to keep in step with the Spirit to live the kind of life Jesus died to give us. !

The Lord will give you opportunities this week to (1) Root yourself in the Gospel, and (2) Cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. Practice love instead of hate, joy instead of joylessness, peace instead of chaos
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