Arcade Church Service - September 5, 2021

[Music] so [Music] death could not hold [Music] silence the best [Music] you have no yours is [Music] [Music] what a powerful name it is is [Music] foreign [Music] is is [Music] foreign [Music] you have been so so good to me before i took a breath you breathed [Music] you have been so so kind to me [Music] recklessly [Music] yourself [Music] it was my turn till i met you i was breathing but not alive all my failures i tried to hide it was my two till i met you you called my name and i ran out of of the darkness [Music] [Music] [Music] glorious [Music] [Music] is [Music] you called my name and i ran out of that grace [Music] i darkness [Music] heaven thundered and the world was born life begins and [Music] fear is a losing [Music] things in your name freedom conquered [Music] dawn darkness was the night when the stone was gone [Music] [Music] and on [Music] nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unstoppable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus our god unstoppable nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unstoppable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus our god unstoppable nothing shall be impossible your kingdom reigns unsolvable we'll shout your praise forevermore jesus nothing [Music] jesus [Music] impossible [Music] go on [Music] and without you i fall apart [Music] lord i [Music] need you [Music] oh [Music] where sin runs deep your grace is more where grace is found is where you are and where you are [Music] my righteousness [Music] to teach my song to rise to you when temptation comes my way and when i cannot stand i'll fall on you cause jesus [Music] [Music] my justice well good morning church family would you stand to your feet with us this morning as we read from god's word hebrews chapter 1 says long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he's spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the air of all things through whom also he created the world he's the radiance of the glory of god and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power this is the god of whom we sing this is the god of whom we worship and so let's come before him with gladness with joy and singing because all of our iniquity god has laid upon him jesus the lamb of god and so as we sing and as we teach and admonish one another in all wisdom we're also going to be celebrating baptisms amen this is an amazing amazing time where we as the family of god at arcade we like to get a little bit rowdy on this because what we're actually witnessing is the confession of a miracle in a person's life we have absolutely no ability in and of ourselves to raise a dead person to life it is the work of the holy spirit within us to raise the dead to life and so we want to invite any family members any gather group members any friends of the people that you see getting baptized just to gather around them and to celebrate the work of god in their life that is a beautiful thing amen so let's sing and teach and admonish one another in all wisdom this morning [Music] [Music] from the rising of the sun to the end of the day [Music] your name alone [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] of the earth [Music] [Music] give him praise this morning [Music] [Music] drink of the water [Music] taste of his goodness find what you're looking for sing our church [Music] whoever believes in them [Music] [Music] jesus is [Music] is [Music] [Music] praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him praise him for the wonders of his love praise god praise god praise god [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] freedom [Music] bring all your failures bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus so loved the world [Applause] [Music] i love you lord oh your mercy never fails me all my days i've been held in your hands from the moment that i wake up until i lay my head i will sing of the goodness of god let's declare this together church oh my god if you have been faithful [Music] oh my lord you have been so so good with every breath that i have made i will sing of the goodness of god i love your voice [Music] [Applause] [Music] i've known you as a father [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] down i'll surrender now i'll give you everything [Music] is [Music] is [Music] for my life you have been faithful [Music] all my life you have been so so good with every breath that i am [Music] god [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i will see [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] sing it out church sing it out [Music] i'll sing of the goodness [Music] of the goodness of god [Music] amen thank you father for your goodness thank you jesus that you paid the price that you are faithful our whole life long and often times that's when we're not even aware of it lord you are always faithful you are always good and may we be reminded of that today regardless of our circumstances that your spirit will do his work that the fruit of our flesh will not be dominant but that the fruit of your spirit will be present and overflowing father the power of your spirit is what allows your goodness to be present we're so grateful lord may that affect the way that we live our life may that affect the way that we treat our co-workers and drive our cars and do all the things throughout the week sunday aside may that change the way that we live our lives thank you for your goodness father we pray this in your son's name amen amen well i would love to invite you all to continue standing we did this last week but if you want to find someone around you say hello a high five maybe handshake something someone you haven't met yet and introduce yourself make a new friend or a couple friends this morning we'll continue to worship in a few minutes [Music] do [Music] oh my well how wonderful it is to be in community together isn't it how incredible it is not only being community together to witness people um witnessing their faith in baptism that was such an awesome time and i loved it yeah absolutely that was incredible congratulations to you too and um just just a cool moment that we get to witness here together in community uh hey if this is your first time here you're a guest here today we would love for you to just text arcade guests to 484848 we would love to just get to know you to know who you are and to get you connected to the ministries here at arcade church so if you would go ahead and do that that'd be awesome you know one of the things that is absolutely amazing that we don't see happen far often enough is when the men in the church get together and they pray when when we get together and say hey you know we believe that god is important enough for us to take a night of our lives and say hey we're going to give this time to the lord so we're going to do just that on september the 17th at 7 pm we're going to have a day of fasting and a night of hope this is just for the men of arcade church ladies you'll get here soon don't worry families you got one coming as well but for this one it's just for the men of arcade church we're going to spend the day fasting and then we're going to come together in the evening and we're going to spend time in prayer we're going to have communion together we're going to do worship we're going to have a whole bunch of stuff going on for you that night and so we would love for you to be a part of that you can find more information about that on the app and on the website so go check that out tomorrow is a holiday if you didn't know many of you probably have the day off high schoolers middle schoolers yeah we're hanging out um but who's not hanging out is the office staff they have the day off so don't show up to the church tomorrow if you need something you can call and leave a message but nobody's going to be here because they have the day off and lastly something really cool happened last friday i don't know if you were aware but we had like a mini arcade kids camp for our afghan neighbors last friday night and it was a really cool opportunity that we got to have a bunch of kids come and do arcade kids camping stuff and hear the truth of the gospel and be a part of the ministries here at arcade church and not only was it this incredible ministry but what happened is there was someone in the church who said hey you know what i want to donate 500 to this event and when all was said and done the cost of the event was just over 500 and how perfect is that when god's people show up and say hey we want to see the work that happens in the church happen in the church and we were so blessed by that and we continue to be blessed by your faithful giving if you'd like to give today you can do so on the app you can find the boxes in the foyer out there and you can give to the ministries that are happening here at arcade church you know i forgot to mention one thing about the guys that i just remembered there's this really cool feature on the app which i have to tell you about i just learned about it this week so if you get the app and you get it out and you go to the to the men's prayer night and you click on it then there's an option in the top right hand it has like that little share thing you can actually click that and you can share the event right there from the app to your friends you could say hey i know some men that need to show up to this thing and you could share that right there from the app directly to your friends if you don't have the app yet you should go get it it's getting better and better and better every week and there's just fantastic stuff that you can do on it would you guys pray with me as we get ready to continue in worship this morning lord we thank you for your people we thank you that we get to be in this place together today lord that we get to worship you in spirit and truth we get to witness people showing their faith by being baptized in your name lord that we get to hear your word this morning we pray that as we get ready for that lord that you would prepare our hearts even now to hear what you have to say to us lord that you would draw us closer to you through the word that's going to come out of craig's mouth in just a minute lord that you would teach through him that you would fill him with your spirit god we pray for the ministries that are going to go on today from the from the gather groups to the people going to lunch to all the different things that are happening in your name by your power we ask that you would be in them and that you would fill them and lord that you would fill this room here and let us know what is already true lord that your presence is here with us moving in our midst we pray that you draw us closer and closer to you day in and day out starting right here right now in your name amen all right good morning everybody good morning i hope that you are all well um if you have your bibles would you please take them and turn to galatians chapter five chapter five if you don't have a bible app on your device or a hard copy bible in front of you go ahead and use the one in the blue bible and the pew rack in front of you you can take that home if you don't have a hard copy bible that's our gift to you and if you're not familiar with what galatians is just one of the shorter books in the bible so it might take some time if you don't use the table of contents just go ahead and turn to page 974 974 and while you're turning there's one let you know some things some some family things are going on with an arcade church um it's about a year and a half ago we began praying for wade chandler who was diagnosed with a brain a type of brain cancer and just so you know he was healed this past week by coming into the presence of jesus christ and uh and so i know it's a weird thing to clap for something like that and if it were not for the gospel of jesus christ there would be nothing to clap over and so we thank god for allowing us to live this life for a time with wade i thank i thank god for those moments that i had with him as my friend and that's my brother but right now i'm somewhat jealous because he is in the presence of our savior enjoying things that we can only dream about and that i can only preach about so i thank god for that uh so be praying please for cheryl for their two children braden and audrey during this time it's it's a loss it's a loss and so we want to come around that family and pray for them to service the memorial service for wade is going to be september 18th it'll be a on a saturday september 18th at 11 o'clock right here and i hope that you can come and rally around the family and enjoy wonderful memories of wade but also this love that christ has for all of us all right let's pray father we we recognize the apostle paul says in thessalonians that we grieve but we do not grieve like those who have no hope we're not grieving for wade anymore we grieve for cheryl for braden for audrey for ourselves this side of death lord we're going to miss him and i know his students will as well so father thank you for the gospel that your word says to be present to be absent from the is to be present with jesus what a wonderful gift of knowledge that is and we thank you for it and so father we are we praise you this is this is a story wade's story is one where jesus is the hero and so we praise you for it in your son's holy and precious name jesus and everyone said amen amen all right well i hope that you're in galatians chapter 5 and we're going to be dealing with a new sermon series called uncontested the spirit made manifest we talked this the past couple of weeks three weeks we were talking about christ reflected and this is kind of a continuation of that a little bit on how we can be able to reflect christ i want to draw your attention to chapter 5 verse 1 first of all in galatians where paul writes for freedom christ has set us free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to yoke of slavery i want to begin this series with that verse because i think that sometimes we tend to think that jesus has saved us and that's when our life of slavery begins but the apostle paul comes in and corrects us and says the reason why jesus saved you is to free you to make you free now this is very apropos to the book of galatians because paul has a bone to pick with his church news flash he's got a problem with it turns out that in acts 13 14 the story is told of paul and barnabas going into the region of galatia galatia is not a city it was a region with lots of cities and villages in it and they go and they preach the gospel and and all kinds of people jews and gentiles they all come to christ they all bow the knee to christ in time paul and barnabas leave but in the meantime if they've left there have been some people that have come in who were jewish and probably christians and they were saying hey um gentile believers uh little factoid maybe paul didn't mention a whole lot jesus was a jew and he followed the old covenant and so if you're going to call yourself a follower of jesus then you have to become jewish as well and the place where that begins men is with circumcision not the greatest way to launch a men's ministry if you want to be a christian a full a true christian then you've got to become like jesus jesus was a circumcised jew you've got to get circumcised you've got to become jewish and that's the reason why paul is writing this because he says you have taken on a yoke of slavery that jesus christ set you free from and so he says it is because of freedom that jesus christ has set us free so do not submit again to yoke of slavery he goes on towards the middle part of that chapter and says this in verse 13 for you were called to freedom only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh don't don't use that freedom to think great since jesus has forgiven me i can sin how i want i can do what i want i can decide for however way i want because now i'm totally free and paul says that's not why he's saved you he's not saved you to free so you can be free to sin all you want but to love all you want that's why he says but through love serve one another and the reason why we're talking about this and those of you who've been paying attention you might be wondering i thought we were going to be in matthew this fall we'd finished up in june the sermon on the mount and so the next thing in line was matthew 8 and i've been telling you throughout the summer we're going to start up in matthew 8 in the fall and about two or three weeks ago i was just praying and just thinking about our church about our world and what's going on and my heart just became heavy my heart became heavy because of what's been going on in the world and it seems like the world is absolutely on fire and everything is just burning up everywhere around we every every every opinion you have is now contested and if you disagree with anybody then you are cancelled and it seems like the fervor and the heat in our society has just turned up several not to the point where it seemed like everything is burning and i found in my own soul the anger self-righteousness self-justification arrogance i felt that stuff being born in my own soul and i hate that stuff i've been there i don't want to go back so i began to just write down some things that are kind of lighten me up some things that i'm supposed to have a rock-solid position on like these recall or no recall america is it a christian nation or a pagan nation black lives matter or all lives matter january 6 insurrection or patriotism kova 19 hopes or reality masks or no mass 2020 election fact or fraud fires global warming or force mismanagement and the list could go on i just gave you the ones i was thinking about in about five minutes and maybe your blood starts boiling as i mentioned some of these that you have i've got very strong positions on this do you realize brothers and sisters in christ that over the last year we have had people leave arcade church because of one or more of these things not because the gospel not because of the bible but for whatever reason we've been canceled because of our point of view on certain things with this and my heart's just heavy and so i don't know about you but when i have a heavy heart i i go to the word i turn worship up a notch with with pastor chris and his team i talked about it with my wife debbie and the only response i know to all of these things and it's okay to have opinions on this stuff but what's happened is it's no longer what i stand for it's who i stand against it's no longer i belong to this tribe but rather what tribes i'm against and my concern is that this world has turned into this giant global mosh pit where everybody is just jumping around beating up on everybody else and no one is listening and everyone is talking and i'm right there with you so the only thing that i know is to go to the word and look at the word instead of trying to cancel everybody that might disagree with my opinion on any of these things so that's why we're going to be in galatians 5 and in fact for the next nine weeks we're going to be looking at only two verses in galatians 5. only two verses we'll just touch on them today but i do want to get a run at it and talk about the movement of the passage a little bit how this passage goes and so if you're taking notes go and join with me first of all number one the christian life is a battle it is a battle life life being human hurts life is a battle but when you become a follower of jesus christ then all of a sudden it because you are engaging you are enlisting in a battle in fact paul talks about that in verse 16 through 18. but i say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh i want to talk about the last part of that verse before the first part gratify the desires you and i have desires and every desire that we have demands gratification you're binging one night on netflix and you're sitting there and you turn to your spouse or to your children or a friend and you say i need something sweet or i need something salty have you done that before raise your hand i just i have a craving for something so you go to your pantry and you look for anything that ends with eatos or or you or you look for chocolate or something sweet a bowl of ice cream something like that that's a desire that you have that will not be satisfied until it's gratified that's a desire and paul is saying that we have desires that come and they demand to be met they demand to be gratified and the only way that we can be able to deal with that is to walk by the spirit and we'll talk about that a little bit more this morning but then certainly throughout this fall he goes on in verse 17 for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit well that's not good news and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh haven't talked about the word flesh here yet so let's talk about it right now when paul is talking about the flesh when the bible talks about the flesh sometimes it means the physical body but it's rarely ever in negative terms because our physical bodies are as much a creation of this most high wonderful god as our souls and so the word of god says the body that god created is good say that my body is good yeah yeah even if you don't believe it say it anyway but what paul here is talking about is not the physical aspects of our life it's the it's that sinful nature that we are born with because the sin of adam and eve that nature that that we are instinctively born with that we don't have to teach our children how to lie how to deceive how to manipulate they come by that naturally why because of the flesh and paul is beginning to build this foundation that says whatever jesus wants and whatever your flesh wants are at war with each other young people list and you know this already doesn't take a preacher to tell you this that what jesus wants and what your fleshly desires want are two different things they are at war with each other and so paul says 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 and he he wrote that in a way that you can take it one of two ways in my flesh i want to do things and jesus says comes in says don't do those things but as a christian because of christ we want to do those things but the flesh comes and it says you don't want those things and so there's this battle going on to the core of our own soul that is continual throughout our lives he goes on in verse 18 but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law there are all kinds of ways to say this but know this whatever jesus wants you to do there is no law against because it's jesus there's no law against being christ-like there's nothing to prohibit you from being like jesus no law but you live by the flesh with the sinful desires of the flesh la la la la la the battle it's a battle that's going on and that continues to go on all right so great that's the battle so number two in this battle how can i know who my enemy is and he answers this question for us by works of the flesh by works of the flesh he begins in verse 19 with this statement now the works of the flesh are evident they're obvious they're conspicuous you don't need to hunt for them you see them everywhere even if you've never seen the list that he's about to give you know he's saying the works of the flesh these things that come out of our sinful nature they're obvious they're conspicuous you can't hide them they're part of you they're everywhere and so he goes on and what he does here it's interesting john stott he mentions that the list that paul gives he's going to give us about 15 things maybe 16 how you read it and he breaks them down into four different categories and we'll do the same all right for the sake of your notes and everything first of all there's sexual sin the last part of verse 19 sexual immorality impurity sensuality i'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this but the bible is very very clear abundantly clear that sex is indeed a gift it's a gift of god given to humanity that has guardrails that has boundaries and sex outside of those guard rails sex outside of those boundaries is simply a work of the flesh it's a work born out of your desires that are evil and my desires that are evil but within those boundaries within the bounds of a marriage between a man and woman sex is a beautiful gift that god has given and anything outside of those boundaries is simply seen as a work of the flesh and then he goes on spiritual sins or religious sins i want to use s's so i chose spiritual that's how that's what that's the deep thinking i go through i said i just like s you know spiritual sin verse 20. idolatry sorcery if you've been around the bible any amount of time you know what god thinks of idolatry any any facsimiles of him any imitations of him he absolutely despises so any form of idolatry where something in our life is preeminent it's more important than him is seen as idolatry sorcery is a unique word because we automatically go to what harry potter yeah there's a little fodder for you know lunch conversation right there enjoy the word sorcery it comes from the word pharmacy that's where we get the word pharmacy and so it's talking about drugs it's talking about potions he's talking about poisons but it's also talking about the attempt of conjuring or entering into the supernatural apart from the holy spirit any form like that and paul says any form like that is a work of the flesh then there are the social sins this is the longest of the list enmity which is simply this internal hatred towards someone strife where it shows itself out and manifested out in relationships jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy in the first part of verse 21 envy is very similar to jealousy except that i i want to have what you have and i don't want you to have what you have i want to have what you have but i don't want you to have what you have and that envy is borne out that way so these are some things that are happening as far as works of the flesh that are coming out in the life of this now we look at this and and we might be thinking to ourselves not a big deal yeah check check i'm there i'm there i'm there i'm not there but i'm checked i'm there i'm there i'm there and we can tend to kind of wink at this list and says yeah i know i know this list i know it very well but i want to communicate this and young people my heart is heavy for you i challenge you i triple dog dare you to show me one person show me a marriage show me a family show me a neighborhood or a team or a cohort cohort or an office where these things are given into show me a place like that where they flourish living by the works of the flesh you see because satan says if you're really free then go ahead and bon appetit because this is this is all this is what you want the biggest sin of all is robbing yourselves of your own desires and show me a life that is flourishing who has given themselves over to the works of the flesh show me that life show me that family and the whole point of why paul is talking about this is that your natural desires and mine will ruin you and me and all those closest to you they will ruin marriages they will ruin lives they will ruin careers they will ruin neighborhoods they will they are ruining this world and it doesn't matter what you think about masks or no mass it doesn't matter what you think about covet it doesn't matter what you think about the recall or not when we when we live in a society where we are given over to our own personal sinful desires that is a society that is ruined so that's the enemy that we fight that's the problem that we have and so now naturally we want to go to uh oh census and i forgot about those yeah i forgot these are good too again an s you could put stupid stupid sins drunkenness orgies and things like this simply where people are losing their minds and their control they're losing everything and then paul goes in case him in case i missed one and things like these all right so the list could go on i'm running out of ink so and things like these so these these are the enemies that we have in the battle how can i know who my ally is and this is where we get to where we'll be talking about for the next nine weeks by the fruit of the spirit we have seen the works of the flesh and now we are looking you can almost say this is the work of the spirit but he calls it the fruit of the spirit galatians 5 22-23 parents families young people children i'd like to encourage you to memorize this list you may already have it memorized you just don't know it it seems like i always forget one word in here but it's worth memorizing but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law there is no law against love no law against joy no law against peace or patience or any of these other virtues there's no law against those things and you look at this list and even if you're not a christian thank you for being here thank you for being at home tuning in with us if you're not a christian but even if you're not a christian do you not want this in your life do you not want this in your spouse do not do not turn to your spouses as you need to be more of this but there isn't a human being on the planet it doesn't matter the culture the ethnicity that says i don't want any of this in my life i want it all and even as christians we say yeah i want this in my life i want i want to be one that's known as love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and self-control i want that in my life but why is it that this battle is going on and i want the fruit of the spirit but i gravitate to the works of the flesh why is it that ultimately yes i want this but i also want the works of the flesh and yet paul says you can't have it both ways because whatever the spirit wants and whatever the flesh wants are contrary to each other they compete against each other and that war is on so why why do why do i have this battle within me i want this but i also want that and the problem is it goes to our desires it goes to who we are it goes to our being it goes to this this thing about us that we just so desperately want and yet what we want there's this battle right there working with these evil desires i don't know if you've ever seen the movie shawshank redemption how many of you seen it okay it's it's about redemption news flash it's in the title but when you watch the movie you begin to ask yourself the question who's really in prison and who's really free the bars of shawshank penitentiary are just props who's really in prison well the warden the guards are the ones in prison they're imprisoned to their own selfish desires and it seems the ones behind bars are the ones in many ways who are free and in fact the narrator played by morgan freeman the character's name is red and he says this in the movie and i think it's plays to this galatians 5. these prison walls are funny first you hate them then you get used to them enough time passes you depend on them what's happened with us is because of these natural sinful desires it's very difficult for us to picture life without them i depend on them when i'm stressed i do this when i'm anxious i look at this when i'm overwhelmed i get into this it's very difficult for us to even fathom what life looks like without those desires because they're mine i was born with them there was never a time when i didn't have them and yet we come with galatians 5 verse 1 where jesus or paul says about jesus it is for freedom that christ has set you free and yet when we became christians it seems like when freedom stopped because we're no longer supposed to gratify things that we want to gratify and as a result we depend upon the bars of our slavery we depend upon the prison that we were already born in and we fail to see that well this week or the uh this coming fall we're going to be looking at each one of these we're going to dedicate a sunday to each one of the aspects of the fruit of the spirit not fruits of the spirit fruit of the spirit and we're going to see because i think that we need this this is the best gift that we can give our society it's not your argument about masks it's not your argument about the recall the best gift that we can be able to give our community our neighborhood our family our marriage for the spirit amen it's the best gift we can give so how are we going to do that let's talk about some things first of all what does all this mean regarding christian growth i'm going to go through this fairly quickly your growth as a christian is a process i think that's one of the reasons why paul uses the word fruit you have an apple tree you wake up one morning and there's nothing the next morning you wake up there's ripe apples it doesn't work that way it is a process of growth and christian i want you to know that you might be discouraged because it seems that you revert to the fruit works of the flesh and you want the fruit of the spirit and just keep going back that because you want that but there is this process if the spirit of christ is in you this process that has given you the desire to pursue the fruit of the spirit it's there and it's going to take some time so i think it's okay for you to be patient with yourself and since you can be patient with yourself can you not be patient with someone else can you not be patient knowing that the same spirit that's working in and through you to develop ripened fruit in you is also working in your brother or sister it could be a parent it could be a child it could be your spouse but i'm asking god to be patient with me as he bears fruit in me and so therefore i can be patient with you it's a process it takes time it takes progression and we're all growing towards that this is these are wonderful things now in keeping with that the knee-jerk reaction is okay i just gotta try harder i'm gonna i'm gonna declare war on the works of the flesh which should not be a bad thing and i'm gonna take love joy all the way down through self-control and i'm gonna turn over a new leaf and i'm gonna be that today know this then it's supernatural it is a work of god not a work of you non-christian i i this may not sound like good news but i hope it ultimately becomes good news as i mentioned earlier when we read the fruit of the spirit i mentioned to you that you probably want these qualities in your life can i just simply say without the spirit of jesus those qualities are impossible you can you can mimic for a while you can fake it for a while but they will never become a part of you without the spirit of christ because this is the fruit that jesus bears through you you go out to your apple tree and it's the time when apples should be on there and you say apple tree bear fruit come on you march around it seven times because it's biblical you fast for 40 days it's biblical you do all you can to make sure that apples come on that apple tree and nothing happens and we all know why because ultimate god's the one that bears the fruit the same is true for you and me this is where we simply yield to the spirit because he is doing something in us that we've always wanted we've always wanted love and joy all the way through self-control we have always wanted all of those things and jesus is faithful enough to produce those do you believe that do you believe that he is faithful to produce those qualities within you amen and by the way this is one of the reasons why the fruit of the spirit is why we're naming this sermon series uncontested because that list of things that i mentioned at the beginning of the sermon everything on there is contestable everything is arguable everybody in this room has very strong opinions on all those things i mentioned and for many of us we're just itching to tell everybody else how wrong they are and how right i am because i found the mother of all websites to tell me and so everything is contestable the fruit of the spirit in you is uncontestable you cannot contest that that's why i know a lot of people like apologetics conferences where they talk about noah's ark on ararat and and rusty chariots at the bottom of the red sea and how this proves the bible i don't care about any of that stuff i don't care if they find noah's ark i don't care if they find cherries by the red sea you know the uncontestable proof of the reality of jesus christ is the fruit that he bears in your life that is no one can contest that that is a reality you can argue all you want but the reality is i was this i was knee-deep in the works of the flesh and because of jesus christ he has saved me and now he is producing in me the fruit i've always wanted and you cannot contest that you cannot argue with that that is the beauty of the gospel and he is the one who produces that not you not me but then also i'm told that apple trees and pear trees look very similar to the naked eye to the untrained eye so how do you know if one's an apple tree and one is a pear tree how do you know well i guess you can cut off a limb and do an enzyme study and find out that these enzymes or pears and these enzyme enzymes or are apples or you can just do what just wait for the fruit a pear tree is not going to bear apples an apple tree is not going to bear pears that's why this is uncontestable this is this is why the presence of jesus christ in our life produces these things in our lives but then third your growth as a christian is relational notice the works of the flesh in the previous verses that we looked at and then look at the fruit of the spirit that we just looked at in verses 22 and 23. almost all of them have to do with relationships that's why the works of the fresh flesh are so destructive because they destroy relationships they destroy homes they destroy countries and neighborhoods the fruit of the spirit blesses marriages blesses families blesses neighborhoods if if i know of someone i think you'd be the same way if i knew someone who lived out the fruit of the spirit perfectly i would want to move next door i want to be near that person and what we're going to find out is we look at the fruit of the spirit how relational it is how this fruit is played out not in isolation but in relationship and then fourthly your growth as a christian is not optional amen you thought why have we skipped over verse 21 let's go back to verse 21 and let's see what it says i warn you paul says as i have warned you before that those who do such things you talk about the works of the flesh that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of god you won't the very the very king that you desire the very king you prayed a prayer and asked him into your heart if you if you pursue the work of the flesh and you do not desire the fruit of the spirit you will have no part of jesus no part now is paul warning you because he hates you is he warning us because he's arrogant is he warning us because it's an empty threat no he's warning us because he loves us and this is the battle that we fight and the battle is i can't can i just have this one thing and know that jesus will forgive me you see it goes to our desires it goes to who we are in christ and how difficult that can be and so paul warns us he levels this warning to us well how do i know then how do i know if the fruit if the spirit of christ is in me producing fruit well just very quickly this is basic gospel presentation number one confess the law of god exists not to reign on your party but the law of god exists to expose your sin that's why the law is there the law is not there so you can obey it perfectly because you can't and you've probably tried i know i have the law is there to identify what sin is imagine that god were to say i am condemning you all because of sin and not one time does he ever define what sin is what exactly is that imagine being pulled over by a state trooper on the freeway and you're driving 65 miles an hour and but there is no limit there's no speed limit whatsoever no sign whatsoever and the officer comes along and says i'm sorry but i got right joe for speeding well what's the speeding what's whatever i say it's whatever i decide so the beautiful thing about the law of god is that god defines what rebellion looks like against him and so it might be this morning whether you're at home or in here that you recognize the law is there to expose and it could be that that works the flesh list that we looked at is exposing a sin in your life you have no hope whatsoever of turning over a new leaf without knowing that that's a sin against god and so confess that but then believe believe the death and resurrection of jesus expelled your sin what jesus did on the cross took your sin upon himself away from you and now god no longer sees you as sinful he no longer sees you that way he on the cross god saw jesus as if he lived your life so that in christ he looks at you as if you live jesus life he expelled it but then trust the indwelling holy spirit empowers you to fight sin and it may be that you're battle weary you are so tired but you are trusting in the savior that is evidence of the spirit and by the way and we'll talk about this probably every sunday but if you see the fruit of the spirit in someone let them know let them know so that you can celebrate that you know what i've known you for 20 years and for 15 of those years you were a jerk and then sign that card love mom but for 15 or 20 years you were a jerk but the last few months of the last few years i have begun to notice i'm seeing evidence of christ and i thank god because you're encouraging me to pursue christ even more i love that and encourage someone to keep on growing in christ to move towards christ in all things i i think that's why having communion here in a couple of minutes is so powerful for us because when you become a christian when you become a christian two things become true of you number one you're forgiven and number two you're empowered you're forgiven and you're empowered and it's all because of jesus it's all his work and one of the ways that we remember that is simply through communion where we remember our lord's death and not just like oh yeah i remember that i don't want to forget but remember the fact that you are forgiven and that you are empowered by the beauty of jesus christ vadim you can go ahead and come on up and remove the screen here real quick it it's it should be in your notes and we're going to print little cards for you for next sunday but i've been reading some of john stott and he's done some preaching on this particular topic and apparently uh he's with the lord now but for the last 20 years of his life he prayed this prayer that's at end of your notes it's a beautiful prayer heavenly father i pray that this day i may live your life live in your presence and please you more and more lord jesus i pray that this day i may take up my cross and follow you holy spirit i pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control apparently he prayed that every day the last 20 years i've met him i talked to him briefly but i don't know him personally enough but those who do say god answered that prayer in this man's life so what it may come down to is not for you and me to just get out there and try harder in the battle i'm gonna i'm gonna kill the works of the flesh and live for the fruit of the spirit but rather we do what jesus suggests in matthew 6 ask seek knock ask and it will be given to you knock and it will be open to you seek and you will find what would happen if we as a congregation were to pray for god to produce visibly so the fruit of the spirit is so that my marriage is strengthened my parenting is strengthened and parents we haven't talked to you yet but i challenge you and encourage you to lead with the fruit of the spirit because if you lead with the fruit of the spirit you will lead to the fruit of the spirit you will lead them to it if you're a boss a supervisor a business owner if you have direct reports or employees lead with the fruit of the spirit and as you lead with the fruit of the spirit you will lead them to the fruit of the spirit i cannot find two more important verses for our world than for the people of god to simply seek and ask god to produce in them fruit and maybe that begins today you have your elements you have those ready honey if you can thank you these elements they represent something obviously there's nothing significant about a capsule with juice and a packing peanut but but they represent something right they represent the body of jesus christ and we recognize it's not the teachings of jesus that saves us it's the actions of jesus it's what he did for us on the cross and the empty tomb that secures for us the freedom that we have always always wanted and so we have the opportunity to remember him collectively as a body in this room and at home as you join us as well so if you wanna go and peel off the top where the bread is contained on the night jesus was betrayed he took some bread and he broke it and he said this is this is my body this is before one nail pierced his hands or his feet this is before he was struck even one time by a roman soldier this is before the crown of thorns was ground into his brow this is before he heard one insult or felt spittle from someone spitting upon him this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me let's eat together as the body of christ [Music] in the same way he took the cup i'll give you a second or two to peel off the top this cup is the new covenant not the old covenant the new covenant the new covenant does not require circumcision does not require becoming jewish the new covenant is simply this new thing that everyone who looks to jesus christ will be saved that's the new covenant everyone it may be that you think you're not worthy of that perfect because those are the kinds of people that jesus saves he saves unworthy people like me that's the new covenant everyone who looks to him will be saved will be forgiven will be empowered this is the new covenant in my blood which is for you do this in remembrance of me let's drink together as a body of christ can we please stand together heavenly father we thank you for the beauty of your word holy spirit you indwell us do what you do and do it even more bear the fruit in our lives not just that we can have this really great life but so that we can offer life to others through the uncontestable presence of jesus spirit in our lives i ask in jesus name that you bear fruit individually in marriages in lives in our work that you bear fruit that others begin to see in us the presence of the fruit of the spirit we recognize lord god that there is nothing that we can do to produce all we can do is simply cultivate the soil by which the seed is grown and so we come before you we love you we adore you we praise you we lift your name high and we say thank you in your son's holy and precious name jesus amen [Music] [Music] i wasn't raped i remember who i was [Music] i was lost i [Music] was separated the breach was far too wide but from the first side of the chasm you held me in your side so you made a way across the great divide left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside and there at the cross you paid the debt out [Music] broke my chains freed my soul for the first time hope i sing thank you thank you jesus thank you jesus [Music] darkness into glorious [Music] you took my place [Music] you were buried for three days but then you walked right out again and now death has no steam [Music] thank you jesus [Music] thank you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] that together [Music] [Music] [Applause] the stars through [Music] thank you [Music] you have saved me [Laughter] [Music] brought me from the darkness into glorious glory to his name [Music] glory to his name [Music] led to my heart was to his name thank you lord can we give him praise today for his word church we love you and we are praying for you this week may the god of endurance and encouragement to grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with christ jesus that together with one voice you may glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ therefore welcome one another just as christ has welcomed you and we all say together for the glory of god we love you have a great week of worship [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music]

Channel: Arcade Church

Views: 295

Rating: 4.5555553 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: degQYP3I-nc

Length: 94min 40sec (5680 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021