Permission granted to local churches to copy materials for their own use. Please direct questions or comments about this site to Tiffany Vail. God speaks to our hearts and minds Heeding God's call, the Massachusetts Conference is taking action in response to the science of climate change. Mindfulness has hit the mainstream, with everyone from corporate CEOs to professional sports teams practicing some form of contemplation or meditation.
The Wellesley Congregational Church, known as the Village Church of Wellesley , is leading the way toward practicing mindfulness as part of our Christian faith tradition. The church hosts a prayer walking group, which meets every Friday morning on the Wellesley College campus. They begin by gathering in a circle for contemplation and the sharing of prayers of joy and concern.
Members of the group ask for prayers for themselves, their friends and family and for the world. The group, which ranges from depending on the week, holds these prayers in their hearts for the rest of the week. After this time of prayer they pair up and walk around Lake Waban which is located on the campus. The walk takes about an hour to complete. The session consists of a short reading, followed by 20 minutes of silent Christian meditation, and then group discussion.
We as a church have to make it. Our members tell us that meditation grounds them. It becomes a cornerstone of their spiritual life. Find a quiet place and a regular time. Get yourself into a comfortable sitting position. A heart that is motivated by fear views other believers as competition for the affections of Dad. People who really love Jesus just bother you? Have you ever gotten to the bottom of that? I know you have. To celebrate other people. To love that God is moving in you. To mourn when you fail. To grieve when you fall short.
To take no delight whatsoever in your struggles, but rather that your struggles would have me in a bit of agony praying for you, encouraging you, and pushing you toward holiness, repentance, and the pursuit of God. The gospel frees me up to applaud and love your growth, your pursuit of Jesus, and you just exponentially growing more and more in love with God.
So the big acid test from last week about whether or not our motives are fear or our motives are love really comes down to whether or not we serve our brothers and sisters, whether or not we consider others as better than ourselves, and whether or not we outdo one another in honor. I guess I could have, but it would have been very difficult for some of the other services.
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. Now a couple of things to point out in this text. One, there are in you right now, in me right now, in all of us right now, two opposing forces. Now what I said is only true if you are a Christian in here. So if you are a believer in Christ, have submitted your life to him, are following Jesus, then inside of you and inside of me are two opposing forces.
One is Spirit, which is not talking about your spirit, but rather the Holy Spirit. Then you have your flesh. Let me explain that to you. Just so you know this is not next week for you. So between this moment of conversion and this moment of glorification, the Holy Spirit begins to move us forward into more and more and more Christlikeness. Now the space between perfect in glory and where you are now is called the flesh.
Here is what the Bible just said: At war in you and at war in me right now are the Spirit and the flesh, and they are opposed to one another. The goal of the Spirit is not the goal of the flesh. Where the Spirit is taking you is not where the flesh is taking you. In your heart right now two opposing forces are colliding. Look right at me. That will be the case until glory.
We reserve the right to remove comments that are hostile, hateful or abusive to others, or that constitute personal attacks. This leads you to strife, and strife is just antagonism. And each week in the most unlikely places bread is broken, songs are sung and prayers are shared with one another. Because in the follow-up story Jesus tells from the stand, if you will, the person who lives out the love of God and love of neighbor is neither of the clergy — not the priest, not the Levite. And Jesus is like, well, there we are.
There are seasons where this conflict is mere skirmishes. It feels exhausting for a season. Now the Spirit and the flesh both promise the same thing, but only one can deliver. So according to the text, what is the promise? The promise is freedom. Can we just be straight? Just do these things. Just stop doing these things. Start doing these things. Then you drink sand. You get there and there is nothing there but sand. Your behavior is setting the bar too low. I needed to quit cussing so much. I needed to quit getting drunk. I needed to quit chasing girls.
If I could just do those things, I was going to be cool with the Lord. It just kept going up. You got up at 4: You prayed for an hour and a half? I prayed for everyone I know; it lasted seven minutes. I better keep up with him.
How well have you done that so far in your life? . When you meditate on those two things, you think on those two things, you don't move away. I ended up meeting and seeing perhaps my biggest living hero this past Matt Chandler, of the Village Church in Dallas, TX was the means by.
Just got out the phone book. That guy and that guy. The bar goes up again. The bar will continually be raised because what you must compare yourself to and what is dictated that you need is perfection. He is our righteousness. He takes that weight off us completely. Motivated by love I get to serve him and follow.
God is not for you.
God does not care. God is not after your joy. God is going to rob from you. God is going to take from you. God is not about your freedom. You must find your own way to fullness of life. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not walk toward the mirage, but rather toward freedom. Then he actually just continues to flesh this out. Let me explain why. The law is external and exposes internal realities. The work of the Holy Spirit is a work of illumination.
It shows us what is really going on inside of us. So here is a correlation nobody likes to make. This is a refrain from us. I have an anger problem. You need to work on your heart that has led you to that action. The work of the Holy Spirit is not about pointing out external actions, but pointing out the place in your heart where you refuse to trust God, believe in God, and walk in the freedom God has provided for you in Christ and instead try to live it your own way.
So the work of the Holy Spirit engages the heart, not just the external actions. Now the external actions can serve as a diagnostic. Why am I drawn to this? Why do I act like this?
The more you try to modify behavior and not see your heart transformed by the gospel, the more you enslave yourself to the muck and the mire of this world. Because the law is about external realities; the Spirit is about internal realities. I want to follow where God wants me to go.
His concern is the heart. Now he is going to help us out on what the works of the flesh are and what the gifts or the fruits of the Spirit are. Here are the first three works of the flesh: A couple of things as a precursor. He is the one who put the plumbing in. Read Genesis 1 and 2. Sex is not a bad thing. Here is the deal. Now here is what has happened. All of us are born broken because of sin and have a skewed view of sexuality that has us in this culture in particular chasing a pipe dream.
Then all of that is ridiculous. When it has been viewed like that in human history, culture collapses around the weight of it. This is a covenant before God. I am committing to you, come hell, high water, difficulty, ease, I am in this with you. This is not an emotion. This is not a feeling.
This is a covenant commitment before God Almighty that I am yours and you are mine. So within the confines of that relationship you have an opportunity, not a guarantee, for intimacy, friendship, and togetherness that all the promiscuity in the world will never be able to deliver. I never even quite understood that. Is she a woman? I learned about that in that awkward film in sixth grade. It gets redeemed in Jesus Christ. So this is setting something up as God that is not a god. This is then trying through magic or through some other means to emulate or copy the works of the Holy Spirit.
Attitudes of the flesh. Enmity is ill will or hostility. So an attitude of hostility is a mark of the flesh. Have you ever just had things go wrong and you can feel yourself being hostile? This leads you to strife, and strife is just antagonism. Absolutely you are, which leads to jealousy. Results of the attitudes of the flesh. Now you can take this truth about the works of the flesh, you can lay it on any environment imaginable, and you can see how this plays out.
So we could do it on the nuclear family, your home, your house. We all kind of have some craziness in our extended family. There is going to be a mess. You were getting new carpet in the sanctuary, and all of a sudden there is a Second Baptist. I can do that. You want a Presbyterian example? What do you want? It happens to all of us. So can I press here? That has nothing to do with the carpet. Nothing to do with the carpet.
Nothing to do with the style of direction. It all goes back to fleshly attitudes that have brought about fleshly realities.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It belongs down here with drunkenness. He is talking about addictions here. So anything you would give yourself fully to in the hopes it brings fullness of life rather than Jesus Christ. So this might sting some, but could food be on there? Food is not bad. Food is pretty spectacular if you do it right. What about other good things?
Wine is good in and of itself, but when you give yourself over to it to get release… I think you could put exercise on here. I think you could put anything on here. This is what the computer age has done to us. How do you click on it and make it tell me? The fruit of the Spirit.
Not the fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit. I appreciate you non-confidently answering.