Galatians 6:1-5 | Spirit-filled People Restore | Don Romano

Good morning. If you don't know me, my name is Don Romano. I'm the associate pastor here at Renovation Church. I would like to welcome you here with us today, or out there with us today, and invite you to consider what it might mean to become a part of who we are here at Renovation Church. It just so happens there's a little bit of that in the message today, so pay attention.

So before I get into it, I want to ask a question. Are there any Star Trek fans out there? A few. Okay, so show of hands here. Which series?

Tng. Tng. Okay, let's start with the original. We'll just take them in through time. So the original series fans.

The Animated Series fan. Oh, I remember that. Okay, tng. We got that one, Joe. All right, The Next Generation.

Deep Space Nine, also great. Okay, what about Voyager?

Couple of big Voyager fans there. Enterprise. Okay, minus the theme song. Discovery. What about the Discovery series?

No, none of those here. Short Treks. How about that one? No. Picard.

Okay, there's a couple Picard fans here.

Lower decks.

No, no, no. Prodigy. Prodigy. Star Trek prodigy. What about strange new worlds?

Oh, yeah. Big strange new worlds fans here. Starfleet Academy. Ah. How many?

Had no idea there were so many. Okay, some things, I know it's hard to believe, especially if you know me, but some things can get a little out of hand, and this might be one of them. But for this morning, I want to take us Back to the 1967 season two of the original series, episode three. Three.

So what if I'm a little bit of a nerd?

The episode title is the Changeling.

You might not recognize that if you're an Original Series fan, but you'll remember the story. Because in the Changeling, what happened was it's the story of a deep space probe that was sent out from Earth. Earth. Sent out on a mission to search for extraterrestrial life and then report back.

The probe was called Nomad.

The probe was small, just over a meter tall. Tiny, little, tiny, tiny little probe. Just sent out there into the vastness of space. As it traveled through space, it eventually became involved in a collision with another probe from some alien intelligence. That probe was on a mission to sterilize soil samples for research.

The builders of the alien probe did their best to repair Nomad after this collision. And they even gave Nomad some upgraded defensive weapons and tried their best to fix the programming, some of which was lost in the collision. And they even kind of augmented that programming by adding some of their own probes program in their Zeal to repair Nomad and get it back on course to its home so it could report these aliens inadvertently created a killer drone.

Mingled the two programs to search out life and to sterilize soil samples. And Nomad went about the galaxy searching out life and then destroying it, killing it. In order to sterilize anything that life inhabited, whether it was a soil sample or a planet or anything in between.

Nomad started out with a clear mission. Clear, simple mission. Nomad encountered something it did not expect. It received instructions that conflicted with its original programming. And it received those instructions passively, as only a machine can do.

But those instructions polluted no man's Nomad's purpose and mission. Then Nomad went on its way, destroying rather than exploring.

Now, what in the world could that possibly have to do with today's passage?

Stay tuned to this channel for further developments.

Yeah, if we're going to pull this together, we need help. Would you stand with me and pray?

Father, it just amazes me that even those who do not acknowledge you still reflect their creativity that you placed into them. Because you are creative. We, your creatures, are creative.

At the same time, our creativity only honors you when it reflects you. And so we pray this morning that Holy Spirit, you would instill in me words that bring out what you desire to instill in our lives as a body, as individuals, as the Church of Jesus Christ, we invite you, we expect you, we anticipate your presence, and we yield to what you will teach this morning in Jesus name, for the sake of the kingdom. Amen. You may be seated. Okay.

We have been exploring Paul's letter to the churches in the region known as Galatia. That's the region that I have up on the screen this morning. And I'm going to point this way, so if you need to. But primarily, this is the major portion of the Galatian region.

Can you see this up there? Easy enough. I've just got to move it slowly. Galatia was a Roman province, but it had gotten its Name Some almost 300 years Previous when settlers from or invaders from Europe came into the area and brought with them some religious traditions that were based in the Celtic tradition. So we have this area of, you know, Asia Minor that's invaded by Europe.

And just a bunch of conflicting ideas there, from Greco Roman gods to some of the Celtic gods, to what was an influence from Jewish settlers who moved up there. And so there's this big hodgepodge of things going on there.

This area on the map, it might not be obvious, but you can see the island of Cyprus down here in the bottom. So that would make it the north, east, east portion of the Mediterranean. Italy is way off to the side over there. Greece is kind of close by, but not quite there. So that'll give you your bearings.

If we're going to understand today's passage, we need to understand the complete context that Paul is writing within. Paul first visited this area about late 46, early 47, stayed there for about a year and traveled around preaching the gospel. Now, on that first trip, Paul started from this location right here, which is Antioch in Syria. He traveled out here to the island of Cyprus on a boat, then apparently walked across the island, picked up another ship, and went over here to the area of Pergamum and Pamphylia. From there he walked probably up this river valley to another city called Antioch, And that's where he began to preach the gospel.

Actually, when he first went from here to here, he kind of experimented with a little preaching and was well received. And so he was encouraged, went on his way with Barnabas until they came up to this city, Antioch, and Paul preached there in a synagogue. So he got in among some Jewish congregation during the service, the time together, he was asked, do you have a message for us? And so he stood up and he presented the Gospel.

Almost immediately, people began, became excited about what he was saying and. And they invited him to come back the next week. When he came back the next week, however, there were so many people who responded positively to the Gospel, both Jews and Gentiles, that the Jewish leaders began to be jealous. In fact, if we were to look at the Book of Acts, if you have your Bible, you can open it up to the Book of Acts. You'll want to keep your finger right at about chapters 13, 14 and 15.

And if we were in Acts, chapter 13, beginning at verse 44, it says this the next Sabbath. This is Paul's only been in Antioch for one week. The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. What an amazing thing, right? I mean, he gets up, speaks for a few minutes, maybe two or three minutes, if we were to read the passage right before that.

And a week later, the whole city turns out it's just a little synagogue, right? So people are packed around the outside, listening in through the windows, standing room only, that kind of thing going on. In verse 45, when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was Necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. The Jewish leaders, since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we're going to go to the Gentiles.

And I'm sure that was just fine with those Jewish leaders. Fine, you go to the Gentiles. Leave us alone. And so Paul spent his time then from Antioch, going out into this area, preaching the gospel in several locations, and eventually returned back down here, picked up a boat and went home to this Antioch.

When he got to that Antioch, When he got to that Antioch, it was just a really brief amount of time between the time he arrived, gave a report of what had happened of all the Gentiles in that area, in that region of Galatia, who were coming to the Lord. It was only a short matter of time before some Jews from Jerusalem heard about it and showed up there at Antioch and began to say things like, yeah, that's all well and fine, maybe, but you know, Paul, they can't really be saved unless they get circumcised and obey the law of Moses. That's where the Judaizers came from. That's who they were. They met there at Antioch.

And so the leaders in Antioch are going like, these guys are really of good reputation. And they come here and we were excited about what was going on, Paul, but we think you should go back to Jerusalem and talk to the apostles about it, see what they have to say. So Paul and Barnabas did that. They went down, they talked to Peter and James. You can read all of this in Acts 14 and 15.

They talked to Peter and James. Peter and James, along with the rest of the apostles, wrote a letter saying, it's okay. Gentiles don't have to be circumcised. They don't have to obey the whole law of Moses. But this is what we suggest.

Avoid things that were sacrificed to idols. Don't eat blood and don't engage in fornication. Those three things, which sounds like, you know, rules from the law, because, hey, those things actually are contained in the law. But what they really were was addressed to some of the pagan rituals that were going on in Galatia so that Paul could go back there and say, hey, avoid these three things. And basically it's the same thing that everybody does when we come to Christ.

We leave the old things behind. All things are made new, and he changes our life. We leave the old rituals behind. We walk by the spirit of God. So that's the whole thing that was going on.

And now I just. Fortunately for you passed through a bunch of pages that I have to find, find out where I am.

So there you have it. The actions that were taken by the Holy Spirit, Paul and Barnabas, when they returned to their home in Antioch, their home base in Antioch, they reported what the Holy Spirit had done among the Gentiles. And there was really a lot more than just what he had done among the Gentiles going on there. There was what the Holy Spirit had done in Paul and Barnabas. So I'm just gonna quickly go through those things, the actions of the Holy Spirit.

And this is key because this whole series is Spirit or flesh. And today's message is.

Spirit filled, believers restore. So we need to understand what it means to be filled by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit instead of walk in the flesh, which has been the last two weeks of Alex's messages and understand what it means. So here are the things that the Holy Spirit did in all of this, like year to year and a half kind of generally speaking, activity. Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy spirit in Acts 13:4. Actually, the leaders of the church at Antioch sensed that this is what the Spirit wanted them to do.

And they sent Paul and Barnabas out. Paul and Barnabas were filled with the Holy Spirit, it says. And because they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were able to confront a medium who was resisting the Gospel. You can read about that event in Acts 13:8, 12. Being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Barnabas preached. Acts 13:13, 43. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, they resisted persecution that set in there at Antioch in Acts 13:44, 51. They were joyful and continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 13:52 as were the new believers, they performed signs and wonders.

Acts 14:1 3. They resisted more and stronger persecution, resistance to the gospel. Acts 14:4 7. They healed a man who had been born lame. Acts 14:8 18 and Paul was stoned, probably killed by the Jews and most likely raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 14:19 and 20. The apostles determined that they by the Holy Spirit. The apostles back in Jerusalem. After Paul returned home and then went down to Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit, the apostles determined that they should not put any burden on gentile believers. Acts 15:28 so why would I take the little precious time we have this morning together and review all these things before I actually talk about Galatians 6?

Well, it's simple. In order to understand what's going on in Galatians 6, we really need to understand the big picture. Have the 30,000 foot view of what's going on.

We must see the Holy Spirit behind all of it. All of it, from Paul's conversion to his commission in Antioch, to even before that joining up with Barnabas, to them being sent out from the church at Antioch to the place that they went to, the fact that they suffered resistance to the Gospel and persecution right from the very beginning, that they went out away from the Jews, into areas populated by Gentiles, that they came back, gave a report and that there was almost immediate resistance to the idea that Gentiles could be saved. Right? Among.

Right, among the believers, the guys who were sent from Jerusalem up to Antioch to say, hey, wait a minute, these guys can't really be saved unless they get circumcised and obey the law of Moses. Those guys, scripture says they were believers in Christ and they were from among the Pharisees.

So even this first doctrinal theological issue that Paul had to address was raised by people inside the faith who had some misunderstanding. They're Pharisees, they'd grown up with the law. Of course, so was Paul. And he could argue with them very convincingly, by the way. Well, all of that stuff is going on and we need to understand that it's the Holy Spirit who orchestrated all of that.

Why? Because we need to know those things. We need the teaching that faith does not come by all the energy. Salvation does not come by all the energy that it takes to obey the law of Moses. Right?

Salvation comes by faith. In the completed, finished work of Jesus Christ and him raised to new life, the Holy Spirit poured out.

Well, the believers in the region of Galatia were a lot like the Nomad probe. Remember that? Of course you do. The believers in Galatia were a lot like that probe in the Star Trek series. See, they had received their teaching from Paul, right?

But eventually they conflicted. They collided with people from Israel coming up into the area in order to tell them that they had to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses, otherwise they couldn't follow Jesus. Now, of course, Paul later took that letter from the apostles back up there and he showed it to them saying, no, look, see, what I told you before was the correct thing. He, even before he carried that letter up there, wrote the book of Galatians, wrote this letter, sent it up there ahead of him saying, don't be drawn in by this. Avoid all the old things that the Holy Spirit had taken you away from and set you free from and walk as followers of Christ according to what the Spirit is teaching you not according to works of the flesh.

Now that basically summarizes the last couple of messages from Alex in Galatians chapter five, where we're told, here are the deeds, the things you do of the flesh. And he lists a whole bunch of things, all of which are very active today. But instead he says, the fruit of the Spirit. This is not what you do as a vine.

The life of the Spirit is in you and it produces love, joy, peace. Galatians 5:22 23 the fruit of the Spirit. This is what ought to happen. Don't keep pursuing your fleshly desires. Well, If those believers in Galatia had received the programming of those well intentioned, probably but uninformed Jews, asking them no, commanding them to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.

If those believers in Galatia had done that, the result would have been instead of carrying the simple gospel of salvation and eternal life through grace and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, they would instead have carried a message of slavery to a law that could not set them free, but only condemn them.

Walking by the Holy Spirit what is walking? Walking is just this is how we get through life one step at a time. It's a walk from the day we're born till the day we die. We walk through life one step at a time. So walking by the Holy Spirit through our life in the freedom of salvation that comes through the grace and faith of and in Jesus, they could now experience what Scripture says they experienced great joy and eternal life.

That's what God offers to us. So in Galatians 5, Paul then turns his vision away from okay, I'm confronting this big theological issue here, says, but now let me bring it down to you and to me. We, he says in Galatians 5, he turns his attention from the outside influence to life in the body. That's what we are, right? That's what we experience every day.

We are the body of believers. We experience life within this community.

So Paul is referring to that. So I'm going to read Galatians 6:1:5. You can turn there and read with me if you desire to Galatians 6:1:5, which says this brethren, family, right, Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore this one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted, bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something while he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work.

And then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another, for each one will bear his own load.

Wow. So let me just unpack that for a minute. In verse one, Paul says, brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

What does it mean to be caught in a trespass? Well, Paul just listed a bunch of things. In chapter five, he listed a bunch of things that are, you know, the activities of fleshliness, the actions that fulfill desire. Think of it that way. I mean, we desire all kinds of things, right?

We desire peace, prosperity, influence. What else? Freedom from war, right? Political turmoil. We desire things like bigger house, faster car, better food.

We desire all kinds of things. Our body wants all kinds of things. And we go through all kinds of different efforts in order to accomplish those things. All of those works of the flesh are listed in Galatians, chapter 5. But here he says, if you are caught, if you find someone who is caught in a trespass, caught, it's like it's a passive concept.

It means not necessarily that someone is going out and forcing themselves into these things, but what it says is, it's like being caught in a trap, like a bird in a net. Are you caught there? You can't get out. The flesh presents these traps, and we can walk right into them. He says, if you find someone who's been caught in some sort of fleshly desire and can't get out like a bird in a net, what he says then is, whoever is spiritual, restore that one.

Well, what does it mean to be spiritual? I mean, even in our day and age, we often hear people say, well, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual. I'm a spiritual person. Meaning that, you know, they pursue all different kinds of ways in order to placate their soul, their psyche, their life.

What Paul is saying here is, anybody who is led by the Spirit. Because that's what he just finished saying in Galatians 5, right? Here's the deeds of the flesh, here's the fruit of the Spirit. And if you find somebody caught in the deeds of the flesh, then you who are walking by the spirit, you who are spiritual, find that one, set him free from his trap and restore him. Restore him to what?

To what it means to walk in the spirit. That's what we are supposed to do for one another. Even the ones walking by the Spirit are tempted and become entrapped again. Sometimes. That's what he says, right?

Do this with a spirit of gentleness so that you don't become tempted. That word gentleness is an interesting word. It's the same word Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, blessed are the meek.

We could read this and say, do this with a meek spirit.

You who are spiritual, not caught up in the deeds of the flesh. When you find someone who is caught, approach it in meekness. Meekness is an interesting concept. It is not weakness. In fact, it indicates incredible strength, but strength that is under control.

It's like a bit in the mouth of a horse. Horse has incredible strength and power, but it is useless until the horse submits to the bit, becomes meek, puts all that power to use in a controlled way.

So if we are to restore any of those around us who are caught up in some trespass, we can only do it when we approach it with meekness. Recognizing that I'm subject to exactly the same things that can happen to me, I need to be under the control of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to reach in and help grab you out of the net that entraps you. And that's what he says, do that for one another. Pay attention. Pay attention to yourself.

Don't come with power that is uncontrolled, because all that ever does is condemn. Don't condemn one another. Restore one another. Bring back to fellowship with the Spirit. Verse 2 says this.

Bear one another's burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ was this. Hey, Jesus said, I bring you a new commandment. Love one another the way I have loved you.

You should love one another.

And of course, he didn't love us by bringing a railing accusation against us about our sin. He loved us by taking the penalty for our sin.

When it says burdens bear one another's burdens, think of a weight. It's like a truck or a ship with a load. It's the weight of that load. It doesn't matter what the load is made up of. It could be wheat.

It could be amphorae with oil or wine in them. It could be who knows what. But this idea is the weight of the burden. Specifically. Think of like, an ox cart with a bunch of stuff on it.

The thing that makes it a burden is how much it weighs. So many of us are caught up under the weight of our earthly responsibilities mingled with our weakness toward the flesh.

But there are two weights that each of us bears up under. One is, of course, the weight of the worldly issues. You know, all the Things I have to do, provide for my family, keep the car running, get the oil changed, you know, do the grocery shopping, prepare the food, clean the house, do the maintenance. All of those things that we have to do on a regular basis, all day, every day, mingled with the fact that I have a sin nature. And a lot of those things I'd really rather not do, do.

That would be the first burden that we bear, but we bear a second burden. Jesus said this. Take my yoke on you. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

The yoke is the thing that makes it possible to move the burden. Take the yoke on and the burden. Pull the burden behind you. You're moving the burden. In this case, Jesus is saying, that burden that I put on you, it's light.

Well, what does it consist of? The worldly burden, of course, is keeping up with everyday things. Jesus burden is what he commissioned us to do, be his witnesses everywhere.

So it's easy, or at least it's supposed to be easy for us to tell the story of Jesus in us making things new, setting us free from the law, from sin, from judgment, giving us eternal life. I mean, this is a great story to tell. This is an exciting story. Story.

Look, it's really easy for any one of us to go out there and tell the latest joke because, hey, you laugh at it and it's, you know, it's kind of a nice thing. So we go out there and we share it all the time. Why not our faith? Why not our faith? Why not something really encouraging and uplifting?

So we have these burdens to bear. And Jesus says, bear one another's burden. So I think of single moms, of widows, of orphans. When it comes to the needs of everyday life, this is three groups of people who really need help getting along the weight of life. I mean, you can add hundreds of things to that, right?

People who are entrapped in substance abuse, in difficult relationships. I mean, just add anything you want to that. But what it takes to get through another day can be overwhelming when we have to bear up under the load alone. What Paul says, hey, if somebody's caught in a trespass, restore them and bear one another's burdens. Come alongside, lighten the load as best you can.

In doing that, you fulfill the law of Christ. Well, verse three says this. Do it with meekness, which I already talked about. That's kind of that humility aspect that recognizes that I can do things wrong if I'm not led by the Spirit. All right?

I mean, my wife can tell you this when she needs to be restored, I can often condemn.

It comes natural to me and I'm not proud of that. But I do it anyway.

I'm working through.

And we all have things like that. So when I come to my wife, if I don't first settle the meekness issue, I'm doing some damage.

But when power is controlled by the Holy Spirit, man, some great things can happen for the kingdom of God, can't they?

Verse 4 says this. Each one must bear his own load.

I'm sorry, Each one must examine his own work. That way we measure ourselves against our obedience rather than against one another. So we can do that, can't we? We can say like, hey, look at the great things I did. What are you doing?

Right?

Or we could say, whoa, look at the great things that person's doing. What have I done? We only have confidence about following Jesus. Well, that's the same thing as walking in the Spirit. We only have good confidence about walking in the Spirit, about following Jesus when we don't look around and go, oh, look how they've done it.

Instead we need to look at ourselves. That's what it says here. Each one must examine his own deeds that way. Our confidence is what God is doing in us, not in what somebody else is doing.

If we come to one another to try and restore when we see someone struggling, we must bear their burden as best we can, share the load with them. And now that's one on one.

But there's 100 to one here. It's easier for a hundred to bear my load with me than for one other to bear my load with me. And when we think of this, each one will bear his own load. Don't think so much about the weight.

Like when it says, carry one another's burden. Wait, that's not what this is. This is more like looking at the cargo. We're looking inside the hold of the ship and going like, what's in here? And we're seeing.

Or if it's an ox cart, which makes more sense, or even a hand wheeled cart, we. Which makes more sense. We want to look on that and go like, ooh, what kind of good things are there? Is there some wheat? Is there a little summer fruit?

Maybe a melon, Right? Maybe it's jars of oil. Whatever it is, we're looking at the items, not the combined weight in this case. So each one has to bear his own.

Let me just paraphrase it for you. You gotta deal with your own stuff. Okay? Now I'm not talking about the weight of getting through life. I'm talking about the stuff you trip over, okay?

We each have to deal with that. Look, I can help bear your burden in life, but I can't fix your issues. I might be able to guide a little bit, but when it comes down to the work, it is between you and the Holy Spirit, that's what he's saying here. Each one, it's not so much about weight. The burden in verse two asks how much it weighs.

This says, what is it? So we are to help one another with the heavy loads of. Of earthly responsibility, and we are to work together in fulfilling the mission of the kingdom. Those are the two loads. I'm sorry, Those are the two burdens.

But each one of us is 100% responsible for turning away from the flesh or from sin and to turn toward the Holy Spirit. So how do we do this? Because it's easy to stand up here and say, oh, just do all this stuff, without saying, well, this is how it's actually done.

In this. The idea that we do not compare ourselves to one another in terms of what we do. We compare our life with what God is calling us to do. And so what?

That's the part of the message where we say, okay, this is how it plays out in life, Right? So everything about today's passage has to do with living life together.

There is nothing here about living independent from one another.

It's about being part of a community. Paul is writing to a community of individual churches, each of which is a community itself. And there are four isolations to avoid. I say isolations because it's the opposite of community. Community means together, isolation means alone.

There are four alones that we have to avoid if we are to fulfill what Paul's talking about.

So as a Christian, do you say something like, I believe God's word and I have faith in Jesus for my salvation. I don't believe that I have to go to church to be a Christian.

If you are doing that or if you know someone who's doing that, what's going on is this. You are saying, I believe it, but you are being disobedient to it. To the thing you say that you believe you're being disobedient to God's Word, which clearly says one another, and you're being disobedient to the Holy Spirit's leading in your life, who is the one who guides you into how to interact with one another. When you see someone who's caught in a trespass, that's the Holy Spirit vision. Pointing you if you're doing this, if you say that you believe, but you don't, don't have to be a part of a body of believers.

That's something you need to avoid. You need to avoid isolating yourself from a local body. So what? Number one, avoid isolating from a local body. If you believe God's word, you have to agree that God commands you to bear one another's burdens.

You cannot do that in isolation. If you think you can, I'd be interested in you telling me after the service how you think you can do that.

You must also agree that the body of believers who come together to bear the burden of Jesus by working together to extend his kingdom through bearing witness and testimony of what he's doing to make you new. If you're part of Renovation Church, you are part of that. That's what we say about ourselves. That is how we identify ourselves. We are stories God is writing about Jesus making things new.

Our job is to put that on display and communicate it out there, there. So avoid isolating yourselves from a local body of believers.

And by the way, if you're struggling with the flesh, then it's the rest of us around you who are the ones who are going to help you out of that.

Number two, avoid isolating yourself from Scripture.

A lot of us do that, don't we?

Don't raise your hand, okay? But if it's been more than 90 days since you've read your Bible, you know who you are. If it's been more than 60 days, you know who you are. If it's been more than 30 days, you're in the majority. I guarantee it.

If it's been more than a week, you're definitely in the majority. Whoo.

So we're not going to raise our hands about that, okay? Because we're not here to put one another to shame. We are here to challenge one another together to. To restoration. I encourage you.

Be in God's word every day. That might seem hard at first, but just read part of any psalm, maybe the whole thing, every day, and you will catch God's heart, because the Holy Spirit will take teach you the things Jesus promised he would teach you.

So avoid isolating yourself from Scripture. The whole story of Paul and Barnabas going to Galatia, preaching the gospel, facing disagreement and persecution, and submitting to the apostles and resisting the Judaizers. That whole thing depends on them understanding what they the Scripture teaches. They could not present Jesus as the answer to the requirements of the law if they did not understand it. And we have very little to offer if our only testimony about Jesus is man.

I love being a Christian.

Third thing, avoid isolating yourself from the influence of the Holy Spirit.

I better just stick to the passage here or I'm going to start preaching.

Many Christians today live their lives as though the Holy Spirit is some silent, behind the scenes influence meant to quietly support us as we walk through life in the flesh. Not so. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Book of Acts is often called the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.

That's an interesting way to consider it and it's definitely worth thinking about a little bit. But I think in reality what the Book of Acts really is is the story of the working of the Holy Spirit. That's what it is. A record of what has the Holy Spirit did in the first century in lives of individuals and for the extension and expansion of the kingdom of God on earth. That's what the Book of Acts is.

It's the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And if you do not seek him who was working then and is still working now, if you do not seek him, then you cannot submit to Him. If you do not submit to him, you are not led by Him. Following requires submission. So do not isolate yourself from the working of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I realize for a lot of us, we don't know how to do that. Well, let me give you the first two steps. Be in community, especially in a community of faith. And don't isolate yourself from the Scripture. Start with those two things.

Start with those two things and you will learn how to hear the voice of the Spirit.

And the last thing, avoid isolating yourself from unbelievers. What? Listen, if you want to grow, get among the unbelievers.

After you got among the believers, after you submitted yourself to Scripture, after, after you've submitted yourself to the leading of the Holy Spirit, be among the unbelievers and be among them as one who bears testimony to the truth about freedom and salvation, eternal life through the grace of and faith in Jesus Christ.

That's what we are to do. And if you really want to grow, avoid avoiding that.

So there you have it. Each of us is part of a group walking through life together as companions with one another and partners with the Holy Spirit, guiding, teaching, indwelling and empowering us.

It is no longer we who live. It is Christ who lives through us.

Man, as long as I keep isolating in those four ways, it is not Christ living through me.

It is me expressing the desire of my flesh.