Galatians 5:16-24 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.

We saw a perfect example of this displayed this week at the Emmy's. If you didn't see this… you may have caught wind of it, later, on the news…

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Kathy Griffin wins Emmy…no thanks to Jesus!

What a contrast to God's real plan for our each of our lives:

Galatians 5: 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control….

We haven't centered on this next part yet but watch what the balance of this passage goes on to say…

 Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

You do remember that the growth of the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives requires that the sin leaves… to make room for the growing fruit. God's fruit of patience, peace, self-control doesn't just grow in and around our sinful attitudes and action.

One must leave so the other can have room to grow! To slightly re-phrase the beginning of this passage:

V: 16 Let the Spirit' Fruit grow in your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Not…… Both/And…. It's…… Either/Or

I have personally discovered… again this summer… that in my own spiritual life there is a direct link between my willingness to lay down my sinful attitudes and actions and God's readiness to surge new levels of Fruit growth in my life…

That's a key here… Are you willing to definitively reject your former sinful habits and open the door to a whole new way of life?

I got a call this week from somebody who said: OK I'm ready to change! I've got this addictive behavior connected to what I allow myself to look at on the computer…. I realize this sin has a grip me… I've tried to free myself and have had no success. I'm telling you, as my Pastor, that I have to have victory over this sin in my life once and for all!

That is the point we all must reach before God's Spirit will replace our sin with his Fruit. As long as I'm willing to live with an addictive sin… the fruit of self-control ( or any of the other eight)has no room to grow.

( By the way: I'm looking right now at three different providers of men's internet accountability programs that would allow anybody here who feels this issue is, or might become a problem, to voluntarily make themselves accountable to someone else for the web sites they view. How helpful would it be if you and a Christian friend set pre-programmed viewing limits and if either of you pass a certain pre- set limit your friend receives an alert.

Friend don't let friends… feed the beast called pornography addictio

Romans 8:12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. (NLT)

Chess, you don't understand… I've been committing the same sin for 30 years. I'm so locked into my patterns of behavior I couldn't change if I wanted too….. I do understand and YES YOU CAN!

Remember my cautions the last two weeks on the Fruit of Self-Control. If you try to change your sinful behavior by an act of your own will you will ultimately fail. We're not talking about self-control….we are talking about Spirit Control!

I trust you all grabbed hold of the truth that: it is the Spirit of God within you that transforms you. It's God power that makes you into a new creation in Christ Jesus. Phil 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

But….. that all said ( and understood)… God still waits on us to sign up for the mission. God's recruiting willing participants. He's looking for people who are serious about walking out the transformation he has promised.

Are you that person? Are you serious about giving God complete permission to change in you whatever is not leading you toward righteous living?

Think of those areas in your life that are your weakest… spiritually, Have you opened up the door for God to completely cleanse out the old you?

Are there inner doorways that you keep closed to God…. fearful of what might happen if you completely surrender control to your Creator?

God is calling out to some of us in this room today!!

Let Go! Let me mold you into the person I brought you into this world to become!

Be willing to throw off your old sinful habits and addictions!

Thessalonians 5: 21 ….. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace make you holy (set apart from sin) in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. 24 God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful. (NLT)

The Apostle Paul saw himself as an athlete , certainly not as a physical athlete… but rather … a spiritual athlete. Paul, involuntarily spent time under house arrest in Rome and the big deal to the Romans, then, were the Isthmian Games the original Olympics. As Paul watched the athletes prepare he saw a visible object lesson for the Christian life.

A Christian who claimed to be following Christ but who was unwilling to reject his sinful attitudes and actions was like an athlete who came to a race, unready to actually run it.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27  Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. (NLT)

Run to Win!...Why would any of us sign on to this Christian race if we really intended to sit on the sidelines…. Spiritually?... Some Christians seem to only be signed up so they can wear the uniform. Once they put on the uniform with the big "C" on the front… there is no need to actually strip out of all their heavy sinful attire and seriously run the eternal race….. to win!

Run to Win!...

Would you just bow you heads for a few moments and let me ask you some questions?

What would it take for you to make a radical commitment for the rest of your life going "all out" for God and righteous living?

If you were to jump into the spiritual race with everything in you… nothing held in reserve… what sinful characteristics would need to change for that to happen?

What is holding you back from making a no-holds-barred commitment to God right now?

( You can raise your heads, we'll bow again in a few minutes…)

The older the Apostle Paul got the more he realized just how meaningless any thing other than all out commitment to God was.

If you really are here in this life for 80 years to prepare to spend the next billion years reining with Christ… it's more than a little short sighted to waist any part of this life resisting the very one we claim to want to spend eternity with!

Why would I want to go to heaven to do the will of God for all of eternity if I don't particularly enjoy doing God's will here?

Paul got it… like most of us, it took him a little while… but he eventually got it…

Philippians 3:7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

1) Infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

2) For His sake I have discarded everything, counting it as garbage

3) Become one with Christ

Watch this determination set in to Paul's mind and words:

v:12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

Philippians 3:13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (NLT)