Eugene International Church of Christ

Live By The Spirit
(Speakers Notes)

“Good morning, church! It’s another great day in the Kingdom of God, amen?  Last week was awesome! We had 103 in attendance!  To God be the glory!  To God be the glory in all we learned last week at our workshop.  Matt
Sullivan, LuJack – preaching powerfully to the men.  Cathi Martinez and Therese Untalan bringing God’s word to the women.  God has been teaching me a lot this week!

·      
I learned this week in my quiet times that God is very serious about what we say and how well we listen being really careful not to offend or cause strife.  Lou Jack’s suggestion on what I should study in my bible and his lesson last week has been working on me all week.  God is a good listener - that’s for sure, and He is flawless in what he says and how He says it!  Why?  In a
nutshell - God is really, really loving.  I see I have to keep a "tight reign" on my tongue and grow a lot as a listener and a wise speaker - it is all about love.

·      
This week God has really helped me grow closer to different brothers and sisters in the church - God has been using the
Untalan’s and Lou Jack and Cathy to help me see my heart and how sinful it is to assume anything about anyone.  Confessing my
attitudes and taking responsibility for them is helping me have a loving and faithful perspective on things.  I know more will
come from this as I get more in touch and I’ll see - it’s all about love.

·      
Ken and Illiyana Zindler are a couple Amy and I have been talking with and getting discipling from this week.  I have had a tough week and have not done a good job in supporting my wife enough with life and our daughter.  I talked to Ken about being an Evangelist - overseeing the church here, a Cyberevangelist - overseeing the infrastructure for the churches and usd21, being a husband, and being a good father.  He’s helping me figure it out and helping me see how much I have to learn, and how practical it is to help my wife by bottle feeding our baby and changing more diapers.  It’s all about love.

How did your week go this week? Have you been putting into practice some of the things we’ve been
learning? Let’s go back to one of the Scriptures that was shared with us last weekend, Galatians 5….22!

Let’s go ahead and preface it with Galatians 5:16…

16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Right here Paul is encouraging the disciples to LIVE BY THE SPIRIT! What is the implication?

Point # 1) TO LIVE BY THE SPIRIT IS A CHOICE!

It’s a CHOICE for ALL disciples, amen! I hope and pray that gives you a sense of EMPOWERMENT, that, because of God’s gift of FREE WILL to us, we can ALWAYS CHOOSE what is right!

Well, the challenge of this is that doggone sinful nature, which wants the OPPOSITE of what God wants! I look at my own life: Here’s my Top 10 of how I know I’m living by the sinful nature!

I know I’m living by the sinful nature when…

10) I don’t want to call someone back.

9) I read my email first instead of reading my bible first.

8) I work on USD21 or make calls instead of calling out to God and working on US.

7) Date night turns into fight night.  It is a match made in heaven when I sow in righteousness, and a cage match when I don’t.

6) I linger over the pornographic spam emails as I delete them, and then "forget" to confess the sin - maybe I
thought somehow I deleted it by my own righteousness?

5) I am awake past 12 working on code instead of up at 6, having a great quiet time, and praying about it all FIRST.

4) I complain about people and situations to God instead of praying faithfully about them - a la "Jeremiah’s complaint"

3) I’m really negative about someone and assume the worst. 

2) I find some ministry responsibility to engage in instead of changing diapers or fighting the bottle feeding fight.

1) In a word - Angry.

How about your list? What would your list look
like?

Now I’d like to share Amy’s Top Ten!

I know Amy is living by the sinful nature when…(I’m just kidding; I’ll let Amy share her own
sin! It’s probably a lot less than mine! Perhaps a Top 5!)

But I ask again, what would your list look like? And are you getting the help you need to work on those things?

I thank God for discipling because I REALLY NEED IT!

·      
This past week we spent time with the Untalans - they totally challenged and helped me see my heart.  The morning of,
I read scripture after scripture about watching what you say and your heart condition when you speak (Proverbs 10-12)  Then we spent
time with the Untalans and God made it clear I need to change my heart and watch out for negative thinking and assumptions - "evil
suspicions" as the bible calls them.

·      
I also had some great talks with Ken Zindler, he really gave me some awesome input and helped my faith in building up the
church here - things I would not have thought about to do with some of the married men and how to strengthen relationships.

·      
Lou Jack and Cathy had a lot of great input and discipling for our staff - especially the part about the staff being confident in giving us honest input and all of us being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow - in a word - to become angry.  And I see the need for our ministry to communicate much more and how I personally need to facilitate that.  These were some powerful things I heard and I am excited to grow in.

How’s the discipling going in your life brother? How often do you get input in your life, sister? I pray that you see your need for discipling as clearly as we have these past several days.

Let’s skip on down to verse 22:

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

How do you feel when you feel love? Or when you feel loved? Or when you give love? How does that feel? How about joy? Patience? Kindness? Goodness?

Imagine a church that is FULL of these fruits of the Spirit! Close your eyes and envision it! Wow! Do you think we would have enough room here to fit all the folks in Eugene, Oregon looking for that?

Let’s take a look at a related Scripture:

2 Peter 1:3-11

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, first we got Paul, and then we get Peter’s perspective—two
very different personalities, two very different backgrounds, yet the same viewpoint when it comes to LIVING BY THE SPIRIT!
Peter is encouraging us right here to …

Point
# 2) ADD TO YOUR FAITH! That takes some doing, amen? What does it mean to ADD TO MY FAITH? Well, this is how I see it for my own life:

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Right now I am striving to add to my faith self-control, especially in the department of what I say and how I say it.  In the sense of relationships - if I don’t have self-control in what I say and when I say it, it is because I do not have faith - and if I don’t have faith, it is impossible to express it through love - which is where adding all of these things to my faith will eventually land me.  It’s all about love. 
Therese and Tony walked me through one of my "evil suspicions" in particular, and they gave me a God-centered perspective about it.  One sure-fire way I can add self-control to my faith is making every effort to assault my assumptions with a Godly perspective. 
Assume the best about my wife’s input and needs, about anyone’s - it’s faithful and leads to self-control - and it lands in love.

What’s particularly interesting about this Scripture is that one thing seems to build on the other, amen!

Well, if I’m not building, if I’m not ADDING to my faith, then what am I doing? TAKING AWAY FROM IT!!!
What if I take away from my faith, goodness? What is the result of taking away knowledge? How about taking away self-control (oh boy!)? Just forget perseverance! Throw out godliness and brotherly kindness? And then what about love?

The ultimate result? I become ineffective and unproductive. But what is even worse is what is found in the next few verses:
I become nearsighted and blind, and forget that I have been cleansed from my past sins. (vs9)

What are you like when you forget that Jesus died for you? This is how I get:

·      
Performance focused.  I skimp on quiet times and prayers.  I demonstrate that in my flesh I believe effort is how it gets done, and not prayer (you still gotta work hard - but I have to pray hard first)

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Selfish.  Self-focused.  Lustful.  Critical and untrusting.  Negative in relationships - Jesus knew Peter was going to deny him 3 times, and he still believed in him!!!

·      Prideful - can’t take criticism well from anyone.  About me and not about the cross anymore.

How about you? Brothers and sisters this is such a serious issue! In fact, it could be considered a salvation issue according to Peter! Look at verse 10:

10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and
election sure.

I certainly want to make my calling and election sure! And I know you do, too! Then look at the promise, beginning in the second part of verse 10:

For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a
rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

How do you like them apples? I really look forward to that day, don’t you? When Jesus welcomes his wretched children—of which I am one—into the eternal kingdom because of their faith, repentance, and perseverance!

I want to close with a song in the Songbook that speaks to this in a
powerful way. It’s song number 466, and the title is I Will Speak…

I
will speak softly of the LORD, whom I confess as mine;
    His promises are wonderful, my Savior is divine;
I will speak firmly of the LORD, who reaches out to me;
    by his example of living well, I see that I am free;
I will speak boldly
of the LORD, who lives inside of me;
    and I’ll ever declare his words, until he comes for me.

Will
he say, will he say “Well done, well done;” will he say, will he say this to me?
Will he say, will he say, “Well done, well done—good faithful servant well done!”

Ultimately, that is ALL that matters—not that Jeremy or Steve (who leads our Portland church) or Kip (who leads our Los Angeles Congregation) or the ICOC or the ICC says “Well done;” but that Jesus says “Well done.”
Brothers and sisters, THAT AND ONLY THAT is our goal, amen!

If you’re visiting with us today, I pray you answered for yourself the same questions that were posed to the membership. We would love for your to be part of our family, and we have a whole series of Bible studies that will help to increase your faith—and, in some cases, GIVE you faith! I want to encourage you to get with the person who came with you, invite yourself to lunch at their house, or their favorite restaurant, and ask them, “How do you live by the Spirit” or “Will you study the Bible with me?”
They’ll be happy to oblige.

I want to encourage us all to, once again, 1) Live by the Spirit, because that is the best way to live; and 2) Add to you faith, because when you’re not adding you’re taking away, and nobody wants that!

So that all together, on that great day, Jesus can say to us all, “Well
done, my good and faithful servants, well done.”

Thank you all so very much for listening.