SUMMER IN THE SPIRIT: THE SHEPHERDING SPIRIT

Happy 4th of July! We hope you take an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of freedom in your life! We are blessed as a nation and as a people. Yet, we know that everything is not right with the world and living into freedom requires vigilance and commitment. Nations fall into tyranny and oppression because they fail to maintain a vision of genuine freedom. This is not just a national struggle; it is a continuing spiritual struggle. In our series Summer in the Spirit, we continue to engage the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Spirit is at work in this very moment to give you a fullness of heart and life. This is not a new reality. Long before the day of Pentecost, the Spirit has been working to create a fullness in God’s people and in the world. The title of this week’s sermon is The Shepherding Spirit. In some ways, it points us back to Psalm 23. David was a shepherd as a young man, and God used his experience to help him understand the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. While Psalm 23 is wonderful and powerful, we often find ourselves in the turbulent waters and struggling to find our way to a better place! Did we get it wrong? Absolutely not! Our text is Galatians 5:13-36. The Apostle Paul is trying to shepherd this church further down the path of walking in the Spirit. He understood very well that as believers we are limited, but God is able to bring fruit out of our lives that is filled with power and goodness. We can find the fullness that King David experienced because the Spirit is shepherding our lives, and we are in good hands! We pray that as you read these words, you will be filled with a sense of the Holy Spirit restoring your soul!

Galatians 5:13-26: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (NIV)