One Spirit - THERE'S NO "I" IN ONE, part 2 (Eph 4:4b)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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One Hope - THERE'S NO "I" IN ONE, part 3 (Eph 4:4c)

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We will trust in you, perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in you.

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We worship the God who is, we worship the God who evermore will be.

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He opened the prison doors, he parted the raging sea, my

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God, he holds the victors in his hands. There's joy in the house of the

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Lord, there's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be crying, we'll shout out your praise, there's joy in the house of the

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Lord. We sing to the God who saves, we sing to the God who always makes a way for me.

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He comes up on that cross, then he rolls us from that grave, my

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God, he's still rolling stones away. Loyalty, we were the prisoners, now we're running free.

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We now forgive him, accept him, redeemed by his grace.

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Let the house of the Lord sing praise. We were the beggars, now we're royalty.

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We were the prisoners, accept us, redeemed by his grace.

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Let the house, there's joy in the house of the

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Lord, there's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be crying, we'll shout out your praise, there's joy in the house of the

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Lord. Our God is surely in this place, we won't be crying, we'll shout out your praise.

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Amen. Hey, welcome. Welcome to church. There's joy in the house of the

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Lord today, isn't there? Welcome. First off, I just want to say welcome to all of our family members, our covenant members here at this church.

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I just want to say it is a blessing to come and worship with you every

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Sunday and as we gather throughout the week and we build these relationships. But the writer of Hebrews, he tells us not to neglect the gathering together of the saints.

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And it's for the purpose of encouraging one another all the more as we see the day of Christ drawing near.

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That's what we're waiting on, right? We're waiting on the return of the Savior. And we're here to encourage each other and bring gifts and abilities.

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And I look around this room and I see so many different parts of the body of Christ coming together today.

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And we're doing so by obeying and worshiping Him corporately, bringing all of these gifts to encourage one another.

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I hope you are encouraged. I hope you are blessed and challenged. And I just want to say thank you.

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Thank you for doing so. Thank you for your commitment to Christ. And I also want to say something else. You are loved.

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The world may hate you, but in here you are loved. Amen? You are loved.

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But I also want to just say thank you to any of our guests. Some of you are regular attending guests and some of you may be first -time guests.

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Thank you so much for joining us. We're so glad that you're here. And if this is one of your first times or you've not been able to fill out one of these

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Connect cards, we've got some in the back. You can ask any of the people with the 12 -5 shirts on.

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Actually, you can just ask anybody. They know exactly where they are. They can get you a copy of one of these. The purpose of this is so that we can get to know you.

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We can answer any of the questions you might have about who we are as a church. But also, we just want to know how to pray for you.

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There's a section on the back here, How Can We Pray For You? Everyone needs prayer, and we'd love the chance to pray for you.

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So please fill one of those out. But our prayer this morning as we come together, all of us, is that each one of us would grow in our knowledge and love of the triune

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God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one.

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And before we officially start our service, we often pray for another group of believers, typically here in the local area, because we're not the only ones gathering today, right?

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And so this morning, we just want to lift up our brothers and sisters at Nettleton Baptist, right up the road.

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We have a great relationship with those brothers and sisters. We love them dearly. And I actually reached out to Pastor Brady this week and said,

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How can 12 -5 Church pray for you specifically? And first off, he said, Thank you for praying for them.

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But he asked that we pray for their staff. They have a couple new staff members. That's always trying to learn how to work with each other and ministry philosophy and all that comes with that.

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From what I understand, it's going really, really well, but we just pray for that process. And he asked for prayer as they shepherd the spiritual and numeric growth there at the church.

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I believe they are growing in number, and their desire is, above growing numerically, is that they can pour into the people that are there and come.

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So let's bow our heads now. Let's pray for them before we start our service. Dear Heavenly Father, God, we thank you.

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Thank you for the body. Thank you for the church. Thank you for bringing us together.

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Thank you for other brothers and sisters that are gathering all over town, all over this state, this country, this world today, all with one purpose, which is to glorify and honor your name.

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And Father, we lift up our brothers and sisters at Middleton Baptist. God, we pray that you do a mighty work in their midst.

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I pray for Pastor Brady and the other staff members that serve with him. God, I pray that you would mold their hearts together towards you in oneness.

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And Lord, I pray that they would be able to shepherd well, shepherd the amount of people that are coming in, to shepherd spiritual growth in the hearts of the people that you're bringing their way.

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And we ask that you do a great work in their midst, Lord. We ask that revival break out and it just permeate and make its way over to us and over to the other churches in this community, and we see a mighty work being done.

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We thank you for them. Bless them. Work in them as we know that you will and do.

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In Christ's name, amen. Well, we ready to start our service? Is there joy in the house of the

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Lord today? So we're not going to stand here and go, there's joy in the house of the

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Lord. Is there joy in the house of the Lord? Amen, right?

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Okay, let's start our service by a call to worship. Romans chapter 8, verses 5 through 11.

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And we're doing something a little different. On the screen, I split the screen up so that you can see the read and the response of the people.

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I just wanted to make sure to clarify that because we're changing it up on you. I don't want to confuse anybody. But we're reading through this text together.

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I love the response because this is a corporate interaction, isn't it? We're reading

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God's Word together. Paul says in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 5, he says, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

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Oh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the

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Spirit. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

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For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. We, however, are not in the flesh but in the

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Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the

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Spirit is life because of righteousness. He who raised

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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.

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Through the Spirit who dwells in you and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's go to the

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Lord now in a prayer of adoration. Just prepare in our hearts to worship Him and proclaim His goodness. This comes from Chronicles where David is dedicating the temple.

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He said, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven.

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The earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You.

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Your rule over all, in Your hand are power and might. In Your hand it is to make great, to give strength to all.

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And now we thank You, our God, and praise Your glorious name. Praise You, God.

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So with each breath I'll bless Your name, O God, Your name.

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Your name will be revered until the dead to come.

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As generations sing of all You do right now.

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Your strong and mighty hands are always near.

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O God, most high, Your name will be revered.

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Sing this with me. How great is the Lord, and great need to be praised.

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How great is the Lord, how great is the

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Lord, and great need to be praised. Your gracious hand provides all we need.

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Your mercy runs to find the helpless and the weak.

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When we call out to You, You hear our cries.

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And all Your needs Your gracious hand provides.

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How great, how great is the Lord, and great need to be praised.

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How great is the Lord, how great is the

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Lord, and great need to be praised.

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Forever with our nation we'll reach the limits of wickedness.

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Your power, Your power will proclaim until Christ descends.

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And You will reign forever without end.

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How great is the Lord, and great need to be praised.

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How great is the Lord, our God. And how great is the

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Lord, great need to be praised.

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And He says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Amen.

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So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in the

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Spirit. With one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

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For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake.

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Engaged in the same conflict that you saw, I had, and now hear that I still have.

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Amen. Who else can man talk in this hour?

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Who else can make every king bow down? Who else can whisper and darkness tremble?

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Only a holy God needs a man with such praises.

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One of the splendor outshines a sun.

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One of the majesty rules with justice.

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Only a holy God worship the holy.

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Who else could offer

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His only Son? Who else invites me to call

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Him Father? The only holder of His ministry.

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In the dawning of the King. He the theme of heaven's praises.

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Built in flame humanity. In our longing, in our darkness, gather light.

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Life has come, blood to Christ to condescend.

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Take on flesh to transcend. Behold the

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One, He the perfect Son of Man.

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In His heaviness of grief, never drains no stain of sin.

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See the true and better hour. Come to see the love of man.

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Christ, the great and true covenant of the

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Lord. Amen. We're going to continue to sing that glorious truth here in just a moment.

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I'd like for you to go ahead and be seated. This morning

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I would like to pray a pastoral prayer over us as a people. A prayer for unity.

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That's been the theme of what we've been discussing the past few weeks in the book of Ephesians.

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I just want to go to the Lord and ask that He bless us in this as a people.

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So if you wouldn't mind, bow your heads with me as I pray over us.

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Oh Father, your word says, behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

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You've told us that there should be no divisions among us. But that we should be united in the same mind and in the same judgment.

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Lord, you've called us to be eager to maintain, to guard the unity of the

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Spirit and the bond of peace. God, we see this unity perfectly displayed within the

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Godhead. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And you have brought us, your children, into that unity.

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Father, you chose us before the foundations of the world. Jesus, you purchased us by blood ransom and you accredited your righteousness onto us.

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Holy Spirit, you have sealed and sanctified us. You're bringing us into this perfectly unified body with Christ as the head.

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Yet we so often in our flesh, we lose sight of, we trample over and distort that unity.

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Oh God, our propensity is to divide. To look out after self.

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To care more about our own personal needs than the needs and desires of others.

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All the while forgetting that they are us and we are them. Because we are in you together.

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It's as unnatural as our right hand being at odds with our left.

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Oh, how this perversion of unity, that unity, the very unity that you brought us into, how it grieves you,

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Father. Father, forgive us. May we, your people, honor and represent your kingdom well.

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Jesus said that people would know that we are his if we have love for one another.

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And that love is seen in unity. So God, I ask that you guard us as a people.

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That you mold us as your people. Use us as a local representation of the body of your

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Son, Jesus Christ, here on earth. That we would rest in the grace that you have given us through Christ.

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That we would work towards the call that you have called us to in Christ. And that we would guard this unity that we've been brought into in the

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Spirit through the Son and by the Father. Oh, make us a people so in tune with this unity that the watching world can't even look upon us.

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Can't even look at us very long because we reflect your righteousness and holiness so much.

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That holiness and righteousness, God, that pierces through the darkest depth of this broken, sinful world.

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And it merely incinerates all ungodliness and unrighteousness within its path. And brings about life where death had once claimed victory.

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That brings about unity where disunity seemed triumphant. Where you, the only one worthy of praise, sets enthroned in glory.

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And us, your children, singing holy, holy, holy. And declaring that praise.

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Lord, as we continue to sing this song, I pray that each one of us in this church would behold this wondrous mystery.

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That we would see it before us. That we would understand it. That we would comprehend it. That we would love it.

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We would long for it. Oh, how you have brought us into this unity. You have bought us into this unity through the sacrifice of our

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Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is in His name, by His life, through His death, and out of His resurrection that we come to you today.

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We ask that you would be honored in our lives, mold us, unify us, together in Christ's name.

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Victory! See the price of our redemption.

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See the promise when unfolded. Bringing many saints to glory.

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Peace and mercy will unfold. Behold the wondrous mystery.

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Slain by death, the God of life. But no grave could ever restrain

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Him. Praise the Lord, He is alive.

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What a foretaste of deliverance. How unwavering,

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Christ in power. What a foretaste of deliverance.

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How unwavering, Christ in power.

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Resurrected as we will be when He comes.

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Lord, thank you for bringing us here to worship and honor your name, God. Thank you that we have you.

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Thank you that you brought these families, visitors, members, God, to just praise your name and study the word.

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God, as we continue this time of worship and fellowship together through offering, Lord, I just pray that you receive this,

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Father. Lord God, that it would bring glory to your name, our giving, our time, our time,

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Father. Thank you, God. To you be all glory and honor. Amen.

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Amen. Well, go ahead and open up your copy of God's word. Ephesians chapter 4.

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Ephesians chapter 4. Surprise, surprise. We're going to start reading in verse 1 so we get the context of what

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Paul is saying. Read on through verse 6 here. The Apostle Paul says,

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This is the reading of God's word. Let's stop once again. Let's pray. Let's go and ask that the

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Holy Spirit would help us understand these truths. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you.

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Thank you that you have given each one of us, your children, the

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Holy Spirit so that we can comprehend these great truths.

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Father, I ask for those in here that may not be in you this morning. I pray that you would awaken them.

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I pray that the Holy Spirit would breathe life into them so that their spirit would be awakened and see the glory of the cross, the beauty of the

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Savior. And these words would be like life to them as they are to us.

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So, Father, I pray that we would speak clearly about these words, that they would represent you well, guard me from error.

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I pray that I would speak only truth. In Christ's name, amen. Well, today is number two of a seven -part sermon where we have titled this,

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There's No I in One. As we spend seven weeks looking intently at this blindingly unifying, individualism -crushing crescendo of oneness.

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This beautiful declaration from Paul of one body, one spirit, one hope, one

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Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. And why is

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Paul giving us this theological summation of oneness? Why is he doing this?

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Well, it's because of what he had told us there in verse three that we looked at just a couple of weeks ago. Where he says, hey,

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Christians, you must be eager, you must desire, you must strive to maintain, to guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

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And how do we do this? How do we maintain this unity? How do we guard this unity?

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Well, by first understanding our position of unity. The fact that we are already unified.

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And so last week we looked at the first of these seven ones that Paul declares.

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Where Paul says that there is one body. What's Paul doing here?

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Paul's pointing to the fact that we are not, us in here, you and I, are not a group of individuals that are coming together with a common goal.

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You get that? Paul's saying in one body, we, a church, and the other churches in this area, and the other churches all over the world, the brothers and sisters everywhere, are not coming together with a common goal.

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That's not what drives us together. As all other earthly or created entities are.

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Every other entity in the entire universe is different.

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Every government. Every corporation. Every non -profit.

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Every religion. Every family. Every club in this earth.

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And it goes even beyond the things created on earth. It goes even into the spiritual realm. Even Satan and the demons gather for the purpose of one common goal.

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That's what unites them. And so this unity is dependent upon each individual autonomous person, or spirit, striving towards that goal.

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You see, this is why all governments need a constitution of sorts.

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They need bylaws. Every corporation and every non -profit and every entity needs some kind of a mission statement.

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You must have it. You must have the common goal. What is each individual person within that unit striving towards?

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However, the kingdom of heaven is categorically different. Something very different.

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We are merely individual parts of a singular organic body.

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As Paul says. Changes things. Now some of you may be struggling with that distinction.

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You may be saying, well, pastor, I'm not sure I understand the nuance between these other entities and the one body.

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After all, those are a group of individuals. We, ourselves, are a group of what we would perceive as individuals.

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I don't understand what you mean in this distinction. Well, I think this next one that Paul brings out may help us understand this monumental chasm of difference.

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Look at verse 4. He says, there is one body and one spirit.

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This is the one we're going to look at today. If this one body that Paul is referring to, that you and I are made a part of and brought into,

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Christ Jesus being the head of that body, if this body is living and active, if it is active in this created universe, in this world, then what makes this body a living organism?

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A living spiritual body. What makes it different than other entities, other groups of individuals?

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What is its life source? Is it the Bible? Is this the life source of this body?

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Is it our confessions that tell us what the Bible says? Is it our statements of faith?

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Is it our creeds? Is it the 1689 London Baptist Confession?

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Is it the Westminster Confession? Is it the Nicene Creed? Is it the Apostles Creed? Is it any of these things?

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Is it our singular common goal? As Christians, maybe our goal for this body is what unites us is the

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Great Commission. What about our goal of pursuit of holiness?

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Being more like Christ. Maybe that's our common goal that unites us and makes us into a body.

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You see, all of these things that I just listed, these are essential. All of them are the word of God, of course.

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The words of God. The confessions, amazing, wonderful. They help us understand what the word of God is telling us.

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Evangelism, we're called to do it. Growing in holiness, we're called to do it. But none of them are what makes us into a spiritual body, are they?

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What makes us into a spiritual body with Christ as the head of that body is essentially the soul of that body.

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Something very different than all other entities. It's the

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Holy Spirit. There's one body. And one spirit.

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We see this all throughout Paul's letter here. If you want to, you can jot these passages down and look at them or you can kind of flip to them with me and look through these.

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But let's do a bit of a recap. Let's build on what Paul has built the last three chapters, right?

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Starting all the way back in chapter 1 in verse 13, what does he say? He tells us as Christians, he's talking to the

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Christians there in Ephesus, these Gentile Christians. He says, In him, in Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit. Well, this is a beautiful phrase from the

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Apostle Paul. We've talked about this when we dealt with that text. But the Holy Spirit, notice that the way

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Paul talks about this, he speaks of it from a 10 ,000 foot view where he's speaking of all saints.

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But then in the phrasing, he uses a very personal language where he zooms in and you get this micro view individually of each

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Christian. You and me and all of us that are in Christ. What does he say? He says,

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You've been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Every person who is in Christ is sealed and indwelled by the

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Holy Spirit. But with this individual indwelling comes a communal connection.

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A very interesting, something different than any other entity. Chapter 2, verse 18, there in Ephesians.

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He starts to build on this. He says, For through him, through who? Jesus, right?

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We both, now if you've not been with us in this study, the whole first three chapters,

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Paul is showing the unity between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. That's what he means.

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Between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. We both, and this, by the way, this applies in all of the arenas.

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Male, female, slave, free, poor, rich. We both have access in, is anybody reading it?

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One spirit. One spirit to the Father. We both have access in one spirit to the

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Father. What does Paul mean by this? What's Paul talking about us having access in one spirit to the

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Father? Look down at verse 22 there of chapter 2. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. By the Holy Spirit building us up.

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Meaning, it is the Spirit who is building each of us up into this temple. This body, this unified body.

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This unified dwelling place for himself. We saw this work in Paul's prayer later on in chapter 3.

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In verse 16 as he's praying for the saints that he's writing to. In verse 16 of chapter 3 he says, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his

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Spirit. In your inner being. Each of us.

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See how individual it is? It's funny, Paul, he speaks in this grand scale of every

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Christian and then zooms it in and makes it very personal. In your very inner being, that power is working through you.

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And you see, all other created entities derive their unity from, as I said a moment ago, a singular goal.

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That's what unifies. While the church, the body of Christ, derives its unity from a person.

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This is an important distinction here. We have to be careful when we speak of the

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Holy Spirit. Because I think in churches today we tend to think of the

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Holy Spirit in kind of mystical, unknown ways. Sometimes he's referred to as it.

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We're not sure how to define him. Sometimes you'll hear somebody speak of the

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Holy Spirit like maybe that's just like God the Father's, like the Spirit of who he is that is coming out.

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And it's not really personalized. But scripture is very clear about the person of the

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Holy Spirit. I want to prove this to you. Again, you can jot these down or you can look at them if you'd like. But Romans chapter 8 verse 26 is one of those texts that gives us some insight into the person of the

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Holy Spirit. Where Paul says in Romans 8 verse 26, he says,

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Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We've talked about this text before. Very commonly known text. Very encouraging for us as believers.

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For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit, here's the key, himself.

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Intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. You see that? The person.

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Very distinct person. Jesus also referred to him in John 14 verse 26.

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When he tells the disciples of the Helper to come, he says, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the

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Father will send in my name, and here's the key to this verse, he says, He will teach you all things.

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Right? This is an important distinction. This is the person of the

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Holy Spirit. This is the person of the Holy Spirit. And since he is a person, as Paul says, one spirit, he is subsequently indivisible.

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What does that mean? What is indivisible? Meaning undivided. It's a singular person.

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One. One spirit. You see, the church in Ephesus, they're in kind of this mecca of Roman gods.

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They're kind of the epicenter in Ephesus of all of these gods that all of these differing people are worshipping.

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And there's all kinds of spirits that are working within it. In my opinion, very demonic spirits, of course.

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But these are false gods. And so the church in Ephesus is probably struggling with understanding this unified oneness of the

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Spirit. And this is why Paul is laying this out for them. He wants them to comprehend the oneness of the

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Spirit here. A common goal, such as a constitution, such as a mission statement that we talked about a moment ago, can and often is interpreted through the eyes of the beholder, isn't it?

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Leading to many different interpretations of said goal. Think about it for a second.

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Go talk to your neighbor about the American Constitution. And see if you guys have the same interpretation of the exact same words.

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Right? It's in the eye of the beholder. And sometimes when we see divisions in the church, it's because we're looking at Scripture, and it's in the eye of the beholder.

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We're not being led by the Spirit into the truth of God's Word. And we're reading those words based upon our own perception and our own ideas.

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And that causes division. That's why the soul of this body is not the

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Bible. It's true. It's always right. It's always precise.

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It's perfect. But it's not the soul of who we are. What brings us into a unified body is the person of the

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Holy Spirit that leads us into an understanding of those words and brings clarity so that there is no division and individualism in the mix of this.

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We must understand this because this is a massive distinction here.

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We are united by an unchanging, undivided, perfect and holy Spirit, the third person of the

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Godhead. Period. Whose sole purpose and working is in perfect unison with the first and second person of the

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Trinity, God the Father and God the Son. There's no division. There's no confusion.

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This is at the core of what distinguishes the body from all other entities. And that was the question

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I asked, right? I don't understand the nuance here, Pastor. This is the nuance.

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We're not led by an idea or a perception.

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We're led by a person. This is categorically different, isn't it?

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Another way that we tend to think wrongly about the Holy Spirit is that he is merely an influence within us.

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Merely an influence. We sometimes like to speak of being prompted by the

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Holy Spirit. That's a good thing. We do. We're all prompted by the Holy Spirit. He's working in us. He is, but there's something deeper that's going on with the person of the

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Holy Spirit that is indwelling in each believer. As a matter of fact, Ezekiel 36.

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Ezekiel 36 verse 26. I'm not going to ask you to turn. That'd probably take a few people a while to find it.

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But you can jot it down. Chapter 36 verse 26 and 27. We see this idea of the

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Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit coming. He says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

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Now that spirit there is not capitalized if you look at it in your scripture. It's speaking of a new spirit within you.

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A new desire. I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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Verse 27. And I will put my spirit, capital S spirit, within you.

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Here's the kicker. It says, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

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Amen. He's active. He's active.

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In our lives. This is not just something passive. He's not merely an influence.

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He is actually what is changing us within. And guiding us and pushing us and prodding us to live a holy life.

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It's the passage I love from Philippians. I mention it all the time. Philippians 1, 6. He who began a good work in you will see it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

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What a triune verse. God the Father started it. God the Holy Spirit is working it out in you.

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He accomplished it. And we see this work. The passage we read a moment ago. Romans 8, 26.

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We see the same thing. We said likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray as we ought.

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But the spirit himself intercedes for us. It's not passive. He is actively working.

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And so when I don't know what to pray. When you don't know what to pray. When I don't know how to live and you don't know how to live.

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And I don't know what to do and you don't know what to do. He does and he's doing it. And that's completely different than a common goal, isn't it?

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It changes the game for us when we begin to think of what this one body is. One body and one spirit.

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With one spirit. He's actively leading and guiding us. And in doing so we can always rest assured that the work that the

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Holy Spirit is doing in each one of us. You and me will never ever contradict.

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He's never working against himself. Do you hear that?

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The Holy Spirit is never contradicting himself between my life and your life.

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Between my life and a missionary 30 ,000 miles away. I don't even know if that's possible.

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Whatever it is. He's always doing the same work.

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You may say, well, Pastor, look at the church today. It seems like there's not a lot of uniformity. What do you mean by him doing the same work?

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Uniformity? No. Unity, yes. Those are two very different things.

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Christ said that he will build his church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it, right?

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That's what he said. And the Holy Spirit is the one who is actively working out that very plan in perfect unison with Christ within each one of us.

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He's carrying it out. Christ is building his church. Christ is building his temple.

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Christ is building his body. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And the Holy Spirit is carrying out that action in order to accomplish it here on earth.

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And you see, we must remember that this is a body. We can't lose the analogy.

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This is a body. Each part has a role. The eye doesn't do what the hand does.

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The foot doesn't do what the ear does. Yet they both function in unity together.

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At least in a healthy body. They function in unity, not in unison.

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So the question is... I think this really gets to the crux of it. As I was preparing this,

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I was thinking, okay, so what's the real question? What do I want to know? How does this apply? How do we know when it's the working of the

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Spirit for the furtherance of the kingdom and when it's the works of the flesh that lead to disunity?

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How do we make those distinctions? Because we look around at the landscape of the church and we go, it does not seem too unified.

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But yet Jesus said it is. What's the disconnect here?

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What are we looking for? What are we looking at? I struggle with this, don't you?

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We struggle with this because we look around and we see this. We see very little unity. And I lose heart over it.

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Do you lose heart over that? When you look around at the landscape of the church, do you lose heart over the disunity? Over the dysfunction at times?

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I do. I even struggle to see it in my own life.

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I see disunity in my own self. And I'm like, I get discouraged by it.

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Maybe Paul gives us some insight into this struggle. So I do want you to turn here. Galatians chapter 5.

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Galatians chapter 5. We're going to start reading in verse 16. You see,

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Paul has just called the Galatian church to stand firm. To turn away from the flesh.

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Because Christ has set them free from that previous bondage. That's what he's done for all of us, right?

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He set us free from the bondage of sin and death. And he's reminding them, don't live in the flesh.

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Live in the spirit. So he gets here to verse 16 in chapter 5. He says, but I say,

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Christian, walk by the spirit. This is capitalized.

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Not your spirit. Not some vague spirit. Not some concept of a spirit. Not walk according to the, well,

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I say this. Not walk by the Bible. The Bible leads you into understanding what the

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Holy Spirit's prompting and direction is. But that's not the core of it. He says, walk by the spirit.

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The spirit that is within you and I. And in doing so, he says, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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Boy, those are still looming, aren't they? Do you feel it? Okay, holy looks.

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Come on, guys. The desires of the flesh, they're still in each one of us.

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They're still nagging at us and gnawing at us and scratching at us. And fighting for the throne that they want to set upon in our own self.

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We all struggle with it. And he says, hey, walk by the spirit, Christians. And you won't gratify the desires of that flesh that are deep within you.

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That are deep within the apostle Paul himself. This wretched flesh, you will deliver me from it, right? In verse 17, he says, for the desires of the flesh, they're against the spirit.

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And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other.

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They're at odds with each other. They cannot function in the same sphere.

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You cannot have the flesh and the spirit functioning and reigning at the same time.

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It's impossible. It doesn't happen. They're at odds with each other. And he says, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

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You see, the person of the Holy Spirit is working out sanctification in our hearts.

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He's molding us. He's slowly putting to death that flesh.

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He's slowly stripping those desires away from you. Do you feel it? I can say,

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I'm so far from the mark, it becomes paralyzing sometimes.

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I'm just being honest with you. I feel the sin of my own flesh so far from the mark of holiness.

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That sometimes my face gets low to the ground and I can't get any lower. And I think, what a wretched, disgusting sinner am

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I? I feel it. I feel that within me, but I can look back and I can praise

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God because I can say, I do hate sin a little more than I did before.

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And hopefully in 10 years, I'll hate it even more than I do now. And in another 10 years,

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I'll hate it even more than that. Because I will despise it and I will long to put it to death because I don't want to gratify the desires of the flesh.

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I want to walk by the spirit. And that's the person of the Holy Spirit working in you, right?

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That's sanctification. So Paul goes on. He shows us the contrast between the two.

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We begin to see he gives us a breakdown, a list. This is what I'm asking. How do we know when it's the

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Spirit's work and when it's the works of the flesh that divide? Because the Spirit's work unites. The flesh divides and he gives us this.

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Look at verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.

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Now, so far, we've gone through this list. Most of us feel pretty good about this list, don't we? I don't fall prey too much to any of that.

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I'm committed to my spouse. I don't watch bad things on TV. And we begin to think, oh,

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I'm doing pretty good here. Then the list goes on and starts to show the hypocrisy of how much you mask the flesh to keep hanging on to it.

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Verse 20, idolatry. John Calvin said the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.

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We're constantly producing idols. I don't know about you, but sometimes internally in my own life,

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I feel like I'm standing at the end of the conveyor belt that I built. That keeps pumping out idols.

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And my job as a Christian is to stand at the end with a baseball bat, smashing them as they come down. Because they just keep piling up.

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And I always, my flesh constantly desires to place them on the throne of where only

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God deserves. And so when Paul uses it, he hits right to the core of our flesh, doesn't he?

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Idolatry. Which, by the way, the other three, none of you are above, and I'm not above either, right?

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We still fall prey in the flesh there. So don't be all holy thinking, right? I'm just pointing out what we're feeling in the moment.

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He says idolatry, sorcery, and then he goes on and lists some here that I want us to focus on.

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And I want you to notice how each one of these centers around self. Enmity. Strife.

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Jealousy. Fits of anger. Rivalries.

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Dissensions. Divisions. Envy. You feel the knife twisting yet?

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Feel that hurt? That's the flesh.

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We wonder why. Why can't we be united? What you're saying is true,

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Pastor. We're already united in Christ. We're already brought into perfect unity.

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And we're to guard it. Why don't we experience it? Why are we always fighting? Why are we always having issues?

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Why do so many churches split over the color of the carpet? Why is this? Why, why, why is all of this going on?

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It's because of this. This is the fruit of the flesh. This is the outcome. This is what flesh always brings about.

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Enmity. It always brings about strife and jealousy, anger, rivalry, dissension, division, and envy.

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It just creeps up in all of us and we allow it to reign when we're not walking in the

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Spirit. This is the fruit of the flesh.

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This is what it produces. When we see this in the church, rest assured, it's not the work of the

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Spirit. When you see that, you know that is not the work of God.

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That is not the work of God in the body. That is a virus that doesn't belong in the body.

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And it causes us to live for self. But you see, here's the problem.

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All those other entities that we talked about, any government, any corporation, any group or club, are only surrounded around this idea of a common goal.

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And that common goal is often approached with these things because it's the only way it can be approached.

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Because we're all sinners in flesh. Strife and jealousy, fits of anger, divisions.

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This is not us guarding the unity of the Spirit. Paul goes on to show us the contrast of the

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Spirit's work. Look at verse 22. But the fruit of the

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Spirit is. Now, I want you to notice it doesn't say fruits, plural. It says this is the fruit of the

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Spirit. This is what's evident. This is what the Spirit produces. This is what the third person of the

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Godhead, the person of the Holy Spirit, produces. This is who he is.

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This is the outcome. If you wanna know where he's at, look for that. You'll see it.

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Love. Joy. Peace.

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Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness.

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Gentleness. Self -control against such things. There is no law. There's no need for a law because they are good.

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And you see, when this fruit is present, this unity is not. This is how we know when the

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Spirit is at work. He always produces this. I love that Paul starts off with love.

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It makes me think of the love chapter. 1 Corinthians 13.

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Because what is love? Paul starts off with love. What is love? What's Paul talking about? Because I think sometimes we have our own preconceived ideas of what love is, right?

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And we bring love to the table. Well, Paul explains it in 1 Corinthians 13, starting in verse 4, he says, love is patient and kind.

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Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.

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It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.

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It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

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Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

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This explanation of love is essentially what encompasses the fruit of the Spirit, isn't it? God is love.

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The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is love.

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And so wherever He is, wherever He goes, is love. And this is true love.

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This is a love from God that then produces a beautiful fruit that produces unity.

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Talk about unity there, right? And see, you and I have this fruit being worked out within each of us, don't we?

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He is working it out within each of us. Paul goes on in verse 24 there in the passage in Galatians 5, and he says, and those who belong to Christ Jesus, now who's that?

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That's us, right? All those who belong to Christ Jesus, they have crucified, they have killed the flesh with its passions and desires.

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They've put it up on a cross and nailed it and sought to put it to death.

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That's what Paul's telling them. Walk in the Spirit Do not gratify the lust of the flesh.

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This is what the flesh produces, but this is what the Spirit produces. Now put the flesh to death.

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Do you see how individualism just disintegrates in the midst of that?

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I can no longer live for me. I no longer belong to me because me wants envy, strife, dissension.

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Me wants the flesh. Me, me, me, a common goal of what

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I want, of what I want to accomplish, no longer exists, but the person of the

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Godhead, the Holy Spirit within me is producing something that unites me to Him, the

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Godhead in totality, and each person that is brought in and has the indwelling

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Holy Spirit. Individualism burns away. It's gone. The question is, are you and I crucifying the flesh?

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Are you putting it to death? Or are you hanging on to it so that grace may abound?

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As Paul said, should we go on sinning that grace may abound? By no means.

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Certainly not. Is grace going to abound? Is the Holy Spirit going to work in each one of us and He is going to mold the church, the body?

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Yes, but He has called us. He's called us to put to death the flesh. In verse 25 it says, if we live by the

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Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. What does that mean?

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Keep in step with the work that the Spirit is doing. Keep in tune with the Spirit.

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Worship the Spirit. Long after communion with the Spirit, living, looking, thinking, acting, responding in the

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Spirit. And this always leads to unity. Paul warns us what happens when we don't.

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Verse 26. Let us not become conceited. Consumed with self essentially, right?

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Let's not become consumed with self. Let's not think of ourselves as individuals and be conceited in that way, provoking one another, envying one another.

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That's what my flesh wants to do, right? When we do this, we grieve the person of the

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Holy Spirit that is within us. We must remember that there is one body and one

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Spirit and we have been brought into union by the blood of Christ.

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All those sins of the flesh that you and I wore against have been paid for. That's the beautiful part, right?

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If I'm in Christ, all of those sins of the flesh that I fall prey to, they've been taken care of.

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Christ has paid the penalty for them. I no longer have to have penance for them.

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I no longer have to try and get some extra forgiveness because I've sinned against Him again.

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Oh no, no, no. If I'm in Christ, He paid for it. He said it is finished. It's done.

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I have accomplished it. You play no role in that. I brought you into union right now.

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All you do right now is walk in the Spirit and seek to mortify the flesh but we fall prey.

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We fall into the flesh over and over again but there's forgiveness because Christ has already paid for it.

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Now because of that redemption, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity is working within us and His fruit will be evident in our lives.

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He's molding us and conforming us corporately, right?

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We have to remember that. It is happening to us individually but also corporately because it's the same

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God working in each of us for the same purpose and with the exact same magnificent goal and what is that goal?

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The glory of God and that glory is seen through the redemption of His creation, isn't it?

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I mention it all the time here in the

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Spirit. Remember this. What God created was good. It was in harmony and unity and what did

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Adam do? He screwed it up.

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He brought in chaos and disunity, didn't he? Didn't he? He distorted it yet God is building a people for Himself.

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Us, the redeemed that are in Christ as a temple, a body, a dwelling place of perfect unity and communion with Him.

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So let's act like it, right? Let's look to the cross. Look to Christ who paid for our sins at the cross.

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Rest in Him and walk in the Spirit. Well, in light of that, let's prepare our hearts now to do as we do each week.