Fruit of the Spirit - Galatians 5

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military styles, it wasn't the type of people...

Please turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, the book of Galatians chapter 5.

That's where we're going to be this morning. And I want to read beginning in verse 13 through 25.

Galatians chapter 5, verse 13 through 25.

Hear the word of the Lord and let it change you today. For you are called to freedom, brothers.

But don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, that you love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out so you will not be consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit and you won't gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the

Spirit. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. They are opposed to one another to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control against such things.

There is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with that Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Let's pray. God, as we study Your Word, show us what

You would have us to hear, and not what we want to hear. In Your name, Amen. I won't go through everything

I wrote out for you on the front of your handout, but this is just some background to the book of Galatians.

Galatians is probably the second earliest New Testament book written. The only one that might be earlier than that is the book of James, written by the

Lord's brother. Galatians is assuredly Paul's first letter that he wrote. Remember Paul?

He wrote 13 letters in the New Testament. This is one of them. But unlike his others, this was not written to one church.

The book of Galatians, as you read from chapter 1, verse 2, was written to a group of churches in the province of Galatia, in the

Roman province of Galatia. It was written to a group of churches in Galatia. If you have never read this book, let me just give you a brief summary.

And, by the way, for those of you who think being nice is the most important commandment of God, you're going to have a hard time with the book of Galatians, because Paul's tone is not nice.

If you think that if it comes between telling the truth and hurting someone's feelings, that you should always choose the feelings, you need to correct

God, because He messed up in the book of Galatians. Or maybe, change your outlook.

Because, forget about nice, there is nothing more loving than with a gentle spirit, telling somebody the truth.

That is love, and there's no other such kind of love. In the book of Galatians, here's what we have.

We have a group of churches who were doing great.

They were saved by faith. They noticed, as they should, that those who were actually saved had a changed life after that.

Imagine that. They had changed actions. But then something happened. They became so complacent in that, they actually started to think that those good works, their changed life, is what got them saved in the first place, and then told others that is how salvation occurs.

Are you following me on that? They started saying things like, you must do this to be a Christian, you must get circumcised to be a

Christian, the sign of the old covenant in the law of Moses. And Paul writes a very harsh rebuke of that.

Telling them that the faith that saved you, you now think that the changed life works you have is what saves other people?

What is wrong with you? He says that you are preaching a false gospel, and there really isn't another gospel, and that anyone, any pastor, who preaches a gospel different than the true gospel should be anathema, cursed, cut off.

That is the theme of this book. Well, the section we just read is

Paul's encouragement to show that changed life after faith has taken root.

In verse 12, he just told that whatever preachers, and the kids are already gone, so I don't have to be too secretive about this, but in verse 12, he just told that whatever preacher is telling them they must be circumcised to be saved should go ahead and finish the job himself.

He should emasculate himself, same your Bibles will say. Paul is not playing around here, because what we're dealing with is someone who's changing the gospel.

They're saying that salvation happens from faith and adopting a certain moral code.

That is not the gospel. The gospel is that faith and faith alone saves you, and that a changed life is a necessary result, a progression, but a changed life is a necessary result of that faith.

Look with me, as on the back of your page I broke this down for you, and that's where we're going to be at for the rest of the day. Again, starting in verse 13.

For you were called to freedom, my brothers, only don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, that you should love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one another.

Real freedom begins at the regeneration of the spirit. Ladies and gentlemen, you had thousands of choices as an unbeliever, and maybe some of you in this room, almost assuredly, still have not tasted that type of freedom yet.

You are still lost. Some of you know it, some of you do not. Real freedom.

Real freedom actually begins when the Holy Spirit regenerates a dead spirit.

Before, you can be a totally moral upright people. There are atheists that are very morally upright, and I mean that.

But their will is not freed yet. Because no matter what any of us tried to do as an unbeliever, we still only satisfied what we wanted to do.

But for those of you who know what I'm talking about, and have felt that regeneration of the spirit, all of a sudden, there was at the same time a sense of freedom and a sense of strife.

A sense of freedom in that a chain has been taken off of your back.

Yes? And a sense of strife, because now all of a sudden, it's like, alright, I know I'm supposed to do

X, but I've created all these bad habits for all these years, especially some of you that got saved later in life.

Those bad habits the Bible calls the flesh. They are the bad habits that were created from years of disobeying.

And that strife, that tension, is what Paul is writing about here. Because now you actually have the freedom to choose, to submit to God or submit back to self.

And the number one thing we are supposed to do with that freedom is to serve each other.

This was a breakthrough for me, when I realized this point right here. Years ago, this was a breakthrough for me.

And I hope it can be for someone else in here too. I thought the height of pleasing

God was praying and reading my Bible every day. And that, if I did not meet that goal,

I was a bad Christian that day. Okay? Two things.

Number one, the Bible has thousands of things to say about how we are to treat the

Bible, but very few of them tell us to read it. They tell us to meditate on it. Obey it.

Recite it. Memorize it. Dwell on it. Mentally chew on it. Okay? That's the mindset we should have.

It's like when I... I remember I used to have a video game,

I think it was on Playstation 1 or 2, and it was called Desert Storm. Has anyone ever played that game?

One? Hannah, me and Hannah. Okay, perfect. When I first got that game, the only way

I can explain it, it was like on my mind all day. If I wasn't talking to someone or actively doing something, it was like in the background right here because I had played it so much.

It was like a tab up on the phone, a tab up on my mind for all day. Has anyone, maybe with a show or something, that's just like a tab right there that if you're not doing anything, you're thinking about that?

That is what dwelling is. The Bible tells us to dwell on Scripture far more than it ever tells us to read it.

Instead of trying to read a psalm, a proverb, and a chapter of a gospel every day, if that's you, okay, how about you just read one verse 20 times and chew on it for days, for weeks, until the

Holy Spirit enlightens you to understand what God intended for that to be understood as. Does that make sense?

In other words, instead of just reading it like it was written as a novel, why don't we read it as it was written?

God's Word. Just some food for thought. But anyway, when

I realized that the height of my obedience to God was not praying and reading my

Bible every day, but serving the people He left in my life, it was a breakthrough for me.

This is exactly what Jesus said. Is it not? He said, at the end of days, we've got the wheat and the tares, the goats and the sheep, whatever classification we want to call it, the saved and the unsaved, those going to heaven and those going to hell.

He looks at the righteous and He says, blessed are you. Now, this is over 7 ,000 years of human history.

When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. And you visited me in the hospital. You all remember this? That Jesus was only on this planet for 33, well, 34 years -ish.

The overwhelming majority of Christians have never and will never see a bodily

Jesus in that sense. I haven't. They have the same question that I had.

When did I ever see you, Jesus, hungry or thirsty or sick or whatever?

And what does Jesus tell them? If you have done that for each other, you've done it for Me.

When He asked Peter, do you love Me? And Peter said yes.

Simply saying it was not enough for Jesus. And I hope some of you are hearing me on that. Simply saying it was not enough for Jesus.

What did Jesus tell Peter to do? If you love Me, feed My sheep.

He said if you love Me, keep My commandments. And no greater commandment is there than this, that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

When I realized that, that was a breakthrough for me. That I love God by loving the people in this room.

The Bible commands us to have a heart for every human being.

A hospitality especially. A care, a tender heartedness for everyone.

The Bible says to try to make peace with all mankind. The Bible tells us to try to be well thought of by outsiders if it does not fall in line with what the

Bible says. However, the Bible has a far greater commandment for how we're supposed to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of any tribe, nation, language, tongue, it doesn't matter. There's only one church and it's a global one. A far greater commandment for that.

That we should love them as we love ourselves. And instead of getting that backwards and looking at that as, so I need to have some self -love, and then you define self -love as giving yourself more material goods, and you actually think that's what

Jesus meant by that, you got it backwards. It's that, since you are so used to always wanting to satisfy your own needs, let's try to flip that around radically and love your neighbor as you would yourself.

When God first said that, it was in Leviticus 19 .18, He was talking to the

Israelite community and He wasn't talking about the Amorites or the Canaanites or the Amalekites or those actually physically next to them, though of course they were supposed to take the gospel to them as well.

What He meant was the two million people, or however many it was in that community, those walking along with them.

You know what's amazing? He says if anybody from the outside in the same chapter, 19 verse 34, comes to join you, comes to join you, to be a part, whether they have been of you for a week or a century, you are to love your neighbor as yourself.

That's the kind of love He tells us to have. That was a breakthrough for me. When I was at the

University of Memphis and I played rugby, we would go out of town for our games and we would just carpool there.

We didn't have a bus or anything. It's a club sport after all. And we would drive to Atlanta to play, you know,

Kennesaw and Georgia State and all that, whatever that school is right there on the interstate next to the varsity,

Georgia Tech. We would drive to Murfreesboro. We would drive to the Ozarks. We would drive to Mississippi State, to Birmingham, to Tuscaloosa.

We'd drive to all these places. And everybody else, for the most part, we would play on Saturday, would stay

Saturday night and let's just say have a good time. And I, sometimes by myself, sometimes by others, would drive back through the night.

And what I'm about to say may to some of you sound braggadocious. I mean it in no way of that. I'm trying to show you something.

And I would get in two or three in the morning. I would take a shower, set my alarm, get up and come here.

And I didn't do that because I felt some moral obligation to. I didn't do that because it was a check mark on my little

I obeyed God today. I didn't do that because anyone told me to do that. I did that because I genuinely love the people here.

I told someone that last week in a counseling appointment. And she said to me, well that worries me

Josiah because I don't have that kind of love. And she was just being honest. And I said I didn't at one point either. I just,

Rachel and I just celebrated our six years of anniversary. So we have been married for six years. And you don't have to clap.

It's fine. And which means that about seven or eight years ago,

I remember I told her I loved her at a McAllister's. They used to have, it's a waste of time to go there now, but they used to have this sandwich called the

Big Nasty. Donovan introduced me to it. Okay, it was a roast beef sandwich with gravy and cheese on it. Y 'all know what

I'm talking about? That's what I was really telling her I loved. But she was just there. That was a joke. And when

I said that eight years ago, I meant it. I meant it. But can

I tell you a secret? Looking back now, I love her far more now than I did then. Like a lot more.

The same is true for my children. I loved them before they were ever born.

I loved the idea of them before Rachel was ever pregnant. I loved them when we had a name.

But I've got to be honest with you, I love them more now than I did then. I really did. And if you had asked me then, was that possible,

I probably would have told you no. But I was wrong. The same is true of your fellow brothers and sisters.

Love grows, guys. So instead of sulking about maybe I don't have that kind of love, let me tell you something.

That love for Rachel, for my daughters, didn't just happen because time passes by. You know of many relationships,

I'm sure, that time does not make love grow. That's not how it works. You know what does?

Service. Especially, I guess I should do it this way, especially when you don't feel like it.

There is no greater kind of love than when you lay down your life for your friend, not because you're giddy to do it.

That is the real biblical definition of love. When I realized that my love for God could be measured by the love

I have for His people, that was a breakthrough for me. And maybe it is for someone else here too. Moving on.

Verse 15. It was a good point. Do not cry. Verse 15 is the opposite of loving your neighbor.

Verse 15. Y 'all pay attention. Verse 15 is the opposite of loving your neighbor. Biting and devouring one another.

We'll come back to that in a moment. Let's read verse 19 -24.

Now the works of the flesh are evident. They're obvious. You ready? Sexual immorality.

No. I just want to pause real quick in verse 19. Because this one hits every one of us, myself included.

So just listen. The first thing on my list is one we don't want to talk about enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, sex is not icky, it's not gross, it's not disgusting, it's not sinful.

It's beautiful in the bounds that God created it. In the bounds that God created it.

One man, one woman in marriage. I'll say that again. One man, one woman in marriage.

Sexual immorality is any perversion of that rule right there. There's many of them.

And I would be hard pressed to find anyone in this room, myself included, who is not guilty of that sin, at least in some point in their life.

And it's amazing that something that's so obviously so commonplace, we are way too silent about in the church.

It's the first one on the list, guys. The first one. Look at the first one for fruit of the

Spirit, which is in verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is... What's the first one?

The world will tell you that both of those first ones on the list are the same thing. Isn't that amazing?

We call the first sin of the fruit, the work of the flesh, the first one of the fruit of the

Spirit. We call sexual immorality love. We all do. Love.

Ladies and gentlemen, Satan is excellent at his job. And I've tried to tell you guys this before.

I need you to hear me on this. Much like Bugs Bunny told you, he was wrong.

He's not in a red jumpsuit with horns and a pitchfork. He is not the king of hell. He has never been to hell and he dreads the day that he goes there.

Satan, the enemy, is not that stupid. Satan, when he wants to tempt, when he wants to deceive, uses

Bible words to do it. Like love, justice, tolerance.

Words that are actually good things, but just changes the definition behind them.

Do not be deceived by that. Don't be deceived by that. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, true love is service to each other.

That's what the Bible tells us. When you look at this list, I'm going to read it again in verse 19.

I want you to be honest with yourself. If I were to ask ten people that know you best, what items from this list define your lifestyle?

I'm not asking what you've done before. I'm asking what defines your lifestyle. Let's read this again. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, listen, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dissensions, divisions.

Ava, my daughter, finally saw for the first time a couple of weeks ago that Rachel and I have started spanking little

Naomi. Now when I say spanking, you know, whatever, right? And I had to get on to Ava because when

I was disciplining Naomi, I turned over and Ava was smiling. Now, I feel for her a little bit.

I feel for her a little bit because for the past year of Naomi's life, she has seen an imbalance in her mind of justice.

She has seen that if she does something, she gets in trouble for it. If Naomi does, she gets away with it.

And finally, in her little brain for the first time, the scales of justice have evened.

That Dada finally sees that Naomi is just as bad as I am.

And she can't help but be pleased by that. But I told her that's not allowed.

That type of desire, that type of desire for judgment to fall on somebody else.

Do you have that for someone else in this room? If you do, please notice that is one of the works of the flesh.

Let's get rid of that. Guys, do not for one moment...

Do some of you have more mercy for a dog on a pet adoption commercial than you do for your brothers and sisters in Christ?

If you do, get rid of that today. There should be no other person on planet

Earth you have more mercy for than the other people in this room and throughout the world who are your brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know, half of Rachel and I's grocery budget is spent on belts at Costco because I have to wear them out with Ava often.

And those little $17 belts are just not cutting it anymore. I'm going to have to get another one. I don't want

Ava to ever forget when she sees Naomi being disciplined where she's come from.

Don't follow the same suit in here. Remember, true love is showing somebody correction, not pretending like you don't see it, but doing so with a spirit of tender heartedness because that was you not that long ago.

Don't focus on not doing bad, guys. Focus on doing good.

The works of the Spirit are opposed to the works of the flesh. Instead of focusing on, don't do this, don't do this, focus on do

X, Y, and Z and you will by default be putting the death to deeds of the flesh. Alright, now the fruit of the

Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control against such things there is no law.

Just a word about some of these. We've talked about love, joy, and peace.

Joy and peace is not based on a circumstance but on a foundation. Happiness is based on a circumstance.

There are many things that I can think of right now that do not make me happy, but it shouldn't shake my joy or my peace because that's found in something that's unshakable and that's

Jesus. It's unshakable. How dark it may be affects my eternal joy and peace.

These are gifts from the Spirit and just like what this whole section is talking about, you now have a freed will as a believer.

For an unbeliever, you do not. But as for a believer, a freed will to choose. To choose.

To embrace the fruits of the Spirit or to again submit to the yoke of slavery of the flesh.

But I tell you this, I tell you this, the more you submit to the will of the

Spirit, the more that joy and peace will show. I promise you. Patience.

I've heard a preacher say before, if you cannot say amen, say ouch. There's an ouch for me. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

Are you known as being trustworthy? Do you do what you say you're going to do? Can someone rely on you?

Do you finish that which you've started? Those aren't good old southern boy characteristics.

Those are fruit of the Spirit. Recognize that. Gentleness and self -control.

Did you notice that almost everything in the works of the flesh were about you pleasing yourself?

And almost everything in the fruit of the Spirit was about you serving somebody else.

It was demonstrable. You could show it to somebody else. And this is the section where I'm going to offend most of you in this room.

So go ahead and get ready for it. I often, those of you who counsel with me are smiling right now because I try to normally give a fair warning.

Most of you are not about to like what I'm about to say, but that's okay. As of today, I'm working here full time, so you can just call the complaint department, which is short.

Independence versus dependence. I am a strong, independent woman,

I often hear. Or, I'm my own man.

I don't need anybody's help. If you've ever said something like that, raise your hand, please. Yes, it's amazing.

Some of you strong, independent people are not raising your hand. Amazing. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, hear my heart for a minute, please.

And I know some of you have T -shirts that say this, and it makes good for a Facebook post, but I need you to listen to me for a minute. Is what we just read screaming of independence or dependence?

You ask me, and I'm asking you, is what we just read, which one of those lists is about being independent, and which one is about being dependent?

And I'm not here to scold, I'm here to encourage you.

Look, read it for yourself. If you are married or a Christian, one of the two, don't even have to be both, you have no right to call yourself independent.

For this reason, gentlemen, you ready? A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave into his life, and the two will become one flesh.

The two independent people will become one flesh. How do you get around that?

Christianity is the opposite of independence. Flip back just a couple pages.

I wasn't planning on doing this. I've got to find it. Chapter 3, verse 28.

Listen, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Jew and Greek, those are ethnicities of people. There's no such thing as Jew or Greek.

All these divisions you've created, male and female, slave and free, status doesn't matter. You're all one.

You are all collectively one in Christ Jesus. That is the polar opposite of independence.

Polar opposite. He goes on to say in 1 Corinthians, get ready for this statement, that you are not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. The exact expression of Scripture is you are not your own.

So let's quit promoting something that says we are. I know this is unpopular, and I don't mean to stir the pot except that which the

Bible says. Except that which the Bible says. Ladies and gentlemen, I am not independent.

And not just because I'm married. Because I need you guys. Like I actually do.

I can't do this on my own. The idea of a lone Christian was never the idea.

It was never the idea. When Elijah was complaining that he was alone, God looked at him and said, what are you talking about?

I have reserved for Myself 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. That's the opposite.

The Lord Jesus had 12 brothers who walked with Him every step of the way.

And are you better? Christianity is about denying yourself.

Denying yourself. And loving your neighbor as yourself. And outdoing them in showing honor.

Verse 25 and 26. My last point there for that section before we start verse 25 and 26.

It says we are to crucify the flesh. Now, for those of you who grew up in church, you're going to miss this analogy though you've read it a hundred times.

That's a torture device. Crucify, execute, kill, destroy, obliterate the works of the flesh.

Crucify them. Nail them to the cross of Jesus. Let them die. Now, as I've told you before,

God decided to do that in a progression. Not overnight. He decided to change the desires overnight.

But change the progression of you moving away from list number one and towards list number two.

He decided to make that a slow progression. And sometimes I hate that. Because it's frustrating.

Because I end up doing that which I don't want to do and not do that which I want to do.

Can anyone relate to that? The progression will be a progression upward.

A sure one, but sometimes seemingly a painstakingly slow one.

The way to make sure you're always moving in the right direction is sitting two feet to your right and left.

That is God's way. It is throughout the

Bible. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Provoke one another to love and good works.

It's throughout the Bible. That is the idea of how He decided to do it.

And what that's going to take for some of us is a little bit of courage. Because some of us don't like to say things uncomfortable to each other.

And all of us don't like to hear it. And some of us don't like to do it with a gentle spirit.

But that is exactly what we need, guys. That's what we need.

So we're not lulled to sleep by the things of the world that sound so godly and are not. That sound so beautiful and are not.

Verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the

Spirit. In other words, if you say you live by this, here's the list of evidence. Let's start working towards that list.

That's Paul's statement here. And let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

As I finish this last point, if the music people could come up here, please. I have two key examples in this body

I'd like to share with you. The key ingredient for that second list, the fruit of the

Spirit, the key ingredient is a word called humility. And the key ingredient missing from the works of the flesh is humility.

I have two examples I want to share with you guys, and this spoke to me right here. One I'll say by name, one

I will not. Let me show you what humility looks like. Submission to each other. This is what submission looks like.

And all of us to each other, wives to husbands, children to parents, all of us to each other.

I want you to listen to these two examples. I didn't read them out of a book. They're sitting next to you. Is Tim Nichols in here?

He hurt his shoulder, he had to go home. I love that guy. Tim Nichols is my first example.

And I didn't tell him I was going to do this, but I have the microphone and he doesn't, so I can do what I want. Tim Nichols traveled halfway across this planet before I was ever born.

He has served in the armed forces. He has a very high -ranking job.

He has led people. He has been management. He has far more experience than any three of us in here combined for the most part.

And has done most of it with something that would have put most of us out of commission from doing anything.

About three months ago, he came up to me. That was not intentional.

He came up to me and he said, Pastor Josiah, I have a question for you.

I said, okay. He goes, do I have your permission to go on the mission trip? I heard that you're in charge of it, so I want to ask your permission.

And I said, of course, Tim. And he said, and the reason I ask is not just because you're in charge, but because one of the biggest things you all do on mission trips is promote unity.

And I understand that because of my circumstance, I'll be on a different plane, I'll have to be in a different vehicle,

I'll have to, whatever, do X, Y, and Z a little differently. If you say, team, go here, and it's a bunch of grass and mud,

I'm going to have to go around, that kind of stuff. And I don't want in any way to be an example of not following your lead.

So if that would be a problem, I won't go, even though I really want to. That is an example of submission.

Of someone that, by every other standard, is far under where he is.

That's an example of submission, of humility. Let that be your standard. I've got one more for you, and this one

I will not say by name. About a year ago,

Andrew and Justin and Nick and Mike and whoever it was came to staff meeting and proposed that we buy a new sound system.

And if you don't know me very well, I hate spending money. I have, for my personal vehicles, not the ones

I've bought for Rachel, for my personal vehicles, I have owned three vehicles in my life and have paid a total combined of $9 ,000 for all three of them.

For all three of them. That's me. When I bought this last one, my 95

Oldsmobile, it's that gold one that parks in the back, I was told it would not last more than a year and a half, and six years later,

I love getting to tell people to look at a calendar, and it's still going. I mean, it only has 80 ,000 miles on it, and it's 27 years old.

Isn't that cool? And I said, OK, Justin, how much is this sound system?

He said $31 ,000. I said, absolutely not. $31 ,000?

That's three times the amount I have spent on all three of my cars. We are not spending $31 ,000 for microphones.

I'm ignorant. I know it's more than microphones now. But Justin, Andrew, the rest, showed me the need for it, that it's been neglected for three decades now, and that it would help a lot of things, and it absolutely has.

It sounds great now. Anyway, when we brought that before the people on a business meeting, maybe last fall.

Does anyone remember? Maybe last fall. We did our vote, and we had a couple people vote no, of which, if that was their actual intention, they should do that.

OK? They should. I'm sure one of them was Matt. Where's Matt? Yeah, probably

Matt. Yeah, probably Matt. But one of the other ones that voted no told me this a couple weeks ago, and I want you to hear this, please.

He said, the day after that business meeting, he adjusted his giving.

Now, he voted no. He adjusted his giving, and he said this to me.

To buy that sound machine. Y 'all follow me on that? Sound machine, whatever this is. Equipment.

Here's why. This is what he told me. He said, on that day, I voted no, but we voted yes, therefore,

I voted yes. I'm going to say that again. He said, and I didn't know this until a few weeks ago, he said,

I voted no on that day, but we voted yes, therefore, in truth and reality,

I voted yes. That's submission. That's humility.

There's your standard. I cannot think, other than Jesus, of a better example we have in this room than those two right there in those instances.

Let that be your thought process. It's not just that, well, that's what everyone else wants.

Well, I guess that's what I want, because everyone else did too. There's your standard.

Let that humble all of us to that end. Ladies and gentlemen, we have laid in front of us the works of the flesh and the fruit of the

Spirit. And our job is to move away from list one and towards list two.

And what I've tried to show you today is that. That is a violent, that is a heartfelt, that is a radical change that will only happen, that will only happen with humility and submission to each other from the least to the greatest.