Worship led by Sue Clarke
Look at your hands and imagine God holding you in His.
Prayerfully offer up whatever thoughts and emotions come to mind as you do this.
This psalm is an invitation to enter God’s presence. It instructs us to come into His presence with a riot of joyful song, thanksgiving and praise.
Psalm 95
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
How often do we recognise worship as an invitation from God to enjoy His presence?
As the Psalm unfolds we see a clear focus: the God who is both Maker and Majesty, Creator and King. His unchanging and everlasting worth is the first, foremost and for ever foundation of our worship.
The psalm reminds us that these heavenly hands that constructed the world also cradle us!
Picture of God holding the universe
The One who made and owns us has also made himself ours, and this wonder both welcomes us into His heart and wells up within our own, overflowing as worship.
Light of the world 1419
In the last few weeks we’ve been considering God’s amazing provision for us over the year that’s gone and how we can continue to look to God for this coming year. We heard just last week from Dawn’s worship and Ken’s message how we have the gift of eternal life and that is a gift of a new life in Christ.
1 Peter 1 v8-9
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Dawn used the words for a familiar verse but used the Message translation:
2 Corinthains 5 v17
Now we look inside and, what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone a new life begins.
I am a new creation 197
Psalm 40 v1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
Colossians 3 v3-4
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
When I was lost 1607
Once we accept His salvation and Lordship in our lives, then He is in us and we are in Him and He is in the Father. In that way we are made to glorify Him and reflect His glory. He could be said to glorify us, in that He gives us His glory and we are in His family. So it's His glory in us.
Revelation 5 v9
And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
King of Kings 1404
Galatians 2 v20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. God created you so he can live in you! By focusing on him daily, you are glorifying him. Through worship, prayer, and daily practices of faith, you are giving God his due—which is glory.
Blessed assurance 44
Once we commit our lives to Christ, we’re no longer the same; a new life has begun. We immediately have a new nature, plus the indwelling Holy Spirit. This power supply makes all the difference. Our new birth is followed by a lifelong process:
Romans 12 v2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
One translation I read on this verse says: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you can prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”
His hands, our hearts: these are the places where true worship is forged. His hands are worthy,
Are our hearts willing?
Willing heart video
From the place where our desires, emotions, reason and will converge, we can choose between straying and striving or His paths and peace. Walking in His ways begins in wonder, is led by listening and ends in entering His rest.- enjoying His presence eternally, both here and hereafter. What a truly breathtaking panorama of worship.
Lord You have my heart 912
Message by Robin Thomson
Galatians 5
Freedom in Christ: The new life of the Spirit
Do you have a favourite restaurant?
Perhaps somebody recommended it, or you saw a review somewhere. But I’m sure you like it because you’ve actually tasted the food.
Until you had done that you couldn’t be sure. Or somebody may tell us that so and so is a great person. We need to meet them ourselves and watch how they live, before we agree.
I remember the first time my wife and I met my brother in law. We were living in India and my sister had talked a lot about me to her new husband (probably too much). But when we met we had just come out of a 15 hour flight with a one year old child. We were like zombies. He was less than impressed…
‘Are they always like that?’ he asked my sister afterwards…
We are good friends now.
You may be wondering: what does it really look like to follow Jesus in practice, in daily life.
Galatians is all about important truths. Paul has argued that the gospel is all about faith in Christ. We are saved by faith, not by works of the law.
He has been back and forth with his opponents, with detailed arguments. If you have read Galatians you will know about them.
Now here in chapter 5 Paul spells out how this Gospel of faith actually works out in daily life.
This chapter is all about freedom!
1-12 Freedom from slavery
We are set free from a life of rules.
His opponents emphasised the need for circumcision. Paul said that submitting to circumcision means submitting to every detail of the law. You can never be satisfied, never quite sure where you stand.
When John Wesley was a student at Oxford he was such a disciplined keeper of all the spiritual rules that his fellow students mocked him and called his group ‘Methodists’. Looking back he said that in those days he was just like a servant. He had no assurance.
At the centre of this passage Paul sums up what it means to trust in Christ alone:
Verse 6: the Christian life is based on ‘faith working through love’, empowered by the Spirit (v 5)
It is based on a relationship, not rules.
‘working through love’ is better translated ‘activated by love’ or ‘energised by love’. We love Jesus for what he has done for us, and so we want to serve him and follow his way. It’s entirely different from trying to keep the rules.
John Wesley realised this a few years later when he heard someone reading Luther’s preface to Romans. He wrote in his journal,
‘About a quarter before nine… I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation.’
His whole life was changed. He said later that he had ‘exchanged the faith of a servant for the faith of a son.’
Paul argues fiercely in verses 7-12 against those who are promoting rules.
Freedom in Christ is based on a relationship, not rules. It is ‘Faith energised by love’
13-15 Freedom for service
If we are free from rules, does that mean we can do anything? Some people believed that and lived like that (verse 13).
But Paul says No. We are set free but free to serve.
We are free from rules. So we are free for service. We can serve others, not live for self.
It’s not an ‘opportunity for the flesh’ (v 13). ‘Flesh’ here refers to our fallen human nature, which leads us to live selfish lives. Instead, we must be ‘servants of one another’, ‘through love’.
Again love – a relationship – this time with others. In fact, Paul says, this is the summary of our Christian lives: ‘…love your neighbour as yourself. 9 (v 14). This is the fulfilment of the law.
Faith doesn’t mean we don’t care about doing right. On the contrary, because we love God we want to fulfil his law. We have been ‘set free to be a servant’ – a good title for the whole letter to Galatians.
Freedom in Christ is for service, not selfishness - ‘set free to be a servant’
16-26 Freedom in the life of the Spirit
How is all this possible? Now Paul explains that this life is made possible through the Spirit who lives in us. He is mentioned 7 times in these 11 verses.
It begins with a surprise. When the Spirit of Jesus lives in us, we experience
- a new conflict (16-17, 19-21)
This IS a surprise: we thought things would be easier. Didn’t we have a promise that if we follow Jesus we will have joy and peace?
But what happens is that because God’s Spirit is living in us, we see things in a new way. And we are troubled by things that we didn’t realise before. We didn’t realise we were so impatient. Before we were not worried when we behaved selfishly. Now we realise it and we are troubled.
We look at somebody else and think, ‘I wish I was more like her. She seems to be always joyful. And she is strong in faith. I would like to be the same.’
Or we may think, ‘I have been trying to follow Jesus, but I still lose my temper too often. I criticise others. I wish I could change.’
These are all signs of God’s Spirit working in us.
Paul tells us there is a conflict with our old fallen nature – ‘the flesh’. Verse 17: we feel a conflict between what we should do, what we want to do – and what we actually do.
Our old nature is still strong. Paul lists those old behaviours (verses 19-21). His list has 12 items. The ‘sins of the flesh’ are often referred to as physical sins. But they are much wider than that. They cover our relationship with God and with others, as well as with our physical bodies.
That’s the old nature. We look at that list and all of us know we are part of it. As individuals, in our family life, as a church.
And that is where we have conflict. Because we can’t go on living that way.
But then he tells us we have a new power – When the Spirit of Jesus lives in us, we experience
- a new conflict (16-17, 19-21), - but also a new power (18)
In verse 18 he says ‘if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law’. Again in verse 23 ‘… against such there is no law.’
We have already seen that our life of faith is not based on rules - ‘I must do this… If I do that regularly it will be good… I must try harder…’
– Paul says it is not like that. If we are led by the Spirit, there are standards, of course, but it is a life of love. We have already seen that:
Verse 14: ‘love your neighbour as yourself.‘
Verse 13: ‘through love be servants of one another.’
Verse 6: ‘… faith working through love’
We have received God’s love and so we can love too. This is the new power that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Verses 22-23 give us a beautiful description
There are 9 qualities listed – try to remember them in groups of 3
Love, joy, peace - Patience, kindness, goodness - faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
But they are really one fruit. And the basis of them all is love.
It’s like a single flower with 9 petals.
There are two thing to notice –
It is a fruit
It grows in us. We can’t produce it. It’s not that we follow the rules and try hard. It is God working in us by his Spirit. He brings the change.
I have a friend who is an older gentleman from a Hindu family. About 7 years ago he began to read the Bible. And he wanted to follow Jesus. He didn’t understand everything very well. But he began to experience God’s work in his life, changing him. He used to be very short tempered. He still can be, but not at all like before. His wife and family have noticed the difference. God’s Spirit is producing fruit in his life.
Secondly, – this fruit is the life of Jesus in the believer –
Because the Spirit living in us is Jesus’ Spirit.
And Jesus is the perfect example. We can compare 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul describes the perfect character of love: ‘’…Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful… love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right.’
Who is like that? Only Jesus. If we want the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, we have the perfect example of Jesus. But more than that, we have Jesus himself living in us, by his Spirit.
Jesus described it in another way, in John 15. He said ‘I am the vine; you are the branches’. You have to ‘abide in me and I in you’. That is, to let him live his life in us.
I used to like playing tennis, but I was never very good. If you told me, you have to play like Roger Federer, I could never do it. But suppose that the spirit of Roger Federer could live in me and play through me! That would be very different.
Of course, that can’t happen. But we do have Jesus living in us, by his Spirit. He is the vine and his life in us empowers us to be like him.
How wonderful to have the life of Jesus lived in us. And this is the life of faith that Paul has argued for so strongly in this letter.
We are called to freedom - - based on a relationship, not rules; - for service, not selfishness;- with the Spirit of Jesus in us, producing
* a new conflict
* a new power
* a new harvest
What is our part?
Paul tells us two things:
Verse 24: we are to ‘crucify the flesh’. That means we say No to the old nature. That is something that WE have to do: we have to turn away from the old life. That is a conscious decision. We do not gratify the old nature.
There is a tension here. Earlier Paul said that we have already been crucified with Christ. We have died to sin. But we are still living with the old nature. Jesus said that we have to take up our cross daily (Luke 9.23).
It’s like having two dogs fighting with each other. Which one will win? The one that we feed. We are not to encourage the old nature.
Rather, verse 25, we are to walk in the direction that the Spirit leads us. This is not just any kind of walking. It is a determined walking in the direction of the Spirit.
We could translate it ‘advance, go forward, make progress’.
What is the direction? It is to become more like Jesus.
We can do that because we have the new life of Jesus in us, by his Spirit. He is producing the fruit of love in us, the character of Jesus.
Let’s keep on progressing in that direction, towards him.
Notices
- Service here next Sunday at 10.15am will be led by Brian Legg
- The Churches for Horley joint Lent Course begins of Thursday 15th February – 10.30am at Horley Baptist Church (HBC).
- The World Day of Prayer is on Friday 1st March – 11.15am at Horley Methodist Church