Through Love Serve One Another

Good morning. I want to thank you all for praying for my dad. I need to report to you that your prayers worked. You want to be a little careful, though. It may have worked a little too well. He's doing really well. I say that in jest, of course. But they told him, well, we want you to use your legs as much as you can. We don't want you doing push-ups. lifting cows into the trucks and stuff like that. You know, don't want that. Because they want to make sure that this breast bone doesn't do anything other than heal.

So anyway, he's not quite doing wind sprints, but close to it. He's staying at my brother's place, which is another place up in Mendocino County in Northern California where there's hills. So he's going like a hundred plus yards up the hill and then coming back down to the house and doing that several times a day. So anyway, doing well. So thank you for your prayers and your support during this time.

It was a bit of a mad rush for Nancy and I. It's sort of like you wake up in the morning and before noontime your next week is quite different. The helicopter bill is enough to give somebody heart failure. Something close to $40,000 for a helicopter to fly him to the hospital. And that's before the operation takes place or anything. So anyway, I hope you didn't have to pay a helicopter bill to get here this morning.

Anyway, let's move into our passage here. We're going into a series having to do with body life. As Wayne read for us, it's kind of a sampling of verses in Galatians 5. Some many months ago, we actually did go through this passage, but I'm kind of selecting portions of it, and on purpose. These are not accidental. Verses 13, 16, and 25 out of Galatians chapter 5. And I'll occasionally have the verses up here, but do look at them in your Bibles if you have them. I think most of your PRACs have one available as well.

Now, I have to tell you something that the engineer in me struggled with these numbers. 13 and 16 and 25 was just not the right pattern. I wanted to make it like 1, 4, 9, 16 and 25, because then that would be a sequence of squares. But anyway, I just have to put that away, the whole engineering mentality, and just proceed with the passage. Sorry about that.

Okay, so as we get into this, we'll step through verse 13. and then 16, and then 25. First of all, just before we step into the details, just to point out, 13 and 25, the first and the last verses in our trio of verses, are about our interactions as a church body. Verse 13 is a passage in which Paul is dealing with the Galatians who have been focused up to the point of receiving their letter. on the law and trying to live out the law, trying to be as legal as they can get in carrying things out. And his exhortation to them at the end of that verse is what we'll be focusing on, through love serve one another. In verse 25, this is also about our interactions with one another, but it's not quite as obvious from reading, Let Us Also Walk by the Spirit. Once we get there, you'll see why it does have to do with our interactions with one another, and that'll become pretty evident. Verse 16, which is the middle there of this trio of verses, says, but I say walk by the Spirit. That one is about each one of us, individually, but all of us. walking in fellowship with Christ by means of the Spirit, by means of the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit.

By the way, this passage was the one that I taught on at the church over in Uganda in their main service. It was real interesting to kind of break up your message and then have a guy stop and translate into a language you have no idea what he's telling them. He might be telling them a joke about me for all I know. But anyway, so he's translating, and it's this verse. What was interesting is they're not used to somebody teaching on just one verse. So they were almost floored when I told them, no, just the one verse. So real interesting.

But we'll be taking some time to look at that. Each one of us individually walks in fellowship with Christ by means of the Spirit. And that's what that verse is focusing on there. The life of Christ living through each one of us is expressed among us in the church body as the life of Christ lived between us. So this is really all about the life of Christ, isn't it? His life lived through us individually as we walk by the Spirit, and His life lived between us.

Why is that important? I don't mean to imply the wrong thing. We are not an organization here primarily. It doesn't mean we're intentionally disorganized. But we're not an organization here primarily. We are an organism. We are an organism. It is the life of Christ both in us individually and between us that makes us all an organism.

Let's take a look here at verse 13. As we look at this verse, The last part, of course, is what I want to focus on, but through love serve one another. That's the alternative to what they had going on, which was trying to live by the law and therefore squabbling amongst each other. But through love serve one another. To get the summary point here, our calling from God by the grace of Christ is an open door to freedom. That's what he's saying here.

By which, by means of the selfless love from God, we continually serve one another. Do we serve one another because we've got our serving list of rules here? No. Do we serve one another because that's exactly what we're supposed to do? And after all, if we want God to love us, that's what we're supposed to do? No. We serve one another through love.

God's love. God is the resource for that love. It's through love that we serve one another. And he makes that point really clear, doesn't he? This through love with God as its source and measure, we're called to be serving one another in the body of Christ as an organism.

Not because, oh, that's my time to do this. Not because, here's my checklist of things I've got to do. Not because I'd better do it. One of the things that Paul writes to the church at Ephesus is, he says, forgive one another In order to be forgiven? No. Just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Why do we forgive? Not in order to be forgiven, but because we've been forgiven. It's because of the forgiveness we already have that we're called to forgive. It's because of the love we have already received that we're called to love.

That loving service to one another The love and the life of Christ lived out through and between each of us in the body of Christ. That's what through love serve one another is about. We can all lovingly serve and all can receive loving service. That's Christ's life and love lived out between us. His life. His love. His service.

Verse 16, this is the one that I taught on in Uganda, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So for this one, is this an everybody walk or just me walk? And by the way, this has nothing to do with Oriental cooking. This isn't that walk. Here is this walk, and I'll tell you, it is individual for each one of us. That's what he's spelling out here. So what does it mean to walk by the Spirit? What happens? What does a Christian look like? What is life like for somebody that's walking by the Spirit?

With the mathematical background, of course, does that mean you've got a good detailed analysis of the situation? Is that what it means? You have a good analytical understanding of it? You've got it down to a formula? The very best minds have been applied to this? Is that what it means? Probably not.

Does it mean that your eyes have some weird glow? Oh, I know, that guy is walking in spirit. You can tell his eyes have this red glow, this vroom, vroom, vroom. No. Does it mean that you walk around in a sort of lighted mist as you pace through life? Is that what it means? Or does it mean that life is just wildflowers in spring days? Does it mean that the wonders and beauties of nature flow from your heart? Probably not. Okay. Walk by the Spirit. What is it?

This word walk is a word that Paul, frankly, uses other places. We've said previously we're going to be embarking on a study of 1 and 2 Corinthians, and so we'll see the word in both of those books. These are a couple of examples in chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians and chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. It's a word that actually has Jewish manner of speaking.

And as many of you recall, since you have memories better than mine, Remember when we were back in Genesis chapter 5, Enoch did what? He walked with God. Chapter 6, Noah walked with God. Walking, in the biblical understanding, has two hands. Walking has one hand to the Lord and the other hand to others. That's walking. One hand to the Lord and the other hand to others. That's what it means by Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God.

And the understanding here as well. It's the step-by-step patterning of my life that has a connection to the Lord. It's a step-by-step patterning of my life that has a connection to my brother. The Greek word here translated walk carries the idea you must right now actively continue to walk. Paul is saying that believers are to be living this out now. Living this life with relationship and fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with my brother. They have an active part in the walking that Paul is calling for here.

We'll see soon that that active part is entirely dependent upon God's provision for their lives. entirely dependent on God's provision. The words by the Spirit can be expanded and conveyed by means of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit's ministries. We've distributed previously, I won't have it this morning, but we've distributed previously a kind of a one-page summary with almost two dozen ministries of the Holy Spirit that Hal had put together. And it's a wonderful summary, just for us to recognize, as we walk through life, the Holy Spirit has a great number of ministries being carried out in our lives. Yeah, every believer here today, all the time, the Holy Spirit has those ministries in each one of our lives all the time. saying, walk according to those ministries. Walk according to the ministries that the Holy Spirit is carrying out because He is God. Walk according to the ministries that the Holy Spirit is carrying out because He indwells you. So putting all these ideas together, Paul is giving a cross to his readers, this idea. You must right now continuously pattern the steps of your lives by the means of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. The way I put it over in Uganda is, by means of the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit. I have no idea how you say that in Luganda. But they did. So let's walk our way through these words here.

It's an imperative. It actually has the idea of you must. So how do we understand a must? Here is Paul. He just got through telling them, you guys aren't under law. What's he doing telling them must? It doesn't come under principle of law, but it comes out of our eternal position in Christ.

Just the same way you can tell the Ephesians, forgive one another. You must forgive one another. Why? Because God and Christ forgave you. It's a grace propelled, a grace motivated. Imperative. Okay. There's a supplement. I think we got those copied on the... No? Not? Okay. All right. We'll have to get those. Yeah. Don't worry about it. We'll get it. Okay.

The motive for our response to Paul's must isn't under a threat of law, but a grateful response to God's grace. We can also add mercy there as a valid motive. That's what Paul appeals to in Romans 12.1, by the mercies of God, by the grace of God. It is what we are thankful for that motivates us. It is what we are thankful for that motivates us.

The Jews were told in Deuteronomy 28, you'd better do this in order to be blessed. And if you don't, verses 15 through the end of the chapter, more than past 60, verse 60, is all the curses. That's why you'd better do it. You want blessing? You're going to earn it. You want to avoid the curses? You're going to do it. That's law. Grace? is, why am I motivated? Thankful. I'm thankful for God's grace. I'm thankful for God's mercy. That's the motive behind grace. So we've got motive. Let's cover the means. How do we carry this out? God sent His Holy Spirit to be the resident agent in our lives. Indwelling each and every believer all the time.

Nancy and I were in Nevada. There was a fellow that we had some substantial contact with who went around teaching believers things out of God's Word. And he sat down with one fellow who had been a believer for 15 years, only to discover after 15 years that the Holy Spirit was a person who lived in him. It was a phenomenal discovery. We met another young lady who was surprised to find that the Holy Spirit didn't come and go.

These are wonderful things we can count upon. Every believer has the Holy Spirit who is carrying out ministries in our lives all the time. If you're a believer here this morning, that's taking place in you. You have the ministries of the Holy Spirit in you taking place All the time. By God's intent. And that will be true until the very day that you go see the Lord face to face. No exceptions. That's a wonderful thing. He is there. The Holy Spirit is there to enable. It basically is the ability to empower. The power is from the Holy Spirit's ministry and to energize our walk.

Paul wrote in Colossians 1.28, we go and teach every man and admonish every man. He said, everyone, everyone, everyone, three times. And he says, to that end I labor. And then he describes, how do I do it? I do it because God energizes and enables and empowers. God's doing it. On the outside, Paul wrote, labor. That word for labor means to exhaustion. On the outside it looks like a lot of hard work. On the inside, it's that God's doing it all.

Additionally, we know that the Holy Spirit directs our attention to Christ, and this is key. The Holy Spirit, though present in every single one of us continuously, does not dwell in our hearts to say, hey, look at me! Me! Pick me! That's not the Holy Spirit's mode of operation.

The Holy Spirit's ministry is to say, there's Christ. Look at Him. Isn't that interesting? The Holy Spirit is there, and it is valuable for us to do as Hal did, to look at the ministries of the Holy Spirit and understand those, seeing all the time that the Holy Spirit will direct us to Christ, that we behold Him, that we look to Him. Let's picture it this way.

Here is our eternal position in Christ. Every believer here today is in Christ. We're motivated by grace to walk, to live out our position. The Holy Spirit is the one who's enabling and empowering and energizing our walk in our position. As we walk in our position, which is in Christ, we are enabled and empowered and energized by God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The quality of our walk is impacted. Why? It's Christ's life. It's his life. That's how it happens. It's His life lived in and through us. The last part of the verse here tells us that for each moment we are to continue to walk by means of the Spirit, we will not carry out the driving passions of the flesh. You're 100% walking by the Spirit, is what he calls for, and 0% flesh. The flesh, as you may recall, is the expression of the sin nature, and you find that described more in Romans 6, in and through our bodies. So how do you like extreme? You like extreme? Extreme sports? I used to until I got too close to a whale. Anyway, yeah, some people like extreme sports. Here is an extreme word. This one word that says not, that's a big extreme word, okay?

The Greek word pair translated not is oomei. And I want you to say that after me. Oomei. Let's try it. Oomei. Now you're Greek experts. Oomei is the most extreme way to say not. It's not not. In English we would say that's improper English. Double negative. But that's the way they said it. Not not.

And it has this idea, not the slightest chance, not the remotest possibility, there is no way. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not, not even remotely, not the slightest chance, carry out the desire of the flesh. It cuts off the flesh. There is no mixture here of odd. There is no mixture of strange critters. You don't have, hey, I'm about 70% flesh and about 30% spirit today. No. It's one or the other. No odd critters here. No cowboys and cat dogs. Walking by means of the Spirit. Is it I or is it we? Let's take a look here. He wrote these words in the plural to say what they used to say in Texas. Y'all must be walking by means of the Spirit.

Paul intended for the entire church body to be walking by means of the Spirit. That's what he wanted to see among the believers in Galatia. That's what he called for. So here was this imperative which by nature has an appeal to each believer's will and yet he intended for all of them. Why?

They all have the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They are all in Christ. They all have the life of Christ indwelling them to be lived out. So each believer would have consequence. Each individual would be impacted and the entire church impacted. by means of these ministries of the Spirit. That was all because that's what God had in mind.

The problem they were having with biting and devouring one another, that's in verse 15, one we'll not be covering, would not be happening. That's not happening. Instead, what would be happening is through love, serve one another. That would be happening because that's what happens when believers are walking by means of the Spirit.

1 John 1.7, the first part of that verse puts it well. If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, what's the consequence? We have fellowship one with another. First, connection with the Lord. Next, connection with my brother. Impacted because the Lord is using me as an instrument as I first look to the Lord and then to my brothers and sisters. Let's look at the last verse in the series,

25. The if in verse 25 is about Paul inviting his readers to think with him. Sometimes you may run across these verses in the New Testament and you may be puzzled, especially it shows up in the letters of Paul, but not always.

You'll see it start with an if and you're saying, why is he saying if? The reason he does that, he doesn't actually intend to say since. He puts if in there because he wants them to think through with him the same thoughts. That's why he would write that.

And so he's saying, if, and let's assume it to be true, we who are in the body of Christ are living by means of the ministries of the Holy Spirit, then it makes sense, here's the thinking through the logic with Paul, that we must walk together with each other by means of the many ministries of the Holy Spirit.

The invitation to walk here in verse 25 is not the same word that Paul used for walk in verse 16. Verse 16 that we just looked at was each believer, he wants each of us individually, but all of us to be walking by means of the Spirit. This verse 25 is a different word that's translated walk. Walk is not the same walk. Is Vern seeing odd things and double? Yeah, I'm a little cross-eyed, but bear with me. In verse 16, the Greek word for walk refers to individual walk, living out the ministries of the Holy Spirit, each individual believer, but all of us included.

This, in verse 25, is used for soldiers who walked in line, in order, and in sync with each other. They walked as one. The soldiers walking together and their steps are in sync. They're going in the same direction. You look at them, those guys operate as a unit. That was what the term meant. These guys are working together. They're in unison. There's unity. Walk together harmoniously and in the same direction. That's what he's talking about.

So what does the life of Christ look like between us believers? The life of Christ lived out through each of us looks like what we saw in Galatians 5, 22, and 23. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in each believer.

So is it what would Jesus do? No. It's what will Jesus do through you? It's not a matter of asking the question, what would Jesus do? I'll copy that. But what will Jesus do as I depend upon the Lord Himself and He lives His life through me? That's the question. That's the question for me individually.

And now, the life of Christ lived out between us in the body of Christ, all of us together, looks like Galatians 5.13 and 25. It looks like through love serve one another and walk together as one in the Spirit. Not what would Jesus do, what will Jesus do among and between us as we depend upon Him, as we behold Him, as we look to Him, as His life is lived out between us.

That's the question, not what would Jesus do, what is Jesus doing right now among us? That's the question. Isn't that a great question? So we're not gathering here because that's what we're supposed to do, because it's the day on the calendar. We're gathering together as an organism, the body of Christ, with Christ as our life lived out among and between us. Here is a diagram that shows Christ as the head and the church, which is the body of Christ. And just as in a human body, various parts do various things. Hopefully, they do it fairly well. But each one of those functions and contributes to the health and well-being of the body.

Things that happen among us that are a service, a walking together because one encourages another. There may be things that happen because we're serving one another by taking care of even things in this building. It's not just we're not serving the building, we're serving one another. We may serve one another and helping in worship. We may serve one another even as we prepare for the Lord's table here this morning. And we thank the hands that contributed to that. We may serve one another just like Mike's volunteering right here. Okay? Okay. We may serve one another. How about if one of us is going through a dark moment?

Supporting in prayer. Encouragement. may show up as serving one another means a phone call. Serving one another says, let's get together and have some coffee. Hopefully we both like it. But let's sit down and talk. Let's stop a minute and let's pray because I know this is burdening your heart. That's serving one another. Serving one another in encouraging one another to behold the Lord. in the midst of whatever circumstances we find ourselves. Serving one another as we fellowship in various ways. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, we just thank You. You are faithful and You have a definite plan and intent for us as a church body. You have empowered and enabled and done everything so that we might be the living organism the body of Christ with Christ as the head. And we pray that you would teach our minds, teach our hearts, and cause us to trust and rest and depend upon you in everything. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.