Today, we're going to be in Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 26. We finally reached the passage that has to do with the fruits of the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, one of the most beloved and well-known passages within the book of Galatians, and I'm excited to open it up with you this morning. But as you guys are opening your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 26, maybe some of you had an opportunity as you gathered around the table for meals and fellowship that maybe you played some games while you were together with family as well. I know I did. And one of the things that I love is playing games, but there's a fine art to a game and what makes a good game a good game. And part of that is they do need to be simple. If a game has too many rules, if it's too complicated, it's hard to get the whole family or a large group to be able to play it and enjoy it. And so what's wonderful is sometimes the simplest games are actually the most fun. And just because they're simple doesn't mean that they aren't difficult. In fact, I'll use the example of maybe a well-loved children's game that doesn't really get much simpler than this, but the classic game Simon Says. How many of you guys have played Simon Says? All of us in this room. The rules are quite simple. There's one person who calls out commands, and the rest of the people have to obey those commands with the one rule that you only listen when the person says, Simon says. And so you've all seen and maybe played this game before, and it's amazing how quickly we fail at this game. That we're only to perform the actions when you hear Simon says it so hard, and we often get it wrong and do the wrong thing because we miss that key essential phrase. And I know when I've played this game, I've often been frustrated. How could I fail at something so simple? Well, in a similar way, the Christian life can in many ways be compared to the game of Simon Says. The central command in this passage that we're about to read this morning is to walk by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to do what the Spirit prompts you to do and nothing else. But so often, even though that is such a simple rule for life, We find ourselves not doing what the Spirit leads us to do, but as we'll come to know in this passage, what our flesh tells us to do. And so, this morning as we open up Galatians chapter 5, 16 to 26, we're going to be unpacking really two points. There's one positive command here in this passage, which is walk according to the Spirit, but implied in that is a negative command, as we'll see in this passage, which is first to not walk according to the flesh. So with that, I would invite you, if you're willing and able to please stand for the reading of God's word. And at the conclusion of our reading, if we can respond to God's word together as well. Hear now the word of the Lord this morning. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not 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. For these are opposed to each other 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 immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do 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 Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. This is the word of God this morning. Let us say together, may God apply its truth to our lives. Thank you. You may be seated. And so as you Look at this passage with me this morning. Hopefully you see the obvious nature of the outline in which I have proposed before you, that we have essentially one positive command, but implicit is the negative command as well. And so let us deal first with that negative command that we, as God's people being bought by Jesus, being filled by the Spirit, should not walk according to the flesh. So, let us define some terms here. Don't want to take for granted our familiarity with each one of these things, but Paul repeats this phrase over and over, the flesh, the flesh, the flesh. Do not give in to the desires of the flesh, and we may be tempted to limit what that desire is, that these are the sexual inhibitions or desires that someone may feel, but know what Paul has in mind is the flesh as it relates to our sinful nature. the condition that we were born with, that we are born under the slavery of sin. The flesh is our natural, sinful, rebellious state before God. But Paul also speaks of the Spirit. So what is the Spirit? Well, it just so happens that as we talked about in the Apostles' Creed, that the Spirit is the Holy Spirit that comes to dwell within each and every believer when they confess Christ Jesus as their Lord. This is a wonderful truth that we get to experience through the gospel, that not only are we saved from our sins, but we're brought into fellowship with God. How close is that fellowship? Well, he comes to dwell within you. This is what was promised by Jesus in the gospel of John, John 14, 16 through 17. Let me read this to remind you. Jesus says to his disciples, and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper. to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you." And so what we have to understand here is what Paul is talking about is we as Christians now have two natures. We have a sinful flesh that we still battle against, which is our old nature, our natural condition, the condition we were born with, but now we have a new nature which comes through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that he is making us new from the inside out, that we now desire the things of God and are able to actually do them. in a way that we were not able to do them before. And so these two natures, the natural nature and the new birth, the new spiritual birth that we have through the power of the spirit are at war with one another within us. This is the battle in which Paul is outlining here. And this is why he says, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. And so as Christians, we live in this life with this tension, our flesh battling against the Spirit of God. Now let me just say from the outset that this is not a fair fight. Our flesh, though it may be strong, stands no chance against God's Spirit. He will indeed win the day. But nevertheless, the struggle, as you may have felt as you've walked with the Lord, is real and difficult at times, and this passage is essential in equipping us to navigate that struggle and to walk faithfully before the Lord. so Paul goes on to describe then, what then are the works of the flesh that are opposed to the works of the Spirit? He gives a nice long list here in this passage, and in many ways we'd call this the works of the flesh, but these are meant to serve in opposition to what we may be more familiar with, the fruits of the Spirit, and so I'm hoping that as you're familiar, as you can glance down at the fruits of the Spirit, that you can see the juxtaposition here between what is listed according to the flesh and what is listed according to the Spirit. Let us go through this list together. As I was studying this passage, there's a few commentators that helpfully grouped some of these things together in categories that we may better wrap our minds around them. The first group of things that are related here in this list appear to be the lustful desires that plague us according to our flesh. In the passage, we see the words immorality, impurity, sensuality listed here. What we have here with regards to our sinful desires is the desire for fornication—the Greek term is porneia—any type of sexual immorality, whether it be an offense that is public or private, amongst married or unmarried, natural or unnatural. The category is as broad as you can possibly think. And these do stir up within us that we as Christians have to fight these sinful, lustful desires as they, in many ways, are not being fought in the culture around us because the culture, the world, does not have the spirit to oppose these things. so we have that first category being the lustful desires, but then he goes on enlisting more works of the flesh, and we have works of the flesh of a religious nature. Here we have the works of idolatry and sorcery listed within this text. Idolatry could simply be defined as the public worship of other gods or false gods. Sorcery, on the other hand, has as its view the secret practice of tampering with evil spirits or other forms of power and religion. may be tempted to think that these things are long gone, that this isn't part of our society today, but friends, they indeed are. They're very active, not just around the world, but even within our societies today, that there are those who practice open and blatant idolatry, worshiping false gods. And yes, there are those who look to the dark arts or some kind of sorcery for their own prosperity here in this world, or for the demise of those who may, they may call their enemies. But the longest list here could be categorized as social, that there are social acts of works of the flesh that are sins against other people, your neighbor. These include from this list enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissension, divisions, and envy. And so you can see here that this is us at war with other people. having of chief concern our own prosperity, our own happiness, our own wealth. And everybody else is our opposition, is our enemy. This is sins against other people. This is failing to keep, as we heard earlier in chapter five, the second greatest commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself. Lastly, we have a category of, for lack of a better term, drunkenness. Pursuing desires through some sort of substance, whether it be alcohol or anything of that mind, that there's an addiction to any form of excess that'll make us feel good. Drinking, smoking, drugs, whatever it may be, that these are all works of the flesh. But let us recognize that this is not meant to be an exhaustive list. These are not all the works of the flesh. This is in many ways just a small sampling of that natural rebellious state that you and I share, that we were born with prior to the new life we are given through Christ. No one has to teach us to do these things. We fall into them naturally. We are drawn towards them. And so the list is not exhaustive, but it gives us a sample by which we can look and identify some of these things in our own life. And Paul ends this list with a warning. I would direct your attention to the latter half of verse 21. After he's given this list of vices, he then says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. I hope in hearing this verse, you all of a sudden have some questions running through your mind. If you've been paying attention in our study of Galatians, you've heard me say over and over and over again that we are saved by grace and not by words. It's not by any merit that we have earned our salvation, but it's through the gracious gift of God. How then could Paul say that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In fact, in looking at this list, I know for certain that I have indeed done such things many times over and still struggle with more than one of these things today, even in my own Christian life. Does that mean that I am not going to be an inheritor of the kingdom of God? No, that is not correct. we have here in some ways is a lack of clarity through being lost in translation of sorts. The intended meaning behind this phrase, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, given the grammatical structure in the original Greek in which Paul was writing, the idea is those who make a habit of doing such things. Those whose life is characterized by doing such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You see, it's those who are doing these things out of rebellious attitude and taking for granted the grace of God, who know enough about the gospel to justify their sinful acts, to live a more licentious life than they would have otherwise. And so Paul says something very similar in 1 Corinthians 6 9-11. He makes the same sort of argument here. Let me read these words for us this morning. Paul says to the Corinthian church, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But then he goes on to say, and such were some of you, but you were washed You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Those things used to characterize your life, used to have ultimate control and power and position over you. But now, you belong to God. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, and the Spirit will do his work of making you more like Christ. And so it's important for us to know these things, to give an honest evaluation of ourselves. Does this list of the works of the flesh define your life? Is this an accurate picture, not just of your outward lived experience, but also the condition of your heart? If it is, repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your sins. Trust in him that you may be saved from the consequence of these works of the flesh. And if you do, God will begin to do a work, as we'll talk about in just a moment, to no longer be enslaved to these works of the flesh, but you will begin to produce fruit of righteousness through the power of his spirit. But it's worth noting that those of us who have trusted Christ, we still battle this old nature. The struggle is indeed real. And verse 17, before he goes on in describing the works of the flesh, he says this, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. One of the hallmarks of knowing whether or not you have been washed and sanctified and redeemed by Christ is that you want to do the right, righteous things before God, even if you are unable to carry them out. The desire to want to live for God is evidence of your born-again reality in Christ Jesus. If your deepest desire is still the works of the flesh, then friend, I would encourage you to reevaluate your position before God. But if your desire is to live for God, but you struggle against the flesh, know that you are in good company. Every brother and sister Paul himself shares in that battle with you. Let me read Romans 7, 18 through 19, as Paul describes this struggle in yet another way. He says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Friends, I don't want to diminish the struggle that it is to walk according to the Spirit and to resist the works of the flesh. It is a difficult fight. It can feel like a fight that you are unable to win. to draw an analogy here. I'll relate this to boxing for just a bit. Some of you might be old enough or paid attention enough to professional boxing, particularly back in the 90s, to know of a gentleman by the name of Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson in the early to mid 90s was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. that he was so dominant in beating these heavyweight fighters that not only was he undisputed, but in many ways, people were afraid to get into the ring with him because he wasn't just winning by decision. He was knocking people out. He was vicious and intimidating, even to these men who have trained their bodies and are in the peak shape of their lives. Many of them were afraid to step into the ring with such an imposing opponent like Mike Tyson. In fact, at the peak of his career, he would have in many ways was thought of as practically unbeatable. Who could possibly beat this man? Well, if you pay attention to the boxing world nowadays, you saw that Mike Tyson made a appearance in the boxing world. And he fought a YouTuber turned boxer, Jake Paul. And many people believed, like myself, that Mike Tyson was going to step in that ring, and we were going to see a snapshot of what the 90s looked like, and he was going to viciously destroy this young YouTuber. Some of us were very disappointed when this didn't happen. But what instead we saw was an old man in the ring, who at times looked like he could maybe even barely walk on one of his knees, and all that power, all that intimidation had disappeared. Mike Tyson lost that most recent fight by decision, and he lost it badly. Now, the reason why I share this is Mike Tyson once appeared to be so strong and unbeatable, but yet now, if we were to look at his most recent appearance, is seen as weak and potentially easy to defeat. In the same way, this is how we ought to view our flesh. That yes, this is a great and intimidating opponent. And it was very strong at one point in our life, particularly before we came to our saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But now in comparison to God's spirit within us, our flesh is weak and the power of the spirit of God dwells within you. And so I invite all of us to enter into this ring and do battle with our flesh. Paul goes on to say in verse 24, that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. It has been disarmed. And we are to continue to disarm our flesh as we walk with God. You see, there's a gospel reality here that our flesh has been crucified, but there also is this idea that we are to continue to crucify our flesh, to put to death our old way of life. That we're to do battle in this way. Jesus Christ spoke this way as he taught his disciples. Mark chapter eight, verse 34, he says this, in calling to the crowd, or calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Let him daily crucify his old life. Let him daily put to death the works of the flesh that once reigned in his body, but now no longer." Another commentator, John Stott, used this imagery of crucifixion as a means or an attitude by which we are to combat the works of the flesh within us. You see, he said three things about crucifixion. It was designed to be pitiless, painful, and decisive as a form of execution. And he says we ought to have that same attitude as we crucify the works of our flesh. To be pitiless, to show no mercy towards these works, because no mercy was shown towards those who were crucified. So often we want to hold on to these works of the flesh because we are endeared towards them. We are affectionate towards them. We still desire them. And he says, no, have no quarter, no pity for these things as you put them to death in your mortal body. understand that crucifixion in all of history is deemed one of the most painful forms of execution. And as we put to death the works of our flesh, know that that will at times be a painful process. Crucifixion was decisive. No one survived crucifixion. Death was a sure thing, even though it was slow. In the same way, even though this fight with our sinful flesh, though it may take a while, the victory will be decisive. It will indeed be put to death in a complete manner. The idea here is we ought to go to great lengths in order to combat sin within our life with the help of God's spirit. Go to great measures, maybe even measures that might seem radical to those looking from the outside in. But again, this is in keeping with the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. As he gave his sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five, 29 through 30, he talked about fighting sin. And this is how Jesus said we ought to fight sin. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members that your whole body go into hell." Now, is Jesus advocating for self-amputation? No. But I think he is in keeping with those same principles that I just read before with regards to crucifying your flesh. Go to great lengths. Embrace the painful but yet decisive process of putting to death the works of the flesh that are within you. Do things that would seem radical to the point that it would feel like you are causing physical harm to yourself, but you know that the fruit is righteousness. Go to extreme measures. If you're being led to sin because of your particular job, quit your job and pursue righteousness. If you're giving into temptation too often, throw away your cell phone, go back to a old, dumb phone. If you struggle with greed and envy and strife, give more money away than you put into your savings account. The idea being there are no limits to what you ought to do to fight your sin and pursue righteousness as the Spirit leads. But none of this is possible through our own willpower. It is only in our keeping in step with the Spirit. So now, let us look to this primary command in this text. Verse 16, he says, but I say, walk by the Spirit. Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Instead, you will produce fruit of righteousness. And it's here in this passage that we now get to the fruit of the spirit, verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, Against such things, there is no law." As we think about how all this fits in with all that we've studied in the book of Galatians, it's important for us to understand this principle. The law is not evil. It is not bad. It is just not able to produce any righteousness in us. At best, the law can restrain our wickedness. It could limit how bad we want to be, but it cannot make us righteous. Only the Spirit can make us righteous. Only the Spirit produces actual righteousness in us. As we've already been declared righteous by Christ, now we live out our righteousness through the work of the Spirit. And what does it look like? Well, it looks like these fruits growing more and more and becoming more and more evident in our life. I want to go through very quickly a brief description of each one of these words and what is meant by them. Love we have from the Greek word agape. A simple definition here is that it means to serve a person for their good and intrinsic value, not for what the person brings to you. Our culture doesn't understand love that way. I love somebody because of how they make me feel. The fruit of the spirit, the love that comes from the spirit is a love that has their good in mind and has nothing to do with my own. The joy comes from the Greek word kara. It's a delight in God for the sheer beauty and worth of who he is, which is why as Christians, we can be joyful even in times of trouble, because we delight in God, not in our earthly blessing or circumstances. Peace comes from the Greek word, Irene, meaning a confidence and rest in the wisdom and control of God, rather than your own. I can be at peace, not because I'm in control of all things, but because I know God is, and his plans are always for my good. Patience. This is where you have to have patience with me as I practice my Greek, but mark Mark Roth, Thumia is peace. an ability to face trouble without blowing up, its opposite is resentment towards God and others. So, being able to be patient, trusting in God, kindness, Christostas, which is an ability to serve others practically in a way which makes me vulnerable, but which comes from having a deep inner security. Goodness, agatsune meaning integrity, being the same person in every situation rather than a phony or a hypocrite. Faithfulness comes from the Greek word pistis, has the idea of loyalty and courage to be utterly reliable and true to your word. gentleness, pravatas, having the idea of humility, self-forgetfulness, to think about others more than ourselves. The opposite is to be superior or self-absorb, but at its heart is this idea of being humble and meek. Lastly, we have self-controlled, egratia, the ability to pursue the important over the urgent, rather than to be always impulsive and uncontrolled. These are the fruits of the Spirit. And God produces these fruit through us as His Spirit moves in us. And so we ought to think, how does one produce the fruit? Well, it first comes by being connected to the vine. Jesus has this to say in John 15, five, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If your desire is to see more of these fruits in your life and you seek to produce them through your own willpower apart from a personal faith and dependence upon Jesus Christ, you will see none of them. In fact, you might actually see more and more of the opposite of these things the more you strive for that self-righteousness. But if you are connected to the vine, Jesus Christ, through faith and your trust in him, then you know that these fruits will become evident in your life. And so I want us to take this image of Jesus as the vine and us as the branches and to really think, how does fruit grow? If you're familiar with agriculture, you know that when you plant a seed, you don't just wake up the next morning to a full apple tree. Growth is gradual. It takes time. And so if you are connected to Christ, know that fruit will grow, but it will indeed take time. You don't plant a seed to wake up the next day to be able to pick a bushel of apples. It's a slow process, so slow that you may not even know it's happening at times. But if you look back after a year of walking with Christ and you look, you'll see not just a sapling, but maybe some buds of flowers or fruit growing in your life from being connected to the vine. It's a gradual process, but it is indeed an inevitable process. And so that's the second thing here. Fruit is inevitable. that vines are actually quite powerful and can break through even strong barriers. There's a story of a man who was buried in the ground and laid over top of him was a solid marble covering. But unbeknownst to those who buried him, there was actually an acorn in this man's coffin. And that acorn began to grow and grow and grow. And slowly but surely that acorn was even able to penetrate that solid granite stone and up sprouted that giant tree. And so the idea here is that no matter how big the barrier, a barrier even as big as your own stubborn flesh, God's fruit can penetrate that barrier. Philippians 1.6, this blessed promise. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It's also worth noting, I think this is most accurately depicted in that picture of Jesus as the vine, us as the branches, but fruit is a result of roots. The fruit is evidence of a work being done underneath the surface. That the fruit doesn't make a tree alive. In fact, you can hang some fruit on a dead tree, but that tree is still indeed dead. No, the roots are what make something alive. The fruit is just merely evidence of that life. And the same way the Spirit is changing you from the inside out, that he's doing something far more lasting than just these outward fruits. He's giving you a new nature modeled after the very image of Christ. This is some of what Paul had to say earlier in Galatians, Galatians 2.20. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live, in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The roots that we have are God's spirit in us doing this work, making us more like Christ. The last thing, this fruit is symmetrical. in the sense that it grows on the entire tree in different spots. Yes, there might be greater concentration of clumps, but if the tree is healthy, it'll grow on every part of the tree. In the same way, as we've looked at this list of fruits of the Spirit, there are a variety. In fact, I don't even think this list is exhaustive. But the promise here is not that you're only going to grow in love or that you're only going to grow in joy or only grow in peace or only grow in patience, but no, God will grow all these fruits in your life in his due time. And so this is the power of God's spirit dwelling within you. That that foe of your sinful flesh Though it is too great for you, it stands no chance against God and His Spirit. He will work this perfect work of salvation in your life. You'll experience the fruit here in this life, but that work will be completed at the day of Christ, and the flesh will be completely done away with, and we will be made like Him, our Lord Jesus. But until then, there's this kind of final admonition in verse 25. Paul says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. So the reality here is we as Christians, we can in many ways have more freedom now in our born again reality than we did before. Before we were enslaved to sin, we had no other choice but to walk in sin, but now we have greater freedom. We can walk in accordance with the Spirit. or I can go back to walking in accordance with the works of the flesh. Now, the promise is that God will continue to lead you down paths of righteousness, but there is an element in which you can resist this. You can make this process a lot harder than it needs to be. And so that's why I like this phrase, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let's not be dragged along by the spirit. Let us keep and step with the spirit that this may be an enjoyable experience, not just for him, but for us as well. I have in my mind the image of walking a new dog. For me and our family, we love big dogs. Dogs, you know, that you can really wrap your arms around like this. And as much as I like having big dogs, I do not like training big dogs to go for walks because they pull, right? They pull and they pull hard. Sometimes you think you're gonna tear your shoulder out of its socket. But nevertheless, even with these big dogs, I have the leash. I have the ability to lead them where I want to go. They may try and pull and tug, but they will eventually go where I am leading them. But the experience of getting from point A to point B may not be all that pleasant for him or for me. That they're getting that restraint on their collar. They're feeling that discomfort as they're being pulled along. How much more pleasant is it a few weeks down the road when they learn to keep in step with you? When the leash is no longer even taunt. That you almost feel like you could just let it go and they would walk beside you. You see, a dog constantly trying to go its own way is not a fun dog to walk. However, a dog that's been trained to keep in step with you is much more enjoyable in the same way. God will guide us through his spirit, where we are to go, whether we resist him or not. But how much more enjoyable will it be if we simply keep in step with him as we go here and there led by his spirit? So as we conclude this passage, I'm sure much more could be said, but let me just simply reiterate that we are not to walk according to the flesh any longer. I would encourage you to meditate on some of those list of vices there and ask God to reveal the ways in which you are prone to still live according to your old flesh and take drastic measures to crucify those works in your life. but also equally dwell upon the fruits of the spirit and ask God's spirit through your time in his word, through your time in prayer, through your time in fellowship with others to produce ever increasing amounts of this fruit in your life to his glory and to his praise. This is only possible if you've been united to Christ through the gospel. And it is only possible to the great power and work of God's spirit within us. Would you join me for closing prayer? God, we thank you for the salvation that we have through Christ Jesus, our Lord. It's a greater salvation than we even fully appreciate at times, to not only be saved from the consequences of our own sin, but to have the privilege of being made new, to be freed from the bondage of sin, and to be able to walk in newness of life according to your spirit. I pray God that as we leave this place, we would have a deep and growing desire to walk in step with your spirit as he leads us in this life, as he leads us through your teaching, through your word, as he leads us through our quiet meditation in times of prayer, and as he leads us through simple acts against our conscience and discernment. Help us to keep in step. to not be distracted, to not be chasing after other things, but walking with you and seeing that evidence of our new life in Christ grow more and more slowly but surely through these various fruits of the Spirit. We ask you to do this for, yes, our good, but more importantly, for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.