Wednesday Night Bible Study

Well, praise the Lord, everyone. I want to hear your voices. Praise the Lord, everyone. Oh, that sounds great. We greet you this Wednesday night in the precious name of Jesus. I welcome you to Wednesday night worship in the word in Osei. Isn't this exciting? Uh I'm uh very uh pleased and excited about our uh sound system redeployment. And uh the workers from uh Front Porch Media, uh they were concerned. Uh they said, "Now, uh we're uh progressing and they're having all the uh changes in the moving of certain things and all those things that take place. And they said, "Now, do we need to move those uh um lifts out of the sanctuary?" I said, "Nothing could be more appropriate than on Bishop's birthday for there to be progress going on." I said, "He'll really appreciate that." So, I promise you uh uh Brother Shawn and his crew, these are not new camera stands that they have up. Those are temporary. And I want to say a very special thank you to Brother Shannon Ellard. He uh uh jumped in here and put us a temp system up. Uh but uh uh hasn't he done a marvelous job for us to be able to uh have this temporary system? Thank you so much, Brother Ellard. Lord bless you. And I know that all of our uh sound techs, workers, and our musicians, they have some special training going on even this coming Saturday. You know who you are and when you are. So, I say uh uh you be prepared and we'll be uh in line for another great Sunday. And I'll say I join with Pastor Anthony saying uh happy birthday to Bishop McCool. A very very special day. It's been uh an amazing day, frankly. Um the uh uh Bishop and and and Sister McCool, Mom and Dad are they're not on uh social media all of that much, uh but uh uh the family, we got together a little while this afternoon and it is just amazing from literally folks around the country and even around the world who have uh sent uh birthday wishes and uh recalled stories. Uh I looked at one set of posts and there were uh several several names of individuals who uh said that they came to the Lord in one of Bishop's revivals many many years ago and heaven alone uh knows uh how many have been blessed and have been touched and their lives have been changed because of the ministry of uh Bishop McCool and Dad, we love you dearly and uh just let us celebrate a little while. We're going to have a good time. And oh, uh you've got to be here uh to hear uh Brother Woodward this coming Sunday morning, Sunday night. Uh Brother Woodward's uh family uh lineage goes way back into Bishop McCool's Bishop Bishop L.A. Parent. This is uh some of his family and uh he's so thankful and appreciative. Uh some of you uh uh folks who have been here a little while, about as long as I have, will remember when we took our choir many years ago, uh I was 16 years old. Uh it's been that long ago, hard to believe. Uh but we took our choir uh to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and uh Brother Woodward posted today he was 12 years old when that took place and we took our choir to uh uh Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and had a series of services in that area. And today he, uh, is now the bishop of the church that I believe it's his son-in-law pastors, uh, there in the Fredericton, New Brunswick area. And, uh, we're thankful that God afforded us that opportunity, and I know he'll tell us more about that as well. So, please, please be here this coming weekend as we celebrate 69 years in Knoxville and Bishop's 90th birthday. I also want to say a welcome back home, uh, Sister Haley Crouch. Good to have you back. She's home folk that happens to live in Nashville, and we love her dearly. And then I I want to say a a special welcome, uh, to First Apostolic Church. Um, I want to welcome, uh, Josh and Brittany Wood and their family. We're honored to have you folks at First Apostolic Church. Could we welcome them? I've seen you here several times, but we're honored to have you worshipping with us. Lord bless you. And any other guests that we might have here, if I don't have your name, I want you to feel welcome just the same. It's time to get into the word of the Lord for our Bible study. We are drawing near the completion of our curriculum, uh, for the summer that we use. And it occurred to me, uh, that we've had a couple of, uh, Wednesday nights that, uh, there were other events going on. We've been we have been and stayed very busy. And so, uh, I went back and I want to, uh, to do a study tonight. If you would indulge me, this would not necessarily be in the chronological order of our, um, uh, curriculum, but it is one of the lessons that we missed because we've been studying the Apostle Paul and his teachings to the churches that were established. We've we've talked, uh, about Ephesians and we uh, in particular study the whole armor of God and how uh Paul gave the analogies and comparisons of the armor to the Ephesians church to relate to them. So, tonight I'm going to take us to the book of Galatians and we're going to study a little bit of Paul's teachings to the church at Galatia. I'd call your attention to Galatians the fifth chapter and we're going to begin reading at verse number five. Galatians 5 and we're going to dwell in the fifth chapter. So, if you have your Bible or your tablet, you want to stay there because we'll be going through that that passage from Galatians 5:16 on tonight. But reading at verse 16, This I say then, walk in the spirit. Now, remember he's talking to a church and we are the church. So, his teachings are good for us the church today. He said, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. There's a war going on. And these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. I'm going to stop there for right now and I would entitle our Bible study tonight the fruits of the spirit. What fruit do I produce? Let's pray. Savior, I love you. God, I'm grateful for your word that feeds us, teaches us, and guides us. Lord, I pray that you would touch my mind, my heart, my lips that I would speak as your mouthpiece this night. Lord, let everything that we do always give you praise, honor, and glory. The name of Jesus we pray. Amen. I am always a bit amazed at the research that uh ministers, in particular our pastoral staff, uh does, and the resources that they find to study, to bring the word more vividly, uh Pastor Whitley, if you go in his office, it's it's full of books and and they're not books for decoration. They're books that have been read and uh preparation to preach and and study. It's always there and always so well studied. Uh Pastor Anthony as well, uh amazed at uh the resources that they find to study and present the word to us. Uh I try to be adept at at doing the same kind of studying, uh but sometimes you find resources for messages in some peculiar places. So, I want to read to you an article tonight from a a great um source of study. This article comes from Garden & Guns magazine. I know all of y'all read that all the time. This comes from Garden & Guns magazine. Who would have thought that combination? Uh North Carolina master gardener and author and author Barbara Sullivan has strong words about Bradford pear trees. "They're really a menace," she says. "There's no reason whatsoever to plant them." She's not alone. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, and I might add Tennessee and several other states now have all passed legislation banning the Bradford pear. And many other states are considering similar action. What's the fuss about? From the 1960s to the 1990s, Bradford pears, native to China and Vietnam, reigned as a popular ornamental tree known for its beautiful white springtime flowers. "Landscapers just put them everywhere," she said. "Like kudzu, originally an ornamental vine, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, I'd pause here. I've been told that the way you plant kudzu is you stick it in the ground and run." For they have found that kudzu will take over. "Soon though, complaints blossomed. The trees would split down the middle during storms. They only lived about two decades, even in best cases. It's just not a very strong or long-lived tree," Sullivan explains. "But the damage was already done. Though the original variety landscapers introduced came from sterile stock, in other words, two Bradford pears could not reproduce together, the tree started interbreeding with other types of pear trees. Today, many Bradford pears are fruit-bearing, and that's a very bad thing. Birds eat the small brown fruit, which is which in another which in another undesirable twist smells rotten and fishy, and spread the seeds far beyond the people's yards. Loosed out in the wild, the trees outcompete native plants, throwing ecosystems out of balance, and creating thorny thickets that choke out redbuds, pines, and dogwoods. They just are highly invasive, Sullivan says, and very difficult to get rid of once they start decimating natural areas. That's why taking a chainsaw to a Bradford pear is a move to support our ecosystem. As it is planting one of the many native species in its place. There are so many great substitutes that put on just as good a show in the springtime, Sullivan points out. She had a whole list of trees that would be more appropriate. Because all of these are native, she explains, they're going to resist disease, pests, and require less fertilization, support for birds and pollinators. It's a win-win, she says. Why not pick a native tree that is equally beautiful, is easy to take care of, and helps wildlife? Now, I would tell all of you I am not an arborist nor uh uh arboriculturalist. I can't even say it. I don't doctor trees or In fact, I don't know that much about trees. There's a few trees that that I can identify, you know, I I know what an evergreen tree is and uh uh I know what a a pine tree is. Uh I know what a shade tree is. I know what a Christmas tree is. And that's about it, you know. But I can tell you I have a little experience with Bradford pears. For the home that Sister Jamie and I live in, our driveway before we moved in that house is lined with Bradford pear trees or what's left of them. And yes, for a few couple of weeks in the spring, they look awesome. They're white and fluffy, just like these trees appear. But that's for less than a month they look that way. And then they start producing and I'll put it in parentheses, fruit. It's little bitty pea-sized fruit that drops immediately on the driveway and makes the driveway slick and slippery to to walk down if you step on them. When you drive your car over them, it stains the concrete driveway. And they are just simply a nuisance. More than once we've had to, after what seemed to be a rather minor storm, we've had to go out and get branches and limbs out of our driveway and out of our yard because those Bradford pear trees are so unhealthy. They're bad to split and break and splinter with the little with the least bit of adversity. Their fruit is not conducive to eat. They're just frankly a nuisance. And now that we're finding they're even expensive to cut down. So with all of that and this description of the Bradford prayer trip pear tree, I want to give a little parallel now, and I hope you'll stay with me for a little bit of what Paul would teach the church at Galatia. And he was teaching the difference in walking in the spirit and not walking in the works of the flesh. Now, in verse 18, Paul made an an interesting statement that could be standing to some if you don't really research it. For he said this, he said that if you walk in the spirit or if you be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now, if you just pull that out without context, that could be a very ominous statement. Was Paul saying that spirit-led people don't have to obey the law? No. Was he encouraging spirit-led individuals to be anti-doing things legally? Of course not. But instead, he is explaining that spirit-led individuals will naturally find themselves obedient to God's law rather than in conflict with God's law. It's just a natural thing. If you're being led by the spirit, you will do what God's law tells you to do. You you're not worried about being illegal or violating God's law if you're spirit-led. But if you're led by the works of the flesh, you will find yourself in constant conflict with God's law. In fact, spirit-led people will not be dishonest in their intentions. They will be not They will not be lustful in their desires, nor sinful in their activities. Why? Because they're spirit-led. But Paul first gives this laundry list that he calls the works of the flesh. For my purposes tonight, I'll call them the fruits of the flesh because we're going to do a comparison here. I asked the question, what kind of fruit spiritually do I produce? For verse 19 said this, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Understand Paul's teaching the church, and we are the church. And we as the church need to sometimes examine ourselves as the church collectively and as members of the church individually and ask ourselves THE QUESTION, WHAT KIND OF FRUIT am I producing? Am I producing the fruits of the spirit, or am I producing the works of the flesh? Now he itemized, and I know it sometimes makes us a bit uncomfortable to start defining some of these things, and so we want to read it as a list, but we're going to pause and just look at a few things here that he says. The first thing he names again is one of the Ten Commandments. He names adultery. In the Old Testament, adultery defined would be the physical violation of the marriage relationship. But you see, even in the New Testament, Jesus would also say it was a condition of the heart. He said, "If a man looketh upon a woman as he's committed adultery already in his heart." He begins identifying the fleshly desires and the fleshly mistakes that are produced when one is led by the flesh, by human desire above being spirit-led. He names fornication, simply an umbrella term for all sexual sin and purity, including all types of perversion. And then he's names uncleanness. Now, scholars tell us that uncleanness, in this instance, primarily referred to a ritual or ceremonial state of impurity that made a person, animal, or object unfit to approach God or to participate in corporate worship. Now, let that sink in just a minute. This is not just talking about you didn't use enough soap and water. It's not just talking about you needed to get your Tide and Gain and wash your clothes. This uncleanness deals with a condition of being unfit to approach God. You see, in the church, you will find sometimes there will be well-meaning individuals that will come into the house of God and they will want to worship and they'll have a fleshly desire to get involved, but they are really not spiritually prepared to really worship God. Now, plea Please, this is Bible study and I I hope no one would be offended. But, let's face it. Man, you come into the house of God and saints get to worshiping, the praise team gets to leading us in worship, the prepared musicians are are playing their music under the Lord, the sound techs have have got the sound right, the video folks they're putting it out over the air and over the screen. I mean, you you can try to call it a production if you want to. To everybody's trying to do what they can under the Lord. And folks that come in from the world, man, it man, that feels good. And they are feeling the real presence of the Lord. But, sometimes they're frankly they come into this house not qualified to give God praise and worship. God will receive all praise from the heart, but sometimes one individual can be really praising God and some other individual can be making an emotional display only. There will be some who want to be a spectacle and WANT TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THEMSELVES. And they're not really worshipping God. My I call him Peppo Cook. This would be my mom's father pastored Fork Mountain Holiness Church up Rock Creek, North Carolina. We visited there just the other day. There's a a stone in the wall that says established in 1935, I believe it says. And I've told you all the stories about my grandpa and I don't have don't have to go into the specifics, but he was a sawmiller. Uh in particular, my grandpa, when he got to know the Lord and he started being spirit-led, he sought the Holy Ghost for many years before he received it. He would get up and preach about the Holy Ghost before he actually had the Holy Ghost given altar call and then go seek the Holy Ghost. And then one night he got in the pulpit and started to speak and he couldn't speak. He spoke with tongues in the pulpit. Well, all that said, they were organizing the church and they had coming out they had come out of a denominational Well, by come out coming out, again, you've heard the story, they'd been kicked out. So, this tongue-talking stuff, we can't have this. Let's put them out of the denominational church. And they were looking for looking to the scripture for proper order and and uh folks could get a little bit crazy, get a little bit wild. And uh now I I'm going to use a little uh Western North Carolina terminology. >> >> They were having service and there was a a lady from the community. Now, I'm just going to describe her like my mama Cook described her. Mama Cook said she was a mean woman. Now, you can interpret what a mean woman means whatever, but she wasn't living a life pleasing to God and had a a very difficult reputation. But she was one of those when she got she came to church and visited occasionally. She wasn't a regular attender, but she came to church and she wanted make sure everybody knew she was going to worship God. And sure enough they started having church and the Holy Ghost started moving. Lady, she made her way to the front to the most conspicuous place in that little church she could find and she cut up and huckabuck a little bit and she fell out in the floor. My people Rose Cook was heard to say, "Get her up from there. She ain't that happy." >> >> I've got a right to praise the Lord. You've got a right to praise the Lord. But we need to praise with a clean heart. We need to approach God spirit-led. It's not about somebody saying, "Hmm, boy, he knows how to two-step and dance. Did you see him run?" No, it's did YOU HEAR THEM PRAISE? DID YOU SEE WHAT GOD DID IN THAT SERVICE? GOD WAS BLESSING BECAUSE COLLECTIVELY AND CORPORATELY WE WERE GIVING PRAISE AND WORSHIP CLEAN before God. You see He named uncleanness. 1 John 4 1 says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. You can't get out here in the world and pickle your tongue in alcohol and come in and expect to speak with tongues and it be from God. You can't go out on Saturday night and live like the devil and think you're going to be an angel on Sunday morning. You need to be living a life clean before God. Now >> >> again, that may sound a little bit plain, but God is looking for A CLEAN CHURCH. HE'S LOOKING FOR A CLEAN body that's doing everything they can to be spirit-led. OH GOD, LET US BE A SPIRIT-LED CHURCH. A spirit-led church is not out IN SOME CRAZY STUFF, BUT A SPIRIT-LED CHURCH KNOWS HOW TO HAVE CHURCH, KNOWS HOW TO GIVE GOD GLORY, HOW TO CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE WHERE THE LOST CAN FIND CHRIST, HOW TO CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE THAT DRAWS THE LOST TO REPENTANCE. He said, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God." And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Wherefore, or rather whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world. Now again, this is not some great big revelation study of of the beast and 666 being in somebody's forehead and taking the mark of the beast and worrying about who the Antichrist is. First John 4 said the Antichrist is already here. All you got to do is listen to the news and and see what currently is going on in this world. There's a lot of Antichrist ideas and ideology already permeating through our culture, through our society. We have to be spirit-led and not allow the spirit of Antichrist to make us secular in what we do. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He went on, I'm asking what kind of fruits do I produce? The next thing he named was lasciviousness. Simply defined, that's a a desire to cause others to lust after you. A flirtatious action, immodest dress, self-aggrandizing conduct, all desiring unwholesome, ungodly, sinful lust toward oneself. He mentioned idolatry. Simply stated, idolatry is worshipping anything instead of the true God. Anything that comes between you and God is closer to God than you are. Another commandment we find, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." It's important that there are some activities that in and of themselves are not a sin. But if we put them before God, they become our idol. Your recreation, your entertainment, your vocation, if anything becomes more important to you than God, you are idolizing it above God, and suddenly it becomes idolatry. He said witchcraft. Witchcraft, simply defined, is using the power of evil to try to accomplish anything. Any who would try to operate with evil intent and under the authority of the enemy, it's a work of the flesh. Then he mentioned hatred. 1 John 2:9 says, "He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now." God help us to not let and plant hatred our Bradford pear tree in our lives in the church. That weakening agent that puts us in darkness. He mentioned variance. Variance some Bible scholars say primarily means strife, discord, or heated disagreement between people ought not to be in the church. You can be seated. You see, there are some sins that are so obvious that if somebody runs to the altar and wants to repent, well, I know what their problem was. But you see, there are some sins we feel like we can keep in our hearts and in our lives and still operate in the spirit. He said in our opening text that the spirit and the flesh are at war. They lusteth against each other, one with the other. If you go around constantly in strife, in discord, in heated disagreement, but there's some folk walk around, everything they get involved in, it seems to be there there's a controversy. If you say good morning to them, they want to debate it with you. What's good about it? We have a responsibility to be spirit-led, not to live our lives in controversy. Please, I'll just say it. I'm not going to apologize. Uh Some folk go around getting offended at everything. Shame on you if you go around so touchy that if somebody maybe forgot to speak to you. I'm going to send them an anonymous text from a burner phone. Well, see I you have to modernize. It used to be an anonymous note, you know, but now I I I'm going to get the message across. I'm hurt. My my feelings are Some folk go around with their their their feelings on their sleeve all the time. That everything that they that that goes on, it becomes some kind of drama in their life. That's variance. You don't know if they're going to be up today and down tomorrow. They're going to be kind today and cross tomorrow. He mentions emulation. That means an envious rivalry, a jealous competition, or selfish ambition, a selfish rivalry. I want to say to the church, I want to say to First Apostolic Church of Knoxville, we are not competing with any other church. We're here to fulfill the call that God called us to in this city. That includes any other Apostolic Church. I want to be thankful for the successes of every Apostolic Church around. I'm not competing with anybody. I'll tell IT LIKE THIS, JUST CUZ I'M RUNNING DON'T MEAN WE'RE RACING. I'm running for glory. I'm running to win the lost that we can win. I would remind you again, I I've given this example quite frequently, but I I feel like God laid this in my heart in particular. The the thing that caused Saul to lose his anointing. Was Saul got involved and got offended by comparison in a song that was giving him praise and glory. I mean, the ladies begin TO SING SONG AND THEY SAID SAUL HAS SLAIN HIS THOUSAND. I I GOT A FEELING SAUL SAID, "WHOOP, MAN, I like the BEAT OF THAT." SAUL HAS SLAIN HIS I SING THAT VERSE AGAIN. SAUL HE WAS FEELING PRETTY GOOD about it. Till they sang the second verse, "And David is 10 10,000." And all of a sudden, ALL SAUL COULD HEAR was David's accomplishments compared to his. You know, that's why I encourage all of us as a church. Comparisons can be dangerous. I Man, I love compliments like anybody else. Pastor, that's a greatest message I've ever heard. I appreciate that. But if you'll lie about that, you'll lie about something else. You know, the greatest message you need to hear is the last one you've heard. Then the next one ought to even be greater because it's all anointed. We need to find ourselves not making comparisons, but instead just thanking God for every blessing, everything he does. That was a greatest song I've ever heard and the next one was a greatest song I've ever heard. That was a greatest soul I've ever heard sing and the next one was a great You see, if God's in it, we need to glorify him anyway. Mentions wrath, just simple as this. Wrath means anger. Scripture says, "Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down on your wrath." Then he mentioned strife individually. Now, that was in the definitions of some of these other words. Strive means a strong ongoing conflict, a bitter argument, or a heated discord between people, deep division. He mentions envy, a resentful unhappy longing for another person's possessions, success, status, or blessings. Again, this takes us back all of these are closely related. That comparison thing. And yet another commandment mentioned, he mentioned murders. The 10 Commandments said, "Thou shalt not kill." Original understanding and interpretation of the word uses thou shalt not murder. I hope that none in this room would ever consider murderous actions to take a human life. But sadly, there are some while they would not take a human life, does not hesitate to kill someone's reputation with rumors, lies, and insinuations. Be careful what you say. Be careful what news you carry. Well, it's the truth. There's something don't need to be named even if it's the truth. There's some things the only person you need to talk to about it is the Lord. And say, "God, I'm praying for that person. I'm praying for that individual. I'm not good here to murder reputation and to deal in rumors and to deal in lies and insinuations." He mentions drunkenness. Obviously, the scourge of our world today is drug, alcohol, and substance abuse. But, there are also those who will find themselves drunken on fame and success. Find themselves inebriated with the attention of this world. And then he mentioned revelings. The term revelings means wild, boisterous, and uncontrolled partying characterized by heavy drinking, sensual overindulgence, and a total lack of morals. Now, I mentioned this as I was preaching, I guess, Sunday night. Sin is so boring that to celebrate a win or a loss, sin a lot of times does the same thing. Absolutely. Somebody's team win a championship, and there were many who feel like the only way you celebrate is to riot in the streets, destroy property, to to burn, to pillage, to plunder. And if you lose, you do the same thing. What is that? That's works of the flesh. That's giving in to flesh, the uh mob mentality as it is sometimes referred to, the peer pressure of mob mentality. So, I've given you all of that laundry list of worthless fruit, I'm calling it. Works of the flesh. It's no different than those pea-sized so-called fruits of a Bradford pear tree that are not good for anything. But, this also lets us understand why Paul would make a statement that if you're led by the spirit there's no need for or you don't have to worry about the law. Now, I want you to think about it. Everything that I mentioned not just God's law or even understanding ecclesiastical law, but civil law. We've had to pass laws against everything I mentioned. You think about it. There's laws on the books for everything I mentioned. Uh there are are laws that find folks civilly liable for adulterous relationships and perverse actions. There are laws for that lascivious actions. Actually you can be arrested for civilly. Hate crimes heated disagreements jealous rivalries that cause folks to take actions against one another and to do selfish things and to try to be destructive, folks out of control, wrath and anger, strife, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings. We've had to pass civil laws against those things. Why? Because if you're flesh-led that's the fruit you produce. But I'm so thankful that there's also fruits of being spirit-led. It it's so easy. You see, and this is what we have to be careful of. I talked to a a pastor here recently and he told me a story about when they first built their church building, they again had paid big money to have Bradford pear trees planted all through their church parking lot. And they got to noticing that some of the other plants around the church were dying. And that those Bradford pear pear trees again for a couple of weeks out of the year, man, they looked great. And then the rest of the time, he said they they looked like trees in a horror movie, these big droopy looking things. And he said they had a university professor that attended their church and began asking them about those. She said, "Why why do you have Well, we thought they were pretty at the time and and the the university professor said, "I've looked at those trees." He said, "They have a fungus." And they said, "If you don't get rid of those trees, every one of those trees are going to infect and affect all of the other trees around your church." And they had to go through and take every one of those Bradford pear trees out. You see, we've got to be careful what gets planted in the church. If we're not careful, we can let some of those things start seeding and growing in the church that we listed. We can suddenly find the church comfortable with hatred in the church. We can find it with emulations. We can find it with adultery. We can find the church with our spiritual Bradford pears growing. And the first time a storm comes along, it'll split right down the middle. If you get too close, it stinks. It smells bad. The fruit's not good for any kind of nourishment. All the fruit's good for is to spread evil and spread disease that will destroy the church. But verse 22 said, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law." Have anybody read any of the laws lately? You're not allowed to be peaceful around here. If you come into our city, we've got an ordinance against peace. Uh uh WE'VE HAD TO PASS SOME LAWS AGAINST BEING long-suffering and being gentle. Ha ha ha Let's GO TO THE LEGISLATURE. WE NEED SOME KIND OF LEGISLATION AGAINST MEEKNESS and gentleness AND LONG-SUFFERING. NO, THERE'S NO NEED FOR LAWS AGAINST THE WORKS OR RATHER THE THE THE FLESH OR RATHER THE SPIRIT WORKING in the flesh. See, when we become spirit-led, then you're not worried about the law. I've given the example before, you know, when you're driving down the interstate and you're fudging a little bit on the speed limit, you feel guilty. You see a police car and you'll hit the brakes. But when you set the cruise control and you know it's 55 and you're on 54 and 1/2, feels so good. Just You see, IF YOU'LL BE FLESH spirit-led rather than flesh-led, you're on cruise control. You don't have to worry about violating God's law if you let the spirit REALLY LEADS YOU, YOU'LL find yourself IN GENTLENESS, YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF IN ALL OF THOSE WONDERFUL THINGS, LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONG-SUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH, MEEKNESS, TEMPERANCE. DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A LAW against those things. And see, we must find ourselves being fruit inspectors. We must be careful with what we allow to be planted in our hearts. And we as the church must not allow anything to be planted in the church that takes us back to those characteristics of that weak tree that was imported in from another nation. It's also said of the Bradford pear tree that they're bad because they're aggressive, invasive species with weak wood that easily splits and breaks during storms. The works of the flesh have the same attributes. It will cause splits and breaks in a little bit of adversity. And the arborist who penned the article that I read to you said, "You're doing our ecological balance favor when you take a chainsaw to a Bradford pear tree." John the Baptist said the same thing. Luke 3:9, he said, "Now the axe is laid into the root of the tree. Every tree therefore which bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." Let me tell you, any of those invasive, spreading diseases of the works of the flesh, we need to look at ourselves and say, "God, I need it out. Lord, cleanse me, straighten me. I I I don't want to have that invasive spread and cross-pollination of the world into the church." I don't want that choking nature that brings up thorns and thickets spiritually. I don't want that low-value fruit that's inedible and only destructive. It finally said that the Bradford pear has weak branches that are prone to splitting under heavy ice and snow, has a short lifespan, and has bad odor. Even the spring blossoms that look so good, if you get very close, they don't smell so great. When the flesh is working, it may look good from a distance, but there's a stink coming if there's not being spirit-led. Stand with me. Galatians 5 closed this way. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts. Christ was crucified for us, and there's things in our lives we must crucify if we're going to be spirit-led. He goes on to say, "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." I I hope you can understand the difference in living in the spirit and walking in the spirit. Some folks try to be so spiritual they're no earthly good. Living in the spirit is having that attitude and that spiritual consciousness of intentionally trying to live as Christ would have us live. Walking in the spirit means you can do that on Monday after Sunday night, too. Walking in the spirit means when there's adversity, when there's storms, when there's trials, when there's tests, that you're still spirit-led. Man, it's easy to be gentle when everybody's being gentle around you. It's easy to have joy when everybody else is celebrating. But can you have joy in the storm? Can you be gentle when you feel attacked? Can you be merciful when you do not feel like giving merciful mercy? So finally, verse 26 said, "Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, or envying one another." I want to produce the fruits of the spirit, and I want to be spirit-led. Let's pray. Savior, I love you. God, I'm grateful for your word. I thank you that you have instructed the church and given us guidance and direction for our daily lives. Lord, we want to live lives that are pleasing to you. Lord, we want to live lives that are peaceable. Lord, we want to get along with this world, for Lord, we have the message that brings them to salvation, and Lord, rejects the works of the flesh and brings instead a wonderful, wonderful life to live. Now God, go with us. Let us have the attributes, Lord, that exemplify you in everything we do. Be with us. Keep us in your care. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Be here Sunday morning as we celebrate. You're dismissed in Jesus' name. Shake hands and be friendly.