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Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Your love,
grace and mercy. We thank You for Your kindness
to us. Through that kindness, You saved us.
Called us out of darkness into light,
so that we could experience a new way of living. Thank
You that You really addressed that new way of living in this
letter to the Galatians; that You brought
the old way into clear focus, and
the reason why that old way needs to be abandon,
so that we could latch on to all that You have given us
through Jesus. So, as we
move forward through chapter 6,
please take the things of Christ, make them known to
us, in real and practical ways, so that we can
live in the fulness of who we are in You.
We thank You for this, we praise You for it, in Christ's name, amen.
So, Galatians chapter 6.
We're going to talk about what you do when
you get caught in a sin.
[chuckles] Don't get caught!
"Brothers and Sisters, if someone is caught in
"a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore
"that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you also
"may be tempted," And again,
this isn't just a...you know..
a section that we can take out of the letter and kind of
read just this particular section. It has context,
and the context is one, the immediate chapter
preceeding it, where Paul talks about
life in the Spirit, and those desires of the flesh,
and the fact that the desires of the flesh, and the desires of
the Spirit are at odds with each other. They're contrary
to one another. The fact that these
desires of the Spirit never have to leave the starting
gates, if we walk in the Spirit
of God. Did I say that right? The desires
of the flesh never have to leave the starting gate
if we walk in the spirit, if we keep in step
with the Spirit. So,
that's the context for Galatians 6, and
for what Paul is going to teach us and to talk with us
about as far as if someone is caught
in a sin. That word
'caught' means to be overtaken.
To be taken unawares.
Sometimes we'll look at this particular passage, if someone is caught
in a sin, and say that it means they're trapped
in sin. They've submitted themselves to
some type of sinful action, and they've gone back
there time and time again, and now the trap of sin
is fully on them, and it's hard to get
free. It's hard to extricate yourself
from the tightness of that trap.
Well, the word doesn't actually mean that.
The word has a sense of surprise to it.
That this sin just comes upon you unaware.
That's what he's ..that's what he's
talking about. If someone is caught in a sin,
that this sin is just running
quickly behind, and all of a sudden overtakes, and now
you're in the throes of that particular sin.
Now, how does that happen?
How does somebody get overtaken by a fault
like that, or a sin like that?
Well, what is the context of this book? What
has Paul been trying to hammer
to us as far as how we live the Christian life?
In Chapter 2, he gave the great
statement, "I've been crucified with Christ,
"nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
"Christ lives in me. The life I live, I live
"by faith in the son of God, who loved me,
"and gave Himself for me," That is the Christian life.
It is a life to be lived by faith
in Jesus Christ, the one who loves us, and who gave
Himself for us. That is Christianity.
That's what God is
pushing us towards. He's saying
rules, the regulations, those guidelines could never bring
you to completion in your life.
Human effort can't take you to your goal.
To get to God's desire end for you,
it's going to come through faith in Jesus
He uses another phrase
in Galatians 5, and that's what we talked about last week. That
is living, or walking by the Spirit.
Having your lives ordered by God's Spirit,
in you. It's the same as
living by faith.
Now there was a group of men, sent to Antioch
by James. They were causing all
sorts of problems. They were
saying, "No, you cannot be a real Christian, unless you
"align yourself with all the rules that dictate
"of the Mosaic Covenant. If you haven't
"been circumcised, you need to be circumcised. You need to follow
"all of the Jewish festivals. You need Gentiles
"convert to become Jewish in all ways."
So, many of these
Gentile Christians
listened intently to what these
Jewish leaders were saying;
we realize also that Peter listened
to them as well. He became
afraid of those guys, and so he actually separated
himself from the Gentiles. Just drew
a line of division, right there within that body of believers.
Gentiles over here, Jews over here, the two should never intermingle.
That was an action that
was going against the truth of the gospel.
What's the truth of the gospel? The fact that Jesus has called Jew and Gentile
to be one, has placed them both into the single
body of Christ, where they stand as brothers
and sisters in Christ.
So, Peter was acting against
the truth of the gospel. He was hypocritical and he
actually led others astray
in his hypocrisy. Even Barnabas.
Even Barnabas. What had happened
to Peter? Is that he rebuilt
the Jewish Law, as the guidepost
for his life.
He reconstructed Judaism and said, "This
"is the way that we should live,"
What is that Jewish way?
It is the works of the Law
way.
When you're doing the works of the Law way, you
activated the flesh.
Why? Because it's up to the flesh to live up
to those rules and regulations.
When you activate
the flesh, you can be
walking along, thinking everything's okay, and all of
a sudden, sin is right there!
Overtakes you.
That's what this passage is saying.
You abandoned
the life of faith,
you've latched onto the way of the Law,
reactivating the flesh,
sin lives in the flesh, and you're going along and
thinking everything is nice and wonderful and neat and it
just couldn't get any better than this, then the worst sin
catches you; tackles you; and says
"We're going in this direction!"
That ever happened to any of you? You don't have to raise you hand.
But it happens, doesn't it?
You know, you think, "I've got this Christian Life.
"I mean, I've read the scripture, and I've
"memorized passages, and did you see me help those folks
"over there. I've got this Christian Life under control.
"I mean, I know what I'm supposed to do,
"and be, and I'm going to go out and do it!"
and you lose the wonder of God's amazing
grace, and kind of start shifting away from
what God has accomplished for us in Christ to look what I'm
doing for Jesus,
and you start kind of elevating yourself up above the
crowd, and saying, "Hey people! If you want to know
"what Christianity is,
"right here, baby!
"I mean, I've got this thing down!"
and you live like that, and all of a sudden,
you're overtaken. You're thinking,
"Where did THAT come from?"
"I thought I had protected myself! I thought, you know, I was
"I was going the right path! Where did
"this sin come from?
"and how did it actually
"grab a hold of me? Take me down?"
That's what he's saying here. That's what
it means to be caught in a sin.
To be taken unawares.
The word "sin" in this
particular passage isn't the normal word for
sin that we see in the New Testament,
this word really means "fault", someone is caught in a fault.
This fault catches the individual by
surprise suddenly, without notice.
This fault is a lapse or
an error, or a mistake, a blunder. A failure
to achieve.
That's what this is all about.
You know, I have this desire
to carry out goodness,
mercy, truth,
but I've blundered and I'm unable to bring that to
to its completion. Why? Because now I'm caught
in this sin. I've been overtaken by this sin.
Though it says, "If someone is caught in a sin,
"you who live by the spirit, should restore that person gently."
Are we going to have people
within this assembly--are we going to
know people who get overtaken by sin
in their lives? Yes we are. What's the
encouragement to those who live by the Spirit? In other words
those who are not trying to live up to the righteous requirements
of the Law, but have actually ordered their way of living
according to the Spirit's work inside of
them. Who are living out Galatians 2:20
"The life I live I live by faith in the son of God Who loved me and gave me
"Himself for me." Those who live by the spirit should restore
that person gently.
There's no condemnation
in our relationship one to another.
There's no brow beating, there's no
pounding on somebody, just so they can get
a sense of what their fault has caused.
No, it's all about gentleness. It's all about
restoration; it's all about mending that
which is broken. It's all about setting in order that
which is gone wrong. It's all about
making that person fit
for moving forward.
Peter would have used this word restore
in his fishing practice.
He and brothers
James and John would have been out there all
day, and they would have caught fish. You know, as they dragged
the nets in, and the weight of the fish
would probably cause some of the ropes to tear and to
you know, leave holes in the net. So they
would empty the nets of the fish, and spread them
out, and then they would mend the nets.
Mend that which is broken; restore
the nets to their original state.
That's what restoration
is all about.
So, if somebody is caught in a sin,
it's just
something that overtakes them, that they've been surprised by
this fault. How did this happen to me?
The root cause is that you've
wandered away from this life
of faith in Jesus.
That's what has happened.
Spiritual pride may
have led you down the wrong path.
Maybe
you've decided that you want to please some people
that are in positions of leadership.
Like Peter did; he became a people pleaser.
So, their standards,
their rules, their regulations became important
to you, so you adopted those, so that you could be
like them, so that you could be accepted
in their group, so you could be apart of what they were
doing. So you adopted
their way of life.
In adopting their way of life, you moved
away from faith in Jesus
and in Jesus alone. So the act of restoration
is moving them away
from the people pleasing gang,
the rule living gang,
back to the way of faith.
That's restoration. That's what Paul is
speaking about here. We sometimes
get shocked by the sin itself,
whatever manifestation of the flesh it is,
we'll sometimes get shocked by that.
We won't look underneath the hood to see the
cause. True restoration
is when we take the time to lift the hood,
get underneath there, and find out why
this happened.
Why it happened is because we went
with the Law, instead of standing firmly
in grace. We see it all the time.
That's why Paul doesn't
let this issue ever, ever, ever slide.
He didn't with Peter.
I mean, it was just a meal with
Gentiles, and then he decided he didn't want to eat with the Gentiles
anymore, and started eating with just the Jewish believers.
I mean, that was not a big deal, right? Wrong!
It's huge, why? Because a
paradigm shift.
had occured. How ya like that?
Paradigm shift occured. I don't know what means. I read it in a book
somewhere. But that's what had occured with
Peter. He moved from grace
back to law. He had rebuilt that
in his life and in the lives of those who looked
to him for leadership.
Paul said, "uh- uh uh- uh uh,"
and he confronted Peter in front of the entire
congregation. It wasn't a private meeting.
You know, "Hey, c'mon Peter, we just need to
"talk". No, this was in front of the entire group. Why?
Because it impacted the entire group.
Peter was setting all of them up
for this to take place in their lives in Galatians 7.
For them to be caught, overtaken, unawares
by sin.
Paul is saying, "no, we
"need to restore. We need to get
"people back on the right foundation."
As he wrote in the book of Colossians, "These rules
"and regulations, the do not taste, the do not touch,
"do not handle, those have an appearance
"of wisdom,"
sometimes we look at the rules and regulations and the things
that are out there, and in our minds they have an appearance
of wisdom. But they
do nothing, absolutely nothing
in constraining sensual desires.
As a matter of fact
those very rules and regulations
stir up the sinful passions within this flesh.
So, if you have
wandered away from faith in Jesus,
as your way of life,
back to rules and regulations, you've
activated that sin in your flesh,
and at some point, that sin is going to overtake you.
It is going to catch you
unawares. You're going to sit back and
say, "How did this happen?"
Sin is going to do
its best to blind you,
from seeing the root
cause.
That's why Paul is saying, "Those who live by the spirit should
"restore that person gently,"
To go and
say, 'Hey, I'm not going to talk to you about
"about sin-a fault, what
"I'm going to talk to you about, is the root."
Have you wandered away from
faith in Jesus as your way of living? Because that's what
you've been raised to walk in. That's the newness of life,
that God has called you to. It's easy to revert
back to the old. I mean, that's inherent
in us. So,
have you gotten back to that old?
Yes. Well, then, let's be restored
back to walking in the new. That's what
Paul is saying to that person who is living by
the Spirit, he says, 'Watch yourself, or you also may be tempted"
I mean, you don't have this thing all together.
You're housed
in a body of flesh; sin lives in that flesh.
You live in this world where temptations are there.
Where people are sending you messages saying that
you need to do this, this, this and this in order to be a good Christian.
Hear it all the time. So,
don't think that
you're anything special. That you're somebody
who is fully arrived. So
watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Tempted
to do what? To drift away
from life that is to be lived by faith in Jesus,
to the rules and regulations.
That's what you're going to be tempted to do.
If you move in that direction,
then you've set yourself up to be overtaken
by sin, just as the guy you're trying to help.
This is truly a law and grace
issue. That's what this entire book is about.
He says, "carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill
"the law of Christ."
We see what's happening.
in the life of another person, and move,
compelled by the love of God, we reach out to that person
and we help fit them,
mend them.
Help put them back in their appropriate life.
Which is by faith in Jesus.
We've fulfilled the law of Christ.
What's the Law of Christ? It's certainly not the Ten Commandments, it's certainly not
the Mosaic Covenant. It is,"Love others as I have loved you."
That's the Law of Christ.
How are we going to carry that out? Not through human effort.
It can't be done. When we put ourselves under
human effort, then sin is going to overtake us.
So, when we
allow the love of God
to fill our hearts and minds; to control our actions,
in the restoration of another brother,
then we've fulfilled the law of Christ.
We bring it to completion.
I said, when we
last week, looked at what it means to walk in
the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
That word is teleos;
gratify. It's exactly the word
used by Jesus from the cross.
It is finished! The will
of God set forth for Jesus to
accomplish, was carried to its complete
end at the cross. When
He died, His work regarding sin,
was accomplished. There was nothing more to do.
But when this word is used as
far as the desires of the flesh,
those desires are never to reach
their end.
I lived in Louisville, Kentucky for a couple of years and
one of the guys that I met, actually lived with he and his family
for a number of months. He grew up going to
Churchill Downs. His dad was one of these dads
you know, every day would look at the racing forms,
and he'd try to figure out which horse was going to win, and
Mike and his dad would sit there together as Mike got old
enough. So Mike kind of introduced me to
horse racing. We went out to
Churchill Downs a couple of days, and
several different times, and that is one of the most
amazing sporting events I think you can
could ever see. I mean, just the sheer
beauty of those animals running. The noise
of the crowds, you know they start, and there's this
hum as they go down the home stretch. Then
they go back on the back and the hum starts to increase,
and the all of a sudden, they come down that back turn, and
you know one of the guys say, "DOWN the stretch they come!" man,
you're just--your heart is about to explode, and folks are cheering
and cheering, and there's the finish line!
Stated purpose
was accomplished.
But as far as the desires of the flesh,
they're never to leave the starting
gate. Those desires may have
the energy of those Thoroughbred horses,
as they're trapped in those little gates;
you may feel the pulse and the heart and the
all that's there.
But if you live by the Spirit,
those desires
fizzle behind those closed
gates. They're not to reach
their stated goals.
Something else is, in us, and that's the
law of Jesus Christ.
As we carry each other's burdens,
as we realize life just isn't about
good ole me; that I've been connected to a
group, that just as we say in the Lord's
Supper, every time that we participate, and we pass the bread; we
belong to Christ; we belong to one another.
We're no longer individuals.
We were saved individually, then we were added
to the body. We
corporately are called the Temple of God.
The bride of Christ, and as we
carry each other's burdens in this way,
helping people to get off the treadmill
of flesh, and law.
and onto the gentle way
of God's love and grace. That
desires of God's Spirit that is in us,
is brought to fulfillment. It's the horse
that gets out of the gate, and circles the track,
and crosses the finish line, the way God
has designed it to. So as we carry each other's burden,
we fulfill the Law of Christ. Now if anyone thinks
they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves;
again, it goes back to this pride
issue. Sometimes, we can think we've arrived.
Sometimes we think we've gotten to where we need to be.
Paul, I think,
squelches any of that thinking just with his
words in Philippians 3, you know, "Not that I've
"obtained it, but I leave my past behind and
"I press on to the high calling
"in Christ Jesus,"
We're His. We're His workmanship. What
happens through us, is His work.
If I bear somebody's burden, if I
help restore them, that's not me. I'm living by
the faith, by faith in the one who loved me,
who gave Himself for me. It's His law that's being carried out;
it's His love that's making a difference.
"So, each one should test their own actions, then they can
"take pride, or rejoice in themselves alone, without
"comparing themselves to someone else,"
Carry their own load.
We should be aware of who we are.
You know, in this world,
it is so easy to compare yourself to another person, isn't it?
It's just what we do. It starts early in life,
and it never stops. I mean
absolutely never stops. We are always judging
ourselves up against somebody else.
You don't like how much money you're making at your job,
you have 15 other people you look at and say,
"Man, I wish I could make what they make,"
You don't ever look at how hard they actually work to make
what they make, "I just wanna make what they make,"
so because you're not making what they make,
you get hard upon yourself, and you just start to
grumble and complain and gripe and life's
stinks all the time. Well, where does that come from?
From trying to compare yourself to someone else.
Do that in the Spiritual world. "Wish I could be a
"Christian like that guy,"
and you know what that drives you to do? You say,
"Well, I'm going to try harder," Well you know what that is? That's
the way of the flesh. That's the
works of the flesh, "I'm going to try harder," and all
of a sudden, you've put yourself back in a position where sin
can run and catch you from behind, and overtake you.
So, be aware of
that. Comparing yourself
to someone else is not the life that God has called you
to. As Jesus said to Peter,
when Peter was, "Well what about John?"
"Don't worry about John. What happens with John
"that's between Me and John."
As a parent, you have to say that to your kid, "Well, what about....?"
"Dont' worry about them,
"This is our dealing with you,"
It's a hard thing to do, but
way of life in Christ, we don't have
to compare ourselves. Why? Because I'm already a
somebody. God has already declared me to be
a child of God. God has already adopted me
as a son. Not that
I'm just in the family, but this sonship
means that I'm a part of the family business;
that I have responsibilities in carrying out the work of the Father
in this world, just as you do.
So, as I connect personally
individually with Jesus Christ, then I'm going to learn
what the assignment He has for me, is.
It's not going to be the same assignment that you have;
but when all of those assignments are put together, God is
orchestrating something amazing.
So, we should carry our own loads; know what that's about.
Never the less, the one who receives instruction in the word, should share all
"good things with their instructors," so
if the guys could come forward, we're going to pass....
Okay.
When you read this
passage, don't you think of money?
Okay, here's a guy up here teaching, maybe it's a home Bible study,
maybe, you know, it's somebody that's teaching in here,
you know, I'm supposed to support that guy. I'm supposed
to give to that guy. It's nice when that
happens, but that's not what this passage is really
saying. "The one who receives instruction in the
Word should share all good things with their instructor,"
The word share is koinonao
We know that as fellowship.
or community.
So what Paul
is saying here, the one who receives instruction, should participate
in what is being taught.
That's what this passage is all about. So here
Paul comes to this area,
on his first missionary journey, and he
delivers the message of Christ; the death; the burial; the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. He delivers it in his
fullness.
Those who respond are now connected
to Jesus Himself. They've been made alive
in Christ; they've been placed upon the foundation of
God's love and grace. They've been raised
to walk in the newness of life; to live by faith
in the love of God, to walk in the Spirit;
so that they can bear the fruit of the spirit in their
lives. That was the message that Paul
brought to the table. That's what he was trying to communicate
to the believers, and he did.
And he's saying, "If that's the message you've
"heard, participate in it! Walk
"by faith in Jesus!
"Don't let these other folks try to move you
"to another message.
"Because if you listen to those guys sent from James, if you listen
"to those Judaizers, then you're not going to be sharing
"in what I taught you.
"You're not going to have fellowship with what I've taught you. What I've
"brought to the table: the true gospel message. "
You're going to miss out
on experiencing the
life of Christ here and now.
So if you've received
instruction about Jesus, then
if you've received instruction about this new way of life,
in Him, share in it.
As Paul said to
Timothy, "Take hold of that life that is
"taken hold of you,"
Don't rob yourself of all that you have in Christ.
by overlaying a system of rules and
regulations that are only going to lead you to failure.
Share in this life
all the good things with the instructor.
Hopefully, Paul was living by faith,
in Jesus. Share in that same life.
Brings new meaning to this verse, doesn't it?
I don't know many pastors that teach it this way. They like the
money. But that's not what it's talking about
at all. "So do not be
"deceived, God cannot be mocked,
"a man reaps what he sows, and whoever sows to please their
"flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; and whoever sows from
"to please the Spirit, from the Spirit, will reap eternal
"life."
There's the old way, and there's the new way.
Lot of times, we
get caught up and we
wander away from the new way, back to the old way.
We try to live the Christian life
through human effort.
We try to gut it out for Jesus,
Don't be deceived,
Don't deceive yourself.
It's not going to work.
When you go back to that old way,
when you rebuild the law
as the guideline for life.
and you, through human effort try
to live up to those standards.
Whether it's the Ten Commandments, whether it's some self-imposed
set of rules and regulations, it doesn't
matter. When you go back to
that way, then you've activated
that flesh, and you're going
to reap from the flesh.
Paul has had several
things to say in that
reguard. In verse
15, of chapter 5, he says, "If you
"bite and devour each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by
"each other."
Have you ever been in a church split?
We're right....no we're right..
No we're right... no, we're right...
The conversation
that happens
goes back and forth; it's just gentle;
full of love,
are you kidding? That's some of the
most hate filled language
you will ever hear on planet Earth. When churches
split, they bite, they devour. What is that the product of?
A life,
lived
through rules and regulations, that activates
flesh and sin. That
manifests itself
in how we treat one another.
Being
deceived. God cannot be mocked.
Love this word "mocked", it actually means to blow your nose,
so to stick up your nose and blow it
right at somebody and say, "Uh-huh, I'm not doing your thing,"
God is not going to be mocked like that.
A man reaps what he sows.
Sow to the flesh, you're going to reap from the flesh, and that's going to be destruction.
You sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap
eternal life.
I'm sure many of you saw the news stories about
Jerry Sandusky Friday. The jury came
back after deliberating, found him guilty on 45 of the
48 accounts of *** abuse.
Walk him away in handcuffs, and I
looked at that, and said, that's just got to be one of the saddest things
for the families, for those
who suffered at his hands, but
interesting aspect of Sandusky,
was that he had built this
picture of goodness around him.
He had this foundation to help
underprivileged kids. As it turns out
it just became the very kids that he
connected with. But the foundation
made him think that, you know, life was okay,
something was good, and the outside world looking in saw it and said,
"Wow, there's good things happening there,"
We all need to be more aware
and cognesence of what's happening to those
that aren't as privileged as we are. We need to help.
But underneath wasn't
a way of life, faith in Jesus Christ.
It was another life that was being lived,
out. And
lots of people reaped
the damage.
Some of those boys, who knows what it's going to be
like for them for the rest of their lives.
Who knows? Certainly God
is big enough to reach down and
do what He does in people's hearts and minds.
There was a harvest of destruction.
It's not what we're to
bring to the end.
God has a harvest of life.
There's only one way for that
harvest of life to flow out,
and that's as if our way of life
is ordered by the Spirit.
Walk by the Spirit, we keep in step with the Spirit; we live by the
faith in the one who loved us and gave Himself for us.
As we abide in the vine of Jesus Christ.
We reap eternal life.
The flesh is not a source of good things.
in this world. It never has,
it never will. There's only one
source of goodness, and His name is Jesus Christ.
So, "let us not become weary in
"doing good."
What does that mean?
Well, this word good means
really refers to quality and character.
You know, I really don't have a lot to offer that is of much quality,
and character just in and of myself. The quality and character
has to come from God. That's what
is good quality in this world. When you see it,
you know it. So, let's not become weary
in allowing God to work His life through us.
At the proper time we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up.
I mean, you're not going to see something happen
necessarily over night. We live in a
dark world. We live in a world that is anti-God; anti-
Jesus; anti-everything good. So the
results that we seek, what we would like to
see occur, not going to happen over night. But,
persevere. Keep going! A harvest
will come. Therefore, as we have opportunity
let us do good to all people. These are
acts that are benevolent, profitable, useful.
See somebody in need,
give them some cash, help them out.
Teach them how to care for themselves, what
ever. Do things that are benevolent, profitable,
useful, especially to those who belong
to the family of believers.
We belong to each other. We're
connected. If one hurts, we all hurt.
Somebody rejoices, we all rejoice. We
should let our manner toward one another
reflect that truth.
Somebody has needs, we
step up and help meet those needs.
Somebody is
struggling, you know, within a family situation.
Where you know, things are not going so well
in that family. We circle around,
we share our journeys; we share how we've seen Christ
to be sufficient.
We let God do His work, in and through us.
So, don't give up on those things,
keep at it. What God has called us to.
That's what He wants to bring to its completed
end. The law of Christ in us.
That's what this passage is all about. There's
this new way of living called faith.
Let's share in it, and as
we grow through faith in our understanding,
of the love of God. Allow that love to be expressed
in incredible ways.
That's the goal. That's what God
has called us to. Let's let that
reach it's end. Well, let's pray,
[prays] Dear Heavenly Father,
we thank You that
we do have a new way of life.
When we first come to know You, it's--it
seems foreign; it's not familiar with our way of thinking.
Not familiar to our way of doing things. With
that it's easy sometimes to try to revert back to the old.
Thank You that Your Spirit is
alive in us; that He can
kind of knock on the door and say, "hey,
"going in the wrong direction,
"it's about faith, it's about allowing me to do in you
"what you can't do for yourself. "
It's about keeping in step; it's about ordering
your lives according to the Spirit's leading,
say, thank You. Thank You
for bringing us back to that.
Thank You that You want to bring
Your desired goals
to their completion in and through us.
that as Your children, we have that opportunity
help us to
embrace this life, take hold of it, share
the very life that's been taught to us.
through those that have gone before;
all the way back to the Apostle Paul.
Thank You for this opportunity.
We thank You that we continue to walk
by faith; we continue to persevere
in You. That we will see a harvest of
righteousness, life and love in this world.
Thank You for that and praise You for it, in Christ's name
Amen.