Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Walking in the Spirit: The Battle Between Flesh & Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
Living a spirit-led life is not only possible for believers in Christ--it's the natural by-product of maintaining a consistent, vital fellowship with the Holy Spirit. While this type of life is promised to all believers who put their trust in Christ, there are many obstacles that would try to keep us from attaining it, including legalism and carnal thinking. In this episode, David & Phil continue their journey into the scriptures to uncover more keys to avoiding the "spiritual land mines" that can hinder your progress and keep you from making your best effort to walk in the spirit.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
Hey, in this episode of Bible Bros and Brew, we're going to continue walking down the path through Galatians 5, and specifically 16 through 26. We may not make it all the way through tonight, but we're going to dig because there are some deep waters for us to walk our way through and hear what God has to say about being led by the Spirit. Up next, on Bible Bros and Bro hey, brian, those were ethereal vibes. You're giving off a very good thing. Thank you for doing your best there. That was the bomb Wanted to have my dance, but nobody makes me dance unless I want to.
Speaker 3:See, what people don't know, guys, is that David is actually an awesome dancer dude. I've seen his moves and he is no joke. I'm not playing around.
Speaker 1:Back in the day when I was thin. I'm not so thin anymore. There's a price to pay for some of this, some of this dancing down the way you do If there's a knee, you're real fast One that you did not intend to lose yes, sir, and it's not dropping it like it's hot. There's to lose. Yes, sir, there's no dropping it like it's hot. There's none of that stuff boy. We call that dropping like it's not, like it's not going to be there when you get back up. Yes, leave it all alone and stay. Look, be like him, stay right here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, stay right here. Yeah, yeah, stay right here. This is where you live. This is where you live, oh man, dude.
Speaker 1:We are so glad you guys have joined us for this episode. In just a couple of minutes we're going to dig back into Galatians 5, starting at verse 16. There's some more that we want to pull out. Draw out of the scripture.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I want to encourage you to do as you're studying the word never believe that you got it all out right. Sometimes you got to linger in the scripture and you got to draw out what's there, because as you dig in, you dig in with the Greek or the Hebrew, you bring in some other concordances, you bring in commentary and other things. You can begin to draw and glean more than what you may have initially seen of the word. That helps you to better understand what's written there. And remember the goal of studying and using all of these tools is to understand what's written so that you can apply it to your everyday lives. So don't ever get discouraged or don't ever feel like you've arrived at a scripture. There's always some more.
Speaker 1:You know, the pastor would say that the scripture was pregnant with revelation. In other words, there was always something more that you would see from the scripture. I remember times where I went and saw something and thought I had it turned around, looked at it and saw it from a completely different perspective than I did the first time, and so on and so on. So we encourage you to dig into the scripture like that so that you can grow and mature and bear good fruit. I've got my good friend with me, philip Rich, today also with us. I've got the one and only Ryan John Holdeman. His middle name really isn't John, but it just sounds right. Depending on what he's done to me will determine what his middle name is, depending on what he's done to me will determine what his middle name is.
Speaker 3:So we should keep John, because you know, that way we can call him RJ.
Speaker 1:That's kind of a cool nickname, you know Only when he's doing good things can we call him that? Then. So I hope you guys are doing well today. Before we dig into the scripture here, let's dig into these cups of coffee and see what everybody's drinking tonight. Ryan, what's in your cup?
Speaker 2:I've got the old world in my cup, that's perfect Old world.
Speaker 1:I went to an old world. That's why I was in my car.
Speaker 3:I was coming back from the coffee shop, dude, and uh, I got an americano nice, so it's fresh out of the uh, fresh out of the shop itself.
Speaker 1:All right, man good stuff, and it does not matter that he had to drive to Egypt to visit his local coffee shop. It's local in the sense that it was less than an hour away.
Speaker 3:That's Atlanta local, right there.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what we call Ryan local.
Speaker 3:He's never changed part of our coffee. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1:He's used to being in Atlanta, so you know, if you're not driving 45 minutes, you haven't gone anywhere.
Speaker 3:That's only like five miles you know, 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Phillip, how about you? What are you drinking tonight?
Speaker 3:Man, I couldn't wait to get this from our friends at Peregrine. This is their newest. It's kind of like I don't know if it's a limited edition or whatever you want to call it, but it's a small pack of what they call the Geisha coffee. Oh yeah, man, this stuff here. It's got notes of raspberry dark chocolate and is it lychee or lychee or I don't even know what that is. But this is good stuff, man. It is like I don't know if you want to call it like um, I'll say exotic coffee, but it kind of kind of seems like that dude, it's just got these like interesting flavor profile going on. So I'm excited about it, and I wanted to profile my Boston mug that I got while all of us were traveling back in the day that's David Ryan and I together. It was a cool time, man. I still think about those days.
Speaker 1:Good days. Been thinking about those days. Yes, tonight I am drinking. I feel like I have created for myself a similar problem that Philip has, where I'm drinking the same company too much, and that is Red Barn for me right now.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir. This is Red Barn's Butter pecan uh, yes, shout out to red barn yeah, shout out to red barn.
Speaker 1:It's a really good coffee. Next week I promise to have something fresh and new in my hand, but uh, it's nice. I love, as can tell, I'm the one of all of us. So here's what the difference between me and these guys. Ryan just drinks it black and he doesn't care if that black has a flavor in it or not. I prefer not to. Philips drinks his medium roast or random you know roast of the day, depending on what time of day it is, but he wants his roast Colombian, whatever to have hints and notes of X, y and Z For sure.
Speaker 1:I tend to go and find the flavors. I want mine to taste like morning morning dew, so I look for the morning dew coffee. Yes, I want to taste caramel, so I look for the morning do coffee. Yes, I want to taste caramel, so I get the caramel, so I chase the flavors. So we have these three wonderful palates sitting here waiting for somebody to send us coffee and make us sponsors. And we do believe in subtlety as well.
Speaker 3:We believe in subtle hints.
Speaker 1:Gentlemen cheers.
Speaker 3:Yes, cheers Blink, yes sir.
Speaker 1:All right, let's dig into the word now. We've been looking at Galatians, chapter 5, for a couple of weeks. I'm not going to do a big review we did that last couple of weeks but we did spend some time introducing this concept of walking in the Spirit and the ground and how this concept of sowing and reaping works by way of Mark, chapter 4. And then last week we kind of we talked a little bit about everything, but we went from this great verse that we, this great quote that we got and I'll share it just as soon as I find it, but in in gist, the quote basically said that we are, we are to let's see, I'm going to find it, I'm going to find it are to let's see, I'm going to find it. To walk in the Spirit is to follow the Spirit's leading. It is essentially to walk with the Spirit, allowing Him to guide your steps and conform your mind. And last week we began to start talking about God guiding our steps and conforming our mind and we looked at a few verses. If you remember, last week was the week where I threw the random verse that didn't have anything to do with what we were talking about, but I tried to stay spiritual about it, and I did confess my sin last week and I did confess my sin last week. This week we want to continue talking about walking in the spirit.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that I think that people long to understand what this means. And I was telling Philip, you know, earlier, maybe a week ago or a couple weeks ago, I said, you know, philip, as I've dug into this, walking in the Spirit, just in its simplest form, really means that it's not a deep Christian phrase, it's not, you know, a sneaky phrase where you have to dig deeper to understand what it means. It literally means to be, to walk and be led by the Holy Spirit and, as that quote I gave you says allow him to conform and change you, says allow him to conform and change you. And as we continue to dig through Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16, we begin to see just how true that is, because there are some things that are kind of hidden within this verse alone, just this portion of the verse that kind of opens up that reality to us. Phillip, do you have a thought about that? What's your kind of opening salvo, your opening thought?
Speaker 3:I think it's just based on the quote you read earlier To me. I think that one little change of preposition from walking in the Spirit to walking with the Spirit it makes it make so much sense. To me it's like if you want to explain to somebody what walking in the spirit means, it means to walk with the Holy spirit. It's a simple explanation for a very, very, I guess a very I won't say complex, but just a very encompassing type of a thing. Man, Because in this new covenant that we live under, if you're a born again believer, you live under the new covenant, not the old covenant of the law and the prophets and Moses, but you live under the blood of Jesus, and it's a much better system. By the way, the book of Hebrews gives you all the reasons why that's true. So if you ever want to study why the new covenant is considered better than the old covenant, just remember the book of Hebrews is also called the book of better things. So it's just a little side note. But if you're walking with the Lord, based on the influence of the Holy Spirit in your life, you're doing it according to what 2 Corinthians 3 talks about in terms of where the Spirit of the Lord is there's liberty. That's a huge thing. You're no longer bound to a life of rule keeping just to say that you kept the rules and that if I, as long as I check off these, you know 20 or 50 things that I've impressed God enough for him to love me or consider me righteous. That is completely opposite of what our role is now in the new covenant, or our position is rather, in the new covenant. We, as believers in Jesus, we've been made the righteousness of God, not by anything that we've done, but by his grace and by faith in what Jesus did for us. And so, just from those simple concepts now you can live a life like the like it says in 2 Corinthians 3, under the influence of the spirit and not by the letter of the law. So to me, that alone is like worth the price of admission, to be able to live in that kind of a way, to live a life of liberty where you're doing it, as Romans 8 says.
Speaker 3:They that are how did it go? It's they that are led by the spirit of God. They are the children of God. You're not, you don't have it received the bondage of the spirit, of bondage to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption, all those things. There's so much to this man, but if you could boil it down, it's basically a life where you're now in fellowship with god. Not in this attitude of works all the time, not in this attitude of performance all the time. But now I'm not in this attitude of works all the time, not in this attitude of performance all the time, but now in this attitude, not in an attitude of at war with God.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Enmity with God. Thank you, that's huge. It's like because before you get born again, based on your spiritual condition this is true for every human being that's ever been born on this planet you are naturally inclined to go against the things that God promotes. It's just kind of the way things work because we're all born with a sinful nature, and if anybody doubts that I always use this example Do you ever have to teach a child how to lie?
Speaker 3:You know it's already kind of baked into the cake when you're born. You have more of an inclination towards doing the wrong thing, towards breaking rules and laws of morality or otherwise, versus doing the right thing. You have to be trained to do right. It's easy to defer to doing wrong if you're not, and we see that with people who grow up and they don't have any parental discipline. Oh my goodness, those kids don't really turn out well. Most of the time they're the ones that end up in prison later, you know. So I know I'm kind of going all over the place with this, but I'm like I'm turning people's children in jail.
Speaker 3:That's funny. Within the first five minutes of Bible Bros and Broods, your kid's going to jail. Didn't mean to go that route, man, but but the long and short of it is. You know, we are born with a nature that's rebellious towards God. That is just the way that it is. We have to get born again to receive his life in us, to receive his nature. Second Peter, chapter one, where it says we've become partakers of divine nature. All that stuff is true. So anyway, before I keep rolling on, I just wanted to say that was my opening salvo, dude. It was kind of longer than I expected.
Speaker 1:So you know you're allowed to salvo, as it was kind of longer than I expected. So you know you're allowed to salvo as long as you'd like to and it can be as meaningful, uh, as you want it to be, or you didn't say. You did say something in there because you know you mentioned uh, I think it was first, corinthians two and three, was it?
Speaker 3:oh, second, 2 Corinthians 3, I believe, about the letter kills.
Speaker 1:And the same is true in 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and we're about to see it here in verse 18, and we'll talk it up a little bit more then but the concept that if you're led by the Spirit, you're no longer under the law, wow, so there's a lot of freedom in Christ, yeah, and I think, if we can, can we just hang out there for a second. If there was something that I wish that I knew better earlier, that I knew better earlier, and even if I dare say and allow me to just kind of be genuine and accept it today more frequently, more freely is that we are free in Christ. There is so much, I swear, that when people go to church and get born again and so forth, it's almost like there are lines and lines and groups and groups of people who can't wait to put you in some kind of bondage and they can make you feel you know you've got to come under this tent of bondage to this thing or no, no, no, we don't do this on Sundays only, we do this only on Saturday, and you can just find these places where you are born again into liberty and you have the gatecrashers who literally are trying to take your liberty away as soon as you get it.
Speaker 1:And I found in my I found in my life that one of the issues that I created for myself was I created a legalism around the things of god because in one case I didn't understand anything better. So and I, you know, I was still doing it for a couple of years. And then, and Philip came along in my life and I remember he and I both used to struggle with it. Remember when we used to, we used to get stuck and we have to pray for an hour yes and it was now look, um, there's nothing wrong with praying.
Speaker 1:Praying wasn't the issue. It was that that turned into a clock watching experience and we're sitting around, like you know. You know, lord, you're just so good, jesus father, we just can't wait to see your face, jesus, and in your mind you're like my God. Only 30 seconds is past. How long am I going to be in here, you know? And you turn so many things that are meant for your good into legalism.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it completely steals the joy of Christ away from you, and you know you may be wired. You might have said well, when I came out in Christ, I prayed for three hours straight every day for 44 years. Okay, okay, you don't relate, right?
Speaker 1:You got me beat man man, yeah, all power to you. But we turn so many things into legalism and that's where we get into trouble in our christian walk, because then god has to undo that legalism and then you have to learn another way and sometimes you can lose. You can get lost in your legalism sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you can create a new doctrine and all these other things. Anyway, I went off on that track there. But we're free people. We're free people in the Father and we have to be very, very careful not to give our freedom away and not to let anybody take it from us, because part of the liberty that we have ultimately is in the scripture how we can walk with the Spirit. Because it's hard to walk with the Spirit and be legalistic, because it's hard to walk with the Spirit and be legalistic, because then what the Spirit will be telling you is how to break free of your legalism.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And if you've deemed your legalism is correct, then you're going to struggle to let go of what the Holy Spirit is trying to guide you into. Wow, that's good. Let's look at verse 16 here. If we look at uh, galatians, chapter 5, verse 16, uh, ryan, if you don't mind throwing that up, I'm gonna read from the king james. I actually have a little special king james here. I got the king james 1900 edition.
Speaker 1:Uh, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean I'm deeper than everybody. It's the version that came in this application I'm using. See, nothing spooky, nothing deep.
Speaker 1:But verse 16 says this I say then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, last week we talked about that word spirit and we said the word spirit comes from the Greek word pneuma, and we talked about that. The context of the scripture will tell you which pneuma we're talking about, which spirit we're talking about, whether it's man's born-again spirit or whether it's capital S, the Holy Spirit. So we're looking for context in the Scripture to guide us to which one we're looking at. But we realize that when we talk about the word pneuma the Greek word, that it speaks to wind or breath, and we realize that we talked last week, that as we walk in the breath of God, you shall not fulfill the lust or the appetites of the flesh.
Speaker 1:Now, this flesh word comes from a really interesting place. It's a Greek word that's called sarx. In some cases it was s-a-r-x, in other cases it was S-A-R-X, in other cases it's S-A-R-K-S, and what's interesting about this word is that SARKS refers to going your own way. Wow, wow, way, wow, wow you would. You would think that, um, there's so many things. I thought it was, but it comes from the Greek word sarx and means it has to do with going your own way and basically shutting God out from that way. There's a. In the New American Commentary, a writer says the flesh was Paul's term for everything aside from God, in which one placed his final trust. Wow, everything aside from God in which one placed his final trust. That's good, man of God's spirit. We won't fulfill this appetite where we put our play, our trust, in everything but God.
Speaker 3:Wow, goodness man. David, if you don't mind, I just want to offer a thought here that's popped out at me, I think. A lot of times what happens is and this is actually a source of struggle for a lot of Christians and myself included when you get born again, you're learning how to walk this Christian walk, live the Christian life. You know that some things have to change. Obviously you know you can't keep doing the things you were doing that were blatantly sinful back in the day, whatever it might've been. Um. And so I think maybe a false idea that that um kind of floats around is that once you get born again, all of a sudden you won't have any more lust of the flesh. You know that's a dangerous idea. Uh, is that all of a sudden any temptation towards sin just disappears once you get born again? Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Speaker 3:You know there's still plenty of things to contend with after you get born again. The reason why is because when you got born again, god recreated your spirit through an absolute miracle. So your spirit is brand new. You have now the nature of God in you. You have the spirit of God in you now. He wasn't living there before, but that's only the spiritual part of you that got renewed in that moment. Your mind is still the same. It's still the same as it always was, and that's why Romans 12 is so important, where Paul said you know, we have to become transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Speaker 3:So, there is a renovation that has to happen in the way we think and that takes time. So just because you get born again and you're trying to live the Christian life now, it doesn't mean that those same old temptations that you used to kind of fall victim to or just yield to, that all of a sudden they go away. This is why Paul said, actually, that word fulfill in Galatians 5, when it says walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. When you look that word up, it means to, to bring to completion, to bring to a completion. So in other words, the, the temptation or the lust might start, but that, but with the help of the Holy spirit, you have the opportunity to not bring that thing to a completion. You know, let me see if I see Ron's pulling it up. I appreciate that. There it is.
Speaker 3:And that one, the one that ends in 939, epithemian, I think it is. I'm sorry I led you the wrong way. Yeah, let'm sorry I led you the wrong way. Yeah, let's see, goodness, this is the heaviest Greek I've seen. I think it's the one you should gratify down there at the bottom. That's probably it. The one for fulfill. Yeah, there it is To complete, to finish, to fulfill, to accomplish. And so, in other words, though the temptation may come, with the help of Holy Spirit you can actually fight that thing off. You have supernatural empowerment now that you didn't have before, but it takes your decision to go in line with what the Holy Spirit wants and then, as soon as he has seen that you've decided, you know what I'm not going to yield to that same thing this time I'm not going to, you know, go for the okie doke anymore, I'm going to actually, you know, resist. And then now the empowerment and the grace is there to help you not fall back into that thing or bring it to a completion. So, super, super important man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, philip, that's really good. So when we take that whole verse into account, you know, basically, if we walk in the Spirit, walk with the Spirit, walking in the breath of God, we won't bring to completion the appetites of the flesh, the farts, the things that we trust in outside of God. Let's go on. In 17. It says, for the flesh, lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things you would. You know it's interesting, philip, because you know the concept here is that these two things, the flesh and the spirit, contradict one another.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They are not the same. They're not even in the same ballpark. They literally live as far as the east is from the west yes yes, they.
Speaker 1:You know the you. It's this. We sometimes, as humans, I think, philip, we try to live with our foot in both worlds sometimes, and it's just an undoable thing. You can't walk in the spirit and have a little bit of flesh too. Those two, those two things don't go together, and so God leaves us he really does leave us to make a choice. But this is why, also, you know the last series, I know I keep saying this the last series, I know I keep saying this. You guys really need to go listen to the last series on overcoming sin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, breaking the cycle, yeah, breaking the cycle of sin. And it's because, once again, here we see what we were reading in Romans 6, 7, and 8. And it's this constant thought of that there is a spirit and there is a flesh. They're at war with one another. To walk in the spirit leads you to victory. To walk in the flesh leads you to absolute, utter failure that you can't win from, utter failure that you can't win from. And then, even at the bottom, at the end of this verse, philip, it says that not, these are contrary to one another, so that you can't do the things that you would, which reminded me of what we talked about in Romans chapter 7. And if you look at Romans chapter 7, you know you could start probably around verse 15. Brian, do you mind pulling that out? Romans 7, maybe 14, 15? Oh, I need to biggie size that for my eyes.
Speaker 1:There we go, and it says we know that the law is spiritual in 14, but I am unspiritual. So does a slave to sin. I don't understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. And that's so familiar. And it goes on down through this verse basically saying the same thing I know nothing good in verse 15. I think that's 15. Or no, that's 18. I know nothing good lives in me, that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out, for I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Speaker 1:Wow, and you, as we kind of dig into this a little bit more, you know, you'll see.
Speaker 1:You'll see the why. Because one of the things about the works of the flesh that I think is very interesting is that the works of the flesh are born of man. Just like Paul said over here that everything aside from God, and which one that has placed his final trust, is the flesh, that means you've placed your final trust in all kinds of malicious sin that we'll walk through here in just a minute, but in lasciviousness, uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred. Now you put your own self to trust in those things and you know what those things bear kind of a fruit too they bring things to life and they take hold of life. Yeah, and it's not like you get just a little bit of idolatry. But I think, philip, you and I talked about it before that it's like one thing leads to another thing leads to another thing, and before you know it, you've got eight or nine of these things all working in you, creating this horrible situation, this horrible life that you're not necessarily sure how to get out of.
Speaker 3:Wow, you know, it's like that gosh I. It's first corinthians 5, maybe, when he says a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You know it's. It's like sin is compared to leaven, and you know how it is. When you put the yeast inside the bread, it just starts to spread into the bread. It never stays isolated. You know, I think some people believe and I mean, you know, I've had my times in this, in this world too that I could have my little pets in here off to the side, and it won't affect anything else in my life. I'm just, you know, it's just the thing that I do every now and then, or whatever it is, and I'm kind of, you know, I don't, I'm not necessarily serious about getting rid of it, but I want to indulge when I want to indulge and then I'm, I'm fine, otherwise, I'm telling you it won't stay that way. It won't stay that way. You can only control that bad boy for so long. All of a sudden it's going to begin to spread in one way or the other. And that's what God knows about sin that we don't, we're not quick to recognize. He understands the destructive nature of sin so much more than we do, and this is why we get duped so many times into committing sins. We don't. We think we're still in control of it, you know. But after a while you start realizing, holy moly, that thing actually is controlling me, it's dictating to me instead of me thinking that I've got this thing under wraps. You know, um, I wanted to and I'm kind of going off on a quick side note I wanted to read the translation that I found, uh, I forgot that I had this one man. It's the Kenneth Weiss. Um, I found I forgot that I had this one man. It's the Kenneth Weiss. Word study expanded translation. This thing is awesome. To kind of embellish what we're talking about here, In verse 16 of Galatians 5, he says he says the evil nature constantly has a strong desire to suppress the spirit, and the spirit constantly has a strong desire to suppress the evil nature.
Speaker 3:These are entrenched in an attitude of mutual opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you desire to do. That's verse 16. I love that. He said the evil nature, the sinful nature, constantly has a strong desire to suppress the spirit, and then the spirit equally has a strong desire to suppress the evil nature. It literally is like trench warfare happening in your spirit and your soul, right, right, literally, is like trench warfare happening in your spirit and your soul. You know, and we have to be wise to this thing. The good news is that we have way more tools working for us than against us, if we will but use them.
Speaker 1:I want to read this from the New American Commentary Philip. It says so long as we remain in this present life and it fits what we're just saying we never outgrow or transcend the spiritual conflict Paul was describing in this passage. Wow, there is no spiritual technique or second blessing that can propel the believer onto a higher plane of Christian living, where this battle must no longer be fought.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That says it all. It really does.
Speaker 1:It really does. So what I've discovered in life is that as you mature as a believer, the battle is different.
Speaker 3:That's good man. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:But you're still warring against these things I've not looked at. I used to have a porn problem but I've not looked at porn in. I don't believe. Some 20 years now, 20 plus years, Praise God and I'm thankful to God for it, because he's the one that delivered me from it.
Speaker 1:He's the, you know, by walking with the spirit. The spirit leading was saying don't do that, do this, yeah, yeah. And as I listened more and more to the spirit, I was doing less watching porn and more following what the spirit was saying and he was delivering me from that addiction.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But don't think that these umpteen years later, that it doesn't try to seduce me.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Right, doesn't try to seduce me. Right, right and so again, it's a. It's the battle that I remember we have to fight over and over again. Yeah, because the enemy is the kind of, the kind of individual that would you know he recognizes you haven't watched porn in all these years. But let's just slip this in front of them and see how they do with it now.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Can we catch you off guard a little bit, where you just peek at a little something on Pornhub or some other place, like you used to. You know you don't watch a bunch of it, just a little bit of something, and that's the hook. Yeah, there's always a hook, and all of these different manifestations of the flesh are hooks yes, yes that are meant to draw you in.
Speaker 1:And so you, you have to just realize, just like philip was saying, you don't get to walk away from these things. No, you know, as if at some point they won't exist, because they do, they're real. The other thing, philip, that stands out to me comes up in verse 18, the next verse, and it says but if you be led by the spirit, you are not under the law. And that is, I realized. Wow, that is, that's a prelude to what he says further down in 24, where he says and they that are Christ have crucified well, not 24. Where did it go? That are Christ have crucified? Well, not 24. Where did it go? Oh, there, it is In 23, where he talks about the fruit of the Spirit and says against such there is no law. So he's reminding us to walk by the Spirit means that we're not under the law. He later says of it that it means that against such things, against the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law.
Speaker 1:And then that reminded me of our look at Romans, chapter 8, when we were talking about breaking the cycle of sin. You know, it says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Yeah, ryan, can you pull that up for us, or you have it up and I'm just not looking at it. Oh, we're in that Greek, greek world. There we go. Oh, verse one. So now there is no condemnation for those people who belong to christ jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you, like Philip was talking about earlier, from the power of sin that leads to death. Never forget this other part. We got this out of Romans, chapter 6. The wages of sin is death.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, and it doesn't discriminate.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't. So don't think sin exists for no reason as just some opposition to the fruit of the Spirit. That's not what it's there for Sin the flesh is designed to produce sin that leads to death. So there is purpose in you giving into your flesh, and it's not a good purpose for you. But it goes on to say you've been freed from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do he sent his own son in body, like the bodies we sinners have, sent his own son in body, like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God decided, declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins Verse 4,. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Speaker 3:Wow that's good. That's good stuff, man, again showing that it's the life we're designed to live as believers in Christ. It is meant to be a life that we're being empowered by and led by the Holy Spirit in what we do, that we're being empowered by and led by the Holy Spirit in what we do. It's not checking a bunch of to-dos off on a list. It's staying in his word, staying connected through prayer and just daily fellowship with him. And all of a sudden you're realizing that the things that the Holy Spirit desires all of a sudden become your desires.
Speaker 3:In Philippians I think it's 2.13 maybe it says it is God who is at work within you to will and do of his good pleasure. He's doing that by way of the Holy Spirit in you. I think one of the translations of that verse Philippians 2.13,. It says he's energizing in you and creating in you the power and the desire to do what pleases him, so that to me, like that's the part that you could never get under the old covenant, under the law, you didn't have that empowerment from the spirit to begin influencing your desires in a different direction. What they had the most that they had back then was just what was written. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Um, that's why, when Jesus showed up and, uh, challenged a lot of what the Pharisees said, he, he, he set the bar on a whole different level because he told them. He said you've heard this been said don't commit adultery, you know. But I say to you, even if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart. He was saying this thing ain't about keeping the rules, dude, I'm trying to change you from the inside out, you know, and that's what the Holy Spirit offers to us. That was not available under the law. So, man, let's tap into that under the law. So, man, let's tap into that. Let's tap into his power at work within us, man, through the word and your fellowship with him.
Speaker 1:That's good, Philip.
Speaker 3:That's really good Praise God.
Speaker 1:So let's quickly let me just check time so that I don't get us off. Oh wow.
Speaker 3:I know dude Time has flown by.
Speaker 1:All right, I don't know, phillip.
Speaker 3:I think we'll put a bookmark right here. Hey look, we're going to be doing this until Jesus comes back, man. So it's all good, it's all good.
Speaker 1:We're going to pick up at verse 19, and we're going to pick up at verse 19 and we're going to start talking about the works of the flesh that are manifest. I will share this thought with you, though I shared with Philip earlier and it'll be a thought we pick up from next week the, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit are not like opposites of one another. They're completely different, both in their effort and in their intended outcomes, and we'll see that and dig into it next week. But I know that I used to almost think about the fruit of the spirit as the opposite of the works of the flesh, and it's not really an opposite. It's just two very different workings and functions. But I want to close, maybe, with this thought, and that is is that you look in, as you'll see here.
Speaker 1:If you look in 16, it says walk in the spirit. If you look a little further, in verse 18, it says to be led of the spirit, of the Spirit. And we'll hit later on in 24,. 25 tells us if we live in the Spirit. And there's one more, there's one more there, I just don't remember where it is. But we have all of these different ways that the Holy Spirit and they're also kind of different in how they communicate, how we should walk with the Lord, but the objective is to walk with Him. Nobody should think that they are too professional, too mature to think that they don't have to be mindful of the things of the flesh, but also that no person should think that they are too weak and unable to shake the things of the flesh, that's good, man, that's good.
Speaker 1:And so I think if there's an encouragement I have for you this week, it is to really take 16 at its word and begin to walk in the Spirit. And one of the simple ways that you can do that is as you're spending your time, as you get up in the morning and pray, before your feet even hit the floor, just say Holy Spirit, I'm walking with you today, lead and guide me, yeah, yeah, and let that be your simple prayer to get your day started. And then your job is to begin to listen and to hear whether it's audible in the ear or whether it's the leading of a spirit just kind of unctioning you, saying, hey, go this way. But to allow the spirit the opportunity to lead you and don't be afraid or don't worry if it's something small initially, you might just get the unction and just go do something good for so-and-so called so-and-so check on this, or do something like that.
Speaker 1:So-and-so Called so-and-so Check on this or do something like that. Trust me, when it blows up to more and more and more than that, you're going to be like Holy Spirit, wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on a minute, can we talk? So don't worry about any of that, just begin to walk with the Spirit and leave the things of this world behind you, and we'll talk about it more next week, philip. Any final thoughts? Begin to walk with the Spirit and leave the things of this world behind you, and we'll talk about it more next week, philip any final thoughts, just Galatians 5.
Speaker 3:I encourage people to just study that whole passage We've been going over 16 through the end of it and understand that, like David said at the beginning of the podcast here, walking in the Spirit is walking with the spirit. It means a living and vital fellowship with him. You cannot do this without him. You can't live the Christian life and walk the Christian walk quote unquote without the help of the Holy Spirit. It's not. That's what Jesus said. You know, apart from me, you can do nothing. So let's just remember that you're not in this by yourself and it's not a thing where you have to feel pressure to perform. Your job is to lock in to your fellowship with him, and from that fellowship will come the fruits of the spirit. The byproduct of spending time with him will be bearing that fruit man. So just take that with you and get into these scriptures. It'll help you to really understand more about what it means to walk in the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, by the way, philip said, we're not designed to walk this thing out alone. We're designed to walk in Christian community together, and there's, there's nobody. You want to pour the fruit of the spirit out on more than those in your community whom you love and walk with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and just we want to be a part of your community. And so, you know, connect with us. We're on social media. You can email us at gotbrew, at biblegrowsnet.
Speaker 1:We'd love to just be able to connect with you to encourage you If you need to. Just you know, say hey, pray for me. We want the opportunity to pray for you because you're important to us, this community is important to us and as it grows, we want to make sure that we're very present to help and to hear those who want to be helped and to be heard. So let's take a minute and let's pray for everybody. Let's just pray that God would help them as they begin their walk with the spirit. Let's just pray that God would help them as they begin their walk with the Spirit.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, father, thank you for the privilege of having the Holy Spirit in our lives. We know that when Jesus told us that he would send the Comforter, he meant for the Holy Spirit to be that companion that would abide with us forever and that would be our teacher and our guide and our counselor, and the one who would strengthen us when we're weak, the one who would set us on the right path when we stray. All of those things are part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we are grateful for his ministry. We're grateful for his presence in our lives, and I pray for every person who's listening to this podcast. Maybe they feel distant from you, maybe they feel like they just don't quite know how to crack the code if you want to call it that of walking in the Spirit.
Speaker 3:Father, I pray that you reveal to them the simplicity of what it means to walk with Him, that they would begin to hunger for your Word like never before, hunger for prayer and fellowship with you like never before. I pray that they'll develop an even greater heart to seek you even more and experience that fellowship of the Holy Spirit that your word talks about. Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for his help in this journey of life and we just thank you, lord, that because he's in us. You said in 1 John 4, greater is he who's in us than he who's in the world, and we are grateful for that presence of the greater one, and we thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen Once again. We're so glad you're with us. We hope you got some inspiration. We hope you took good notes and you have some tools to study with throughout the week. And make sure you do study and remember what Philip said.
Speaker 1:Take time to read Galatians 5, 16 through I believe it's 26. And read the whole chapter and dig in. Find yourself a tool. I use Bible Hub as one of my tools. I also use a bigger tool called Logos. Philip uses a tool called eSword. Bigger tool called Logos. Philip uses a tool called eSword.
Speaker 1:But these are all digital tools that will give you access for at least BibleHub and eSword will give you access to tools for free, so you can get concordances for free, you can get commentaries for free, you can get other translations. All of those things will help your Bible study. I want to tell you one of the best things that can help your Bible study is a pen and a notepad. Yes, and just writing down some of the things that are standing out to you, some of the things that catch your eye, and just beginning to take notes of what you're reading. You'll be surprised at how your notes will play a role in your Bible study. All right, that's enough of me for this time, philip. It's been good being with you, as always. Brian toodaloo to you and to all of you others, we're out.
Speaker 3:See you next time.
