Well, good morning, church. It's good to see you all this morning. Would you turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through 15.
! That's page 915 in the Pew Bible, if you want to follow along there. So today we've come to a new section of Galatians.
This book of Galatians roughly falls into three parts. The first two chapters, as you'll remember, were mostly Paul's autobiography.
The next two chapters, three and four, were mostly theology and biblical exegesis. And today we begin the last two chapters, chapters 5 and 6,
which are mostly about ethics, that is how to live. How do we live?
So let me pray as we come to God's Word, and then I'll read for us.
Father, our minds and our hearts are so often distracted and burdened by many things, cares of life, concerns of the weak.
God, thank you that you are present with us in each one of those cares and concerns.
We ask now that as we come to your Word, you would give us clear minds and hearts to hear from you.
Lord, help the words that you have inspired and that you continue to speak through, speak to our hearts today,
that we might see and know Christ and His grace more fully.
We pray this in His name. Amen.
All right, Galatians 5, 1 through 15.
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
You have fallen away from grace.
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything,
but only faith working through love.
You were running well.
Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
This persuasion is not from Him who calls you.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view,
and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?
In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
For you were called to freedom, brothers.
Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you bite and devour one another,
watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
All right.
So what Paul wants to drive home in this passage
is that Christianity, a life in Christ,
is above all a life of freedom.
For freedom, Christ has set us free.
And what is that freedom?
Well, that's what Paul's been arguing for really the whole book up until this point.
And it's the greatest freedom of all,
freedom of acceptance with God
and of access to God through Christ by grace.
It's freedom from the tyranny of the law.
That is, freedom from the dreadful struggle to keep the law
as a way to win the favor of God.
In other words, it's the freedom of grace.
And in many ways, chapter 5, verse 1,
is sort of the rhetorical climax of the whole letter.
Galatians is the letter of Christian freedom.
There's no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We no longer need to look to the law
or at our efforts at keeping the law
as the ground of our standing before God.
Now, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Though we are still sinners, yes,
we are now completely justified.
That is, God counts us as perfectly righteous in His sight,
in Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
So, we ask ourselves this morning,
do we, do you know this freedom?
Well, if you are in Christ,
then you do know it.
You are a partaker of this grace.
Your sins are forgiven.
You're righteous in God's eyes,
and He has adopted you
and made you an heir of His kingdom.
You are His beloved.
And the journey of the Christian life, then,
is now a journey to live
in the freedom of this grace.
To live as those who are no longer
under the condemnation of the law.
To live as those who have been justified
in the Son of God,
who loved us and gave Himself for us.
But,
there are two pitfalls
that Paul needs to address
as he begins to unfold
what living this life of freedom means.
It's as if we've been carried up by grace
to the ridge of a high mountain.
And along that ridge
is the path of freedom,
the path of God's grace in Christ.
And to walk along that ridge
is to take in all the beauty
and the joy that comes from being high up
and seeing the landscape spread before you
in all directions.
The sun rising to the east,
the ocean waves crashing in the distance,
the stars just beginning to fade
in the morning light,
the fresh air in your lungs,
the firm ground beneath your feet.
This is the path of freedom.
freedom.
But just like a mountain ridge
has two slopes
that fall away on either side,
so the life of Christian freedom
has two opposite pitfalls
on either side.
As we walk along the path
of God's liberating grace,
there are two equal and opposite ways
that we can slide or fall off.
And that's what these verses
that we just read
describe for us.
On the one hand, Paul says,
stand firm in the freedom of Christ
and don't lose it.
And on the other side, Paul says,
stand firm in the freedom of Christ
and don't abuse it.
Two sides, two pitfalls
along the path of Christian freedom.
We can lose it by falling back
into the legalism
and works righteousness.
And we can abuse it
by giving way to license
and our old sinful nature.
And in light of both,
we must stand firm.
So let's look at these two pitfalls
so that we can stand firm
in the freedom
for which Christ has set us free.
First, Paul says,
don't lose your freedom
by giving way to legalism.
Paul argues this in verses 2 through 12.
And in many ways,
this has been the argument
pretty much of the whole book
of Galatians so far, hasn't it?
But notice that these two paragraphs
in verses 2 through 12,
notice that these two paragraphs
show us that there are
kind of two ways
that we can be tempted
or two reasons why
we can be tempted
to kind of go back
to that old mentality
of works righteousness.
The first one is this.
We're tempted to go back
into legalism
because it promises
something that we can see
and control
here and now.
Now, as Paul begins
in verses 2 through 6,
he begins by saying
that you kind of can't
have it both ways.
You can't go to the law
or to law-keeping
as your means of acceptance
with God
because then you inevitably
go away from Christ.
And it's not just the Old Testament law.
It could really be anything.
Anything you put your trust in
other than Christ,
whether it's moral living
or whether it's justice work
or whether it's family values
or your culture
or your upbringing,
it's no different.
The further you move toward
trusting your own ability
and achievements
as your identity,
as your righteousness,
the further you move away
from Christ.
It's sort of like taking
a cross-country road trip, right?
The closer you get to L.A.,
the further away
you get from Boston, right?
Unless you're starting in Maine,
then you actually
have to go through both.
But that's, you know,
you get the illustration, right?
There's no way
you can drive towards both.
That's why Paul says
that the more and more
you start relying
on your own doings,
the more and more
you've fallen away
from this freedom of grace.
Grace and works are opposite.
Grace is God giving
freely to you something
that you don't deserve
out of His own mercy.
But if you try to earn
God's favor by your performance,
then by definition
it's not grace.
You're not trusting
Christ to save you,
you're trusting in yourself
to save you.
But why?
Why is it so easy
to fall off
on this side of the ridge?
Why is it so easy
to go back to trusting
in our own selves
and our own works
and thinking that
those are the things
that we have to keep up
and maintain
in order to stay
in a right standing
with God?
I think one reason
is because
those things
that we usually
cling to or hold on to
are very easy to see.
They're tangible.
You know,
I can count how often
I had a quiet time
this week.
I can see how much money
I gave to charity.
I can sort of,
I can say who I voted for
or what causes I support.
But what's more,
those things
aren't just tangible.
people,
we can control them.
They're in our grasp.
We can be the ones
who do it.
You see,
it's not about
whether you are circumcised
and it's not about
whether you are uncircumcised.
It's not about
your religious pedigree
and performance,
you see.
You see,
your religious pedigree
and performance
or your lack
of religious pedigree
or performance,
they count for nothing.
There's only one thing
that counts,
faith in Christ,
faith that is energized
in love.
And at its heart,
faith isn't about
controlling something.
It's about trusting something
or rather trusting someone.
It's about actually giving
over control of your life
to another.
And that sort of faith,
when placed in Christ Jesus,
will begin expressing itself
in love,
Paul says.
Now,
why is that?
Well,
because this faith
looks ahead
to the future
with eager expectation.
That's what verse 5
is all about.
You know,
the legalistic mindset,
our works,
righteousness mindset
says,
look at yourself
and look at what you've done
or not done.
And then maybe,
just maybe,
you'll be okay
in the future.
But faith in Christ says,
I know that my Redeemer lives
and I will stand with Him
on that day.
I eagerly wait
for the hope
of righteousness.
It's not a scale
that might tip
one way or the other,
but it's assurance.
Now,
what is this hope
of righteousness?
Well,
this hope of righteousness
is the righteous verdict
of God
that awaits those
who are in Christ
through faith.
God's declaration
that in Christ
we are righteous
and approved,
a righteous verdict
that overturns
and undoes
all the ravages
of sin in the fall.
And this hope
of righteousness
is the time
when God's righteousness
prevails.
When those in Christ
will be given
resurrection bodies
and death will be no more.
When the creation
will be liberated
from its bondage
to decay
and all things
will be made new
and will be glorified
in the presence
of God forever.
Don't you look
at the broken world
and at times
your own broken self
and wonder,
is it ever going
to be made right?
Will all that's sad
ever eventually
come untrue?
And the answer
is yes.
the God of the Bible,
the Creator and Redeemer
has promised His people
great hope,
the hope of His righteousness
that all things
will be put right.
And for those
who are in Christ,
you can have the assurance
where you will stand
when God's righteousness
judges sin and evil
and makes all things new.
You can have the assurance
that you will be counted
righteous on that day
even though
in our own sins
that's not what we deserve.
And why can we have
that assurance?
Why can we eagerly wait
for the hope of righteousness
not anxiously wonder
how things are going
to turn out?
How can we have
that assurance?
Because we've done
something good or moral
or just with our lives?
Because we've obeyed
and worked and labored
and kept God's law?
No!
Because Christ did.
And our trust is Him,
not ourselves.
We've actually given up
trusting in our own record
and trust only in His.
So legalism can be tempting
because it feels like
something we can control.
Oh, but the freedom
of grace is so much better.
It's entrusting ourselves
to another,
giving control to another,
and that brings
great assurance,
the hope of righteousness.
But you know,
there's a second reason
why legalism can be
so tempting,
so easy to fall back into,
even for Christians.
And we see this
in verses 7 through 12.
Not only is legalism
tempting because it offers
us something we can see
and control for ourselves,
but legalism is tempting
because it removes
the scandal.
It removes the offense
of the cross.
Now, in this paragraph,
Paul is kind of calling out
the false teachers
in Galatia.
You know, he's not afraid
to say that what they
are teaching is not
from God.
This persuasion is not
from Him who calls you,
he says to the Galatians.
That is, it's not
from God the Father
who's called you
by His grace
to Himself
through the gospel.
These false teachers,
he says,
you were running well.
They've cut in on you,
he says,
and they've kept you
from obeying the truth.
And their teaching
is like leaven
in a dump of dough,
in a lump of dough.
It's just going to spread
and leak into everything.
You know,
have you considered,
friends,
that you can't have
just like a little bit
of legalism, right?
It's not just like
you can have like
a plate full of grace
and then like a garnish
of legalism, right?
And just be happy
with it there.
No, it starts to spread,
right?
It starts to spread
through everything
because suddenly,
if it's not Christ
that makes you right
with God,
but something you have
to add to it,
right?
Then when does it stop?
Suddenly, it's not just Christ,
but it's also how often
you pray.
It's also how many people
you've served.
It's also how faithful
you've been.
It's all the things
that you refrain from doing.
It's not about how faithful
Christ has been.
And Paul is so passionate
to protect the churches
and the Christians
that he loves
from this freedom-killing
false teaching
that he even says
in verse 12,
I wish those who unsettle you
would emasculate themselves.
Now, how many of you
thought you'd find
a verse like that
in the Bible, right?
Now, at first,
that seems like a pretty
crude thing to say, right?
I mean,
has Paul just kind of
lost it here?
Like, has he lost his temper?
Did his sort of rhetoric
just go a little too far?
I mean, what is going on
in this verse, right?
Well, I think it's helpful
to consider
that in the ancient world,
the priests of pagan temples
would often be eunuchs.
And Paul in this letter
has often said
that their breed,
this brand of legalism,
is actually no better
than paganism.
In fact,
they're kind of at root
the same thing.
Whether you're super,
super, super religious
and you think
that makes you right with God
or you're totally irreligious
and you don't know
up from down,
they're both slavery,
Paul says.
So, Paul has said often
in this letter
that legalism
is no better
than paganism.
So, perhaps here,
Paul isn't just sort of
spiting his opponents.
Perhaps he's saying,
I wish those people
who say
that they're teaching
God's law
would just show themselves
for what they truly are,
proponents of a false religion
altogether,
just like the priests
at the pagan temples.
Now, of course,
Paul's using deep
verbal irony
and wordplay,
isn't he?
It's risky, isn't it?
It's a bit of tension grabbing,
no doubt.
But I don't think
he's making a personal jab
or a crude put-down.
I think he's actually
making a theological point.
If you make law-keeping
your salvation,
you're worshiping
a false God,
not the God revealed
in Jesus Christ.
Because what does this God say
is the way of salvation?
The true God,
the God revealed in Jesus.
What does God say
is the way of salvation?
Not human achievement,
but the humiliation
of Christ
on a Roman cross.
Look again at verse 11.
He says,
but if I, brothers,
still preach circumcision,
why am I still being persecuted?
In that case,
the offense of the cross
has been removed.
Apparently,
some people accused Paul
of being a people-pleaser,
and they claimed
that he would adjust
his message
according to the audience
so that, you know,
if he was in a place
where circumcision
was offensive,
well, he would just
leave that out.
But then,
when he was in other contexts,
he would kind of
teach the whole thing.
So Paul was perhaps
accused of doing,
but Paul here
just completely rejects
this accusation completely.
Paul didn't preach
circumcision
as a means of salvation
ever.
He preached
the cross of Christ.
And in light
of the cross,
circumcision
was rendered meaningless.
In fact,
all human achievements,
all human works,
all human contributions
to put ourselves
in the right with God
are shown by the cross
to be utterly
insufficient to save.
nothing a human being
can do,
not even their most
earnest efforts
at keeping the very law
of God
can save them.
That is the scandal.
That is the offense.
That is the stumbling block
of the cross.
In other words,
your sins
are so great
that the Son of God
had to die
in your place,
even if you are
the most upright,
moral,
religious person
in the world.
Do you want to know
how great
your righteousness is,
Paul tells us?
Look at the cross
and see the crucifixion
of your so-called
righteousness
and see the crucifixion
of your pride.
You see,
legalism appeals
to our pride,
doesn't it?
It says,
look,
you can elevate yourself
to God.
You can do it.
But the gospel
necessarily
makes us humble.
It doesn't say
you can elevate yourself
to God.
It says,
God had to come down
and suffer
and die
to cover
our great sins
in order to turn away
the great wrath
that we justly deserved.
See,
legalism is very tempting
because it removes
that offense
of the cross.
But when we embrace
the offense
of the cross,
you see,
when we come
to embrace
the scandal
of it,
when we see
that our pride
and our self-made
righteousness
actually is nailed
to the cross,
something else happens.
We aren't just
brought low,
we're brought near.
For the cross
tells us
not just
that our sins
were so great
that God had
to die for us,
but the cross
also tells us
that we are
so loved
by God
that He was
willing
and glad
to die for us.
We live
by faith
in the crucified
and risen Son of God,
as Paul says,
who loved me
and gave Himself
for me.
You see,
when you trade
legalism for grace,
when you kneel
before the cross
and trust in the crucified,
you aren't just
humbled out of your pride,
but you're loved,
you're filled
with a new kind
of boldness
and confidence.
You aren't just
brought low,
you're brought near
into an embrace
that will never
let you go.
So stand firm,
Paul says to us.
Stand firm
in this freedom
and don't submit
to a yoke of slavery,
this heavy burden
of thinking
you have to add something
to what Christ
has already done
for your salvation.
Stand firm
by fixing
your eyes
on the cross.
Now,
how do we do that?
Well,
we do that
through regular practices
of prayerful reading
and hearing
of Scripture,
through celebrating
the Lord's Supper,
receiving the broken bread
and the cup.
We do so
when we hear
God's Word preached.
We do so
through prayer.
We have all
these channels
to be able
to continue
to fix our eyes
on the grace
of Christ
displayed on the cross.
But we also
stand firm
by eagerly
looking ahead
to the hope
of righteousness.
Christ is risen
from the dead.
Christian hope
is not wishful thinking
but confident expectation.
So we meditate
and we sing
and we pray
and we reflect
and we remember
that God will complete
the good work
that He began
and He'll make
all things new.
That Christ's resurrection
was the first fruits
of the renewal
to come.
The guarantee
that He will conquer
sin and death
once for all
and all those
who belong to Him
will be raised with Him.
That one day
the verdict
that was enacted
in Jesus'
own resurrection
proclaiming
that He was righteous
will one day
be granted
to us as well
if we are in Him
and God will say
on the last day
this is my beloved son
this is my beloved daughter
you
in whom I'm well pleased.
So that's all one side
of the ridge
right?
We can lose sight
of our freedom
in the pitfall
of legalism
legalism that promises
control
and puffs up our pride.
But there's an opposite
side as well
there's the equal danger
that we can abuse
our freedom
in the pitfall
of license.
When we stumble
off this edge
we allow the freedom
of grace
to become an excuse
for sin.
Listen again
to how Paul puts it
in verses 13-15
he says
for you were called
to freedom brothers
only do not use
your freedom
as an opportunity
for the flesh
but through love
serve one another
for the whole law
is fulfilled in one word
you shall love
your neighbor
as yourself
but if you bite
and devour one another
watch out
that you're not
consumed by one another.
You see the freedom
of God's grace
doesn't mean
that we're no
long
doesn't mean
that we no longer
care about
living holy lives
in obedience
to God's word.
It's actually
just the opposite.
God's grace
empowers us
to live holy lives
in a way
that the law
never could.
Why?
Because the law
just says
do this
and don't do this
it doesn't give you
any power
to actually
follow through
but those
who are in Christ
through faith
are indwelt
by the Holy Spirit.
The third person
of the Trinity
very God himself
lives within believers
and enables them
in a way
we could never before
to now love God
and enjoy God
and obey God
in a way
the law
never could
prompt us to do.
But this freedom
of grace
it can be misused,
right?
Paul says
don't use your freedom
as an opportunity
for the flesh.
Now the flesh
is sort of a technical
word for Paul.
It doesn't mean
your physical body
like your flesh
and bones
as we say.
No,
when Paul says
your flesh
he's referring
to our old
sinful human nature
that we inherited
from Adam.
This old sinful nature
that still exists
in believers
even though
we've been regenerated
even though
we've been given
new life
by the Spirit
through the gospel.
You see
in Christ
you are a new person
a new birth
has occurred
your true self
in Christ
is now alive
but
in this age
your old self
your flesh
still dwells in you
and as we'll see
next week
the desires
of the Spirit
in us
and the desires
of the flesh
in us
are constantly
opposed to one another
constantly in conflict
in this life.
This is why
believers often feel
a battle
with sinful desires
because our old self
is still hanging on
in this fallen world
but the Spirit
in us
is finally
putting up a fight
with this old nature
that loves sin
right?
This is why
when some people
become Christians
they finally realize
that there's this huge
turmoil going on.
Why?
Because before
they didn't care
if they sinned
it was just
what they did
now the Spirit's
in them
and they're like
holy moly
what's going on
inside of me?
Well the desires
of the Spirit
are opposed
to the desires
of your flesh
so if you're feeling
conviction over sin
that's a good thing
that's the Spirit
in you
at work
but Paul's point here
is that this
freedom of grace
this freedom
that you've been
loved
accepted
justified
in Christ
holy by grace
apart from your works
it doesn't mean
that we should
give our old sinful
natures an opportunity
to go on sinning.
That word opportunity
is actually kind of
like a military word
it means something
like a foothold
or a base of operations
you know
like a beachhead.
In other words
Paul's saying
that the freedom
of grace
doesn't mean
we should
allow
our old
sinful habits
and patterns
to set up
a camp
in the middle
of our lives.
We shouldn't say
because I'm
saved by grace
I can now
indulge my sinful
habits.
No that's not
what Christ
set us free
for.
He set us free
not
for the flesh
he set us free
for love.
Through the Spirit
we can actually
say no
to sinful desires.
We can say no
to sinful desires
that really
just want to
use other people
right?
And instead
we can use
this freedom
we have
of grace
to now serve
other people
through love.
We don't need
to use other people
we can serve
them in love.
And here's
the wonderful
thing.
When by the Spirit
and the freedom
of grace
we serve
one another
through love
we actually
fulfill
the law.
Verse 14
for the whole law
is fulfilled
in one word
you should love
your neighbors
yourself.
Here's the
beautiful thing
when we stop
trying to earn
our salvation
by keeping
the law
and when we
trust in Christ
alone for our
righteous standing
before God
then we're
actually freed up
to begin
fulfilling the
law in love.
Now do those
acts of love
contribute to our
justification
in some way?
No!
Christ's righteousness
doesn't need
any supplement
from you.
Right?
It's not like
you eat a big
plate of Jesus
and then you need
a multivitamin
to fill it out.
Right?
No!
His righteousness
is complete
and whole
and it's yours
through faith.
But you see
this is just
the thing.
The law
was never
meant to be
a tool
for saving
ourselves.
The false
teachers at
Galatia
weren't just
confused about
what time
they were at
in redemptive
history.
Now that Christ
had come
the law
had passed.
They didn't
really understand
the law
at all
in the first
place.
The law
was never
meant to be
a tool
for saving
ourselves.
It was
meant to be
a pointer
to Christ
and through
Christ
it was meant
to then
show us
the path
of how
to truly
love
and freedom.
Through the
freedom of
grace
we actually
run
in the
path
of God's
commands
not out
of fear
that God
might reject
us
but out
of grateful
love for
the God
who has
accepted us
by His
grace
and whose
commands
now show
us how
life was
always meant
to be
lived.
The life
of love
lived according
to God's
commands
is the
truly good
life.
Your
holiness
and your
happiness
are the
same
thing.
And the
Spirit
in us
not only
helps us
to see
and understand
those
commands
as good
but He
also
continues
to make
the love
of Christ
real in
our hearts.
The Spirit
testifies to
our spirit
that we
are God's
children.
We call
out
Abba
Father.
We enjoy
God's
embrace
and love
and then
in the
communion
of His
love
we go
forth
into the
world
as people
of love.
Christians
should be
the last
people in
the world
to love
sin.
How could
we love
the very
thing
that sent
Christ the
lover of
our souls
to the
cross?
How could
we give
any foothold
to the
old nature
that steals
our life
and joy?
As Paul
says at the
end of our
passage,
if you bite
and devour
one another,
watch out
that you're
not consumed
by one
another.
You see,
the opposite
of true
holiness
is not
fun and
happiness.
The opposite
of real
holiness in
Christ,
fueled by
the joy
and love
of Christ,
the opposite
of that
isn't fun
and happiness.
It's
cannibalism.
It's
death.
Sin wants
us to use
each other
for our
own pleasure,
to bite
and devour,
but in
the end,
that's
the path
of sorrow.
We are
consumed.
So,
Christian,
stand
firm.
Christ
has set
you free,
not so
that you
can indulge
your flesh,
but so
that you
can walk
in love,
not so
you can
reject God's
commands,
but so
that you
can finally
fulfill
them.
In
Christ,
we've
been set
free.
how will
we live
in this
freedom?
Brothers
and sisters,
let's stay
on that
high mountain
ridge.
Let's walk
and stand
firm in the
path of the
grace of
God.
This is the
way,
not of
legalism,
not of
license and
indulging the
flesh,
it's the
way of
love.
love
demonstrated
above all
by Christ.
This is
why you've
been set
free,
to live a
life of
love to
the glory
of Christ,
where it's
not circumcision
that matters,
it's not
uncircumcision
that matters,
but faith in
the Son of
God that
matters,
faith expressing
itself in
love,
and where
with eager
expectation
and with
certain hope
we look
ahead to
where this
path ultimately
leads,
the hope
of
righteousness,
when the
glory of
God covers
the earth
like the
waters cover
the sea,
when we
rise with
Christ in
the new
heavens and
new earth,
where there's
no more
sickness or
sorrow,
there's no
more sin
and no
more death,
a world
where there's
only love,
a love
that goes
on for
eternity
and gets
richer and
richer,
wave upon
wave,
world without
end.
Friends,
AI is not
the future.
Love is
the future,
the love
of Christ.
That's what
you've been
set free
for,
so stand
firm.
Let's
pray.
Holy Spirit,
through you,
by the
gift of
faith that
you've
given us,
we,
whom you've
caused to
be born
again,
we,
whom you've
united to
Christ,
oh,
how we
eagerly look
forward to
this hope
of righteousness.
Thank you,
Father,
that we,
as your
children,
can be
people of
hope and
therefore people
of love.
love.
Lord,
renew in us
a conviction
that walking
in the paths
of holy love
really is our
deepest joy,
because it is
the place
where you are.
So,
God,
keep us,
keep us from
the mindset
that would
tell us,
those voices
that would
whisper in our
ear telling us
we're not good
enough.
love.
Oh,
Lord,
help us to
turn our
eyes to
the crucified
Christ and
see the
great love
that you've
loved us.
And,
Lord,
when the old
nature would
whisper in our
ears and
promise us
life along
its paths
of death,
help us to
say,
no,
we belong
to another
now.
We are
people of
the Spirit.
Move among
us,
Spirit.
In Jesus'
name we
pray.
Amen.