Grace Changes Everything, January 11, 2026

Good morning, fellowship. And I want to welcome those of you in the chapel, those of you joining us online. Also want to welcome the men and women who are incarcerated, who are joining us through the Pando app. Man, it's so good to have you with us as well. If you're new to us, my name is Mark. I'm one of the teaching pastors here, and we are so glad that you're with us today. Please drop by the Connection Center after the service today. If you're here with us in person, we'd love to get to know you. As many of you know, we are one church that meets in seven different locations throughout the city. This past August on our Vision Sunday, we talked about our theme that we have for our church, really our theme that we have for us as a people this year is Your Kingdom Come. The idea with that being that we want to see His kingdom up there come down here. First and foremost, we want to see that in our own hearts and lives, but we also want to see that in our city and we want to see it all across the world. And so we said one of the ways that we hope to see His kingdom come here in our city is by launching our seventh campus in North Little Rock. And so since August, there's been a lot of working that's happened, a lot of prayer that's been taking place, and I'm pleased to tell you that today, late this afternoon, we're going to have our very first official worship service in North Little Rock. Yes, let's give the Lord a hand, yes. You can see the details there on the slide about that, that'll be at five o'clock this afternoon. And what will happen at the North Little Rock campus is we'll be once a month there starting today all the way until August, and then in August we'll be transitioning to every week having worship services there. And so here's what I would invite you to do, be praying for that campus. Also I would invite you to do, all of us have friends and relationships, people that are disconnected from Jesus, maybe disconnected from a church that live in North Little Rock,

Sherwood. Hey, would you invite them to come and be a part of that? Man, God's on the move. Why not invite them to come and be a part of that campus? So here's what I want to do as we kind of get started today, I want to pause just for a moment here on the West Little Rock campus. I want to pray for the North Little Rock campus, I also want to just pray for our time together. Would you join me? Lord Jesus, thank you for the work that you're doing in and through fellowship. Thank you for the opportunity we have to be a part of what you're doing in North Little Rock, in Sherwood, in that community through this campus. God, you're already building up your tribe of people. You're already raising up volunteers, you're raising up people who are excited about being a light post to your gospel in the community that we call North Little Rock. Lord, I pray you would bless that campus, you would use it to proclaim and to herald your name. And Lord Jesus, you would be even made more famous in North Little Rock because of our campus over there. May it not be about us, but be about you. And Lord, over the next few minutes, would you open up our hearts and minds as we tear into your word, would you speak to us as only you could do through the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Well if you are new to us, we're in a study in the book of Galatians. We are calling this series Grace Changes Everything. We have a few more weeks that we're going to be in Galatians and then we're going to be transitioning into the book of Isaiah and talking about the infinite glory of God together. So you're going to want to be a part of that as well. Now, in Galatians, the apostle Paul is writing to defend the gospel of God's grace. A group of Jews called Judaizers have infiltrated the churches in Galatia and they are teaching

that to be saved, you have to become like a Jew. How do you become like a Jew? Well, you have to get circumcised. circumcised. You have to follow certain religious rituals, certain dietary laws. And these Judaizers are teaching a false gospel because it's a gospel that is based on human effort and not grace. And so Paul has been opposing them while at the same time making it abundantly clear throughout the book of Galatians so far that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In fact, I would say if you want a summary of what the book of Galatians is all about, it's about that. That salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Now, when we say by grace alone, what we mean is that salvation is a free gift. Yeah. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. It comes to us by way of grace. It's also through faith. What I mean by that is it's coming to a place where you put your trust in Jesus and the finished work that he's done for you on the cross. You're not putting your faith in your religious efforts or your good works. No, it's through faith. And guess what? It's in Christ alone. There's no other path. There's no other way to salvation except through Christ alone. Man, I didn't say that. Jesus said that himself. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Listen, no one comes to the father but through me. And so Paul systematically has been teaching us about God's grace in the book of Galatians. And this book breaks out really into three big sections. The first is chapters one and two. And I would say chapters one and two is personal. It's personal because Paul defends his own life in ministry, which is being attacked by these false teachers in order to undermine Paul and his gospel message. And then the second section we see in the book of Galatians is doctrinal. And that's chapters three and four. This is where Paul teaches us about the doctrine of justification by faith. And we've talked a lot about that. That we are declared righteous when we put our faith in Jesus Christ based on the work that Christ has done for us. That we are justified by faith. And then last is chapters five and six, where we find ourselves today. And I would say this is practical. Practically how we now live out our faith in Jesus Christ. Now that we are justified in Christ, how do we become sanctified in Christ? What I mean by sanctified is that we are being transformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ over time. Now, the theological word for

that, it's a big word, is the word sanctification. And what that word means is that there's this ongoing process that takes place in us when we cross the line of faith and we become a Christ follower. We're through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are becoming more holy in our lives. We're becoming more like Christ. And notice I said in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our own works and efforts. The Holy Spirit is God's grace to us. Because it's the Holy Spirit that works in us and through us to give us more holy lives, to make us more holy as God himself is holy. And we desperately need the Holy Spirit in every part of our lives. Man, I need the Holy Spirit in my personal walk with God. I need him in my marriage, in my parenting, in in my career and in every aspect of life, I need the Holy Spirit. And so today, we're gonna talk about how we can live by the Holy Spirit. So let me invite you to grab your Bible, your Bible app, however you like to follow along, and jump in with me to Galatians chapter five, Galatians chapter five, verse 16. That's where we're gonna pick this up today. Galatians chapter five, starting in verse 16. And Paul says this to us, but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For those are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you wanna do. But if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I've warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Now look again at what Paul says here in verse 25. He says, if we live by the Spirit. What Paul is talking to us about in this text here in Galatians 5 is this idea of living by the Spirit. That's what we're gonna be talking about today. And specifically, we're gonna talk about four aspects of what it looks like to live by the Spirit. Live by the Spirit. Here's the first one. We live by the Spirit when we are dependent on the Spirit. Incredibly important. When we are dependent on the Spirit, we are living by the Spirit.

Look what Paul starts out this with. Verse 16, he says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other and to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. Now Paul introduces us here to an inner struggle, to a battle that is taking place in every Christ-follower between the flesh and the Spirit. In fact, notice Paul says in verse 17 there, that the Spirit is opposed to the flesh and also that the flesh is opposed to the Spirit. This idea that they are in constant tension, there's a constant struggle, there's a constant battle going on in the heart and the life of every Christ-follower between the flesh and the Spirit. And the flesh is more than the physical, it's more than the body, it's our sinful nature, it's our desire to act independently of God and to go our own way, to turn our back against God in his ways. The flesh is what we are apart from grace. And so our flesh and the Spirit, they're at war. And the outcome of the conflict is, Paul says we may not do the very things that we want to do. You ever had that experience in your life? What I mean is, it is with even the best of intentions, the best of efforts, your best desires,

man, you wanna pursue Jesus, you wanna live for Jesus, and all that keeps happening in your life is you just keep failing. And there's a war, sometimes we don't even know the words to put around it, the war between our flesh and between the Spirit is what Paul's saying. And it's easy, it's easy to get defeated in that. But there's a great promise here for us that I don't want us to miss. And the promise is this, we can have victory over our flesh. Now, let me say that again. We can have victory over our flesh. We don't have to be controlled by the desires of our flesh. And the way we achieve that victory, Paul says, is by walking with the Spirit. Where we let our walk, we let our conduct be directed and guided by the Holy Spirit. Now, this does not mean that we will not have sinful desires, because we will. But the Holy Spirit makes victory over the flesh possible. But it's only as possible, it's only possible to the degree that we walk with the Spirit. And we depend on the Spirit's power in our lives and not our own. See, the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit,

it's constant, it's daily. It's constantly there. The flesh is strong. But the Spirit is stronger. You know, I think sometimes when we think about the flesh and the Spirit, we think they're like in some kind of stalemate. They're not in a stalemate. The Spirit beats the flesh every single time, every time. The Spirit is more powerful and stronger than the flesh. It would be like if Brandon Benar, one of our other teaching pastors, if we arm wrestle, I'm gonna beat Brandon every single time, 10 out of 10 times, I promise you. The Spirit is the same way. There's no stalemate here. The Spirit is more powerful and stronger than our flesh and our desires that we have. We can overcome the desires of our flesh, but we can only do that through the power of the Spirit. And that supernatural power, believe it or not, is in you and in me if you follow Christ. But the problem is we have to walk with Him. We have to depend on Him. And if we will do that, we can prevail over the desires of our flesh. And over time, we will start taking more and more, or looking more and more like the image of Jesus Christ over time, where we're living a more holy life. But for that to happen, we have to completely

and utterly depend on the Holy Spirit. We have to walk by the Spirit. So if we wanna live by the Spirit, first, we need to be dependent on the Spirit, on the power of the Spirit. See, one of my great concerns for some of you this time of year, when we talk about New Year's resolutions, talk about spiritual things, is you think in your own human effort, your own work, that you're gonna change yourself. It's not gonna happen. We have to walk by the Spirit. We have to depend on the Spirit. The power of the Spirit is the one who can give us victory over the flesh and the passions in our life that seek to just pull us down and pull us away from Christ. So we need to be led. We need to depend on the Spirit. Here's second, I would say this. We live by the Spirit when we are led by the Spirit. When we're led by the Spirit. We need to depend on the Spirit if we wanna live by the Spirit, and we also need to be led by the Spirit. Look what Paul says next in verse 18. He repeats a point that he's already made. He says, but if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. See, the law does not have the means to make us holy.

The law was given to show us our sin and our need for Jesus. The law has no power over the flesh. And so what Paul is telling these Galatians and what he's telling us is that it's only the Holy Spirit as we are led and guided and empowered. It's only the Holy Spirit that's gonna make us holy. who can help us overcome the flesh. And I want you to notice something here that it's the Holy Spirit who leads us. We don't lead the Holy Spirit. We don't lead the Spirit, which means that we have to submit to the Spirit's leading in our life. And how does the Spirit lead us? How does the Spirit guide us? Well, the Spirit guides us or leads us through the truth of the Word of God. The Spirit does not lead us in some kind of vacuum. The Spirit is the divine author of the whole Bible. All 66 books He wrote. And it's through that truth that the Spirit oftentimes leads us and guides us to the life that He wants us to live. It's never flippant, it's never arbitrary. He leads us in our heart as we read and study and apply ourselves to the Word of God. And as we do that, we gain the mind and the wisdom of God and the Spirit then enables us to apply that wisdom to the circumstances and situations in our life

and helps us make good choices. And the choices we make in life and the way we live shows whether we're being led by the Spirit or we're being led by the flesh. By the way, that's why it's so incredibly important that we spend regular time in the Word of God. I would say even daily time. That we're spending time in the truth because we can't be led by the Spirit without knowing and applying the Word of God to our lives. Because that's the way the Spirit works and leads and guides us is through the truth. So as you kind of think about your own life, are you spending regular time in God's Word, daily time? And if not, could I just encourage you as we kind of sit at the start of a new year, could that be a commitment that you make this year? And man, there's so many unbelievable resources out there that can help you start this journey where you're reading and studying and applying the Word of God. I think one of the best that I'll share with you is a Bible app called YouVersion. I'll put it up here on the screen for you. I read this week that this is the most downloaded Christian app in the world. And on this app, by the way, it's free. Free. On this app is every kind of Bible translation you could ever imagine.

There are hundreds of reading plans on there. I would say pick one. If you don't know where to start, here's where I would start. I would start reading the Book of John. And there's lots of plans on there that can just help you in the Book of John develop the discipline of every day just getting up maybe for 15 minutes and reading through the Word of God. And here's what'll happen as you begin to read through the truth. The Holy Spirit is gonna show you God's wisdom. The Holy Spirit is gonna show you your sinfulness. But He's also gonna show you the beauty of God's grace in the work of Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit is gonna lead you and guide you and speak to you. And He does that most often through the truth of the Word. And we need to be men and women who are spending time in the Word if we wanna live by the Spirit. Because so often that's the way the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us. And listen, if you're here today, maybe you don't even have a physical Bible. Hey, we have free Bibles we'll give you at the Connection Center. Just come by today, we'll give you one. If you don't know how to get started in reading the Bible,

myself, some of our other pastors, we'd love to sit down and talk with you, help you take that next step so that you can experience the joy of being a Christian. led and guided by the Holy Spirit. He does that through the Word of God. Now, what Paul does next in this text, verses 19 through 23, is he gives us evidence of these two contrasting ways at life. He compares a life led by the flesh with a life led by the Spirit. Now, for time's sake, I'm not gonna go through each one of these of what Paul calls here the works of the flesh, but I wanna mention a couple of things real quickly. First, this is not an exhaustive list of fleshly works. I want you to notice here what Paul says in verse 21. He makes this statement there, and I'll put it up here on the screen for you. He says, in things like these, see, there are other fleshly sins besides the 15 that are just mentioned here. The point that Paul is making here in this list of works of the flesh is he wants us to know that ultimately these lead to death, to a life apart from the Spirit. He wants us to know that. This isn't some kind of exhaustive list. Also, I want you to see here that there's a spiritual warning

attached to these fleshly works. Do you see that warning? It's also found in verse 21. Paul says this. Those who do such things will not what? Inherit the kingdom of God. Does that feel heavy to you? See, this is more than just a list of fleshly sins. It's also a measure of a person's true spiritual condition. And it proves where these things are the pattern of a person's life, or where this sin or sins are the definition or the main characteristic of a person's life. That person may not be a child of God. Now, that doesn't mean as Christ followers that we don't fall into these fleshly sins, because we do. We fall into these and many others that aren't listed here every day. That's the battle that we're in that Paul's talking about here between the flesh and the spirit. We all struggle with that. What he is saying here, though, is that these sins should not be the pattern of our life, or I might say the bent of our life. In fact, he's real careful here to use the present tense. He's real careful here to use the present tense in the verb that he chooses to use here

to emphasize and to stress that this is habitual, ongoing conduct in sins, not just a periodic lapse in sin. In other words, when you have a sinful pattern in your life and it just keeps showing up day after day, and there's no struggle anymore in you against that sin, what Paul is saying is it could be that you're not under the control of the Holy Spirit and you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, I don't wanna just move past that, because that is incredibly heavy. It's very important, and so I wanna ask you a question. And only you can answer this. Are you living by the Spirit, or are you living by the flesh? And what does the pattern of your life say? See, it's incredibly important at moments like this that we take time to examine ourselves and where we are. In fact, the Apostle Paul encourages us to examine ourselves. He says this in 2 Corinthians 13, five. He says it this way. Examine yourselves. Why? To see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless what? but unless you fail to meet the test. And so I ask you, do you pass the test of faith? Do you have a strong confidence in you that you are walking and living by the Spirit?

Now, I want you to hear me. We all struggle with sin, all of us. All of us are in desperate need of God's grace and forgiveness, all of us. But is the trajectory of your life heading moment by moment, day by day, towards the Lord Jesus? Where over time, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna have slip ups here and there, but over time, you're becoming more and more like Christ. Listen, if you're not, friend, could I implore you from the bottom of my heart today, today, man, would you repent of your sin? Repent of your life, of living by the flesh, and turn to the Lord Jesus in faith. And He can bring you salvation and forgiveness and hope. And you can start to have the power that's in you to defeat the sinful passions and desires of your flesh. And that only happens through faith in Jesus Christ. It's through the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen, if you're here today and you're wrestling with that and you don't know where you are, man, we'd love to talk with you about that. I'll be out at the Connection Center today. I'd love to talk with you, pray with you, help you in any way I can to take a spiritual step with Jesus today. I don't want any of us uncertain when we examine ourselves about where we are,

whether we're being led by the flesh or led by the Spirit. Let me tell you, let me tell you where a life led by the flesh ultimately ends. Death, and I'm talking about spiritual death, destruction and damnation. Destruction, death, spiritual death is what the scripture says, and damnation. That's where when our life is just pursuing all of these sinful passions and desires ultimately that's where that life leads because we're not under the control and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Now there's a different kind of life. There's a different kind of path that we can take and that's being led by the Spirit. And Paul talks about this starting in verse 22, notice. Here we see a contrasting list of qualities or virtues for the person who's being led by the Spirit. This is called the fruit of the Spirit. They're not called works of the Spirit because that would imply that we can somehow produce them in our own strength, and we can't. These nine qualities are the fruit of the Spirit that grow in us and through us as we live by the Spirit. Look what Paul says about this, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. So here's the important aspect I think we need to see here.

We live by the Spirit when we produce fruit through the Spirit. That's the important aspect that I think we need to see. I want you to think about fruit. It's a living organism. Fruit grows out of life, and in the case of a Christ follower, it grows out of the life of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and produces his fruit in us and through us. Paul here, interestingly enough, describes the fruit using the singular. Now I hear a lot of time in the church world people call this fruits of the Spirit. It's not fruits of the Spirit. It's actually in the singular, the fruit of the Spirit. Which stresses that all nine of these qualities are together, they're all together. We might think of them almost like a cluster of grapes rather than. separate pieces of fruit. They're all together. So all of them, not just some of them, are to be found in the life of a Jesus follower. So if one of the fruits is missing, then the fruit of the Spirit is not there. That's what Paul is teaching here. Now, I don't think it's an accident that the fruit of the Spirit starts with what? Let me help you. Love.

Love. We would expect that, right? Because love is so central to the gospel. God himself is love. Later on, we are told that the world will know that we're his disciple by what? Our love for one another. First Corinthians 13 says that the greatest of the virtues is love. And so there's this sense in which the Holy Spirit produces love in us. A love that the world needs to see in our lives more than anything else. And so first and foremost, the life in the Spirit produces love. A love for God and a love for each other. And all of the other fruit flows out of this love. It's a beautiful list. And the virtues of this fruit are in sharp contrast to life in the flesh. Look what comes next. Joy. Peace. Man, I wish we had time to unpack every one of these. Patience. I wish that one wasn't in there. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness.

Gentleness. And self-control. All of these are the fruit of the Spirit. And one thing about fruit, fruit has seeds. Because fruit is meant to reproduce itself. And the fruit of the Spirit does that too. Love produces more love in us. Joy produces more joy in us. And on and on and on. It grows and becomes more evident in our lives as we live under the control and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As we live by the Spirit, this fruit starts to show up even in the smallest moments of life. So what happens is, as a parent, we become a little bit more patient with our kids. As a husband, I become a little bit more loving to my wife. I become a little bit more gentle with my coworker when he or she messes up. I become a more joyful person. So when you're around me, you say, I don't understand everything that's going on with Mark, but man, there's some kind of joy in his life. There's a kindness to me when I go out to a restaurant and I interact with the waiter or waitress. See, the fruit of the Spirit begins to show up in these small moments of life.

As the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us to shape us, and then over time, you go 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the line, now my life is becoming more consistently characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit. I'm becoming transformed, so I'm becoming more and more like Jesus. Jesus is the one that perfectly embodies the fruit of the Spirit. And the Spirit is creating that work in you and in me. See, a life that is living by the Spirit is a fruitful life, a very fruitful life. Now, the last aspect is this, that we live by the Spirit when we're obedient to the Spirit. It's this idea that if we wanna live by the Spirit, we have to submit to the Spirit. We have to follow the Spirit. And we don't like that much because we like to be in control of our lives. We wanna call the shots. Look how Paul concludes this chapter. He reminds us in verse 24 that our relationship with the flesh is dead. Why? is we belong to Christ. When we cross the line of faith, we were clothed in his righteousness. And so there has been a definitive break between those sinful passions and desires

because we now belong to Christ is what Paul is arguing. And so now we belong to Christ, our desires need to be directed by Christ alone. And the only way for that to happen is for us to obey the Holy Spirit, to submit to the work of the Spirit in our lives. And that's in fact what Paul encourages us to do in verse 25. He says it this way, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to underline that phrase, keep in step with the Spirit. Do you see that? That word translated keep in step is a very interesting word. It's a military term. It connotes the idea of an army going out to battle, following their leader. Well, the Holy Spirit is our leader. And part of living by the Spirit is following his footsteps. And who better to follow than the Spirit? He knows everything. He knows every pitfall in life. He knows every hole. He knows everything in life, every trouble, every struggle. He knows the past. He knows the future.

He is omniscient. He is sovereign. And he can keep us perfectly safe if we will follow him, if we will obey him, if we will keep in step with the Spirit. But see, so often what happens is the Spirit is leading and guiding us. And rather than submit to the Spirit, rather than obey the Spirit, we don't stay in step with the Spirit. What we do is we go our own way. And we pursue our own desires, our own passions, and we end up in a place in our life hurt, broken, wounded. We ultimately end up in a place of emptiness. And when we walk by the Spirit, it's a rewarding life, an enriching life. I hope you see God's grace to you this morning. You know, this series is called Grace Changes Everything. And we have received the most gracious gift in the Holy Spirit. God in his grace has given us his own presence. God's presence, if you're in Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you, leading you, guiding you, desiring more than anything for you to be fruitful in your life, desiring out of his love for you to give you the most rewarding life, the best life, the good life. That's God's grace to you

in the presence of the Holy Spirit. But not just in his presence, but also in his power. You know, God didn't just conquer sin at the death of the Son of the Cross. He's also given us the Holy Spirit who can conquer sin in and through his work in our life. We don't have to walk this spiritual journey in our own power and own strength. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. Man, that's God's grace to you and to me. If we will live by the Spirit. If we will live by the Spirit, we will experience the fullness of that power and that presence in our life. Let's pray together. God, what amazing grace it is that you haven't left us down here to fend for ourselves, to try to make sense of this world on our own. No, you have given us the gracious gift of your Holy Spirit. Your perfect presence in us. The Spirit working in us and through us, empowering us and leading us and guiding us and shaping us into who you want us to be. So, even in this very moment, Lord Jesus, we offer you our lives and so often we struggle to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit. So, even right now, we say, would you lead us? Would you guide us? Would you take us wherever you would have us to be, Holy Spirit? I am yours. Do a work in me.

Make me more holy as God is holy. Friend, would you pray that today? Open hands. Open heart. Let God do the work in and through you through the work of His Spirit. We pray that in the name of Jesus, amen. Thanks again for listening to the Word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com contact. Have a great week.