La Gracia Cambia Todo, Enero 11, 2026

♪♪ Good morning, church. I'm great to be with you this morning. If you don't know me, my name is Alfredo Zúñiga. And I'm the campus pastor here at Fellowship Español. Today we're celebrating a special day as a church. And today we're going to be having our first official campus, the Fellowship North Little Rock. And today we're going to be having a special service at our new campus at Fellowship North Little Rock. So let's rejoice in that, right church? You know what this means? That more people in North Little Rock are going to have access to the preaching of the gospel. And people may think, well, why another church when there's already so many? There's 600,000 people in the area of Arkansas. In the central Arkansas area. And they don't all fit in all the churches that we have today. So let's pray for Pastor Alan. And if you want to go by today, it'll be at 5 p.m. And we can encourage our new brothers and sisters in that area. And if you want more information, you can ask us in the back after service. The passage today in the book of Galatians contains some subjects that maybe as parents you haven't touched yet with your kids. Whether you guys are here or watching on YouTube. So if you haven't had that conversation yet or if it's a conversation that you'd rather have at a different time about immorality and those subjects, then you've still got time to take care of that before we start. And you can take the kids to the FSK area.

So I want to give you this chance as parents. So let's open our Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. And we're going to start in verse 16. But I want to remind us a little bit of where we're going. Pastor Douglas last week told us that we need to stay firm in the freedom that God has given us. Pastor Douglas last week told us that we need to stand firm in the liberty that we have been given, that we have been freed from sin, that we have been freed from the condemnation of sin because no one can fulfill the law completely, and that by the sacrifice of Jesus, we can be declared innocent, not by our own works. But when we read one of Paul's letters, there's something that really helped me in reading these, and it's when Pastor Alistair Begg said this, that a letter is like listening to a phone conversation, but you only get one side of the conversation. And so as you're reading it, you've got to be thinking to yourself, OK, what's the person on the other end of the line saying about this? And why is Paul writing about this? And so the passage before concludes, OK, we are free, but let us not use this freedom as a pretext to sin. It's true that your merits for salvation aren't based on your own merits, but on Christ's work. But don't use that as an excuse to live in sin, since He has set you free. Because it's probable that the Judaizers that were teaching that the purest way was to obey the law completely, it would say a lot of the same things that are being said today. That whole thing about you guys being saved only by grace and only by faith, it's just going to produce a whole bunch of people that don't even care, and they're just going to sin however which way they want to. And Paul's saying, no, no, hold on a moment. It's not like that. In fact, we have something that's a whole lot better than obeying the law. The Holy Spirit.

They're preaching this external religion where you have to do all of these things in order to be accepted by God. But I'm preaching the promise that was given in the Old Testament that the Holy Spirit would come down to change us from the inside out. And that's why today's subject is called The Call to Live in the Spirit. Because it is supernatural life. It is important to understand that the Holy Spirit isn't an immaterial power. It's not some kind of substance that falls more on some than on others. It's not a thing. It is a person. And with this person of the Trinity, we have a constant relationship. Could be a good relationship, sometimes a bad relationship. We can see in the book of Acts that Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. We can read in the book of Ephesians that we can sadden the Holy Spirit. In the book of John, we can see that the Holy Spirit directs us to all truth. The Holy Spirit, church, is a person with whom we must grow in a relationship with. Some describe the Trinity when they don't understand it in this way. They say the Father is the Old Testament who is a little angry. The Son is the good people. And the Spirit is just the weird one because I'm not sure what it means or who He is. But thanks be to God that the Bible is clear as to each of the persons of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, Romans 8 and 9 says, says that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers. In the moment that someone believes, the Holy Spirit comes completely into that person. You don't just get half the Holy Spirit. It is the person of the Holy Spirit. And Romans 8 and 9 is so strong, it says that if someone does not have the Holy Spirit, then they do not belong to God. Which means that we are indwelled with the Holy Spirit just once when we become believers in Christ. But we are filled with the Holy Spirit. constantly. Indwelt once and forever. Being filled is a continuous experience for the

believer. And there are several terms that are used for this filling. Walk in the Spirit. To be guided by the Spirit. To be submitted to the Spirit. And the one that is spoken of the most is to be filled by the Spirit. But all of these basically reflect one thing, which is this idea of being controlled by the Holy Spirit. If you are told that you walk by what someone told you, if it tells you to submit to what someone tells you, what is it telling you? That your experience with the Holy Spirit isn't some strange experience. It's an experience of submitting to His authority. And how do we do this? Through the Word of God. And who wrote the Word of God? Or who inspired it? God Himself, the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is going to guide us to His Word, so that we can then apply it to every area of our lives. So we have a call to live in the Holy Spirit. And we have this tendency as Christians to fight with sin. And one of them is escapism. Some parents will say, no, no, I just have to cover my kids so that they can't see all of the evil that's in the world. Or we may think, okay, I'm going to become a monk and go to a monastery, and that's how I'm going to experience this holiness that I so much long for. But there's a problem with this thought, that we forget that the problem isn't on the outside. The problem is inside of my heart, church. You guys can leave me completely alone, and my sin is still with me. It'll follow me wherever I go. The other option that sometimes Christians adopt is to kind of conform and make peace with our sin. Basically, we minimize the sin in our life. You know, everybody does it. It's not that bad. Oh yeah, I mean, we're watching this, but there's a lot worse stuff. And that's called conforming. I'm conforming to the world. But none of those are the solution. Jesus said, we are in the world, but we do not belong to the world. And that's how it responds to both of those misunderstandings. You're in the world, but you can't escape from it because I haven't called you to escape. But you have to live in the world in such a way that people will know that you do not belong to the world. And that's how the Lord makes it a little bit harder for you. Oh Lord, how can I live in the world without letting myself be influenced by the world? The Holy Spirit. Let's read the first verses. 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, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. What's Paul telling us here? He's calling us to live under the control of the Holy Spirit. And he gives us a reality that happens when someone passes from death to life. It's that this internal struggle begins, the Spirit versus the flesh. Church and this flesh is only going to end this battle whenever either he comes or we go to him. It's an incredible battle. And it says that whenever I want to live by the Spirit, I can't because the flesh is opposing it. And that when I am living in the flesh, I cannot live in the Spirit. Because they're contrary. So I'm either living in one or living in the other. And we'll see that it's not that we can be half and half. But if we are led by the Spirit, we're not under the law. So if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, your worry isn't the law. But it's more of the relationship that you have with the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, we know we're not going to live perfectly in this life. And Paul reminds us the law no longer condemns us. Don't worry so much about the law's condemnation. Worry about the person that you're now in a relationship with. Don't worry about whether you passed the test or whether you failed it. We already know you failed the test. That's why Christ died for you. So the focus isn't whether we're trying to gain something. The focus is to remember who we're walking with. And that's the command, to walk in the Spirit. And so, since we're experts at excusing things, and also at appearing things that really aren't, if we all look at each other and we're all really well dressed and really well fixed up, or we just look at the Facebook pic, we can't really know whether someone's walking

by the Spirit or walking by the flesh. So Paul is then going to take us through this list, which today is going to be one of those sermons, where instead of us saying amen, we're probably going to be saying ouch. Because it's going to confront us. So let's walk out of here thinking of specific things that are works of the flesh. So that we can reach the joy of living a life in the Spirit. So we're going to look at the works that oppose the Spirit. Verses 19 through 21 say the following. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmistades, pleitos, celos, enojos, rivalidades, disensiones, sectarismos, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dissensions, divisions. Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It says the works of the flesh are evident. You see, we can't hide sin. No matter how much we may try, eventually it's going to come out. Have you ever thought that sometimes we see people who have nothing to do with God? And they look like they're really great people. And all of a sudden, a Netflix documentary comes out about this one person who was the exemplary mom in all of the United States. But you see, the works of the flesh, the works of sin, are evident. They're going to come out. No matter how much we may try to hide them, they're going to be clear, up front, visible. And he begins to name these. And he begins with this first word, immorality. Immorality. And in the Greek, immorality is pornea. From where we get the word that today is used for pornography.

Which means nakedness. And all sin that evolves that world. Toda practica sexual fuera del pacto matrimonial. All sexual practices outside of the matrimonial pact. Whether that's mind, or physical. He is saying, this is a work of the flesh. He says, men who are married, keep yourself for your wife. Run from any situation that might compromise you. Don't play with that. Single men and women, keep yourself for marriage. Don't make that a rule. Because it's a sin. Women, stay faithful to your husbands. Don't establish relationships that might grow into emotional or physical relationships with someone that is not your husband. It's that simple, church. It sounds simple. Pero hoy la industria de la pornografia supera los 200 billones de dolares cada año. Dice que 60% de los adultos en Estados Unidos consumen ese material. Y que la edad promedio en que los niños son expuestos a esto es entre los 10 a 12 años. Algunos hasta 7 años de edad. Es una epidemia silenciosa. Engaña a la gente. Atrapa a los hombres. Destruye matrimonios. Y lastimosamente, los números en la iglesia no son tan diferentes. The numbers inside the church aren't that different. Paul says, don't do it.

These are works of the flesh. flesh leads to death, but it doesn't just mention immorality, it also mentions impurity. Because some might say, okay, well I'm not practicing any of that. So Paul takes it up a notch. Okay, let me put it this way. Some people may not be consuming this material, but they are insensitive to either TV shows, series, or music that exalts this material. Unfortunately, music nowadays is filled with sung pornography. And we'll excuse it because it's just something that I like. But what is our filter? If you grabbed that series, that movie, that song, would you recommend it, send it by text to Jesus, have Him listen to it with you? Let us not conform to the culture, church. Sensuality. It doesn't just have to do with that aspect of uncontrolled desires, in that sexual ambit. It has to do with all other areas of your life. And sometimes we'll joke about Amazon compulsion. But it's a sin, church. Food. Without control. It's a sin, church. And many other areas of your life where you see that control is not being exercised. Doom scrolling. It's a sin, church. Because you'll see that what you're doing is gratifying the desires of your flesh without setting any boundaries. Idolatry, sorcery. Idolatry, church, is anything that consumes your life more than the things that God wants for your life. A friend of mine would say, you want to know what you really love? Look at your week. Grab a calendar or a watch. And watch what your heart, mind, soul, what your life is consuming. Is it money? Entertainment? Comfort? Anything that is not God. And you'll see what your idol is. You'll see who you're really working for. The next one is sorcery. The original word is pharmacia. Sound like any word? Pharmacia. Pharmacy. Droga. Drugs. Pacias. Hills. You might say, oh, well, sorcery. That doesn't have anything to do with us so much today. Well, let's not run so fast. These wizards or sorcerers would provide people these substances that provided people the satisfaction that they were looking for. The peace they were looking for. The relax they were looking for. The sleep they were looking for. The joy they were looking for. Is it any different today? Today we call sins sickness. And instead of bringing them before the Lord, we try to medicate them. Instead of going before the Lord and asking him to help us with this uncontrol of food, I'll start taking a pill to counteract that. Ask God for that peace that surpasses all understanding.

Instead of going to God, I'm going to go to a pill that's going to take away my anxiety. I'm not saying, church, that we should not use medication in cases of clear medical diagnosis. And let me specify, something material, something physical in your body that needs that medicine. Because the doctor can't cure the soul. If I go to the doctor and I tell him, doctor, I'm sad. And he does a physical, chemical exam. And that leads him to think that there are certain factors that are contributing to that feeling. Then there's probably a medical route for that to be treated. But if I just go, hey doctor, I'm sad. There's no test, no review, no anything. He just goes, here's this pill for your soul. Just think about that. Are you trying to medicate sin instead of reaching the root of the problem so that God can take you to repentance and you may experience that freedom that doesn't need pharmacy? The next one is a list of seven sins that are very connected, that go together. Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. And I don't think I need to spend as much time on those. We just have to get all of us together for a few days, and at least one of these will pop out in each one of us each day. Here we can kind of get along for a couple of hours, but I'm going to send you home with your wife, with your kids, with your friend. Because these are inside of our hearts. Enmity is this resentment that is prolonged. You see, if we don't resolve conflict immediately, it turns people into enemies. If you don't turn down your anger, and you don't come down before the Lord, it turns into rivalry. It turns into divisions. That's where divorces come from, destruction of family, divisions in the church, from unresolved conflict and conflict that was unresolved through grace and love.

Jealousy is that feeling when you are sad that someone else is doing better than you are. I'm sure that's never happened. Here at Fellowship Español, that does not happen, but sometimes, church, I'm jealous that someone's jacket looks better on them than it does on me. Even his shoes look better. Church, it happens. It's the flesh. But let's not let these things cultivate to the point to where they lead to destruction. And I want to speak of envy. Jealousy is just a step beyond jealousy. Because with jealousy, yeah, I'm sad, and I'm upset that someone else has things that I don't have or that their situation is better. But with envy, it's not just that I'm only sad that they have it. I don't want them to have it. I want that to be taken away. And if I could be the one to take it away, I'm going to. Church, this is real. And the last two descriptions, drunkenness and orgies, normally they go hand in hand. Because in the Greek world, for such a horrible sexual immoral thing, they'd have to get drunk before even going through with it. And drunkenness removes all sense of sensibility, of control. And in that state, you can do any number of things. Have you ever noticed when someone who's been drunk gets shown a picture of whatever it was that they did while they were drunk, how horrified they are by what they were capable of doing in that state? Because sober, they say, no, I would never do that. But these are the works of the flesh. Well, what is the fruit of the Spirit? And this is the last point.

The evidence of walking in the Spirit. It says in 22 through 26. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Gentleness, self-control, against such thing there is no law. And those who belong to Christ 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. If there's anything pure that can come from humans, it can only be produced by God Himself. The struggle in the Christian life is to get out of the way of what God is doing in my life. It doesn't say plus the works of the Spirit. It says the fruit. Fruit is something that comes out naturally. It's not a list of things that you have to do this, this, this, and that. It's what is going to flow from you if who is controlling your heart is the Holy Spirit. And so every morning when I'm sitting at the table, and I can see the fleshly struggles that I'm going to have that day, especially when my six kids wake up, I don't pray I'm going to be patient, and I'm going to be this, and I'm going to be that, I say, Holy Spirit, take my heart. I can't do all of that. this. It's impossible to do all of this. Because the moment that you do the works of the flesh, it's because you disconnected from the source. It's not that you forgot the rules. It's not that you forgot your strategy. It's that you were disconnected from the vine. The struggle is really to remain connected to the Holy Spirit. Because as I'm walking in the Spirit, when I'm saying, Lord, guide me in this conversation, believe me, these characteristics are going to be seen as fruit. You don't even have to think about it. Because what do you think the Holy Spirit is going to produce? He's going to produce something that reflects God in your life. And probably if you do this at home, this homework, and you list the works of the flesh, you're going to find something that opposes that work on the side of the fruit of the Spirit. Something that I love about this word, fruit, is that

it's also something that is cultivated. So if you want to see a beautiful, full tree, do you focus on trying to attach the fruit to the limbs? Or where? Do you focus on the roots? What do the roots of our hearts of our lives need? What is God in His grace plugging into my heart? What am I watering my life with? Is it with the worries of our lives? With our finances? With our pride and our own glory? With my reputation? Then the fruit that's going to come out, it's going to be horrible. Or am I marinating my heart in His word? Am I confessing my sin amongst trusted brothers and sisters? Am I getting on my knees and praying before God, God help me? What is watering your roots? Against such things there is no law. What does this mean? That the life in the Spirit is a transformation from the inside out. And you know, all of us want the law. I want those three laws, those three rules that I can take off to be the best dad. But don't you ask me to submit my heart to the Holy Spirit. I just want my three rules. Or let me give my wife those seven perfect steps to be the perfect wife. Because that's going to work just like that. There is no law against this life in the Spirit. Either you live by the law, and you're really quickly going to find out that you cannot fulfill it, and it's going to send you into depression, or you live by the Spirit. And as the fruit, you're going to love. And because of that fruit, you're going to obey the law. How do you want to live? Now this is really only if you've given your life to Christ. If you haven't really given your life to Jesus, you are living in the flesh. You are dead in the flesh. And as the worship team comes up, I want us to take a moment as a church to reflect. I want us to take a time as a church to reflect on all these areas. I want us to be honest with ourselves. That we may come before God in repentance. Let's take a moment to examine ourselves. So that we may examine how much we're letting the world come into our families. Through technology. Through worldly practices. Through worldly goals. And lastly, I want to say, as a church, we're not looking for these sins so that we may condemn each other, but something that we may show each other grace in and restore each other in.

If you need counseling, prayer, we've got a wonderful care team for all of the campuses here at Fellowship, but also all of the elders are there to walk with you in whatever way and whatever area you're fighting. And I want you to know that counseling isn't just for these Christians that are maybe a lower category. We have this stigma where only the people that are real bad off need help. Church, we all need it. I need it. You need it. And I want to encourage you to enjoy of the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit. Let this week, your focus, let it not be on whether you did what's right or what's wrong. Let it not be focused on whether you're connected to the Spirit or not. And what if I sin? To restore that connection with the Holy Spirit, we must repent. And the sooner we do it, the sooner we've restored that connection with the Spirit. Let's incline our faces, Church, and examine.