Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. If your ticket to heaven lies in what you do or don't do, You aren't following Christ, but moralism. What is moralism, and how is it different from Christianity? Pastor Rich answers this question from our passage today in Galatians five two through four.
Find out how our new life in Christ, in all of its beauty and goodness, shines so brightly against the sham of moralism. Let's listen in. If you would please open your Bibles or follow along on the screens as we read the text for this morning's sermon. Galatians 5. 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 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. Let's pray together. Yeah.
Lord. We want to thank you for this text, for your scripture. Thank you for the simplicity of it. You come right out and say it. It stated simply for us to read and understand.
the law is of no advantage to us. Thank you for that. Thank you for keeping my own salvation. Out of my hands? Thank you for coming and taking the pressure off of us and placing it on your son in our place.
There's No way. we could ever have lived up to your perfect standard. Thank you for Christ's work in fulfilling the law and freeing us from it. Thank you that the law holds no power over us any more. Because you yourself equate the law with slavery.
Your grace is greater, and you've welcomed us into it. You've bid us to taste and see that you are good, your word is good, your ways are good. that life with you has purpose and satisfaction. Thank you for the power of your grace. your willingness to extend it to us?
Those who have spurned it, spurned you, and chosen to pursue our own unfulfilling desires. Thank you that your grace brings freedom and a desire to spread that freedom to others. Help us now. Give us quiet, undistracted minds. Give us ears that can pay attention.
and remind us of these truths once again. Work in our hearts through your Spirit. Give us a new appreciation. of this freedom. in anticipation of the good works that you will call us and equip us to do.
Thank you for the newness of life that is ours. Lord, thank you that we are free of the law. Amen. Working through love. I'm sorry.
That was good emphasis, wasn't it? Faith Working Through Love. This is the subtitle of the series for the whole book of Galatians: Our Freedom in Christ, Faith Working Through Love. It comes right here in verse 6. Our text today is verses 5 and 6.
For the last, for today and the previous two weeks, we've been in These six verses. Faith working through love. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, the freedom with which you've been set free. Do not be entangled again to a yoke of bondage.
False teachers were coming in after Paul and saying: if you're truly a follower of Christ, you have to follow the law.
Now, probably not many of us here are too worried about following the law of Moses. Although I think some people have convoluted ideas about our responsibility to the law of Moses. But the whole point is this, and this I've said it many times through the series, if your walk of faith is relegated to a moral code, you are missing the point and the power of the gospel. The freedom of which Paul speaks is the freedom from burdensome regulations. That's the freedom that he's talking about.
For freedom Christ has set you free. We're discovering what that means. what that looks like.
Now, he's going to be introducing to us the goal of. Our faith, and it's right here. In verse 5, we're going to kind of take it backwards. We're going to work from the back of the verse. Up to the front.
Look at verse 5 with me. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. So let's begin with the goal. What is the goal? The hope of righteousness.
In other words, that's That's the point of the gospel. When we will be with the Lord forever, enjoying Him. Think about this. Got it. Finally, ultimately, in the end, when we are with Christ, we will be perfect.
Think about that.
Now, there's only one time when somebody here on earth thinks another person is perfect, and that's when a man is looking down the aisle and his bride's walking down the aisle, right? That's the only time. Then life goes on. But Christ is perfection. And we, when we are with him, will be perfect.
Now, this is far superior to what Saul believed about himself. Paul, who was Saul the Pharisee, concerning the law, he thought he was. Blameless. This is far superior to that blamelessness. Ephesians 1.4, we are chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless before him.
chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless before him. And Philippians 1:6, that He is the one, God is the one who began this work in us, and He will what? Complete it. That's a promise. Do you know that promise?
Are you aware of that? 1 John chapter 3, verses 2 and 3. We Shall be what? Like him. We shall be like him.
It has not yet appeared. We have not arrived. Even Paul confessed that. I have not attained, I have not arrived yet, but we shall be like him. Why?
Because God started this, and God's going to finish it. See, that's the level of confidence that we can have in the gospel of grace. And that's why Paul says: if you put yourselves back under the law, it's up to you to make it. You can't do that. It was an unbearable burden to our forefathers.
Why would we want to impose that now? on the new converts. of the Gentile converts.
So this is our hope. And the idea of hope here The hope of righteousness, hope is meaning that which though certain, is not yet fully realized. We can have complete confidence in this. But we have not fully realized it yet. It is coming.
In other words, we are predestined to perfection. Think about that.
Remind yourself of that. We are predestined to perfection.
So that's the goal.
Meanwhile, what happens?
Well, let's move back here a little bit in the verse.
Meanwhile, we eagerly wait. We eagerly wait. Remember the illustration I gave last time, this banquet. You've been invited to a banquet and it is a It is a banquet of perfection with unending supply and absolute satisfaction. And you've been invited to it.
So, most people try to get into it because there's this list of regulations. 613 of them that you have to fulfill perfectly if you're going to qualify to get into this banquet. Unless What? You're with Jesus. And he says, what?
He's with me. Because he has perfectly fulfilled All of that. See, that's the grace of God there.
So We know the banquet is coming. We're waiting for it. And we're not striving for it. We're simply expecting it. Look what he says there.
Eagerly, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. We're not striving for it. We're expecting it. We eagerly wait for it. We are expectantly waiting.
We're not having to meet the 613 regulations. We're not having to strive to measure up to get in because we're with Jesus.
So, how How are we doing this?
Well, let's back up in verse 5 a little bit here, okay? Through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait. Through the Spirit, By faith. All right, so by faith. What is faith?
Faith is surrendered trust. When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, it is a surrendered trust. I am trusting you for your righteousness, and I surrender myself to you. I will walk with you, and I will follow you. for all of my life.
It's a surrendered trust. I have entrusted myself to the One who redeemed me. That way, Jesus says, he's with me. It is our union with Christ. That gets us to this goal.
And when Jesus said, He's with me, I take him at his word. That's what trust is. That's what faith is: taking God at His Word. Let's remember that. But we do this, how?
We do it through the Spirit. This takes us right to the beginning of verse 5, right? Through the Spirit, by faith. We do it through the Spirit. This is Trinitarian grace: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And what does the Spirit do? Let's talk for a little bit about four ministries of the Holy Spirit for us. We're gonna be talking a lot about the Holy Spirit as we go through the rest of chapter five. It's so important that we, as Christians who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, know. What the Holy Spirit does, who He is, why it's so important that He indwells us.
And how does that help us? The role of the Holy Spirit, number one, is regenerating, that's inward newness. The newness that God promised to His people through the prophets, the newness that comes in Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings that regeneration. Regeneration is the same idea as being born again.
Regeneration. Secondly, the Holy Spirit's, one of the Holy Spirit's role in our lives is. to be our inner witness. As he indwells us, he is our inner witness of what? Of confirming my status before God.
That I am a child of God, that I am an heir with Christ, a co-heir with Christ. He is the inner witness of that. Thirdly, Not only does it bring newness, but he also brings transformation. And that is the practical life change. the practical life change.
So there's the newness of the inward reality and then that practical transformation, that transformation is the practical outworking of the reality that's within. And the Holy Spirit. works that in us and through us. Illuminating the scriptures to us so that it informs our affections and our attitudes. Mm-hmm.
And then our behavior follows suit. And the Holy Spirit is prompting us to actions in following Christ. All of this is the role of the Holy Spirit in us. And as he prompts us to action, as he illuminates the word to us. transforming, informing and transforming our affections and our attitudes.
Then he is also empowering us. This is the fourth role of the Holy Spirit. empowering us, giving us the ability to Watch this. to rise above natural behavior. The ability to rise above natural behavior.
Once again. We who are in Christ, regenerate people, there are things that we can do that the unbelieving, unregenerate person cannot do. An unregenerate person cannot commune with God. An unregenerate person cannot rise above. Natural behavior.
This is the advantage of Christ. And this is why Paul is saying, don't put yourself back under the regulations of the law. And as we've said before, we're all naturally legalists. We naturally tend to think, what do I have to do to please God, to make God happy with me? That's the way we all naturally think, and that's why we need to constantly preach ourselves the gospel of grace.
I love what Daniel said this morning, his work at the camp, constantly bringing himself back just to the basic gospel. It's so key we all need to do that. to recognize that it's it's not up to me.
Now, this is why. He's really Hammering on this truth, particularly here in chapter 3. He has all the way up and he's hammering on it right here as he's talking to the Galatian believers. For in Christ Jesus, look at this, verse 6.
Now we've looked at verse 5. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. What is he saying there?
Well, there's people who are coming to them saying, hey, listen, you have to become circumcised, meaning you have to become Jewish and keep the whole law of Moses if you're truly a follower of Christ the Messiah. And Paul says, no, that's not right. Because if you do that, then you are repudiating at worst and at best you are marginalizing everything that we sang about this morning. The forgiving love of Jesus Christ. He says, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything.
So what is he saying?
Well, if you're a Jew, well, then you have to undo it. If you're not a Jew, you have to become Jewish.
So whether you keep the whole law or whether you don't keep the whole law, he says, really, that's not the point. It's not the point at all. Here's what he's saying. He's making the contrast between form and substance. Form and substance.
Okay. It is not the here. It is not the form of religion that gives you ability. to follow Christ. to become like Christ.
It is not the form of religion that gives you the ability to become like Christ. It's discovered Last time Following regulations, legalistic faith systems, spirituality becomes measured by. quantifiable, tangible metrics. Things that can be measured.
Okay. That's what the Pharisees did. That's what the law did. Just to give you an example, a little bit of levity. We have a good time as we work together here in the office.
And we pick on each other sometimes. Chris is the master of it, but you know, he gets it too. And so I was showing, I forget who I was showing, I was showing the staff, you know, I have my dad's Bible. My dad was a missionary pastor. Passion for the Word of God, and I show up by His Bible is in my office.
And I opened it up. And just about every line in that Bible is underlined. And he used a green pen. And when he found of emphasis afresh, he would underline it again.
So you open up this Bible. particularly the book of Revelation. But all through the New Testament, it's just solid underline. Right, and I'm showing it to people, show it to Adam, right? Taking it into the office, and talking to Kelly there, and she says, you know, she piped up, she says, You know, I never really like to underline in my Bible.
I wonder why that is. And I, just like that, I said, it's a spiritual deficiency. Tangible, quantifiable metrics. That's what legalism does.
So if you underline in your Bible you're more spiritual than a person who doesn't. Yeah. We've been there.
Some of us have been there, haven't we? Right? But that's just how crazy it gets. Right. But this is, you know, it's stuff like this where the Lord says, you know, I could be a person that reads the Bible a lot and underlines in my Bible a lot, but what good is it if the Bible does not captivate my heart?
It is not the form of underlying in my Bible, it is the substance of my heart being captivated by it. That's where spirituality comes from. And the Lord says, You worship me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. Get the sense of what God is indicting his people for there. The substance of our hearts, captivated by Christ, is the point that we're looking for.
And that is, you know, our affections are changed by that. If I am consuming and consuming God's self-disclosure, and I discover His holiness, His perfections, His steadfast love, His faithfulness, His grace, all of that. It's going to transform my affections where I will begin to love the things that God loves. Why? Because I'm thinking the way God thinks.
That's how transformation works. It's not about what we look like on the outside first.
Okay. It is the truth that set us free. And so hearts captivated. But also, our minds are transformed by His Spirits, our attitudes. An attitude is a habit of thought.
Right? When I think God's thoughts. The more I commune with God the more I begin to think like Him. Married couples know this, right? You've been married a long time.
You can start to get to the point where you can finish each other's sentences. Right? You've been there. I've heard you. I've heard some.
I've talked to some of you. You can do that. Andrew and I are there now, right? Because we've been around each other so 38 years.
Well, if you count. Almost 42 years we've known each other. All right, so that's a long time for. Her to be around me, right? And so.
She knows what I'm thinking. But here's the point of this, okay? You go back to using the branch and the vine illustration that Jesus used. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. The branch is vitally connected from the vine and draws life from the vine.
That's the picture of our walk of faith.
Okay. The branch abiding in the vine will grow. and produce organically. organically. Not artificial.
artificially or slavishly. The branch abiding in the vine will grow and produce. organically. Not artificially. Or sleevishly.
This is what the Lord is looking for. This is what Paul is arguing for. It's not about the regulations. The regulations, the 613 regulations, are like the branch. trying and striving hard to produce fruit.
Branch doesn't have to do that. It just has to abide in the vine. And So, look what he says here in verse 6. For Christ Jesus, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only. Faith working through love.
Faith working through love. The point of the gospel was our hope of righteousness. The power of the gospel is faith working through love. And when is this going on? while we wait.
We're waiting for that banquet. We know we're getting in. We are predestined. We are set. Jesus said, You're with me.
I meet him. Hasn't happened yet, I haven't realized it yet, but I know I'm in. I don't have to strive for it.
So the regulations don't matter. Only faith working through love. You want to see change? You want to see the power of the gospel lived? It's faith working through love while we wait.
Our freedom, while we're waiting to get into the bank, we are free from the rigors of those 613 regulations. We get to enjoy the anticipation, and that's a big part of the joy, isn't it? The anticipation. I know what anticipation is like. I grew up in a.
Boarding school. That's my problem. And answers everything about me, right? I knew what it was like to anticipate mom and dad coming. We get to enjoy the anticipation.
And what's better, we are free to live. in that anticipation. Not burdened down by all the regulations, we are free to live. While we wait.
So, what does this free-to-live look like in this while we're waiting? It's called Faith Working Through Love. That's what it is. Faith working through love. What is faith?
Faith is taking God at His word, entrusting myself to Him.
Okay. Jesus said, You're with me, I'll take you in, I'll take you to perfection. We've covered that, all right? In Christ. It is knowing that I am in Christ.
I am who God says I am. I am in Christ. My life is hidden with Christ in God. That's done. The life I now live by In the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The song that we sing in the song, Oh Great God, help me now to live a life. That's what? Dependent on your grace. Do you know how to do that?
I'm asking you. I want you to think about this now, because I want you to think about the phrase in this song. Help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. How do you live a life that's dependent on God's grace instead of thinking about all the stuff you have to do? Don't you hate it when a preacher claps?
Help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. What does that look like? How do you do that? How do you depend on his grace? We'll talk about that a little bit this morning.
But that's what the rest of chapter five is going to be about.
Okay. What is grace? Grace is this. You know the common definition, right? Unmerited what?
Favorite. Listen, that's not just talking about how God feels. Right? You don't deserve it, but I like you. That's not grace.
Grace is something that God has given to us. What has He given to us? himself. He's given himself to us. Trinitarian grace, like I talked about before.
God created us. And he creates in his image. And he Draws us to himself, and he planned redemption even before he created us. That's mind-blowing. But we're going to have to deal with that because we're not infinite like God is, okay?
But he gave himself to us, and he gave his son. God so loved. The world that he what? gave his only son. And then, when the Son ascended back to the Father, was that the end of grace?
He gave us is Holy Spirit. Trinitarian grace. The Father gave us His Word. He gave us His Son. He's given us His Spirit.
He's given us his people, his family. All of this is the grace of God. All of this is help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. God has given Himself to us. We need to make sure that we are benefiting from him.
To live a life that's dependent on his grace means that I am living in a way that I am. benefiting From God. What does that look like? Well, let me give you an example of grace. I live in a neighborhood now where I have to keep up with the Joneses.
There's an HOA. It's not really the Jones, you know, but And the and the nice Fairly nice houses. They're not mansions, but they're nice houses and they have nice lawns. Most of them. And then there's mine.
Which, you know, it takes work. It takes work and time, right? Um And now there's an HOA, so I'm like George Jefferson. We're moving on up. Hi.
Y'all remember Georgia? 30 and younger have no clue what I'm talking about. But The uh The HOA now belongs to the neighborhood, right? And so there is a board. There's an executive board that operates that HOA.
There's a president, vice president, treasurer. I think there's four on the board anyway. The president of that is a man in our neighborhood by the name of John. John's a retired engineer. And he is having to enforce the covenant that's in that HOA, where people have to keep their lawns looking in a particular way.
The landscaping, the lawn, all of that. In other words, you can't just let your lawn grow wild and two feet tall. That's not okay.
Now John's the one now that has to enforce that. This is a beautiful picture. I got home two Sundays ago. And it was in the 90s, right? 90 degrees.
And John was out there helping a neighbor across the street who had no clue. about landscaping. John was out there helping me. In other words, I thought, as soon as I passed by, I said, man, that is a beautiful picture of grace. Here's how.
John has the responsibility of enforcing the regulations in the covenant. But instead of just standing back or writing a letter and saying, You have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this, or else there will be consequences, what does he do? He gives himself and goes and he works in the neighbor's yard teaching him how to landscape his lawn. And he is sweating. buckets.
And he did it more than once. I went down and I thanked him. That's a picture of grace. He gave himself, he didn't just make demands, he gave himself as a remedy. That's grace.
It's great. God has given himself to us. Help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. Father, how am I in my day to day walk benefiting from my communion with you? How am I benefiting by abiding in Christ?
How am I benefiting by walking in the Spirit? By letting His Word dwell in me richly. How am I benefiting from that? Help me now to live a life that's dependent upon your grace. You see, because I don't have to keep all those 613 regulations anymore.
And instead of following regulations, I'm following a person. becoming like him. That's how grace works. Because my neighbor was out there working alongside with John, learning how to landscape his yard, and now his yard looks nice. God has given Himself to us.
These things that I just mentioned, I mention them often: the habits of regeneration, draw near to God, abide in Christ. Walk in the Spirit. Let the word of Christ dwell in you in all of its richness. These are the habits of regeneration. They are a, as some denominations would call it, a means of grace.
to draw near to God. That's on you to do that, isn't it? God says, draw near. Jesus said, Abide in me. And we are commanded to walk in the Spirit.
These are the commands in which we must be labor-intensive. If we are to live a life that's dependent upon His grace. And then he says, What does he send? Not only. He says, but only faith working through love.
Faith working. In other words, faith, our walk of faith, our faith, is no mere, it's not just mere intellectual conviction. In other words, it would look something like this. I can do whatever I want, just so long as I believe the right thing. There's a lot of people living that kind of a faith.
Let me tell you what that kind of faith is. That's a compartmentalized life. It is also creating in you, if this describes you, it's creating cognitive dissonance in you. Your behavior and your belief systems are in conflict with each other. And that's psychological distress for you.
But it says, faith working. What that means is faith is expressing itself. Faith expressing itself. In other words, it's the outworking of an inward reality. the outworking of an inward reality.
It reflects what's truly on the inside. James. says this very well. Show me your faith without your works. He says, I will show you what My faith, how?
By my works. John points this out, I think, very clearly in 1 John. A lot of people say, This is true about me, this and this and this. I love him, I worship, I love him, I walk with him. But if you walk in darkness, you lie and do not practice the truth.
You're still in darkness. Faith working. What is he saying? That's the gospel lived. It's take that wheel that I use often, right?
There's a big wheel that represents your life, and then there's a hub in the middle, and then the spokes represent, you know, all the different areas of your life. There's your intellect, there's your work. There's your stuff. There's your relationships. All of these, and every one of them is vitally connected to the to the hub and the hub is the place of preeminence and who belongs at the hub.
Jesus does, that in everything he might have preeminence, meaning every aspect of your life is directly. connected to Jesus Christ. And as you follow Christ. You go to work, I will Jesus. I will follow you at work today.
And therefore You reflect him. at work. In my family. Jesus, I will follow you. with my family today, when I'm with my family.
and you reflect him to your family. At your times of leisure, Jesus, I will follow you in my times of leisure. And I will reflect him in my leisure. That's the preeminence of Christ. That's help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace.
You're benefiting from him. And in every one of those, in every one of those, whether it's work. Your stuff, your time, your relationships. In every one of them, you have this confidence. I am loved.
and satisfied in him. Help me now to live a life that's dependent on your grace. Faith working how? What does the text say? Faith working.
Through love. Let me just say, right up front, when we're talking about love, we're not talking about a feeling.
Okay. I just got done watching a silly series. You know, and the classic line comes out: I've never felt this way about anyone before. And that's supposed to be love. And it just nauseates me.
Yeah. I mean I mean Faith working. Through love. Say that line with me. Faith working through love.
Let's talk about love for a minute. The more you walk with Christ, Now stop there and think, all right, walking with Christ. Am I walking with Christ? Am I truly walking with Christ? I'm not asking if you believe in him.
I'm asking you, are you walking with Christ? The more we walk with Christ, The more you will be captivated and compelled by his perfection. His love and His Grace. And that's a guarantee. Jesus said this.
We know this verse well. It's in your notes, you can fill in the blanks. A new commandment I give you. That you love one another just as I have loved you.
Now that raises the bar pretty high, doesn't it? Just as I have loved you, and how has Jesus loved you? He laid down his life. Life. As I said before a couple Sundays ago, the truly Free Person.
Lovingly serves. because they're not preoccupied about living for themselves. And Jesus gave us the prime example of this, didn't he? Love as I have loved you. You also are to love one another.
By this, all people will know that you are my what? Disciples. What is a disciple? A committed follower of Jesus. You're walking With him, you're following in his steps, you're imitating him, you're becoming like him.
That's what a disciple is. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. We have a person to follow. We are imitating him. We're becoming like him.
And love, love is not a feeling, nor is it an all-affirming disposition towards another person. If you affirm everything another person does that you claim you love, you're being selfish. Because you're admitting that that person is perfect. And they are not. Every one of us has something in our lives that needs challenge.
Love is not a feeling, nor is it an all-affirming disposition, but here is love. This is it. Love is investing in someone for their Godward movement. Investing in someone for their Godward movement. That's how Christ loved me.
His grace, what did he do? He invested himself in me. How? He laid down his life. Why?
So that I could be reconciled to God. That's love. And then Jesus commanded, this is a new command: love as I have loved you. That's pretty high bar, isn't it? And he says, By this, all will know that you are my disciples.
If you have love for one another, committed followers, we will make... And so, as Romans 13:10 says, love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And there it is. Love is the fulfilling of the law. In a sense, the law is still the standard.
But our means is Jesus Christ because he perfectly met that standard and he did it for you and me. And when we entrust ourselves to him in faith, we get his righteousness. Is that true of you this morning? It needs to be. You need to surrender yourself to him in trust.
I'm going to introduce something to you this morning.
Some of you, when you hear this word, you're going to be like, oh man, that's get out of here. I'm just preparing you for it. This is the kind of faith I'm going to invite you to. I believe this is what Paul is calling us to, to the Galatians, instead of the regulations. And when it comes to the regulations, What did Jesus say, all you who labor and are heavy laden?
Do what? Come to me, take my yoke upon you. And I will give you Do you believe that?
So Let's go back to the habits of regeneration that I've talked about so much for so long. Which, when are you going to stop talking about the habits of regeneration? Never. Not until we're with the Lord in glory. Draw near to God.
Acronym that draw near to God, abide in Christ, D A Walk in the Spirit, D-A-W. Let the word of Christ In you richly, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And then I'm going to add one more. What do you think it's going to be? Love.
By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have loved one another. John says something very, very striking, John 5. Whoever loves him, whoever loves God. Loves him who is begotten of God. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
This is my command that I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. But listen, it's an outflow. It's an outflow. It comes organically because you are abiding in the vine.
So it's an outflow.
So here it is, you ready for it? I'm going to invite you to a dawdling faith. D-A-W-D-L. ING Go ahead, say it, oh rich. What does dawdling mean?
What does it mean to dawdle?
Well, its negative connotation is to just Take your time, no no rush. Like when you ask your child to take out the trash. Wait. They're dawdling. Yeah.
But there are positive connotations to it as well. It is to linger. The positive connotation of the old word to dawdle is to linger. There is also another positive connotation to it, and that is to be intentional. And here's what I'm calling you to in a dawdling faith: D-A-W-D-L.
Say that with me. D-A-W-D-L. Draw near to God. Abide in Christ, walk in the Spirit, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and love as I have loved you. Dawdling faith.
you are going to be intentional. At lingering. At the feet of Jesus. You say, Rich, I'm too busy. I don't have time to do that.
You will wither. spiritually. You will be like the branch. That severs itself from the vine. You can't afford.
That. And so I invite you to a dawdling faith. linger at the feet of Jesus. And if you do. Watch how your life will be transformed into his image.
That's how grace works. So let's do this. Stand with me, please. Father, we are so blessed to know that you have given yourself to us. Your word Your son, your spirit.
Yeah. Your family. Father, help us to delight in these means of grace. that you give yourself to us graciously, Father. You graciously give us all things.
In your Son, the Lord Jesus.
So Father, compel us. To find rest in Christ as we take His yoke upon us. to find that rest that you have for us, Father, in a dawdling faith. lingering at the feet of Jesus. And the organic outflow of that is faith working through love.
Father, that is the call. For the church. Thank you, Father, for the freedom that is ours from the regulations. Thank you for the freedom that is ours to live. Father, thank you.
For the amazingness of your grace. and the freedom that is ours. And so, Lord, I pray that you would grip our hearts and our minds this morning. with what you have taught us from your word. Prepare us, Father, for more of what comes ahead, to truly know what it means to walk in the Spirit, Father.
We want to know that. We are powerless unless we know how to walk in the Spirit. That was okay.
So teach us, Father, to linger. at the feet of Jesus. As we draw near to you. And let your word dwell in us richly. It produces faith working through love.
Help us to be a free people, Father, to live like people who are free. Thank you, Father, for what you have done. and for what you will do in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a message titled Faith Working Through Love It was first preached july twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
Join us Mondays for more messages in this series from Galatians titled, Our Freedom in Christ.
