Man, welcome to Venture. It is so good, uh, to see you, especially if it's your first time hanging out with us, man, welcome. Know that, that you are an honored guest today. Uh, lemme say, welcome to our church online family as well. Glad you're tuning in today.

Today is is a unique day, and it gives, kind of, gives us a special moment here every so often. If you've been around, um, every so often, we, uh, kind of choose to step back from streaming out of Lincoln Road. Normally, you know, we are streaming from this campus to four other campuses across South Mississippi. Like 120 different interstate miles are covered on a Sunday morning. Um, but today is one of the days where we step back from, from streaming out of here to our other campuses, uh, and we kind of settle into the local space.

It gives us an opportunity to, to, to just kind of be present locally with what's going on in our communities. It also gives us a chance to lean into, uh, our teaching team is the thing we value here at Venture, our teaching team, and, and kinda raising up other voices. And so today's one of those days, uh, and I get the privilege to hang out with you today. And so, man, I I'm glad, I'm glad to be here with you. We are wrapping up a series we've been in for six or seven weeks now, walking through, uh, Galatians chapter five and what the apostle Paul gives us there, what he calls the Fruit of the Spirit.

And so let me invite you to go ahead and grab your Bible if you have it. Turn to Galatians chapter five is where we're gonna be, uh, hanging out for at least the first part. Um, we'll kind of go back and look at some of the stuff we we've talked about over the past few weeks, and we're gonna wrap up today looking at that list, the fruit of the spirit, the last two ideas, what Paul says. There's gentleness and self-control. Now let me just go ahead and acknowledge from the jump here, okay?

Uh, as you you hear that it, it's really hard not to think weak and passive, right? Like when you hear gentleness and self-control, it's really easy for us to kind of get into the mindset and us to make some assumptions that, that really what we're talking about is a little bit of, of weak and a little bit of passivity. And maybe you would use some words that sound a little bit better, a little bit church than that. But at the end of the day, that's kind of what our mind imagines, right? Gentleness and self-control this week and passive kind of lifestyle.

And, and, and I think part of that is because of the, the, the broader cultural narrative around Christianity, I think has a lot to do with, with a picture of, of Christians believers being weak, kind of being weak minded, I think is, is a big part of the conversation. Uh, and a lot of that I think, kind of, kind of builds to, uh, this picture of Christianity and believers like backing down from opposition because we're, we're too weak to stand against any sort of, uh, intellectual pushback, right? And it's a, and and to be honest with you, I think, I think some of that from our end has to do with a little bit of a misunderstanding of what Jesus taught when he said to turn the other cheek. That's, that's probably a different conversation for another, another day. Um, the, the point here is that the man gentleness and self-control, I think is, could not be further from the idea of, of weakness and passivity.

Lemme show you this verse. I've kind of set the tone and we'll jump into Galatians. It's, uh, Proverbs chapter 16, verse 32. The writer of Proverbs, uh, says that he who is slow to anger, so hear gentleness there, right? He who is slow to anger, he who is gentle is better than the mighty.

That word mighty was a, a common way in that time to talk about the strongest warriors in an army. The mighty men, right? He who is gentle, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit hear self-control there. It's amazing to me, by the way, how much the Bible brings these two ideas together, gentleness and self-control.

But he, who is he who rules the spirit, who is self-control, he is better than the one who takes a city who conquers, who captures the city, right? So the writer of Proverbs, the says like, do you, do you see how different, how far removed that is from a weak or passive lifestyle style? That, that the, the, the gentle, the self-control, the ones who are slow to anger, the one who can rule himself, that that person has more strength and has more power than the mightiest warriors has more strength and more power than, than the one who could conquer and capture a city, right? The point here is that, that men, that this is a fruit that does not come from half-hearted followship. This is an all in kind of thing.

This is for those who are willing to stand up, to step out to conquer because there's more to experience. Man, I love that kind of language. Like it just gets me fired up, right? Like there's more storm the gates of hell, let's conquer it. And gentleness and self-control kind of seems like an odd mix, doesn't it?

I think there's a reason, I think there's a reason that this list, the fruit of the spirit in Galatians five ends here, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. I think it is kind of building Paul's building to this idea. So let's, let's jump back into that text before I'll get too far down that road. Okay? Galatians chapter five, verse 22 and 23.

This has kind of been our text. It's been the verse we've talked about literally one word at a time over the past six or seven weeks, right? Here's what Paul says, um, he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love because God first loved us and because God first loved us, we love in return that nothing else matters without love. The fruit of the spirit is love. The fruit of the spirit is joy, being deeply satisfied in his presence, regardless of our present circumstances of fruit, of the spirit is peace.

Deeply trusting in His presence, regardless of our present circumstances of the fruit of the spirit, is patience to be able to deeply rest in his presence regardless of our present circumstances. The fruit of the spirit is kindness and goodness. And when you put those two ideas together, you get a picture of a people that that's willing to show up, to be present in the lives of others, to make a difference. The fruit of the spirit is faithfulness. The, the, the idea of, of consistently showing up even in the small things.

And then we get to our, our idea for today, the fruit of the spirit is gentleness and self-control against such things. There is no law. Now, this word, uh, gentleness here is, is translated in other places as meekness. It's not a word we use a whole lot, right? Meekness.

And think about, uh, Matthew chapter five. So where Jesus is in the sermon on the mountain, he gives the list of the beatitudes of things. It's like, Hey, look, if this is present in your life, man, there's blessing to be found, right? Matthew chapter five, verse five. Jesus says, blessed are the meek.

It's the same word there. Gentle, blessed are the meek or the gentle, for they will inherit the earth. It's the same word that Jesus uses to describe himself in Matthew chapter 11, which by the way makes a whole lot of sense because the fruit of the spirit is the characteristic. It's the nature of God that's put on display through us, right? So that the world can see God's nature and God's character through our interaction and their lives.

So the world may taste and see the Lord is good because of our presence, right? Is it Jesus describes himself using this very word. Matthew chapter 11. It's in verse 29, I think, but that's the text, that's the Scripture where, where, uh, Jesus talks about, Hey, come to me, all of you who are weary, who are heavy, late, and my yoke is, is easy, my burden is light. He says, I'll give you rest in my yoke because I am gentle and lowly of heart or humble of heart.

It's the same word there, gentle. And, and I think this verse by the way, where Jesus calls himself gentle. It's one of the only places that Jesus describes as actually his actual character. Um, but this is, this is one of those like clear indicators of, of what this word really means, right? Because when you think about Jesus, do you think weak?

Do you think passive? Now I think we gotta say fair. Some would say yes, but I think those who would say yes, haven't taken an honest look at the New Testament, right? Because when you read the New Testament, the picture of Jesus that we get in the gospels is not a weak or a passive man, right? Like the person of Jesus is one who confronted the government like confronted Roman rule.

You have the Romans who are ruling over the Jewish people who would say, Hey, look, Caesar is Lord, worship your government. And Jesus steps onto the scene, this carpenter, this nobody from a nowhere town says, no, no way, Caesar is not Lord. No, we're not gonna worship the government. God is Lord. He confronted the religious system.

He was quick to, to confront and challenged the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the, the scribes, those who had kind of consolidated power for themselves in that nation. I mean, he, he called them out constantly on their false teaching and their wrong ideas, like he was, he was quick to push up against, to confront them. This is the same man Jesus who, who flipped tables when he saw that selfishness and greed had had overtaken the temple, the, the kind of church if you will. Like, he, he threw tables over and he drove people out of the temple with a whip. Like that's, that's not a weak thing like, uh, the table.

I mean, he was throwing, kicking people out. I mean, this is not a weak or passive person, and yet he's, he's gentle. So what does that, what does that word really mean? What, what, what does gentleness? Well, that word kind outside of the biblical narrative, uh, that word is used most often in that culture, in that time to talk about the breaking of an animal.

The good thing about my, um, I think about horses and my grandfather had horses. We grew up with my grandfather having horses, and they had a bunch of different ones that they were two specifically had these two huge Belgium horses. I don't, that may not mean anything to you. That's okay. Um, these were massive creatures.

Like these weren't like racing Kentucky Derby. These were like pulling the house down creatures, powerful, huge things. And he, my my grandfather had tamed these horses and he would use these horses, pair of horses to, to work the ground to, to till the ground, to plant gardens for his family, to produce life and growth for his family. These were creatures, man, that were, they were powerful like at any given moment. I mean, these were, these were animals with such power that, that they could overtake.

They could crush any man without hesitation, and yet they were gentle, they were tame. They were, they were, they were broken. That I think kind of gives us a really good picture of, of what the, the Scripture, what the Bible has in mind when it uses this word gentle in that time. It is power under control, gentleness. When, when, when the Bible talks about gentleness, it's talking about power that that is put under control.

Again, when you go back to Jesus and think about Jesus, when he was tinted the beginning of his ministry, when he was in the wilderness and he was tinted, he had the power to shortcut the whole system. He had the power, he had the right, he had the authority to, to make food. He had the right, the authority to make everyone bow down to him. In a moment, I'm like, he had the power, but that power was put under control on the cross as Jesus was beaten, as he was mocked, as he was ridiculed, as, as his flesh was, was torn from him, literally one whiplash at a time. He had the power, he had the right, he had the authority that end it all.

He had the power to to call down angels of armies, to stop it all, to stop his pain and the suffering, and to pay back those that were, that were hurting him, that were persecuting him. He had the power to do it, but that power was put under control for our sake so that we could know his goodness, so that we could know his, his gentleness, so that we could know the fruit of the spirit, power put under control. And the reason, the reason that the Bible so often, again, Proverbs Paul hearing Galatians, the reason that we, we see gentleness and self-control tied together is 'cause if you, if gentleness is power put under control, then then self-control is power over self, right? And so you have this idea of, of, of power kind of holding all things together. And this man, this really is to me, I, I think the reason that, that the fruit of the spirit ends with this particular fruit gentleness and self-control specifically, is because I, and this is the crux of this is how I see it.

This is the crux of this whole passage. I think this is the thing that Paul has been building to this, what it looks like to live with self-control power over self because power is put under control. Lemme show you, let's zoom out just for a second with me. Zoom out a little bit on this. Galatians five, we, we've read this over the past few weeks, but look at verse 16 and 17.

It says this, 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. And then it goes on to teach us about the works of the flesh and then the fruit of the spirit. And then you get down to verse 24, and he says there, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And so this whole teaching, right, this whole paragraph where we find the fruit of the spirit, Paul is talking to us about desires. He's talking to us about the role of desire, passions, and desires in our life.

He starts by saying, Hey, look, there are the desires of the flesh in you, and there are the desires of the spirit. And those things are at war. They're pushing and pulling, and they're causing conflict and they're causing tension. And when you give into, when you live by the desires of the flesh, here are the works of the flesh. Here's what happens.

Sexual immorality and purity and the list goes on. But when you live by the desires of the spirit, when you walk with the spirit because your desires are fulfilled in him, well then this fruit is produced and ultimately we must crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. And so this whole isn like everything we've talked about with the fruit of the spirit, all of it is, is, is pointing back to this reality that there are desires innate in each and every one of us that are at war. This isn't the only place we get this kind of language right? Like, uh, Romans chapter seven, Paul talks about there this the line, uh, you've probably heard it before.

He says, I, I do the things I don't wanna do, but I don't do the things I really want to do. It's the same thing he's talking about there. The, this conflict, this tension that happens because we have these desires in us where we're like, I I really want to have peace, but I also really want to tell you off and defend myself. And I, I'm, I'm stuck in this tension, right? James, James chapter four, James the brother of Jesus will actually look at this in just a minute.

But James says that, that this, that this push and pull, this tug these, these desires that are at war within us, this conflict inside of us is actually what causes conflict around us. That, that, that the war, the, the tension is so strong within us because of the desires constantly pushing and pulling, constantly battling that, that, that inevitably just spills out. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the desires that are pushing and pulling inside of me. And this tension inside causes tension without. Now here's what I want you to say.

I wanna make sure that, that we don't miss this. And then we're gonna kind of, we're gonna lean into this desire a little bit, right? Because I, I really do believe this is what Paul is pointing out in this whole conversation about the fruit of the spirit. But I think we miss a little bit sometimes I think, I don't know if we're always honest with ourselves in this conversation. And so lemme just say, lemme make sure you, we, we say this from the jump.

One of the greatest truths of, of the Gospel is that God is not calling us to desire less. If anything, he's calling us to desire more. If anything, he's calling us to lift our eyes to a greater desire to quit settling in our desire. CS Lewis said it this, one of my favorite quotes, CS Lewis said this, and he said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition.

When infinite joy is offered us, we are like ignorant children who want to go on making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. Listen to this line. You wanna talk about a summation of our current cultural reality. We are far too easily pleased. Who isn't that it?

I mean, like, when you think about our culture, when you think about like what it is that we're facing, what it is that we see constantly, we are far, we like, like it is me too. We are far too easily pleased. He's not calling us to desire less. He's calling us to desire more. Now, desire, right?

Just to be clear, like desire in and of itself isn't, isn't wrong like the da the danger isn't desire, the danger isn't a lack of self-control that allows the simple and selfish desires to crowd out The desires of the spirit that truly satisfy is when we settle, we we settle for leftover pizza in the microwave. Like it's, it's just, it's better in the oven, right? It's better in the oven. We settle and that's what we do daily for our souls. We settle for the simple, for the quick, for the easy when God offers us so much more.

So how then do we bring our desires under control? That's what Paul is pointing to in this whole text. All of Galatians five. How do we bring our desires under control? How do we see the fruit of the spirit, uh, uh, overwhelm the desires of the flesh so that we, we see the fullness of all that God has for us?

Well, in, in Galatians five, what we've been reading, like the language Paul would use there, is that we walk in the spirit like self-control. Let's acknowledge self-Control isn't isn't simply grit and willpower, right? Like that works for a moment. But eventually, like, here's the deal with willpower. Willpower is dependent on self, right?

And your self is limited, therefore your willpower is limited. So it works for a moment. So Paul says, Hey, look, the, the, the way in which we find self-control is we don't develop it ourselves. It's not a strength we build. It's not a muscle we build.

It's a fruit that's produced in us as we walk by the spirit. This is what Jesus would say in John 15 that we abide in him. It's the same idea right as we abide in him, as our lives are rooted in him as the branch. And this fruit is produced in us. So it's not a thing we cultivate and create, but rather it is a thing that God builds in us, that God produces in us.

But I, I want to, to, um, I I want to expand on that. I wanna illuminate a little bit there on, on practically like how that happens in our lives. Okay? So James, chapter four, I told you we would, we would kind of skip over here, James chapter four, lemme get there. Um, this is, again, this is the brother of Jesus, James.

He's talking reference it just a second ago about desires this con this, this constant tension and conflict within us with our desires constantly pushing and pulling, right? And so here's what he says, James four, uh, verse six, we'll start there. He says, but he, but God gives more grace, man, again, such a simple line, but man, I love it. So there's more power in grace, and there's power in sin, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom sounds great.

I realize verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Now, there's, there's, there's several, uh, kind of like directives, commands in those verses that I think illuminate what, what Paul is telling us in Galatians five, where he says, the walk by the spirit and we won't gratify the desires of the flesh. I think James is, is giving us a, a different perspective. Another way of saying that here that I think is kind of helpful. And so I, I want to, I wanna show you five of these directives here.

First verse seven, he says, to submit very simply, um, submit yourselves therefore to God. This is what Paul means in, in, uh, verse 24 of Galatians five. We read it a minute ago where he says, to crucify the flesh. I think what that means very simply is sometimes you gotta say no to yourself, which I realize seems wildly outta place and borderline and appropriate and offensive in our culture, but sometimes you just gotta say no to yourself. But, But man, like isn't joy and happiness, isn't that found when I fulfill my desires and doesn't God really want me to be happy?

Well, I don't know. Let's think about it for a second. How joyful do you really feel when gluttony takes over? Now get, listen, Thanksgiving's coming up, so I understand it's a bad timing to say it. Okay, I get it.

I get, I get it, but man, like you, you see all that and like gluttony takes over and you're sitting there, you can't even button your pants anymore, and you just laid out and y'all bloated is like, is your heart screaming joy? No. I like, I don't ever say, oh, I feel great, huh, man, I'm miserable. Let's take it up a notch. How great do you feel at the, at the end of that porn binge?

Do you sit back and think, Filled My life with joy, that secret relationship, Hey, it feels good for somebody to flirt with you at work, pay attention, pay attention to you, right? But then when you go home and you look at your spouse and you look at your kids, does your, does your heart just say, man, I'm so joyful that I have this secret buried. Like, I think if we would just be honest with ourselves, if, like, if we could just pull out of the cultural expectations for just a moment and, and be brave enough to be honest, like we could acknowledge very simply that when our desires are out of control is when we're the most miserable. And So when he says submit to God, it's, it's not a way to depress, to, to push down the things that give you joy. It's a way to say, there's a better way.

There's something better if you'll say no to those desires of the flesh. If you'll say no to yourself, then he says, resist the devil. Submit to God. And then, uh, verse seven, he says, resist the devil. That word resist it.

It means, it means pose. It means to stand against. Lemme give you a little film study real quick on the enemy, okay? Here's what the enemy does. The enemy distorts your desires.

The enemy cannot create. And so he distorts, he twists, he confounds your desires where God has put in you a desire for connection, a desire for intimacy, a desire to be known. The enemy twist and distorts that to a sexual desire. He distorts, he twists, he can't create the enemy minimizes your desires. Ah, It's not that big of a deal.

This is the same tactic played out in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden. Go back and read it. Did God really say, oh, come on. It's not that big of a deal. Hey, at least it's not that thing.

Boy, you know, Sarah at work, at least you ain't doing what she's doing. He minimizes, he distorts, he minimizes. And then, then the enemy calls you by your desires, okay? You are not your flaws, your failures, your fears. You are more than your struggles.

The things that bring you shame, you're more, it's not your identity. It's not who you are. The enemy will put that banner, that label over your life as soon as you give in. It's not you. That's not your identity.

God has made you more, he has called you a son, a daughter of the one true king. Know your identity in him. So James tells us to submit, to resist the devil. And then he says, to draw near to God. And amen.

I love the promise. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you as you walk by the spirit, as you abide in him. Our, our behavior comes under the influence of the presence, the the beauty of God. I heard somebody say it this way, that the, the call of Jesus or the message of Jesus is not to behave, it's to behold. And man, I love that idea.

It's not to just suppress, it's not to press down any behavior. It's not, Hey, get your life together and be a good boy or be a good girl, right? The the idea here is to set your eyes on the beauty of God as you, as you walk in the spirit, as Paul says, are you abide in him as Jesus says. But as we behold, as we set our eyes, as James says, we draw near to God and he draws near to us that we become captivated with the beauty and the presence of God in our lives, to the point that the desires of the flesh simply won't do anymore. And then he says, I'm gonna put these last two together.

Cleanse your hands, right? Verse eight, he says, the cleanse your hands. And then verse nine, he says, to mourn and weep. And I think when you put those ideas together, you get a picture of what the Bible would call repentance, or we use that word a lot, repentance and big churchy word. What does it really mean?

I'm sorry, God, kind of, um, it, it's really more of a, a, a, a broken hearted turning. I, I think is the picture that we get here. And, and the idea here like isn't to be miserable, right? Like, I mean, I realize that it says, let your laughter be turned a morning and your joy to gloom doesn't real, doesn't sound really great. But the idea here isn't to be miserable.

To be depressed because then he says to humble yourselves because God will exalt you. The idea is to understand the weight of our rejection of God. It's to understand the heaviness, the, the reality of what it means to live by the desires of the flesh and ignore the desires of the spirit. And here's what I love about this, okay? I'm gonna bring this back to the fruit of the spirit.

We're gonna wrap up this, this cleansing, and this morning is what I want you to see. It, It happens after the call to draw near to God. You see that I live backwards of that so often, and it's, so, this stands out to me so heavy in the same way, the fruit of the spirit, right? In the same way that, that the fruit isn't a, a prerequisite of walking with God is a byproduct of walking with God. This, this cleansing that James talks about here isn't a prerequisite of drawing near to God.

It's a byproduct. It happens as we walk in his presence. God's not telling us, Hey, hey, get yourself clean. Hey, get it right, get it together. Go wash up and then come to me.

You know the parable of the prodigal son where, where the sun goes off into the, the far country and he lives with the pigs. And he comes back to his father, and his father goes running after his son and he embraces him. You know, what was missing in that moment? The son never took a shower. He didn't make it to the house to get cleaned up until after his daddy grabbed him and all of the sweat and funk and smell.

His father wrapped him in his arms. He said, I love you, your mind. You're restored. And in the same way as we draw near to God, he draws near to us as we walk in him and the fruit is produced, the cleansing happens because in his presence, we're confronted with the reality. We simply cannot ignore it.

That the desires of the flesh never satisfied. They've never truly satisfied. God says, I've gotten so much more. We are far too easily pleased. So here's what we're gonna do.

Um, This is a new moment. Uh, if you've been here, this is normally kind of what we, we move into. We wanna make sure that you have a space like you hear the word. But at the end of the day, it is the, the presence and movement of the spirit that stirs and draws right. And so we wanna give space and time for that to happen in your life.

And I'm gonna pray for us. Our team's gonna lead us in a time of worship. And man, this is your moment, your your time, just to, to be present with God, to let him stir, to let him move, and hopefully for you to respond to whatever that stirring is. If you need to spend some time at the cross, you need to, to lay down whatever desires you've been holding onto. Maybe you just need to get on your face at the altar and pray that, that his desires will overwhelm.

Our prayer team will be down here, will be ready to pray with you, and just put a hand on your shoulder and say whatever prayer you need, we're here for you. We'll be down here and ready. Take communion, whatever that looks like for you. Just wanna stand and worship, get on your knees and pray. It's your chance to move, to respond, to let the spirit stir in you.

So I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna worship. We'll invite you to stand, okay? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for your presence, your spirit in our lives. God, we thank you that, that we don't have to get cleaned up to come home.

God, the invitation to, to abide, the invitation to walk, the invitation to draw near is, is always there. It's here now. So God, I pray that you'll give us a strength to, to crucify the flesh, to say no to the desires that are distracting us from you, God, that you'll, you'll produce in us a a sense of, of self-control and gentleness that overtake whatever desires or are pulling us into a, a discontent life, God. And we'll know what it means to be deeply satisfied in you. We pray that you'll move in this time, God, that you'll be glorified, all things we ask you in name.

Amen.