Love. Joy. Peace.

Good Evening to our awesome Online Community!

We had such an empowering time in Bible Study tonight!  For those of you who missed tonight’s lesson, here are the notes!

Focal Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25 (King James Version)

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

²¹ Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

²⁴ And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

• Disciples must bear good fruit.  Trees are known by the fruit they bear. (Luke 6:44)
• People are looking at us and inspecting our fruit when we least expect it.  When we go to church, to the store, to work, and anywhere else, we are on display because we are disciples and the world expects to see Jesus in us.
• It is okay to be checked when we are wrong or out of line with the will and word of God – but checking must be done with the right spirit and attitude.
  • We should not be offended when we are checked, even if we disagree.
  • We should ALWAYS want to be better.

• Galatians 5:22-23 speaks to us about how our character should be.  (Take a moment to circle the attributes you need to work on and further develop.)
• Love
  • The opposite of love: hatred, meanness, bitterness, envy, unforgiveness, prejudice
  • When we love, we understand that when we are offended, we need to handle it – and we need to handle it in love.  Love does not think or do evil (I Corinthians 13:5).
  • When Peter was offended, he cut off the man’s ear (John 18:10).  We don’t use physical swords today, but we cut people with our mouths, actions and attitudes. We need to repent for the times that we have not responded in love.
  • We need to make sure that we do not have hatred and offense in our hearts.  We need to walk in forgiveness because we are living examples of Jesus Christ.  We are disciples.
  • When we walk in things that are the opposite of love, it stops the flow of God in our lives.  It affects our homes, our children, our communities, etc.
  • If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have to be the voice of God.  This means that you have to speak the word of God and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ (and those who are future disciples) to live by the word and to walk in the spirit.
• Joy
  • The opposite of joy: misery, sadness, sorrow
  • James 1:2 (New Living Translation) – “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”
    • This means that when we are tempted, when we go through hard times, and when we feel like things are too hard for us to bear, we should still count it as joy and see God in our situation.
    • If you’re going through it, you can handle it.  (Read I Corinthians 10:13)
  • Although we will have sad times in our lives, we don’t sorrow as those who have no hope.  (I Thessalonians 4:13)
    • As Pastor Audrey so often says, “God is never trying to hurt me, He is only trying to help me.”
  • Remember that we are living so that God may be glorified.  We go through trials so that God may be glorified.  This should bring us joy.
• Peace
  • The opposite of peace: turmoil, stress, worry, chaos, depression
  • We don’t have to be in turmoil.  Jesus has already given us peace. (John 14:27 and Philippians 4:7)
  • We don’t have to live in shame because of our past mistakes and shortcomings.  We serve a God who forgives.
  • Even in the midst of what is going on right now in our society, if we all stick together, we will win.
  • We must be careful about what we allow into our spirits.  We must be mindful of what we watch on television, the conversations we entertain, the thoughts we entertain, etc.  We must guard our peace and play an active role in commanding the peace of God to reside in our lives.

We have Bible Study each Wednesday at 7:00.  One hour of power!  We would love to see you in the sanctuary!  Pastor Audrey wants us to have time to digest and implement the life-changing word that God speaks to us on Wednesdays, so from now on, we will do our second “Three Things to Remember” on Fridays instead of Thursdays.  Be sure to check back on Friday at noon for another burst of empowerment!  Have an amazing night and an awesome Thursday!

– #TeamGreater

P.S. – If you have a prayer request, feel free to submit it by clicking here.