Walking in the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 24, 2026.

We focused last week on how the Holy Spirit helps us, empowers us, to share the Good News of the salvation made available to us in Jesus.  We share that through the words we speak and through the actions of the life we live.  These work together by the help of the Holy Spirit to draw people to Jesus.

Today, we focus on the transformed life that we can live because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We should take a moment to recognize that this contrasts with the powerlessness of the Law to transform us.

Both Paul (Romans 3:20) and James (James 1:23) point out that the purpose of the Law is to show us our sin.  It is a great mirror to us of our own life and how short it falls.  However, that is the most it can do.  It cannot give us internal strength to battle against that sin.  Of course, it is helpful to at least see the problem.  Yet, it gives us no power or strength to overcome sin in our life.  What the Law and its penalties were powerless to do, the Holy Spirit is able to do within us.  He leads us in the battle of becoming like our lord Jesus.

He is the one who convinces us (convicts) that our righteousness is woefully lacking, but that Jesus is completely righteous.  He convinces us that Jesus is God’s means of salvation for us.

This internal work of the Holy Spirit to help us be transformed is the amazing grace of God for us.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit of God versus the flesh (v. 16-18)

Notice that Paul uses the contrasting phrases of “The Spirit of God” and “the flesh.”  The flesh is not the same word as “body,” but it is connected to the body.  The flesh is that internal response that is rooted in the desires of our mortal body.  Because it is internal, it takes on spiritual overtones and can even seem like something other than us.

We have a multitude of strong desires that are rooted in our physical bodies.  Paul describes the difficulty of obeying God’s law in Romans 7.  Our flesh often wants what our mind knows to be bad.  It is also true that our flesh may not want what our minds and hearts know to be good for us.  Thus, both Romans 8 and Galatians 5 depict the flesh as being bent away from God and in towards pleasing self.  These appetites may have come about through experimentation or seeing peers and society “enjoying” them.

I bring this up because it is not God’s desire to keep heaping more and more laws on top of us.  He knows that our sinful flesh will continue to hijack our ability to obey them.  Yet, it is important for us to understand this because we are a people of way more laws than Israel ever was.  These united States of America have more and more laws every year.  However, they are not making us more and more righteous.  It was precisely because Israel had 1400 years of following the law that they could understand the amazing grace of God that was made available in Jesus the Messiah.

God’s solution was not more laws.  Rather, it was to first make Jesus available as the perfect man who could live in perfect obedience to God the Father and then make a way for those who would believe to follow him.

This all starts with the help of the Holy Spirit for us now in our mortal flesh, but it leads to the day when we will receive immortal, glorified bodies.  We will no longer have a flesh that is bent away from God and towards the lesser desires of our mortal bodies.

This flesh is not just contrasted with the Holy Spirit.  Paul states that the flesh and the Spirit are “contrary” to one another, or “opposed” to one another.  In Romans 8:7, Paul uses a stronger word.  They are “hostile” to one another.

This hostile opposition between our flesh and the Spirit of God leads us to a situation where we find ourselves wanting something but not doing it.  This can be a desire born of the Spirit that our flesh tries to keep from happening, and it can be a desire born of the flesh that the Spirit challenges us to put to death.

At Pentecost, something completely new was happening.  God was taking up residence within all those who put their faith in Jesus.  This internal presence of God works to give us power to reject the wrong desires of our flesh and follow the Spirit.

What exactly are the desires of the Spirit? John 15:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to testify about Jesus.  Thus, He desires that we come to Jesus and follow him.  John 16:8-11 further details this that He desires to convict the world of its sin, need for the righteousness of Jesus and the judgment that looms over us.

In this passage, we will see that the Holy Spirit desires to express the character of Jesus in our lives.  Jesus is our master teacher; we are his students.  We need to learn his way of life and follow him in it.  We could never do this in our flesh because our flesh is hostile to the idea of actually following the words and life of Jesus.

All of this comes under the idea of walking “in” or “by” the Spirit.  Prepositions in one language do not perfectly map over to prepositions of another language.  Both of these prepositions work.  In some ways, the Holy Spirit is like an external guide with whom we walk.  In another way, He is the river in which we are born along in the right direction.  We could even say that He becomes the power and means by which we are able to walk with Christ, i.e., we walk with Christ by the help of the Spirit.  Yet, the Holy Spirit does all of this from within us.  He helps us to be aware of our actions, attitudes, direction, purpose and goals, and then, to tune them to those of Jesus.

(v. 19-21)

Paul tells us in verse 19 that the deeds of the flesh are obvious.  His point is not that our flesh wants all of these things at all times, but that these are the kinds of things that our flesh desires and leads us to do. 

No intellectually honest person will say that the Holy spirit wants us to do these things.  It is sad that some Christian groups have developed a theology that emphasizes grace to the point that you can do any sin you want, while thanking Jesus for his forgiveness.  This is a travesty and a heresy.  The Holy Spirit wants to help us live a transformed life that becoming more and more like Jesus.

Paul ends this by reminding them that people who live a life of doing the deeds of the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  Inheriting the Kingdom of God here is not talking about joining a church or being a professing Christian.  He is challenging people who are Christians not to follow after their flesh.  On one hand Christians are a part of the Kingdom of God in Jesus.  He is our King and we live out His commands by the help of the Holy Spirit.  However, the Kingdom of God is not yet fully here.  The verb “inherit” in verse 21 is future tense.  He is looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ when Jesus sets up a kingdom over this earth.  The saints, Christians who have been faithful to him, will be resurrected to serve as his administrators in this coming kingdom.  This is an inheritance that God has promised for those who come into a spiritual relationship with the Messiah, Jesus.

We have many opportunities to walk with our flesh every day.  This does not change when the Spirit indwells us following faith in Jesus.  Of course, Paul is not talking about a one-time thing.  “If you ever do one of these things, you will not inherit!”  No, he says, “those who practice” such things.  This is an ongoing choice to keep walking with your flesh in opposition to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

We all have moments in which we fail, but it isn’t over.  Think about what the Spirit does when you fail.  He convicts your heart about what you have done and calls you to repentance, i.e., change your mind and turn back to the righteousness of Christ.  None of us will inherit without continuing to repent and keep our eyes on Jesus.

(v. 22-26)

On the other hand, if I let the Holy Spirit produce the fruit of Christ in me, then I will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Paul could have continued by speaking of the “deeds” of the Spirit, but he switches to the picture of fruit.  Fruit is an organic process rather than a work project.  It is borne from within because of our new nature and grows a little bit day by day.

The Spirit of God within you empowers a whole new dynamic in which the character is slowly formed in you and expressed in your life.  This will go from an empty branch to buds to blossoms to fruit to ripening of that fruit.  In a sense, we have two natures: the old nature and new nature.  Which of these natures are you expressing?

The list of love, joy, peace, etc… are essentially different facets of our love for one another fueled by the presence of God Himself within us.  On one hand, I am letting the Holy Spirit do something within me (yielding to Him).  On the other hand, I am doing the things that the Spirit is showing me to do.

No fruit tree can be fruitful without pruning.  Bad branches that are broken or diseased must be cut off.  These would be the things on the list of the deeds of the flesh.  However, some branches need to be cut off in order to make room for other branches to be more fruitful.  In other words, sometimes the Spirit teaches us to remove things from our life, not because they are immoral or wicked, but because they are keeping me from being fruitful.  They are taking up too much space in my life.

Furthermore, sometimes God prunes things from my life.  I have nothing to say about it.  It just happens.  Yet, other times, the Spirit of the Lord points out something that we need completely prune out of our lives.  He works within us to convince us and empower us to do it.

This is the powerful evidence (fruit) of the Holy Spirit within us.  We will see all of these things start to show up in our life.  Yet, the Spirit will not be content with just a little love in our life.

None of us will be (are) perfect at this on this side of death.  However, we are not under the law of sin and death.  Verse 18 states that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are not under the Law (judged by it).  Rather, we are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).  Entering the presence of Christ upon death is not based on our perfection in these areas.  Rather, it is based upon His perfect work being applied to our lives by faith.  Those who trust Jesus and His Spirit to the end of their lives will enter into His presence.  In fact, some of our greatest righteousness will include repentance and forgiveness.

Paul ends with a description of what it means to follow Jesus.  To belong to Jesus is to crucify your flesh with its passions and desires.  It should be obvious that a crucified groom (Jesus) would only want to be with a crucified bride (all those who believed him enough to follow the Spirit).

“If we live in the Spirit” is a statement about the spiritual life we have in Christ.  If I truly have put my faith in Jesus and his eternal life has taken up residence within me by the Spirit, then I need to walk by, with, and in the Holy Spirit.  It is not enough to be made alive.  We need to cooperate with the Spirit so that the righteousness of Jesus might be growing in our lives.

Praise God that we have a savior who covers our sin and yet does not leave us stuck in them.  Let’s put our faith in Him and put to death those desires that hold us back from becoming more like him.

Walking in the Holy Spirit audio

You Shall Receive Power

Acts 1:4-8. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 17, 2026.

Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, so we are going to focus on why the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was so important following the resurrection of Jesus.

Let’ s look at our passage.

Power to be a witness

These are the last moments that Jesus is with his disciples before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  He had earlier given them the mission of taking the good news about his work of salvation to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20).  Yet now he makes a stipulation about this.  He commands them “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father…”

We should notice that Jesus wants us to receive this promise of the Father before we go about the mission he has given us.  It is clear that he is referring to the promise of the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon all believers.

Of course, the very next words out of their mouths are about the Kingdom being restored to Israel.  Is it now, Lord?  Jesus tells them that the Father is not giving that information to them.  They need to focus on receiving the Holy Spirit and accomplishing the mission Jesus has given them.

Notice that the Holy Spirit will give them power, and they will be “my witnesses.”  There are many ways in which the Holy Spirit empowers us.  One of these ways is to make us a powerful witness of Jesus.  In this sense, we are a particular kind of evidence for Jesus, a personal witness.

There are a couple of ways that we are his witnesses.  The first is that we are his witnesses because we give testimony about him.  He is the object that we have witnessed or the content of that to which we are testifying.

The world would not know who Jesus is, what he has done, and why it is so important, without someone who knows about it going to them and telling them.

This is Paul’s point in Romans 10:13-15.  He takes an Old Testament truth, “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” and reverse engineers it.  How can people call upon the Lord and be saved if they don’t believe in him?  How are they going to believe in him if they haven’t heard about him?  How will they hear about him if no one tells them?  How can someone tell them if they haven’t been sent?  Jesus is the beginning of this whole series.  He sends all of his disciples to go to the world around them with the good news of his salvation.

They needed to wait because the Holy Spirit was going to be poured out on a particular day, the Feast of Pentecost.  Why that day?  Pentecost was a celebration for the harvest so far and the harvest to come.  In this case, Jesus is bringing in a spiritual harvest of people from Israel and the nations who will hear the good news, believe, and come into his kingdom.

We are also his witnesses in the sense that we belong to him and are doing a work for him.  In fact, Jesus is witnessing to others through us.  This spiritual dimension to our witness should not be overlooked.  It goes beyond you and me.  This witness is more than what we say and do.

When we share God’s terms of salvation with a lost world, it really is the Lord Jesus working through us to draw people to himself.  God can lead us, but He also works beyond us and in ways that we cannot see.  I may be nobody, but some people can only be reached by a nobody who shares the greatest somebody in the universe with them.  Can you be God’s nobody and trust Him to do what you cannot do?  This is part of the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus truly is sending us with a task, but He is also truly working with us and through us by the Holy Spirit.  The answer is not to shrink back and say that God will do it.  Nor is the answer to try and do it all by yourself.  We must give our all to this mission but also trust the Holy Spirit to do His part.  The job is too big for us in ourselves.  We need the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life to do this.

We are to give witness through what we say

One way in which we are witnesses is by our active vocal testimony.  The Holy Spirit can give us boldness to speak when we are afraid.  We see this with the apostle Peter who was afraid to stand with Christ on the night of his betrayal.  Later, a Spirit-filled Peter would boldly speak in the temple compound, calling his people and Israel’s leaders to repentance.

The Holy Spirit can also help us with giving us the things to say.  The preaching and teaching of the apostles was written down so that we can hear these inspired words.  Yet, the Holy Spirit can give us specific leading in what to say to people.  We need to learn to listen to Him and boldly speak it.

The Holy Spirit can also help in the heart and the mind of the person who receives our testimony.  You may feel His presence and working, but then again, you may not.  The main thing is to trust that the Spirit is always helping even when you don’t see it.

There is a part of our testimony that is not so much ours, but that of the original eyewitnesses to Jesus.  This cannot be reduplicated.  No one alive today can give testimony to seeing Jesus.  Yet, we can pass along this eyewitness testimony.

Tens of thousands of people witnessed the life, teachings, and death of Jesus.  Over 500 people witnessed that Jesus was alive after his death and burial.  Acts 1:3 speaks to the infallible proofs that Jesus gave to these people.  Some of those proofs were simply that he was alive.  Some of those proofs were that he was more than a mortal.  Jesus showed Thomas the crucifixion marks on his body.  They touched him.  He ate fish.  Jesus was not an apparition or spirit.  Yet, he was more than a mortal man.  He appeared and disappeared in their midst when they were locked in a place.  He ascended into the heavens in front of their eyes.  These eyewitness accounts were written down so that they could be verified and used to test others who claimed to have testimony about Jesus.

By the beginning of the 2^nd century, the last of those eyewitnesses were dying.  This is why the Bible is so important.  It is an eyewitness record of those who were there.  This is also why the Bible is so attacked in our day and age.  The devil doesn’t like the Bible.  People who love to sin don’t like the Bible.  Even my own flesh turns away from these words without the help of the Holy Spirit.  It is important that we have the help of the Holy Spirit to share the testimony of these Apostles contained in the New Testament.

However, you don’t have to be an eyewitness to experience the spiritual truths that Jesus has made available to us.  We are the spiritual offspring of those original disciples.  Just as the words and work of Jesus transformed their life, so our lives have been transformed by that as well.  Salvation is not simply a legal distinction.  It is a living experience where the Spirit of God transforms our heart and mind.  We go from being a people in slavery to sin to being a people living out the righteousness of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit helps our witness by fueling the transformation of our lives.  This personal transformation also gives zeal and passion to our testimony as well.  In short, we bear witness to the saving power of Jesus.  Jesus truly saves those who believe in him.  He saves them from their sin and failures.  Of course, we see some of that happening right now.  Some of it we will see happening in the future (I’m not perfected yet).  Yet, we are following the Perfect One who is the perfecter of our faith.  Only you can tell the testimony of what faith in Jesus has done for you.  We need to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to empower transformation from the inside out.  Then, we need to share it with others.

We are to give witness by what we do

Our witness is not just by our words.  In fact, we must be careful that our life is not discordant with our words, or the words of our Lord Jesus.  Hypocrisy only interferes with our ability to witness for Jesus.

In this sense, people will see our lives.  Our actions and overall life will testify for us.  Both verbal testimony and demonstration testimony are necessary in our lives.  We cannot do one and neglect the other.

This is why the Bible records the experience and subsequent lives of those who believed in Jesus.  Peter became a man with a spiritual backbone.  Saul of Tarsus became a follower of Jesus who would put his life in jeopardy in order to bring the good news about Jesus to those who had never heard.

This is part of the testimony in their day and age.  Yes, they said things, but their actions and lives powerfully underscored these words.  When Stephen was stoned for giving testimony to the Lord Jesus, it may have scared some people away from following Jesus.  Yet, he was only the first of many who gave testimony with their lives that Jesus was worth losing your physical life.  They faced persecution, torture, and death.  When Saul of Tarsus became a Christian, it shocked everyone.  Some Christians feared that it was a ploy to discover who they all were.  Unbelievers believed that he had gone mad.  However, no one could counter the claim that Saul of Tarsus was no longer who he used to be.  The evidence of his life before and after spoke volumes about the kind of man he used to be and who he became once he believed upon Jesus.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

There is real power working in this.  Many of these Corinthians used to be caught up in various types of sin.  If Jesus had remained in the grave, we would not be reading these words today.  If no one’s life was ever transformed by these words and the Holy Spirit who works through them, we wouldn’t be here today.

A transformed life is our biggest testimony.  It is God’s will for you to be transformed by the truth of His Word and the power of His Holy Spirit.  Thus, we need to expect this, desire this, pray for this, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He empowers this in our lives.

We need to pray for the Spirit’s leading in our daily lives.  What are the ways in which I need to be transformed to become more like Jesus?  Only a person who is in the Bible, in prayer, and wrestling with their sinful flesh by the help of the Holy Spirit can give testimony of a life that is being transformed.

May God help us to rest in His gracious work of transformation in our life and to know His peace day by day.

Receive Power audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 1

Subtitle: A Prayer of Thanks

Colossians 1:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 13, 2025.

Today, we begin looking at the letter to the Colossian Church.  We will get into the background here in a second, but first let me sum up the letter as a whole.

The letter covers a wide range of things, but it essentially boils down to this.  Paul is encouraging them to remain faithful to Jesus the Christ and let the work of the Holy Spirit transform all of their relationships.

The doctrine, or teaching, of Jesus is meant to lead to a transformation of our relationships here on earth.  As we gain understanding to what God wants to do in our life, we need to surrender to His purpose.  We are called to yield to that purpose and work with the Holy Spirit in order to arrive at the end He has for us.

Let’s get into the letter.

Introduction (v. 1-2)

Letters in the New Testament typically follow the form of introducing the author first, then the recipients of the letter.  So here, we have Paul identifying himself as the author, but also as an apostle of Jesus the Christ, or Messiah.  This is not just a personal letter.  He is fulfilling his post as an apostle and has the purpose of Jesus in mind for them.

As an apostle of Jesus, he has been sent by God’s Anointed Man, not only to them, but to all the Gentiles. (See Romans 11:13 and 2 Timothy 1:11).  This calling is also “by the will of God.”  It seems unlikely that Paul would have called himself to represent Jesus to anyone.  He had persecuted the Church, and then, he turned back from this inquisition in order to join the Christians.  He had failed miserably in following God.  Yet, there is God’s grace calling him.  He knows that he is the chief of sinners, and yet, Jesus is the Chief of the redeemed!  So, he has humbled himself and publicly preached Jesus to Jews and Gentiles.

How many people in ministry want to be somebody big, whether pastors, worship leaders, prophets etc…  Whatever you do, don’t push your way into something that God hasn’t called you to do.  In fact, if many of them realized what God does to make someone a prophet, they wouldn’t want to become one.  Men and women of God are created through pain and suffering.  In the midst of the trial, their faith in God allows His message to rise up within them.  It is difficult, but it is the path our Lord walked before us, and he walks it with us even now.

Paul also mentions that Timothy is with him.  Timothy is most likely penning the letter as Paul dictates.  He is called a brother in Christ.  We will pick up some other details as we go through the letter.

Colossians is one of four letters that Paul wrote from Prison.  They are often called the Prison Epistles.  Three are next to each other in the New Testament: Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.  The fourth letter is the book of Philemon, and it has a strong connection to this letter to the Colossians.  There is good evidence that Philemon was a part of the Colossian Church, but more on that in a later sermon.

Paul’s time in prison was in the early 60s AD.  We know from Acts 28:30 that this lasted at least 2 years.  There was a great fire in the city of Rome in 64 AD.  Caesar Nero blamed this fire on the Christians and launched a persecution against them.  (Note: There was no evidence for this, and many conjectured that Nero had it done by others so that he could build a new palace.  However, that is also speculation.) 

Church tradition tells us that the apostles Paul and Peter were both killed in this time.  Whether Paul was still in prison and easy to grab, or had been released and therefore arrested at some point again, his death could salve the populous of Rome.  We are told that Paul was beheaded in Rome, which was the quick death given to citizens.  This would probably have Paul writing this letter under house arrest in Rome some time around 63 AD.

He is writing to the Christians of Co-LOS’-sae, which was a town in the province of Asia.  Here is a link to a map. 

Paul addresses them as saints.  They are holy because they have been set apart for the purpose of God in Jesus.  Saints are called to the holy duty of sharing the truth of Jesus to those who are still the “aints.”  Thus, these saints are also faithful brethren because they have responded to that purpose and are holding fast to the truth of the Gospel, which they had received.

Paul gives the salutation of Grace and Peace.  Peace (Shalom in Hebrew) was a common greeting among Jewish people, but this is even more a peace from “God our Father.”  It is radical for him to include these Gentiles in with the Jews in this phrase “our Father.”  Grace is a reference to God’s favor that is made available to all in Jesus and the Christians that he sends.  Paul desires that the peace of God and the grace of God would be theirs.

Paul gives thanks for them (v. 3-8)

In verse three, Paul relates that he prays always for them.  However, a big part of his prayers is giving God thanks for them. 

It is good for our prayers to God and our attitude towards one another to start with a foundation of thankfulness and thanksgiving. The prayers of a person who is ungrateful will be tainted with anger, frustration, and complaining.  It infects our relationship with God and the people around us.  This is true for parents to children, spouses for one another, and any other relationship you can imagine.  A good illustration of this is Israel coming out of Egypt.  After God’s amazing and powerful deliverance, they spend most of the time complaining and blaming Moses, even God for their difficult situation in the desert.  Of course, there were some among them who were thankful.  Complainers don’t see or simply dismiss the good in their life and choose to focus on the difficult.  When you are looking for something to complain about, you are going to find it.

How can a parent be thankful for an imperfect kid and a spouse for an imperfect spouse?  Our thankfulness for the other person is not based upon their perfection.  Rather, it is based upon the perfection of the God who gives us to one another.  Have you ever thought that another imperfect person is the perfect thing for us, since we are imperfect, too? 

Let’s get into the particulars of what Paul is thankful for regarding the Colossian believers.

He is thankful that they had put their faith in Jesus as the Anointed One of God and continued in that faith.  They believed that Jesus is the rightful ruler over all humanity and that he would lead them (us) into God’s inheritance for the saints.

It is one thing for Jews to embrace Jesus as Messiah.  They already believe that a Messiah is coming.  They only have to believe that Jesus is the him.  Yet, it is quite another thing for a Gentile to embrace a Jew (Jesus) as the Anointed One of God whom God has sent to be Lord over all peoples.  Paul is not taking this for granted.

We need to remember that faith is not just an intellectual belief.   It also involves the actions that flow from that belief.  These Colossian believers had joined the community of believers, and their lives were being transformed by their response to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

He is also thankful for their love for all the saints.  Our love for one another is the proof of our love for Jesus.  We are not to have a fake worldly love, but the same love that Jesus had when he went to the cross for us.  It is the same love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.  In each of us, there are many things that are unlovely, but in Jesus, we can live out the love of God for one another.

At verse 5, Paul goes into a digression.  Digressions are not always bad, and we should recognize that this is a digression that has been led by the Holy Spirit.  Paul simply follows a chain of thoughts that are either foundational or simply an important connection to each link in this logical chain.  In this digression, we see how the work of God in one person can lead to a community of people exercising faith in Jesus and love for each other.

These Colossian believers had put their faith in Jesus and were loving one another because of the hope that was laid up for them in heaven.  Here, we see Paul’s famous trilogy of faith, Hope and love.  The hope laid up for us in heaven is not just the idea that we will go there when we die.  The Lord Jesus is at the most secure place in the universe (next to the Father), and he is waiting until it is time to return and take up the kingdoms of the earth.  God has promised that the saints of every age will participate in this kingdom because Jesus will resurrect them to do so.

Thus, their love (our love) is not to be based on the hope that we are going to get something from each other.  Of course, love is much better when we love each other back.  However, Jesus also told us to love our enemies.  The last time I checked, enemies do not reciprocate the love that a Christian gives to them.

This hope had been explained to them when they had originally received the Good News (Gospel) about Jesus the Christ.  This hope is an essential part of the Gospel.  All believers have this hope reserved for them in heaven where nothing (no rust, no moth, no devil) can steal or corrupt it.  All believers will participate in the Kingdom of Jesus when he comes to earth again.  How?  We will be given immortal bodies, resurrected, in order to reign with him!

Paul notes that the Gospel not only came to them, but it was going into all the world.  It then began bearing fruit and increasing (verse 6), both in the world and in them.  This has been going on “ever since” they had heard and understood the truth about Jesus.

This leads Paul to mention Epaphras.  In chapter 4 verse 12 we will be told that Epaphras is from Colossae.  Apparently, he had received the Gospel on a trip (perhaps to Ephesus).  He had then taken the Gospel back to his home town.  Paul calls Epaphras a beloved “fellow bond-servant” and a “faithful minister” of Christ.  A bond-servant was a slave who only did the will of their master.  Whereas, the word minister was more of a position or job.  It refers to a person doing a service on behalf of someone who is greater than them.  These twin ideas of being a slave and being a servant recognize the dual aspect we have in Christ.  On one hand, he has purchased us back from slavery to sin.  We owe him everything, our very lives.  Yet, in his love for us, Jesus does not treat us as slaves.  Rather, we become volunteers serving his purposes.

All of these things that Paul is mentioning were related to him by Epaphras who had apparently visited Paul in his imprisonment.  Thus, in verse 8, Paul writes that Epaphras had informed him about their love in the Spirit.  In a way, this just comes back full circle to the love of the saints that he had mentioned earlier.  However, loving in the Spirit emphasizes the leading of the Holy Spirit in their expressions of love.  Loving in the Spirit is similar to the way that Paul talks about walking in the Spirit in Romans 8.  Walking in the Spirit is equated to being led by the Spirit.  In this case, they are being led by the Spirit in how to love one another.

It is easy to say that we love people, as long as we are in charge of what that love will look like.  But, the Spirit of God challenges believers to love one another in very specific ways.  Our love for one another needs to look like the love of Jesus.  It needs to be sacrificial, in obedience to God and in honor of Him.

The world is good at creating an outward show that it can point to in order to declare that it is loving.  Of course, these are the kind of people who hire image consultants to help them look better.  God save us from image consultants.  What we need is the Holy Spirit teaching us how to love.  What we need is to die to ourselves and say yes to the Spirit by doing the hard things that He inspires.  We need a Holy Spirit transformation!

Can we give thanks to God even when things are going “in the wrong direction?”  This is where our faith in the hope that God has reserved for us can help us to be thankful.  Even if things are really headed in the wrong direction- and I am skeptical of our ability to judge that well- the God who loves us enough to send Jesus to die for us on a cross can work it around to our good.  Can I trust that?  Our flesh can’t, but our spirit can!  We can have hope because God’s faithfulness is not based upon our perfection.  We can say that even now God is being faithful to us, so we have nothing to fear!

Colossians 1 audio

The Battle of the Mind- 3

Subtitle: The Leverage of Desires and Emotions

Galatians 5:16-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

As we continue this series on the mental battle that Christians encounter, we must deal with the reality of our desires and emotions.

Desires look toward something in this world or future.  It focuses on bringing something into our sphere of experience.  Emotions, on the other hand, have more to do with the way that the world (reality) around us affects us.

Of course, these can play off of one another.  I may desire something, but the reality of whether it can happen or not can create frustration and anger, or it may create excitement, anticipation, and a euphoric feeling of near success.  Similarly, our emotions can spin off new desires.

This world of desire and emotion is a powerful part of what it means to be human.  God created our ability to desire and have emotions.  Therefore, there is something about them that is good and should not be excised from our life.  Yet, in our fallenness, they can lead to all kinds of harmful actions and patterns of life.

An example of this is the area of sexuality.  God designed humans as sexual beings and called it “very good.”  Yet, if we let our fleshly desires drive our sexuality, it will become destructive to ourselves and others.  It will pull us outside of the good design, the good purpose, for which God intended it.  Thus, it is not a person’s sexuality that should be “fixed.”  Rather, it is that world of the mind and heart in which we make decisions on how we are going to express that sexuality.

These desires and emotions are strategically placed within a person.  They wield an incredible amount of leverage upon us.  With that in mind, let’s look at our passage.

Be led by the Holy Spirit and not your desires (v. 16-18)

A follower of Jesus should seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and not the desires of their flesh.  This is what Paul is saying.  However, we should note the chain of understanding.  We are disciples of Jesus, followers of him.  However, he is not on the earth right now.  How can we follow him?  Yes, we can read his words and live them out, but Jesus promised something even greater than that.  He promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon believers.  Jesus would lead them through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, to be led by the Spirit is to be led by Jesus (is to be led by the Father, too). 

Though He does speak to us in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit often uses the Scriptures and other believers to speak into our lives, or at least, to trigger His communication to us.  This inner dialogue between our spirit and the Holy Spirit is not meant to exclude these others in our life.  Instead, it incorporates it.

In verse 16, Paul uses a word for desire that has been translated as lust in other versions.  It simply means a strong desire or passion for something.  The desire may or may not have a bad target.  Ultimately, a believer should always pay attention to the target of their desires (is it good and acceptable to God). 

However, this word also involves a strength of desire that is greater than normal.  You could picture a person driving a car around a corner that is designed for 25 mph.  To drive your car around the corner is clearly in alignment with the design of the road (the target is good).  However, the speed at which you drive could be compared to the strength of your desire.  To drive around the corner doing 125 mph is going to end in disaster for me and anyone else in the car.  Am I carried away by the strength of the desire?

We tend to think of strong desire, or lust, as bad.  But verse 17 compares the “strong desire” of the flesh with the strong desire of the Holy Spirit.  This is important.  God has strong desires for us.  However, He doesn’t have the problem of “going too fast around the corner.”  As humans, the strength of our desire can overwhelm our ability, but the Spirit of God can have strong desire without it pulling Him off track.

Thus, we should not focus so much on how strong our desires are, but rather on the source of them.  The strong desires of my flesh will pull me off the way of the Lord, but the strong desires of the Spirit will keep me in the way of the Lord.

Typically, desires are rooted in the senses of our body.  I want to feel this, taste that, see this, hear that, etc.  Notice that God gave us senses to help us.  There is a good way in which we are to operate in these areas.  Desire can also be something more abstract.  In 1 John 2:16, we are warned against the “pride of life.”  The feeling of pride that often comes from the adulation of people and their willingness to serve us for favors is just as real though it may not be directly tied to a physical sense.

Thus, we should see the problem as an internal one within our natural self, rather than our body per se.  Our nature is to desire something as an end in itself.  “I’ll be happy once I get that job, …make that amount of money, …get that person to love me, etc.”  But, God did not design our senses and the things of this world to be the goal of our life.  These things are all means by which we can live a life that reflects God to the world around us and walks in harmony with His purpose.  To make them the goal is to turn them into an idol.  They are supposed to be an aid to us in going after the greater goal.

One pastor- I believe it was Spurgeon- pictured the death of a human as becoming a worm carnival.  In other words, you leave this body behind and a bunch of worms will revel in destroying it, and then they will die.  I bring this up because we become like those worms when we live for things, rather than for God.  We simply consume the things of the world around us that are dead in and of themselves.  There is no true life in these things, no matter how much I consume.  If your life is just a carnival, then it will come to an end one day.  You will die and realize you wasted your life consuming dead things that cannot help you.  May God help us to live for a higher purpose, that the things of this life would only be means by which we image Him and worship Him.

The flesh strongly desires to target things as an end in themselves, but the Holy Spirit has a strong desire to help us become like Jesus, perfectly imaging the Father.  Thus, we need to learn how to let the Holy Spirit become the source of our desires.  We should seek to desire what the Holy Spirit desires, instead of our natural self.  This creates an internal battlefield.

The battlefield already existed before you were a Christian.  However, you had no clue about the desire of the Holy Spirit.  You were a casualty of your own desires and those of the culture around you.  Yet, when you became a believer in Jesus, you became aware of this problem within your flesh.

Praise God that we are not left alone in this battle.  At salvation, we became aware of the strong desire of the Holy Spirit that we put our faith in Jesus.  Once we yielded to that, the Spirit then works to make us more like Jesus.  He does that by taking up residence within us.  He works in our heart and mind to make us aware of all the ways that the strong desires of our flesh have pulled us off track.  He also gives us strength to get back on track.

In fact, let us be clear.  Paul says that your flesh and the Holy Spirit will desire things that are hostile to one another.  Your flesh will not want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  When someone is confronted with the truth about Jesus, there is a battle in them.  The Spirit of God is showing them that it is desirable to follow Jesus, but your flesh wants to shrink back away from that in fear.

Still, you are more than the desires of your natural self.  You can choose to follow the Holy Spirit (who supplies strength for you to follow through by faith on that choice), or you can choose to operate from the natural self.  In fact, a life of living for the flesh can be covered up with an outward appearance of following Jesus (think Judas). 

Verse 17 talks about the way in which we can want to do one thing, but end up doing another.  You may want to follow the Spirit, but the flesh is pulling  you off track.  You can even analyze this in your mind and despise your lack of following the Holy Spirit.

Yet, this is not just a problem for Christians.  Even unbelievers who are ruled by their flesh cannot simultaneously satisfy all of their desires.  In order to have one, they may be forced to sacrifice another.  One person desires to feel good (euphoria) over other desires and pursues a life of substance abuse.  Whereas, another may never touch drugs and the like because they desire money and the power it gives them greater than feeling good right now.

To bring this back to Christians, you may desire to be moral and good, like Jesus, but your natural self simply seeks satisfaction and doesn’t care about the morality.  Without Christ and the Holy Spirit he sends to us, we would be powerless in this battle.  Thus, all people deal with this reality that some desires are stronger than others for them.  Whereas the next person struggles with a different hierarchy of desires.  The Holy Spirit is given to empower us in this fight.

Throughout this passage, Paul has used two different phrases that are basically synonymous: walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.  The second has the Spirit as an external guide showing us the way.  The first is less specific.  It can be seen as the person who has a relationship with the Holy Spirit within them.  We have seen this before with the difference between being filled with the Spirit (internal picture) and being baptized with the Holy Spirit (external picture). 

Part of our spiritual battle is to recognize that the Spirit is within you to lead you.  Reading the Word, prayer, godly counsel are all ways that the Spirit uses to show us the path forward.  However, this brings us to a point of action that requires faith.  He truly is trying to lead us on behalf of Jesus. 

We should also see the Holy Spirit as a path or atmosphere that we are seeking to stay on or within.  He is our helper, and if we stick with Him, stay in step with Him, then we will be far more successful in this battle.  The battle to follow the Spirit and not our natural self is essentially a battle in our minds and hearts.  As it is won, we can then do those things that make us more like Jesus.

The flesh will result in not inheriting the Kingdom of God (19-26)

Paul warns the Galatians that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God if they let themselves be led by their flesh.  Is this about salvation, or is the Kingdom of God a particular reward that God gives to certain believers?

In Romans 8:6, 13, Paul makes it clear that following the flesh leads to spiritual death, but following the Spirit leads to eternal life.  So, this is not just about a particular reward in the future that certain believers will experience.  It really is about eternal life, salvation.

The Kingdom of God can be thought of something that is in the future.  That is, Jesus is going to come back and set up a kingdom on the earth.  This is not to ignore the fact that the Kingdom of God is already here in a very real sense.  The point is this.  The Kingdom of God has phases in regard to what God is doing.  It is best to think of it as the particular way that God is expressing His life to believers at a particular time. 

Right now, we can participate in the Kingdom of God that has been made available through Jesus.  By the Spirit, we listen to our Lord and live out his commands.  However, a day is coming when I will die.  Am I leaving the Kingdom of God?  Of course, not.  My spirit will go to Christ at the right hand of the Father.  My participation in the Kingdom of God and the life He gives through it will have changed.  After the resurrection and return of Jesus to earth, glorified believers will attend Christ to the earth.  This too will begin a new expression of God’s Kingdom and the life we receive through it.  Thus, the Kingdom of God is eternal, but not static.

Yet, we should note that the term inheritance is in general a reference to our reigning with Christ in resurrected (glorified) bodies.  Some people who appeared to be followers of Jesus, but really were masking a life of following their flesh, will find themselves shut out from what God is doing.  This is essentially the picture that is given to us with the Lake of Fire at the end of the book of Revelation.  The wicked will be shut out of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Verse 21 introduces a word that is translated as “practice” in the NASB.  “Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  We tend to connect this verb to things like sports and music.  In this case, practice is about something that is not the real event.  It is merely preparation.  However, when we say that a physician practices medicine, we do not mean it in this way.  In that case, it speaks of the very real decisions that a physician makes as they care for their patients.

This word speaks of what we do, but not just in a point in time.  It is talking about something we continue to do.  It also focuses not on the end of the action, but on the routine of it.  A person who routinely practices (does) what works of the flesh will find themselves shut out of God’s goodness. 

Paul moves from the flesh to the Spirit.  However, he does not continue to use the “practice” word.  He could have, but instead, Paul uses a different word, the fruit of the Spirit.

This contention between works and fruit is being used to highlight the powerful differences between following our flesh or the Spirit.  Of course, we are to practice the works of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit adds a powerful idea.  Like a fruit tree, we are to connect to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit comes from Him to us.  The supply of the Spirit in our lives enables us to bud, blossom, grow, and evidence ripe fruit.  This demonstrates that more is going on than just choosing to do certain things.  Rather, the presence of the Holy Spirit within us supplies and works life into us and through us.  The list of fruit is not even about giving us a set of check boxes.  “I have the love fruit now!”  Rather, it shows us a list (not exhaustive) of the kinds of things that will be expressed when a person is following the Holy Spirit.  Fruit is not always in season, but it is on a path to ripeness.  Give yourself to the Spirit of God, and He will help you to grow in these kinds of things.

Verse 24 speaks of the need to crucify the flesh, our natural self and its desires.  When we come to Christ, we have had years of serving the flesh, so it has a lot of leverage upon us.  The flesh is not only hostile to the strong desire of the Spirit, but it is also hostile to us crucifying its desires.  Thus, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to put these fleshly desires to death and give ourselves to the spiritual desires of Christ. 

We should see our flesh like a spoiled child who throws a fit in the grocery store in order to get what they want.  There is no easy way to deal with this.  We basically deal with the flesh one fleshly desires at a time.  As they crop up, we need to recognize them for what they are, and then, we need to ask the Holy Spirit what the positive, spiritual action would be that will enable us to become more like Christ.  Crucifying the flesh is more than not doing fleshly things.  It also involves doing what the Spirit of Christ is leading us to do.

For example, a person who is a thief, but becomes a Christian, doesn’t just stop stealing.  He also works to make restitution to those he stole from.  He may even have to face jail time.  Paying the price of our wrong actions and carrying the burden of their effects can be done in praise to God.  Yet, it is amazing how often God takes the negative effects of our sin and redeems by the help of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend, there was a wedding at our church.  A couple who had been living together, but not married, chose to honor God by being married.  For them, crucifying the flesh involved committing to one another in a way that their flesh had resisted for a long time.  Yet, now, they repent of their past actions and choose to honor God going forward.  Their marriage won’t be perfect, but they are doing the spiritual thing that will bear fruit in their life as they continue to follow the Holy Spirit.

Let this be our prayer everyday.  “Lord, strengthen me to say no to this desire of my flesh and show me the positive thing that I should do to break its hold on me!”

Desires & Emotions audio