Truth Encounter: Living Free Forever Series

Can Christ really make us a new person? When we take an honest look at ourselves, when we interact with our family and those closest to us, do they see evidence that Jesus Christ is making a difference? These messages will enable you to take a good inventory of your struggles with the sinful nature even as a “new creation in Jesus”, and then give you hope from the truth of God’s Word for a life full of the Fruit of the Spirit.

The legalist thinks you get right with God by obeying rules. At the other extreme the sensualist declares that there is no moral law and you can do whatever you desire. They simply declare that the dark side of human nature is not dark or evil. The Apostle Paul teaches us that this is another form of slavery—bondage to lust and it still produces death. Jesus Christ offers a third way—not religious rules, not moral license, but a totally new nature empowered by the Holy Spirit received by faith.

The Apostle Paul was very clear. The desires of our sin nature are evil and destructive. They must be resisted and through the power of the Holy Spirit overcome and replaced by new desires, but in our culture many believe a far different story. Dave W otesl shares in today’s lesson about the sins that can still exclude you from heaven.

Sexual sins and substance abuse are regularly exposed as deadly, but what about all the hostility in interpersonal relationships. A husband who curses his wife and degrades her in anger, a wife who brings up a laundry list of her husband’s sins in constant fight, and supposed brothers and sisters in Christ who vehemently shout at each other in a church congregational meeting –all this hatred and hostility is presented as the works of the sin nature.

Binge drinking at the beginning of a new college semester has become a major threat in American Universities. Drinking till the alcohol pours out your every pore has become a right of passage for eighteen- year-old freshmen. This was in in the first century, and the Apostle exposed it as destructive slavery to sin. He is still right, and only Christ's Spirit can fill us with joy.

“ I don’t love him any more!” “I don’t love her any more!” In our present culture this statement trumps all other arguments. Marriage promises can be nullified and new opportunities to seek love and joy can be “justly” sought with another person. What is love and what is joy? In Galatians 5:22 love and joy are placed at the top of his list of the fruit that Christ’s Spirit can generate in our lives.

Peace—it’s finally settling down in a hot tub after sixteen hours of stress at the office. Longsuffering—it’s not biting off the Wal Mart checker’s head after a forty five minute wait in the express lane. When it comes to peace and patience, often that is as far as we get. But when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity wants to generate something a lot more powerful than hot foam and calmness in line.

You’re asleep on a Saturday night- all snuggly warm under a down cover while a blizzard blankets cold outside. Were you dreaming? A thud, a muffled groan against your front door—should you get up and check on it or roll over and let the howling storm stifle the cry? It is the answer to this kind of question that determines whether we will be called a kind and good person.

The Boulder River cuts through one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. Once every three years we teach at the Clydehurst Camp nestled about thirty miles outside of Big Timber, Montana. The ranch where Robert Redford filmed The Horse Whisperer lies a few miles north of Clydehurst, and as we pass by this ranch, I am reminded of two characteristics that every horse whisperer must possess. These character traits that can turn an angry stallion into a quiet, submissive, yet alive mount, should be in the life of every follower of Jesus.

Whether it was the ancient Greeks and Romans or a modern training session in sports or business ethics, the issue of self-control walks to center stage. If you will only throw off the external chains of religious oppression and tradition and freely indulge your internal yearnings. you will be truly free. Taste and see that your passions are good!

In a far greater war than the escalating drug wars spilling over our southern border, the War against Sin, the Apostle Paul fears that those who say they are following Jesus Christ will forget that He died to break the power of our sinful passions and desires. They will choose to live by their own power, instead of by the Gift—the only means there is to conquer, not only the deadly passion to get high on drugs and alcohol, but all those illicit desires that lurk at the core of all our hearts. Learn how the reality of Calvary can deliver you from the power of your internal illicit passions that seek to destroy your life.

Christ is supposed to be able to change character, but often His followers act like the devil. How should we respond? In Galatians 6:1-10 the Apostle Paul gives us instructions on how we are to handle things when one of us breaks a leg spiritually on our climb toward heaven. Turn to Galatians and let’s take a crash course on how to set a “spiritual broken leg.”