If you got your Bibles with you though, let me ask you if you would go ahead and turn to Galatians chapter 5, we'll be looking starting at verse 13 while you're flipping there. We do have it on the screen in just a moment if you need to look at that. Some of you may have heard of a book called Blue Like Jazz. It's a great book by Don Miller. It's not a conventional book. It's not one that you would normally pick up to read because it's a guy, it's almost like his diary, his thoughts. He's not maybe a stereotypical conservative Republican right-wing kind of a Christian guy. In fact, he's kind of like the opposite of all that except the Christian part. He loves God. He loves Lord Jesus Christ and it's interesting to hear him talk about his own journey on that and he talked about his best attempt, his best taste of community. And that's what we're talking about this morning is how to experience community. It's the second main objective, the second pillar that our church is trying to strive and work towards. And lastly, we talked about living worship, being all of life, all that we do, being worshiped to God. And this is being a climax to our week when we come together as God's people. This week we're talking about experiencing community. But he experienced the most community and some of you might relate to this very well, some of you maybe too well because he was a part of a hippie commune for about a month and lived outside in the woods during that time. And he has a chapter in his book about that. I just want to read one paragraph that he wrote during this time. He says until this point, when he had his experience, the majority of my friends had been Christians. In fact, nearly all of them had been Christians. I was amazed to find outside the church genuine affection being shared, affection that seemed well authentic in comparison to the sort of love I had known within the church. I was even more amazed when I realized I preferred, in fact, the company of the hippies to the company of Christians. It isn't that I don't love my Christian friends or that they don't love me. It was just that there was something different about my hippie friends, something I don't know, more real, more true. I realized that it is a provocative statement, but I only felt I could be myself around them. I could not be myself with my Christian friends. My Christian communities had always had little unwritten social ethics like don't cuss and don't support Democrats and don't ask tough questions about the Bible. I just wonder if you identify much more with Don Miller than you would even care to like to admit tonight, as far as your sense of experiencing community, and maybe not many of you have been a part of a hippie commune. I know some of you have my name and I won't mention your names for your own sake here, but some of them are sitting on the front row to my left. You lived in a Volkswagen bus, not really for six months or something. One quite the same. I love John Mary, I'm sorry. I'm here for you, bro. I'm trying to know that. Let me ask you. I'm going to ask everybody this quiz because I want you to be all part of this to know what is your level of how you're experiencing community. This is going to be an audience participation when I warn you ahead of time. Everybody's going to start off with their hand up in the air, and when I say something that's not true for you, you drop your hand. You see how this works? As we go through the list, you keep your hand extended as long as it applies to you correctly. When it stops applying to you, you bring your hand down. Some of you, this is going to take coordination and exercise here, but this is important because you're going to be, you're in my poll here, you're in my survey here. So everybody's got their hand up here. Thank you, John. I don't see your hand, John. Okay. Thank you, John. How many of you know some people? All right. You're batting a thousand. How many do you have a group of friends? Okay. That's good. You always hate the same size, hand going down on that one. How many do you have a group of at least two or three good friends that you call good friends? Think everybody's still up? These of these good friends, how many regularly share intimate details of their life with you? Can we lost a few hands there? How many of these good friends do you regularly share your intimate details of your life with them? Lost a few more. Of these good friends, these could tell you at some point, or I'm sorry, these friends could see you at your very worst or ugliest moment, and still be your good friends. Did you see how my hands are going? Of these good friends, they could tell you when your say outfit is not flattering ladies, or men when you have bad breath, or when they see you making a mistake, or when they question the decision you've made, these friends would challenge you on that, or help you see a blind spot. Okay. How many of you would confront these friends when you see their blind spots, not worrying about them, not worrying about them whether or not they're going to like you after you say that? Still hands are up. Okay. Remember now, by the way, if you only have one of these, put your hand down, because I said a group of friends, because you know, it's terrible, but you only have one of these, because that person moves away, and you just lost your community. So your hand can only be up if you have two or three people that fit this. Of these good friends, they pray for you regularly, and you pray for them regularly, even on the moments when they feel like enemies due to disagreement or argument. When you're mad at these people, and by the way, you should be counting your spouse on this here, okay? This is your community there. Some of you are like, darn, lost my hand on that one. How many of you here still have your hands up if you feel fully known and accepted by them, and you feel that you fully know and accept them. You feel fully known and accepted. Okay. You can get your hands down now. I think, ballpark, we went down to about 10% of you. 10% of the entire group here tonight, I'm sorry, I missed you guys. But 10% roughly say they have something that the Bible would call true intimate friends in an intimate community. And that's sad, isn't it? Those of you that have it know how precious it is, and those of you that don't have it that we're looking around thinking, gosh, that sure would be nice to find somebody like that. I would love to be somebody like that. So my guess is this is something that we're all struggling with, to wonder here or another. You know, this is what the church is called to be. This is what we were created for. We were designed for this kind of an intimate community setting. This life, though, will never deliver this until we've been set free from the bondage in which we live in. And that's a big part of my premise that I want to propose to you tonight is that you must be set free to experience this, to live a life like this. This doesn't come naturally, it doesn't come by default. If you just wake up and hope that you go through life that it's going to happen to you, it usually doesn't. In fact, it really never does. Because it only comes through being set free from the bondage, and it only comes through what Jesus Christ can do for us. It's not that we don't try to live in communities because we do. It's just that we are not free to live in true community. Let me say that again. It's not that we don't try to live in community because we all try to do that. It's just that we are not free to live in true community. I mean, your problem is not that you don't have people around you. You all had your hands up on number one. You know some people. You're already set ready to go. The problem is there is a barrier. We talked about let the walls fall down as we started off this more on purpose. Notice verse one was let the walls fall down between us and God. And then verse two, chronologically correct, then let the walls fall down between us and each other. There's a direct connection with that which we're going to talk about tonight. What I want to do right now is before we go further, I want to give you a good picture of community. At least a bad picture of when a community doesn't happen. What better example of community than what? Raising a barn together, right? If you can raise a barn together, you've got something working. You can get the people to come. If you've got all supplies. If you can do it because they do it in a few hours or they do it in half a day, you've got something really there. But can't you? Could you and your group of friends raise a barn? Watch this clip. All right, there's one way to raise a barn. You know that's kind of a funny little clip there, but you know what's not so funny is that how many people... I bet you've come across at some point where you've seen community happen like that. Whether it is in a local church, I've heard of churches that pretty much their building hasn't done that. But their community has done that, has fallen and broken in. Maybe you've been a part of youth sports. Youth sports is another good place to see, you know, community happen and where we're there for the kids. And you don't take much before you see tensions and things fall down. And what's supposed to be a very community warm place. Maybe you've seen it in your social club. Maybe you've seen it in your parent teacher associations with schools. Maybe you've seen it at your family reunion. And maybe some of you are not looking forward to Thanksgiving or Christmas because you know the tension that's going to happen. And you're a little family community. Well, let's look at Galatians 5. Follow along with me if you have your Bible with you. Beginning of verse 13, we're going to go all the way through verse 2 of chapter 6. This is God's Word. This is what he says. You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not know what you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, adultery in witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit, let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other. Brothers, if someone is caught in this sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself where you may also be tempted, caring each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. That is God's word. That is eternal truth. That was there from the beginning of the world, and will be there after the world is gone. So as we look at this, we are going to talk a lot tonight about what this new spirit life is about. We are going to talk about the gospel, what is revealed here. And we are going to see how much from these kind of pictures and reminders in our own experiences, how much we desperately need this. So I need help here real quick here. Some of you ought to help me with something. Because we really need to define the gospel, because I am going to refer to it, but what is it? Let me just say briefly, the gospel is good news. In fact that is what the word means. It means good news. And there are at least four reasons why there is good news. And when I, Tyler Lang, point to you, you are going to say, purchase. So let us try this. Purchased. So you have to be careful if I know your name, because we can work on that. Purchased. We have been purchased. He has purchased us for himself that we were once slaves to sin. We are now been purchased not to be his slave, but to be his son, to be his daughter. First part of the gospel, we are purchased. The second part is that he is provided for us. Who do I am going to pick on your needs miles in this other room? I have more kids over here. I have Ashley. Ashley, if I point to you, will you help me and say, provided? Provided. Thank you. The gospel is provided. He has provided payment for forgiveness of our sins. Jesus takes the guilt of our sin. Instead of us being judged, Jesus is judged on the cross, isn't he? For us. So we have got purchase, and then we have got provided, and we have third, he has empowered us. Who I want to pick over here. Can you help me out? I can't see your name tag from here. Yeah, what's your name? Heather. I should know Heather's name. Heather, when I point to you, how about you? Can you say empowered? Powered. Awesome. He has empowered us for living a righteous life. We live in Jesus with his power to walk obediently. It's not you trying harder. Forget that. It's Jesus living inside of you. That's the gospel. Not you trying harder and white-knuckling it. Jesus lived perfectly, his spirit living inside of us. So we've got, and we've got, and we've got, great. In the last one, he's appointed us. Have other kids back over here somewhere? I can't see. Where's Hannah? Hannah? There you are. Hannah, can you say appointed? Very nice. He's appointed us as his conduits of the heavenly kingdom here on earth. He's bringing his kingdom. Jesus is going to come back and finalize it himself, but now how he's doing it through us. We are his ambassadors here on earth. So the gospel has, and it has, and it has, and it also has appointed all four of those things. You guys stay on your toes because they're going to be using you through the rest of the time. Got to know what the gospel is. Number one, the gospel has set us free to serve others in love versus 13 through 14 there. If you look, he says this. He says, you my brothers were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather serve one another in love. God said, I've forgiven you. And because I've done that, you are set free now to live a new life. Let me explain what the gospel really does and doesn't do. First, the gospel does not set us free to do whatever we want. Okay, I've got my do not go to jail card or my do not go to hell card. And so I'm going to heaven. So I am free now that whatever mistake I choose to make, I can just go to God for forgiveness and He will forgive me. This is a good deal. No, the gospel is not setting you free to do whatever you want. You see, that's the bondage. The bondage of your sinful nature is that you are doing what you want, but you're wanting to do the wrong things. I mean, think about the addicts, whether it's alcohol, whether it's drugs or whatever it might be. Aren't they making their own choice in doing what they want to do? But are they not so addicted and so consumed that they can't do what they really want to do? Every time they pick up another alcoholic beverage, they're doing what they want to do. But there's a whole other sense where they really aren't. Now let's pick on the control addict. Some of you here. Let's pick on the comfort addict. Let's pick on the approval of others addict. That's the me. What's yours? What's your idol as we talked about last week? Are you really a free person when you're by yourself living your own life? I don't think so. Are you really free to do what you really want to do? I mean, don't you really want to believe that somebody bigger than you is really in control because a thought of yourself being in control? Isn't that kind of scary if you think about it? What about the burden and the bondage of having to please other people? If you're living your life day in and day out, really, really trying to please people, when do you rest? You don't. You're in bondage. Anyway, left to ourselves. We are enslaved to a selfish worldview. Left to ourselves. We are constantly wrestling with finding security for our own worth and value. Left to ourselves. We are constantly wrestling to find a meaning that is bigger than ourselves. Left to ourselves. We are always lacking community with others because we haven't first found it with God. And that's where it begins. Well, that's what the gospel does not do. What the gospel does do, unless you remind yourself that the gospel involves four things. All four of those things. The gospel sets us free to do what is right. That is true freedom. When the addict finally can say, no, I don't want to take that drink. Isn't he much more free than when you took it the day before or whatever it was? Yeah. You ask him, he'll tell you when he felt more free. What about for us and our own individual sins and the idols that we carry in our own hearts? The gospel frees us to live for God and to serve others. The gospel frees us to find our value and God's view of us through Jesus Christ, regardless of what any person on earth ever thinks. You want to have real security and self-worth. Get it from God, not from other people. You know the danger it is in trying to please everybody because you can't. The gospel frees us to join in on the winning side of the cosmic battle for good versus evil. God invites us to come and be victors with him. The gospel frees us to no real community with God and this lays the foundation for us to experience it with others as an overflow of our relationship with God. It is not until you are free and who you are in God that sets you to be free with somebody else and that is critical to understand. We must understand that ultimately we are powerless to experience true community without the power of the gospel and the gospel is, involves all those things God for us. We are powerless unless we are relying on that to experience it. Community is something that we must be set free to do. It's not something we can do on our own. We must be set free first. And listen to this, we are either in community through the gospel or we are inoculated from community because of our sin nature. Let me explain to you what I mean by the inoculation process. I love Avalon Park. It's such a great picture of so many different things. It's got the sidewalks. It's got the front porches. It's got the playgrounds and the parks. It's got the good schools. It's got the downtown center. But even if you are driven through Avalon Park, do you see a lot of people on the front porches? We did a survey one time. We blitzed out their last spring and stuck flyers and people's doors. I'm not sure what we were supposed to do, but we did. And I said, look, as this group goes out, 30, 30 youth kids, I said, look, just tell me, observe, who do you see? And this is a Saturday and it took them like 8 or 10 hours. They were all Saturday long. Observe how many people you see sitting on the front porch and observe how many neighbors you see having any kind of conversation on the sidewalk with one another, any kind of community happening. When they came back that day later on, I believe it was they had seen eight people that were talking on their cell phone on the front porch and six that seemed to be having any interaction with somebody else. And the entire Avalon Park, just a few months ago, on a Saturday, a beautiful spring day. But don't Avalon Park, at least it was, selling three homes on the average a day because it looks like community. And you know what, if you can't have the real thing, you at least want that. Give me nice front yards with no dryways and sidewalks and front porches. Give me the parks in the area. And even if I can't have real community, at least let me think I'm getting it. It's an inoculation that happens. And I bet you've been inoculated at some degree, too. Some of you think, well, I had some friends that fit that description at the beginning, but some of them, I really don't know if they really would tell me some of my blind spots. I hope they would, I think they would. Do you know that they would? Once last time, they really did. Have you just been inoculated and found some some relationships that go just a little bit deep. And you know what, if you get something that goes a little bit deep, aren't you tempted sometimes just to let that satisfy you completely. And my challenge for you tonight and for us as a new church is that we are way too easily satisfied. God wants us to have so much more in regards to community, but we were settling for what little bit we can scrounge up with our own white knuckling effort in life. And we'll let that pass. And so we have been inoculated, gotten just a taste enough so it might take away the incredible hunger. Now it's just a dull nagging hunger that stays there all the time. Let's think about that. The inoculation approach is satisfying only on the surface, but it never touches the depth that the soul longs for it, that it was created for. Number two tonight, not only are we not only the gospel set us free to serve others in love, but the gospel reminds us that we have two natures that are constantly colliding on the battleground of our heart. The gospel which is appointed, the gospel which does all those things for us reminds us that there is a collision happening in the battlefield of our heart daily. And I know you felt this. What I thought about a good example maybe of this is thinking about how a tadpole moves from being a tadpole to being a frog. And it goes through this really awkward stage. And if you think about it, imagine if you were a tadpole, I think you would be as embarrassed as I would be as I've thought about it. If you're swimming around and I'll say you spring out these legs, but you're still swimming around. And it's kind of like adolescence in it for some of us who have been there and some of you kids that are out there, it's like it's kind of awkward, your voice starts changing, your, you know, your foot is size 12 and you're still wearing boys clothes on top, and it's just weird, but this frog goes through this thing where he's got legs, but he's still swimming in the water. And then he goes through a stage where he comes out of the water where he is hopping around, but he's still got kind of as long tail. So the frog is just a great example of this process that happens, of a process of moving from one nature, breathing under the water to another nature, breathing above ground. It's a radical thing, and it is no more radical than what it means to be a Christian. For the battlefield of the flesh that continues to want to fight and then the spirit that lives inside of us that continues to fight and clash, there is this war going on all the time. Let's talk about the sinful nature. First is sinful nature. There are two ways that it can express itself, and let me just ask you which way it is for you most tonight, because we all have one. The Bible makes that clear in Ephesians 2, that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins, and we all have this deadness in us. And there's one way, one way it expresses itself is through what we call legalism, or the legalist, those who look to their own self-righteousness for salvation. These are the people that we read about here in this passage that are the ones that are biting and evouring each other. Not the ones doing the sexual morality, because they're much more sophisticated for that, because only real sinners do that kind of stuff. These kind of people are much more astute, and much more self-righteous, the people that are having dissensions, and they're having factions, and they're conceited, and they're provoking one another. Those were what those characteristics in the passage were talking about, the legalistic type person. Then there's also, though, the other side person, who his sinful nature is expressed maybe not through legalism and self-righteousness, which we all can't stand, and it's so prevalent in the Church, isn't it? But you have the licentious person, the one who looks to their own desires for salvation. You know, I'm not going to be self-righteous, and like that, I'm just going to do whatever I please to do. I'm just going to let it all hang out. I'm going to be who I am. All right? For me, the other one, bartender? What's the big deal? Whatever it is, they're just going to live their life. They're going to be whoever they want to be, and they're not going to be bothered by it. And that's their desire. They feed their desires for them, that's salvation for them. Be that and be free. But what kind of characteristics were described here? These are the sexual morality. This is impurity and debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, orgies. Those kind of persons described in this passage to under the sinful nature. They're both covered. And I'm willing to bet that your sinful nature, although it expresses both at times, probably leads more towards one or more towards the other. And typically, the average church people tend to lead more towards the legalistic self-righteous side. And maybe some of you are in that camp. Great. I want to have both here because we both are in need of the gospel. We're both in need of a new nature of the Holy Spirit to come. Both are what? Independent of God. This person is doing it on their own merits, and their own good works. This person doesn't give a rip because they're just fine as they are. And they're going to do whatever they please. But they both think that they're living satisfied lives. They both think that they're on the pathway to finding real biblical community, and they both never really find it. This person needs them to tell them their blind spots and how self-righteous they really are. This person needs to say, look, your life's fallen apart. Yeah, you're doing whatever you please, but look how good it's going. Where has it gotten you so far? It needs biblical community on both fronts here. So that leads us to the last nature, the Spirit-led nature. You have the sinful nature, but then you have the Spirit-led nature. The Spirit, which is described in this passage, gives us a higher view of the law than even the legalistic person has. Have you ever thought about this? The Spirit-led, it's not the legalistic thanks to highly of a law, the legalistic doesn't think high enough about the law. They think that in their self-righteousness that they're actually pleasing God, even though they're full of hatred and bitterness and pride and arrogance on the inside. And God says, no, you're not. And what did Jesus say to the bones that say, well, we've kept the law, God, we haven't committed adultery, we haven't killed anybody. And then he says, Jesus, so, well, have you hated anybody in your heart? Well, hello, you've already killed somebody. Have you lusted after somebody in your heart? You've already committed adultery. Jesus doesn't lower the standard of law. He elevates it. He takes it to the heart level, and that's where you get the legalist every single time. When you bring it to the matters of the heart, they are as condemned as the licentious person. They're just usually deceived. Well, the spirit also gives us a higher view, a freedom than the licentious person does. The person thinks, ah, just be free to whatever you want. I think that's real freedom, but as we even talked about earlier, no, real freedom is not just doing whatever you want. Real freedom, right, as the addict is being free to do what you know is right, and what you really want to do in your heart or hearts. Being who you really want to be, that comes through that. That's a deeper freedom. A deeper sense of the law, a deeper sense of the freedom, both of those come in the gospel. So we're not lowering the standard of raising it through the gospel, but it's met not in our efforts of the self-righteous or the licentious, it's met through Jesus Christ. The spirit produces, and it calls it a fruit, not fruits, a fruit, it says the fruit of the spirit. You know why that's so important? Okay, is that if you want to produce fruit in your yard, what must you first get? It starts when I say tree or plant or whatever, you must, you know, if you want to produce fruit in your yard, you don't just come and go to the grocery store and go to public and buy some apples and roll them out in the yard and roll some oranges out. Look at that, I'm producing fruit. No, you're not, you're littering your yard, okay? You're feeding the wild animals tonight. That's what you're doing your yard, and a few days your fruit will be gone and there'll be nothing to show for it. No, the fruit of the spirit comes because it's produced by something. It's the fruit of the spirit, it's the spirit living in your life that produces this. And what is that? As we read, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. These are the things that are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And when he's growing as a tree-wooded in your yard, when he's growing in your heart, he produces these things. Does the world and non-Christians, people who do not have Christ, do they want these things? Absolutely. And they try all kinds of fake imitation, love, joy, peace, and they try to stuff it in there, but it's just like throwing fruit out on your yard. And it doesn't last any longer than your fruit wood sitting in your yard. People without Christ focus on finding the fruit. People in Christ focus on being the right kind of tree, and that's being somebody who believes the gospel, which is we've been purchased by Jesus dying for us, which is he's provided for forgiveness of sins for us, which is we've been empowered. There's a new life that comes not in trying hard but the spirit living inside of us, and we've been appointed to be God's ambassadors here on earth. The spirit led nature produces, and here's the first time we're really going to talk about community, but I told you the most important part, verse. The spirit led nature produces a community where, verse 1 of chapter 6 says this, says, brothers, if someone has caught and sinned, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. We're looking out for each other. You can't approach someone who's caught and sinned unless you're involved in seeing what's going on in their life, unless you're looking. So a spirit led a real community is looking out for each other. It's being involved and being engaged in each other's lives. Next, it goes on to say more than just knowing about each other, it's getting involved. Notice what it tells us. It tells us, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. It requires you to be assertive in each other's lives. And by the way, if you're on the recipient side, it requires you to be open to receive it. It requires both. But to go to somebody, to go to your brother or sister in Christ, to reach out to them, to seek with the goal being restoration. And how does it tell us to do that? It says to restore them gently. You go with gentleness. And then it goes on and says, but watch yourself or you may also be tempted. So you don't go with pride and arrogance. You go with humility. And you go saying, hey, I know what you're going through. I struggle with this and this before in my life here too. And I just see a little bit of this when you, and I just hate to see you go through the same things I have. Can we talk about it? You approach smile with gentleness and humility. You get involved in your lives and you care about them. You're on your way most of the time to develop a real lasting friendship. And let me ask you, how many of you would, once you love to have smile, that would do that to you, that would be gentleness and humility, get involved in your life and want to know you intimately and want to share with you and want to help challenge you when you're struggling? I think you would. And I think you'd be tasted it. I think you would. And for some of you that really have real community, I bet if you really want somebody to give you an honest opinion about yourself, I bet there's a short list of people that you would go and ask. You know, some people are just going to tell you what you want to hear. But you know, gosh, you know, if I really want to get a good honest answer, I want to ask Joe. Because Joe just says it how it is. And Joe loves me. And he's not going to give me something I don't need and puff me up. Or maybe it's, you know, barb. I know if I go to barb, she's going to shoot straight with me. And I need that. Gosh, if you've got somebody like that, they are a true friend. And my bet is you're probably that kind of friend of them. But that's the kind of community God's calling us to do. What is he saying? Verse two, carry each other's burdens. And in this way, you will fill a law of Christ bearing one another's burdens. That's a real biblical community. But you know what? Until somebody has taken your burden, the Lord Jesus Christ, how are you going to be free and empowered to take on somebody else's burden with them? You're not. And that's the point. Or you'll do it in an inoculation kind of a way. Well, this person, you know, I come alongside, I'm on the back, say, we're praying for you. But that's not quite the same as getting involved in our life saying, hey, let's go do lunch and tell me how you're really doing. We'll do the inoculation thing all day long. But we really get in. We really be a biblical church experiences real community. I pray we will. I hope that we will. So what kind of tree are you? Are you a tree that has the Holy Spirit producing the fruit of the spirit? Or is what's being produced in your life really more resemblance of that of the sinful nature? Because that tree is there too in each of us. But one, we're watering. One, we're getting it's getting our attention. One is growing stronger than the other. And may it be the spirit of God. May our barn raising experience be a little bit more like this one. A little different picture than the first one we saw of that. But that is my prayer here. Let me pray for us now as we prepare to come to Lord's table as well. Father, just ask that you would come and reveal your power and your goodness to us. And Father, for some of us who are here realizing that we really haven't understood the gospel to begin with. Maybe we really are not experiencing that understanding that we've been purchased with the price that we have been provided for that we've been empowered that we've been appointed. God, will you come and just let the truth of that be real? Will you allow those tonight to say, God, I want to reach out to you and experience your gospel. Will you come and forgive me for my sins? Will you come and transform me from the inside out? Will you come and let me be your child, your son, your daughter? Will you come and empower me to live the life I cannot live by myself but which my heart desires to because I've been made in your image. And God will you come and appoint me to be your ambassador here on earth to live for you, to be the outpouring of your spirit's power here now. So, God, come and work and we come and move and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.