Life At The Ridge

We have spent some time this month looking at what lament is, how we lament, and how our pain meets hope. We’re going to look today at the destination of our laments. Praise should be the result. Praise in the midst of pain is probably one the most difficult things we are called upon to do as Christians. Is it possible to praise God even in the midst of pain? Yes! The book of Lamentations is testimony to this. This short book, written by Jeremiah, chronicles the weeping prophet’s deep grief as he mourns the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem in 586 BC. He not only predicted it’s destruction, but was also an eyewitness to it as well. It was a time of unfathomable distress and anguish, when evil seemed to reign, and the future looked impossibly bleak.

If we are going to move from pain to praise we need to take the next step. We aren’t suppose to stay in the cycle of constant complaining. God want’s us to move beyond that. The next step is seeing how our pain meets hope. How?

In times of brokenness and seasons of grief, God is so good to us by giving us the remedy for us to tell Him what’s going on. It is through this process of lamenting that we can address the pain in a way that not only honors God but steers our hearts toward Him! How do we lament?

In this life that we live, we experience pain, loss, grief and despair. We are broken. We see and experience sadness, loss, grief, and agony every day in and around the world. Sin and its results are evident in this life. God gives us an awesome way to process our pain through lamenting. As we lament it will teach us how to turn our pain to praise.

Mark 6 gives us a very interesting view of how the disciples interacted with Christ. The disciples found themselves in a storm on the sea of Galilee again and Christ shows up waling on water. The disciples are amazed at what happened and it says "Their hearts were hardened, because they didn't consider the miracle of the loaves" Why were their hearts hardened? What was it about the loaves that they missed?

As Paul wraps up this letter, he again revisits one last time what this whole book has been emphasizing: Are you going to live a life of legalism or grace? So in the last final sentences of his letter Paul is going to emphasize it one last time to get his point across.

How are you serving those in the body of Christ? Are we serving others in the body of Christ. Christ calls all of us to serve, but more importantly He uniquely calls each of us specifically for a certain task.

The life that has been transformed by grace lives a spirit filed life. What does that life look like? A spirit filled life makes spiritual investments. What ever we sow we will reap.

In Mark 6 we see the awesome encounter of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a few fish and few loaves. In this passage we see Jesus serving the sheep and providing for them. What do we learn from what Jesus provided and how he served His sheep?

Paul began the fifth chapter of Galatians with the command to stand firm in the liberty Christ gave us. We stand on God’s grace, and we depend on His strength, not ours. The liberty and the freedom of the Gospel was under attack. The false teachers were saying that to live a life of grace you would be doing what ever you wanted to do. To live that way would produce all kinds of law breaking. As we looked at last week, Paul argues that to live in liberty it’s not a license to do whatever you want to do. Instead a Gospel grounded, grace driven life will produce a type of life that seeks to obey God, not because we are trying to merit God’s love or favor, but we have been called to a new way of living and we aren’t abandoning the law instead we fulfill the the law by serving one another through love. As Christians, we are free, but we should use this freedom to reflect God’s love. Our text this morning Paul is going to show us that one of the things we encounter when we try to live for God is a conflict. I

Paul has been talking about being spirit filled. In this last chapter we are going to see how a spirit filled believer actually lives their life. Remember why Paul was writing these things. It’s a defense of what the false teachers were saying to live a life apart from the law would lead a person into all kinds of wrong living. He however was showing them that a believer is to live by grace and those that have been transformed by grace live a different type of life. They serve one another, they don’t walk in the flesh, but rather decide to walk in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit. In these next set of verses Paul is going to show us practical what the spirit filled life looks like in how they love their life.

These believers were in danger of abandoning the incredible grace they had in Christ. They had got off the course of grace. Paul's letter was an attempt to get them on course again and this section is an emotional plea for them to get back in the race of grace. How could they, and how can we, get back to running in grace?

Paul has been answering the false claim that to live a life apart from the law and only live by grace one would go into all kinds of sin. He did this by showing us that every believer has a conflict within. The desires of the flesh are at war with the desires of the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill those desires of the flesh. So we have to make a conscious daily decision to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is not something that is mystical or taboo. Its basic Christianity 101. The Spirit is already blowing we have to put up our sails to catch the wind. We do that through basic Christian practices of reading God’s Word, prayer and worship. Paul said it was important for us to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit (5:16,18). The result of being led by the Spirit and walking by the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit becomes evident in our lives. This is a result of the Gospel that has taken root in our hearts. You cannot have the fruit of the Spirit apart from knowing Ch

Allan McGuire brings the message for us our of Mark 6. This is another "Markin Sandwich" where Jesus teaches His disciples in how to handle those who reject you when you preach the Gospel.

This list here today is a list of many things that can and will show up in our life when we are not walking in the Spirit. The Gospel can and will save you from these things if and only if we are walking in the Spirit. We don’t have to live this way.

As we begin a new chapter here in Galatians, Paul is going to defend his belief in the Gospel and the freedom it brings. The false teachers were saying that living a life of Gospel freedom would produce a life of unrestrained behavior where one could do whatever they wanted. However Paul is going to show us that the Gospel actually produces a life where a person is free to live for God.

In Mark 6 we get a look at the life of King Herod and his actions of what he did to John the Baptist. Herod's life was marked by family dysfunction and it showed in how he had John the Baptist beheaded.

As we wrap up chapter 4 today, Paul is going to use another story from the OT to prove his point about how we are brought into our relationship with God. Paul goes all the way back to Genesis again and retells the story of Hagar, Sarah, and the birth of each of their sons. It will be thorough this story from the OT that Paul will use to help the Galatian believers see that they need to reject legalism and cling to grace.

As we look at chapter 4:8-20 today, we will see the the pastor side of Paul. As he is giving the Galatian believers truth he makes a loving appeal. He’s pleading with them to remain free in grace and not attach all these laws in order to gain favor with God. With a bleeding heart, Paul begged the Galatians to stay firm in the gospel of grace.

As we finished chapter 3 last week we saw what faith is able to do. When we believe in Jesus by faith we become sons of God and we are part of the family of God. Paul is saying all these things because he is building on the relationship that we have with God because of our faith. We don’t earn a relationship with God through works. What the Galatian believers were caught up in and what we sometimes find ourselves in is this idea that our relationship with God is dependent on if we do or do not do certain things. We are saved by grace through faith alone, and our growth in Christ is by grace through faith. As we look at chapter 4 today Paul is going to continue the thought about our relationship with God that we looked at last week and stress the importance of God as our Father.