Living by the Spirit: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

Listen to the sermon Joel Russell-MacLean

Watch the worship service May 31 2020 Worship Service

Bulletin: Bulletin May 31

Newsletter: Weekly Letter May 24

Scriptures: Galatians 2.19-3.14; Psalm 139; John 20.19-22.

Songs:

Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise (lyrics & melody, video, meditation, Charles Wesley biography)
We Cannot Measure How You Heal (lyrics/video; history)
At Calvary (video and lyrics, story, video 2

Joel Russell-MacLean

Let the Holy Spirit of Jesus and of God the Father live within you: be born again in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit.

The Spirit will confirm in your heart that Jesus gave his life for you and that God knows you and chooses you to be his child.

The Spirit will bring you life, new life, eternal life.

This is close to the heart of Paul’s plea to the church in Galatians; Jesus gave up his life so all of that could happen!

The church in Galatia had tenderly cared for him at a point in own his life when he was vulnerable and had made much of him. They were his friends, whom he loved.

Now, he ached for them and was torn up inside for them and didn’t know what to do. For, instead of continuing to grow deeper into the freedom and the love that comes with living in the Spirit, the Galatians were trying other things.

Paul began with his own story and his own experience. Jesus had visited Paul and Paul had received the Holy Spirit.

Paul said, “I live for Jesus, who loved me and gave his life for me.”

In these first weeks of Pentecost, we will be reading through Paul’s letter to the Galatians and reflecting on living in the Spirit.