05/31/2026
Sermon Rough Draft May 31, 2026
Father in Heaven, may Your name be set apart in our hearts above every other name. Our hearts do not rest until they rest in You.
Remind us of Your people standing before the Red Sea as Pharaoh's army drew near. Though they had witnessed the plagues, the Passover, and Your presence in the cloud and fire, fear overtook them. They grumbled, made other plans, and stopped trusting. In that moment, fear spoke louder than everything You had done.
Father, forgive us, for we are no different. You have shown us Your kindness, provision, mercy, and power again and again, yet we still allow present troubles to overshadow all You have done. We grumble, make other plans, and stop praying. We do not deserve Your patience, yet You remain steadfast and true even when we are fearful and weak.
Thank You for grace that continues to lead us, protect us, and provide for us despite our unbelief. Teach us to bring our fears beneath the truth of who You are.
Father, let us quickly turn our thoughts toward You when trials come. Before fear takes root, remind us who You are and what You have done. Strengthen our faith to trust You before we reason our way back to doubt. In Jesus' name, amen.
Every Thanksgiving, the Whitaker family gathered at Grandpa Roy’s farmhouse. The tables were crowded with casseroles, homemade pies, and children running through the living room. For years, it had been the one place where everybody came together no matter how busy life became.
Then one election season changed everything.
It began with a passing political comment after dinner. Ethan made a joke. His cousin Ted pushed back. Voices sharpened. Others joined in. Before long, the room divided itself almost naturally. One side was with Ethan. The other side defended Ted.
What should have ended as a brief disagreement followed them home.
Family text messages grew tense. Social media posts became subtle jabs aimed at one another. Assumptions hardened. Every disagreement became proof that the other side was ignorant, selfish, or compromised. Soon cousins stopped calling each other. Sisters who once talked weekly now communicated only through short holiday greetings.
By the following Thanksgiving, the divide was obvious. The family still gathered, but the warmth was gone. People sat in separate groups. Conversations were guarded. Laughter sounded forced.
If you would please, let’s open our Bibles this morning to the book of Galatians chapter five. In our text today we continue Paul’s train of thought that he began in verse thirteen of chapter five. There he commands that believers use their freedom to serve one another which every believer discovers is harder than it looks. Paul then explains that to this, the believer needs to walk by the Spirit. The reason that serving others is so hard is because the old nature or flesh is still at work opposing the good the Spirit is leading us to do. The good news is the Spirit is at work overcoming the flesh’s desires and temptations, but it is a war. So now the question is: How am I doing? In this battle of the flesh against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, who is winning in me today? The past month or year? In our text today, Paul is going to describe various deeds that give evidence of the flesh. Which of these do we struggle with?
Our text today is great because as Christians we can check all the right boxes and be fooled into thinking that we’re doing well, when really we’re not. We all want a Christianity that makes a difference, but what we are reminded of today is that it is more than just ritual. Let’s take a look.
Our text today is Galatians chapter five verses nineteen through twenty-one. Look on please as I read, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
To begin, let’s notice that Paul says that the deeds of the flesh are evident. The word for evident in the original language means to shine, to make apparent. The point is the deeds of the flesh cannot be mistaken for righteousness coming from the Spirit. There is no confusion. As we’ll see, many of these deeds can remain hidden from others. We can do a good job of hiding what’s really going on. The Judizers who had come in among the Galatians and were misleading them came across as righteous, but when you considered what was being produced as a result of following them, it was obviously not from God.
Paul begins with immorality. This was a word that encompassed s*xual sin in general from s*x outside of marriage to homos*xuality to prostitution. It's from this word in the original language that we get our english word po*******hy.
Next is Impurity. This described the condition of being unfit for holiness. Impurity differed from immorality in that impurity tended to describe the thoughts and desires that led to the actions of immorality.
Sensuality describes a person's disposition towards sin. It's one thing to sin and be burdened by it. What Paul is describing is the person who sins without conviction or shame. People who revel in their sin like homos*xuality or gluttony or greed.
Idolatry is the worship of anything outside of God. We’ve talked before that idols don’t have to be figurines or statues and we physically bow before. Our children can be idols. We can look to politics or even moral uprightness as a means of making life work.
Sorcery is an attempt to manipulate or harness spiritual power outside of prayer. At its root is trying to go outside of God to get what we want. It's from this word that we get our english word pharmacology because drugs were often a part of getting in touch with the spiritual realm.
Enmity describes the active hostility towards another person. This is more than being cross with someone else. This is when disagreements turn to bitterness to the point that you resent the other person.
Strife obviously is needed for enmity to take place, but it deals more with the attitude that drives the hostility. Strife seeks to focus on disagreements. Strife avoids finding areas of shared values. There is a lot of strife in the political realm between parties. Neither side is willing to acknowledge anything good about the other.
Jealousy is the burning desire to have what another has. It's the resentment of what someone else has that you don’t whether that be something physical like a house or car. It can also be immaterial like someone’s popularity or achievements.
Outburst of anger. This is someone whose anger leads them to lash out in an explosive way.
Disputes are more than disagreements. It's the motivation behind them. It's disagreements for the purpose of advancing self over an opposing person, party or viewpoint. It's picking a fight.
Dissensions are what results from disputes. It's the break in unity. Where there once was community, now there are dissensions.
Factions are what results from dissensions. Another word here would be cliques. It's when dissensions harden into sides. Us and them.
Envying is not wanting what the other has. That’s jealousy. Levying is wishing the other person didn’t have it.
Drunkenness is pretty straight forward. Carousing is a group of drunken people causing mischief.
Paul wraps up with, and things like these. In other words, this is not an all inclusive list. There are other deeds of the flesh such as greed, gluttony or worry.
Paul concludes by warning the Galatians that such practices will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The key here is understanding that these are practices or habitual ways of living. Paul isn’t saying those who have ever done these things or even people who did habitually live this way, but aren’t any longer.
So what are the takeaways here? Two things. The first is how “normal” many of these deeds are. When we tend to think of the deeds of the flesh we imagine sins like po*******hy and trans/homos*xuality and not having any shame. Certainly sorcery belongs on the list and we know that drunkenness is a sin. But what stands out is that many of these are issues that we deal with. In our minds, the sins of the flesh are what “those” people do, but envy, jealousy, strife? Those are things we can wrestle with. Who doesn’t have outbursts of anger? We even joke about “losing it.” Wait, does that mean we don’t feel any shame like Paul was saying? Ultimately, we need to recognize that Paul groups “our” sins in with “their” sins as far as both are serious sins. Do we take our bitterness against our sister-in-law as serious as Paul is presenting it?
The other takeaway is how many of these sins destroy community. Back in verse 15, Paul warns that they were “biting and devouring one another.” His concern is not only personal sin, but the kind of fleshly behavior that tears apart relationships and destroys unity within the body. That matters because God did not make us to live isolated lives. We were made for fellowship, for shared burdens, for life together in Christ.
Yet we live in a culture that increasingly defines people by disagreement. Our relationships have become conditional. Differences are magnified, offenses are treasured, and division is treated almost like a virtue. This is exactly what the flesh does in cooperation with our adversary. Divide. Divide. Divide.
We have largely lost the ability to overlook an offense, extend patience, or assume the best about one another. But the Spirit of God works in the opposite direction. The Spirit leads believers toward peace, humility, and love. Even where we cannot fully agree, we still treat one another with kindness and dignity because every person is made in the image of God. The flesh tears apart. The Spirit binds together through time in the word, prayer, fellowship and service.
In conclusion, let’s find out what happened at Grandpa Roy’s. Late that evening, Grandpa Roy sat quietly in his recliner watching the room. Finally he spoke.
“You know what grieves me most?” he said softly. “Not that y’all disagree. Families have always disagreed. It’s that somewhere along the way you stopped believing the best about each other.”
Nobody answered.
Roy looked around the room. “The world teaches us to define people by one issue, one opinion, one argument. But family is supposed to be stronger than that. Christians especially ought to know better. If the flesh rules, division always follows.”
The room grew still.
After several long moments, Ted walked across the room toward Ethan. The conversation that followed was awkward at first, but it was honest. For the first time in months, two men who had been acting like enemies began speaking like family again.
Father in Heaven, thank You for Your word. Let us each be convicted where we are giving ourselves to the ways of the flesh. Help us reject the temptation to divide and isolate. Encourage us to seek after unity, to see others as made in Your image. Help us to use our freedom to serve one another in love and enjoy the greater gains You have for us.
