Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Galatians 5:17

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Gal　5:17　ESV)

We’ve defined quite a bit in the last two weeks, Evangelism, spreading the good news through relationships, The Gospel, the Good News that we have been given a gift, the gift of eternal life given to us by Christ through His death and resurrection, our purpose, which is summed up in Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Our purpose here at Trinity Lutheran Church is to make disciples. We do that through evangelism. Evangelism is nothing more than forming relationships and letting the Holy Spirit work and guide you. While we form relationships we must embody the word or in other words let the word take on flesh as Christ did. Embodying the word is the how of evangelism and it takes place along the way in our everyday life. We learned that someone embodying the word can be misguided or overzealous and harm the kingdom rather than increase it. In order to create new relationships we have to be aware of the people around us which brings us to the assignment. We were to sit or walk around at a busy place, look at the people, imagine their life story, and then pray for them. Part two was to bless someone. How did we do this week? Would someone share their experience?

The assignments over the last two weeks are evangelism. You don’t have to go out of your way; you don’t have to knock on doors. It becomes part of your daily life. That brings up a good question. What part does the Gospel play in your daily life? Is it a small set of beliefs or doctrines focused primarily on the "afterlife" with no practical effect on your daily life? Sure, the Gospel focuses on the "afterlife." But does God’s promise of eternal life to those that believe enter into your basic life issues, priorities, and decision-making? Do you neglect to live out the greater Story of God that you are a part of? What would happen if you allowed the Good News of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection to shape and inform all the areas of your life?

The Gospel isn’t just the Good News for our afterlife; the Gospel is the "life journey" as a Christian. Do you believe in Jesus and his saving grace? Do you believe grace has the ability to save you from the penalties of your sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection? If you believe that then your sins are forgiven, and that is justification. You are also being saved from the power of sin in your life today, and that is sanctification. The Gospel is God’s power to save you but it also gives you your purpose as part of His family. The Gospel creates community (that’s us) that is sent; Gospel, community, being sent. Most of us look at these three aspects of Christian life without much argument. We’ve talked about it, heard sermons about it, and created or tried to create programs to challenge believers to live accordingly. Here is the tough part. Have you integrated them in your life? Truly integrating them rarely happens. Why is that? Well, it seems there are real barriers to submitting your entire life to living in a gospel community that is being sent. This is where today’s text comes in; "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."

Now you know why people just go to church without engaging the gospel in their everyday life. It’s not that the pace of the world is too fast or the forces of darkness are too great. It’s that we are fighting against ourselves. The call of the Gospel touches every aspect of your life. It touches relationships, time management, our priorities, money, sexuality, everything! Is your time and money so tight that you have neither to give to your neighbor? Do you allow the Gospel to touch your life when you make decisions that affect aspects of your life? Do you budget God’s portion first? Be it time or money. Or does He get the leftovers. The call of the Gospel is not just about avoiding hell and getting into heaven when you die. The Gospel is about letting God bring about change in every area of your life. In order to let God change every area in your life you need support from a community that is being sent. I want this community to be those supports for each other and for that purpose I present to you my vision for Trinity Lutheran Church. Worship together, Grow together, Go together. We come together to worship our Lord, the creator of all. We grow together through prayer, reading and studying the bible, Sunday school, interacting with each other, and holding each other accountable. We go together into the community to serve our neighbors where ever our God given abilities allow us. Our CASA mission to pick up food from Wal-Mart is just one example. It is a wonderful example of what we can do to serve our neighbor and I thank everyone for their support. I encourage those who haven’t had the chance to help to give it a try, it is a blessing. It is my vision that through worshiping together growing together, and going together into the community, Scottsboro will come to see us as a congregation that lives out our faith in God every day and in so doing we make disciples. Your assignment for this week and beyond is this. Find organizations that are the Good News to the poor, brokenhearted, those in mourning, those in despair. Find where your talents and Trinity talents match up with a need in one or more of those organizations. Fill that need where you can or bring it to me to see if we can accommodate it as a congregation. Be the Good News to people. Ask God to show you people that you can intentionally bless with your gifts. Send a card or flowers, mow a lawn, mentor a young person, clean up a park, help someone for free, spend time with a friend having a rough week, go to the park to build relationships, help a neighbor with a project or a chore, make a new relationship using an interest or hobby, invite others to join a personal or family meal.

As you go forward let the gospel affect all aspects of your life. Let God into the decision making process. So, Evangelism. The scary, impossible task has lost its intimidation. We have redefined this terrible thing into Worship together, grow together, and go together in order to make disciples through relationships. If we are the body of Christ, we will make disciples through the relationships we make in the course of our every day life along the way. So, what’s stopping us? It’s clear that the biggest hindrance is really our own hearts. Surprisingly, our struggles are often no different than the struggles of non-Christians. Understanding this helps us to see that until the Gospel gets bigger in our own daily lives we’ll have a hard time displaying and declaring it to Scottsboro and the world. As we face this truth about ourselves, we will discover opportunities to open ourselves to a much deeper transformation of the Gospel in our lives. We will find ways to let God speak into every nook and cranny of our lives. Let go and let God into every aspect of your life and watch the kingdom grow.

Amen.