From Concrete Cage to Garden City (Galatians 5:16–26)

Paul tells the Galatians to "walk around in the Spirit" but his point is that the Spirit is more than a means to something better. The Spirit is the source itself. Walking through Galatians 5 we see a life where believers walk about unshackled, out of chaos we receive one fruit, and we are walking toward Eden. Along the way we see the sin we rarely admit: trying to "program our way out of our flesh" through accountability and discipline. But because of Christ's finished work, we don't live in chaos, fear, and self-destruction. We do not need our own self-will. We are free and even better, we are not alone. SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS Where do you, or the culture around you, hold the belief that growth is mainly self-improvement and restraint, rather than walking toward the Spirit as the source? What is your "concrete block" like Kiki the Gorilla? What is it you hold onto in anger, but in the freedom of the Spirit can lay down as a new creation? How do we see Christ's finished work walking us past Eden into a garden city, the New Heavens and New Earth--to a world being remade?