It is easy to say, “I’m saved.” The harder question is whether the direction of our lives reflects the life Scripture says should follow salvation.
In this Sunday message, Pastor Henry Cotton turns to Galatians 5:16–26 to examine the conflict between walking according to the Spirit and living according to the desires of the flesh.
The passage does not present Christian living as passive. Believers are called to make a continuing choice about what will govern their lives.
Listen to the complete St. James Missionary Baptist Church Sunday message, “I’m on my way to Heaven any how . . . Right?”
What Is Leading Your Life?
Galatians describes the Spirit and the flesh as moving in opposite directions.
Pastor Cotton challenges believers to examine which one is shaping their conduct, decisions, relationships, and desires.
The standard is not what our friends are doing, what our families accept, or what the culture considers normal. Christ is the standard.
Walking in the Spirit means allowing God to direct the way we live—even when following Him requires resisting what comes naturally or what the world encourages.
Salvation Is More Than a Profession
Pastor Henry Cotton also addresses a question that can easily become misunderstood: if someone says they are saved, does that mean the way they live afterward no longer matters?
Galatians 5 does not encourage believers to search for loopholes.
Instead, Scripture gives us something to examine.
The works of the flesh produce one kind of life. The fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—produces another.
The question is not whether a Christian will ever stumble.
We will.
The question is whether sin has become the settled direction of our lives or whether we continue getting back up and following Christ.
What Does Your Life Show?
Pastor Cotton’s message turns the question of heaven into a question of evidence.
What is growing in our lives?
Are we increasingly being shaped by the Spirit?
Are we resisting the desires of the flesh, or have we become comfortable allowing them to lead us?
Christian maturity does not mean that temptation disappears. It means that the believer continues learning to walk where the Spirit leads.
That is why the title carries a question:
“I’m on my way to Heaven any how . . . Right?”
It is a question worth examining through Scripture rather than answering through assumption.
