The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Self Control

As I talked about the failures of Tiger Woods, Bobby Humphrey and Bill Bennett this morning; I thought how easy it is to be judgmental and self righteous when the sins of others come to light. As far as Humphrey and Bennett are concerned: they have both risen above their moral failures and appear to be making positive contributions to society. Tiger's story is still so fresh that it would be good for us to pray for him rather than throw stones. (I'm talking to myself with that last statement.)

When we get really honest with ourselves we have to admit that we have all done things for which we are now ashamed. I've often meditated on the statement, "All the ground is level at the foot of the cross." We come to Jesus broken and needy. He accepts us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way! By submitting to the Holy Spirit who lives inside us we are transformed into the person of Christ. Gary Robbins summed up today's sermon with this scripture, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:10) Amen! May the Spirit bear his beautiful fruit in your life and mine as we surrender control of our lives to him.

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Gentleness

I remember as a child singing, "Jesus, meek and gentle; Son of God Most High." If you are as old as I am you may be hearing those melodious notes going up and down while singing, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh." The vision of Jesus that came from this song to my childlike mind was a soft, passive man who never upset anyone; kind of a first century Captain Kangaroo. (There I go showing my age again; Google him if you don't know who he is.)

Reading the Gospels I found Jesus to be a passionate, emotional man who could become angry to the point of kicking things around. (Read John 2 for a classic example of this.) His emotions, however, were never out of control or IN control of his life. Rather, his anger was always directed at those who deserved it. Theologians might call it, "righteous indignation."

When Jesus described himself as "gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:29) it was not because he was unable or unwilling to "let people have it." Rather, it is a description of Jesus' "default" mode. Jesus is a gentle man, but he not a man to be taken for granted. It angers him to see people abused and taken advantage of. This is one reason he offered his yoke to us. Serving God need not be the harsh, dreary, dreadful experience that Pharisees make it into. When the yoke fits well it makes service to God a joyful partnership with the Son of God.

Hear again Jesus' invitation, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Faithfulness

Everyone admires faithfulness; but many are not willing to pay the price to actually be faithful. As I reflect on the sermon this morning it occurs to me that everything we do in the Sunday morning assembly has something to do with faithfulness.

• We began this morning with a baptism wherein our new sister in Christ joined Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection. Jesus was faithful to his mission to "give his life as a ransom for many" which allows us to be saved from sin.
• We then sang praises to our great God in heaven who has proven himself to be faithful to his covenant promises.
• The sermon was based on passages we find in the Bible which is a record of God's faithfulness toward us.
• The Lord's Supper is our weekly sharing in the body of blood of our faithful High Priest and the sacrifice of himself which was given for us.
• The contribution became the first opportunity we had as a congregation to respond to our faithful God by showing ourselves to be faithful in support of His church.
• Our family prayer time was made possible because of the faithfulness of Jesus who allows us to boldly approach God's throne of grace.
• We ended our service recognizing a new member who desires to become a part of our family. We are indeed a family because God was faithful to keep his promises.

Now we get to live all week long remembering that God is faithful and looking for ways the Spirit of God is developing faithfulness in our lives. When you see evidence of his work in your life encourage it, fan it into flame so that you will become a living example of the faithfulness of God!

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Goodness

As I was contemplating the meaning of the word good out loud on facebook (my favorite new way to begin sermon preparation), my friend Glenn Drysdale raised an interesting point. He said something to the effect, "what if we focused more of our attention on being good rather than being right?" There is certainly nothing virtuous about being wrong; but it seems to me that we Christians may have followed the misguided notion that being right is somehow more important than being good. What if we put goodness before rightness? What would that do to our attitudes and opinions of each other? What would happen if we devoted ourselves to being good? In our pursuit of rightness we cannot forgot to follow these instructions:

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal. 6:9).

"In everything set them an example by doing what is good" (Titus 2:7).

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good" (Titus 3:1)

"Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good" (Titus 3:14).

"Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." (1 Peter 2:12).

"For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." (1 Peter 2:15).

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . . Kindness

Several asked about the book I read from during the sermon this morning. It was Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand.
As I stated in the sermon's introduction, the fruit of the Spirit is not a to-do list; it is a description of the person who is cooperating with what the Spirit is creating in their heart. I felt that Richard Wurmbrand's story of the incredible love shown by Christian prisoners toward their former torturers profoundly showed this to be true.

When Christians allow the Spirit to reproduce the life of Christ in them, then there is no force on earth that can stop them. The kindness shown us in the cross of Christ is the same kindness that we express toward friends, family, strangers, and even enemies. God's kindness can melt even the most resistant and rebellious heart. Let that kindness flow through you to others.

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Patience

Our "quick fix" mentality wants to find a short cut for everything: especially patience. ("Give me patience and give it to me NOW!") My goal in preaching this series on the Fruit of the Spirit is not so much to tell us how to get love, joy peace, patience, and the rest; as much as to describe these qualities so we can cooperate with God as he seeks to develop them in our lives. These nine qualities are, in reality, the description of Jesus Christ.

Setting up patience as a personal goal may be like setting happiness as a goal. As we mentioned in the sermon on joy: the chase after happiness chases happiness away. Make it your goal to develop the mind of Christ. In the words of scripture, "live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desire of the sinful nature" (Galatians 5:16). Patience develops in our hearts as we devote ourselves to following the leading of God's Spirit within us.

As seen in the video this morning, my little doggies can wait patiently because they know from training that they will get a treat. God has a different training method. He puts the Spirit of his son in our hearts to refine our character so that we are not simply "acting" patient, we are actually becoming patient. Behavior modification changes what we do. The Spirit of God changes who we are.

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Peace

There are times like this past week, when I realize just how OLD 50 really is. I asked my facebook friends to tell me their favorite war protest song. Shockingly (to me at least), some had no idea what I was talking about. I grew up in the 60's when everyone knew some war protest songs: "Blowin' in the Wind", "War" (What is it Good For?), "The Times They are a Changin'", "If I Had a Hammer", and the Woodstock classic, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag." Of course my son Jeremy came up with my personal all time favorite, Buffalo Springfield's, "For What it's Worth." (It's good to see all my fatherly training paying off.)

Norman Farr (who has surpassed me in age and spiritual depth) listed one I would never have considered. However, on reflection, perhaps it should be the number one war protest song in Christian hearts.

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus--this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus' bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Maybe we could have just sung the song and skipped the sermon this morning. Jesus is on the throne. Amen.

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Joy

"Doesn't God want me to be happy?", said a woman one day from my counselor's couch. She was in a bad marriage and was convinced in her mind that she needed to get out. What convinced her was her feeling level of unhappiness.

The most profound thought I had this week while preparing this sermon, was that the happiness we yearn for is not the happiness that God wants to give us. Our happiness is TOTALLY dependent upon circumstances and situations. If everything would just go right we could be happy. The Joy which God has available for us through his Spirit is not created by external circumstances and therefore can never be taken from us.

Paul's question to the Galatians, "What has happened to all your joy?" (4:15), is perhaps one that modern day Christians would do well to ponder.

The Fruit of the Spirit is . . . Love

I'm embarrassed to tell you readers about a conversation I had around 30 years ago. I was a Bible major at Harding University and, like many others in my degree path, was preaching for a small congregation near Searcy, AR. The conversation I mentioned was between myself and another "preacher boy." I asked my fellow student what he was preaching on that coming Sunday and he replied, "love." I snickered and said something like, "You're joking, right?" No, he wasn't joking and said that he felt love was an important topic to speak on. I was under the assumption that the topics we needed to be preaching on were commitment, sacrifice, self-denial, and the like. Little did I realize, in my naivety, that Love trumps every other topic that can be presented! (Check out 1 Corinthians 13 for Paul's attitude on the superiority of love.)

The problem in preaching on the topic of love is that there is simply too many scriptures and way too much biblical information. I therefore decided this morning to restrict myself to the Greatest Commandments and the Great Love Chapter. Be conscious this week of how the Holy Spirit inside you prompts you to love others with the love of Jesus.

Live in the Spirit

I can remember a time when the Holy Spirit was all but ignored by Christians. He was either confined to the first century or restricted exclusively to the New Testament. Then a time came when the Holy Spirit was released from his prison and . . . . well, we weren't exactly sure what he was doing but it had a lot to do with emotions and how we were feeling. We could feel the Spirit moving and it was all very exciting, but there was not much substance. When we read Paul's letter to the Galatians he has a lot to say about the work of the Spirit. His work is anything but confined and it is certainly much deeper than one's up and down emotional journey though life.

One critical work the Holy Spirit does in the life a Christian is to reproduce the person of Christ. When we allow the Spirit to do his work, our lives show the evidence that God is working in and through us. What is that evidence? Why, it is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Throughout this series of sermons I hope we will all develop a sensitivity to the work of the Spirit. "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious," Paul says. The fruit of the Spirit needs to be equally obvious to us. Crucify the sinful nature and the fruit of the Spirit will grow. If you want to see the Holy Spirit at work in your life, then stop feeding your sinful nature! "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25)