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)

Plundering the Egyptians or Best Birthday Ever!

This week's blog will be devoted to the four events that converged this weekend. To begin, today we launched our much anticipated church building renovation plan. Normally I would not get too excited about a building program but this one makes so much sense and will do so much good. God has allowed us to "plunder the Egyptians", as we discussed in this morning's sermon, and now he is asking us to give from our wealth so that our church building can have a much needed face lift.

Secondly, I was surprised and honored by the thoughtful gifts given to us at church this morning in recognition of our ten years of ministry here at Clear Lake. I am humbled and appreciative of the many kind words spoken about our work here.

Third, last night my daughter, Elizabeth, accepted a proposal of marriage from Jaime Arizpe. Jaime and his parents had come to Houston from San Antiono last Friday to ask our blessing on his proposal. We already knew and loved Jaime and instantly fell in love with his parents as well. Jaime is a godly, responsible, and sensitive young man and we recognize in him the answer to our lifelong prayer for Elizabeth's future husband.

Finally, my 50th birthday has turned out to the be the best birthday ever! It began last weekend when all of my children came home to celebrate with me. Then each child sent me a personal letter telling me why they appreciate me as a father. Liz also joined in and wrote her own letter to me. Finally, my church family celebrated with me this morning.

I am more blessed than anyone else I know! I am so thankful for my many friends, my church family, my biological family, and especially for my Lord Jesus Christ who gave his all for me so that I might have all the spiritual treasures available through his death and resurrection.

Praying Out of Desperation

If I could re-title this morning's sermon I might change it to, "Creating Space for God." I find that I will fill every time void in my life from waking up till I fall asleep at night. I'll turn on the news while getting ready in the morning and read in bed until my eyes can't stay open. Any lull in activity gets filled with t.v., computer, reading, household maintenance, playing with my dogs, etc....

The only real break comes when I purposefully and intentionally create a space for God. The space does not necessarily need to be filled with my incessant rambling on and on about things I need God to do for me and f0r others. Rather, the space needs to be open for meditation, contemplation, or just simply resting in my relationship with my loving Father in Heaven.

The true beauty of my annual prayer retreats are the space that is created for me to rest in God's presence long enough to gain appreciation and understanding of things God has been trying to teach me. I recognize that my annual week of prayer is a blessing that others are not able (for many reasons) to have. My wife has begun having dates with God. She will mark off on her calendar a time range and block out all other activity. When I was in college I remember spending a night under the stars asking God to help me sort out whatever it was that was going on in my life at the time. Jesus, "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16). What do you need to do to create space for God in your life?

Private Prayer Retreat

As promised, here is a brief report on my 12th annual private prayer retreat. This year I went to a wonderful little place called "Pilgrims Rest." This private retreat facility is located about 20 miles south of Alvin and is provided free of charge by radio station KJIC. If you are interested in learning more about Pilgrims Rest click here. The accommodations are simple but not Spartan. The general manager lives next door to the radio station which is less than a 1/8 of a mile walk from Pilgrims Rest. Even though they were nearby everyone respected my solitude.


As I do every year I prayed through the church directory again praying the intercessory prayers of the New Testament letters over every family. I also prayed for each of the 80 or so prayer requests every day while away. I always feels a close fellowship connection with the Clear Lake Church as I read the sometimes funny, sometimes very personal, sometimes heart rending comments that are written on the prayer requests cards. It impresses me how many people desire to grow spiritually to be a stronger leader for their family or want strength to overcome some temptation that is threatening to overcome them. As I pray through the directory and through the prayer cards I often feel like Epaphras who was described by Paul as, "always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured" (Colossians 4:12). I deeply appreciate those who prayed for me while I was gone and was constantly reminded of that fact by several of you who wrote on your prayer cards that you would do so.

I also worked through a number of the Contemplative Prayer exercises we learned at our church prayer retreats last years. Finally, the highlight of my retreat this year was to read through my many journals and pray through my life. I've always been rather reflective by nature and nearing the half century mark has made me more so. I told God that I wanted to review my life with him looking for perspective for what needs to happen next. That was a wonderful journey and God and I remembered the heights and depths, deserts and gardens of my life. The one constant has always been God's presence. Whether I was in the pits of depression relating to Psalm 88 or on the mountains of praise singing the Hallel Psalms (113-118) God has been with me whether I recognized him or not.

Several years ago I wrote a paper encouraging ministers to take a prayer retreat. Several non-minister types read the paper and found it beneficial. If you would like to read this paper it is posted on our church web site and is entitled, "A Minister's Private Prayer Retreat."

David Rocks and Goliath Rolls

After the sermon today a young man approached me with two questions. The questions were not about the sermon I had just presented but about sermons in general. Both questions were reflective in nature so I will present them here with some of my thoughts.

Question #1 - What do you hope will be accomplished through your sermons?
Every sermon has a specific objective but these fit into an overall desire for my preaching. My desire is that my sermons would help people to know God better. God's greatest revelation of himself has been made through Jesus, so I want to lean heavily on that revelation, but God has revealed himself in others ways as well (such as the Old Testament). When people walk away from any sermon I hope that the message will resonate within them all week. I consider it a great compliment when someone says to me, "I've been thinking all week about what you said Sunday."

Question #2 - What do you listen for in sermons?
Unfortunately, I must be honest that for years I was a terrible sermon listener. I'm ashamed to admit that while listening to others I would often be thinking about how I might preach that particular message. That kind of thinking came out my own insecurity and arrogance. Thankfully, God has sufficiently humbled me so that I now listen to the sermons of others with a much more profitable attitude of mind. When I have the opportunity to hear others preach what I listen for is a word from God. That word might be found in the scriptures being read or expounded upon. I might hear a word from God in a particular illustration, or even in an off the cuff comment the speaker makes. The question I try to answer is, "What is God saying through this message?" If I can find that answer I have something to ponder and hopefully to use to help me grow in my knowledge of the Almighty.

God Doesn't Choose Sides

Today's sermon left me with a lot of unanswered questions. Accepting the fact that God doesn't choose sides but calls us to join Him seems a relevant application of Joshua's conversation with the angel (Joshua 5:13-15). But wrestling with exactly what that means in everyday life is troubling to me.

Should I protest the abortion clinic, strip club, or pornographic movie theater? Or, should I seek to build a relationship with the owners to understand them better and hopefully communicate the gospel? Or, should I simply help people in general come to know the Lord and grow spiritually believing that the only sure way to change culture is for there to be a radical revival that is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit?

How active should I be in the political process? Does concern for changing abortion laws really trump concern for the poor and needy? Is saving the environment better than saving jobs? I no longer believe the naive assumption that one political party stands for righteousness and the other for moral debauchery. It's much more complicated than that, and if it's true that God doesn't choose sides, then Christians have a much more difficult job than simply joining one side or the other and thinking God is for them.

I honestly believe the only hope we have in following God is to truly humble ourselves before him. It has been my experience that when I do this he leads me to people and places that I would have never been open to going to before. When Joshua fell on his face, removed his sandels, and asked what message God had for him -- he received the most bizarre set of battle instructions ever given. Following the leading of God will undoubtedly cause us to do things that we otherwise would not have done. This is the path of the cross.

So, I guess I should expect to have a lot of questions. The only one who has ALL the answers is God himself. Let's humble ourselves before him and let him be the leader of our lives.