FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT - LESSON 1

Presented May 13, 2001

Tim Fletcher

  Lesson 1 in a 9 week Sermon Series on Fruits of the Spirit based on Galatians 5:22-23

Rabbis from the Jewish faith believed that man had two angels.  An angel above and an angel below.  Each angel was trying to get you to do things.  Have you ever felt that way?  Like you were having an internal civil war?  And have you ever felt a struggle inside where the struggle was more over being the right person who was doing something right, than simply just doing something right?  You can do all kinds of right things...but like Paul says in I Corinthians 13...without the right Spirit...all the right things can add up to a great biz zero!

Paul gives a great explanation of how you can be in Galatians 5.

            How Not To Be:  starts in Galatians 5:19

            How To Be:  starts in Galatians 5:22

The “How to Be’s” are also called “The Fruits of the Spirit” .   You see, we talk alot about what to do...but this is talking about what to be.   If you made a commitment to Jesus Christ and you have been born again, you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Acts 2:38 teaches us plainly.   But...even those people who ‘have’ the Holy Spirit, are commanded to be ‘filled’ with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18.  You ‘have’ it...but you are commanded to be ‘filled’ with it.

When you live your life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it will change you.  When you let the Spirit who lives in you do his work, there will be certain marks of character that are built up in your life.  These marks are a whole other dimension of faith that are not available to you in and of yourself.  They are available only by the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.  And you will only receive them as you yield to the Spirit working in your life.  They are not automatic gifts (I Thess. 5:19 says we can quench the Spirit)...YOU CAN STOP THE WORK, OR YOU CAN ASSIST THE WORK.

I think we need a plan.   A plan to be different people...a plan to have a higher quality of life.

Answer this question:  Do you want to be successful?   How about another question:  Do you want to be prosperous?

Read Joshua 1:8

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

You will be prosperous and successful when you meditate on the word of God, studying to apply it to your life and do what it says.

We’re going to meditate for 9 weeks on these principles and character traits...these “fruits of the Spirit”...1 per week.  Will you meditate on 1 per week? and really try to understand it and apply.  If you do that...you’ll be different for a lifetime.

Study these passages:  Psalm 119:97

Oh, how I love your law!

I meditate on it all day long.

Put it on a card on your mirror, hang it from your sun visor in your car.

What about Deuteronomy 6:5-9

 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The first fruit of the Spirit is LOVE.   Love in greek has many words...but in English it has just one.   When a guy sees a girl and says, “I’m in love”...he was probably not thinking of the fruit of the Spirit, or Galatians 5, or the greatest commandment.  And you can love your aunt Ruthie, and you can love baseball, and church potlucks...but those are different kinds of love.  In a lot of ways, the usage of this word here is essentially invented by Christianity, because outside of Christianity this word was hardly ever used...until Christianity started using it.

In Greek...the word is “AGAPE”

This agape love is like a “rain” kind of love.  It rains on everybody...the righteous and the unrighteous, those who deserve it and those who don’t.  It is unconditional, and is not dependant on feelings.  It is a matter of the will... a choice that is made to agape someone, to love someone.  “I WILL TO LOVE YOU”, even when I don’t feel like it.  This is the first fruit of the Spirit.

Think of a person you really, really love.  You’re spouse, a child, a parent.  I think you might die for that person. Think of a person who has wronged you.  You don’t like them...maybe even you hate them.  I don’t know if you would die for that person.

Now...would you give the life of the 1^st person for the 2^nd person?

That is extreme, radical love.  That is the love of God.

Read Romans 5:6-8

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God gave the one he loved the most for the people that had treated him badly.  The word used here is “agape”.  And that’s the kind of love that you and I are supposed to be showing the world.

Can you love like that on your own?  No.  Only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

NOW GO BACK 1 VERSE TO Romans 5:5                                         

5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

How is it possible to love that way, even with the Spirits help?

REALIZE EVERY PERSON YOU MEET NEEDS JESUS AS MUCH AS YOU DO

REALIZE JESUS EACH ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE JUST AS MUCH AS HE LOVES YOU

REALIZE THAT JESUS CAN DO FOR EACH ONE OF THEM WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU