FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT - LESSON 2

Presented May 20, 2001

Tim Fletcher

I was thinking this week about what people really need.  It’s the thought I came to when I was meditating on “love”.  Did you meditate this week on the fruit of the Spirit found in God’s word, “love”?  Remember, Joshua 1:8 tells us that when we meditate on God’s word and apply it we will be prosperous and successful.

Anyway, I was reflecting on “love” and I thought.  ‘Man...that’s what everybody needs...love...real love.’  Isn’t that true?  The kind of love that is like God gives, agape love, love like the rain that falls on you whether you deserve it or not.  A love like Jesus Christ, who loved us enough to die for us.   And then I wandered a little bit in my thinking...and started thinking about ALL the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.  Everyone single one of these people need:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

So then, the key to success...It is to know the greatest needs of people and then find a way to meet those needs.

And then it hit me...we have something that people need.  And the work we have to do, is to show them how what we have to offer, Jesus Christ, and a life that is filled with the fruits of the Spirit, will meet the greatest needs of their life.

Think about the people right around us.  People right across the street....

What are they going through?  Have we even asked them.  I don’t know what they are going through...but I know what every single one of them needs, and they need badly...God’s amazing love, God’s gift of joy, God’s peace that passes understanding.  They need faithfulness...a faithfulness that is greater than anything they’ve ever known before.  They need self-control in their lives...the kind of self-control that will help them overcome any obstacle.

WHY WE EXIST

1.  Our church exists to bring those who don’t know Christ into a relationship with Christ.  We strive to do nothing in word, deed or action that will hinder someone from coming to Christ, and to do everything in our ability to encourage people to come to Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:22-23

I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

2.  Our church exists to see that each member of our church measurably grows each year in their individual faith and in their ability to love, follow and serve Christ among their family, on the job, in the community, and within the church.

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

  3.  Our church exists to declare the wonders and works of God and does so in every way possible from public worship to private devotion.

 I Peter 2:9-10

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Most people think that if they could look into the face of God they would see stern, angry and disappointed.  On the Bravo show “The Actors Studio” the MC always ends by asking each movie star a series of questions, and one is, “If God exists, what would you most like to hear him say when after you die?”, and they almost always get that look on their face and then say something like “C’mon in!” or “Welcome Home!”...a lot of times you can see that they know they need grace, they need forgiveness, and they are crossing their fingers that God will let them in anyway.

I Timothy 1:11, talks about GOD, our GOD who is happy (blessed).  Sometimes he is angry at things...but God is a happy/blessed God...some translations even say, “supremely blessed” .   And Galatians 5:22 tells us that there is a fruit of the spirit...a fruit that you will bear with the help of the Holy Spirit in your life...and that fruit is JOY.

Christians can be funny when it comes to joy...

Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary what he considered to be an extraordinary thing. He said, "I have been to Church today, and (Surprisingly) I am not depressed."   That’s funny to me...because Christians are called to be joyful in all circumstances.  Philippians 4:4 “REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS...I WILL SAY IT AGAIN REJOICE!” and Paul wrote that from PRISON!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t come to church to be bored.   Sometimes Christians look like we were baptized in lemon juice...and our words and actions show it!

Ben Patterson writes, “The word hope has been described as hearing the melody of the future.  And faith as dancing to it in the present.  Like joggers running with the Sony Walkman headphones affixed to their ears, we Christians hear a melody that no one else can hear.  We hum along and tap our feet to it.  As we do, the promised future invades the present and our worship is filled with joy and energy.  Because we hear the melody of the future, we can dance when our present world is a mess...knowing that God will redeem even our failures.”

We move to a different rhythm.   We’re hearing something that the world isn’t hearing...but they need to hear.

I can remember traveling one summer with some college students on a bus...and I was listening to Amy Grant’s album “Lead Me On” and that song is so good.  And I just wanted to share it, and I had the girl I was sitting next to listen on the other ear piece, and she liked it too...and eventually, she wanted to hear the whole thing... and it sort of spread like that.  Now I can’t hear that song, and not think of sharing it with Marla.  That’s the way your faith is.  If you have a faith that you don’t like...you’re not going to share it.  You won’t even want to hear it at all.  But if you like the faith you’ve got...and if you know  you’ve got something good...you will be bursting at the seams to share it.  That’s the JOY that comes from the Spirit of God.  A joy that transcends circumstances...and brings a smile to your face even in the face of bad times.

You want to know what I’m talking about? Listen to Paul...

2 Corinthians 11:23-29

23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.   25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Paul would say that’s a “GOOD DAY”.

You want to know what I’m talking about?  Listen to Victor Frankl, and Jewish Nazi prison camp inmate from WWII.

“We who live in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts giving comfort to others.  Giving away their last piece of bread.  They may be few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing...the last of human freedoms...to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

No one can rob you of the choice of choosing your own attitude.

Some rejoice only if things work out.   Paul says rejoice when you are going through II Corinthians 11....not based on circumstances, but based on something else, something greater...

Some of you have heard of the best seller book, “Happiness is a warm puppy...”   Well what do you do if you don’t have a warm puppy around?   Circumstances change...and what you have that makes you happy now...you are going to lose someday.  And if tomorrow you lost your money, your job,  your looks...how you know joy?   If you rejoice in circumstances...you will be on a never ending cycle “Happy” “Sad” Happy Sad

How can you rejoice when things aren’t great?  Like Paul:

Philippians 3:9-14

 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.   12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Joy found in the midst of trial...based not upon what’s happening, but upon who you know.

Joy from knowing Christ.  Not from being somebody, or by his position, or by things...but from knowing Jesus Christ in his life.   If you’ve got the Lord, what more do you want, what more do you need?

Meditate on joy.