David Jeremiah - The Fruit of the Spirit
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We are studying the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and today, I want to talk to you about the fruit of the Spirit, which is a term used in the New Testament. During World War II, a young teenager tried to enlist in the Navy. He was only 15, but he was very large for his age. He told the recruiting officer in Richmond, Virginia, that he was 16. The officer looked at him and shook his head. He said, «Sorry, son, you’re not old enough.» Two months later, he returned, and the recruiter didn’t seem to remember him.
So this time, he listed his age as 17. Again, the answer was, «Sorry, you’re not old enough.» He waited a few weeks and came back again. This time, in reply to the recruiter’s question, he said he was 18. The man looked at the teenager and said, «Young man, we would really like to have you in our Navy. The only trouble is, you’re aging so fast we’d have to put you on pension after the first year.»
You know, we talk a lot about aging, don’t we? We had a little conversation about it in the green room a few moments ago. I told Tobin, who just had his 50th birthday, that up until 50, you’re getting older, and after 50, you’ve gotten older. I don’t know what the age is when we start to feel our years, but along the way, it happens because it’s impossible to be on this earth and not age; it just goes with the territory. Wouldn’t it be great if every believer had that kind of desire to mature in the faith?
Wouldn’t it be great if we just automatically grew spiritually like we automatically grow physically? It’s sad and a little difficult to understand how many Christians never seem to advance beyond the entry level in their walk with the Lord. They have walked through the open door of salvation and stopped just inside, never going any further. They’re saved; they’re on their way to heaven. They take that as a blessing and never try to add to it the blessings that go with the journey. You cannot faithfully study the scripture without being challenged by the opportunities and excitement of growing to be like Christ.
The word of God paints a beautiful portrait of what a Christian person should look like, how a Christian person should act, and even how a Christian person should feel when they walk around in the world. That’s what we have when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 introduces us to this subject, and it says this: «But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.»
Don’t miss the context of this powerful passage because right before this, you have another list that isn’t attractive at all. I read it to you last week, but because it fits here, we need to read it again. Galatians 5:19–21 says, «Now the works of the flesh are evident: which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.» According to the Bible, we are either living according to one list or we’re living according to the other. The fruit of the Spirit and the lust of the flesh don’t mesh anywhere in between. Paul points to the dark backdrop of this life apart from the Holy Spirit so that we can really appreciate what happens when we let the Spirit of God control us and begin to exhibit His qualities in our lives. We begin to move from one list to the other. We begin to have different qualities in life than we had before.
Fruit is something you can observe. That’s why this is such a good illustration. It isn’t concealed or secret. You walk by the tree, and there it is. In the same way, if a person is walking in the Spirit of God, there will be visible, recognizable evidence of this in his or her life. How then is this fruit displayed? While the fruit of the Spirit is always displayed in the context of relationships with others, you don’t bear fruit simply for yourself; you bear fruit in your life so that you might have the opportunity to touch the lives of others.
Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul organized the fruit of the Spirit in a very special way. I want you to imagine with me three different branches on this tree and three pieces of fruit on each branch. On that first branch, there are three pieces of fruit that describe our personal experience with God. On the next branch, there are three pieces of fruit that describe our personal relationships with each other, and on the third branch, three pieces of fruit that describe our personal development as people. Or to put it simply, the first group is fruit toward God, the second group is fruit toward others, and the third group is fruit toward ourselves.
Let’s notice first of all our personal experience with God. The Bible says that when we are filled with the Spirit, it will not be an academic thing or an intellectual exercise. Wherever the Spirit of God moves, there is an impact on life. Paul says that when you are filled with the Spirit of God, it will directly mark your own personal experience. Whatever your life may have been known for previously, your life in the Spirit will be characterized by love, joy, and peace. He says the fruit of the Spirit is love. When you study the concept of love in the New Testament, you learn it is the primary commandment that God has given to us. Do you remember when the lawyer came to Jesus and said, «What is the greatest commandment?» Jesus said, «You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.» What is the greatest commandment? The greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is love. Not only is it the priority commandment; it’s the perfect gift.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul teaches about spiritual gifts, but when he reaches the end of chapter 12 after listing all the gifts, he says, «But I want to show you a more excellent way.» What is that more excellent way? It’s 1 Corinthians 13, which we call the love chapter. Paul explains that you can have every spiritual gift that you can imagine, but if you don’t have love, you’ve missed it all. God gives agape love as His perfect gift. So it’s the priority commandment, the perfect gift, but it’s also the permanent virtue. Read through that chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. It’s often read at weddings to describe what love is supposed to be like. When you get to the end of it, in its summary statement, the apostle says, «And now abide faith, hope, and love.» What is the rest of it? Verse 13 says, «But the greatest of these is love.»
Finally, and this is the thing I think shocks a lot of people: love is the proof of your faith. You want to know if somebody’s a Christian? Here’s how you tell. This is a surprise to many folks because this is not what we normally say is the proof of a Christian: «By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.» The Bible says that if we say we are Christians and we don’t love other Christians, our salvation is in doubt. The Bible says if you want to know if someone’s a Christian, find out how they deal with other Christians. It’s the placard that you wear that says, «I am a Christian» when you love other Christians. Listen to it again: the Bible says, «By this will people know that you are my disciples.» How will they know? Not by what you say, not by going to church, not by doing good things. No, the Bible says the proof of your Christianity is your love for one another. You cannot be a real Christian and not have love in your heart for other Christians.
Jesus said this in John 15:11: «These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that you may have joy too.» So after love, we come to the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy. Sherwood Wirt once wrote a whole book on the subject. I remember reading it years ago. He pointed out that in the Bible, joy is listed 542 times, experienced in these words: gladness, delight, pleasure, laughter, merry, happy, and many others. In other words, I made an incredible discovery: I discovered that the Bible is a book of joy. When you read the Bible, it should bring happiness and joy to your life. We ought to be people of joy. The Bible says one of the evidences of the Spirit-filled life is joy. Just like love, so is joy. We should be happy people.
I have to confess to you that when I first started to teach on this, I thought there was a difference between joy and happiness. I used to say joy is Jesus, happiness is happenings. That just isn’t true. I found that out through deeper study. The words joy and happiness are used interchangeably in the Bible. There is no such thing as two qualities of happiness and joy. If you know Jesus and He’s reigning in your life, you will have joy, and it will make you happy. And there’s nothing wrong with being happy; in fact, it’s a good thing. One of the things I love about our church is that the testimony of our church is that we are a joyful congregation. I told you once before about the lady who followed me up to the second floor in the elevator over in the Generations building. It was after one of our morning services, and she said, «Pastor Jeremiah, you have a fun church.» I said, «What?» She said, «It’s the funnest church I’ve ever been to in my life.» What did she mean by that? We weren’t dancing around or playing stupid games; we were singing and praising the Lord. We were joyful because of Jesus Christ in our hearts.
If you come to a church and it’s all sad… I mean, I don’t want to get off on modern music because I always get in trouble when I do this, but you shouldn’t have to have smoke to worship the Lord. I’m not sure what that’s all about. I think it’s about mood or something, but smoke makes me sad; it doesn’t make me happy. So I will stop right there. The Bible says that when we have the Holy Spirit, we have love and joy. And the joy is so wonderful! What kind of joy do we have as Christians? We have the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s centered in Christ. It’s complete, and it’s absolute. Did you notice the last part of the verse I just quoted? The Bible says that our joy in Jesus Christ is full — absolute joy.
In 1 Peter 1:8 we read these words: «Though you now do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.» The Bible says the joy we have is inexpressible! That means you can’t put it into words. It’s joy that bubbles up from a well deeper than your own understanding or intellect. If you tried to write about that joy you’d have to throw down your pencil after a few sentences in frustration. You’d have to say, «I just can’t do it!» No matter how I try to say it, it falls short. When you know Jesus Christ, He gives you a deep-centered joy in your heart. And that joy is not just about the things that are happening around you; it’s about your relationship with Christ. Joy has nothing to do with whether or not you are pleased with your particular life situation. Joy is that deep-seated sense of well-being that’s in you and sustains you no matter what’s happening on the outside. Whatever your set of circumstances, you can sing with all of your heart, «It is well with my soul.» I’ve often said if you can sing that, everything else is okay.
Joy isn’t always laughter. It isn’t always noisy; it isn’t always hilarity. Sometimes it’s very quiet, very personal. Sometimes it may be mixed with some tears, but it is real because it is centered in Jesus. I know you know that I love some songs more than others. And my song for this year is «Jesus, You’re the Center of My Joy.» I think we’ve sung that five times this year because every time something good happens, I tell Michael, «Get that song ready. I want us to sing that.» It was written by Bill Gaither and an African-American pastor. Together they wrote that song, and it’s been very well received all over the world because it’s true. According to this text, Jesus is the center of our joy. Everything else might be going south, but if you know Jesus, you know that ultimately the end is in control and that He’s with you every step of the way.
And then, there’s this verse in Nehemiah that should grab hold of our hearts when it comes to joy. I think I’m getting to understand it. Nehemiah 8:10 says, «The joy of the Lord is your strength.» You want to have strength to face the things of life? The Bible says, «The joy of the Lord is your strength.» How many of you know we need strength in the days in which we live? The Bible says cultivate the spirit of joy in your heart, and it will give you the strength for every day of your life. The fruit of the Spirit is love, the fruit of the Spirit is joy, and the third quality that has to do with our relationship with God is the fruit of the Spirit is peace.
Peace is the third fruit in the first cluster of fruit. When I am filled with the Spirit of God, I will be described as a loving person. I will have joy, and I’ll have a sense of peace in my life. The Greek word for peace is «eirene,» which means to join together. It paints the picture of two things that once were separated but now are reconciled. Peace is knowing that the God you were once separated from, you are now joined together with through Jesus Christ. Romans says it this way: «Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.» So this is such a wonderful picture of the Christian who is Spirit-filled. Jesus said, «Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.»
The peace we possess is His peace; it’s complete, it’s absolute. David described it in terms that will resonate with all of us. It says, «I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.» The Bible says if you have the peace of God, you shouldn’t stay awake all night stressed out over what’s going on in life. Now, every once in a while, we’ll have a sleepless night, but I can honestly tell you I don’t struggle to sleep. I can fall asleep just like that and stay asleep. My wife gets so upset with me because I can take little naps during the day if I’ve had a long night, and my sleep is good. That’s not just a physical thing. When you know it’s right between you and God, you have peace.
When you do something that God tells you to do, you feel a sense of peace. This week God told me to do two things. I didn’t hear them audibly; I just felt them in my heart. I did those two things. They were kind of unusual, and do you know what happened when I did that? I had this sense of peace come over me — a sense of peace that just flooded my heart. You know why? Because what I did was a good thing, and it was God’s instruction to me to do it. Sometimes you think you hear God, and you push it away, and you don’t do it, and you don’t get peace when you do that. God does speak to us sometimes through His Word, sometimes through a message, sometimes through music. And when He does, and we hear the nudge of the Spirit in our hearts to do something, if you want to have real peace, don’t procrastinate. Just do it, and the Lord God will fill you with His peace.
So we have joy, we have love, we have peace. Isn’t that an encouraging thing? John 16:33 says, «In me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation.» He says, «In me, you got peace. In the world, you got tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.» I was teaching on this not long ago, and it suddenly dawned on me that there was a very special lesson hidden in this verse. Here it is: If you read this verse, you should expect it to say, «In me you have peace. In the world, you have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome tribulation.» But it doesn’t say that. It says, «I have overcome the world.»
Listen to me, you guys: When we have the peace of God, He doesn’t just overcome tribulation; He overcomes the world in which the tribulation happens. He really does do that. This is a play on words in this little section that should strengthen our faith in God. Be of good cheer; take heart, says the scripture, because our Lord is bigger than any circumstance in which we could ever find ourselves. In Philippians 4:7, Paul says that this peace is a peace that surpasses all understanding. In other words, it doesn’t make a bit of earthly sense. It isn’t logical. It doesn’t add up. It doesn’t square with circumstances. It’s as real as this morning’s sunrise. Philippians 4:7 goes on to say that this peace will guard your heart and your mind through Jesus Christ. Praise God for His peace!
You may be asking, «Are those things — love, joy, and peace-ever interrupted?» Of course, they are. We’re flawed human beings, and sometimes we have to go through spiritual breathing again, don’t we? We have to exhale sin and inhale the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But when you are filled with the Spirit, when you are walking the Spirit-filled life, these three things will little by little take over who you are. You’ll be a person of love, a person of joy, and a person of peace. And if you’re a Christian and you’ve started to walk with the Lord, you should begin to sense those things kind of moving into your spirit and taking over in your life. That’s fruit toward God.
Now the next section is a little more personal and a great deal more convicting because our personal experience with God is followed by our personal experience and relationship with others. Love, joy, and peace are Godward, but the next three are manward. These are three characteristics that will exhibit in your life with regard to other people. Here’s the first one — are you ready for this? The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering. That’s a wonderful word. It’s a word for patience, but in the Greek language, it’s actually two words blended into one: «makrothumia.» The word «makro,» in the Greek language, means long, and the word «thumia» means heat or temper. So, the word longsuffering means to have a long temper.
When I grew up in the Midwest in Ohio, firecrackers were both legal and plentiful. And because of that, I am very grateful to have all the digits on both of my hands. I have lit firecrackers that almost blew up in my hands. Did you ever light a firecracker with a short fuse? You touch a match to it, and bam! It goes off almost in your face or in your hand. You know some people have short fuses too; that’s what this is about. Longsuffering means to be long-tempered, to be patient. It’s not much fun to be around someone who is short-fused. You find yourself wincing when something goes wrong. When will he blow? When will she go ballistic? The slightest little spark can trigger an explosion, and I’m talking about Christian people here.
People get hurt in the explosion, and if you’re walking with the Lord, you get embarrassed. One writer defines longsuffering as self-restraint that doesn’t retaliate when wronged. Paul prayed for this when he spoke to the Colossians. He said, «I want you to be strengthened with all might according to God’s glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.» When you are filled with the Spirit of God, you relate to others with patience and grace instead of losing your temper when things don’t go your way. You may have a little trigger that goes off inside of you, but the Spirit of God gets control of it before it releases. You start to say something, but the word dies in your throat. You write that hot letter and throw it in the fireplace instead of in the mailbox. Or you compose that speech and give it in the car when you’re driving.
I’ve actually done that and said it out loud, and people looked at me like, «What is wrong with that man?» But you never deliver it. There are times when we will find ourselves in very volatile situations, sparks flying every which way. But the Spirit of God can give us the strength to display longsuffering in our lives. And when you are keeping your cool at the very moment when everybody else is losing theirs, believe me, the spiritual fruit of longsuffering will be very, very evident. You will stick out. You will not be like everybody else; if everybody else is going ballistic and you’re sitting there or standing there with a smile on your face, not getting involved in the reactions, something’s going on, and that’s different. We know what that is. It’s the Spirit of God.
Secondly, the fruit of the Spirit is kindness. Someone has said that kindness is like the impress on a coin that tells us who the owner is. Kindness is the impression of God upon His creatures because, you see, God is kind. The virtue of kindness is becoming more and more unusual in our world. You really have to stop and say, «I don’t know very many truly kind people.» What were once common courtesies are becoming most uncommon. We seem to live in an angry world — a world with a chip on its shoulder, a world that’s in a big hurry. You know what happens when something becomes increasingly rare, don’t you? It becomes increasingly valued and treasured. A person who has kindness is a great treasure.
I remember the first verse — I think it’s the first verse I ever learned as a child. It was in kindergarten and in Sunday school, and it was Ephesians 4:32: «Be kind to one another.» I think you need that in the nursery. You need that in Sunday school. You need it as you grow up. You need it the rest of your life. Be kind to one another. John Wesley was said to be one of the kindest men who ever lived. He was a strong preacher. I mean, he was a vigorous champion for the faith, and yet on an individual basis, those who were around him knew they were in the presence of a deeply kind man. Wesley had a little rule of life for himself that he sought to live by in the strength of the Spirit. This was his motto (and I’m going to put this up on the screen): «Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.» That is a pretty good model to live by, isn’t it?
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, for as long as you can. Be kind. In other words, be kind in your home, be kind in your workplace, be kind wherever you are, or be filled with the Spirit of God, and your relationship with others will be longsuffering and kind.
And then the third one on the second branch of fruit is the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Have you ever heard somebody say about someone, «He’s a good man,» or «She’s a good woman»? That’s what they should say about us when we’re Spirit-controlled. That doesn’t mean we’re perfect. It doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes. But men and women who are filled with the Holy Spirit are just good people. The fruit of their goodness is obvious wherever they go. Don’t you just like to be around good people? People with long tempers, people who are courteous and considerate. Praise God for people like that! They bring glory to the name of their Master and the One who has called Himself the Good Shepherd. That’s why I like Shadow Mountain Church. It’s filled with good people. I am so blessed to be a part of this fellowship every time I come to this church.
So, we’ve seen the first two clusters of fruit — love, joy, and peace — and the second — longsuffering, kindness, and goodness. Here’s the last. The first was our relationship with God; the second was our relationship with others; and the third is our relationship with ourselves. Listen to this. This final part of this trilogy — the fruit of the Spirit arranged in three sets of three. The fruit of the Spirit, first of all, is faithfulness. When I first began to study this, I thought the word was faith, but when I studied it more carefully, it is really the word faithfulness. Faith is a theological term; faithfulness is an ethical term. Faith is what you believe, and faithfulness is how you live out what you believe. Paul is saying that when you are filled with the Spirit of God, you will be growing more and more into the kind of person about whom it is said, «He is a faithful guy; he has integrity,» or «When she says she’ll do it, she always does it.» In other words, fidelity is produced in your life by the Holy Spirit as you walk with Him.
Proverbs 20:6 asks a question. It says this: «Who can find a faithful man?» Pastors and leaders of every sort are always looking for such people. When we hire staff here, we want people who are faithful, who show up every Sunday and throughout the week and do the things they’re committed to do. We need faithful men and women of God. The Bible says when the Spirit of God controls you, one of the developing virtues in your life is the virtue of faithfulness. You become a person who can be counted on, trusted in. Your handshake is for real, and people know about you. This truth: whatever that man says, you can count on it; he will do it. If he says he’ll show up, he’ll show up.
And we need more of that in our lives, not just in the church but in everyday life — to be people of integrity, to do what we say we’re going to do. The fruit of the Spirit for our own selves is to be faithful men and women. And then it says, «In the Spirit of meekness.» I have struggled all my life as a pastor trying to help people understand that meek is not weak. When you say, «Oh, there goes a very meek man,» what do you think immediately comes to your mind? The guy’s a pansy. He’s just weak? Well, that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that meek means to have great power under control. Meek means that you have the capacity to do great things, but you don’t always have to be doing those things to prove that you have the power.
The Lord Jesus Christ was considered a man who was meek, and the Bible says that the Bible invites us to Jesus Christ by describing Him as a meek man. In Matthew 11:29 we read, «Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and meek in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.» Was Jesus weak? Watch Him in the temple, you guys. Watch Him in there with His whip, cleaning out the corrupt that was in the temple. There was not a weak thing about Him; He was a strong, virile man who was impressive in His strength. Aristotle wrote this about weakness: «A meek person is neither too hasty nor too slow-tempered.» Meekness doesn’t get angry with people it ought not to get angry with, and it does not fail to get angry with people it ought to get angry with. The man who is meek is the man who feels anger at the right grounds, against the right person, in the right manner, at the right moment, for the right time.
Jesus was meek. He had the greatest possible strength available to Him. The Bible says that when He was on the cross, He could have called ten legions of angels to come to His aid, but He did not. Could He have done it? Yes, He had the power to do it, but He did not do it. He stayed on that cross and died so that you and I could go to heaven. He expressed meekness in His death. Even though He had the power to do whatever He wanted to, He could have called the angels and been delivered immediately, but He was meek. He had power under control.
And finally, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Self-control is a word in the Greek language that means to yield. It means to take hold of your life. Have you ever taken hold of your life by the power of the Holy Spirit? Are you constantly getting chewed up and beat up in something that you do because the discipline of the Spirit of God wants to develop within you something that you won’t let Him develop? I’d like to say this after what I’ve been through the last two years: You cannot let your body tell you what to do. Your body will always want to help you get off easy. «Take another hour in bed.» Well, that means you won’t be able to… «Yeah, I know, but I’m tired.» You need to walk because if you don’t walk, you’re not going to walk again. «But I don’t feel like walking!» Body, get going! Walk. If you let your body tell you what to do…
Paul said it this way: «I keep my body under.» What does that mean? Under control. Paul said, «I don’t let my body take over my life. I allow my body to do the things that I know I’m supposed to do, and I am in control of my body.» Paul may not have been the first, and he certainly wasn’t the last preacher to make use of sports in his sermons. Nevertheless, his analogy is classic. Listen to this passage, 1 Corinthians 9: «Don’t you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for our eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I’m not just shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.»
Who receives the prize? The person who enters strict training. The person who is temperate and self-controlled. In athletics, you have to discipline yourself for the goal. And Paul says that when you’re filled with the Spirit, you take control of your life. Who is my greatest enemy? It’s me. Who is your greatest enemy? It’s you. Who is my greatest challenge in ministry and in life? It’s me. The Spirit of God wants to gain more and more control over my life. It’s not really self-control as much as it is Spirit control.
Amy Carmichael, who has written so many wonderful thoughts about our walk with the Lord, wrote this little poem as her prayer: «God, harden me against myself, the coward with pathetic voice, who craves for ease and rest and joy. My self, a traitor to myself, my hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, my clog, whatever road I go.» She was honest. She was saying, «The challenge I have is not the circumstances; it’s not other people; it’s me. Lord, help me to get control of me.» Self-control means control of yourself, and the Bible says that can happen when you trust the Holy Spirit.
You say, «Well, I’m just not into all that discipline stuff, Pastor.» I don’t know who is. But listen to me: I can tell you the Holy Spirit of God can give you a disciplined life if you will yield yourself to Him and say, «Lord Jesus, I’m not into this myself, but this is what I want more than anything else. I want a disciplined life that brings glory to God,» and He will provide that for you if you ask. Paul says that when you walk in the Spirit, constantly depending on Him, you will begin to notice certain things in your life — a little bit more love, a little bit more joy, a little bit more peace in relationships with other people. It may show itself as a longer fuse than you used to have. You’re not as touchy as you used to be.
There’s a spirit of kindness within you that you didn’t notice before and a desire to help others that shows up as true goodness. In your personal walk with the Lord, you discover a greater degree of self-control. Where you used to shrug things off, you become more concerned about faithfulness and integrity. When you live in the Spirit, those are the characteristics of your life. You say, «Will I get all the fruits in one big fruit basket with a bow on top?» No. Will God just lay it on my doorstep? Will it happen all at once? Probably not. But when you are filled with the Spirit, you begin to sense these things happening in your life.
The Bible says, «Old things are passing away. All things are becoming new!» This is the opportunity we have. This is the goal that is set before us: Let the Holy Spirit control your life and become the person you always wanted to be in the first place.
According to Richard Wentz, St. George by the Vineyard is an old church nestled in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. This church owns a vineyard that locals say produces the most delicious grapes in the region. Every year, members of the church gather to pick the fruit or make wine that is said to be the best anywhere. People often wondered why the vineyard flourished because nobody ever took any care of it. There was nobody tending to it. Then old Jeremy, the sexton of the church, died. His family had served as sextons for generations. He had quietly devoted his life to caring for the church.
After his death, a note was found by his bed that read, «The key to everything is under the altar.» The senior warden searched and found a key, and beneath the altar, a stone slab with stairs leading down into a crypt. With flashlights, the group descended and discovered the sound of running water. There they found a spring, along with a chart showing how Jeremy had faithfully released its waters to irrigate the vineyard. That was the secret to its abundance: a hidden spring, unseen but life-giving.
So it is with us. The Spirit of God within us is our hidden source of power. Others may not see where it comes from, but they will see its fruit. They will come up and say to you, «What’s happened to you? Why are you the way you are? You used to be…» You will discover fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. If you walk in the Spirit, you will be too busy growing fruit to fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Notice the Bible doesn’t say, «Do not fulfill the desires of the flesh,» although that would be a good command. No, it says, «Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.» Don’t concentrate on the negative things. Concentrate on the positive things. Fill your life with the fruit of the Spirit, and the other things will be pushed out of existence; they will just go away. The power of positive replacement in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
I speak of this first of all out of my own desire to be that kind of person. I want to be that kind of person in my life. I believe I’m becoming that kind of person. I want to continue to be that person. And more than anything else, I want you to have the opportunity to be people like that too. If you will just take God at His word and trust Him and give Him control of your life, you will begin to develop the things that you always wish you could do but could never do because you don’t have the strength to do it yourself. The Spirit of God will empower you. And one day, you will look up and wonder, «Who is that guy I’m looking at in the mirror? I used to know him a long time ago. Look what’s happened to him!»
The Lord Jesus Christ is in the business of transformation. He wants to make you a new person. You have to give Him permission. Give Him permission to do that.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for this clear word from the Bible about what it means to have the fruit of the Spirit. And we pray that all of us, many of us in this room who are Christians, will recognize areas of our lives where, if we would yield to the Spirit of God, we could be different people — people that would make a difference in the world. Lord, it’s very difficult when we walk and see Christians who are not living as Christians, but have yielded themselves to the works of the flesh and not the work of the Spirit.
So today in this room, we commit ourselves to do what we need to do to turn our lives over to the Spirit of God and walk in the Spirit. And may we see this fruit develop in our lives is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.