Joyce Meyer - Understanding Gifts vs Fruit - Part 2

TOPICS: Spiritual Gifts, Fruit of the Spirit

Love really is "The fruit" of the spirit, and you're not really going to have any of these if you don't have this. Now, yes, there might be some that would be a little more naturally patient person. My husband is a more naturally patient person than I am. But, the real fruit of the Holy Spirit, we're not just talking about personality traits. But the real fruit of the Holy Spirit has to come because the love of God has been put in us, and because the Holy Spirit lives in us and where he is, his fruit is. But then, they're also all held in place by self-control.

So, I kind of look at self-control and love as two book ends. And it's like they all come out of love, but if I don't have self-control, I'm not gonna be humble. If I don't have self-control, I'm not gonna be faithful: I'm gonna give up on things when it gets hard. If I don't have self-control, I'm not gonna be good to anybody, or kind to anybody, or patient. I'm not gonna be peaceful because when something upsets me, I'm just gonna have a fit and lose my temper and just lose my peace. I'm not gonna have joy if I don't have self-control, because as soon as something happens that I don't like, then I'm gonna be all upset. But, I want to talk to you tonight about the difference in the gifts and the fruit.

I want to talk to you about character development, because I think we have to understand how we have a tendency to look at gifts compared to how God looks at gifts, and how we need to realize that gifts are something that God gives us. We don't do anything to earn 'em, we don't really have to do anything to develop 'em. I mean, yes, we need to work with 'em, you know, we need to learn how to use our gifts, but gifts are given. Fruit, however, is not given, it's developed. It's given to us in seed form, when Christ comes to live in us, but the only way that we develop the Fruit of the Spirit is through being put in situations where we need to use them and then using them.

And then in Ephesians 4, it says that God gives gifts to the church. He gives the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Those are gifts that God equips some people with. Not all: there's not a lot of people equipped with those gifts, but even that doesn't make that smaller group better than anybody else. God gives them those gifts for the perfecting of the saints that they might grow up and mature and go out and do the work of the ministry. God gives me a gift so I can teach you how to work! Amen? And the gifts that God puts in people, you should never be jealous of them. You know why? God put the gift in me that he put in me for you. It don't help me. It makes me work! It helps you. He put the gift in Phil to sing that he put in him for us. We just sat and... "Ah".

Wasn't that just beautiful tonight? "Holy, holy, holy, holy". People that are gifted to teach children, people that are gifted as nurses, people that are gifted as doctors, even somebody who can scale a 50 story building and spend their life washing windows, to me, that's gotta be a gift. God is amazing how he puts abilities in people and makes them like to do things that other people could not possibly like to do. Matthew 21. I have gotten so much out of these next few verses of scriptures that I'm just ready to share with you. And to me, they teach such a phenomenal lesson.

Matthew 21:17. "And leaving them, he departed from the city and went out to Bethany and he lodged there. In the early Dawn the next morning, he", he being Jesus, "Was coming back to the city, but he was hungry". Can I tell you that we live in a hungry world? "And as he saw one single leafy fig tree above the roadside, he went to it but he found nothing but leaves on it [seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And he said to it, never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered at once". Jesus cursed the fig tree and he said, "Fruit will never grow on you again".

I read that for years and felt sorry for that fig tree. I just didn't get it. I thought, "Well, it wasn't the fig tree's fault that it didn't have fruit". But you see, if you notice what it really said there, it said that when the fig tree has leaves, there's supposed to be fruit under the leaves. So, when Jesus, from a distance, saw the fig tree and it had leaves and he was hungry, he went there expecting to get something to eat, but it turned out to be a phony.

Now, a lot of Christians have leaves. We're still back with Adam and Eve trying to make leaves to cover up our mess. Woo-hoo! "Joyce, what do you mean leaves"? Christian t-shirt, big cross, some nice earrings, cross earrings. I used to have this rhinestone Jesus pin that was about that big, man. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! At the same time, I'd race a crippled guy at McDonalds to get the last booth. Jesus, Jesus! And I was in the middle of teaching my new eight part series on love. And that is a true story. I am not making it up. I had leaves, but not fruit.

Now, what I'm talking about is we may have all this signage that says, "I'm a Christian! I'm a Christian"! We're like the peach tree with our megaphone. "I'm a peach tree! I'm a peach tree"! Yeah, well where's your peaches? "I'm a Christian! I'm a Christian"! Well, Christians are supposed to help people. They're supposed to love people. They're supposed to have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Christians are not supposed to gossip about people, and criticize people, and be full of bitterness, and resentment, and unforgiveness.

An angry Christian is an oxymoron. And 80% of the church is mad, and they come to church with people they're mad at! And then we wonder why it's not working. Because we're not focused on what God is focused on. Quit being concerned about what everybody thinks about what you can do, and get down to business with God, get rooted and grounded in God, get rooted and grounded in the love of God, get rooted and grounded in the Word of God. Ask God to make you grow up no matter what he has to do to you. And you need to pray and say, "God, please, don't use me in any public way until I'm mature enough to give you all the glory for everything that I do".

There's nothing more disgusting than a mean Christian. And I used to be one. And I got some here tonight. Not everybody. I'm not trying to hurt people's feelings. Okay, I won't pick on you. I got some watching by TV. I mean, the world is full of Christians who don't treat people good. They're easily offended, they, oh, Pennie, I forgot. I've got a gift for you. A gift for you! Isn't it pretty? Oh, come and get it, right now. Come on! Ooh-hoo! Oh, people get so excited about gifts, don't they? Woo-hoo! Ooh, how many of you would like to have that? Isn't that wrapped up nice? That's really good. You can open it right now. Yeah, in front of everybody, go ahead. Isn't it exciting?

It's got all the wrapping, the color's right, the ribbon's good. What's the matter? Oh, you wanted something in it? Well, it looked good on the outside. And, you know, that's the way we are sometimes. We look good on the outside, but there's nothing on the inside. You know, several years ago, I mean, we all have what I would call crossroads, or places in our walk with God where it was just, like, a big "Wow"! For us. When I was touched by God back in '70s, I'd been a Christian for many years, but when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, it was just, like... Life changing for me. And then, when I found out that God wanted me to seek him for who he was and not for what he could do for me, oh, that was big. That was life changing for me. He said, "Seek my face, not my hand. If you seek my face, my hand'll always be open, but if you just seek my hand, you're gonna offend me".

God wants us to love him for who he is, not what he can do for us. Having Christ in your life is not like having a spiritual Santa Claus where you give your list every day of what it takes to keep you happy. And another thing that was majorly important to me was when I learned how important the inner life was to God. See, we all have two lives. We've got this one we show everybody, and then we've got this other one, this heart life, this thought life, these imaginations, these attitudes, these desires. I don't think that it's what we do in front of people that is important at all. I think it's what we do when nobody's looking.

And if you learn how to do what's right when nobody's looking, then God won't care how many people see you. Then, if he wants you in front of people, he'll put you in front of people. But, you don't need to be in front of people 'til you can act right when there are no people around. Behind closed doors, what goes on behind closed doors? You don't look for a spiritual person in the church: you look at how they act at home with their family. Not how they are when they get all dressed up and take it to church, but how they treat somebody that can't do them any good, somebody that's not important to them, somebody that's irritating to them. You'll know them by their fruit.

Recently, somebody came to me telling me a critical, judgmental thing about a certain spiritual leader. They had a dream that they felt was a warning from God, and they thought they were discerning problems, and now they thought they were called to expose this person and go straighten them out. The only problem was I already knew what this person's life was like, and they certainly weren't somebody that God would be calling to go expose somebody else. I don't find a ministry of criticism in the Bible. It only took me a few minutes to realize the fruit here is not good. It was causing judgment, suspicion, strife, gossip. Those are the kind of things you need to get away from, and you need to run from it quicker when it's coming from a Christian than you do when it's coming from a unbeliever.

Oh, you guys are getting wide-eyed now. It's like, you may be thinking, "Well, just who can I hang out with"? One group: father, son, and the Holy Ghost. Paul told the Corinthian church, who had the gifts of the spirit, he said, "You're carnal. Babes in Christ, because there's strife, and division, and jealousy among you". And let's put up 1 Corinthians 3 for just a minute. Let me show you exactly what he did say, 'cause it's pretty amazing. "However, brethren, I could not talk to you as to spiritual men, but as to nonspiritual men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates, I had to talk to you as mere infants in the new life in Christ because you were unable to talk yet"!

Now, keep that up a minute. And I want you to understand this. Obviously, they could talk, but what Paul was saying is you're talking foolish. You're critical, you're gossipy. You're saying all kinds of things that you shouldn't be saying. Do you know one of the quickest ways you can tell what's in somebody's heart is to listen to 'em? I'm gonna go where the people are clappin'. One of the quickest ways that we can judge fruit is by listening to what people talk about all the time. Whoo, it's quiet in here.

1 Peter 3:3-4, the Bible says "It's the inner, the hidden man of the heart". When the hidden man of the heart is right, that is precious. So precious to God. What goes on in your inner man? Motives? God's not impressed with what we do if we didn't do it for the right reason. You know that? If you give somebody the greatest gift in the world, but you gave it to them hoping to put them in a position where they would be obligated to you, oh no, we would never do that. "Well, they didn't even invite me to their party after the great birthday gift I gave them"! Oh yeah, we get miffed about that kind of stuff. Well, then we're giving with strings attached. "I did this for you, so now you owe me. I'm expecting certain kind of treatment".

I tell you what's been hard for me sometimes. When I give somebody something of mine that's really special to me, and then they go give it to somebody else. And God has used that to teach me, "If you give it, it's theirs. They can do what they want to with it". "Well, but, but, but, but", but see, we're still wanting to control the gift. Mmm, I'm getting some funny looks from this side of the room, over here. I'mma come over here and see how you guys are looking.

How many of you know we need to do this? We need to settle down and dig deeper. We don't just need to come in here and happy, sappy, clappy. You know? Buy some t-shirts, get the book, you know, get the pencil, get the mug, and go home again and just have all that you want. I think it's great to advertise our Christianity, but we better not do it if we don't have fruit. If you're gonna speed, take the bumper sticker off your car. If you're gonna park in a handicapped parking space and you're not handicapped, get the fish off your bumper.

Come on. If you're gonna cut people off on the highway and then make ugly faces at 'em and other signs... Lord have mercy, I'll remember this night. Motives, thoughts, desires, attitudes, fruit. John 15, pruning. You're moaning? What do you think I got this bush up here for? It's not for decoration. John 15:2, "Any branch in me", Jesus said, he's the vine, we are the branches. "Any branch in me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims, takes away): and he cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit".

So, you're pruned if you do and pruned if you don't, so you might as... That made me mad when I first realized that. I thought, "Well, okay, if I'm not bearing fruit and you prune me, I get that. But if I'm doing good and you prune me". But see, if God gets somebody he can't work with, then it says he takes 'em away and trims him off. But, if he gets somebody he can work with, he'll still prune you in your life, but just so you'll bear more, richer, and more excellent fruit. Now, let's talk about pruning. We have a variety of tools. I would recommend that you let God work on you with these. You don't want him to get after you with these babies.

Now, this represents the fruit... Of this Christian, and this is their gifts... "Woo-hoo! Look at my gifts! Woo-hoo! I have a gift. I have a gift! Woo-hoo, hoo-hoo! Look at my gifts! Look at my gifts". You ain't got no fruit in there. "Ooh! But I have gifts! I have gifts! Look! My gifts, my gifts, my gifts". Well, now, here's what God does sometimes. He'll start with trimming. Ha. He starts with trimming us back a little. Alright, now let me tell you a story. Twenty-seven, twenty-eight years ago I was teaching a home Bible study and twenty-five people, every week, come to my house. And I'm telling you what, I so much wanted to run around the world and preach.

My gosh, I was so full of this vision and I just wanted to teach more people. It was just killing me, I wanted to do it so bad. I had gifts. "God, don't you see my gifts"? Whoo! "I can preach better than those preachers on TV. Gifts, gifts, gifts"! Come on. Don't tell me. Some of you are frustrated because you got gifts and you're like, "I can sing better than that worship leader in my church. I should be the one up there singing. She's got a lousy, terrible voice". And you tell everybody how bad she can sing because you're jealous. Whoo!

So, after teaching that Bible study five years, the spirit of the Lord came unto me saying, "I want you to lay this Bible study down, behold I do a new thing". Oh, I was so excited. I thought, "Here we go! On my way"! Well, for one year, God trimmed me back and sat me on a shelf. He didn't have as much trouble as I am. And I did nothing for a year. Should have got my own pruning tools, I guess. I left it to a man. Oh well, I gotta get something out of it. Alright, I got it. I guess I needed this kind. The little ones wouldn't work on me.

So, for a whole year, I did nothing. It was the most miserable year of my ministry. I thought I was crazy, God was finished with me, but I can sit here and tell you now that it was probably the greatest year in my life. You know why? Because I had some character issues that needed to be dealt with that would have never been dealt with if I would have been out on the road, busy, running around using my gifts. Did you hear me? Well, I'll tell you: when that year was over, I'll tell you what I had. I knew that I had a call of God on my life, and I knew that I might be unique, but I wasn't weird. I knew who I was in God, and I was gonna confront the devil, and I was gonna go forward and do everything that God had asked me to do, and I wasn't gonna spend my life comparing myself with somebody else.