Fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace

Fruits of the Spirit

Love, Joy, Peace

Galatians 5: 16-22

16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Last time…

Flesh… we acknowledged that really bad things can come out of our flesh and we have experience the flesh of others. But we acknowledged that there’s hope for others and there’s hope for us through the gifts of the Spirit.

It’s extremely difficult to respond/live with the fruits of the spirit if we are still living in the flesh, there’s two ways to live. And I have a video clip from the movie Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt.  

(Clip from "Tree of Life" words are below and the link to a video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z28Mi6mUyKo )

I wish I had found this clip earlier…it would have really helped the first week. Again here’s what she says.

"There are two ways through life:  the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. The nuns taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end."

The way of grace is living the gifts of the Spirit, we’ll start this week with love, joy, peace.

Love

Love is an overused word these days. I love Shana and Max, but I also love tacos? And love has been misrepresented on television and movies, it’s connections are mostly with the romantic and the erotic. But in the Bible we see love as the sacrificial, self-imparting quality of God’s nature. Does the Bible say “God so loved the world that he felt a warm glow in his heart”?—no, the Bible doesn’t say that. God so loved the world that he plucked out his heart and gave his only Son. That’s the kind of love spoken of here in Galatians and elsewhere in the Bible.

And it’s interesting that Paul should start his list with love. Do you think it’s important or significant?

Of course it is. What passage in the Bible talks about love? Read at weddings and anniversaries.  1 Corinthians 13 is written in response to an argument that arises within the church in Corinth in which the fruit of the spirit is set over and against the gifts of the spirit (1 Cor 12: 8-10) as if the one were better or more important than the other. And how does 1 Corinthians 13 end? What is the most important? These 3 remain-faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love.

Love is the most important. Now I could do an entire sermon just on love so let me just say this…like in the clip love does not exist to please itself. But in the way of grace everything is guided by our love-love for ourselves, love for others, love for God. All of the other fruits of the spirit hang on, are founded on, depend on, rely on…whatever metaphor you want to use…everything revolves around love.

Joy

What is joy? Is it blind happiness? Is it ignoring the injustice and sadness all around us? No, joy is something different. In the clip the way of nature finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. To me joy is the opposite of that…finding happiness when the world around us is dark as night. Let’s look at it this way.

Joy defined: (slide)

a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying.

As we go through life we do not go through life without hope. We have a source, something that we can know that brings great delight because that something is good and satisfying. Sounds like an ad for a candy bar…

We can try to find joy in other sources and it might bring temporary joy…things like food, addictions, relationships, people, achievements, work, but those will disappoint, bring heartache. What should be our source of joy? God, the HS. God is a permanent source of joy because God should be the cause of our delight because God is exceptionally good.

Peace

Isn’t that a beautiful word. What images or feelings does that word produce for you? Do you think about peace like a river, or a special place in your home or yard, or that special place to get away like the lake or maybe it’s the mountains, maybe you think about world peace. And we spend a lot of money trying to find peace. Massages, medications, counseling, vacations, special products like lotions and crèmes, Jacuzzi bath tubs, special beds made from memory foam for filled with air or water, maybe it’s the lake and so you have a boat or a camper. What brings you peace?

When you think about it, our lives today are utterly hectic in some way or another. Some of us have health problems with no end in sight to the pills, tests, rehab, treatments, and surgeries, some of us are caring for others with barely enough time for ourselves or own lives, . Shana and I are now beginning to experience some of this as Max is only in a few activities. Keeping it straight is very difficult at times having to bounce from one activity to the next with only minutes to spare, sometimes not even being able to stop for lunch. I dare say that for everyone here our lives can use some peace, a calm to the storms of life.

Is it me or is this list of the gifts of the spirit already something that resonates within me as something I really want?

What would the world be like if we responded with love, joy and peace? If these were the first 3 principles that guided every day and every action we made. Driving example…I…I mean a friend…it’s his mantra…love joy peace…

It’s easy to buy into the eye for an eye principle…you did something to me…I’m going to get you back. But Jesus says turn the other cheek, forgive 70 times 7…in every situation as we live by the spirit and reject the compulsions of our flesh we need to strive to respond with the gifts of the spirit.

And what is the opposite of these 3 things? I think the opposite of these is hate, depression, and discontentment. Who here wants to live that life? No one-and yet there are times when we find ourselves living exactly that.  If we allow the negativity or our flesh to rule our lives then that’s how we see the world. It’s the duality of life Grace v. Worldly.

Even if we’re around people who live by the flesh it affects us. It saps our own energy. I’m not saying don’t hang out with people like this…they need Jesus just as much as we do. What I am saying is that we are never without because we always have love, joy, peace. These 3 help us to battle depression and the negative self talk-things we tell ourselves that bring us down…things that aren’t true. Watch what you say to yourself and others because words create worlds. So grab a hold of the gifts of the spirit and never let go. But how do we do that?

Is a gift a gift if you never use it or claim it? Is a gift beneficial if I never use it? Let’s say every week you drive by our house and witness me fighting with my current lawnmower. It’s smoking, dies every couple of minutes, you watch me as I kick it and beat it. So, being a good Christian person you go out and buy me a new riding lawnmower. One of those zero degree ones with an electric start. But the next week you see me out in my yard with the old lawnmower still cursing it, kicking it, watching it pollute the air. Doesn’t that seem ridiculous? And yet this is how we live our lives apart from the Gifts of the Spirit every day. We go back to the old broken way of life instead of the experiencing the gifts of the Spirit. We continue to follow the way of nature instead of the way of grace.

It’s up to you. You can live your life in the way of grace or the way of the world…hateful or full of love…depressed or full of joy…creating conflict or sewing peace… We must begin everything with love because “no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end." When will you begin to claim and use the gifts of the spirit?

Here is my prayer for world peace from the OKC Thunder game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hja4L8l35LI Enjoy!

Fruits of the Spirit: The Flesh

15

Fruits of the Spirit

The Flesh

Galatians 5: 16-22

Galatians 5: 16-21

16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 By the age of 11, Mikey had been through more turmoil than most of us will ever face in a lifetime. His father had spent 8 out of the 11 years of his life in jail for selling drugs, and when he was out of jail, his dad was nowhere to be seen. His mother abused drugs and alcohol on a regular basis and spent many days and evenings in jail for various offenses. His 15 yr old brother was in a gang as well as his sister and her fiancé.

In a 3 month period, Mikey was literally stabbed in the back over a sports jacket, assaulted several times at school witnessed a drive-by shooting where a young man was killed and saw his sister’s fiancé get shot in the neck, doomed to spend the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. His lifetime of inconsistent parents and this summer of violence scarred Mikey in ways that his teachers at school, his mother, and others who cared about him, really could not understand.

At 11 yrs old, Mikey would go to school about half of the time. When he did go, he would never talk to any teachers or any of the students in his classroom. One afternoon his teacher set firm boundaries after a request, and Mikey responded in the way he had been taught when confronted with choices that he did not agree with. He threw his desk to the ground and picked up his chair and hurled it at his teacher.

After his school expulsion, Mikey was taken to several therapeutic classrooms with a very low teacher student ratio. Eventually, Mikey assaulted somebody in every self-contained classroom that he was involved in. After several unsuccessful placements, Mikey was taken out of his home and placed in residential treatment where he lived with other young boys who struggled with emotional expression. After approximately three days at the residential facility, Mikey ran away and has not been seen by his caseworker or the police since.

What bothers you about Mikey’s story?

Maybe it’s what happened to Mikey. What of what happened to him was his fault? It was the choices of others…their flesh…their sin that impacted Mikey. But he’s not alone. All of us have been impacted by the choices of others…

How has this fallen world negatively affected your life? While some of the listed sins can be performed alone, note how many involve abuse of other people and a breakdown in human relationships.

In v. 19 these are not the products of our “lower nature,” but the results of the power of sin at work in the Christian community. The “flesh” destroys relationships and community not only by flagrant immorality, but by generating the socially acceptable (even admired) sins of envy, excessive ambition, and divisions into cliques.

In our men’s group last week the lesson was titled “the wound.” The author John Eldridge noted that all men (and for that matter women) have been damaged by our fathers. Not that our fathers were bad men…it’s just that the wounds from our fathers cut deeper and can impact our entire lives, affecting our personality, our marriages, and our relationships. Eldridge notes that we can also be wounded from our family, and from our peers. All of us have been wounded in some way by those around us.

And it’s all their fault that I do bad things isn’t it? No, in life we face choices as well. You and I also battle the flesh, don’t we? And unfortunately we have sinned. And even though Mikey was impacted by those around him he still had choices. And those choices affected others. So again think about your own life and how your sinful nature has negatively affected others. Again not that we are only evil.

Paul describes the 2 forces conflicting within us-the Holy Spirit and the sinful nature (our evil desires or inclinations that stem from our bodies). There’s a great illustration of this from one of the Lord of the Rings movies…didn’t show it because it’s a little scary. It’s a conversation Smeagol has with his evil alter ego Gollum. Gollum was the previous owner of the ring before Bilbo Baggins stole it from him in the Hobbit series. Anyway, Smeagol begins to realize that he no longer has to give in to the evil pleasures and desires of Gollum and he sets himself free from the bondage. Declaring at the end of the scene “I’m free.” We too can have mastery over our evil desires. Unfortunately, as long as we live with the flesh we will have temptations, but we can still have a choice.

See Paul is not saying that these forces are equal-the Holy Spirit is infinitely stronger. But if we rely on our own wisdom, we will make wrong choices.

Take the story of Little Johnny. His family was going on vacation, but they had left late and wouldn’t make it to the hotel until late. Johnny kept bugging his mother about swimming at the hotel once they arrived, but his mother told him it would be too late when they arrived and he could swim in the morning. They finally reached the hotel and as Johnny’s family was unloading the car his mom heard splashing in the pool, but Johnny was nowhere around. When Johnny’s mom went to the pool who did she see in the pool? Little Johnny…when his mom asked him what happened he said the temptation was too great. But we haven’t even gotten the suitcases unloaded and you have your swimsuit on. I was afraid the temptation would be too great so I put my swimsuit on before we left. If we rely on our own wisdom we plan to fail.

And if we try to follow the Spirit by our own human effort, we still will fail. Our only way to freedom from our evil desires is through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

We all have evil desires, and we can’t ignore them. In order for us to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we must deal with them decisively in Paul’s words, crucify them. These desires include obvious sins such as sexual immorality and idolatry. But they also include less obvious sins such as selfish ambition, hatred, and jealousy. Those who ignore such sins or refuse to deal with them reveal that they are not receiving the gift of the Spirit that leads to a transformed life. So if we will receive the Holy Spirit not only do we have the power to overcome temptation, but we gain the Fruits of the Spirit which we will talk about in the coming weeks.

Now the question becomes what can we do to help others? How can we communicate the love of God in the midst of the injustice all around us? How would you explain the love of God to Mikey? To his parents? To the person sitting next to you?

For me I believe it is this, that we serve the God of hope, the God of second chances. In this scripture the phrase, those who do such things, is the Greek word prassontes or practicing. It is not those who fall short of perfection who are excluded from the Kingdom, because that would exclude everyone. God gives us forgiveness. As Christians we need to be real, to be honest with ourselves and with others. It is only through God that I have hope to face each day. That even though the world at times has kicked me in the gut and knocked a few teeth out. I get up and dust myself off because God is big enough to overcome my hurt and pain. God is big enough, Jesus’ death was enough for all my sins, past, present and future. God loves me just the way I am and invites me to take the next step. And finally that God trusts in me, believes in me and wants me to help bring the Kingdom here.

So may you forgive what has been done to you and may you overcome what you do to others through the power of the spirit as we seek to save the lost and broken in this fallen world, to communicate the hope and love that God offers.