But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
22 sermons cite this verse
… they're going to love his house, his dealership. They're going to park their lives at the church. they're going to produce fruit. The Bible says in Galatians chapter five, the fruit of the spirit and the Holy Spirit does this is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So the fuel in your car should be the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit. That gives us the, the octane, the energy, the fuel, literally, to discover what God has for us. So defective daters make mistakes when they don't go through this drill of, all right, who is driving their car? Another one is this. Defective daters have the showroom floor mentality. I know that doesn't happen here in Dallas-Wort Worth, but the showroom and floor mentality is you focus on a few features and miss the entire car. You might walk around the car, guys, and you might go, wow. Whoa. you focus on a few features and that's it. In the car business, there's a 48 hour rule. Car dealers know if you come into a showroom and see those cars with the lights, they give you a little bit of coffee or some water. They know if they can get you in the car buying mood, you'll drive off the showroom floor. I just bought a McLaren. And you don't think about the insurance. You don't dollars. Boom. Like that. So guys, we are drawn more to the physical. …
Are they producing the fruit of the spirit? Just go down the list. There's nine of them. I'm going read them fast. I'm not going to unpack each one. Galatians chapter five, verse 22 and 23. Hey, are you a loving person? Do you love God and others? Are you committed? Are you joyful? I mean, is it just based on happenings? Are you just happy when you're driving this ridiculously expensive car? Or are you happy driving a 1967 lime green Delta 88 Oldsmobile? I'll talk about that later in this series. How about peace? Do you have the ministry of reconciliation? Because you will have issues in marriage. Marriage, guys, marriage is hard. Now, it's great, but we have to work at it. dating is about marriage and marriage is about dating. Are they patient? Are they kind? Are they full of goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? I mean, if they want to have sex with you before marriage and they just jump God's guardrails and guidelines, what's going to keep them from jumping in the sack with another attractive coworker once you're married. …
And the Bible says this is, but the Holy Spirit who produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Now, who produces the fruit? Who produces the fruit? All right. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things. Now, Michael said it earlier, but today we're going to be talking about faithfulness. Everybody say faithfulness. Say it again. Say faithfulness. Now, Michael did. Listen, if you have missed any part of this series, I want to encourage you go back and watch them. They have been absolutely incredible. Truly things that I believe are helping us live it out. Not just something we can shout about on Sunday, but truly live out on Monday. And this series has been absolutely amazing. And last week we talked about self-control. And what Michael talked about was that when we come into a relationship with Jesus, we don't just go from, okay, I'm controlled by my flesh. …
… But God has really opened my eyes and opened up this whole thing. And we find it in Galatians chapter five, verse 22. And I just want to give you our anchor scripture so you can go back and study because people who believe in God study his word. And so Galatians chapter five, verse 22, it says, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. I have a question. Who produces the fruit? OK, I need you to talk back to me. Who produces the fruit? And I want this to be clear, because a lot of people want these next things that come by thinking they can do better at those things. But the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit, when you get saved, he produces these things in your life. What does he produce? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, which some of y'all didn't use over this last holiday season. But there is no law against these things. So today we're talking about patience. …
I'm excited about what's going to happen in this place today. And so y'all ready for the word this morning? All right, pull out your notepads and anything that you have, your smart or dumb phone. We're about to see God do something awesome. We're in week five of a series that we are calling Fruitful. And I'm thankful for all of the people who spoke while I was out. Sister Amberlee Bell and our very own Bree Davis and Pastor Paul Cooper. They did an awesome job. And now we're going to talk about the fruit of the spirit that is found in Galatians chapter 5, 22. And this is just the anchor scripture for this entire series. I want you to look at it. It says, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Question, who produces this kind of fruit in your life? Okay, so the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. …
… That's Galatians 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc. That's spiritual character. also the bible speaks of fruit as being holy character holy living romans chapter 6 you have been set free from sin and you have your fruit unto holiness then as i mentioned just a few moments ago verbal praise is also seen as fruit hebrews 13 offer the sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips. And then sometimes financial giving is considered fruitfulness. When Paul took an offering of the Gentile churches to bring to the church in Jerusalem in Romans 15, he said, I have sealed them to this fruit. And the fruit he was speaking about was the finances that he collected from the Gentile church. but here in mark chapter 4 fruit primarily speaks of spiritual reproduction spiritual reproduction it's where the seed once planted in that good soil germinates grows produces fruit and in the fruit is seed so that plant can keep going. Some 30, some 60, some a hundredfold. It is where the seed replicates itself through the fruit. So then the fruitfulness Jesus is speaking about here is bringing others into the kingdom, bringing others into the kingdom of God, bringing others to salvation, winning people to Christ. And so what I'd like to do as we continue on beginning in verse 21 down to verse 34 or thereabouts, I want to give you four features of fruit bearing believers. These are four characteristics of fruit bearing. Now this whole …
… there's also the fruit of the Holy Spirit, right? Galatians 5.22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Look, I don't care how gifted you are. Can you be a patient person? I mean, I appreciate the fact that you have an ability to speak perhaps, but can you be a loving person? Can you be a kind person? we don't just need the power of the Spirit. We need the fruit of the Spirit too. Stephen also was filled with wisdom, verse three. And as you see in the message that he gave here in Acts six and seven, it was just filled with Scripture. And he had this great wisdom. And though he was young, he was so wise. I've met young people that I'm so impressed with their wisdom because they've studied the Word of God. They have this passion for Christ. And I've met older people who are just, they're old fools. They haven't learned anything in life. …
… produces something, evidence. The scripture calls it fruit. And wherever the spirit of God dwells, the fruit of the Spirit is produced, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. Okay, hold up. Now, I think we're on to something here. So, you're telling me that I'm supposed to believe that God is not invested in my happiness or my joy, but I get joy when I'm in God's presence, and I produce joy when God's presence is in me. Something is missing in this equation, and the reason why this matters is because many of us in here today have settled at a level of existence well beneath the watermark of the life Jesus died for us to live. So how you see God determines how you experience him in your life. Dr. Darius Daniels says the God you see is the God you get. So if the God that I see is a God who is not invested in the circumstances of my life, allowing my heart and character to be formed by him, producing an eternal joy, then I will not experience that. …
… Or I think about the apostle Paul who talked about the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23. Let's read these together. We've memorized them in the past. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Just leave those up there on the screen for a moment. And I want you to look at those for a second. And it's what you need to think, if you're thinking about, you know, is somebody a wolf in sheep's clothing and Jesus says, you'll know them by their fruit. Does this look like the fruit of their lives? Or are they producing the opposite of all of these things? You know, which is instead of kindness, cruelty, or instead of joy, sorrow and pain, instead of love, are they producing hate? I mean, this is how, you know, we are measuring. And when somebody's fostering this and they're, you know, they're leading to, whether it's their policies or actions or their words or the way they live or how they run their business, if they're doing things that are inconsistent with the fruit of the Spirit, then at the very least we'd say, you know, I'm going to be a little weary of following somebody who's producing the opposite of what Jesus told us to produce in their lives or through their companies or through their policies, whatever it might be. All right, so we're not to judge, but we're also to be weary. …
… in step with the Holy Spirit? He says, well, others are going to notice. But better than that, others are going to be better off. So here's what he says. He says, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is, and then he lists them. But I don't need to show you the list. because you already know what would be on this list. The fruit of the Spirit is exactly what you hope your spouse is. The fruit of the Spirit is exactly what you hope your fiance or boyfriend or girlfriend will strive to be. If you're not a Christian, or you walked away from faith, and maybe you're thinking about coming back, or somebody forced you to watch this, if you're not a Christian, here's the thing. I don't know you, but I would imagine the fruit of the Spirit is actually what you strive to be. And like me, you fail occasionally or often. Just a quick list. This isn't the full list. …
… You actually know this. The fruit of the spirit is love. You say, no, no, it's all these other things. No, no, no, no, no. Believe it or not, the fruit of the Spirit is singular love, and all of these things flow from it. Gentleness, kindness, long-suffering, self-control. Right? Think about that. Same exact way this truth is revealed. Zechariah 4.10. Zechariah 4.10, Old Testament says, For who has despised the day of small things? Don't be discouraged because things are small. For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth. The eyes of the Lord. The Lord doesn't have seven eyeballs. This means absolute, perfect understanding. By the manifestation of these seven attributes, the Spirit of God is upon you. The Holy Spirit meaning sees all. He knows all. The Holy Spirit. And believer, he's the one that's in you so that you and I would never be silent. …
… That patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God who dwells within us. Galatians 5.22 You may not feel the same way I do about the Bible, But still, I think we can agree that when we lose our patience, it's something worth trying to find again. Because you know what it feels like to lose your patience with someone you care about. The regret you feel. I know what it feels like. I've said and done things I wish I could take back. And if I only had a little more patience, I wouldn't have so many regrets. And I would have played more hide-and-go-seek with my kids when they were young. even though they sometimes tested my patience. Plus, you and I both know how we've benefited from the patience of others. Our parents, our siblings, friends, a piano teacher, a basketball coach, a mentor at work, they all put up with us. It was their patience that made it possible. For the Christian, that's what we're called to do. …
But starting with verse 22, it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy. Let's stop right there. Look at your neighbor and say joy. Look at your other neighbor and say joy. Let's go down to verse 24. And it says, and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We'll stop there. If you had to give a title to my message this morning, it's simply this, protect your joy. I don't think y'all heard me. Protect your joy. I've been thinking about joy a lot lately, especially with everything that's been going on in the world. You know, the murders, the violence, the division, not to mention the things that I've been dealing with in my own personal life. And as I was reflecting on life and reflecting on this idea of joy, it hit me that it's so easy to get overwhelmed with life. it's easy to develop a heaviness and a sadness about life that if we're not careful will bring us to lose hope and allow us to step into this slim space of depression but the Lord reminded me though that as a believer and a follower of Jesus that that doesn't have to be my portion and that doesn't have to be your portion. …
… Many of you know the Sermon on the Mount and what Jesus says there. Or you know the fruit of the Spirit, that the Spirit's work in your life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Or you've heard 1 Corinthians 13, you know that love is patient and kind and does not envy, is not irritable, does not boast. You know these things. So, let's not kid ourselves that it's just so complicated. True. There are maybe 10% of those times that are so complicated, I just don't know what to do. And most of life, most of you already know what God's Word said. It's a matter of whether we will be faithful to do it. When you take that spiritual do-over, you say, Lord, I want to be a man, a woman, a teenager, a retiree after your heart and follow your book. And notice what else they do. You may not have made this connection, but now you'll see it. They are absolutely intentionally following the patterns that had already been established in their history. …
… Galatians 5, here's what the Apostle Paul said. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and say it with me, self-control. That's the facts of forgiveness. Here's some facts that fuel us. I've talked about the feelings that mess us up. Let's talk about the facts that fuel us about forgiveness. Are you ready? Write these down very, very rapidly. Number one, forgiveness is about God. Forgiveness is about God. It, again, separates Christianity from the pack of all the world religions. Number two, Our greatest need is forgiveness, vertically and horizontally. What's man's greatest need? Forgiveness. Number three, it can wreck us or redeem us. We pull the trigger of revenge or the lever of love and forgiveness. It's our choice. Number four, it's more for the offended than the offender. I've messed up so many times on this. I'm like, okay, I'm going to wait for this guy. I mean, this guy that messed me around, he's going to crawl back, and he's going to say, Ed, I was wrong. …
… wouldn't be able to rise above those things. But on the other hand, verse 22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, so if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. We now have life in the Spirit. We live by the presence of the Spirit in our lives. He is that eternal life. But the only way that we will be able to overcome the remaining flesh is to walk by the Spirit, to walk by the Spirit. Again I say it's basic to all understanding of Christian living, but the only way you You can live the Christian life is in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now let's go back to Ephesians chapter 5 for a moment and look more closely at this command. Be filled with the Spirit, verse 18. …
… will withdraw that assurance. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, right? So if you're not walking in the Spirit, you're not going to experience love, joy, and peace. We want assurance, and it's for those reasons. Let me just kind of lay it out simply. We want assurance because with assurance comes peace, joy, praise, love, gratitude, strength, patience, purity, hope. With assurance comes love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, all the fruit of the Spirit. We want that. We want assurance because we want those wonderful spiritual blessings. But you're not going to have them if you're sinning and disobedient. If that's going on in your life in some kind of routine way, even though the dominant tyranny of sin has been broken because you have been made a servant of righteousness, if you have you see continual pattern of sin for a season or a time, that's going to take away your assurance. And honestly, it should. The only accurate evidence that you're a true believer is righteousness and godliness of life. …
… is in all the lists. It's in the lists of a supernaturally changed heart. It's in Galatians where the fruit of the Spirit are mentioned. It's in 1 Corinthians 13, and actually I think I printed it out at the very, very bottom of the scripture passage. Kindness. Love is kind. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Now, let's just ask, well, let's look at this particular mark of a supernaturally changed heart under three headings. What kindness is not, this spiritual mark trait is not, what it is, and how we can get it. What it's not, what it is, that's one way to be clear, is to say what it's not, and then say what it is, and then say how you can get it. First of all, what it's not. Right in the middle of this passage in Ephesians that Paul writes to the church, he says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving. Now, last week we looked at the idea of forgiveness. …
… and the like but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control now over the years there's been a terrible misunderstanding of what paul means when he talks about the flesh versus the spirit in romans 8 he says you must kill the deeds of the flesh if you want to live. And unfortunately, sometimes the Greek word sarx means body. But unfortunately, one of the tragedies in the history of the church is many people have believed that when Paul talked about the flesh versus the spirit, he was talking about the body versus your soul. And as a result, many, many people have seen when Paul says you've got to put the death, the flesh, that the flesh is the source of the evil and the flesh is the source of sin, that people have believed over the years that the body is bad. And what it means to be a Christian is to pummel the body. What it means to be a Christian is to put down the body. What it means to be a Christian is to not allow the body any kind of satisfaction. And as a result, bodily sins in both evangelical and Catholic churches who have been very dominated by this misunderstanding understanding that when Paul talks about the wicked, evil flesh that he's talking about the body somehow. If you've been raised in evangelical churches or Catholic churches, you'll have a tendency to have a kind of hierarchy of sins, sins that have to do with the body. Sexual …
… We have the Spirit of God on the inside of us who will enable us. Listen, the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is vengeance, hostility, anger, bitterness. It doesn't say anything of the sort. The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit who lives within us, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. And listen to this, peace and goodness and self-control. These are the fruits of the Spirit. Now, it doesn't say the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and gentleness and self-control and patience. And patience, unless, except, if, and but. Doesn't say any of that. It just says the fruit of the Spirit. Does that mean that I can love people only when I'm loved? I can have peace only when the situation is created. For example, God says, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. Unless, except, and if, and but. No, because you see, if someone else could control my life, you know what that means? …
… NO. PRIMARILY IF THEY CONTROL THE ONE TONGUE THEY HAVE. Listen, Galatians 5, verse 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law, no man ever made a law against those things. That is the mark that you, sir, are filled with the Holy Spirit. You, madam, are filled with the Holy Spirit. Not only an established testimony, not only filled with the Holy Spirit, but full of wisdom. Look again in verse 3. Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. You know what I look for in a deacon? I don't look for smart men. I look for wise men. Listen, it's better to have good men and wise men than smart men. Knowledge is important, but it may puff up. Wisdom is paramount. and wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. Knowledge may be proud that it knows so much. Wisdom is humble that it knows so little. What mighty men these were. …
… OUR LORD SAYS THAT WE SHOULD NOT BE UNFRUITFUL. GALATIANS, CHAPTER 5, VERSE 22, BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH. That's the fruit of the Spirit. I can't produce that fruit and you can't produce that fruit. If we'll abide in Him, we'll bear that fruit. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not your fruit. It's not mine. You see, how, how can you know them? Well, there's the fleece they wear, but there's the fruit they bear. Now I said that the root determines the fruit. But the fruit reveals the root. Now wait a minute, stay with me. It's the seed that determines the root and the fruit. Isn't that right? It's the seed that determines the root and the fruit. I mean, you're not going to have the right kind of root or fruit if you don't have the right kind of seed. And the seed, Jesus says, is the Word of God. YOU READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 13 ABOUT A SOWER WHO WENT FORTH TO SOW. THE SEED IS THE WORD OF GOD. IT'S THE SEED, THE SEED, THE SEED THAT DETERMINES BOTH THE ROOT AND THE FRUIT. WHAT A TEACHER JESUS IS. NOW HERE'S THE THIRD THING, AND I JUST HAVE A FEW MOMENTS, BUT LOOK IN VERSE 21. I WANT YOU TO SEE THE FATE THAT THEY SHARE. NOT EVERYONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME, LORD, LORD, SHALL ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. MANY …