THE FRUIT

KEY PASSAGE: GALATIANS 5:16-26 (NASB)

Welcome

We welcome you to our Sunday morning worship service, including our first-time visitors. First-time visitors, please stand so we can see you and recognize you, and let us welcome our online viewers. We are glad to have you with us today.

Holy Communion Exhortation One

As we take communion today, I want to remind everyone that when Jesus pronounced, “This cup is the new covenant,” Jesus did not mean that the bread and wine were a repeating sacrifice. The bread and wine do not become Jesus’ actual body and blood. The bread and the wine symbolize Jesus’ death. And the good thing about the Lord’s Supper is that it is a precious memorial to remind every Christian about Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. The Lord’s Supper conveys a special sanctifying grace to Christians who eat and drink in faith because Jesus is spiritually present as we fellowship with Him and each other today.

Jesus died on our behalf and in our place. When the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper, we remember the body and blood, and His death inaugurated the new covenant. So, the act of eating and drinking is how Christians regularly proclaim the gospel until Jesus returns.

Let us pray.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Gracious Father, I pray that You refresh our souls with the joy of Your salvation. Bless the little piece of bread as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice and the unity of this body. Bless the cup as a sharing in the death of Christ, as we die to ourselves to live for You. Thank You for Your love and forgiveness. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Tithe and Offering

Giving is a big part of our Sunday worship experience, and we give to God to demonstrate our gratitude (thanks) for sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins. We also give to God to help this church minister the work of God in our community because many people today are hurting and searching for answers to life problems. So, I want to encourage you to give to God cheerfully and do it with your whole heart. Ushers, please pass around the offering plates so we can collect our tithe and offerings. For those who will be online, by mail, and through the church mobile payment service, please follow the directions on the screen on how to give.

Announcement

Please look up on the screen as we make our announcement. Every Wednesday is our church's weekly Bible Study at 7:00 p.m. Yesterday was our new member class. If you missed the new member class and are interested in joining the church, we have a sign-up at the back of the church, so please be sure to sign up for the new member class. We also send out communication weekly through text messages. If you want to receive communication from the church, please provide us your name, phone number, and email address.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say together the Declaration of Faith in God.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer leads to Christlike virtues within them, just as a living tree will bear good fruit. Today, I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit as a fruit as we continue our series on The Names of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, the Word of God says, “But the fruit of the Spirit.” Here, the Spirit of God is viewed as a fruit-bearing tree, and of this tree grows Christlike virtues such as “love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Against such, there is no law.”

Believers are the only citizens of God’s kingdom that the Holy Spirit equips to bear kingdom fruit.

The Holy Spirit is a fruit-bearing tree, and only through the Holy Spirit can a believer achieve victory over the flesh. Only through the Holy Spirit can a believer achieve victory over addictions. Only through the Holy Spirit can a believer achieve victory over sins.

We will talk about some of the consequences of living a life in the flesh later in our sermon. Paul ends our reading for today with a zinger (profound statement) by calling on believers not to be boastful in verse 26: “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”

The words “one another" appear twice in verse 22. Paul is concerned that the household, the faith, and the believers are experiencing destructive conflict in the church. Rather than being a healing agent, the believers were a hurting agent. And we see that in the church today. We have seen it in other churches where destruction is taking place, and so, if you want the fruit, what the tree of the Spirit produces, which will address the problem of disagreement in your life, my life, in our life as the family of God. If you want this tree to grow in your heart, in your home, and in God’s house, then we must be full of the Spirit because we operate by the Spirit, which Paul calls "walking in the Spirit."

SERMON EXPOSITION

There are vaccines available to help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19. Different COVID-19 vaccines may work in our bodies differently, but they all protect against the virus that causes COVID-19. In a similar way, there is a vaccine for the crisis of division in the church today.

The vaccine to the calamity of chaos among people, particularly among Christians, is the fruit of the Spirit being made manifest because God’s people have learned to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Let me remind everyone: God expects His people to bear spiritual fruit. God expects every believer to bear spiritual fruit. Let’s look at verse 16.

Verse 16, “But I say,” coming off of the context of your division, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things you please. But if the Spirit leads you, you are not under the Law.”

The “fruit of the Spirit” listed in our passage has to do with character. Paul lists nine graces that make up the fruit of the Spirit that we don’t have time to go over today, the lifestyle of those who are indwelt and energized by the Spirit.

Paul says you have within you, I have within me, a civil war going on. It is a civil war between the flesh and the Spirit.

So, let’s get our terms (i.e., nomenclature) straight: The “flesh” is that desire to please oneself independently of God. The "Spirit" is the presence of Christ within us that seeks to please God even when it is at the expense of pleasing ourselves. Paul says the difference between these two is driven by desire. He says this civil war has to do with a desire, a craving, a burning within to be satisfied. The Spirit wants to satisfy God inside of us. The flesh wants to satisfy ourselves without reference to God, leading to an inner clash that every believer (I don’t care who you are) has to deal with. So, guess what? Even on your best day, you need the Holy Spirit.

That is what temptation is all about. It is an appeal to the desire of sin, which has been embedded in the flesh, which always leads to a desire to be satisfied independently of God, which is naturally going to create conflict because if I want to please me, and you want to please you, and we want to please each other differently than one another, then we are naturally going to fight, as husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, this flesh has this desire, and what this desire does is seek to rule us. Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit,” in Galatians 5:16, “and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Now, remember that the flesh is driven by desire. Please don't misread this because I want you to grab this concept. He does not say, “Stop the desire of the flesh so you can walk in the Spirit.” That is going backward. Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you won't carry out the desire of the flesh.”

The question on the floor this morning is – are you walking in the Spirit? So, you don’t beat the flesh by fixing the flesh. That is why the flesh is unfixable. You cannot keep your flesh from being fleshy. You are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. That is why you don't have to teach your kids how to lie, how to steal, how to cheat, how to be bad, and how to disobey. You don't have to instruct them to do all the bad stuff. You don’t have to teach them these things. Why? Because these things are built in at birth, okay? That is why the flesh can't stop being the flesh.

So, what people settle for is what I call “flesh management.” Let me tell you something else. That is a mistake because we are all trying to get to this tree called the fruit. Another mistake is trying to turn the flesh into the spirit. The flesh and the spirit are distinct. The flesh and the spirit are two opposing forces. They are two different realities in the life of a believer. You were born with the flesh.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION ONE

You remember Isaac and Ishmael in the Old Testament. They could not get along, so the Spirit and the flesh (the old nature) are at war with each other. By “the flesh,” Paul is not talking about the body because the human is not sinful; the human body is neutral. So, if the Spirit controls the body, we are walking in the Spirit, but if the Flesh controls the body, then we walk in the lusts (desires) of the Flesh.

The Spirit and the flesh have different appetites, and this is what creates the conflict. These opposing appetites are illustrated in the Bible in various ways. In the Bible, the sheep is labeled (designated) as a clean animal that avoids garbage, while the pig is an animal that enjoys wallowing (rolling) in filth. Our old nature, watch this, is like the pig always looking for something unclean to feed on. Our new nature is like the sheep yearning for that which is clean, holy, and righteous.

In verse 16 of chapter 5, Paul says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” He does not say, watch this, that you won't have the desires of the flesh. Let me repeat that. He does not say the flesh will stop wanting to be fleshy, that it will stop wanting to sin, that it will stop wanting to be selfish, that it will stop wanting to disobey. No, Paul says what the Spirit does is override the flesh.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION TWO

There is a law of gravity. It is the way reality is. It is a non-negotiable law. What goes up must come down. Why? Because the law says, “What goes up must come down.” Can an airplane take off and not come down until it wants to? Because there is another law, and it is called the law of aerodynamics. The rules of aerodynamics explain how an airplane can fly. Anything that moves through air is affected by aerodynamics. You see, when you move at a certain speed with a certain amount of force, you do not cancel the law of gravity. You override the law of gravity. Gravity is still there, pulling' stuff down, but the plane's power and momentum (force) take you up and don't allow gravity to make the final decision.

The same principle applies to walking in the Spirit. When you and I walk in the Spirit (here it is), God now elevates us to override what the flesh is craving us to do, leading to self-centeredness within us and conflict with others. So, you know the solution to our issues is learning how to walk in the Spirit because the flesh, no matter how much it desires, won't have the last say-so, so the work of the Holy Spirit's fruit, the tree of fruit, can be expanded and expressed in our lives.

Believers are called to walk while trusting in the Spirit’s empowerment at the same time. So, walking by the Spirit is obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit by the power of the life of Christ, which Jesus infuses into His people as they trust in Him to overcome the trials and temptations of life.

Whenever you bump into something, are driven to something, or are tempted by something, you call on the Spirit all day because you are walking in him. It is a relationship thing. It is not an event. It is a relationship, and the more you do it, the better you will walk.

Faith Appeal and Call to Action (Conclusion)

You and I will not get the benefits God wants to accrue to our account as kingdom citizens if we don't learn to walk in the Spirit. But what is the Spirit? The Spirit is full of fruit. That is where we started. That is where we end. Full of fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit is...let me tell you something about the fruit. Notice the word "fruit" is singular even though Paul lists a whole list of fruit. Why? Because these are all unified, meaning they come from the one tree, the Spirit, called fruit. He births these characteristics, but you don't have to look for all these different things, looking for love, peace, patience, kindness, and so on.

Because all these fruits are alive, and you know what fruit does. It makes other people want to take a bite out of your life. Apples don't eat apples. People eat apples. Oranges don't eat oranges. That is rotten fruit. That is a bad fruit. People eat oranges. In other words, instead of being a curse to other folks, you will be a blessing to others. Why? Because you are changing. People are going to see you as a fruit-bearing kingdom citizen.

Folks are going to come and see our church as a fruit-bearing church. Because there is a fruit tree growing in your soul, the Spirit, called fruit, that is this tree that is uprooting this new walk, this new conduct, this new orientation, because you are operating in a new environment, and that is what God offers to every believer.

Trees grow on rocks against all odds (likelihoods). As large as these rocks are, they have no life. They are full of death, but if you look carefully, you will see trees coming from these giant rocks. You will see life coming out of death. You will see green coming out of emptiness. That is what the Spirit of God does. He comes into our lives to bring life, to bring the fruit of the Spirit, which breathes out the character of God.

You may have come out of a dead experience, but once you are born again, God has breathed life into your humanity and mind so that, no matter how much the flesh has brought death to you, how many sins and circumstances, how bad the past was to establish a rocky sense of emptiness in your existence, in your life. Today, I want you to look carefully because the seeds of life have been planted in your soul through the presence of the Spirit to bring fruit from you, to grow out of you so that no matter how strong it looks around you, you can see that God is doing a work in you, and guess what?

He who has begun a good work will let those trees, those life-giving forces, grow and grow and grow so that it makes itself manifest even in the areas you thought were hopeless. These rocks may look hopeless, but you will see enough trees around you to let you know that life can come out of death when the Spirit produces fruit as we learn to walk with him.

Altar Call

To have this fruit we are talking about today, you must be willing to have the Spirit, and you only have the Spirit by accepting Jesus Christ. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ because Christ comes into your life through the Holy Spirit when you accept Christ as your substitute and sin-bearer.

You must receive Christ as your means of being accepted by a holy God. God cannot accept sin, so your flesh can't enter heaven, but what He will do is He will enter your life, forgive your sin, and give you eternal life when you accept His Son as your personal Savior. Would you go to Jesus Christ right now and acknowledge to Him that you are a sinner and that you need a Savior, that you trust Him as your substitute, right now? You receive Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and give you eternal life.

Special Prayer

And if you are here today and you are hurting and you are going through a lot, and you are at the point of giving up because life has taken you on a detour. If you are meandering because of life's ups and downs, please come up so we can pray for and encourage you. I will call Mr. Barbee, Farai, and Paula to pray with you.

Let’s pray.

Benediction

Father God, we offer our souls and bodies to You again to be governed, not by our will, but Yours. Let it be the ease and joy of our hearts to be under the conduct of Your absolute wisdom, follow Your counsels, and be ruled in all things by Your holy will. And let us never distrust Your abundant kindness and tender care over us, whatever it is You would have us do in this world.

May the God of hope fill every heart here today with joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you, and we are dismissed.