The Fruitful Life

Introduction

Last week, we heard Paul talking about Christian Freedom. This week, we are hearing Paul talk about what Christian Freedom is for.

Paul made the incredible claim that there are only two different kinds of people in this world. There are those for who are free in the gosple of Jesus Christ and are living their lives by grace and there are those who are enslaved to bad spiritual masters that control us.

but maybe you’re still thinking: Oh man, that sounds really harsh. Is Paul really saying that.

but this is why he gets so animated and angry and upset at the Judaizers for the false gospel that they are preaching to the Galatians. They weren’t just bringing some strange conservative teaching, they were losing the gospel all together.

But now Paul is now applying this freedom to our lives. If last week, Paul answering the question: “What is Christian Freedom?” This week, he is asking, “What is Christian Freedom For”

SAY THIS TWICE: And here is why this is important: The Fruit of the Spirit is the life of heaven coming into us. And the works of the flesh is the dangers of hell within you.

Hear me in this though. This is very imporant. Paul is not saying that if you are a real Christian, if you are one of the ones that will end up in heaven, that you won’t struggle with things, have sin in your life and fall into temptation. Not at all! Otherwise he would be contradicting passages like Romans 7, where he says:

Romans 7:21–25 (NIV)

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

instead, Paul is trying to get us to see the Christian life through a different lens:

You see, we may think that the point of this life is to get ‘into’ heaven when we die. That we is say a sinners prayer, to invite Jesus into our hearts and we are covered and good. but it isn’t the whole picture. It’s not faithful to the story of that the Bible is actually telling us.

Because the Bible isn’t telling us of a story of how to get into heaven when we die. It’s actually the other way around. It’s a story about getting heaven into us. It’s about bringing heaven to earth.

Revelation 21:1–3 NIV

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”  for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Listen to how New Testament scholar NT wright comments on this. He says, ““Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to fill earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.”

Here’s why this is important. The Fruit of the Spirit is the way in which the life of heaven comes to life in us.

But the same is happening in the works of the flesh. We often think about hell as a place where bad people go. But the Bible always talks about hell as the place where God allows the fullness of human autonomy to reign. It’s the place where God allows us to have our own way and run our own lives.

Jesus tells a story about a rich man and Lazarus

Hell is not simply a place of fire and punishment but a state of eternal self-centeredness, isolation, and separation from God, where the heart becomes fixed in its rejection of God.

Listen to how CS Lewis decribes it: He says, “Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others... but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God "sending us" to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE hell unless it is nipped in the bud.

Paul is saying that inside everyone something is growing. It just matters what it is. We are either growing in the fruit (the self directed toward God) of the spirit or the works of the flesh (the self directed toward the self)?

That’s what this is about. It’s so easy for us to look at the works of the flesh as (the bad things) and the fruit of the spirit (the good things) and to try to do more of the things in the fruit of the spirit and less of the bad things.

But that’s too simplistic. we could do a lot of good things, loving things, joyful things peaceful things for the wrong reasons. As what we really have to do is look underneath our desire. That’s what is talking about.

Christian freedom is inviting us a transformed desire for God and his glory.

You see, when Paul describes the works of the flesh he is using a really interesting greek verb that isn’t translated very well in our modern bibles. It’s the word desire. The ESV translation will often translate it as “lust”. But it means “over-desire,” an all-controlling drive and longing.

Every car has whats called the RPM gauge. Revolutions per minute, it’s how often the engines pistons turn over in a minute. And in the normal range, it sounds good but then someone revs it and it’s in overdrive. We call it redlining and it’s intense and hot and fast and dangerous too because the engine could blow if it stays there too long.

Overdesires are very revealing. You see, Paul is saying that our problem is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things, we take good things and over-desire them, turning them into spiritual masters that we serve.

This is the how we make sense of what Paul is saying. Everything in that first list: Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jelousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition…they are all examples of am over desire for something good.

Let’s look at the first three words which all have to do with sex in this: Sexual immorality (Porneia), Impurity (akatharsia) and Debauchery. Each of these has to do with an overdesire. Desiring sex in a way that turns it into something that we are unwilling to submit to God and see the way that he has created it and the kind of relationship that it is created for.

An overdesire of sex will always ignores the way God designed Sex to be enjoyed. It overdesire always directs it towards the self. Gratifying the flesh. Sex becomes about me, and my wants. Rather than the ultimate expression of agape, self-giving love. Giving yourself to someone else in perfect vulnerability.

If we go through this entire list we will see that everything in this list is

an example of an over desire for some thing good, that turns us in on ourselves.

Hatred, it’s not just being angry at someone. Hatred is the feeling we have when people get in between us and our ultimate source of value and significance. Our identity.

maybe you go to church and believe in God but your real source of security and value is in being a good person. And the way that we can tell is when our attitude towards other people changes if they also appear to be a very good and pious person.

Maybe someone posts photos on Facebook of the selfless acts of love, the charity they extend, how they serve their neighbourhood and community and rather than praising God for this wonderful thing, you feel a little voice inside you that says: “Well, I am sure they are doing it for the wrong reason!” Or, you begin to make excuses for yourself. “The only reason I don’t do that is because I don’t have time…”

and you don’t like to admit it….but you actually begin to hate the, because of the good they are doing.

why? Because of an overdesire. You’ve placed your identity in a good thin: charity and made it an ultimate thing.

This, Paul says in verse 15, is how we destroy ourselves.

But maybe you’re not a church goer and you’re thinking that all of this stuff doesn’t really apply to you. But let me tell you, everyone has over desires Because everyone has to serve something.

If it’s not God, then what is it? Is it your career? Your Family?

What is Paul saying? The works of the flesh are not just bad things that we do they are the end result of worshipping someone or something other than God. They are what he’s in us when we serve bad spiritual masters.

So what do we do? Paul tells us in verse 16 to “Walk by the Spirit”. Because when we walk by the Spirit, we will grow in the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, something important to point out is that Paul doesn’t use the plural for Fruit here. It isn’t FruitS, it is fruit singular. Which means that a Christian, genuinely being transformed by the Spirit is going to be growing in all of these areas rather than just one or two.

And the Fruit of the Spirit is the exact opposite to the works of the flesh.

Let’s take a look at the first three of these, they are Love, Joy and Peace. What is love? Well, Paul uses the greek word Agape here to describe Love. It means, “To serve a person for their good and intrinsic value, not for what the person brings you.” It is unconditional love. It’s self giving love. It is love directed away from the self.

Agape love is doing things for another person without expecting anything else in return.

And Joy: Joy is a feeling of delight that flows from being aware of God’s grace, love, and promises." It’s not an emotion that goes up and down based on your own circumstances, meaning it’s not based in yourself it’s based directed outward. This is why people can be in really difficult situtations and still have deep and lasting joy. Do you want that?

Then Peace: Peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but a deep, abiding sense of well-being and harmony despite what is happening around us. It’s directed away from yourself. Peace can happen in the midst of chaos.

christian freedom is what empowers us to grow and be transformed by the Spirit because the gospel identity is based on grace. Its a free gift we don’t deserve and it’s not something we can lose.

But how do we actually grow? What’s the key? You may be thinking, “I’ve been a Christian for so many years and I haven’t seen a lot of change, a lot of transformation, a lot of spiritual growth. What gives? Am I doing something wrong?

First thing: Spiritual Transformation is like an acorn. I used this example when I was a SERVE speaker. It’s so small when it starts. But wouldn’t you know it, over years and years and years, the tree grows, and grows and grows and becomes a massive, huge oak tree. That’s the Christian life. Growth is gradual.

Second thing: Spiritual Transformation is different than the progress we are used to in this life. Often times we like things to be measurable. We like to see things up and to the right. Moving in a linear line of growth.

But the spiritual life isn’t like that. Becuase as we grow in our holiness and become more like Jesus in our relationships, the more we recognize the way areas that we need to grow in.

GK Chesterton, a great theolgian and a holy man who had been following Jesus for decades answered a question that the papers asked. This was back in the time when you had to mail in your responses to questions posed by local papers. And the question was, “What is wrong with the world?” And GK Chesterton wrote back something profound. He said two words, “I am.”

On the one hand, he was deeply committed to Jesus but on the other hand he knew all the things that were still wrong with him and actually, this is the key to spiritual transformation.

If you want to live the fruitful life, you’ve got to have this kind of Humble attitude.

But it’s not just being patient, it’s not just embracing humility. Deep, lasting spiritual transformation takes walking with the Spirit.

Walking here literally means falling alongside of. It’s a military term that describes the formation of a soldier. And what Paul is saying is that you’ve got to take your cues from the Spirit. You’ve got to follow where the Spirit leads you.

Come on, get practical preacher.

what is the holy spirits role? What does He do?

Our Heidelberg Catechism comes in really handy here. Question and Answer 53, in explaining the Holy Spirit talks about what the Spirit does for us. And it says this,

First,

he is, together with the Father and the Son,

true and eternal God. 1

Second,

he is also given to me, 2

to make me by true faith

share in Christ and all his benefits, 3

to comfort me, 4

and to remain with me forever

What does the He do? He always points you to Christ. He points us towards Gods promises, Gods reality, Gods sacrifice.

He drives us toward the benefits of the gospel.

let me apply this.

Some of us when we look at ourselves in the mirror, don’t like what we see. And it’s leading you to not like yourself, or others who look better than you, be angry at God or at the world.

Bu we are never go to overcome our struggles with self-image by improving our looks. Just ask Taylor Swift about that one. How does walking in step with the spirit change? Walking with the Spirit means you don't take your cues from the mirror you take cues from the Spirit. And the Spirit points you to Jesus.

You see, Jesus Christ gave himself for you. He stayed on the cross not because he had to but because of his love for you. He accepts us not on the basis of our performance but on receiving his grace.

In Christ, we no longer have to prove ourselves. The verdict is already in: God loves us unconditionally. This truth liberates us from both pride (I look beautiful) and insecurity (I don’t look beautiful) because our worth is no longer tied to performance or others’ opinions.

that’s the only thing that will heal you of your struggles with self image. And at the same time, transform you and set you free to finally love people, even people , All people, Even though who you used to hate.

This is what our Christian freedom is for. When we experience freedom from our idols, the bad spiritual masters that enslave and control us, looking to Christ for everything, Heaven will begin to come to life in us.

Look to him! Worshio him, find yourself fully in his love and He will begin to change you.

Father, thank you for giving us your Spirit, the comfroter, encourager and pointer to the perfect glory of your Son and the meaning of an identity in Him. Father I pray that this would sink deeper in us still so that we will continue to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. In your name, Amen.