Fruit of the Spirit & the Tree of Life
Fruit of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Warren Brosi
May 11, 2025 (Mother’s Day)
Dominant Thought: Finding and keeping wisdom yields blessing.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to understand the value of wisdom.
I want my listeners to feel inspired to choose wisdom.
I want my listeners to read the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs and look for the fruit of the Spirit.
I’d like to introduce you to a special lady today. If you ever saw her you would think she was a queen. She’s wealthy. She’s more valuable than gold, silver, or any precious jewels. She’s a precious gal.
She’s talkative. Not in the sense that she rambles on to anyone who will listen. No, she calls out with invitation. She wants to help people find the good path. She’ll call out to you from downtown or the edge of town. She’ll call people out if she’s sees them doing something dangerous or foolish. She speaks what is right and true. She hates those who cheat. She stands up for the upright. She’s a good gal.
She’s a builder. Her house is strong and her table is full of choice foods.
She’s older. In fact she holds long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left hand. If you stay close to her, then chances are you will live long, too. When you think of her, you think of life.
The book of Proverbs describes this special lady and gives her the name Sophia. Her Hebrew relatives would call here Hokma. In English, we’d call her Lady Wisdom.
I invite you to your Bibles to the book of Proverbs where we will meet this special lady. Lady Wisdom. She shows up throughout the book. We’ll spend most of our time in Proverbs 3.13-18. (Read Proverbs 3.13-18). As we look through these verses, we’ll see two gifts from Lady Wisdom for those who want them.
Lady Wisdom offers more value than treasure (Proverbs 3.14-15).
Proverbs is a collection of instructions from a father to his son. In the opening chapters, you’ll see the repetition, “my son” (Proverbs 1.8, 10, 15; 2.1; 3.1, 11, 21). That may be one of the reasons that the father describes wisdom as a lady. In a few chapters lady, he’ll describe Lady Folly. Both ladies will offer invitations. Only one will deliver on her promise.
In Proverbs 3.13 we read, “Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding.” It is a good thing to find wisdom. I describe wisdom as knowledge put into practice. In the Bible it describes those who had a specific skill or ability (Exodus 35.26, 35). It is a gift from the Spirit (see Deuteronomy 34.9; Isaiah 11.2; Acts 6.3, 10).
In Proverbs 3.14, wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better return than gold. It is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire compares with her.
Think of your deepest desire. The juiciest steak, the dream vacation. Nothing you desire compares to the valuable treasure that Lady Wisdom offers. Another way to look at wisdom is the ability to make good decisions. Does anyone else need help making good decisions? Lady Wisdom can help you.
However, we don’t always listen to the voice of Lady Wisdom. Many times, we choose to find wisdom on our terms.
I wonder if Solomon chose to describe wisdom as a lady because he remembers the first lady of the Bible sought to be wise. In the beginning, God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to care for it. Then, we read these words in Genesis 2.
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It might be better to read about this second tree as the knowledge of good and bad. Then God gave Adam the warning not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad (Genesis 2.17).
Then, we turn the page to Genesis 3 and the woman sees the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
She wanted to become wise on her own terms—apart from God’s ways. When we seek wisdom on our own terms, it generally does not end well.
However, Lady Wisdom offers another offers that is more valuable than our desires. Lady wisdom offers more value that treasure.
There is another virtuous woman described at the end of Proverbs who is also worth more than treasure. Proverbs 31 is a beautiful poem about the ideal woman. It should not be viewed as a checklist.
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
The word for noble in Proverbs 31.10, could also be used to describe those who serve in military contexts with courage (see Exodus 18.25; 2 Samuel 23.20; 2 Kings 15.20) (from How to Preach Proverbs by Jared Alctantara, p. 62).
The noble woman of Proverbs 31 is describe by her character, work ethic, generosity, strength, dignity, hope, kindness and wisdom. here children rise up and call her blessed and her husband praises her. What is not described with this noble woman is her appearance.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
The next to the last verse of the entire book of Proverbs concludes where it began—fearing the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fearing the Lord is the path of wisdom. Fearing the Lord is always in style for followers of Jesus—married or single, male or female, young or old.
Proverbs 31 is an alphabet poem where every lines starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It could be titled the ABC’s of a virtuous woman. Jared Alcantara summarized Proverbs 31 this way, “A Woman of Beautiful Character Devotes herself to Everyday Fellowship with God” (How to Preach Proverbs, p. 61).
Lady Wisdom gives life to finders and keepers (Proverbs 3.13, 16-18).
These verse from Proverbs 3.13-18 begin and end with blessing. If you want the blessed life, choose Lady Wisdom.
Lady Wisdom is portrayed as holding long life or length of days in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.
Lady wisdom promises long life, riches and honor. If you go over to Proverbs 9.13-18 Lady Follow shows up. She’s an “unruly woman” (Proverbs 9.13). She calls out to those who pass by much like Lady Wisdom does. But listen to her offer, “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious” (Proverbs 9.17). Then we read this commentary, “But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead” (Proverbs 9.18).
Lady Wisdom offers and promises life. Lady Folly offers goodness, but delivers death.
In Proverbs 3.13-18, those who find wisdom are blessed. Those who hold fast to her are blessed. Lady Wisdom gives life to finders and keepers. You must seek her and stay close to her.
That first lady’s name, Eve, means, “life.” “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living (Genesis 3.20).
Lady Wisdom is described as a tree of life.
The tree of life shows up in the garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3. The tree of life shows up again at the end of our Bible in Revelation 22.2 in the new heaven and new earth. And, the tree of life shows up here in the middle of our Bibles in one of the most unexpected places, Proverbs 3.18. Wisdom is described as a lady and a tree of life.
So, this summer, we want to cultivate wisdom. We want to find this lady and keep her close to her. We want this tree of life to bear fruit in our lives in this church.
In the coming weeks, weeks we will trace the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.22-23 through the wisdom books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Each week, we will look at a different characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit and look for it in one of these wisdom books.
Finding and keeping wisdom yields blessing.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Paul follows up with his list of the fruit of the Spirit by describing those who belong to Christ. Maybe it is the same people of find and keep Lady Wisdom and seek the tree of life.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have offered you a way back to life with treasure that outweighs the passions and desires of our flesh. Treasure and life of wise living by fearing God because He knows what is best for us, our families, His church, our communities, and this world.
I invite you to read through the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon and look for the fruit of the Spirit in these wisdom books. Next week, we will look at the theme of love as it is described in Song of Solomon.
Remember Finding and keeping wisdom yields blessing.
