Living for a Change - The Fruit of the Spirit
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· 227 viewsThe Hoy Spirit gives us the motivational “will-to” do what we “have-to.”
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Sermon Introduction
Sermon Introduction
Rapunzel is not really a story about a beautiful woman but a story about the power of love to heal the blind. In the In the original, pre-disney version of the story written by teh Brother’s Grimm, an evil sorceress comes and imprisons Rapunzel in a tower and puts thorns all around the tower so anybody who tries to rescue her is going to have to brave the thorns. Of course, a handsome, young true prince comes up and tries to scheme with Rapunzel on how he’s going to save her, but the evil sorceress finds out about it. When he’s not there, she spirits Rapunzel away to a far land. Then, she waits for the prince to come up.
When the prince comes up, he finds the evil sorceress and in despair he throws him off the top of the tower, down into the horrible thorns she had prepared for him, and they gouge his eyes out. He wanders for years … a blind beggar, completely destitute, unable to see anything, totally miserable. Probably not exactly the way you read it, and yet because of a supernatural intervention, the prince hears Rapunzel singing and the sound of her song strikes his heart like an arrow from cupid. She takes him in her arms. He’s blind; it’s awful, but if they have each other … As she weeps, her tears fall in his eyes and heal his eyes. Her love for him, heals what the thorns had taken.
In our text, Rabbi Paul says we are waging a war against our former blindness that keeps trying to darken our eyes but … guess what? If you will hear the what the Spirit is singing, saying He will become the true Lover of your soul, whose love flows mingled down and heals our blindness and takes away our hardness toward others. He will give you the will-to-do what you have-to-do.
At the beginning of the message Rabbi Vowell used the Rapunzel story to illustrate the Holy Spirit’s healing ministry in our lives. Can you recall a time when you new the Holy Spirit was healing your soul from past sin? What was it like?
Ha-Foke-Ba
Brothers and sisters, you were called to freedom—only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Torah can be summed up in a single saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not destroyed by one another. But I say, walk by the Ruach, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Ruach, but the Ruach sets its desire against the flesh—for these are in opposition to one another, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Ruach, you are not under law. Now the deeds of the flesh are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, just as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom. But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Ruach, let us also walk by the Ruach. Let us not become conceited—provoking one another, envying one another.
In 1519, Captain Hernán Cortés landed in Veracruz to begin his great conquest of the New World. Upon arriving, he caught wind that there might be a mutiny of men and they would want to leave this conquest and abandon their captain. So the famed story says that Cortés gave the order to his men to burn the ships and and he made sure they sunk in the harbor.
There is something about this story that I absolutely resonate with, that feeling that in order for me to do what I have to do I need to eliminate all possible temptation that might cause me to retreat. A kind of “No Retreat” option so there is no temptation to turn back, to give up on the challenge that is in front of me.
Have you ever wished you could just burn down all the ships of temptation so it would be easier to just do what you have-to-do? Why would this not really solve the problem?
I can’t tell you the number of times I have thought to myself, “God, if you would just burn down all the options that prevent me from doing what I have-to-do, then I would have no problem doing it.”
The problem with this is it only forces my hand to do what I have to do but it does not give me the will to do it. It does not create in me a longing to do it. It does not give me a vision to do it. You have to have the will-to-do what you have-to-do to accomplish God’s will for you.
Throughout this series, we have said there is a way that you can live your life that can only get you so far and as good as it gets it is never as good as it gets with the Holy Spirit active in your life. We have covered a lot of ground about the Ruach, the Holy Spirit. Today, I want us to conclude our series discovering how Only the Hoy Spirit can give you the motivational will-to-do what you have-to-do.
The Internal Work of the Spirit
The Internal Work of the Spirit
The internal work of the Holy Spirit is to radically heal the damage done to your old affections. Explain what the text says about “how the affections are radically restructured.”
Explain what the text says about the “promise of the Spirit filled life.”
Rabbi Vowell mentioned four things that Holy Spirit does to restructure you affections. Of those four which one or two stood out to you the most? Why?
Your affections are restructured towards one-another ().
Brothers and sisters, you were called to freedom—only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Your affections are restructured to internalize and personalize the Torah ().
For the whole Torah can be summed up in a single saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Your affections are restructured against the flesh ().
But I say, walk by the Ruach, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
Your affections are restructured for the Spirit’s guidance ().
But if you are led by the Ruach, you are not under law.
Validate: God’s righteous and merciful will can only be fulfilled by the internal work of the Holy Spirit. Why can’t the Law change our affections and give us the will-to-do what we have-to-do? Why does it take the Holy Spirit to give us the will-to-do what we have-to-do?
Why can’t the Law change our affections? Why does it take the Holy Spirit?
We all recognize that Rabbi Paul says in the law slays and has limited potency
For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death.
He also made us competent as servants of a new covenant—not of the letter, but of the Ruach. For the letter kills, but the Ruach gives life.
He also made us competent as servants of a new covenant—not of the letter, but of the Ruach. For the letter kills, but the Ruach gives life.
He also made us competent as servants of a new covenant—not of the letter, but of the Ruach. For the letter kills, but the Ruach gives life.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death.
We also recognize that it is God’s will and it is Spiritual
For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin.
The Law/Torah is easily misused and abused by sinful human beings. Based on a selective reading of the Torah you could choose to focus on the minute details of tithing mint, dill and cummin but neglect the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faith. And, you can also so overfocus on justice, mercy and faith that you neglect the small matters of the Law and that is why Yeshua says, “You should have not neglected the former while practicing the latter” in .
The Law/Torah is made into a machinery of deception in the hands of sinful human beings. Under the power of sin the Torah conceals selfishness, self-deception, and the fact that human beings are constantly distancing themselves from the justice that God intended, from His mercy, and from the true knowledge of God.
The Law/Torah can only give us the have-to-do but it does not give us the will-to-do.
The Law/Torah apart from the Holy Spirit operates from the outside-to-the-inside.
The Law/Torah with the Holy Spirit operates from an inside-to-the-outside
Only the Holy Spirit can give you the will-to-do what the Torah says we have-to-do.
Illustrate the Application: those who are led by the Spirit are growing because internally their affections are changing. They have both the “will-to” and the “have-to.”
Let me ask you. You’re Houstonians. You’re probably very busy and never have enough minutes in a day. Maybe you’re very active in your kids lives also. Maybe you’re very active in this synagogue. Are you volunteering? Are you reading your Bible? Are you going to meetings? Good. These are all great spiritual practices. I’m all for spiritual practices, but now do you see the problem? Are you really growing or are you just doing what you “have-to-do”?
Or I’ll put it this way. Would the people who know you best say that, increasingly, you’re becoming a harder and harder person to discourage because you’re getting happier, and you’re becoming a harder and harder person to tempt to disobedience because you’re getting more and more faithful, and you’re becoming a harder and harder person to embitter because you’re becoming humbler?
Do the people around you say, “Oh, you’re a lot humbler, happier, faithful, more patient, more peaceful, less anxious person than you were two years ago”? Is anybody going to say that about you? Maybe you’re not growing, because you are just trying do the “have-to’s” wihout the “will-to.” But those who are led by the Spirit are growing because internally their affections are changing. They have both the “will-to” and the “have-to.”
The internal restructuring of the affections is not so that you can be free from the Law; rather, it is so that you can have the “will-to” do what the Law says you “have-to.” And the Holy Spirit does this by restructuring the whole of our internal affections so that now we have the will-to-do what God has for us to do. This one simple idea is what keeps you from becoming a legalist on the one hand and sloppy agape on the other hand.
That means something important that we cannot overlook. The real antagaonist to the Spirit is not the Torah but the sinful nature inside of each and everyone of us. This is not some “churchianity” idea. One of my favorite books in Judaism is called “Duties of the Heart” by Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pakuda and was written in 1156 A.D. Rabbi Bahya took upon himself the task of writing a book in order to stimulate constant awareness of G‑d and of His commandments. He was hoping by doing this it would lead to fear of the Almighty (Yiras Hashem), and love of the Almighty (Ahavas Hashem), and thereby to perfect service to the Almighty.
In his book, he has an entire section some 50+ pages detailing how the evil inclination, the sinful nature, is the antagonist of the soul and will take every opportunity to slay the heart from pure devotion to God. While the book is one of the best manuals on what you “have-to-do” to discern the voice of the flesh (aka, the evil inclination or sinful nature), the Rabbi offers no hope that the “will-to-do” can change. Rabbi Paul gives what Rabby Bahya lacks: a real way to overcome the antagonist of the Spirit, the flesh.
The Antagonist of the Spirit
The Antagonist of the Spirit
The flesh works against the Spirit in direction opposition to the Kingdom of God.
Now the deeds of the flesh are clear: sexual immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, just as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.
The flesh is a way of speaking about the affections being under the control of sin and not the Spirit.
The flesh’s desire is for self-fulfillment and indulgence ()
First Three: Self-Gratification - My desires are the only ones that matter.
Middle 10: Self-Sovereignty - My will is the only will that matters.
Last Three: Self-Glory - My honor is the only honor that matters.
The flesh’s desire is in direct opposition to God’s kingdom ()
envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, just as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.
At a bare minimum, he mean you will not experience God’s blessing in this life. At a maximum, it means you will spend forever separated from God.
The phrase “those who do such things” should help us to discern that Rabbi Paul knows that there are those who live a life of sin in contempt of God and those who fall victim to sin because of weakness or infirmity. Moreover, there is a difference between those who sin with no real ambition of repentance and those who mourn and grieve over sin.
Illustrate Weakness - Peter, Thomas, David
Illustrate Contempt - David, Gehazia, Annais and Saphira
Illustrate:
The flesh is incredibly deceptive and it can hide your weakness as a strength, convince you that you have overcome sin because you are doing godly stuff.
They just switched the outlet for sin but did not stop the sin. The case of the man who used sex to get power over girls was the same man who used Bible Study to get power over people.
As long as you are in this body you are going to be in a battle against your flesh. It is like modern smart phones that have the ability to run off of wireless or cellular data but unlike smart phones you can’t just turn one or the other off. Both the flesh and the Spirit are sending signals but it is up to you which one you are going to operate your life from.
Application: You cannot overcome the flesh by better techniques only by alignment to the Messiah. ()
Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Before the Application of the Cross
If your desires are the only desires that matter than I can tell you why your spouse feels constantly used and depleted by you.
If your will is the only will that matters always tell you how great you are but never tell you the truth.
If your honor is the only honor that matters I can tell you why you are never satisfied with where you are in life.
Notice Rabbi Paul says they “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Authentic believers, those owned by the Messiah, gave up their will-to-do what the sinful nature would have them to-do at Messiah’s death.
This is a transformation born out of love not out of guilt because the Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see that he took what I just deserved so that I could receive what I could never earn.
His death both atones and transforms for those who belong to Him.
Messiah died to His desires so I can die to mine.
Messiah died to His will so I can die to mine.
Messiah died to His honor so I can die to mine.
This is a hard fight: the flesh is passionate and it desires what it desires and is looking for you to resurrect it. The reason it is so easy to slip back into the flesh is because the flesh will always be on the side of you getting your desires, getting your will, getting your honor. This has been the case ever since the day Eve took the sin of Satan and we were forever changed. The flesh will always side with you and never against you. That is how you can tell the difference between the Spirit and the flesh: the Spirit will not side with it being about your desires over others, your will over others, your honor over others.
Rabbi Paul knows that the Hoy Spirit gives us the motivational “will-to” do what we “have-to” and that the flesh is the antagonist to the work of the Spirit. But what is the Spirit doing?
The Horticulture of the Spirit
The Horticulture of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is managing and cultivating the garden of your heart to bear fruit from the seed of love. -
But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law.
But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
He is the horticulturalist producing fruit. The genitive of production/producer (produced by). The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit.
The older view was that love, joy and peace represented a triad of our attitude towards God. The next three toward society and the last three were directed towards internal character.
The problem is that is based on assessing Paul as an Aristotle or Greek philosopher and think
Remember how I told you I paid a $1,000 dollars to learn context, context, context.
Well, the first context is the language itself. The language itself gives the first clue because in Greek it is the singular word “karpos” fruit. He bears one fruit love and sometimes love is experienced as the next eight things on the list.
The second context is the author: He is a messianic Jewish rabbi who has not abandoned his Torah for Greek virtue list. This is where Christianity misses it. See Christianity wants the fruit of the Spirit to be a set of virtues divorced from the Torah.
For Paul, He sees the Holy Spirit as the key to fulfilling the Torah’s “love” command.
And Look back at
For the whole Torah can be summed up in a single saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul is not giving up the Torah for a new kind of virtue and vice list. No, he is saying the Spirit that was promised by all of our prophets has come and the Spirit is writing the Torah on the affections of our hearts so that we can fulfill the ultimate goal of the Law: Love God & Love Neighbor.
so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.
Rabbi Paul understand that the Torah can tell us what we “have-to-do” but the Spirit gives us the “will-to-do” it. This not virtue and vice divorced from the Torah but rather this is the motivational force to fulfill the Torah’s “love” command.
But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit’s seed of love tastes like:
Mutual Liberation: joy & peace
Other-Orientation: patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness
Self-Denunciation: gentleness & self-control
Can I give you a great illustration of what the fruit of the Spirit looks like from our Torah Portion this week.
In our portion, the 12 spies are sent out to survey the land. They see that the land is a good land with gigantic clusters of grapes. So large they carry it back on poles. Yet, they come back from spying the land and say it is too hard to take the land despite how good it s.
In other words, the pain to get it is not worth the reward of having it and the responsibility of maintaining is not worth the constant effort. I think Rabbi Adin Stenisaltz is correct when he says,
“The problem of entering the Land is the problem of assuming responsibility for the physical, financial, and practical sides of life. All of this responsibility means that one no longer lives in a calm world, where God feeds you manna because now you must work hard with your hands.” - Adin Stenisaltz
The people begin to grumble along the lines of self-gratification (my desires), sovereignty (my will) and self-glory (my honor).
But Joshua, Caleb, and Moses they bear the fruit of the Spirit because they have faith in their God and their faith says the most loving thing to do is to take the land God’s has promised us even though it means things will be different now. And what does their fruit taste like: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control first towards God and then towards the people. So much so that when God wants to destroy the people Moses demonstrates the fruit by interceding on their behalf.
All the people knew what they “had to do” but only Joshua, Caleb and Moses had the “will-to-do” it because they were filled with the Spirit. The had the fruit of the land and the fruit of the Spirit.
Application:
If we live by the Ruach, let us also walk by the Ruach - .
Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version Chapter 5
If we live by the Ruach, let us also walk by the Ruach
This is our new battle - a fierce, bitter battle that is a spiritual battle that has been raging since the Garden of Eden. A battle against self-gratification (my desires), sovereignty (my will) and self-glory (my honor).
Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), .
We can taste the fruit of the Kingdom but the responsibility of the kingdom will require us to fight the flesh so that the harvest of the Spirit’s fruit can take hold.
Notice that he says if you “live” by the Ruach. Do you have the Spirit? Then it is not passive, it is a command “walk” by the Ruach.
First, it is not about technique but involves real discipline that flows from re-ordered affections.
Second, it is not about stress free environments but it is about the will-to-do what I have to do when it is a stressful environment.
Last, it is not about doing more or less but it is about doing all that love requires.
Conclusion: The Pomegranate Illustration