GROWING PEOPLE CHANGE
Notes
Transcript
Handout
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
In order to experience spiritual growth, that is to say lasting, deep, radical, permanent change, you must understand its NATURE, its PATTERN, and its PROCESS.
The NATURE of spiritual growth.
We understand its NATURE by unpacking the metaphor FRUIT. Why does Paul use FRUIT as his metaphor Paul when he has a vast language of metaphors at his disposal? Paul is staying in step with the story of Scripture:
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Scripture is using botanical language to remind us of several important truths concerning the nature of spiritual growth.
You never see the act of spiritual growth only actions resulting from its occurrence.
Spiritual growth is slow.
You don’t always experience immediate change. You don’t always see it overnight. You have to be patient.
Spiritual growth is seasonal.
Fruit has its wintertime and harvest. However, even in wintertime trees are still growing though there is an appearance of deadness.
Spiritual growth is never really something that we feel it can only be measured or tested.
Though spiritual growth is slow, seasonal, to some degree invisible, and mysterious it is INESCAPABLE.
It is inescapable because of previous Scripture that I quoted. The seed of this fruit is no ordinary seed but that of God.
When God’s Spirit dwells in you there will be change.
You will worry less.
You will become more patient.
You will become a more loving person.
You will become wiser.
You will be able to face your troubles.
{USE G. CAMPBELL MORGAN ILLUSTRATION} If botanical growth has that kind of power in its gradualness, what kind of power will the Spirit of God have? This is no ordinary fruit but FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT and IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
Today’s sermon and subsequent sermons I pray leads us to ask ourselves some tough questions. However, if we want honest answers let’s not ask ourselves but our friends. Go to people who have known you a long time and ask them.
Think about it. Over the years, there have been these quirks in you. You have a secret sin you do in the dark. You haven’t been able to overcome it. You’re not a very loving person, or you tend to be extremely resentful, or you’re always getting your feelings hurt. That’s why you go from group to group or from town to town or from job to job or maybe from church to church. You’re always having your feelings hurt, always feeling snubbed, always feeling like, “Nobody likes me.”
This is a lack of love, a lack of joy, a lack of peace, a lack of patience, a lack of kindness, a lack of goodness, a lack of faithfulness, a lack of gentleness, and a lack of self-control. I’m not saying you’re not a Christian; I’m saying you cannot know you’re a Christian if you’re not changing. Remember? Gradual, inevitable. Keep them together! You could be a long time under that slab. The acorn may be there a long time.
This is the Spirit. And if it’s there you will definitely grow. So change is gradual. Change is INESCAPABLE. Keep going.
THE PATTERN
Spiritual growth is INTERNAL.
It’s ORGANIC not MECHANICAL.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 13 to see this difference.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Here’s what he is saying; IF PEOPLE’S LIVES ARE BEING CHANGE THROUGH YOU BUT YOUR LIFE ISN’T BEING CHANGED, FLEE TO JESUS IMMEDIATELY. When people are being changed through you that is a fruit of their Spirit not yours.
THE PROCESS
Spiritual growth is SYMMETRICAL.
Fruit is singular in our text with a plural predict. Paul isn’t intentionally breaking a rule of grammar but intentionally teaching a must for us to understand spiritual growth. Jonathan Edwards says that the fruit is CONCATENATED. This means they are interdependent. One cannot grow without others growing alongside.
How are you going to develop those things? Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its over-desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
There are always, always two must’s for spiritual growth. Crucify what? The sinful nature. Does that mean just stop? No, no, no. We said last week your main problems in life are the things you want too much. We must kill our over-desires. Find those things which are too important to you (more important to you than Jesus Christ) that are running your life and creating the works of the flesh and put them to death.
On the other hand, it says, “… keep in step with the Spirit.” keep in step with the Spirit” means. . . It says the Spirit, we said last week, yearns. See?
A gardener doesn’t make the things grow. The gardener just creates the conditions through which the power of the seed is released. You cannot make yourself loving and joyful and peaceful. You can’t just say, “I’m going to. I’m going to.” No! You have to kill the flesh and keep in step with the Spirit.
Start here . . .
Oh Lord, be real to me. It’s my whole problem. I don’t need new circumstances. I don’t need new information. I need the truth about Jesus Christ to be so real to me that my desires for these good things become manageable.