Unnatural

Date: 2021-11-28

Audience: Grass Valley Corps

Title: Unnatural

Text: Various

Proposition: The Spirit’s fruit isn’t natural

Purpose: Cultivate supernatural characteristics

Grace and peace!

Find Galatians 5 and look to verse 16.

Before he gets into the details of the fruit we want our lives to produce, Paul gives us this big picture:

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.[1]

Sow hat are we reading here?

The flesh is Paul’s way of referring to our animal nature. We’re a bag of chemicals and programming that push us to act certain ways. But at the same time, we are higher beings, with the ability to think and act in ways outside of that animal nature. We have, then, our natural urgings and influences and supernatural urgings and influences. Supernatural in this case meaning something greater and outside of our basic nature.

The Fruit that God encourages us to grow isn’t natural! In many ways, it is the opposite of natural. And yet it is fruit we are able to grow, if we work at it. And in doing so, we become more and more the people we were created to be instead of just what we were born to.

Which we want to do.

Which is why we need to focus on growing these supernatural characteristics in our lives!

So, what is natural and what is supernatural? Well, we’re given lists of suggestions so we’ll know how to classify the various urges, impulses, feelings, and drives and focus them into our efforts to be the best person we can be.

Look down a verse and let’s read the next block of text:

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.[2]

All of these things are me-centered – what can I get? – rather than being communal in nature. They are all things which are able to be done thoughtlessly – cravings, impulses given reign while the brain is turned off.

But what is the leading towards higher things encouraging?

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.[3]

And what we’ve talked about the last couple of weeks is how we are told that all of these things are together the singular Fruit of the Spirit. These are all interconnected aspects of the same supernatural drive to become something more than animals, something focused the other, on working together to achieve more than our own gratification.

We’ve spent some time on Love, Joy, and Peace. Today let’s look at Forbearance, also called patience, and on Kindness, so we can see how allowing these flavors to enter our lives not only helps us, but also those whose lives we touch and, through them, the whole world.

Small decisions from individual people always make bigger ripples than they realize.

Hatred, rage, selfish ambition… these are all impulses we know because they come to each of us. We see ways we can seize advantage or power over another to benefit ourselves or our desires and we take it. It may be a theft of something small or large or a striking out against someone or something in an effort to feel superior.

This has always been the way and it still is, because too often we allow the natural to rule over the supernatural.

How is the supernatural urging of the Holy Spirit different?

Well, how about in the insistence that patience rule over impulse?

Patience is often referred to as being slow to anger, but a better definition may be a person who remains firm while undergoing testing or trials. Patience, also called forbearance, is sometimes called long-suffering, as in one who is able to endure for an extended time.

The Greek word Paul used here means, roughly, to be a person who is able to avenge themselves

but chooses not to.

The ultimate example of what it means to be patient is always the LORD. In Psalm 103:8, it is said that

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.[4]

with the word behind “slow to anger” being the same as the word for patience.

How we humans view God’s patience with our kind varies!

In Joel 2, the prophet says to the people that the time of their judgment is at hand and that their destruction is on them like a devouring flame. But then there is this:

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart

and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and he relents from sending calamity.[5]

Even on the very cusp of final judgment, Joel says God is still waiting patiently for all who will to return to him. For him this is a kind of relief – Thank God, that you will wait for us even as we try your patience something awful!

Jonah, on the other hand, thinks that God is TOO patient with his people. When God accepts the last moment conversion of the Ninevites, Jonah is angry.

2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.[6]

He goes on to say that God’s willingness to love, forgive, and show mercy is just too much. So God grows a vine up that made a pool of shade for Jonah, bringing him joy. And then, the next day, the LORD arranged for the plant to die, sending Jonah into another fit of rage.

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”[7]

Now, if you weren’t aware of WHO these people at Nineveh were, we’re talking about the capital city of Assyria. The Assyrians were a vicious adversary of Israel and who had utterly destroyed more than half of the nation in recent years. They made a hobby of torturing their enemies and perfected the art of removing the skin from someone and leaving them to die, among other horrors.

Jonah’s hope to see the people of Nineveh eliminated is naturally understandable. God’s patience and forgiveness can only be called supernatural.

And yet…

He tells us that we are capable of offering the same long-suffering forgiveness.

Jesus was talking to his disciples about the importance of forgiveness one day, when Peter asked him a question. This is from Matthew 18, by the way.

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” [8]

And we should give Peter some props for this. The generally teaching of the rabbis in the day was that forgiveness should be offered up to three times, but after hearing Jesus talk about God’s patience, Peter understood something more was being asked of us. So he staked out a position of more than double the amount of patience usually offered to the most repentant of sinners. But he still hadn’t gone far enough!

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[9]

He then went on to tell the story of a king forgiving an unimaginably large debt owed him by one man. That man then went out and held another man accountable for a significantly smaller amount that he owed, causing the king to call him back and say,

33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?[10]

The simple truth being that the LORD has forgiven each of us FAR more than we will ever be called on to forgive others for.

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, in chapter 4, Paul says I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.[11]

We are called to live a life filled with supernatural patience! How do we do that?

Well, partly we need to remember to lean back on the encouragement and reassurance provided to us by the Holy Spirit. And then we need to bear with each other in love – remember that’s agape, which is us making a choice to put the interests of the other ahead of our own. It’s choosing to build a relationship where we might be more comfortable allowing a natural hatred to rise up in our soul instead.

Patience is nothing more or less than expecting the best can occur in all relationships. It is a willingness to wait for that best to come about because we trust that there is value in waiting and building that relationship. Patience is a recognition that our timing and our hope for that relationship to be rebuilt or restored may not sync with the timing of others, be that other people or the timing of God.

Think about patience as growing a relationship. What good does it do a farmer to be angry at her plants because they are later in yielding fruit than she thinks they should be? It won’t affect the plants! It is not in her power to ripen fruits at her pleasure. Therefore, as a farmer exercises patience and long-suffering waiting for the earth to yield her fruit, we need to do the same in waiting for the presence of the Lord.[12]We need to expect that the results will come in their time!

In a struggle between a stream and a rock, the stream will win, but it can take awhile before the rock moves. And how much longer before the Grand Canyon is formed?

There is a tool we can use to make patienceeasier. That tool is kindness.

Kindness is an attitude or disposition that we choose to hold. And if we are choosing to act in kindness towards another, it is much easier to be patient with them that if we are holding some hostility, anger, or jealousy towards them. It also helps to stop thinking in terms like “us” and “them”! If we think of each person as just that – an individual person – it is much easier to find ways to bring your decision to be kind to bear.

The idea behind the word for kindness is one of doing something useful or profitable for the other.

Have you noticed these themes embedded in all the flavors of the fruit of the Spirit? They revolve around thinking and planning and choosing how to act towards others.

In 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4 we are told that love is kind, which, when we break that down, means that in choosing to put the interests of the other ahead of our own we must choose to act in a way which they will find useful and profitable.

It’s about our attitude and our effort.

It isn’t about the other person responding a certain way or believing a certain thing or anything else. It is about us recognizing that God has done this for us and so we MUST do the same for others.

In Ephesians 2 there’s a passage that talks about how Jesus is God’s kindness to us – a living example of the grace of God. And at the end of that passage it says we were created to do good works – literally profitable works – acts of kindness, as it were. Those acts aren’t our salvation – God granted us salvation, it’s free for those who accept it. But, knowing what he has given us and knowing that he has kindnesses he would like us to do for others, why would we refuse?

The Spirit is there, prompting us, encouraging us to act in kindness even in situations where we might naturally lash out or respond with anger or selfishness. But we need to listen to the leading of the Spirit rather than letting the noise of our animal instincts obscure it.

The Fruit of the Spirit isn’t natural. It needs to be cultivated – intentionally developed in our lives. But that’s what we want! Because we want to be more than animals – we want to be supernatural, the way we were created to be. And that can start with a decision to act kindly towards others, including being patient and seeking peace in all things, because the joy of God’s relationship with us gives us the ability to choose to love even where we might have thought that was impossible in the past.

If you’re with me, if you’re willing to strive to listen to the Spirit and act with patient and intentional kindness this week and hopefully from then on into eternity, let me hear you say Amen.

[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:16–17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [2] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:19–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [3] The New International Version. (2011). (Ga 5:22–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [4] The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 103:8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [5] The New International Version. (2011). (Joe 2:12–13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [6] The New International Version. (2011). (Jon 4:2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [7] The New International Version. (2011). (Jon 4:10–11). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [8] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 18:21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [9] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 18:22). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [10] The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 18:33). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [11] The New International Version. (2011). (Eph 4:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. [12] AMG Bible Illustrations. (2000). Chattanooga: AMG Publishers.