THE HOLY SPIRIT ADVANTAGE SERIES PART 2 THE SPIRIT PRODUCES FRUIT IN YOU2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

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Date: 2010-11-15

Title: The Holy Spirit Advantage Series Part 2 The Spirit Produces Fruit In You

Teacher: Jerry B Simmons

Series: 2010 The Holy Spirit Advantage Series

Teaching Transcript: The Holy Spirit Advantage Series Part 2 The Spirit Produces Fruit In You

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. Well, as we get started here this evening, we're looking at the second study here in this series and talking about the Holy Spirit producing fruit in you.

You and I have an advantage as believers. We have a great advantage because the Holy Spirit has been given to us. As we talked about last night, we spent a little bit of time in the beginning discussing how life is hard.

Man, life is difficult from your very early years to becoming an adult, to getting married, to having kids, to having careers. There's all kinds of pressures and difficulties and we experience loss. We have dreams that are broken. We have dreams that we want to be fulfilled. There's pressures from friends, from family. All around us are all of these things that make our lives complicated and difficult.

And then you become a Christian and it adds on to the complexity and the difficulty of life because you keep all those old pressures and decisions and problems and things that you face, but then you add on to that the temptation of the world and the seductiveness that's out there, the work of the enemy, the struggle with your flesh and that battle that goes on

on within you between the flesh and the spirit. There's the spiritual warfare that happens, the temptation, the battle against our own laziness and desire to do silly things rather than focus on the things of God. And so there's all of these things in our lives that make life really tough and it can be very difficult. And there's some seasons, of course, that are more difficult than others.

And so we need all the help we can get. And that's why in doing this series, we're focusing here on John chapter 16, verse 7. Here's what it says. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you.

Jesus says, hey guys, I'm going away, but it's good for you. It's to your advantage that I'm going away, because if I go away, I'm going to send you the helper. And I think we all realize and can recognize we need some help. We need all the help we can get. To live the life that God has called us to live is impossible without God's help.

And God has sent us the Holy Spirit to provide that help. And so we have this tremendous advantage that we did not have outside of Christ. We have this advantage even though the Christian life is more difficult than the life of an unchristian in some ways, in many ways. They don't have God so they have no hope and that type of thing. But there's not the trials, there's not the difficulties that are struggled with in the same way.

And so we have some extra set of difficulties and hurdles and trials and advantages. There are things that are coming against us, but we have this great advantage in the Holy Spirit. And so last night we dealt with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit is dwelling, living within us and what that means for us. It's something, if you weren't here, you need to know the Holy Spirit dwells within you always, forever, no matter what.

Whether you're in a good mood or a bad mood, whether you've been doing righteous deeds or sinful practices, as a believer, you need to know that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you. And we saw nine advantages that we have because the Holy Spirit dwells within us last night. I encourage you to check it out if you weren't here. But as we go forward now, looking at the Holy Spirit, now we're talking about not just the advantages of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us,

But now the result, the produce of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, that is the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in you. Not only do we have the advantages that we talked about last week, or last night rather, we have a whole new set of things that God works in us as a result of the Holy Spirit being within.

in our hearts and so turn with me to galatians chapter 5. galatians chapter 5 here we have that famous passage on the fruit of the spirit it's a familiar one i'm sure you've heard it taught before you've read through it before but again we're looking at these things kind of with a fresh set of eyes looking at them saying lord what does this really mean to me

That the Holy Spirit produces fruit in me. What does it really mean? What does it look like in my life? And how does it work? Not just doctrinally, intellectually, how can I understand it? But how can it impact what I do tomorrow? How can it change my life? And so here in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23 says,

Paul says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Here in Galatians 5, verse 22 and 23, we have the fruit of the Spirit. These nine fruits,

that Paul lists and says, these are the fruit of the Spirit. The word fruit simply means product or result. It can mean the return or profit of something. Primarily, this word is used in the sense of fruit on a tree. This is the product of the tree. It's what the tree produces.

Oranges, apples, lemons, limes, whatever the tree might be. It produces fruit according to what it is. And in a similar fashion, the spirit produces fruit. Just like fruit is grown on a tree, the spirit grows these qualities and these characteristics within us.

And so the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit that the Spirit produces in our lives is love and joy and peace and long-suffering and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And there's no law against these things. So what the Spirit produces in us is not illegal.

What the Spirit produces in us is good for us. It's what is necessary for us. And I think that as we look at these things, we would all agree these are characteristics that we want. I don't think any of us would look at love and say, oh no, I don't want that in my life. No, no. Or joy, ah, no, get rid of the joy, man. I don't need no joy.

Self-control? Yeah, I don't need that. That's just useless. No, I think as we look at these things, if we want to walk with God, if we desire to live the Christian life, there's a yearning for these characteristics. We look at the example of Jesus and we want to love like Jesus loved. We know He commanded us to.

But the how-to is the difficult part, isn't it? We know what He did. We know He's the example. We know He told us to love like He did. But how do we love like He... How do we make that happen? How does that take place in our life? Yeah, we know where to have joy. As Paul said, you know, to rejoice always. And again, I say rejoice. We know that. That's common. It's an easy scripture to memorize. But then difficulty happens. And how do we have joy? How do we find joy?

In the midst of loss, in the midst of trial, in the midst of tribulation. And so I think as we look at these things that Paul lists here as the fruit of the Spirit, we would all agree we want these. But the question is, how do we get these characteristics? And the answer that Paul is sharing with us is the Holy Spirit produces these things in your life. This is the advantage that we have.

We don't have to generate these things on our own. We don't have to use our own resources and our own strength and our own determination and our own understanding to make these things happen in our life. These are the results or the product or the fruit of the Holy Spirit being within us. I think God chose the word fruit and writing this through the Apostle Paul for a reason.

I think He chose it on purpose to give us a visual, to give us a good understanding on how these characteristics are produced in our life. To remind us that we have this tremendous advantage, that it's the Holy Spirit who produces these things. It doesn't take works to obtain these characteristics. We don't just have to determine and work really hard. What we have to do is allow the Holy Spirit to

to produce this fruit in us. You don't have to generate it yourself. I think the next question is then, well, so I look at this list of love and joy and peace and long-suffering and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, and what do I do then if the Holy Spirit is producing these things and it's not up to me to produce these qualities in my life, but the Holy Spirit is doing it, well then, what do I do when I see lack in any of these areas?

What do I do about the deficiencies in my life in the area of self-control or in the area of faithfulness or in the area of joy or love? What do I do about those areas where I'm really not strong in those areas? And if I'm not the one who produces those things, if it's not up to me to generate it, well, how do I address that deficiency?

And again, I think the word fruit is important here because it gives us a picture of the way that God produces these things in our life. How do you get a tree to bear more fruit? How do you get a tree to bear more fruit? We at our house have a peach tree that produced some fruit this year. And if I want some more fruit out of it next year, what do I need to do?

So what I've been doing, because this is what we want, is I have a stick in my garage and I go grab it and then I beat the tree so that next season it'll produce more fruit. You think that'll be successful? You think that'll work? And then what I do is I take a chair and I sit next to the tree and I try to do my best to persuade it. Come on, please produce more fruit next year. No, it's not a matter of talking. It's not a matter of beating. It's not a matter of, you know, yelling at it or intimidating it. How do you get a tree to produce more fruit?

Now, I'm no expert, and you can talk to Larry for the real facts, but for the purposes of this study, I say you cultivate it. You cultivate it. And I want to just take you through a couple simple things about cultivating a tree. What are some things that are necessary for a tree to bear fruit? Well, one thing is you need to have multiple trees.

because there's the cross-pollination that is required for the fruit to be produced. And so there needs to be a couple different trees that are nearby so that the tree can be pollinated and that it can be able to produce the fruit that it wants to produce. Another essential in cultivating a fruit tree is you need to make sure that it has an adequate amount of sun. The right amount of sun, of course, for the type of tree that it is.

And then another thing that's really important is regular water and fertilizer or food, some type of nutrition for the tree. It needs to get the nutrients that it needs in order to be able to be healthy and produce the fruit that it wants to produce.

Another important element is to add some bark or mulch or to do something to address the weeds and to keep the weeds from taking away the nutrients and the water that's necessary for the tree. Another important element is you need to prune the tree.

At the right time and the right season, it needs to be pruned so that the next year it can be healthy and produce the way that it needs to. And then finally, you need to have patience because it takes time and it doesn't just happen overnight, but it grows according to nature and according to the season.

And so these are some simple things. I granted they're very simple. Again, I'm no expert, but there's some simple things here. And I think that they relate very, very well to the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. And that's why I share it with you this evening. And so the first thing here is that we have multiple trees. But in terms of producing the fruit of the Spirit, what we need is fellowship. We need that cross pollination between one another as believers and

That's why the author of Hebrews says, hey, don't forsake the assembling together of ourselves as some are in the habit of doing. We need to meet together, to spend time together, to study the word together, to worship the Lord together. There's a cross pollination that happens in order for the fruits to be produced in our life that the Spirit wants to produce.

God has designed us that way and we'll deal with that even more in detail in a couple days when we talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But then also you need some time in the sun. Now that's S-O-N for us as Christians. That's time with Jesus. You know, in order for the Spirit to produce the fruit in you, you need to be cultivated. And that includes spending time with Jesus. You and I as believers, we need that time in His presence.

It's times like this where we're worshiping Him, where we're spending time in the Word, but also times on our own in prayer and Word, times serving Him. We need a good amount of time in the presence of the Son in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit or for the Spirit to produce the fruit in our lives. The next thing we saw was that

The tree needs to have water and fertilizer. It needs to have nutrition. It needs to have food. And for us as believers, that's time in the Word of God. You remember, Paul described the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians chapter 6. If you want the Spirit to work in your life, you need to be in the Word of God. If you want the Spirit to produce life,

fruit in your life, you need to be in the Word of God. It's the sword of the Spirit. It's the instrument. It's the tool of the Spirit that He uses to work in us. So we need to be fed regularly. We need to have a regular supply of water and good nutrition that comes from the Word of God. Well, then we also need to address the weed situation, laying down bark or mulch or something. For us as believers, what are the weeds?

Well, you remember the parable of the sower that Jesus told in Matthew chapter 13? He talked about that seed that was sown and then the thorns came up with it, right? Those weeds came up with it. And Jesus, in explaining the parable to his disciples, says, those weeds are the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. If you want, if I want the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in my life and in your life, we need to do something about the weeds, right?

We need to do something about our grasp on this world and our focus on the things of this life. We need to make sure that we have a light touch on this world. Not loving the world, as John tells us in 1 John. Not being caught up in covetousness and materialism. Not being taken away by the deceitfulness of riches.

We need to deal with those things and to take steps in our lives to prevent those weeds from wrapping around us and grasping hold of us and preventing the Spirit from producing fruit in our lives. Well, then the next thing that you do in cultivating a fruit tree is you prune it. Now, this isn't a responsibility of ours, really, because Jesus says in John chapter 15 that the Father is the vine dresser. And as we abide in Jesus...

He being the vine where the branches, the Father prunes the fruitful branches that they may bear more fruit. And so it's the Father who prunes us. So we just need to simply let God work. Don't fight His work when He's speaking to you and saying, hey, get rid of these things. Set those things aside. When we go through trials, count it all joy. Let God prune you because it's part of His work so that the Spirit can produce more fruit

in your life and then finally patience stays the same it takes time be patient it takes time for the holy spirit to produce the fruits in you that you want and that he wants it doesn't happen overnight you don't wake up tomorrow and then boom here's all this fruit as you faithfully spend time with the lord and spend time in fellowship and spend time in the word

and remove those weeds, and let God prune you, the fruit will be produced. Don't give up. Don't be disheartened. Don't be discouraged at how long it takes. In the appropriate season, at the right time, the fruit will be produced according to what the Lord wants to do.

And so last night, as we talked about the Holy Spirit being in you and the advantages that we have, we looked at the how, and the how that we activate those advantages that we have is, was by asking and then walking. Well, tonight, as we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we'll go through these different things. The how...

For us this evening, it's to cultivate. It's to be involved in those things. If we're lacking in the fruit of the Spirit, as we consider each of these elements of the fruit of the Spirit, and we find, man, I really fall short. I don't measure up in that area, in this realm. What do we need to do? What's our response? It's to cultivate. We need to cultivate ourselves spiritually.

spending time in fellowship, spending time with Jesus, spending time in the Word, taking care of the weeds, letting God prune us, and waiting patiently for Him to do the work. Well, let's look at these things that Paul lists here as the fruit of the Spirit. The first one he gives us is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The word love here is the word agape in the Greek. It's probably a word that you're familiar with. You've heard a lot. If you've

Been around the church for a while. It's a perfect kind of love. A selfless, unconditional love. It's a love that does what is best for people, what is necessary for them, what is best for them. Not necessarily what they want.

But what is best for them? What is good for them? That's the kind of love that this is. I like the way that Barclay, a commentator, explains it. He says, agape means unconquerable benevolence. He goes on to say, it means that no matter what a man may do to us by way of insult or injury or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but his highest good. Can you imagine that for just a moment? That kind of love?

That no matter what a person does to us, whether insult or injury or humiliation, we will only seek their highest good, what is absolutely best for them. That is agape love. That's the way that God relates to us, isn't it? He gives us what we need. He doesn't always give us everything that we want.

But He does give us exactly what we need. And even if we insult Him, or even if we blaspheme Him, or even if we run away from Him, or even if we... Whatever we do, He loves us with agape love, with unconquerable benevolence. There's nothing that we can do. Remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 8? I'm persuaded that neither life nor death, nothing in this life, no created being,

can separate us from the love of God. There's nothing that can separate us. He loves us. And He will always do what is best for us. This is the kind of love that God has for us. It's the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross. And guess what? This is the kind of love that Christians are commanded to have. Jesus said in John 15, verse 12, He said, "...this is My commandment."

That you love one another as I have loved you. In the same way that I've loved you, Jesus says, you are to love each other. You're to have the same kind of love. He goes on in verse 13 of John 15 and says, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. And what did Jesus do? He laid down his life for

He demonstrated that He had the greatest love that you can have. And then He looks at us and He says, now you do it. You have that same greatest love that is possible. You love one another in the same way that I have loved you. In the same way that Jesus has served us, has ministered to us, has laid down His life for us. That is the kind of love that we are to have for one another.

Do you love people the way that Jesus loves you? How do you measure up? If you compare yourself to Jesus. Now, if you think you're pretty close, you're delusional. Let me tell you that. But there needs to be growth and a quality of love that is beyond what the world is able to do. There needs to be a love that's different, that's unique.

Jesus' love is unique and it's very easily recognizable. It's a kind of love that's found nowhere else. You know, it's interesting. As we moved into our house, I told you we had some fruit trees. But before this year, when they produced fruit, there were some trees that we had no idea what kind of trees they were. But then when they started to produce the fruit, we still had some questions. Is that peach or is that nectarine? Hmm.

What did we end up doing? Picking one of the fruits, cutting it open, smelling it, taking a little bite before it was fully developed. But we were able to determine, oh, it's a peach tree. In the same way, Jesus' love, it's easily identifiable. When the fruit's on the tree, you can walk up to it and say, it's an apple tree, it's an orange tree.

When the fruit is on the tree, spiritually speaking of us, people can walk up and say, that's a Christian. I can tell by the fruit. I can tell it's the kind of love that Jesus has. It's a kind of love that's unique. It's not found anywhere else. It's only found in Christ. Jesus said, remember in John 13, 35, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. That's to be our unique fruit. It's to be the identifying mark of us as believers.

And so again, how is this area of agape love in your life? Do you love people the way that Jesus loves you? And to have this kind of love on our own would be impossible. You know, we could try to generate agape love from our own resources. We could determine really strongly, you know, make a good New Year's resolution. We could have, you know, lots of willpower and, okay, I'm going to love like Jesus loved. But it won't last forever.

It won't be successful. We can't do it. We can't generate it. So how? How do we get this kind of love? Well, remember, we have the advantage. We have something the world doesn't have. We have something that we didn't have before we were Christians.

We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And the Holy Spirit is the one who produces this kind of love in our life. He's the one who brings it forth. He's the one who makes it happen. He's the one who transforms us from the inside out to have this kind of love. You see, if we try to do it ourselves, we're trying to conform the outside. But it's our heart that needs to be changed and we can't do that. But the Holy Spirit is in the process of doing that.

He's the one who produces the fruit. And so if we lack in the area of love, what we need to do is to cultivate our spiritual lives. Listen, if you are lacking in the area of love, then don't be satisfied with your current spiritual routine. I don't know what the problem is, man. I just, I can't love like Jesus. I'm trying really hard, but I don't know what's going on. Well, maybe you need to be spending some time in the Word, right?

Oh, you think so? Is that important? Yeah. You need to spend some time in the Word. And maybe you need to be spending time in fellowship. Oh, I was hanging out with Russell, you know, talking about basketball and stuff. No, no, no. Maybe you need to go a little bit deeper than the surface. Maybe you need to examine your spiritual habits and say, why isn't this tree producing fruit? Well, maybe you need to examine how are you cultivating it?

Are you really doing what's necessary to give it what it needs to produce fruit? And the same for us spiritually. Are you really doing what is necessary to involve yourselves and invest yourself in the things of God? That the Holy Spirit has the resources that He needs to be able to produce the fruit in you that God desires to bring forth. And so the fruit of the Spirit is love. But there's more.

He also says the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Joy is a great one. I think we all like joy, right? The word joy means to rejoice or to have great joy. Now, who doesn't want that? Who wants to be miserable? Who wants to be down? Who wants that? No, we want this great joy. And joy is different than happiness. We've talked about this before.

Happiness is based on happenings. Happiness, happenings, those are related. It's based upon our circumstances. There's a lot of times that throughout the week I am unhappy because I'm hungry. And then just ten minutes later, I'm happy because I'm eating. And so it's changed. I'm unhappy because I'm hungry, and then I'm happy because I'm eating. It's resolved, it's changed by the circumstances that I'm involved in.

But joy goes much deeper than happiness. It's not rooted in our happenings. It's rooted in something else entirely. It's rooted in Jesus Christ. Joy has some deep roots that are not shaken when circumstances of life change, when difficulty arises, when we go through those tough times.

Joy is rooted in Jesus. Jesus told his disciples in John 15, 11, he says, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. See, our joy is rooted in Jesus. Jesus said, look, I'm sharing these things to you. I'm speaking to you. I'm ministering to you that your joy would be full. I didn't put it on there, huh? There you go. The Spirit produces joy.

That your joy would be full. And that my joy would remain in you. Joy is rooted in the work that God has done for us. And it's rooted in the promises that God has given to us. And so even though I face this difficulty and I've encountered this loss, I've had this setback, something that hasn't changed is the fact that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for me. And that's what my joy is rooted in.

And so because that hasn't changed, I still have joy. Now, if my happiness is based upon my own personal comfort, well then, as soon as I'm uncomfortable, there goes the happiness. If my happiness is based upon something in this world,

Well, when it's shaken, when it's removed, when it falls over, as the things of this world tend to do, then my happiness is removed. But joy is based upon the work that God has done for us. I've been redeemed. I've been delivered. I've been forgiven. And that's the basis of the joy that I have.

Those things don't change because that's based upon what Jesus Christ did upon the cross. But it's also rooted in the promises of God. And so we look forward to the rest of eternity and all that God has in store for us. And yeah, I've encountered this situation and I've gone through that difficulty and this trial is huge and humongous in front of me. But it hasn't changed the fact that God has eternity in store for me.

And so joy has great strength because it's rooted in Jesus. Consider the words of Job in Job chapter 19, verse 25 and 26. He says,

There's Job in the midst of all his difficulty and turmoil, even wondering, Lord, why in the world is this happening to me? But here's what he knows. He says, I know. I'm going to stand with God. I'm going to be with Him. Jesus endured the cross, the author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 12, for the joy that was set before Him. He went through the crucifixion, the beating, the scourging, the shame, because of this joy, the promises of God.

Notice that Jesus says that your joy may be full. Not just a little bit of joy. Not, you know, some joy. And not sometimes. He says that my joy would remain in you. Again, Paul said in Philippians 4.4, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. So fullness of joy all of the time. Does that describe you? Would that be an accurate description of the status of joy in your life? Are you joyful? Well, if not, if that's lacking, then...

What do you do about it? You cultivate because it's produced by the Holy Spirit. It's a fruit of the Spirit. You can't determine or decide, okay, I'm going to have more joy. Already you lose some joy just by that determination. Trying to work at it. Man, it's tough. It's hard. No, it doesn't work that way.

It's something that God has to do in you. And that's why He's giving you this great advantage of the Holy Spirit dwelling within to produce the fruit from the inside out. To transform us from the inside out. And to give us this joy that the world can't understand, that we didn't understand before Christ. But it's a joy that remains, a joy that is full. Because the Holy Spirit is doing the work. And so again, if your joy is not full...

If that's a lack, if there's a deficiency there in your life, well, maybe you need to re-examine your cultivation techniques. Are you doing what's necessary to be spending time with God, to be transformed by Him, to give the Holy Spirit the resources He needs to produce this full joy that remains in your life? Well, then we see the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and then peace. Peace is another great word. Peace, it means to be at rest.

It means to be at the end of strife, untroubled, undisturbed peace. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7, "...be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." And in the result, he says, "...the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

The peace that God offers to us, the peace that is produced in us by the Holy Spirit, is a peace that passes understanding. What does that mean? It means it does not make sense, perhaps even to our own selves sometimes. I'm sure you've experienced that if you've walked with the Lord for any portion of time. You know, you're in some situation, you're in some difficulty, there's some decision, there's some pressure, there's some

Thing going on in your life and you're at peace. You're resting. You're not troubled. You're not disturbed. You're not freaked out. You're just trusting God and knowing He. He's in control. It's in His hands. And even though that's the state of your heart, your mind says, what in the world are you thinking? What's going on here? And perhaps people around you have asked you that. Because the peace that is produced in us is a peace that passes understanding. It doesn't make sense. It's not logical.

And by not logical, I mean we usually tend to keep God out of the logical equation. And when you include God in the equation, of course it's logical. It makes sense. He's in control. But we usually throw Him right out. That's not part of our equation. The things that are happening in our life, man, they're difficult. They're trouble. How could our heart not be troubled? How could we not be uneasy about

And full of strife, full of anxiety. Paul says, look, be anxious for nothing. Anxiety or anxiousness, it's the opposite of peace. So let me ask you, do you get anxious? Is there anxiety? Or are you at peace? Are you troubled and stressed out? Or are you resting? Are you resting? Not because you know the results, but because you know the one who...

is in control. God's peace surpasses our understanding. It doesn't make sense. How can we be so calm? How can my soul be resting? It's kind of like Jesus sleeping in the boat. You remember that? They're out in the Sea of Galilee and the storm's there. It's raging. And the disciples are all, they're anxious. They're freaked out. They're kind of mad at Jesus. How can you be sleeping? What's wrong with you? Wake up! We're going to die!

And Jesus, what does he do? He wakes up. He says, peace, be still. He said it to the wind and the waves. I think he kind of said it to the disciples too. Peace, be still, calm down. God's in control. He's on the throne. He went on to ask his disciples, how is it that you have no faith? You see, peace is related to our trusting in God. Are you troubled? Is there turmoil within? Or are you resting?

Do you have that peace that passes all understanding? Now, if you're lacking in the area of peace, what do you do? You cultivate. You don't generate. You cultivate. You go back to the Lord. And if you're lacking in peace, if that's an area of struggle for you, I would challenge you to examine your cultivation practices. Are you spending time with the Lord like you need to be? Are you learning to trust Him? Are you reading His Word? Are you waiting upon Him? Are you sitting quietly at His feet?

He's spending time with Jesus. Are you engaging in fellowship? Again, beyond the surface things, but really connecting with some people and praying for one another, ministering to one another. These are areas of cultivation so that we can have produced in us the fruit of the Spirit. Well, the next thing as he goes on, he says, the fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering.

The Spirit produces in us long-suffering. It can also be translated patience. This word for long-suffering, this patience, is a particular kind of patience. It's a patience in regards to people. You go, oh, I don't want to talk about this one, right? You have those people in your life that require some extra patience, require a little bit extra long-suffering. You have those people in your life, let's put it this way, that make you suffer for a long time.

That is what the Spirit wants to produce in your life, that long-suffering in regards to the people around you. Long-suffering. It's been described as a self-restraint of the mind before it gives room to action or passion. A self-restraint of the mind. Self-control, essentially. Before you just act out, before you just go off and act out in passion, in anger, whatever the emotion is at the time.

That you stop, that you wait, and you suffer for a long time. Do you need patience with people? Is that an area that, well, there's a lack. There's a need there. Think about how God is long-suffering with us. He suffers. He puts up with us for a long time, doesn't He? Not just before we were saved, but as Christians as well. He puts up with us. He puts up with our junk. He puts up with our failures. He suffers with us for a long time.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 1.16, he said, For this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Paul said, look, I'm a pattern. I was the worst of the worst, persecuting Christians, causing them to renounce their faith. And God was longsuffering towards the Apostle Paul.

Paul says that's a pattern. So everybody else can know God is long-suffering towards you. Jesus still showed Paul love. He still gave Paul joy. He still gave Paul peace. All these things that we're studying about today. He still gave Paul the opportunity to be a part of the eternal work of the kingdom of God. He showed him tremendous grace and mercy. That's how long-suffering God is. And that is what God calls us to do for others.

to be long-suffering? Is that the kind of patience that you have for people? That even though they've messed up, and even though they've messed up a bunch of times, and even though they've wronged you, or they've made mistakes, even though they've done some horrendous things, you still are long-suffering. You're putting up with them for a long time, waiting for that right time that you'll be able to show them grace and mercy and all the goodness that God has given to us.

if that's an area of lack for you, if there's a deficiency there that you need that patience, well, remember, we have an advantage. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. When it comes to long-suffering with people, as believers, we should be heads and shoulders above the rest of the world.

Because we have this tremendous advantage. The Holy Spirit produces in us long-suffering. And if we're lacking in that, if you're lacking in that, may I suggest to you that your spiritual cultivation practices are not sufficient. You're trying to feed a fruit tree with not enough resources. You're trying to get the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in you, but you're not providing the resources necessary

that are necessary for him to do that work. You need to be spending time with the Lord. You say, well, I am spending time with the Lord. I think you maybe need to re-examine. Re-examine your life if you need to. Sometimes we need that, don't we? We need to kind of re-examine and reorganize our life. Is my life based upon and centered around my relationship with Jesus Christ? Or is it just something that, you know, I fit in when I have time? I think that's the way that many Christians are.

And I think all of us as Christians experience that from time to time. And that's why we don't exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. Because we're not cultivating ourselves. You remember that kind of relationship that Jesus said was necessary was that we needed to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. And that if we didn't love Him more than anyone else and everything else, that we couldn't be His disciples. We have an advantage, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, but we also have a responsibility.

And as we do that spiritual cultivation, as we spend time with the Lord, as we spend time in the Word, we're giving the Spirit the resources that He can use to produce these things in our lives. Well, the next thing He goes on, the Spirit produces kindness in us. Kindness. The word kindness might be better translated gentleness. Kindness.

It has the idea of being soft in a good way. It's a mellowing of what would have been harsh. You know, maybe sanding down some rough edges, putting some padding on some pointed areas. It carries with it the idea of harmlessness, like the harmlessness of a dove. I would encourage you to consider how often, how frequently do you hurt people? How frequently do you offend people? How often are people getting upset at you?

Sometimes people get hurt and it's a necessary thing. You know, what God says to us oftentimes is offensive. Don't tell me that, Lord. That hurts my feelings. And it's necessary. It's the truth. But, you know, God's not harsh with us. He uses the appropriate amount of sternness, strictness. He tells us the truth. He deals with us according to our need. But He's not just flipping. He doesn't just knock us around.

and offend us unnecessarily. And so sometimes, yes, we're going to hurt people. That's inevitable. It's unavoidable in life. But as Christians, the Spirit desires to produce in us a gentleness, a softness that is not there naturally, that enables us to be gentle with people. You know, I'm pretty confident that you cannot be a dentist without desiring to torture people.

And yet there are some who are gentle. And even though they're inflicting incredible and weird pain, they do it gently. And only what is necessary. Now there's some that are rough. And they're inflicting pain. And they're careless about it. And they're just not really careful. Gentle. They're not really soft. Now I don't mind if you inflict the amount of pain that is necessary. But please be gentle. Be soft. Be soft.

Allow the Spirit to produce in you this fruit. And if you're lacking in the area of softness, we go back to cultivating. That's what is necessary. That is what is required. For the Spirit to produce in us kindness, we need to be spending time in fellowship and spending time in the Word and spending time with Jesus. And down the list we go. We need those things in our lives to cultivate our spiritual life.

That the Holy Spirit would have the resources that He needs to produce the fruit in our lives that He wants to produce. Well, we go on now, and we see that the Spirit produces goodness. Now, this is the active doing of good. This is the energizing of good. It's not just having good intentions, but it's doing good. And this is not natural for us. You remember Paul's question? He was actually quoting from, I think it's the book of Isaiah, but in Romans 3.12, he says...

Who is there that's righteous? Then he answers, there's no one who's righteous, not even one. He says, there's none who does good. No, not one. Doing good is really not natural for us. But when we are spending time with the Lord, when we've cultivated ourselves spiritually, doing good is produced by the Holy Spirit. Is this an area where you need some growth, where you're actively doing?

Doing things that are good, doing the things of God, doing the work of God. Cultivate your life. Spend time with the Lord. Next, we see that the Spirit produces faith or faithfulness. I think faith is probably a better translation. The word simply means faith. It means to believe, to be assured of, to trust. Do you ever struggle with faith? Is it sometimes hard to believe God?

Maybe you're not shaken in your belief that God exists, but sometimes what God is asking you to do, is it hard for you to have faith? Do you take steps of faith? Is there a lack of faith in your life? Where you know God exists, but then you know what God is calling you to do, and it's like, oh no, I can't do that. I don't want to do that. That's scary. That's hard. That's difficult. The Holy Spirit, when we are cultivating ourselves spiritually, produces in us faith.

So that we have a strength to believe in God, to hold fast to His Word and be obedient to Him, to be responsive when He calls us to take those steps of faith. The Holy Spirit produces faith. We don't have to generate faith. It's produced in us. Again, by spending time in the Word of God, by fellowshipping, by surrounding ourselves with people who have faith, who encourage us, who enable us.

To believe God for big things. To believe God and be obedient to the things that He's speaking to our hearts. Well, we also see that the Holy Spirit produces gentleness in us. Gentleness. It's a meekness or humility that is being referred to here. Again, Barclay describes it as the idea of being teachable. Not having a superior attitude. Not demanding your own rights.

It's the quality of one who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. Are you ever angry at the wrong time? Don't answer out loud, okay? Spare you that. Are you ever angry at the wrong time? Are you teachable? Are you humble? Are you meek? The Holy Spirit produces that meekness, that humility in our lives. It's probably not an area that we like to think about, but it is an area that's necessary for us to think about.

Do you get angry at the wrong time when it's not appropriate? You know, Jesus showed some anger, always measured and only at the right time. Only when it was appropriate. Righteous indignation. James tells us that man's wrath or man's anger doesn't produce the righteousness of God. It doesn't do the work of God. Anger, at a time that's inappropriate, at the wrong time, undoes or undoes the work of God.

the anger in the right time is part of the work of God. And so is this an area where, well, you need some help? Are you angry at the wrong time? Are you not teachable? I think that's one that we need to ask ourselves because we're probably blind to it. I find myself, you know, constantly needing to be reminded to be teachable. It's very easy to think, what can you tell me? Come on, George, what do you know? I taught you, you remember?

But I need to be meek. I need to be humble. God wants to use others in my life to teach me and to work in my life. And that's not natural to me. And I'm sure it's not natural to you. It's a work that I can't do on my own. I can't determine. I can't decide. No, what I need is for the Holy Spirit to do that work in me. And so I need to cultivate myself spiritually to spend time with the Lord. Well, finally, the ninth principle.

Part here that we're looking at in the fruit of the Spirit is the Spirit produces self-control. The word self-control, it means to be temperate or to govern yourself. It means to have self-control. Do you have self-control? I heard a pastor recently share that you have to know yourself, but not K-N-O-W yourself. You have to N-O yourself. We need to get in the habit, don't we, of saying no self.

Our bodies desire something, our bodies crave something, our flesh wants something.

And we need to learn to say no. And if you need to stand in the mirror and look at yourself and practice and say no, then that's what you need to do. That's what we need, right? We need to say no. The opposite of self-control, we can see, by the way, I didn't mention it earlier, but the works of the flesh are here in Galatians 5, verse 19 through 21. And the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit is these works of the flesh.

And there in the works of the flesh, you can see the opposite of self-control and the things of adultery and fornication, lewdness. Those are things that are sexual in nature, that are unrestrained desires of the flesh. Then also you have drunkenness. It's overindulging because there's no control. There's no restraint. The idea of lewdness is...

No restraint whatsoever. Just pulling out all the stops and just, you know, whatever. Kind of like Solomon experienced in the book of Ecclesiastes, right? He said, whatever my heart desired to do, that's what I did it. I did it. I just, I pursued whatever I thought about. That's the opposite of self-control. Self-control is having control of yourself and knowing when to say no and knowing when not to partake and when to do the disciplines of life and of,

maybe cultivating your spiritual life that are necessary. Saying no to the flesh and the things that it wants, but also saying you're going to do this and the things that the flesh doesn't want. I think we could all relate to that in the area of diet and exercise, right? I know I sure can. My flesh says, I want that. Feed it to me now. And I say, I think I'm going to go running for a little bit. My flesh says, oh, no, you don't. I don't think so. You're tired. That's too hard. You don't like to sweat.

tries to talk me out of it. I have to know myself. But you know, self-control isn't something that I can generate on my own. I can't determine to be self-controlled. I can't come up with it on my own resources. No, it's something that has to be produced in me. And it's produced by the Holy Spirit. And so these are the qualities of the fruit of the Spirit. This is what the Spirit produces in our life. We have this tremendous advantage as believers.

That God works these things in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. He accomplishes these things as we cultivate ourselves and spend time with Him. Now, just take a moment, if you can, and imagine what your life would be like if you had all of these qualities. Can you imagine that? Man, what an incredible life that would be. What an awesome life. Maybe you would describe it as an abundant life.

Perhaps similar to what Jesus told us that we would have in John chapter 10 verse 10. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that you may have life and have it more abundant or to the full, to the max. Listen, that's what God wants for you, an abundant life, an awesome life. It doesn't mean everything goes well and everything's fine. Again, it's rooted in deeper things than the circumstances of this life.

But these qualities, there's no laws against them. And if you have them, you are going to be blessed. You're going to just... Life is going to be awesome for you. So I want to encourage you to cultivate your spiritual life. Dig in. Get that fertilizer in there. Water it regularly. Get in that cross-pollination. Spend time with other believers. Get into the Word of God. Spend time at the feet of Jesus. Remember like...

Jesus told Martha when she complained about Mary, because Mary's just sitting there at Jesus' feet. Martha's there busy working so hard. He said, she's chosen the better thing, to sit at the feet of Jesus. We need that time at the feet of Jesus, worshiping Him and spending time in His presence. And so these are the things that are produced in us by the Holy Spirit. And you and I, as believers, have this great advantage, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

to produce these qualities, to produce these characteristics. We don't have to generate it. He produces it as we spend time with the Lord and cultivate ourselves spiritually. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we consider these things, I do pray, Lord, that you would help us to cultivate ourselves. Lord, you desire for us to draw near to you. You desire us to be in your presence. And Lord, you've given us these things that we might get to know you.

You've placed us within the body of Christ that we might have that fellowship that is necessary. Lord, it's necessary for us to minister to others. It's also necessary, Lord, for them to minister to us. So, Lord, I pray that you would help us to engage in that fellowship. Lord, another thing that is needed in our lives is time in the presence of Jesus. Lord, especially in this season, as we head into Thanksgiving and Christmas, things get busy.

And so often one of the first things to go is our time with you. Lord, I pray that you would help us to have, Lord, the right balance of life, the right priorities, Lord, that we would be focused on and centered on you, and that we would put you first and foremost above everything else, Lord, that we would have the appropriate amount of time in the sun, sitting at your feet, enjoying your presence. God, I pray that you would help us to be diligent in our time in the word.

Lord, that we would be faithful to read, even when we don't understand, even when it's difficult. God, that you would help us. You would give us insight into your word, that you would give us a thirst for your word. Lord, that we would spend time with you, that we would engage with the sword of the Spirit, that, Lord, that you might be able to do the work in us that you desire to do. Lord, I pray that you would help us to do something about those weeds. Lord, those cares of this world that we get entangled in.

Lord, like the author of Hebrews said, those weights that hold us back, that weigh us down. Lord, I pray that you would help us to identify those things in our lives and then to let them go. That we would not be carried away by the deceitfulness of riches. But Lord, that we would learn contentment in trusting you to provide for us. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to let you prune us. Lord, we don't like pruning. It's painful. It's difficult. It hurts.

But it's necessary, Lord, for us to bear the fruit that you desire in our lives. We need to be pruned. And so, God, I pray that you would help us to count it all joy. And Lord, as you speak to us, help us to be responsive as you call us to cut things out of our life. May we be obedient. And Lord, I also pray that you would give us patience. Lord, the enemy loves to come in and discourage us because we aren't where we want to be when it comes to these things.

And it can be frustrating for us Lord that we don't have the love that we know that we need to have and that you've Demonstrated to us but it can be frustrating that we don't have that self-control Lord it's it's disappointing for us We want so much more to be like you help us Lord to have patience To wait and trust in you to know that you will be faithful to complete the work that you began in us and so help us Lord to be diligent and

in these areas of cultivation, amidst discouragement, not believing the lies of the enemy, Lord, that you can produce the fruit in us, that we can live the abundant and full life that you desire for us. Lord, that we could represent you well, and we could be a bright shining light to the world around us, that they would easily identify and recognize that person's been in the presence of Jesus. And Lord, it's in your precious name that we pray. Amen.

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