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"The
Fruit of the Spirit" October
19, 2003 The Rev. Dr. John Ward [first part missing from tape] Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and
23 the focus of the message this morning. The
apostle Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia--the churches around the area
of Asia Minor, considered today present-day Turkey.
In this, the first century, as the church was beginning, there were some
rival camps that were occurring with regard to what it meant to be Christian.
There were those who thought that it was the right thing to do to go back
to the Jewish law and to be people who were going to then become circumcised, as
the Jews were, to carry out the law of God in the Old Testament style, in order
to believe in Jesus. But not only
that. There was an opposite camp,
an extreme camp from the other side, that were considered kind of hedonistic or
libertine in their thought, thinking that now that we're freed from the law by
the Spirit, we can do whatever we want. Paul
was writing to try to stall both of those camps from gaining any ground and
wrote this wonderful Galatian letter. In it he reminded us that the law is something we cannot do,
so we need no longer to be slaves to it. Yet
at the same time, it did not free us up to do whatever we please, but instead
the Spirit, who dwells in us, allows us then to overcome both law and
selfishness and self-indulgence to truly produce the fruit of the Spirit, and
that's what we have this morning. Let
us read. By contrast the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. There is no law
against such things. Now, keep your finger there right in Scripture.
Let's go over to the next page 190.
I just want to give you that context again about what Paul was doing,
writing between those who wished to bind us up again in the law and those who
wished to release us so far that we would lose ourselves in our own desires.
If you would look at chapter 5, there on the left-hand column of page 190
at the bottom, Paul writes to those who were the law-abiding folk, in verse 1:
"It is for freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery"
[and that slavery, then, was the law. At
the same time again, if you would look at verse 16 on the right-hand column,
down towards the bottom where you'll see in your pew Bibles the subheading
"The works of the flesh," Paul dealing with the libertines saying,
"Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the
flesh." So, again, he's trying
to pull in and reign in both camps and doing so by saying, "It's not about
what we do, but it's about what God does for us through the Holy Spirit,"
and thus comes, then, the fruit of the Spirit.
Once again, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, in this
translation "generosity." Quite
often we say "goodness." You may have memorized it that way. I don't know about you, but I don't have this memorized
because I always forget the last thing on a list.
If I'm supposed to remember two things, I'll remember one of them, but
not two. If I'm to remember ten
things, I'll remember nine, but not the tenth.
So I always have to look at this: Love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness (or, again, generosity)--the good thing
about this translation with regard to generosity:
When you think of "goodness" you think about a quality of a
person and if you think of "generosity," you think of the action that
a person does. So it's nice to hear
that: Generosity.
It's goodness with feet on it, isn't it?--faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Now, these are gifts
of the Spirit, and, specifically, the fruit of the Spirit. Now, I'd like you to be thinking about these aspects of the fruit
just now. If you were to think
through this list and if I was to ask you to think of one of those aspects and
ask God to help you develop one of these in the coming weeks or months, think
through which one you would choose. Which
one of these would it be for you? Would
it be love, or joy, or the rest of these? Choose
one right now, if you'd just take a moment to do that.
And as you're thinking through it, let me give you a little bit of a
history as to how this has even come to sermon-form today.
Again, I want you to be thinking about that one aspect that God is
leading you to to grow. Back in March, the Stephen Ministry retreat was occurring.
That's what ends the Stephen Ministers' training.
Our Stephen Ministers begin training in October and it goes through
March. It ends with the Stephen
Ministry retreat, and so I joined the Stephen Ministers at the retreat.
The theme that weekend last March was "the fruit of the
Spirit." So I preached on the
fruit of the Spirit. We had a nice
Communion service. And at the same
time, we had what's called an offering during the service.
And since we're away (not at the church) we pass a basket, just like we
do at an offering, but instead of giving money, there is a piece of paper and a
pencil there. And they're to take
something out. Instead of giving,
they're to receive. The receiving of the paper (which was blank) and the pencil was
there, was for them to think about this aspect of the fruit of the Spirit.
Which one was God tugging at them most to develop?
And so our Stephen Ministers were asked, and they did.
They wrote down a fruit of the Spirit.
And they also wrote down what one thing could they do to bring them
closer to achieving that. And then
they were just to place that piece of paper in their Bible, or in their purse,
or in their pocket, and then look back at it again.
I didn't think that I was going to invite them to look at this for an
entire year, but I said, "Look at it within the next week." I gave them really a week's assignment. "Look back at it in a week and see how you have
progressed. What was that one thing
you said you would do to bring yourself a little bit closer to achieving God's
goal of that fruit of the Spirit in you?"
I did that, and I did my own. And
I put it in my Bible and I still have it. The aspect of the fruit of the Spirit I chose was
"patience." And the one
thing I wanted to do to bring myself that much closer to working patience was
the word "objectify." That's
a counseling term with regard to objectifying your feelings, which keeps you
from getting anxious or anything but patient.
What I chose to do was to say I will objectify any feeling that comes
across to me. So if I was anxious,
or afraid, or frustrated, instead of owning it right away, or reacting to it
right away, I would say, "Hmm. I'm
feeling kind of anxious right now." Or,
"I'm feeling kind of afraid right now."
Or, "I'm feeling frustrated right now.
I wonder why." And I
would take just a moment to step back. And
that began to produce the fruit of patience.
That usually works in a counseling situation so I thought, "Well,
I'll try it for myself as well." So
that's what I chose. And I remember looking at it for that week and I placed it in my
Bible. Then every once in a while
between March and about the end of August, when I received a call from Stephen
Ministry again, that piece of paper would show itself to me.
I have to be honest with you. I
had not planned on looking at it every week and putting into my planner,
"OK, what aspect can I do now? I'm
objectifying. What else can I do to bring myself to even more of developing
the fruit of the Spirit with regard to patience?" But quite often when I would be working in my Scriptures
through those months, that piece of paper would show up and I'd go, "Oh!
How am I doing?" And it
became, in a sense a reminder, which was kind of exciting. Now, there was no plan in my mind to go any farther with this.
Then at the end of August I got a call from the Stephen Ministry again.
Sally White, one of our Stephen leaders, as they were preparing for the
October "Soup Supper." The
"Soup Supper" is the beginning of the training for Stephen Ministers,
and all Stephen Ministers--those who are in training and those who are past and
present leaders--come together at the first Monday of October to start the
training. And Sally said, "You
know, what we'd like to do is go back over the fruit of the Spirit again."
And what she said that the Stephen Ministers had done was they enjoyed
thinking about the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit so much that when they came
back to their next meeting after March, they all got together and began to talk
about this and they all took the assignment of writing something down.
Well, that was more than I expected them to do.
And I had to be honest with Sally: I
had not looked at that in a while. But
I knew where it is. I said,
"Oh, yeah, I know where mine is" and I pulled it out and I looked at
it. What happened was something that was a learning experience
for me. There were three things I realized about this exercise of the fruit
of the Spirit, and I'm going to share those with you now as this is "Part
2" of "The Care and Feeding of Pastors."
Last week as we had our official Pastor Appreciation Sunday, Will
Eisenhower talked about Moses and that great scene of the battle where he needed
help with his hands being raised up, and how we help each other.
I'm going to share with you how God works in the Spirit for me through
you. This exercise, with regard to the fruit of the Spirit and
teaching that to our Stephen Ministers and other people, allowed the Spirit to
teach me through you as well. Now, let me tell you the three things that came up with regard to
the fruit of the Spirit. No, let me
not do that yet. What I'm going to
do now is, as you have been thinking about the fruit of the Spirit, I want to go
through a little, brief definition of each one of these.
When it comes to yours, then, that's your turn to kind of think about
that and ponder it. I want to start, of course, with the first aspect of the
fruit. That whole aspect is this:
You do not think of these as separate fruits.
They're not called the "fruits" of the Spirit.
They're called the "fruit" of the Spirit.
In all of our biblical, scholarly work with regard to this passage, all
of the scholars remind us that we're not talking about different fruits.
The reason for that? Well,
you could say, "I'd like to develop love, but I really don't care about
self-control." You know,
"I like this fruit, but I don't like that fruit."
So there's a reminder here that this is really a unity, that the fruit of
the Spirit is a perfect whole given to us by God in the Spirit, OK? So I want you to think for a moment of your favorite fruit.
It's fall, so I always think about apples, so I think for me when I think
about the fruit of the Spirit, it's the apple.
If my kids were here (my little ones, anyway) they'd probably be thinking
about bananas. I think that's
probably one of their favorite fruits. Well,
you think of one fruit, OK? And you
think about that fruit. Perhaps
it's an orange. You think about the
zest, you think about the rind, you think about the pulp, you think about the
juice. Right?
Those are, in a sense, the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.
What makes up that fruit would be more appropriate as we understand this. Now, let's break it down then.
If you're thinking of your fruit (whatever it is) let's think of it this
way with regard to the list given to us by the apostle Paul.
First and foremost in this list is the emphasis of love.
And love is the focus of the entire appeal of Paul.
It begins with love. It's
like a lens through which we can see the rest of the aspects of the fruit.
You cannot really carry out anything of God unless you have the love of
God with you. So love, first of
all, is almost the lens through which you can see the rest of the aspects. Then
comes joy, which is the result of healthy relationships.
When there is conflict and bitterness, as there was in the Galatian
churches, there is no joy. But the
first result of true love in relationships in Christ is the renewal of joy. Another aspect is, of course, listed as peace.
Peace, then, instead of hatred and discord, is the harmony and order in
relationships. Notice, now, as I'm
reading from our scholars, they continue to bring us back to one particular word
in all aspects of these. That's the word "relationship."
The reality is that sometimes we think of growing the fruit of the Spirit
for our own personal good. But
really, growing in the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is within the
relationship of the body of Christ. God
calls us to develop these not privately (although personally with a personal
relationship with God), but we develop this fruit for the greater good of the
body of Christ. So as I am being
developed by God to produce good fruit and you are, we do this for one another. We do this to praise God, but we do it for and with each
other. That's why it's important
for us to understand (and our scholars would remind us of this), this is to be
thought of with regard to relationships. So, again, peace is harmony and order in relationships.
Patience--the opposite of which are fits of rage, or a short temper, or
staying with people even when constantly wronged and irritated by them.
Isn't that a good reminder of what patience is?
It reminds us to be honest about our being human as the body of Christ.
Think about it. Somewhere, at some time in the life of Faith Presbyterian
Church, somebody has irritated you, but God has called you to be patient in the
Spirit. And sometimes you're
wondering how you can even be patient with that person or those people, but you
know that's when you depend on the Spirit to do it for you.
And as you belong to Christ, the Spirit does.
And guess what: Because the
person who you have offended also believes in the Spirit, that person puts up
with you as well. Isn't that nice? A reminder of our understanding of patience. Then comes kindness and goodness.
And joined with patience, it teaches us to be of sweet disposition and
doing good things toward people. Now,
if you think of the life of the church about somebody who has tested your
patience, I'd also like you to think about somebody who you think is the epitome
of sweetness and good works toward people in the life of Faith Church.
Think of that. I bet a face
has already come to your mind. I
see some smiles out there and some nods. Let
me ask you all: Does a
particular--I'm not going to ask you the name of the person, but does a
particular person come to mind when you think of sweetness and doing good in the
life of the church? Nod if you have
somebody in mind. There's a few
more nods. Good!
I'm connecting with you. Again, the reality is, this is with regard to the relationship of
our church, the relationship of Faith Church.
God develops these fruit, or these aspects of the fruit, within each one
of us. When I did this at the
Stephen Ministry "Soup Supper," I didn't ask the person's permission
to say her name (and I didn't want to embarrass her), but as I was saying this
and asked that same question at one of the dinner tables, one person just
blurted out, "Oh, yeah--that's [and said the name]."
And we all had a smile and a chuckle because we all understood who is the
sweet person and who are the sweet persons in your life through Faith Church. Another in that list is faithfulness, which is keeping commitments
in relationships. Once again,
keeping commitments in relationships. And
only the Spirit can produce the quality of loyalty, no matter the cost.
When we're called to be faithful to God and faithful to one another, it
is the Spirit that produces that quality of loyalty with us.
Gentleness, which is opposite of selfish ambition.
Gentle people are not conceited. They
consider the needs and hurts of others before one's own personal goals. Perhaps you can also think of a face that goes right with
that. Then, finally, self-control.
Self-control is the opposite of self-indulgence.
Those who are Spirit-led will not indulge in the sinful nature. Again, that is Paul's writing against the libertines, who
were thinking that that's what the new life in Christ was about.
Now, again, I want you to think about that aspect of the fruit of
the Spirit that God would like to grow in you.
And now I'm going to give you the three things that I learned in this
exercise myself. It was fun as I
was thinking about what to preach on for part 2 in "The Care and Feeding of
Pastors," because the care and feeding has come from my growing in Christ
through my work with you. Here's
the first thing that I learned about this exercise. As I told you, I had put that note away and I really wasn't
planning on looking at it on a regular basis.
But I was blessed when I received that call from Sally White because it
made me think about it. I looked
over time and was saying, "You know, there were times when I actually did
objectify my feelings and that did bring me to an aspect of patience, with
regard to the fruit." It was
not something that I said I was going to do so rigorously, but looking back on
it, I did it. It was the Spirit who
was at work. And that leads me to point one:
I had put away my note, but God didn't.
Let me give you an illustration with regard to that.
I love the way that Susan Nikaido, editor of Discipleship Journal
says it. She says it this way:
"Love, joy and all that other stuff are the fruit of the Spirit, not
the fruit of our efforts. We can't
produce them on our own, period. The
fruit comes only as we submit our lives and let the Spirit control us." I put that note away, but God did not. And God began to grow the aspect in the Spirit of the fruit
of patience in me. Why did He do
so? Well, as I think about it, this
is a time where you could certainly be anxious in the life of our church.
And perhaps God's will was to put the aspect of patience in my mind and
in my heart so He could work through it through that time, whether I was
thinking that I was doing so or not. Think
of it this way: As a staff member,
and as the one pastor who was here as the Senior Pastor left (our former Pastor
Gary LeTourneau), who was here though our Interim time with Will Eisenhower, and
who will be here at the coming of our new Pastor, perhaps it's really good that
the one pastor who is going to be consistent in all this is patient and not
freaking out! Perhaps that's why
that aspect was God's choosing, not mine. That leads me to another point, point two:
I thought I had chosen an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit and even
chose the way to achieve it--that "objectifying" deal.
But it was God who made it happen. Quite
often we think that we're in charge of our lives and even of our livelihoods and
our faith. But it really is the
Spirit who is at work with us. Let
me remind you of something that John Ortberg wrote along those lines to bring
the point home. In his book Love
Beyond Reason, he wrote this wonderful little anecdote.
Not long ago, there was a CEO of a fortune 500 company who pulled
into a service station to get gas. He
went inside to pay and when he came out he noticed his wife engaged in a deep
discussion with the service station attendant.
It turned out that she knew him. In
fact, back in high school, before she met her husband, she used to date that
man. Well, the CEO got in the car
and the two drove away in silence. He
was feeling pretty good about himself, and when he finally spoke he said,
"I bet I know what you're thinking. I
bet you're thinking that you're glad you married me, a fortune 500 CEO and not
him, a service station
attendant." And she said,
"No. I was thinking if I had
married him, he'd be a fortune 500 CEO and you would be a service station
attendant." When we think that we're involved in the growth of the Spirit, it
is really the Spirit who is involved in the growth of us.
And pulling out that paper from time to time, looking at it and going,
"Gee, was I supposed to work more on this?"
Looking at it and saying, "Gosh, it looks as though God has been
working with me on this." And then thirdly, to be producing the fruit is to belong to God.
The first way that we do this is not thinking of this particular aspect
of the fruit alone. Again, if you
want to write that down on a corner of the bulletin, rip that off, put that in
your Bible, your purse, your pocket, and walk away from here and think about one
thing you could do to bring yourself closer to developing that aspect of the
fruit, even this week. Watch how
God will work with you on that. He
will work with you on that not by making that the focus, but by making Him the
focus. You see, if it becomes just
another thing for us to do, it becomes law again, and that's what Paul was
writing us about saying that we are free from the law.
It's not just another thing to do to make us feel as though we're good
Christians, or what will happen if we think of ourselves in terms of being in
relationship with God on a "law" basis. When we do it right, it will make us self-justifiable and
we'll judge others. Or if we can't
do it, it will remind us of our failings. So
instead, we're erased from that. The
reality, then, is if we wish to develop that fruit of the Spirit, then we devote
ourselves to God in Jesus Christ who comes into our lives, fills us with the
Spirit, and then we let the Spirit do the Spirit's work I'm reminded of something that Robert Kopp once wrote with regard
to a very zealous young man who had the opportunity to met and speak with Mother
Teresa. He was so excited to tell
Mother Teresa what his biggest passion in life was to do for God, and here's
what he said. Robert Kopp reads,
"I'm reminded of the excessively intense man who said to Mother Teresa, 'My
vocation is to work for the lepers.' " Now, isn't that a great thing to be able to say, and a great
desire to do? To get to India and
be able to say to Mother Teresa, "This is what I want to do.
I want to do the very stuff that you're doing as well."
"I want to spend all my life," he says, "my everything in
this vocation." But she
corrected him. She says,
"You're making a mistake, brother. Your
vocation is to belong to Jesus. He
has chosen you for Himself and the work is only a means of your love for Him in
action." She concluded,
"Therefore, it does not matter what work you're doing.
But the main thing is that you belong to Him, and that you are His, and
that He gives you the means to do this for Him." Again, if we wish to take these aspects of the fruit, if God is
tugging at your heart today to develop one of those aspects and even think of
what you could do to bring yourself closer to that, I want you to go ahead and
write that down. I want you to go
ahead and think about that, but I want you to realize that in order to achieve
that, that will not be your doing, but the Spirit's doing in you. And, in fact, friends, it may be the Spirit's goal to work that in
you for a particular reason, just as He's been working with me in patience for
the reason I believe of making sure that you don't have an anxious staff member
during what could be a very anxious time in our lives.
You see, we need each other. And
we need the aspect of the fruit of the Spirit in every way.
We need people of joy. We
need people of patience. We need
people of sweetness and goodness. We
need people of love, every one of us. Doesn't
that make sense? And "The Care and Feeding of Pastors" as I ask you to be
thinking about once again as we are in the month of October which is Pastor
Appreciation Month--and friends, we do thank you for the wonderful time of
appreciation that you gave to us last Sunday and I really do hope that once
November comes around it's still Pastor Appreciation Month!
That you don't turn it off like that, or anything.
But if you wish to show your appreciation, as many of you have in many
concrete ways--and thank you for that--belong to God.
Belong to God, and then you will bless me as a brother or sister in
Christ. Because remember it this way.
All of the titles and roles that we have as leaders who grace the pulpit
and lead in whatever we're called to do, all of that pales and becomes very
superficial, because what each of us is, no matter whether we're on this side of
the pulpit or that side of the pulpit, where you are.
Each one of us stands here as a brother and sister in Christ, and each of
us is dependent upon the growth in the Spirit by each other in relationship,
just as Paul wrote with regard to the fruit of the Spirit.
You see, I need your joy and patience and I need your love as much as you
need it from me. We're in this
together. This is the only place I
worship, friends. After I'm done
here, I don't go worship somewhere else. I
don't have another church. This is
my church. So as much as it's
yours, it's mine, too. I think
Christ has put us here for a reason. I
think Christ has called us to develop these aspects that are on your heart right
now for a greater reason. It's for
you. And God will develop it in you so that you can give it to us. Let's pray together. Heavenly
Father, I ask, indeed, that you will remind us of the reality of your Spirit
which frees us from law and frees us from sin.
And as we look to serve you, we need not look to what things we can do
well for you. We need not be caught
up in what things we're free to do, because really, our freedom is to be with
and for you. Our freedom is to be
for others as you are for us in Jesus Christ.
And so, Lord, we look to your Spirit and we wish to belong to you.
Lord, I pray that everyone has an exercise like I was able to have, one
in which you showed me that you were the one who wanted to develop patience.
And, Lord, I pray that you can continue to develop that in me because I
am human and broken, and can never do it perfectly.
But when I have, Lord God, I thank you, because I know it has helped this
church. Let every person here realize that as they're pondering now
an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, it's probably not their doing.
It's yours. And you will
develop that in them because we need that from them.
In Christ's name we pray. And
all God's people said, "Amen." The Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on October 19, 2003.] |
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