Galatians 5:22-23: Fruit Happens

This sermon was preached on 1/8/12 at Folsom Community Church by Tim Lewis

Fruit Happens
Galatians 5:22-23

Introduction: New Years’ Resolution Checkup

At my house, whenever New Year’s comes around, there is always the question of my resolutions. What do I want to do better in 2012 than I did in 2011? Maybe lose a few pounds. Maybe get better grades. Maybe get a promotion. Maybe pay off the credit cards or put some money in savings. Maybe communicate better with my wife or my kids.

Every year, when the kids were younger, we would tuck away our resolutions when we put the Christmas tree away and then review them again when we set up for the next Christmas. Or rather, when I say we, I mean them. I would make resolutions, but I wouldn’t write them down. Helen is convinced this is so that no one would know that I didn’t keep any of them.

Whatever you have decided to do for the next year, I know that God already has plans for your 2012. The Bible says:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10

God has already set up ‘good works’ appointments for you in 2012. You have a “rendezvous with destiny” were God will put you in the right place at the right time to do the right thing.  Are you ready?

Because it isn’t always easy. [Examples of difficulty doing the right thing]

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23

Wouldn’t you like to be able to respond to difficult people with love? Wouldn’t you like to respond to depressing situations with joy? To times of conflict and stress with peace? To delays and frustration with patience? To rudeness with kindness? To selfishness with goodness? To betrayal with faithfulness? To laziness and anger with gentleness and self-control?

The good news is…you can. The fruit described here is the natural result of the Spirit of God’s work in our life. When God gives us the new life that he promised because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, it starts a process of transformation—of maturing—that shows up in our attitude. The Bible calls this improved attitude a fruit because it is sweet result of our new life in Jesus.

During the depression the field of Yates Pool was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.

At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.

 And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.

Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright. (Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois; source: Bill Bright, "How to Be Filled with the Spirit" (Campus Crusade publication))

But-here’s the question-if the fruit is supposed to be a natural result, then why don’t I always feel loving and joyful? Good question. We’ll look in the Bible together to get the answers. To get those answers, we need to back up and look at this whole issue from God’s perspective.

1.       God wants to change me.

2.       God changes me by changing my attitudes.

3.       The Bible calls these new attitudes “fruit”

4.       Life is a test to see if the new attitudes are real.

God Wants To Change Me

First, God wants to change me. Look at what the Bible says:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. – Romans 12:2a (NLT)

God loves you the way you are. But God also loves you too much to leave you that way.

God sees a gap between the person you are now and the person you could be. We don’t always see the gap. We think tweak, but God is thinking overhaul. We are thinking caterpillar, but God is thinking butterfly. We are thinking crawling along, but God is thinking: fly.

If you continue the way you are now, you are either cultivating God’s fruit, or you are cultivating sin’s fruit.

God Changes Me By Changing My Attitudes

Second, God changes me by changing my attitudes.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  – Romans 12:2 (NLT)

God changes the way you think so that you think the way He thinks.

 God has plans for your life. God has plans for your home, for you school, for your job. He wants to introduce a miracle into the most difficult circumstances in life, and that miracle is you. By changing who you are—by changing your attitudes—he is introducing a miracle into every place that you walk.  You may have as many problems in your life as anyone else, maybe more, but the way you deal with them shows that God is present.

The Bible Calls These New Attitudes “Fruit”

Third, the Bible calls these new attitudes fruit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23

Let’s look at these new attitudes:

Love, Joy. (Luke 10:21), Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control,

We’re not going to go into all of them right now, but let me point out a few things from this list.

1. One fruit, many benefits.  It says “the fruit of the Spirit is…” See love, joy, peace, patience…they aren’t fruit, they are a part of the fruit. They are more like the vitamins. When you get the Spirit, you get the whole package. There isn’t someone with the “fruit of joy” and someone else with the “fruit of patience”
2. The fruit don’t change the circumstances; rather they change how you deal with the circumstances.
3. Fruit should happen. It says, “Against such things there is no law.” For Jesus’ people, there is no external constraint, no law, no barrier to you having these new attitudes. Why? Because fruit is the natural outcome of growth and development  (http://masteringhorticulture.blogspot.com , 2/2811) Listen: My mom was telling me about a fruit tree in their yard. When they got it, their neighbor offered them some really high-powered fertilizer, which they put around tree. And that tree took off, it grew, it put out all sorts of branches and tons of green leaves. But no fruit. The healthy, mature tree has fruit. The healthy, mature Christian  has fruit.
4. We don’t produce fruit, we bear fruit. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Sometimes we try produce bear our own fruit, and it looks like the good thing, but really its disappointing. If you go to the grocery store in mid-winter and pick up a tomato, you will often find they are gorgeous but tasteless. See, they are picked will green--still immature--and then treated with ethylene gas to make them redden. But they have never had the time on the vine to generate the sugars that make them truly tasty. They have the appearance of beautifulfruit, but they aren’t sweet-they are sour. The sweetest fruit are harvested from the plant, at the right time. Here’s my point: these new attitudes are no generated by you, they are acted upon by you. They are a gift from God-- a natural out-working of the spiritual DNA that God gives you.

Life Is A Test To See If The New Attitudes Are Real
Fourth, Life is a Test to See if the New Attitudes are Real, or just a fad. You see, you can make all of the New Year’s resolutions that you want; you can talk about how 2012 will be the year of the “new you” with “new attitudes” and a “new outlook on life.” but the real test is how you act the next time someone offers you a donut, or a drink, or a stab in the back. Sometimes we can simulate the fruit of the Spirit for a while (Filipino: ningas kugon) but the consistent lifestyle is only a product of a continued, life sustaining relationship with Jesus.

Remember the story of Peter, the friend of Jesus? During the final night of Jesus’ life and Jesus must take the final journey, to the cross, by himself. And Jesus says, in John 13:36, “Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” And Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now. I will lay down my life for you.” You know, in that moment, I believe Peter really believed what he said. But then real life continued, Jesus was arrested, and while waiting and watching to see what would happen to Jesus, Peter denied he even knew Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit was faithfulness, but when real life continued, the fruit Peter showed was betrayal.               

If we have Jesus; if we have the Spirit of God working in us-why do we see another type of fruit growing inside us? Because there is another type of fruit being produced! And that fruit is not from God, but rather it is a product of our flesh, our sin nature, and it is in direct competition for the real estate of our heart. Paul says, just a few verses before this:

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. …

 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. – Galatians 5:17, 19-21a

Wow. What a list! Sounds like Jersey Shores or a frat party. But really it shows our natural tendency, our sin tendency. Think of it like this: what would you do if there were no consequences? Jesus knew this and that’s why he said anger is like murder, and lust is like adultery. If you didn’t like someone, just wipe them out video game style. If you liked someone you could just take them, Playboy- or Playgirl style. The way we would act without any "law" or consequences is really the type of people we are. And it isnt' pretty.

There is a battle for territory in my heart-between the new life and the old life.

The poet Carl Sandburg once said, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” (cited by Richard Hansen in “A Good Mystery, Preaching Today Audio, issue 253)

The new spiritual DNA that God provides through Jesus is there, trying to transform you from the inside out.  But the old, cancerous DNA, is still there, producing its fruit in competition. Which will your heart choose?

Conclusion: So Why Don’t I See The Fruit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.– Galatians 5:22-23a

I remember about a month ago when I started thinking about this topic, I began to ask myself: why am I not seeing these attitudes in my life? Why is there no joy? Why no patience? I think the Bible gives four possible answers:

1. Maybe we don’t have these new attitudes because we aren’t connected to Jesus. Look what he said:

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5b

2. Maybe we are suppressing the good fruit.   Like spiritual Roundup. The fruit of the Spirit-the good things are there, within our reach, but because of our habits or because of our stubbornness, we prefer the selfish fruit of the flesh. You sometimes when you get angry, there is a point when you know you could let go of that anger but oooh it feels delicious to hold on to it. At that point, we have a choice of which fruit to suppress. We can suppress the fruit of our self, which is self-righteousness and anger and bitterness, or we can supress the fruit of the Spirit, which is love and peace. Which fruit will you pick? Sometimes we are like Christian atheists (see what Pauls says in Titus):

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. – Titus 1:16

3. Maybe we are in a season of pruning. Jesus said that when we are capable of fruit, for whatever reason, we fail to bear,

…he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. – John 15:2b

This is a season of pruning. He is giving us a chance to do what we were spiritual created to do: bear fruit and bear more fruit. Maybe he affects our health, or maybe he affects our circumstances--temporarily painful but ultimately profitable.

4. Or maybe we are producing seedless fruit. My wife, Helen, the horticulturist, wrte: “The fruit is a seed carrier. We all enjoy the seedless fruit that we buy from the grocery stores because they are so easy to eat. But let me tell you – Seedless fruits are abnormal fruits. Seedless fruits are not performing what they are supposed to do in the natural sense of life. Their services end where the fruits are eaten or when they rot. God intended for the fruit to carry the possibility of a new life. Our life as Christians should bear the fruit that carries the seed of the knowledge of Christ.   In the eyes of God, the seeded fruit is more valuable than its seedless counterpart.” (http://masteringhorticulture.blogspot.com, ibid) 

Without Jesus, our best attempts to change our life and our attitudes will fail, because we don’t have the new life that comes from Jesus. Without Jesus, no amount of cultivation of our natural selves will produce good attitudes. That’s why Jesus died, so that he could give us the new life. Maybe we need to pray the prayer: “Jesus, I don’t do the right things because I have never really been connected to you. I know you paid the price on the cross, so that I can really change my attitudes. As much as I know how, I am going to let you be in charge of my life.”

Every fruit is a seed bearer.