"The Fruits of the Spirit"

Gifts of the Spirit -- Fruits of the Spirit  Your home research is to discover the Gifts of the Spirit on line.

June 30 2019 Readings Psalm 92 page 810, Galatians 5: 1, 13-25

In the scripture this morning from Galatians Paul referred to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-

control as fruits of the spirit.  I find it very interesting that Paul would choose the word fruits to describe the above.   These fruits, as they begin to mature within us produce good vigorous healthy characteristics.  These are the characteristics people seek to obtain and to share with others in life.    Paul in his letter to the Galatians is referring to their attributes as FRUIT, and of course we know that all fruit must grow before it can reach its maturity.   Ever tried eating fruit before it has ripened, not so good?   There is good reason for Paul choosing this particular word Folks!!   

Fruit is not made, fruit is something that is grown and matures from a seedling meaning it is inherent it just needs one of the gifts of the Spirit to begin. part of you home research right!  Let us take note here that the fruit of the gift can only be seen, grow and mature as you feed on spiritual things.  You don’t make its fruit.   It arises out of something inherit in the gift, something that is alive, you cannot manufacture it nor can you buy it.  When Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit in today's scripture reading he contrasts it to what he calls the human nature, sinful nature or works of the flesh.  In other words Paul describes a nature that has its roots planted in what he calls our human nature. This nature produces fruit when our ego gets stroked or our self-centeredness is feed.  He describes its fruit as dissension, immoralities, drunkenness, discord, selfish ambition, envy, hatred, unjust anger and so on.  Jesus often shows us righteous anger.  Paul reminds us that both good and bad fruit are rooted and arise from some seed or kernel that is found either in our Spiritual Nature or curious self-centered human nature.  They are nurtured and strengthened by what we feed them.   Our Spiritual nature, grows in us and comes from the nature of God.   It produces fruit, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control.  Our human nature comes to us from Adam and Eve and their desire to take God's place.

These fruits are nurtured in us through the awareness that we are a child of God precious, loved, forgiven and saved by grace.   A healthy Spiritual nature brings forth nothing but good fruit.   

But Folks, we also have within us a mischievous curious sinful nature, it has been with us from the beginning.  It is the nature that seeks to satisfy little old me, no matter what the cost and believe me for some the cost is great.   It is the nature that thinks more about privileges than about responsibilities, more about rights than about duties, more about self than about others.  This is the nature can get us into a lot of trouble, and it fruit is always tainted.  

Let me tell you a story.   Listen for the similarities to the teachings of Jesus and Paul.   A young aboriginal boy seeks the advice of his Grandfather because of an incident.   His face is full of anger and so the Grandfather asks “what has happened to you boy”.    The boy explains that he has just come back from the trading post where he and his father were trading some of the pelts they had stretched and cured over the winter.   The father tells the boy to pick out something he would like to have for his share of the work.  The boys eyes are attracted to a shiny pocket knife and his father agrees, “it yours my son”   The boy slips outside to try out the knife on a whittling stick where three older boy have also eyed his gift.  The boy’s anger then, turns to tears as he explains to his Grandfather how they began taunting and bulling him, finally pushing him to the ground.  “I dropped my gift and one of them snatched it up and they all ran away laughing."   The boy's anger returned, "I hate them. I hate them all!"  The Grandfather said,  “I too, along with many of our people at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much from us with no sorrow for what they do.  But hate wears you down boy, and does not hurt your enemy.  It is as though you have taken the poison yourself, while only wishing that the enemy would die.  Grandfather continues “I have struggled with these feelings many times over the years.  It is as if there are two spirits inside of me.  One is good and does me no harm.  The good spirit lives in harmony with all and does not take offense, even when offense is intended.  It will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.    It gets it strength and health from the Creator.  The other spirit is the mischievous one, it feeds on and gets it strength from anger, hatred, jealousy and things of that nature.  The littlest thing can set it off into a fit of rage.  The sprit of anger has been known to take a life.   It cannot reason, and is made blind by its hatred.   You see Anger is helplessness in disguise, anger changes nothing.   Sometimes it is hard to live with these two spirits inside me, because both of them try to dominate my life.  Who wins out, asks the boy.   Grandfather smiled and said, "The one I feed the most."

If you want to see the fruit of your Spiritual Nature grow in your life and if you  want to show its fruit to others - then you need to feed on that which will bring it about.   Folks, we got to get ourselves potted in the right pot.  We got to get ourselves sat down at the right table.  We got to get ourselves fed with the right food.   And praise be to God that this can be anywhere you are, because God is always with you - his Spirit dwells in you and his laws and his love are inscribed in your heart.  Now Isn’t that GREAT!!!     

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you

with his Spirit and his love;

Let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.

Oh, let him have the things that hold you,

and his Spirit, like a dove,

Will descend upon your life and make you whole.

Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.

Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.

Oh, come and sing the song with gladness

as your hearts are filled with joy.

Lift your hands in sweet surrender to his name.

Oh, give him all your tears and sadness,

give him all your years of pain,

And you'll enter into life in Jesus' name.

Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.

Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.

"Who's Rules Do You Follow"

Four words to consider this morning:  Ritual, Tradition, Doctrine, and Dogma what do they mean to you. 

June 23, 2019   Galatians 3:23–29   Psalm 133

First, some background about the Galatian Churches.  Paul had a hand in establishing the churches in Galatia, so he writes to them concerned about problems that exist there.  Most all of the early churches were made up of different ethnic groups who committed to following Jesus along with many Jewish converts.  The thrust of Paul message to them was a gospel message of justification by faith in Christ Jesus.   What did that mean, it meant that they were justified, or made right, forgiven, by faith in Christ Jesus, which would lead to live a life based on the way Jesus lived: ethical, moral, sacrificial and it is the same for us today. 

All they needed was faith to enter into this new life with Jesus.  Paul new that salvation would not come by following Jewish law but by the grace of God and a transformed life brought about by following Jesus.  However, some of the early leadership was holding on to this old idea and continued to teach it.  They taught that in order to become a person of The Way {or as we would say today to become a Christian,} you first had to become a Jew; abiding by all the requirements of the Jewish rituals and Law, all 613 of them which included circumcision.  Paul was adamant and disagreed with this sort of teaching. 

So I ask you:  what about the church of today:  in your opinion Is there anything in our traditions, our rituals, doctrine or dogma that needs to re-visited and possibly changed.

A Churches traditions, rituals, doctrine or dogma have never saved anyone, Pauls message was and still is:   Christ is the saving grace who makes you a new creation and Jesus is the only one who can do that.  Does this prayer sound familiar?   May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and evermore.  I say a form of it at the beginning of most worship services.  It is called “The Grace Prayer”.

Why then should we be paying so much attention to a bunch of rules and traditions which don't accomplish anything significant in my personal relationship with Jesus and often do not reflect the hope, peace, joy and love of Jesus?   In fact rules and traditions often divide people and promote politics within the church, which by the way, help to keep folks from living a life that exemplifies Jesus.    It's within the context of spiritual freedom vs. the 613 Jewish Laws, that Paul writes his letter.   

That was Paul's message to the churches in Galatia some 1900 years ago.  What does it have to do with us today?  May I suggest that we can identify with some of the things happening in Galatian church.  Not all Christians view things the same and many refuse to accept the politics that seem to be running many of our churches today.  Many are now operating as though we are a corporation not a church.   Meetings imitate a form of Roberts Rules of Order, many individual churches are often held hostage to some form of academia.  Especially when it comes to fellowship around communion, baptism, or who can lead the flock.   Theological credentials or a degree in theology have become the order of today but even then, we often have many views and disagreements as to what label is the right label to belong to, as we search for who really has the truth?    

A common "Point of Identification." with the early church would be found in the sacrament of Baptism.  Although there is one Christian fellowship that does not perform baptism for its members, any guesses. { A research question for you}  We as did the early church experience baptism as a form of re-birth. Meaning we have a sense of "Before baptism and After."  The difference for the early church was their “before” was related to living under those 613 rules of Jewish law.  Their “after” was freedom from the law to live a life that reflected the life and teaching of Jesus The Christ.   Our “before” is living according to how we see it, by making up our own personal set of rules as we go.  It is often an unwritten law taught by the modern world and hidden in this statement:   “I am the most important thing in my life and my needs comes first.  No, No we were never like that!!  but we knew lots of people who were, right!   The “after” for us is often thought of as the answer to this question: Are you saved;  but an answer in words will make no sense if the fruit of their vine has not changed and is visible.  The true after for us today is a new life a life in Him.   Now... freedom in the Spirit Not free to do whatever you want, but Free to live for God; free to love your neighbour as yourself; free to bear anothers burdens; free to be helpful and do good to all people;  Free to set aside protocol and tradition when love calls you out to focus on Christ-like behaviour.  Loving our neighbour and foe, when everything we are told by the world around us, indicates otherwise.  Free to give, when society says hoard.  Free to inconvenience yourself for the sake of someone else.

No longer... Like the well-known passage about Jew & Greek, Slave and free.  Our distinctions and differences are important but we no longer focus on them because our focus is on unity, meaning one together in Christ.  Maybe for us that verse should read, "No longer... Rich and poor?  The in crowd verses the out cast?  the Laity verses Clergy?   Young verses old,   Male verses female?  We are now one in Christ.  Now we are equals and more.  The old distinctions are still there, but they don't matter.  We don't dwell on them and get caught up by them.  It's not "who's  who" that matters, but “who’s you are”.    Now we can deal with each other on a new level, as "One in Christ."  That implies, respect, listening, honesty, trust, and real equality, the inclusiveness of Jesus.  The old has gone, everything is made new.   Paul gives us a warning:   Don't go back to the old ways!!  “Repent is the biblical word.  ”The old way doesn’t work!  Don't spend all your energy trying to justify yourself and live up to society's requirements.  Instead, get a grip on faith & grace.  Cling to Christ.  Live in the Spirit.  Love freely.   Let us pray