Living by Grace Pt 2

And so picking up in verse 5, or excuse me, in verse 16 with the fruit, it says this. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh is the fruit of the Spirit. It sets its desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you

please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Again, one of the things that Paul had told us earlier in the chapter is he says, it's for freedom that you've been set free. Only don't use your freedom as an opportunity for sin. Don't use that liberty as an opportunity for sin. Instead, we're to love each other. Well, now he goes on with that same theme of you're free, now walk like you're free.

And he tells us that I say then, if you walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. So he tells us we're to do something. He tells us first of all that we are to walk by the Spirit. Now that word walk literally means to habitually order your manner of life. To habitually order your manner of life. In other words, how do you live your life by habit?

I think an interesting thing for us to do as human beings is to sit and think, what do I do on a daily basis? What does my daily or weekly schedule looks like? I don't know about y'all, but May is a pretty busy month for myself personally with graduations and end of year things and end of school year things, all the stuff that's going on. Life can get really busy.

And have you ever gone through a week and you look back and you're like, what did I even do? I know that I was busy the entire time, but I genuinely could not tell you what all happened this last week because of how busy it was. Well, I think sometimes in our walks we get the exact same way. We get to going through life and living the busyness of life and we never take time to think about what we do.

And I think it's a really interesting thing for you to do to sit down and write down what are the habits that I have? Because I bet you would be fascinated to find out how many habits that you have that do not line up with the things of the Spirit, but that are actually contributing to your walk in the flesh, that are actually contributing to you giving into the things of the flesh. As I've mentioned lots of times before, I truly just enjoy sports and I like to read about athletes and the things that they do, partly because I'm too old to do that now and I can't do those things anymore, so I'm fascinated to find out how these young people can do what they do. But one of the things that you take note of with every single athlete, especially as they

get older, is that they habitually order their life in a certain way. They have certain things that they do or don't do because they know that those things will either prevent them from being the kind of athlete that they want to be, or they have to be the kind of athlete that they want to be. Well it's the same with our walk with Jesus Christ. We are to walk, we are to order our life in a particular way so that we don't give in to the things of the flesh.

And he tells us what that walk should look like. He tells us that we are to walk in the Spirit, or to walk by the Spirit. Now I appreciated the way that the Amplified Bible translated this because I think it adds a lot of color, it really puts some legs on exactly what he says here. So let me read it to you. I say then, habitually order your manner of life according to the Holy Spirit.

And then in parenthesis it says, seek him and be responsive to his guiding. Now, we referenced this just a little bit last week, but that's exactly what it looks like to walk with Jesus. It means to seek the Holy Spirit and then respond to his guiding. As we seek him, we'll find that he will guide us directly. He will guide us different directions. Sometimes he will guide us away from certain things.

Sometimes he will guide us to certain things. Perhaps you've woken up in the morning and maybe you have a particularly set devotional time that you have. And maybe one morning the Lord's like, I want you to linger a little bit longer on this devotional time. I want you to spend a little bit more time thinking about what you've read. I might even want you to read just a little bit more.

I want you to pray a little bit more about what you've read. I just want to pour into you and you can just sense the Holy Spirit drawing you to something different. I want you to stay just a little bit longer. And you're like, I really don't have time for this, but it really feels like that's what the Lord's leading me to do. So I'm just going to spend a little bit more time and I won't spend as much time doing

something else this morning because I feel like that's what God's calling me to do. And you don't understand it, but you heed his calling. You obey him and what he calls you to do. Well, then you show up to work and you realize the world just blew up at your work, right? And you know that you would not have been prepared for everything that you have to face

when work blew up if you had not lingered a little bit longer in prayer. If God had not poured into you a little bit more through his word, if God had not caused you to meditate just a little bit more on scripture so that you could be poured into more by the Holy Spirit. Well, then you know how it is as you go throughout your day, right? Somebody, somebody burns your biscuits and you're ready to rip into them, right?

And you're like, you know what? And the Holy Spirit just says one thing. He goes, I don't know about y'all, but I'm not good at heating that one. But when I do, life is really happy, right? And you're like, I don't know why, but I'm not supposed to say anything right now. I just got to keep my mouth shut. And. Maybe the Lord doesn't tell you to be quiet, but he tells your phone to be quiet.

He makes you hit the delete button. Anybody in here ever had to be like delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. You know what happened to me one time? I typed out this whole long, like, just give it to somebody text. And the Holy Spirit said, don't send it. I went to hit delete. You know what I hit? Send. No! I had to do a little damage control after that one.

It was kind of funny. Ultimately, it ended up being a good thing. But the Holy Spirit was like, I had a better way. Maybe just don't ever start typing the text, right? But as we heed him. He brings out holiness into our lives. Perhaps for some of you, the Lord's telling you that you need to change your viewing habits. As a matter of fact, I bet there's some men in here that when you sit down at night, you really shouldn't grab your phone.

Because if you grab your phone, you know what you're going to do. You're going to go to websites you should never be going to. And the Lord says, put the phone down. And as you heed him. All of a sudden, now you're having victory. Over that area of your life. Some of you need to be away from a certain group of people. And the Holy Spirit says, distance yourself from those people.

Because those people will bring you down. Those people will bring you into a bad situation. That person that you're wanting to date. That friend group that you want to be a part of is ultimately going to be dangerous for you. I want to distance you from that. And when you feel the Holy Spirit telling you to do that. And you distance yourself. All of a sudden, you look and go, man, look at all the heartache.

God, save me. Sometimes the Holy Spirit pushes you to join a Bible study group. Man, I'm so glad that I obeyed the Holy Spirit. Because you know as well as I do, joining a small group is an intimidating thing. Right? Because you can't just sit amongst a sea of people anymore. You have to get involved. And the Holy Spirit says, go. You need to go. You need to get plugged in.

You need to get outside of your comfort zone and do this. So finally, you take that step of faith. And you get involved. And you're like, this is the greatest blessing I've ever had in my life. Because you heeded what the Holy Spirit had to say. You were responsive to his guiding. Because you see, if I habitually order my life according to what the Holy Spirit says to do.

Notice what happens. I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's an impossibility. If I'm doing what the Holy Spirit tells me to do. It is then impossible for me to fulfill what the flesh wants me to do. Because they're mutually exclusive things. Now, why is this so important? Well, he's going to tell us in the next verse. Because notice what he says. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit.

And the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another. So that you may not do the things that you please. Why is it so important to walk in the spirit? Because brothers and sisters, you and I are in a war. You and I are in a war. And we're in a war against ourselves. When you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Perhaps the first two weeks.

Perhaps the first six months. Maybe the first year were amazing. And you're shedding off the garbage. You're letting go of the stuff. All the stuff that you thought was going to be hard for you to let go of. You let go of like it was nothing. It was way easier than you thought. But what you find six months or so in. Is you go, why do I still crave sin? Why do I still react the wrong way?

Why does anger sometimes come? Why is anger sometimes still what comes out of me? Why is lust sometimes what still comes out of me? Why are foul words sometimes what still comes out of me? Why is jealousy? And some of these things we're going to talk about. Why does that still come out of me? Because you're in a war. You see, the spiritual part of you became alive.

And you didn't think about all that stuff before. You just went headlong into it. It didn't bother you to walk in sin. It's just who you were. And so you walked into it. But now your spirit's alive. And now your spirit's going, I want to follow Jesus. And your flesh is like, I want a donut. Right? And so that's exactly what's going on is you have this battle on the inside of you.

Right? I view everything as a cartoon. And so some of my favorite cartoons were when there was the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. Right? Like, just forgive him. Smack him in the face. Just forgive him. Smack him in the face. Right? And that battle's going on on the inside of us. A guy that I used to go to church with said there's an old Eskimo proverb that says, inside

of every man, there's a war between two dogs. And the one that you feed the most is the one that's going to win. You and I have that battle. We have that war going on inside of us between our flesh that wants us to sin and our spirit that wants to follow the Lord. One of the commentators I read, I believe it was John Walvoord, gave this definition of the flesh.

He said, the flesh is the sinful nature which responds impulsively without regard for God. The sinful nature that responds impulsively without regard for God. Because that's who we are apart from God. We've got this nature that automatically responds to things. Right? That automatically responds to things in an angry way or in a sinful sort of way. And that's at war with our spirit that wants to follow Jesus.

And you know what? Sometimes we find that, as he says here in verse 17, we find that we may not do the things that we please. Paul describes it to an even greater degree in Romans chapter 7 when he says this. The things that I want to do, I don't do. And the things that I don't want to do, those are the things that I do. Oh wretched man, who's going to set me free from this body of death?

And then he ends by saying, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Because it is only through Christ and through his Holy Spirit at work in us that we can be set free from those deeds of the flesh. Then he goes on to wrap it all up with one last statement when he says, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. See, if I follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, I don't need a list of rules anymore.

I don't need someone to tell me what I should or should not do because I'm following the leading of the Holy Spirit. I don't need the Ten Commandments to tell me what's right and what's wrong because the Holy Spirit's guiding me towards what's right and what's wrong. I've said this before and I'll say it again. If your kid's in here today and you want your parents to give you freedom, you follow Jesus with your whole heart.

If you follow Jesus with your whole heart, your parents will give you freedom. They will give you more and more freedoms. You know why? Because they will realize that you're holding yourself to a higher accountability than them. Because you're holding yourself to the accountability of none other than Jesus Christ himself. And if you're pursuing holiness and you're pursuing Jesus Christ, then it's a whole lot

easier for your parents to be like, yes, we'll give you more freedom because we know that you're not going to use your freedom as an opportunity to do stupid things, as an opportunity to do rebellious things. And it's the same way with us as believers. If we are led by the Holy Spirit. We don't need someone to give us a list of rules. Now listen, the same works in the exact opposite.

The principle works in the exact opposite way too. If I start walking in the things of the flesh and I'm no longer led by the spirit, you know what I put myself back under? I put myself back under the law because now I'm not being led by the spirit any longer. And if I'm not being led by the spirit, that means I'm walking in the flesh. That means I need the law to come in and say, this is wrong.

And then the law points me back to Jesus. And once it points me back to Jesus, the law says, I've done this wrong. The law says, I've done my job. He can be led by the spirit now. And so he talks to us about this walk. We are to walk in the spirit so that we don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. But just in case we weren't sure what the flesh was, he tells us second of all about the works.

Notice what he says in verse 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sin, sorcery, enmity, strife, lusts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now in the New American Standard, the word is translated deeds.

But in the New King James, the word is translated works. And I prefer that translation because I feel like that's exactly what these things are. These are works of the flesh. You know why? Because when I work in my flesh, that's exactly what's produced is this list. And he tells us that these works of the flesh are evident. In other words, anybody can see them.

Now I think that that means a couple of things. Number one, it means the works of the flesh are evident. When I live them out in my life, everybody in the world sees them. Everybody in the world can tell, believer in Jesus Christ, when you're walking in the flesh. You just need to know that. You may think you're hiding it from everybody else in the world. You may think that that sin is hidden from everybody else in the world.

But we know. Because you're different. Because your life looks different when you're walking in the things of the flesh. Because the works of the flesh can't help it. They want everybody to know, here I am. Because that's what the works of the flesh are. They're incredibly evident. They're incredibly apparent to everybody else. And so if your family's going, man, you just seem different,

you can usually tell. I remember when I was not walking with Jesus, my parents knew something was wrong with me. They knew something wasn't right in my life. Because the way that I acted showed it. Because if you're not pursuing the things of God, you will be pursuing the things of the flesh. And listen, if you're pursuing the things of the flesh, you're going to start to smell like the flesh.

You're going to start to look like the flesh. You're going to start to act like the flesh. And everybody's going to be aware of it. But do you know what else? There's a second reason why it says that the works of the flesh are evident. Because everybody knows when it's sin and when it's not sin. Everybody knows the difference. Listen, even people in the world.

You know how I know that? Because that's why the people in the world apologize to me as a pastor when they act like the things of the flesh. I told this story in first service. I did a wedding last year. And I love doing weddings. But sometimes groomsmen get raucous. We'll just put it that way. Sometimes groomsmen get a little rambunctious. And this particular time that happened.

And the groomsmen were using some colorful language. Now listen, I worked construction for years. Colorful language. You have to try really, really hard to offend me. So I don't get really offended by hearing it. I'm not like, I can't believe you just said that. Right? Because I've been around it a lot. I don't like hearing it. But I don't get offended. So I don't think too much about it when people of the world act like people of the world.

Well, this guy comes up to me. Well, these guys are swearing up a storm. And they don't know that I'm the pastor. Because sometimes I just blend in. I don't know why. I just do. And they're like, okay, pastor. This is a rehearsal. Okay, pastor. Go ahead and tell us what we need to do. And you should have seen that. Well, the next day one of them comes up to me.

He's like, bro, I'm so sorry, man. I had no idea you were the pastor. If I had known you were the pastor, I would not have talked the way that I talked around you. I'm like, does it matter that I'm a pastor? I mean, Jesus can still hear you. I didn't tell him that. But it's because they know what's right and what's wrong. Right? The works of the flesh are evident.

Anyway, so he goes on to list these. Now, let's go through this list. There's 16 of them. I won't labor over it too much. But I want you to know what it says because I think it's important for us to pay attention to. So he lists out 16 of these things. The first word that he uses is the word immorality. The word immorality is the Greek word pornea. It speaks of any illicit sexual activity.

It can include sexual sin, illicit sexual intercourse. It can include homosexuality. It can include transgenderism, heterosexual sin, adultery, or extramarital sex of any sort. It's where we get our word pornography from. And so if we question whether or not the Bible has anything to say about all of the illicit sexual behavior going on in our world today, we can know that right there it does.

You know, I heard somebody say one time, somebody who claimed to be a Christian, they said, the Bible never really says you can't have sex outside of marriage. I'm like, have you read the Bible? Do you know anything about what the Bible? And I said that to him because I'm like, have you? I mean, if you claim to be a Christian and that's what, that's the way.

Listen, if you're here this morning and you claim to be a Christian, you just need to know the Bible says you should not have sex outside of marriage. Okay? It is intended for the marriage only. And so this word includes all of that, but it's a work of the flesh. Second word that he uses is the word impurity. The word impurity is moral uncleanness in thought, word or deed.

It encapsulates the immoral thoughts that go through our heads. It encapsulates the moral, immoral things that we do. And listen, and I'm especially talking to you fellas right now. It encapsulates the dirty jokes that you tell. Because all of us as men have a sense of humor. Mine has not progressed much past 14. And I know what we all do. But he tells us that it's a work of the flesh.

The third one that he uses is the word sensuality. The word can also be translated debauchery. And the idea behind the word is this. It is a brazen and shameless display of immorality and impurity. In other words, it's the first two things only on display for everybody to see. It's being shameless in the way that you live those things out. The fourth word that he uses for the flesh is idolatry.

Now, idolatry most simply defined is the worship of a foreign God. But let me give you my definition of idolatry. Idolatry is when you find either your security or your joy in anything besides God. When you find your security or your joy in anything besides God. And I say that because in our Western culture, there's not a great deal of idols that many of us bow down and worship.

There's not a great deal of us that own a little statue that we keep in our house that we call our household idol that protects our house. Or is there? Perhaps your bank account is your household idol that protects your house. Maybe your job is your household idol. Maybe your retirement account is your household idol. And you bow down to it because that's your security.

Or perhaps you find joy in the hedonistic things of the world by seeking pleasure for the sake of God. By seeking pleasure for the sake of God. And while you may never bow down and worship an idol called pleasure, you live it out in the way that you live your life. The fifth word that he uses is the word sorcery. Sorcery, which is also the word witchcraft. Now, you and I usually have a thought in our mind when we think of sorcery or witchcraft.

And it comes directly from the movie Frozen, right? Sorcery. Anyway, that's what I think of when I hear that. But witchcraft actually carries with it not only the idea of occult-type behavior, but the word for sorcery there in the Greek is the word pharmakia, which is where we get our word pharmacy from. So it carries with it the idea of drug use. Now listen, this does not mean that the use of prescription medications

that your doctor gives to you are a work of the flesh. I do not think you should go throw out all of your prescription medications. I don't think you should get rid of all of your prescription medications because if used properly, it's a very important thing for you to do. However, what took place in the first century is they used drugs as a way to contact the demons.

It's not a whole lot different today with the illicit drug use that we see in our culture, with people that are smoking pot, with people that are using hallucinogens, with people using prescription pain pills in wrong sort of ways. And listen, in our world today, it's happening across every age group and socioeconomic status. Usually, what do we say? Yep. The kids are using drugs.

You know what I'm going to tell you? It's not just the kids. Yes, it is happening amongst the youth. I think our youth are so hopeless right now that they're numbing themselves however they can. They've had every pleasure they possibly can because we can provide so much for them and so they look for it outside of all of the things that are at their fingertips

and they're always looking for the next high. But I heard a report, and this has been about 10 years ago now, so I can't imagine what it's like now, but they said that the number one drug used by people across every age group and socioeconomic status was heroin. That was 10 years ago. And it's because hopelessness abounds and we've excused drug use as really no big deal.

If you don't believe me, just look at all... We'll just drive a little bit south here and know that we're trying to vote on the same thing in Kansas. They keep presenting it every single year. And you know what I hear from people that claim to be believers? Listen. God has no issue with marijuana. Listen. Yes, he does. Okay? It's allowing something else to be your place of joy and peace that's not God.

And the problem with getting high is that you always need the next high. You always need the next big thing. And so he says... Sorcery. Sorry, I've got to get a move on. I'm going to run out of time here. The next word is the word enmities, which means hatred. Okay, again, I'm sorry. I've got to stop on this one for a minute. Now, usually when you and I think of hatred,

we think of everybody in the world that's being very hateful. But I'm going to tell you right now that we as the church can sometimes be the most hateful people in the world. And this is something that we have to watch out for as believers in Jesus Christ is that we not be those that hate. You know why? Because we always excuse our hatred and justify it with the Bible.

And we say, well, I'm just standing up for what's right. Listen, you can stand up for what's right, but you don't have to be a jerk about it. You can stand up for what's right, but you don't have to hate people while you do it. Stand for the truth and be kind. We'll talk about that in the next section. Number seven that he uses is strife, which is contention, rivalry, or an argumentative spirit.

The eighth word that he uses is jealousies. Uh-oh, here we are. A desire to have what someone else has. Now, I disagree with some things that I've said in the past. In the past, I've always said that our economy is built upon envy. And I was wrong on that. Our economy is built on jealousy. Because we want what everybody else has. And usually the most unhappy people in the world are those that are the most jealous

because they're never happy with what they have. They're only unhappy because they don't have what somebody else has. It gets worse when envy steps in. We'll get to that in just a minute. Jealousies, outbursts of anger, feels somewhat self-explanatory. The word disputes can also be translated selfish ambitions or a self-seeking pursuit. Number eleven is the word dissension, which is division.

Which again, I'm going to couple with this next word, factions. The twelfth word that he uses are factions, which is taking sides, particularly in doctrine or heresy. I think divisions and factions very much go together. And I think the thing that destroys the church more than anything is division. More than all of the immorality in the world, more than all of the other things in the world that we think destroy the church,

the biggest thing that will destroy a church is factions. People that take sides. Well, we're of this idea. Well, we're of this idea. Well, we sit in the northwest side of the sanctuary. Well, we sit in the southeast side of the sanctuary. We'll never get along. We have two completely different ideas. And here's the big one. Are you ready for it? I'm going to offend everybody right now.

Young people. Young people. Old people. Listen, I don't care whether it's old people or young people. Old people think young people are stupid and don't want anything to do with them. Young people think old people are old and don't know anything and don't want anything to do with them. And we've got to get rid of these factions. We've got to get rid of these divisions because, listen, they're a work of the flesh.

If you look at somebody and you identify them by their age group, you're part of the problem because that's called factions, and it's division, and it destroys churches. Next work of the flesh is the word envying. Oh, here we go. Envying is different from jealousy because envying is being angry that someone has what you want. Being angry that someone has what you want.

I've been meditating on this word quite a bit this week because I think it's a pretty powerful word in our culture right now. And I thought of a way to present this. Have you ever known somebody that you hate for no good reason? Now, listen, don't tell me what you think is the right answer. Tell me the real answer. We all do, right? We all have somebody that we do not like, and you have no reason why.

Why just don't like you? Why? I don't know. I just don't. I'll tell you why you don't like them. They have what you don't. I'll guarantee you about 97.8% of the time it's because they have what you don't have, and you hate them because of it. Because you were jealous of what they had, and then you became envious, and now you just plain don't like them. Envy is such a dangerous sin, even though it's the one that we excuse the most,

because as I've mentioned before, envy is what put Jesus on the cross. The next word that he uses is the word drunkenness. Now, in general, I think we all know what drunkenness means. It means overindulging in alcohol to the point where you have lost control of your faculties. Now, I know that there's a great debate within the church. As a matter of fact, I went to a youth pastor's conference one time,

and there was a big debate amongst all of the youth pastors at that point in time about whether or not Christians should be able to drink alcohol. Do you have the freedom to drink alcohol? Sure. Within reason, you don't have the freedom to get drunk. My question for you is, how do you use that freedom wisely? Chuck Smith put it best when he said, I have found that if I never drink, I never get drunk.

Now, do with that what you will. Do you have freedom? You absolutely do. But how close do you want to get to sin without sinning? That's my only question. For me particularly, I grew up in a family, praise God, not my dad, but I grew up in an extended family of people that struggled with alcohol. And I've seen the effects of it. I've never seen anything positive come from anybody drinking.

I've never watched somebody just drink a beer and be really happy about it. What I've watched is people get sloppy, fallen down drunk, and fall asleep in my bathtub. That's what I've seen happen. And so I have a bad view of alcohol. Now, that's between you and Jesus. But what I'm telling you is this. Drunkenness, that's for sure a work of the flesh. Fifteenth word that he uses is the word carousing.

Okay, I can't help it. This one kind of makes me laugh a little bit. When I think of the word carousing, I think of a guy from about 1978 wearing a crushed velvet leisure suit. That's what I think of when the word carousing is said. That's absolutely not what the word means. But that's the picture conjured up in my brain. The word carousing is actually a pretty evil word.

It can mean riotous parties. And I think it's the New King James. It might be the English Standard Version that translates it orgies. So really this word carousing is a pretty evil word actually. The idea is this. It's a riotous party that's gone too far. It's a riotous party that's gone too far. And from somebody who was not always walking with Jesus and went to some of these kinds of parties,

you know what I've always taken note of? They almost always go too far. You ever notice where most of the shootings and fights and really bad things take place? They usually happen outside of bars and nightclubs and strip clubs. Right? And do you know when they take place? After midnight. Listen, kids, I'm going to give you a little piece of advice here. Nothing good happens after midnight.

Right? Like your mom's been telling you that. All these wonderful moms in here, they've been telling you, Son, nothing good happens after midnight. Stay home. Right? Mary ain't home by midnight. Everything's going to be happier. Everything bad happens after that. But that's the idea of carousing. And then, number 16, if he didn't cover anything, he says, And the like.

In other words, anything that I didn't cover, I think you're getting the idea of what I'm talking about here. But then he gives us a very stern warning. He says, Of which I forewarn you. Verse 21. Just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, I'm going to hit this from two different angles real quick, okay?

The first one I'm going to hit you with is the harsh angle. Brothers and sisters, if you think that you can live according to the flesh and still be a believer, he just told us we can't. He just told us that if you're going to live a habitual life of sin, we have to question whether or not you're really a part of the kingdom of God. So, oftentimes, we excuse our sin and we just say, Well, that's just who I am.

Well, if that's just who you are, then you're not a child of God. Because he says, As I have forewarned you and continue to do so, if you practice such things, you won't inherit the kingdom. That's a warning that we should all take incredibly serious. Now, I'm going to couple that with grace. If you have been living according to the flesh, come back to Jesus.

Because I will about guarantee, I nailed every single one of us in the room with one of these. Scripture nailed every single one of us in the room with something on that list. And all I know to do is to fall back on the same grace that saved me. And if those are the works that you're living according to, it's time to come back to Jesus. Because his grace is sufficient.

And his blood has never failed us yet. But now, we get to talk about the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. Notice what it says in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. The stark contrast between the section on the works and the section on the fruit is so palpable, right? It feels like we just watched a political commercial. My opponent hates people. He slaps puppy dogs. He kicks whales. He wants to pour oil directly into your water.

But if you vote for me, right? That's kind of how this went. It was like, these are the works of the flesh. Here's the fruit of the Spirit. So, let's take a look at what he says with the fruit of the Spirit. The first thing I want to point out to you is that it is fruit. It's not produced in a factory. It's born in a garden. There's no plant out there striving to produce fruit.

You ever seen a stressed out tree? I have. Well, only when I don't give it the water that it needs. Other than that, trees don't look stressed out, do they? Right? Like, over the last few months, from like July until like three weeks ago, I think we got like a total of one inch of rain. And you know what I ever once saw the trees in my yards doing? How are we going to get water?

How are we going to produce leaves? What are we going to do? They don't have to worry about that because they have one job. Bear fruit. Right? They have one job. Just bear the leaves that all of the nutrients that I take in produce. I don't have to do anything other than just be a holder for all this fruit. You know what's fascinating to me? That trees have leaves on them this year.

As things were happening and where spring is coming on, I'm like, there's just not even going to be leaves on the trees because we just haven't had any water. And yet, there they are. Leafy as ever. Why? Because all trees do is bear the fruit of everything that God gives to them. Well, that's who you and I are. We oftentimes treat ourselves like factories, like we have to produce fruit, right?

But we don't. We just have to bear fruit. God does all the work. He gives us the nutrients. He gives us all the things that we need. All we have to do is stay connected to him, and he bears fruit in our life. This is the fruit of the Spirit. It's the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us. And of course, there's a list. Nine things that he lists. He says, but the fruit of the Spirit is,

number one, love. Now, it's interesting because the word fruit there is singular in nature. According to the Greek structure of the word, that's a singular word. In other words, there's only one fruit, but the Spirit produces in our lives. Now, some commentators say that it's the fruit that God produces in our lives is Christ-like living. I disagree with that.

I agree with Chuck Smith on this. His philosophy is that the fruit of the Spirit is love. And all of the other things that are mentioned here, all of those other fruits come about because of the love that God produces in our hearts. So he says the fruit of the Spirit is love. Now, that word love is agape. The Amplified Bible translates it like this, an unselfish concern for others.

Now, as I mentioned, it's Mother's Day. And I know this isn't a Mother's Day message, but I did want to make a quick comment because I think if you were to put a picture next to this unselfish concern for others, it would be a picture of your mom, right? Because is there any other way, any better way that we could describe the word love, unselfish concern for others than to think about the way that your mom treated you growing up, right? Like, it's just amazing to see how moms care for us.

Like, you're up in the middle of the night throwing up. Your mom's up helping you. Dude, your dad's asleep, right? He told your mom, listen, if you need anything, just let me know, okay? You got this, right? That's what your dad did. Your mom, man, she's up there. She's up there holding your hair back, whatever you need to. Nobody needed to hold my hair back.

But anyway, she's up there taking care of you while you're getting all sick and whatnot. She's the one that's doing all that. She's the one that's doing all this amazing stuff for you. When Violet was real tiny, she got pneumonia. And it was a pretty scary night for us. We had to go get her tested and got her checked out. It was a bad deal. And it was super late, like 2 in the morning or something,

when we finally got back from everything that we had to do. And Erin sat next to her all night long and held her hand on her back because she wanted to make sure all night long that she was breathing. I was like, let me know if you need anything. I got to work tomorrow, so I'm going to go to sleep. She just stayed there the whole night. That's that unselfish concern.

That unselfish concern for others. So again, moms, you're amazing. So he says, this is the fruit of the Spirit. It's that kind of love. But I want you to notice Wiest's translation of this word. The word love, according to Kenneth Wiest, that agape word means divine sacrificial love only produced by God. You ever tried to love somebody? I'm going to love you.

Listen, if you have to grit your teeth while you're saying you love somebody, listen, you don't love them yet, okay? You need to let God do that work inside of you. But it's produced by God. The second one is joy. Joy is an inward attitude of rejoicing. Joy is different than happiness because happiness is conditional. When my day is going great, I'm happy. When my day is going bad, I'm sad.

But in all of it, God is unchanging. Therefore, I have joy. I have an inward attitude of rejoicing. I'm not happy about the bad things that are taking place, but I'm still joyful in the Lord and I know that He's still in control. The third one that's mentioned is peace. The word peace here literally means an inward personal peace. An inward personal peace. But that flows into my life with others

because if I have peace inwardly, then I'm going to have peace with other people. Listen, if I lack that inward personal peace, I have strife and enmity with everybody else that's around me because I'm just angry all the time. Matter of fact, again, I think that many of the outbursts of violence that we're seeing in our culture today come about because there is no inward peace in the lives of people. But that inward peace ultimately leads to peace with others.

The fourth word is the word patience. Again, I appreciated the way that the Amplified put this. It said in brackets, not just the ability to wait, but how we act while. We wait. The more that I thought about that, the more I was like, that is so absolutely true. Listen, we can't help it that we're going to have to wait sometimes, right? A few weeks ago, I took the kids to Young Christians weekend,

and you know what you do when you're at Silver Dollar City? You wait in line. Well, what for, Ryan? You name it. You wait in line. Rides, food, bathroom. It doesn't matter. You're going to wait in the line, right? And so everybody has to wait. Some people handle the waiting really well, and some people don't, right? Right? It's fun to see the little groups of kids in the line waiting for the ride,

and some of them start like a little heads-up game, and I kind of take part. I'm like, I know that one. Anyway, so you see people playing the games, and sometimes they make fun of them for the games they came up with because they're stupid. Anyway, some people wait really well, and some people are like, oh my gosh, when is the line going to move? Right? One of them has patience.

The other one doesn't. And it's produced by the Holy Spirit. Some of you are waiting on things right now, but while you're waiting, you're going, when is my husband going to get it? When is my wife going to figure it out? When are my kids going to finally pick things up? Right? And you're waiting, but you're not patiently waiting. The Holy Spirit produces that inside of us.

You know what? All of these things kind of work together, don't they? If I have love for other people, the Holy Spirit's producing joy inside of me, and I have peace in my heart because of what He's done in me, I'm in no hurry, right? Because if God's in control, well, I can rest if He's going to do it in His good time. Let it take as long as it wants to. And so,

number five is the word kindness. The word kindness means benevolence in action towards friends and enemies. I referenced this just a little bit when we talked about not being hateful, but again, I think that when we speak the truth, it has to be in love, and it has to be in kindness, right? One of my favorite songs growing up was Ephesians 4, 13. Ephesians 4, 32.

Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Shout it out now. Doodly-doo. Ephesians 4, 32, right? And it's because we're to be kind to one another. Listen, sometimes in the world that we're living in, there's a lot of people trying to tell the truth, but they're not being very kind about it.

And because of that, listen, nobody pays attention. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. And if you're speaking the truth by yelling it through a bullhorn, they don't care what you know. It says kindness. The second one is goodness. The word goodness means, or the next one's goodness. The word goodness means uprightness of soul. It does good even when undeserved.

Again, it's a fruit of the Spirit. Number seven is the word faithfulness. The word faithfulness means trustworthy or reliable. I got to camp on this one for a second again because this is one of my pet peeves in the world today. Nobody's faithful. Nobody's reliable. You can't count on anyone to do anything. Have you noticed that? Somebody says, I'm going to be there,

and you know what they're not? They're there. Hey, wait, you said you were going to be here. Oh, yeah, I forgot. I wanted to do this instead. They always couch it with, oh, something came up. You know what something came up means? I wanted to do something else instead. Not always, but sometimes. And it's one thing when the world, I count on the world not being faithful.

Not being faithful, but the Holy Spirit should be producing that in us as believers in Jesus Christ, right? He's calling us to be faithful, and he produces that inside of us, that reliability. Number eight is the word gentleness, which means meekness or power under control, okay? This is the best picture I can think of for the word meek, okay? Picture the Incredible Hulk

holding a puppy, right? It's power. It's under control, right? That's meekness. That's what he means by being gentle. You can have all the power in the world, but you're still willing to be gentle with it. And then the last one is the word self-control, another one that we can't spell in our world today because self-control literally means to hold one's self in.

Let me put it to you this way. Sometimes you have to tell yourself no, another word we don't like to hear. I don't like to hear it from other people. I don't want to hear it from me. But if I'm going to live the way God wants me to live, sometimes I have to tell myself no. You know what I'm not good at? Telling myself no. I'll tell you a quick story. It always comes down to me wanting to eat better,

and I'm never good at it. So it was Wednesday night, and I was on my way home from church, and Wednesdays we eat really, really early because we have to get in order to jujitsu, and then we have to get to church, so we're eating at like 5 o'clock in the evening. Well, by the time I've gone through my whole evening, I'm hungry, and I need like snacks and stuff, right? And so I was like, oh, I should probably be good and eat something good.

I think I got yogurt at home. You know what doesn't sound good at 9 o'clock at night when you're snacky and hungry? Yogurt. I was like, I'm just going to stop and get one thing of ice cream because that sounds really tasty. So I stop at the Brahms, and I get a thing of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and I'm like, my family is going to discover this.

They're going to want some too. I should get two. But then as I picked up both things of, right now I'm writing myself out to my family. After I picked up these two things of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, I look, and you know what's sitting up on top of the little rack up there? Brownies. Thank you. It would be really good. Melt a brownie, put it on the bottom,

put scoops of ice cream on top, and listen, kids, it was amazing, right? I did that two or three nights in a row. It was the greatest night of my life, three nights in a row. But it wasn't using a lot of self-control. We're not good at telling ourselves no. Now, the self-control here speaks of all aspects, although one of the big ways that it speaks of is, of course,

with sexual immorality, telling ourselves no. But that doesn't come natural to us. Unbridled lust, that's what comes natural to us. Therefore, this self-control, you can't try to have it. It has to be what the Holy Spirit produces on the inside of you. He says, and against such things, there is no law. And then he finishes by telling us about the work of Jesus Christ,

the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when he said, now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another and envying one another. He says, those who belong to Jesus Christ, they've crucified the passions. Speaks of a once for all decision.

And that once for all decision took place in your life the day that you got saved, the day that you came to faith in Jesus Christ and you were united with him in his death. And now you have to live every day believing that you've been united with him in his death. Every day you have to decide, that's what really happened to me. My flesh is dead and I'm not gonna live according to it any longer.

After all, if we live, or excuse me, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Allow him to produce the fruit in your life that needs to be produced. Amen. Let's all stand. Remember, it's Mother's Day. Mom gets to do whatever she wants to do. She gets to eat what she wants to eat.

Kids, you don't get to choose where you eat your cheeseburger or whatever today. Mom gets to choose that. If mom wants to take a nap, that means you, listen, you have to completely leave her alone. Okay? She can't sleep for 10 minutes and then you come up to her and say, Mom, I have a question. Right? It's Mom's Day. Let her do her thing. Father, we come to you

and just thank you for who you are. Thank you for the great love that you have for us. And Lord, thank you for showing us where we should not walk and giving us the power to walk where we should. Lord, if the works of the flesh have taken over anyone's life in here today, may today be the day that they confess those things to you and begin to walk in victory.

Lord, I pray that you would help people to find the rest that there is in knowing that you are the one that produces the fruit. Strengthen us as we go out from here. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

What's done for Christ will last Jesus you can use Riches and houses and cars and Jesus you can use Amen. Thank you, Lord. We give you praise and thanks. And Father, would you just encourage us, strengthen us in our walk and witness for you and give us a blessed week. In Jesus' name, amen. won the first time I received my first application