Unsexy Church
Unsexy Church
Season 2 Episode 53: On The Fruit of The Spirit
In this episode, Pastor Bob and Pastor Trent get together to talk about the transformative power of the Fruit of the Spirit, emphasizing how cultivating a relationship with Christ leads to authentic change. We discuss...
• Differences between spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit
• Why pursuing Christ leads to a Spirit-filled life
• The contrast between living by the Spirit or by the flesh
• Characteristics of Christ-like behavior stemming from fellowship with God
• The communal aspect of developing the fruit of the Spirit
• The importance of self-control as a reflection of spiritual maturity
Join us on this week's episode to learn a bit more about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-controool!
hey bob, hi trent pastor, bob, pastor trent, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm all right today. How are you? I'm doing good. I woke up. It's not like a crick in my neck, but I just I feel like I need to like stretch a little bit. Are you getting older with age? You know it could, it could be, it could be. I don't see any gray hair yet. I mean I do see some right now. Easy, but it's across the table.
Speaker 1:It's not A lot of it, a lot of it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but yeah, I wake up in the morning and I hurt. That didn't used to be the case. It used to be hard to fall asleep at night and now I can just go straight out. Right, I wake up earlier than I ever did. Right, I'm just?
Speaker 1:up and around. I know you wake up really early often.
Speaker 2:You're just describing getting older. I have to go to the bathroom 12 times a night.
Speaker 1:I'm kidding. Now you're getting personal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, how are you?
Speaker 1:Blessed. I'm doing well, better than I deserve. Better than I deserve, okay, dan.
Speaker 2:Ramsey. Well, hey, we have a good conversation in store for us today, I believe. I think.
Speaker 1:We always have good conversations.
Speaker 2:I think so yeah.
Speaker 1:But we're solo today. Well, a duo today. Yeah, that's right, it's been a long time, since it's just been the two of us here in the podcast room.
Speaker 2:We are sans Kara. Kara's taking a comp day. She's enjoying time with her spouse.
Speaker 1:Good for her. Jaden Smith, well earned.
Speaker 2:Not that Jaden Smith, her Jaden Smith. Yes, yeah, our Jaden Smith, our Jaden Smith, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:We claim him.
Speaker 2:Hey, so you guys are about to move, I'm about to move. A lot of people from FEC Tampa are about to move. Some people from Wesley Chapel are about to move. It is a moving season. It is, but let's clarify.
Speaker 1:You're not moving to Knoxville. We're not moving out of the city, we're just relocating to a different area of our area. You are moving to a different state starting a new church. I'm staying right here. They can't get rid of me that easy. I rid of me that easy.
Speaker 2:I'm just real darling and I are buying a new home. So, yes, exciting, that's a word. Yes, you're still going to be a. How do you say so, knoxvillian? How do you say Tampa, tampanian, tampanian Is that really how it is, I'll be a Tennessean, a Knoxvillian. Uh, you're going to remain a Floridian and a Tampanian Sure.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:Why, tampanian? I don't know. That's a lot of extra letters.
Speaker 1:Well, there's another way to say it, but it's not very nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 1:So Tampanian is probably.
Speaker 2:Hey, well, I have been on a few flights here lately, but flying is kind of scary. There's been a lot of accents. There have been more you know which recently. Yeah, I remember reading a news article last year that there hadn't been a significant plane crash or accident in years with like a passenger plane. And yet in the last few months there's been quite a few, which is sad it is.
Speaker 1:It is sad we got on our flight down to the DR the day after the incident in DC so that was the topic of conversation for many people getting on the plane that day.
Speaker 2:There's been a number of incidents since. There was one in Philadelphia, if I remember right. There was one where a plane overturned after it had landed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was in Canada, if I remember right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then there was something in was itussia or somewhere in the, in europe, maybe even yeah, there's been. There's been quite a few. Well, I don't want to make light of those situations and those issues, but I do want to give you a fact that's kind of eye-opening I'm not sure I want this fact after that setup.
Speaker 2:I know over 50 of pilots have admitted to falling asleep mid-flight, and of these pilots, 29 that said that when they woke up, their co-pilot was asleep as well. Wow, wow, they're. So that's 50. Had admitted to, right, so that means it's probably higher but, from what I understand, once a plane is up in the air, it's auto, it's auto.
Speaker 1:It's pretty much. It's pretty much automated. Sure, yeah, they even have blankets up there for them. Yeah, yeah, but they supposedly are supposed to take shifts when they're sleeping.
Speaker 2:I understand, so, yeah, but you know and the pilot isn't as much because of the autopilot, isn't as much trying to drive it every second, but rather keep it from issues and, you know, take over if autopilot fails.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure there's alarm bells that start going off and whatnot, if, if, if there's issues. So, yeah, while it's a, yeah, I'm not really hoping that my next long, long flight has both my pilot and my co-pilot napping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I'm not really stressed about it either on a double-decker plane, so a plane that's going over 10 hours. Let's say that, um, do you think there's more than two pilots, like is there? Yeah, I think there's usually a larger crew.
Speaker 1:Yeah for that, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:But I I think there is yeah, I would think like if they're, if you're flying to australia, it's a you know number of hours.
Speaker 1:yeah, there's probably more than two guys At the end of the month I'm flying to Turkey, and that's an 11-hour flight.
Speaker 2:So I'll ask yeah, you should. I'll just knock on the cabin door. If you want to hop in, you can. Yeah, I'll just knock on.
Speaker 1:Hey, can I come in?
Speaker 2:They used to let kids ride at the front of the thing in Disney. What do you call that? The?
Speaker 1:front, the front of the thing, oh, the like, the L train, the Chicago monorail, the monorail. Thank you Um kind of the same thing right Similar. I'm like a kid at Disney world. Let's go.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. Um, here's a fun question for you. What is one of the worst food? You know items you've eaten or meals? You know if you're driving? If you're driving, if you're flying a long distance, usually meals are provided. So, what's one of the worst meals.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when you're on international flights, you get international food on those flights, yeah, and sometimes you just don't know what. It is, right, right. So yeah, there's. There's been a couple of times when I've flown out of countries and I'm not, but you're so hungry and you want to do something to keep busy when you're out on those long flights, so you tend to eat it anyway, but I don't even know what to tell you it was. It was not good.
Speaker 2:A lot of flights to Europe, in my understanding, have wine, hot tea or water. That's like the, that's like the drink. Oh yeah, I think. But I was coming back from Germany to the States a few years back and it was the driest bread that I've ever eaten on a sandwich of just pimento cheese, and I'm not a pimento cheese fan Lovely.
Speaker 1:Ugh, it's bad. Crack a tooth and eat pimento cheese all at the same time. It was so bad.
Speaker 2:It came with a KitKat, though, and I ate the KitKat. Okay, kitkat was nice, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't think I have any other stories about planes. We've exhausted our plane experiences? Yeah, I do, but I'm trying to get people to go to South Africa with me, so I don't want to share any of those long, long flight stories.
Speaker 2:I had about a 10-minute delay coming back here late night this past Sunday night from Houston, and the delay was not an issue with the plane. It was that they were waiting on flight attendants. So what's going on there?
Speaker 1:Were the flight attendants in the former flight like Maybe they were delayed on their flight getting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but why did they stay on the same plane? Maybe they were going to bed for the night yeah, shifts. So the night shift was coming and they?
Speaker 1:weren't there yet, so I got delayed one time. On the ground, everything's perfectly fine with the plane. Flight attendants are in place, everybody's luggage is packed away. We've we've pushed back from the gate, we're waiting to taxi out, and we sit there, and we sit there, and we sit there, and it's probably hot. It's hot and finally they say we can't continue because the seat belt demonstration buckle is not on board no way no way they had.
Speaker 1:Somebody had to bring a seat belt demonstration buckle so that we could see that which nobody pays attention to. But you know, yeah, everybody's got their headphones in yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:So I'm just going to say something. Some of those straps are larger straps that are on the chairs. I think there's designated chairs for that right. Could you not use an aisle chair that was open and no one was sitting in and just kind of say, look down lower here?
Speaker 1:and here's how it goes in Apparently, not, apparently not.
Speaker 2:All right, got a question for you. Okay, hey, if you had to make the case that you were living in a Truman Show situation, all a simulation.
Speaker 1:So, like the movie the Truman Show, which I've never seen by the way Don't look at me like that You've not seen a bunch of really good movies, never once seen it. I know what you're referring to, but I've never once seen it.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, here's the deal. So at the SBC in 2025, we are watching the Truman Show. It's probably top 10 for me Not top 5, but it's top 10. Okay, it's a great movie. It really is. What does he say? Good afternoon, good evening and good night. So it's all like he is living inside of a fake world. He was born and raised there. Okay, everybody's an actor and there's video screens everywhere and the outside world is watching him live his life.
Speaker 1:He's the show, okay, all right. So what's the question then?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry if you had to make the case that you were living in a truman show it's all simulation, okay what evidence would you use? I got one.
Speaker 1:Okay that my wife loves me.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, I'm very thankful.
Speaker 1:That's implausible. Otherwise, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:I thought that was very nice.
Speaker 1:Your wife doesn't listen to the podcast, does she?
Speaker 2:She has listened to a number of episodes.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, maybe she'll hear this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That'll work and I'll get an extra smooch, yeah, smooch, yeah, yeah. Good for you. All right, what about you? Yeah, my whole life is just a blessing. So you know that bottle of water exists.
Speaker 2:That's just, that's crazy. How wild is that? Yeah, no, I'm not. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm just not. I'm not familiar enough with the movie to make a. Okay, I ruined your fact of the day or question of the day, or whatever it was.
Speaker 2:If you listen to the podcast and you know Bob's email, you can go and email him and say watch the Truman Show, come on, it's a great movie. Watch the Truman Show. We'll watch it at the 2025 SBC.
Speaker 1:I'm not against it, I've just never taken the time to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, you're going to be for it in a little bit.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, here's the topic. We're going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit, okay, okay. So we're talking about the Holy Spirit, we're talking about fruit it produces in the life of a Christian. It is mentioned in Galatians, chapter 5, and in Galatians, chapter 5, paul is writing pretty frustrated to a church that has given in to a false gospel. Toward the end, he is helping them with sanctification and know what it means and what it means to live out their faith. He contrasts walking by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit with being gratifying the desires of the flesh and gratifying sin of the flesh.
Speaker 2:So one is what a Christian should look like, should produce, should do. The other is what a Christian should leave behind in their former life. So what is Bob? This is a simple podcast episode. I think it will be a quick one. What is the fruit of the Spirit?
Speaker 1:Sure. So the fruit of the Spirit is not a banana, not a coconut, it's not an apple, it's none of those, okay. Nor is it spiritual gifts, right.
Speaker 1:Ah so spiritual gifts are given to us through the Holy Spirit and outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life that equips us, enables us to do works of service for the building up of the body of Christ, that's a totally different thing. The fruit of the Spirit is just the beneficial result of being in a right relationship, a close relationship with Christ and allowing the Spirit to drive your life, to fill your life, to control your life. So it's the overflow of the Spirit, the beneficial result of the Spirit's characteristics coming out in a believer who's walking by the Spirit.
Speaker 2:Overflow is the word I was going to use right so it's an overflow of a Christian abiding in Christ right.
Speaker 2:And he is the vine, we are the branches. The fruit should be produced if we are soaking up the nutrients of God's Word and fellowshipping with God. So, whereas the gifts of the Spirit plural, they're individual gifts given by God's Spirit for the building up of the church, for others in the church and believers might have one or might have the other, and may not have some and may not have the other the fruit of the Spirit is not like that, correct.
Speaker 1:Right, it's not a breakfast buffet, it's not fruits of the Spirit. It's singular, the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So you're not picking and choosing these. I want some love, I want some joy. I don't want any patience.
Speaker 2:It's not that you don't have one guy in the church, that's the joyful guy. One guy in the church, that's the patient guy.
Speaker 1:These are all aspects of the Spirit that should be demonstrating themselves in the believer's life as an overflow of his walk or her walk with the Spirit.
Speaker 2:Okay, so really it is Christ's likeness, a description of Christ's likeness, because in the book of Acts. The Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, and so Christ's Spirit is seen and made visible as we abide in Christ, as we walk as Christ walked, as we plant our roots deep in God's word and prayer, and these should be visible evidences of God's work in and through our life. Fruit is born of fellowship with God, then.
Speaker 1:That's good, okay, yeah, and you mentioned Paul. In Galatians five. There's drawing a clear contrast to somebody who is walking in the flesh and if I remember right, his verses 19 through 21 describes if you're in the flesh, these are the deeds of the flesh, and it just gives a list and it's not a pretty list of the overflow of walking in the flesh. Then he contrasts that in verses 22 and 23 with the fruit of the spirit. This is the overflow of the spirit in somebody who is walking in the spirit. And he says in verse 24, therefore, if you have trusted in Christ, you have crucified the flesh and you now no longer live by the flesh, you live by the spirit. And if you live by the spirit, then you ought to walk by the spirit. So it is this contrast between what it looks like when we just live in the flesh and walk on our own abilities and our own humanness and our own fallen nature, versus allowing the spirit to control us, to have fellowship with him and let that fellowship overflow into the beneficial results.
Speaker 2:I see a little bit of a comparison with Romans chapter eight, verse two, where it says the law of the spirit of life has set you free, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death. Now he is talking about the law there of sin and death, even the Mosaic law that condemns us from Romans chapter seven. But he mentions this law of the spirit of life. The law there is like a rule, a ruling of God's spirit in your life. You are where you did have a sin-ruled life. Now you have a spirit-ruled life. So we live by the spirit, we walk by the spirit, we be led by the spirit. That being the case, these aren't individual attributes that we're trying to ascertain one at a time.
Speaker 2:I think that's really important. So when someone looks at the fruit of the Spirit, they're not to take them apart to say man, I just really need to be more joyous. I want to be more joyful. Where can I add joy in my life? Now, those aren't bad things, that's just not the point. So I'm going to wake up and I'm going to think about all the things I have to give God. You know, my happiness and joy, again, not bad things. There's probably scriptural precedent for that. But it might be better to go to a verse in scripture, like in the Psalms or in the Proverbs, where it says in your presence there is fullness of joy, right, and so let's pursue fellowship with the lord, abide in him. And what is produced from that? Pursuing christ, we are producing christ-likeness yeah, yeah, so you.
Speaker 1:So what you're saying is we don't pursue the individual aspects of the fruit love, patience, kindness we pursue christ and as we pursue christ, those things begin to develop in us and demonstrate out of us.
Speaker 2:Every person becomes like the person they follow. Right, you are like the person you spend the most time with. So if you want to be Christ-like, which is visible in these fruits, you spend time with Christ. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And scripture also teaches us that we are no longer to be slaves to the flesh. We're not slaves to that anymore. Now we become slaves to Christ, and so we are no longer serving the flesh, we're serving Christ. And so all of this speaks into this close walk with Christ, this close fellowship with him that allows the spirit to grow, to take control and then demonstrate the characteristics of God Christ-likeness in and through us.
Speaker 2:You ever heard that phrase? I mean, I'm going back to what I already said, but you ever heard that phrase you show me your friends and I'll show you your future.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe you're someone looking to date a guy and you don't know enough about him, or date a girl and you don't know enough about her. Look at the person, not that she presents herself or he presents himself to be in a moment, but look at the people they spend time around, right, because that's who they are probably most like or will become most like. And so, yeah, if you want to produce Christ-like characteristics, that is produced by pursuing him, by spending time with him, by meditating upon his life, his death, his ministry, his resurrection. You become most like those you spend the most time with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the phrase I used to use back in the dark ages when I was doing student ministry was you become like the friends you choose?
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:If you look or if you want to know what you're going to look like in the future. Just look at the friends you're choosing to hang out with. The people you're allowing to speak into your life. You're going to become like them. They're going to have that impact on you.
Speaker 2:This is somewhat of Paul's point.
Speaker 1:It is, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, yeah, okay. So what is the? Let's just answer this last little bit. So what's the net result of that? What's the benefits to the inner person and the outside world when fruit is produced in the life of a believer? They're producing holiness fit for heaven. God is shaping them Sure, sanctification. He's sanctifying us. Maybe a good answer here is we look most like Christ, spending time with Christ for a world that needs Christ.
Speaker 1:Right. We image God, and God's ultimate purpose in our lives is Christlikeness. Yeah, he's working to make us into the image of his son and so, yeah, this is the result of the fruit, as we become more like Christ. And the reason we become more like Christ while we're still here on earth is because then we can best represent God to a lost world, to a world that needs Christ.
Speaker 2:And isn't that not exactly the reason Christ made humans in his image, to image him everywhere, right, right.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Christ is the image of the invisible God, and so we image God in a world that needs him and has turned their back from him. When we pursue Christ-likeness and therefore produce Christ-likeness, pursue Christ and produce Christ-likeness, exactly, yeah. Any more words to say on this?
Speaker 1:Well, there's not to say that there isn't some benefit to having these fruit of the Spirit growing within us to have love and to understand what joy is and peace. Those are helpful for us. But it's also demonstrating love to others, demonstrating joy to others, having peace with others, having patience with others, which is just long-temperedness, or remaining under control, being kind, kindness, which is just actually having concern for other people. Goodness is just an upright life that looks out for others. Faithfulness, just a steadfast, constant, unwavering allegiance to that which is right, being gentle. I think meekness is another word, which meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control. What a better description of God is there than power under control? And then, of course, self-control, constraint. So all of these demonstrate the aspects of God that we benefit from having it in our lives, but we benefit also by having them so that we might be able to benefit others and demonstrate Christ.
Speaker 2:Two things I want to point out that I just think are helpful, maybe just putting some fences around some questions about the fruits of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit. I keep saying it wrong the fruit of the Spirit. The first is, when we look at the gifts of the Spirit, these are sovereignly distributed supernatural works by which God cares for his church. Through us, he gifts us uniquely to teach, to show hospitality, to serve to whatever it might be, but those are all unique from one another in the local church in the way that God wants to give them. Church in the way that God wants to give them.
Speaker 2:I say that for this reason, because there is a strain of theology that believes that speaking in tongues, for example, is the visible fruit by which we know we're believers, and I would say, actually, that's the fruit of the Spirit. How you know you have the Spirit of God is well, are you producing fruit of being with God? Right, so the visible evidence of salvation is not a particular gift, because they're all given and distributed differently. How God chooses, the visible evidence of having a relationship with Christ is the fruit of His Spirit. Yes, I think that's really important for people to hear. I think that's really important for people to hear.
Speaker 1:I think that's good.
Speaker 2:The second thing, just to put another kind of fence around some things, is the self-control, self-control being a fruit of the spirit. A lot of times when we think of the spirit's work in the life of a church, in the life of a believer, it's spontaneous, it's maybe even so far saying erratic, and yet it seems as if one of the key characteristics of God's spirit at work in the life of a believer is their ability to be controlled in the right way, to not be erratic, to think through and be of sound mind their actions, yeah if I remember right, the word self-control in the original language literally means in power or in control.
Speaker 2:It's sober-mindedness, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm not out of control, I'm under control. It's also interesting that you can find almost all the fruit of the Spirit displayed in the church in the New Testament, encouraged in the church in the New Testament, encouraged in the church in the New Testament, taught to the church in the New Testament, because this is how God demonstrates himself through the life of the church. So love, 1 Corinthians, chapter 13,. Joy, romans, chapter 15, patience, james, chapter James, chapter five. You know. So all of these we see over and over again in scripture uh goodness, matthew, chapter five. Um faithfulness, hebrews, chapter 11,. Uh, gentleness, matthew, chapter 21. So all of them are just repeatedly instructed in the church. Um, because I think we can, even though this is the fruit of the spirit, the outpouring of spirit in our lives, we can work on these aspects um life of the church and in our individual lives as we strive to demonstrate the characteristics of God.
Speaker 2:So let me say a theological phrase I think this would be true in one way is the communicable attributes of God meaning they are an example or an expression of God's character, who he is, he is gentle, he is self-controlled. And communicable meaning we also may have those attributes. Incommunicable would be attributes that we obviously can't have. We are not sovereign, we don't know all things, we are not all places at all times, but we can be loving as our God is loving, we can be patient as our God is patient, and so these are the attributes of time with the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's Becoming more like God. That's a fancy word, but it's a good word. Yeah, communicable, communicable, hey.
Speaker 2:Communicable, Communicable. Hey well, thanks for listening in. I don't think there's anything else to say here. I think this is one of our shortest episodes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think we need to beat that one to death. It's a good conversation, though, and yeah, so it was a good time.
Speaker 2:Well thanks.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's shorter because Kara's not here.
Speaker 2:That's probably it.
Speaker 1:I think that's it.
Speaker 2:She talks.
Speaker 1:So much.
Speaker 2:well enjoy the new house you too, enjoy the new state. I haven't bought one yet. I'm in the process, but you'll get there. I'll get there, but this isn't our last podcast. Before you move right, we'll have more are we going to podcast after I move?
Speaker 1:we'll have to figure it out, you're the podcast guru. Okay, well, it'll be fun if we can it would be nice great time.
Speaker 2:I said it. I did it wrong.
