Fruits VS. Gifts: What God Values Most

In our performance-driven culture, we often measure spiritual maturity by the wrong standards, focusing on supernatural demonstrations and ministry platforms rather than character development. This creates a dangerous spiritual condition where someone can be highly gifted yet spiritually immature. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 13, explaining that even extraordinary abilities like speaking in tongues, prophecy, supernatural knowledge, and mountain-moving faith amount to nothing without love.

The distinction between gifts and fruit is crucial for understanding God's value system. Spiritual gifts are abilities and supernatural enablements given instantly for serving others, while the fruit of the Spirit represents character transformation that grows gradually through time, trials, and surrender. The nine expressions of spiritual fruit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - form one complete package that reflects Christ-likeness in our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.

Jesus made it clear that fruit is God's identification system for His people. When eternity opens, God will not be reviewing your trophy case of achievements but examining the album of your character. The path to fruitfulness involves walking in the Spirit through daily obedience to God's Word and spending time in His presence. Just as proximity to parents shapes children, proximity to God produces transformation. The goal is not to strain for fruit but to yield to the Holy Spirit's transforming work, allowing Him to grow what we cannot produce in our own strength.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

It's our time. We must rise up and no longer disparage. It's our time, church, to honor our heritage. We have a savior. He gave it all on the cross. We stand beside martyrs who counted nothing as loss. They took God's mysteries, opened them up for us. Stephen, John the Baptist, Bonhoeffer, Jan Huss. Surrounded by a cloud of witnesses above, it's now our turn to model his unending love. Our mission is one we cannot confuse, nor muddy up with some trite excuse. You say you're not well versed, ready, or able. I think Moses even tried to use that fable. The time we have, it's now more urgent. If we should hear, well done, faithful servant. Yeah, church. It's our time. It's our time to confess the ways we're mangled, the sins and selfishness that have us entangled. Lust, greed, and pride, their path leads to the grave. Yet we return to our sins as if we're a slave. Can we survive in this putrid dead sea? I quote Paul, may it never be. So let's cast aside our individual leprosy and begin to leave a biblical legacy. There's a glorious prize awaiting to be won, and the way to win is to start to run. Let's lace them up and fight the good fight. We come to the world both salt and light. Our life on earth is merely a vapor. Our chapter must move from pen to paper. So, church, let's get to writing because it's our time. It's our time, church. We have what it takes to help the world from its slumber awake. To Jesus, we are his beautiful bride. Whom shall we fear with him on our side? We have each other, we are not alone. It's iron to iron in the combat zone. There's a promise of life full of adventure. As long as we give both talents and treasure. The workers are few, the harvest is plenty, with so many lives running on empty. Scores of people trying to cope. They've come to the end of their proverbial rope. Young eyes are wandering, looking for direction. Make sure we point them to his resurrection. The clock's ticking, we're on our dime. Hey church, rise up. It's our time.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

So I want to begin today with an illustration. Simple illustration. I call this the tale of two families. Now, imagine Dr. Gogo's family back there, and Apostle Tony's family back here. And uh the two families have living rooms. And you go to the first family, and they are family that perhaps Tony's family, they they believe in sports, so they invest a lot of time in sports, and all their kids are in doing sports in school. So you go to the beautiful home and you look at their living room, and there is a room in their house that is dedicated for one thing. They have trophies, Tony, everywhere. Your kids are doing well. They do uh I was telling Eliana the other day she should play volleyball. And so she wins all these trophies, and you have all these trophies in your home, and you have all these uh so you have a case full of trophies, you have all these placards, you have ribbons, you know, accolades for everything that they have achieved. And then we take a look at the second family, and you you go into their house and you enter their living room, and it's a very simple shelf. And on the shelf, they have, and can you please put up image one for me, please? On the shelf, they have uh uh holding uh photo albums everywhere. So you have two you have this parallel images on the screen. Family number one have all these beautiful trophies in your, you know, everywhere, the accolades and the ribbons and all that. Fabulous number two, simple shelf. Okay. But on these photo albums, the years and years of faithfulness, years and years of kindness that demonstrated to us people, years of movements of love and sacrifice throughout the years that they've had. Now I want you to pause for a minute and ask yourself this important question. Watch this now. Which room tells the story of a life God will celebrate? Is it a room that has a lot of trophies? Or is it the room that has a shelf with photo albums with live again of faithfulness, of kindness, of you know, move moments of love and sacrifices throughout the whole year? The trophies here represent what you did. So when you walk in your room and you look at your shelf full of all these uh accolades and placards and trophies and everything else, it's a representation of what you have done. But when we take a look at the other room, it's a representation of who they were. Because the years of faithfulness, the years of love, demonstration of love, the years they've done these things tells a story of who they were. Okay? Now I want you to write this down. It might be in your notes, I'm not sure, but uh spaces in your notes so you can write this down. This is an important statement. When eternity opens and you stand before God, he will not be reviewing your trophy case, he will be examining the album of your character. So we've just closed our march, and in the month of March, we were putting down roots in God's word. We learned that a tree only produces what it was rooted to receive. In other words, wherever you plant a tree, the output, the fruit that comes from the tree, is a determination of the soil where the tree was planted. Amen. One of the things that we learned in March was that the word of God, which is the seed in uh Matthew 13, it's incorruptible. So the problem here, it's never the seed, the determining factor, the variable in our lives, it always has to do with the soil in which the seed was planted. Okay, so in April, we come, we are up in April, and God is telling us here it's time to bear fruits. Now, if you've taken a look systematically, we've been kind of building up to this point from January, the things we need to do to be fruitful. Now we're in a place in our series of the year that God is expecting us to bear fruit. But this is not just any fruit, the fruit that comes from the inside out, the fruit that cannot be manufactured. So this is not a fruit that you put up off and on. This is something that it's with you. It's something that comes from the inside out, the fruit that makes marks the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. So there's a question here. Now watch this. Let me ask you this question. And the question I'm about to ask you has to every believer needs to kind of pause and take track and really take take a deep look at himself. Simple question though. Can a person be gifted and not yet fruitful? Why do you say yes? It's absolutely possible that a person can be gifted, but not be fruitful. Well, for those of you who said yes, you're correct. But here's a statement I add to this: it is the most dangerous spiritual condition a church-going, bible-carrying, thanks speaking Christian can ever find themselves in. Now, Zah, can you put up image number two for me, please? This month, now last week we had to take a detour and celebrate Eastern um the crucifixion, the resurrection, and everything else. So we're a week behind our scheduled teaching for this year. But this month, our focus is really on the fruit of the spirit, and we are going to deal with that danger, that danger of being, you know, gifted but not fruitful. We are going to build a life that God does not simply use, but a life that God is genuinely pleased with. You know, it will help us if we can wake up in the morning and take a look at our lives and say, is God really pleased with my life? And it's not what we say. It is, it's it's this life is more about what we do, not what we say. Does it make sense? So our theme question for the entire month of April is this what does God value more? Does God value gifts? Or does it value fruit? Another question is it what you do or who you are, that means the most to God. Before we go any further, let us understand the distinction. There is clearly a distinction. Can you put an image down, please, as well? There's clearly a distinction between the two. Now come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I'll read from verse 1 to 3. Now, most of the time, this verse is referred to in wordings, you know, when someone is preaching about love, this is what we go to. But today I'm gonna use the same uh text, but take a little different approach from this. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 1 to 3. Paul says, Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but have not loved, I have become a sounding brass or clinging symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be bent but not love, it profits me nothing. This passage honestly should terrify every single person who is listening to me here online. Anyone who actually is excited about our giftings, then our growing. So as a Christian, if your focus is not about growth and your focus is about the gifts that you have, you can prophesy, you can preach, you can scream, you can shout, you put up these, you know, things that people see and they think, oh, this person is matured. If your focus is no growth, they should terrify you. You know why? Because in this context, in this text that we read, Paul has listed some extraordinary spiritual abilities of a human being possesses. Paul is talking about having the gift of tongues. Now, the gift of tongues is not what I was doing here. No, no, no, no, no. You want to go back to the beginning of the church, on the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit came first, and Peter and the core went out and they began to speak, they say the account says in Acts in different tongues. And the Bible was very clear. It said everybody had them speak in a language that they were familiar with. And so when we talk about the gift of tongues that Paul is talking about, he's talking about speaking in other people's language. There's a story that I heard once. There was this gentleman flying from Ghana, Africa, to um, there was going somewhere in the Middle East, this prophet. And uh he was sitting in the first class, and this um uh what do they call it, Imam or whatever they call it, came and sat next to him. The person didn't speak a word of English, he only spoke in Arabic. And so this prophet apparently had this conversation with this gentleman for about six hours, and this guy was speaking in Arabic, it has never spoken Arabi before. And before the plane was landing, the Imam told the prophet to pray for him because he had received Jesus Christ. This guy was communicating in Arabic, he has never spoken Arabic before. This is the gift of tongues. When you speak in other people's language, that you don't even know what you were saying. And so Paul says that we have the ability to do this. He says that you have the gift of prophecy, that you can prophesy, man. You can just tell what God is about to do. You can somebody can go into your family and go back 10, 20, 30, 40 years, 100 years and tell you things that were happening in the family, and then bring it back in the present and tell you what God is about to do for you. Prophecy. It talks about knowledge, it talks about mountain-moving faith, it talks about radical generosity. And it says, even up to the point of martyrdom, in other words, it says that even if you give your body up to be bent, now listen to me carefully, and he says that without the fruit of love, all is noise. So we have all these important things that we do that are so important to us. The way we look, the way we talk, the way we speak, the way we put on this thing that people might think, and we those the things that we have vested in. And Paul says that you do all these things, and the very foundation of the human walk, the fruit of love. And by the way, he's talking about the fruit of the spirit here. And when we talk about fruits, most of you might get it wrong, but today we're gonna kind of dig into that for you to understand. He says, if you if the the motivation, if your foundation of doing those things, it's not triggered by God in love, he says it's all noise. All of it is nothing to put in street language, all will profit no one. So, you know, you remember that Jesus was something interesting happened once, and uh I think Jesus told his disciples about someone who was showing off with the offering, you know, just and he said he said something that they have no reward in heaven. You remember that? So, in other words, when the Paul says that it profits nothing, it means that physically people will worship you, people will admire you, people will say how awesome you are, but what you are doing has no spiritual significance before God that should terrify you. Let me be precise in understanding. What is the difference between gifts and fruit? Simply, gifts is what you can do. It's an it's something that God has enabled you to do. Well, we're gonna talk about that. You see, spiritual gifts are abilities, they are talents, and supernatural enablements that God distributes to believers for the purpose, according to Paul, of serving the body of Christ. Okay, and so God will give you these gifts, and the reason why it's been given, it's so that you will extend it to the body of Christ and serve. Now, the reason for spiritual gifts is that they are given now. Watch this is so critical, you gotta understand this. Most of us think that if somebody has the gift of prophecy, most of the time we think that that person is perpetually living in that gift. And so everything that the person says, we take it as being truth. No. Gifts, the difference between gifts and fruits I'm going about to teach you, they are they are given in moments. In other words, it is only like a window in a specific time that God releases that gift to do something specific. And when that gift is released, you receive it. And watch this now. There are tools in the hands of God to accomplish his work through you in a particular time. And so you have the gift, but it doesn't mean that perpetually you walk in a gift, and this is a deception. And people think that because you have the gift and you can demonstrate it, you have the gift of faith, you have the gift of prophecy, you have that every time you perpetually live in that, you don't. It's in a moment of time. It's accordingly, you see, the Holy Spirit distributes that gift and gives you that gift when it's relevant for the extension to help somebody out or to establish God's kingdom in somebody's life in a particular moment. This is where humility comes in as a child of God. You gotta understand that you are being particularly being extended something to use, not for to make you the big star, but that God receives the glory because the person who actually you extended that gift to is the one that it's on God's mind. You know, you're gonna understand me. So gifts, they are powerful, they are necessary, okay? And you know what? They are real. But watch this now. If you are measuring somebody's maturity because of the gifts, you've just missed it. That was the question. You can be gifted, but not fruitful. There is no, you cannot measure someone's ability to project a gift as be matured in the things of God. Fruits, where however, it's who you are, you can manufacture fruit. You know, people manufactur manufacture gifts these days. You can manufacture fruit. The fruit of the spirit is not about what you can do, it's about who you are becoming. Okay, so what is the fruit of the spirit? Watch this now. It is the visible, or you need to hear me. It is the visible evidence. It's not the word, it's not prophecy. We think that when somebody begins to demonstrate gifts, we think that that person we equit that with anointing. Do you know what true anointing is? It's the evidence of the Holy Spirit transforming work on the inside of your life. And so when Paul says that, but the gift of the Spirit is these things, when you exhibit these fruits, excuse me, in Galatians, exhibit the fruits, these fruits are literal evidence that God is our work in your life. Does that make sense? What are these? It is your character. You're not hearing me. It is your nature. It is the Christ-likeness bleeding out of you when life squeezes you the hardest. How do you know that you are growing when you are in a situation, when things are hard, when they say in street language, when a rubber hits the road, when you have to make a choice and a decision? And the first thing that comes to mind is what God has said about that situation. You know that you are growing. When you are fully submitted to what God said. That is fruit at work. No, there are five critical distinctions. Watch this now. You have to understand this. Gifts are given instantly. But fruit grows gradually. It grows through time, through trials, through surrender. You cannot anticipate fruit when you have not been tested. It's a gradual process. It's it's it's it's about time, it's your trials that you go through, it's about your surrender to God. Watch this number two gifts are for service, fruits are for sonship, you're not hearing me. It reflects who your daddy is. You know, most of the time when our kids misbehave, the first thing that comes to mind, I wonder who their parents are. Because your fruit is a reflection of who your father is. But my gift is just to serve you. Gifts can operate without character, which is dangerous. But fruit requires genuine transformation from within, and so if you have fruit, it tells me that you have been at this for a very long time, and it tells me that you are being transformed, and the transformation comes from within. Gifts impress people. I'm telling you, man, we all want the supernatural. Tony, yesterday, I saw two rats under your bed, and they were having a comment. You will be impressed. You know, there are these prophets in Africa who can call you and tell ladies they the color of the underwear, and people are impressed by this foolishness, impressed by the stupidity. But let me tell you this: this is the contrast. Fruits please God. Heaven responds to character, not performance. And this is why Apostle Paul says that if you can prophesy, if you can do all these things, and the foundation of it is on the fruit of love, you just you just gifts are distributed. This is critical. Watch this now. Gifts are distributed diversely. In other words, it's not every single person have every single gift. Okay. People, some people have certain gifts, others don't. Some people, but remember this. But the contrast is this fruit is expected universally. In other words, God wants every single believer to bear fruit. So, inasmuch as gifts are just given for service, and certain people have it and others, people don't. There's one thing that's universal, one thing that heaven expects from every single member and the son of my voice. God wants you to demonstrate fruit. Say amen to that. Now, watch this now. Let's go to Matthew chapter 7, verse 16. And I jump on to verse 20. So 16 says this, and this is from the mouth of Messiah. You will know them by their fruit. He never said you know them by their gifts. You will know them by fruit. He says, Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Verse 20 says, Therefore, by their fruit, you're not listening to me. He said, God says that if you want to know that I call somebody, if you want to know that my spirit is upon somebody, if you know want to know that somebody is doing what I've asked him to do, don't look at what they are they are saying, look at what they are doing. God says that by their fruit, the only measure that you have to determine whether somebody, oh you're not hearing me, it's the fruit that they're putting up, it's not the gifts that they have. Write this down. Fruit is God's identification system. This is how heaven reads your life. Heaven doesn't read your life because you are you you are you are a prophet, you're prophet, you're not hearing me. Heaven doesn't rule your life because you can preach and scream, and people are no, no, no, no. Heaven reads your life based upon the fruit you're putting forward. This is how the watching world identifies whether you are real, you are the real thing. Have you noticed that when we have on uh what's it called, friends that are somewhat in between faith, they are not just fooling, and they are watching your life, and you say or do something, you see the first thing they tell you, I thought you were Christian. Why are they saying that? Because even them, they expect a certain fruit from you. You see, you are as quick-tempered as I am, and I'm not a believer, you are. I expect you to be like Jesus, right? Because the Jesus we know in the Bible is somebody who's very patient. And so if I am not walking in that patient, the world will tell me, I thought you were Christian. So even the world identifies you whether you're following a journey, believer or not, buy your fruit. Let me see, let me give another illustration. Let's say you are walking in a farm's market, and you go, you you come to Dr. Gogo's Dr. Gogo, you're on a blast today, man. You come to Bishop Gogo's table, and Bishop Gogo has two beautiful apples sitting on the table. Can you put an illustration too for me, please? The first one is large, it's polished, perfect, red. That kind that wins a blue ribbon at every country fair. So you bite into it, and what do you find? The core is brown, soft, riddled with decay. The second apple is modest looking. Look at it, no big deal. In color. You bite into it, and it's the sweetest thing you've ever tasted. It's firm, it's healthy throughout and throughout. Let me ask this honest question. What apple is the farmer proud of? The one that was shiny on the outside and rotten inside, or the one that was modest on the outside but sweet inside. Which one is it? Now let me add this to it. God is not impressed by the shine on your outside ministry or life. He goes straight to the core. So the shine that people see, the shine that impresses people, the shine that people always comment, oh, this man knows scripture and knows how to pray. You know, there are people, woe to you if you give them the microphone, the way they're gonna pray, huh? But then we hope that what they are praying is something that they are living. The core, it's as healthy as the outside. Now, this has been the demise of many leaders. This is why some great leaders are falling. You see, they invest heavily in their platforms and almost nothing in the character. They they they they hone in on their preaching, but never deal with their pride. They move in the supernatural, but never submitted to the relational. They operate in gifts while starving the fruit and the event and eventuality, the inside rods becomes publicly visible. Have you wondered? There are so many times you hear certain things from certain preachers thinking, man, that guy. Do you know why when God calls someone, God doesn't just give the person a microphone, He gives you the opportunity to fix those rotten core things. Because every single person, every single human being has something that he's carrying. And God gives you that time. And the way that it's fixed is always in his presence, always through the spirit of humility, always to make sure that his word is final authority. He takes you through that process because he knows, you know, there's something that the force of darkness do very well. Man, they have they they have a record on every human missing here. And the record goes back generations. You see, in here, you're 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and you know, you probably can go back as far as maybe your grandma or your grandfather. The force of darkness go back four, five hundred years. They know what makes your great, great, great grandfather take the things they did that you don't know. And so when they're coming after you, they're not coming after you with what you are now, they're coming after you with them, because there's something called generations. Go mean Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 to 23, please. But say, Paul says, but the fruit of the spirit. I love this. It's love, joy, peace, long-suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And it ends with this. It says, Against such there is no law. It's interesting, right? Paul didn't say the fruits of the spirit, did he? He said the fruit of the spirit. Singular. This is interesting. Most of the time when we have men or men's meetings or women's meetings, at the same time that we, you know, we provide food, and you go on the uh fruit uh palette, you have different types of fruit, right? You have bananas, you have you know oranges, you have uh the berries and um whatever, watermelons and everything else. And so what you do is that you pick up the ones you want. So I want berries today, I don't want watermelon. So it's like a buffet. What Paul is saying here is not a buffet where you pick up your favorite. Uh I like gentleness, I like self-control, but I don't like the law. So you no, no, no, no. You see, this year it's one complete package. Somebody say amen to that. Imagine that you have a cluster of graves, and on that one cluster, you have nine different aspects, nine different variations on that cluster, right? So there's one cluster, but nine expressions of a single supernatural life growing inside of you. So the cluster is just the the fruit, all right. Boggles, the fruit is just one, but there are nine variations of that fruit. In other words, the expression of that fruit is nine different variations, okay? And these nine, so it's interesting. If you go, if you take a look at the the sequence, you go, it starts with the fruit of the spiritual love, right? Then he ends with something. You see, I keep saying that when you read the Bible, pay particular attention to the way the Holy Spirit arranges things, because it's not just place there, okay? It's just what we are looking at, it's nine qualities, not random, they are organized in three intentional threads, each addressing a different dimension of relationship. And so the sequence of it is such that the the God has broken into three different compartments, right? And so each each thread has three unique things in it, and it deals with three different things. Now, in your notes, we begin with what we call God word fruit, which is the first three: the love, joy, and peace. Okay, this comes, the first three flows from relationship with God Himself. You see, love is a foundation, not an emotion. But the very nature of God that has been deposited in us, you make reference to 1 John 4 8. He says, He who does not love, not who does not who he who does not love does not know God for God is love, right? So he begins with the very the foundation that you see. This is so critical. The foundation of the fruit, it's the love of God that has been deposited in us, okay. Then he moves to joy and peace. So these three things are just it's it's something that you cannot, you have to receive them, okay? And it comes from God directly to a believer. You see, joy is not happiness dependent on circumstances and situations, right? It is the deep, settling delight that comes from knowing God, sourced in his presence. So when we talk about Nehemiah 8.10, talks about the joy of the Lord is our strength. When Nehemiah was telling them, and I don't have time to read the whole verse, is that listen, this joy is not something that you manufacture, it's not propagated, it's not based upon circumstances and situations. Joy is only realized from the presence of God, and it's a spiritual force. Okay, and so the more we spend time with him, you're not hearing me, the more we connect with him, the more there is something transferred from him to us. And that thing is such a spiritual force that it comes and it's it just solidifies you so much so that circumstances and situations don't move you. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Most of us think that because there's conflict, there is no peace. No, peace is not the absence of conflict, it is a supernatural rest that uh uh what's called passes understanding. Uh, what's called Philippians puts it, it's a tranquility of the soul that has that you know that has it's been recognized reconciled to God, and so it's not because there is a friction between you and someone doesn't mean that you're not experiencing a life of peace. True peace that comes from God is this tranquility of your soul, your soul is so set in God that you are reconciled to Him, that nothing moves you. And so Philippians 4 7 says something, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guide your heart. Peace, it's just peace is not because I fought with my wife this morning, so I have no peace. No, I didn't fight with her, by the way. Don't make up things, it's it's not that, but even after the disagreement and the argument, I still reserve the right because God has given me that tranquility in his presence that my soul is at rest with him. In other words, my soul has made peace with him. That is peace now. Before you can give any of these to others, you must first receive them from above. Does that make sense? You have to receive them. You know, you can only give to people what you have. I can only teach you what I know. You cannot give peace to someone that you you if you don't have it, you literally you're gonna bounce a check, right? You're gonna bounce the check of peace. Praise God. Now the second thread, it's man ward fruit, long suffering, kindness, and goodness. These three govern how you treat people, especially. Oh, let me shout this difficult people. So it says long suffering, kindness, and gentlemen. Now, watch this now. What is long suffering? It is patience, endurance, and uh provocation. I need work on that one, man. It does not long suffering means that you don't retaliate, it does not explode it best. That one I confess, I'm still working on that one. What is kindness? Kindness is active, tender, goodwill towards others, even when they don't deserve it. What is goodness? It is a moral excellence in action, it is not passive, it seeks to do right and promotes the welfare of others. You're gonna clear understanding of these fruit now, are you? So these fruits prove whether your faith has been moved from your head to your hands. Most of us they are up here, but they are not being expressed towards people. But we love Jesus, we speak in tongues, but the nature of him is just head knowledge because the people around us are not experiencing long suffering, the people around us are not experiencing these things that we're talking about here. How many of you be honest? How many people really are you extending kindness to people? Are people around you experiencing the goodness of God in you? But you know it because it's up here. See that what we are trying to do is that you gotta understand the importance, the relevance of expressing this. Does it make sense? Thread number three self-water fruit, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These three govern the relationship with artists. Faithfulness is I don't want to get myself into trouble. That's why I pause. When they say a man's word is what is bad, just in case you didn't know, God expects you to be faithful. Because the Bible says a faithful is he that calls, he himself is faithful, and he will do it. And part of the fruit that God has placed in you is for you to be fruitful, that you say what you mean. You don't say one thing, you have two different three different mouths. One here says this, one here, one here. Why? He says, Gentleness is not weakness. This is so important. Gentleness, if someone is gentle, doesn't mean that person is weak. It means a strength under control, power restrained by humility. The the person knows whom you have submitted to, that's why he's gentle, he's not a fool. Now the difficult one, self-control. What is self-control? And again, this is one fruit, it's not a buffet, you know, pick them out of that. What is self-control? It is the capacity. Oh, listen to me carefully. The capa I feel up, I feel like let step up a lip. It is the capacity, the capacity to govern your own desires. Some of us we love God, man. We've been in this Christian something for a very long time. But we lack self-control because we don't govern, we're not able to govern the desires that we have. Your appetites, your impulse, rather than being governed by them, you govern those things. And I know that most of us like to refer to Paul, says the things I don't want to do is the things I'm doing. No, read that that verse in context. He says, Yes, this is happening, but I have something. I have an ace. Somebody says I have an ace, I have the Holy Ghost, and because I have the Holy Ghost, because I have the nature of God in me, here we go with the fruits of the Spirit, I'm able to exercise self-control. I'm able to say no. And then Paul added a statement. This is so critical. The end of the verse 23 says, Against such there is no law. Listen to this. There is no court in heaven on earth that can legislate against a person who is full of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These qualities are beyond persecution. That is why Paul says, no law against such. Anybody who is a woman is nature and character, the fruit of the spirit, is beyond what's it called? Persecution. They are beyond reproach. They are the only resume that heaven recognizes. You know they are sudden kids. And when you see them immediately you know that. That this one is daddy. Or that this one is mommy. You probably look at them and say they have their father's nose. Put that image three for me, please, Azaia. Or she has a mother smile. They are the bare resemblance of their parents, right? They did not try to inherit those futures. They simply grew up in relation with their parents, and the family resemblance appeared naturally. It's called genetics, man. You look like a mama, you look like a daddy. You know, you smile, you pick up behaviors from your parents. You didn't petition heaven that you wanted to be like them, you just grew into them, right? This is exactly what happens when we abide in Christ. We begin to look like our daddy, not by effort, not by performance, but by proximity. Just because you bear the family DNA, just because you came from him, the father of light, as you abide in him, you become just like him. You know, an example I have is remember when Moses went up to the the what's it called, Sinai together commandments, and he came back and he couldn't look at his face. Imagine me sitting down with Tony, and I decide I'm gonna go and spend 40 days in heaven, and I come back, and you guys can't look at my face. I need to put a veil in my face. Why? Because the light that was on his daddy was reflected on him, you know, hearing me. You want to be like your daddy, spend time with him, and whatever he has will reflect on you. The fruit does not strain to appear, it simply grows where the spirit is present and in charge. So, in other words, what Jesus, what Paul said in Matthew 5, uh Galatians 5, 22, by the fruit of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is in charge of your life, the fruits will appear. You don't need to come on the altar and kneel down and fast for 50 days, that God should give you long suffering. If you abide in Him, it's a natural thing. Long suffering is going to come out. Now, watch this. This is the litmus test of genuine spiritual maturity. It's not how loud you can pray, it's not how long your ministry resumes, it's not how many Sunday services you attend like me. Nobody attends more services like me. You know, Dr. Gogo is trying to catch me up, but you know, he travels, so he loses kappa. It's not how many Sunday services you attend. This is the question. Are you beginning to look like Jesus in the moment nobody's watching you? When you're in traffic, when you're home, when you have a choice is to look at watch something on Netflix, when you have a conversation with your friends, when no church member or your friends in the circle of influence around you, the most important question you need to ask yourself today: are you beginning to look like Jesus? Galatians 5 25 says something. If we live in the spirit, you're not hearing me as I take the image now. Let us also walk in the spirit. Now I know there's probably a misunderstanding of what it means to live in the spirit. To live in the spirit is positional. It speaks of salvation, of regeneration, of being made alive to God. Okay? So to live in the spirit is simply a position that you've received from heaven. But to walk in the spirit is something that's practical. It is daily, it's deliberate, step by step, aligned with the Holy Spirit leadings. And so Paul says, if we live in the spirit, let's walk in the spirit. Walk in the spirit is not something that you can just draw from your salvation that you receive. It's something that's deliberate to be obedient, you know, hearing me, to God's voice and God's word every single day. That's how you walk in the spirit. And so you receive the position of truth from God. He's done all the great things for you. Now it's a deliberate action to walk in him. Now, watch this now. You can be born of the spirit and still not walk in the spirit. You know that. Speaking in tongues, that's what mean you're walking in the spirit. Somebody who walks in the spirit is somebody alive that is totally obedient and submitted to God and his word. That's somebody walking in the spirit. So you are born of the spirit, but you cannot be walking. Some of you think that walking in the spirit is that you're always cut up in visions, like Paul in Alan of Patmos. No. So your daily, daily choices and decisions you make, your mindset concerning what God has said about a particular situation. How well are you willing to submit your entire life to his word? Is God's word of an authority? That is living in the spirit, people. You can have the spirit in you without spirit flowing through you. Spirit flowing through is not speaking in tongues. Again, it's how well the fruit of the spirit is being exhibited in your life. When you are pressed, when you are pushed, do you sound what how do you do? How do you do it? Do you do you do you become like Jesus, like telling the other chick? Or the whole playful will hear of you? Let me give you three diagnostic questions. These are not comfortable, but they are necessary. Time is nearly up. What are you concerned about? Are you concerned about preaching the gifts or developing character? When you see somebody prophesying, somebody moving the gift of the spirit, are you attracted to that? Are you concerned, really, about the gifts or are you got concerned it's about becoming Jesus, the character of Jesus? Can you imagine Augustine standing in front of Pilate? And Augustine has having such power. Everything the Bible says everything that was made was made through Jesus. In him consists everything. Imagine it's me. And Pontius Pilate asked me a foolish question. Only heaven knows what I'll do to Pilate. Because I have the power to do it. The man kept his mouth shut. That is self-control. What are you most attracted to? Gifts or character? Do you excuse character flaws in yourself because of ministry effectiveness? You are in ministry. You know that your life is not appealing. Your life is not good. And then God is still using you. And so do you make excuses that because you are effective in ministry, that your character is okay? Now this is this one is this this one every okay. When people who live with you or work with you are going to describe you, are they going to say that uh are they going to be described by your fruit or by your gift? That one I had to think about it very, very carefully last night. The people around me, if somebody called you or somebody asked of you, India, and somebody probably your name was said in person, and the person was going to describe you. How are they going to describe you? The gifts that you have or the fruit that you exhibit? Which one is it? I don't think we're gonna finish this today. When you take a look at Matthew 7, 22, 23, some of the most terrifying words that Jesus ever spoke. He described men and women who stood before him on the last day, claiming they had prophetic ministries, they are supernatural work, they had mighty deeds. And Jesus looked at them and said something in them. Matthew 7, 22, 23. He says, Many will say to me in that last day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you practice lawlessness. You know what is interesting? Notice that Jesus never challenged the work they did. He never said, get out of me, you didn't prophesy. No, he never didn't say that you know you didn't do miracles in my name. He never challenged it. That means that he admitted they did it in his name. He challenged something though. He challenged the absence of relationship. I never knew you. Gifts had operated, but character had not grown. Most of us are attracted to the gift. When what heaven is asking for is both, but if you had to choose, he would choose fruit of a gift. Because you know what fruit does, fruit sustains you, you're not hearing me. It sustains you because anybody who's operating in fruit, it shows something that you are submitted to God. Because without your submission to God, you can't operate in fruit. And if you are submitted to God, that means that Satan can get to you. You're not hearing me. All the success people have in ministry have not produced spiritual maturity. The gifts were real, but the intimacy was absent. And at the end, the gifts could not save them. Ministry success is not the same as spiritual maturity. An audience is not the same as intimacy with God. We could have come here to the place could have been filled. Everywhere. To the rafters. And walk in here with all the demonstrations. And people from outside will look at the people inside and think, this ministry is successful. Man. If the only thing that you are looking at, it's what is happening in this in the physical. And you don't have a clue what the person standing in his actual nature is before God. Whether that person is submitted, whether that person demonstrated the fruit, but the only thing you see is crowd and your judgment is a good church. Okay. Audience is not the same as intimacy with God. Just because they are these days, they are uh gloria calls them. I was joking this morning. Consultants. Consultants are the ones building the church.

unknown 55:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Okay, yes. They study the human behavior, they tell the pastors what to do, how to attract people, how to keep people. So instead of teaching for an hour, I'll teach for 20-25 minutes because you want to go home and go to Chick fil A. And I'm going to give you that. You live here with nothing that you came in, the same problems you came in with no clarity, no understanding of anything else. But the church was great. A platform is not the same as a pure heart. But here is the glory of what God intends. When a gifted believer who also walks in the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, that ministry becomes sustainable, the witness becomes credible, the impact becomes lasting, and God's pleasure rests on the life like a canopy. Think of a leader who is powerful, powerfully gifted, and deeply kind, powerfully anointed and quietly humble, greatly used and consistently in fruitfulness in private. This combination does not move people, it transforms them. This is the life God is building in you this April. Let's go to illustration four quickly. Now, this story, let's share this story, let's pray. Our time is fast up. So this is a well-known story in ministry cycles of two, I call it a tale of two pastors, who started their journey together with the same giftings, the same platform. One of them changed the spotlight, cut corners, relate relationally, and excused his harshness as prophetic age. I know somebody just like this. Very harsh. Say things that nobody else dare to say. Treat people anyhow. I hear pastors who come to church and they're so angry with their congregation, they tell people, if you don't like it, don't come back. And they use, they hide behind the gift of prophecy. Now, 20 years later, his ministry is impacted, not from a lack of giftings, but from the what's called uh uh the deficiency of character. Now, the second pastor quietly, unless celebrated in early years, pours into his life, life of prayer, apologize really, loves his family faithfully and serves without recognition. Twenty years later, his influence was generational, his integrity was impeccable, and the fruit was still on the branches. Gifts, listen to this, can get you a platform, only fruit will keep it. Take the thing down, please, Hosea. Gifts is gonna get you a platform, but if you don't have the fruit, this April we are going to study a list of virtues. We are gonna answer a divine summons. God is calling this church, calling every person in this room to stop settling for gifted lives and start pursuing fruitful lives. He wants both, but if there must be a priority, he has told us already the fruit comes first. What grows from the inside always transforms the outside. You're not hearing me. Whatever is inside will always transform what is outside. You cannot manufacture genuine love, you cannot fake lasting peace, you cannot perform authentic uh gentleness over time. These things grow, they grow in the soil of surrender, they grow in the climate of spirit, they grow in the garden of love, life that has been decided, that has decided that Christ Jesus is Lord of their lives. In other words, in every compartment of your life, you have surrendered every aspect of your life to Christ. And you've told him that he is the Lord of every area of your lives. And that is how fruits are going to grow. So let's discuss an action plan for next Sunday. And as somewhere in the notes, your your handouts, I've got this thing there. Honestly assess your life across all nine fruits of the spirit. Give yourself a scope from one to ten for each. Then identify the area where you are weakest, not to condemn yourself, but to pray specifically surrounding intentionally, and watch God grow exactly what is needed in that place. Now watch this. Now, what you cannot produce in your own strength, the Holy Spirit will grow it for you as you yield to Him. This is His job. His job is your job is to simply abide, to surrender, and to walk in the Spirit day by day. So in the coming weeks, we're going to take a deeper look into the dimensions of the spirit of the fruit. But let's this second Sunday be the time that you decide I will no longer be satisfied with the gifted life that is not fruitful life. I will not stand before God with a trophy case and an empty album. I want to look like my father. Now watch this now. The fruit of the spirit is not what you do for God. So many of us think that we do things in the house of the Lord, we take care of things. So God is so pleased with us. That's not fruit. The fruit of the spirit is what you allow God to do through you. Did you understand that? It's not what you are doing, it's what God is doing through you. Because a fruit is something that's inside and needs to come out. You don't put on these things.