Episode 7- The Fruit of the Spirit

Hello and welcome to week 7! This week, we have a handful of readings from all throughout scripture to dive into how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all play a part in developing the fruit of the Spirit within us. We will be reading from John 15:1-17, Romans 11:11-24, Hebrews 12:7 & 11, Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 7:24-27, and Psalm 92:12-15 NIV. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to the Full Armor of God podcast. My name is Taylor. I am so excited to host you for episode seven. Thank you for coming back for another week of the Lord's Wisdom. It is so good to be here. It is so good to be in the Lord's Word. I'm so excited about today's message. Today we're talking about the fruit of the spirit and how those fruits are produced and how we can go about bearing those fruit. If you have not yet heard about the fruit of the spirit and don't know what they are, the explanation and the definition of that comes from Galatians chapter 5, verse 22. Paul writes, The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. One thing I want to point out right off the bat is that all of these fruits of the spirit love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control, these are things that our world does its best to manufacture and sell to us in a means of this for that. If I just made this much money, I would have peace. If I was just with this person, maybe I would have this kind of love. And all of the things that the world promises us are fleeting and often empty, and they are not lasting. The joy doesn't last, the peace doesn't last, the patience doesn't last. You name it. If the world gives it, it's empty. But the Lord doesn't give as the world gives. And the fruit of the spirit are not of this world, they are of the spirit. And that's the beauty of it is that we were never designed to manufacture these fruit on our own. We weren't meant to do it by ourselves. We were meant to not even produce the fruit. We were meant to bear the fruit. We don't make them grow, only the Lord does. And it grows when we are connected to him. So today, our main reading is from John chapter 15, verses 1 through 17. This is like a large chunk of the chapter, but we're not going to read the whole thing. We're just going to kind of jump around and get the gist of this. I definitely encourage you to read John chapter 15, verses 1 through 17, the whole thing all together, but we're going to kind of piece it together and break it down today. We are also going to be reading from Romans chapter 11. We're going to kind of take a few chunks from verses 11 through 24. So again, another really great section to read and get the full picture, but we're going to kind of take a gist from this section today. And then we have some supporting verses from Matthew chapter 7 and from Psalm 92. So we're going to dive right in. We're starting in John chapter 15, those verses 1 through 17, because everything that we're talking about today stems from this. That was a pun. The vine and the branches, John chapter 15, Jesus' words, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. In verse 4, he says, Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. In verse 9, it says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this love each other as I have loved you. And then in verse 16, he says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. This is my command, love each other. Jesus is talking a lot about fruit in this section, the fruit of the Spirit. And like he says, we cannot bear fruit by ourselves. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It has to stay connected to the vine. And Jesus says, I am the true vine. In Romans chapter 11, verses 11 through 24, Paul is talking about Jesus being the vine and us being the branches, and how we who are not of the line of Abraham, like of this Hebrew heritage, have been grafted onto the vine. In verse 17, Paul says, If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will then say, Branches were broken off, so that I could be grafted in. Granted, but they were broken off because of their unbelief, and you stand by faith. He says, Do not be arrogant but tremble, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and the sternness of God, sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness, otherwise you will also be cut off, and if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you are cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature, were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? Paul's message was to the Gentiles. Paul was a Jewish person himself, he was a leader in the synagogue, and he was actually the beginning of his story. His name was Saul, and he was out to destroy the Christian church and the Christian movement altogether. He had a moment on the road to Damascus. He had a revelation that Jesus really is who he said he is. And in this famous passage, his name becomes Paul, and the Lord ends up using him in his ministry of the early church. Paul's mission now, even though he is of Jewish heritage, he has a really great way of speaking and reaching the Gentile population. That is his special set of skills in the church. He is telling them you were either born in the line of Abraham and you are naturally connected to this vine, connected to this olive tree, or you have been grafted in through God's saving grace. This grafting of branches has been happening since before Jesus came and died on the cross for all of mankind, for all the sins of the world, forever and ever. Amen. This grafting of the branches even happened in the Old Testament. And the falling away of branches would happen in the Old Testament too. This is not a new concept that some people walked away from the faith who were already by their heritage, by their bloodline, connected to the vine. And then other people who are not of the line of Abraham, who are not of a Hebrew heritage, were grafted in because of their belief in the one true God. So this idea that branches are either connected and staying connected or being grafted in and staying connected or they're falling away because of unbelief. Paul is pointing out this is not a new idea. And those who fell away because of unbelief, as long as they do not continue in their unbelief, they can be grafted back in again. God can do anything, he can graft anyone into the vine. He grafted Paul into the vine. I mean, he changed Paul's whole story, but he doesn't force us. It's back to that free will that he's given his children that we have the choice to either choose him or not to choose him. And the branches that don't choose him are thrown away. But they can be grafted back in again if they choose to not persist in unbelief and to turn back to him. Okay. With all of that said, the reason we are touching on Jesus being the vine and us being the branches being grafted in through saving grace, through belief, is that the fruit of the spirit is not just the fruit itself. The fruit of the spirit is our branches being connected to the vine, Jesus being the vine, and the father is the gardener, just like in John 15, he talks about. And we're gonna dive into this because the fruit of the spirit is not just the fruit of the spirit on its own. It is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a part in all of this. And the fruit of the spirit is like an outward sign of the working power of the Lord within us, if that makes sense. In John 15, we read that Jesus said, I am the true vine, my father is the gardener, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Remember that he loved Moses too much to let him stay in the place that he was, and he loves us too much to let us stay in our comfort zone. He cares more about our character than our comfort. We're gonna jump into Hebrews chapter 12, verses 7 and 11. In verse 7, it says, endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children, for what children are not disciplined by their father? And then in verse 11, it says, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful, just like pruning. That's a painful process. It says later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. That's exactly what discipline does. I think that parenting for anyone who has kids is a crash course in theology. We want to discipline our kids and show them this is the right way. Like this is the way in which you should go. I'm gonna lead you so that you don't turn to the left or the right because it's for your good, because I care about you, because I love you. I'm doing my best to lead you on the right path. And to the child, sometimes it can seem like, man, you're such a buzzkill. Like, why are you not letting me go this way? I really want this thing, or I really want to go this way. But as the parent, you love them so much that you just want the best for them. And that's exactly what our Heavenly Father does. He loves us too much to leave us in the place that we were, because he has way better plans than we have for ourselves. The pruning is what produces more fruit, and the discipline is what produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. So, Jesus is the vine. We have been grafted onto the vine through saving grace. Our heavenly Father is the gardener, he disciplines those he loves, pruning the branches so that they can bear even more fruit. Now, the third piece of the puzzle is the fruit of the spirit. How are these fruit produced and how do we bear them? If we think of an apple tree, we don't see it like struggling and shaking, trying with all its might to make the apples. They just are produced. So fruit are not produced by striving or by works. It's produced, as Jesus says, by remaining in me as I also remain in you. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, there are no fruit. Apart from me, there is no peace like mine. There is no joy like mine. There is no kindness, there is no patience, there is no goodness like mine. Some translations of the Bible, it says, remain in me as I remain in you, or abide in me as I abide in you. The translation of the original Greek word for abide means to exist permanently in inseparably united. So a question we can ask ourselves is Does our relationship with the Lord look like that? Constantly intertwined, receiving, as Paul says, the nourishing sap from the olive root, constantly connected to the vine, constantly abiding. Jesus modeled this perfectly throughout the Gospels. He made time to step away, to be with the Father and pray. There are multiple accounts, like throughout all four of the Gospels, where there'd be a crowd of people in search of healing, in search of wisdom, in search of him, the way, the truth, and the life. And he still made time, despite all of those people needing him, he still met all of their needs, but he found time to step away and be alone, just him and the father. The father had to pour into him before he could pour into others. That's exactly how it's designed. Like we've talked about before, it's that daily bread. In John 15, he says, if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. He continuously connected with the Father to receive and keep his commands. God so desires that daily proximity, that daily connection with us. In the book of Jeremiah, these are the Lord's words through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 29, verses 11 through 14. He says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. Constantly staying connected to the vine is a daily choice of ours. That's the first part of how the fruit of the Spirit are produced. They cannot be produced unless us, the branches, are connected to the vine constantly, continuously. The second piece of how the fruit is produced and how we bear this fruit is found back in John chapter 15. We're going to pick up right where we left off in verse 10. Jesus said, If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this love each other as I have loved you. I want to point something out here. He says, Remain in my love, keep my commands, so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. It's that joy that is not fleeting. It's that joy that is unshakable despite the circumstances. It's the peace that's unshakable despite the circumstances. We're going to flip back to Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 through 27. It's talking about the wise and the foolish builders. This is part of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. Verse 24. Jesus' words, he says, Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. These are life circumstances coming and beating against that house. He's inviting us to learn his word, discovering the Father's heart as we do, and living outwardly and open-handedly with that, putting his words into practice. The more I learn about God, the more I open his word and learn more about God's character and his goodness, the more I love him, and the more I learn how to love others like he does, the more and more I'm building my house on the rock, the more connected I am to the vine, the easier it is for those fruit to grow within me. And it's not because of what I'm doing, it's because of what he's doing. It is a daily choice to build our house on the rock, to put his words into practice, to keep his commands. But first we have to go to him to get those commands. We have to go to his word and be in his presence to receive those commands. The last two verses of our section from John chapter 15, verses 16 and 17, Jesus gives him encouragement here. He says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. This is my command. Love each other. Quick note here when he says, Whatever you ask in my name, that the Father will give you. This is not so much like a genie in the sky. It's still according to the Father's will and in line with his word. And the fruit of the spirit does not include selfishness or gluttony. So it's not like, hey, Lord, I really need a bigger house. Or I'd be happier if I had another salary. That is the way of the world thinking. But we're talking about the fruit of the spirit, and those things are not of the spirit, those are of this world. So it's still within the will of the Father, and it's to the glory of the Father and the fullness of our joy. Look at this picture of one who abides in the Lord and does it well. In Psalm 92, verses 12 through 15. It says, The righteous will flourish like a palm tree. They will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh and green, proclaiming the Lord is upright. He is my rock. And there is no wickedness in him. What a beautiful promise. What a race run well. I want to come to the end of my life and still look green in the court of my Lord and still be proclaiming the Lord is upright. He is my rock and still bearing fruit throughout all that life has to offer, throughout all the winds and the rains and the storm that beat against my house and my life. I want to be able to stand firm to the end, like one who is planted in the house of the Lord, like one who is connected to the vine, who is so intertwined that it's inseparable. God is after our hearts. He chases us down in merciful pursuit. He is constantly calling us back to him because we were never meant to do this on our own, but always with him. My encouragement for us this week is to carve out 10 to 15 minutes a day to spend with the Lord in his word, in prayer, and in listening for when he speaks. If you're already in your word, if you are already praying daily, that is so good. And I encourage you to keep it up. And if you feel like, man, I've been praying every day, or I've been reading my Bible every day, but I still haven't seen any fruit. My challenge to you would be to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. To ask the Holy Spirit, am I really seeking you with my whole heart? Am I opening the word just to check off a box? Or am I praying right before bed, but I'm half falling asleep and not really engaged and connected to you? And then when he points out the way in us that's maybe not aligned with him, or maybe something that is blocking our connection to him, something that we need to surrender, I invite you to listen. And if you're listening to this and you're telling yourself, I'm a branch that has fallen away because of unbelief, God can always, always graft you back into the tree. It is a choice that we get to make to believe and follow or not, to build our house on the rock or the sand. And then there's one more group I want to touch on. If you are beginning your faith walk and you feel like you've started to develop some fruit, but you're facing adversity or a challenge or a hardship of some sort, remember that God is the gardener and he prunes every branch so that it can bear more fruit. The discipline is of a loving father so that we can experience through that discipline the fullness of joy and the fullness of peace. The fruit of the Spirit is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together in us. The fruit that we bear is outward evidence of the Lord at work within us. And it is a beautiful thing. It's this wonderful, incredible cycle when He is developing the fruit within us and we could bear it outwardly so that others see in our lives when we are not in peaceful situations but have peace. When we are not in joyful situations yet somehow have joy, that's not fleeting, that's not like the world promises. We still have patience and kindness, even when we're in the circumstances that are challenging us and trying us. That's what can make someone look at your life and say, How do you have this? How can I obtain this? Because I tried that and it didn't work. Or I tried this and I was still left empty. But you seem to be holding on to something. And that's when we get to point it back to him. It's for the Father's glory and for the fullness of our joy. I hope you're encouraged by this week's message. I hope we're praying for you as always. And I can't wait to see you next week. God bless.