SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, who has an Apple Watch?
SPEAKER_01: Apple Watch.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you have an Apple Watch, how many of you have your event for the day on the face of your watch?
SPEAKER_01: Where you look at your watch and it says what's going on, your calendar.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what is your say?
SPEAKER_01: Say, loud and clear.
SPEAKER_01: What is your say you don't have your watch on?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, your watch.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else have have their calendar?
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember doing somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, tell me what your watch says.
SPEAKER_01: What does it say today?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing?
SPEAKER_01: So it just says Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I have a watch here.
SPEAKER_01: I have an Apple watch, and it says, Pete speaks.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the good part.
SPEAKER_01: It says, listen, you can come up here and look at this.
SPEAKER_01: It says Pete speaks all day.
SPEAKER_01: That's a prophetic word if I've ever seen one.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's a prophetic word right there.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get to speak often.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's already shown me even what the Lord does with me is during these worship sessions, the Lord gives me sermons.
SPEAKER_01: So he just downloaded a whole sermon for me the next time I speak.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell you what it's about, but it's going to be awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Well, anyway, you know, people ask me, oh, how's retirement going?
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: October 1st, 2024, we steps aside.
SPEAKER_01: Sharon and I did.
SPEAKER_01: She did essentially officially a year later.
SPEAKER_01: So I thought I'd bring you up to speed.
SPEAKER_01: Keep you in the loop.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And uh so things have been going well.
SPEAKER_01: I've been spending time doing things that I'm you know not used to doing a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: Spend a lot of, I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: Spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know some of you don't are not aware of my culinary history.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it another way, my exploits in the commercial kitchen that we have in here.
SPEAKER_01: So I was in the kitchen the other day and I was thinking.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, I was thinking of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I had this thought, and I so I asked Sharon, you know, because I was in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: That was my kind of my environment.
SPEAKER_01: She's sitting in the living room over there, and I said, have you ever noticed that every time I do anything in the kitchen, you can't even tell I've been here.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, the problem with that question was how it began.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed?
SPEAKER_01: I even asked her this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I got up and I have a lot of energy in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: When I get up, I have a lot of things I got to do, little chores and stuff, and I fixed a few things that were associated with things she needed to get done.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Did you notice?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Did you notice?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm glad you noticed that.
SPEAKER_01: And she looked right at me and she said, I notice everything.
SPEAKER_01: So it's probably not a good idea to, when you're thinking of stuff, to ask your wife, men, have you noticed?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed?
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't you might go down the wrong path.
SPEAKER_01: And then you ask that question to yourself and you say, was that a was that a was that the right question?
SPEAKER_01: Was that the right thing to do?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what I want to talk to you about today.
SPEAKER_01: Did we put up my thing yet?
SPEAKER_01: Fruit 2.0.
SPEAKER_01: There's some rotten fruit over here, and there's some ripe fruit, delicious fruit over here.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: We ask ourselves this question often.
SPEAKER_01: If you can identify with this, just say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have I made the right decision?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Are we on the right path?
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I believe every church needs to ask that question constantly.
SPEAKER_01: Are we on the right path?
SPEAKER_01: Have we made the right decision?
SPEAKER_01: Are we doing the right thing?
SPEAKER_01: Constant evaluation.
SPEAKER_01: This is the good news, though.
SPEAKER_01: How about if you answer that or ask that question and the answer is no?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: We're not sure.
SPEAKER_01: But here's a scripture I want to share with you, and I'll put that up.
SPEAKER_01: Lamentations 3.22.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord's great love we are not consumed.
SPEAKER_01: For his compassion say never.
SPEAKER_01: Never fails.
SPEAKER_01: And listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: They are new every morning.
SPEAKER_01: Great is your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know the compassion of the Lord is new?
SPEAKER_01: It's fresh like the dew every day.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes in Scripture, the dew from Mount Hermon is referenced.
SPEAKER_01: It's referenced in the anointing of Abraham, or I'm sorry, of Aaron as the high priest.
SPEAKER_01: It's new.
SPEAKER_01: Every single day, every single year, every single time the sun comes up, the dew comes off of Mount Hermon.
SPEAKER_01: That's our God.
SPEAKER_01: His faithfulness, his goodness.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans 2 and 4 it says, or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you towards repentance.
SPEAKER_01: We do not want to despise the kindness of the Lord, and we do not want to allow ourselves when we make bad decisions, when we're unsure of what we've done, we don't allow that contemplation to cloud the fact that his compassions are new every day.
SPEAKER_01: Every day.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, don't despise or ignore the fact of the kindness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because it leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And how many of you know this?
SPEAKER_01: In our modern time, we really need to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Repentance leads to forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness leads to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear me?
SPEAKER_01: There is no salvation without repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Repentance leads to forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness leads to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: It's important to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about what I've come up with, six propositions.
SPEAKER_01: A proposition is an offering of a proposal that can either be taken or rejected.
SPEAKER_01: But it's based on the assumption of the person making the proposition that they believe what they're saying.
SPEAKER_01: So I believe what I'm saying this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to offer some propositions.
SPEAKER_01: And my prayer and my true deep desire is that we would all receive these propositions.
SPEAKER_01: We would say, yes, I'm going to propose something.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus proposed something.
SPEAKER_01: I proposed to my very fortunate spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't I?
SPEAKER_01: I proposed a life of leisure.
SPEAKER_01: Oh boy, that's a lie.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: So, so even though God, even though God is compassionate, our Father, who said it today?
SPEAKER_01: Relationship, our father is compassionate and forgiving and kind.
SPEAKER_01: It still, it does not, this is the first proposition, it does not relieve us of our responsibility to ask ourselves the question, are we on the right path?
SPEAKER_01: Are we doing the right thing?
SPEAKER_01: Have we made the right decision?
SPEAKER_01: So proposition number one.
SPEAKER_01: Our Christian experience should be one of constant evaluation.
SPEAKER_01: Testing.
SPEAKER_01: Says in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: I love this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Examine yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: You know what we just did?
SPEAKER_01: We just celebrated the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the essence of the Lord's Supper is examination.
SPEAKER_01: Two points of examination.
SPEAKER_01: One, what he did for us.
SPEAKER_01: Two, what we are doing for him.
SPEAKER_01: Examine ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul says here in 2 Corinthians, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Test yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the test is for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is something that we constantly do.
SPEAKER_01: Every week I've given, I'm given the opportunity, and you are as well, to examine my life.
SPEAKER_01: And the question I want to ask myself, is Christ in me?
SPEAKER_01: Now you can theologically say that's a fact because when you were born again, you were adopted into his family.
SPEAKER_01: You received the end on time.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's in chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: He says, live the way you really are.
SPEAKER_01: Live the way you really are.
SPEAKER_01: Don't live the way you think you should be.
SPEAKER_01: Live the way you really are, and you really are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's a fact.
SPEAKER_00: So, Christ Jesus in you, unless, of course, you fail the test.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was not ashamed at all of a lacking Hebrews 13.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it's verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: And imitate their faith and allow them to be your example.
SPEAKER_01: Now he that's in verse, I think in 7, but in verse 13 of the same chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Later on the chapter, he says the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Examine those, hey, the leaders who are over you in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Obey them so that they will have joy and not a case I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Examine the leaders.
SPEAKER_00: The leaders live in a glass house, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we should never be in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: We always start, who do we start with?
SPEAKER_01: Us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm going somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Proposition one.
SPEAKER_01: Our Christian experience should be of the constant evaluation or testing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another proposition.
SPEAKER_00: Our fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We have to ask our ex how am I doing?
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, some people, that's especially in today's church culture, biggest false prophets in the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph Prince, are you familiar with him?
SPEAKER_01: He says there's no need for Christians ever to examine themselves.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit will never he says this.
SPEAKER_01: I did a paper on his book.
SPEAKER_01: He says the Holy Spirit will never, never point out sin.
SPEAKER_01: He said, that's false grace.
SPEAKER_01: That's not false grace, that's Bible grace.
SPEAKER_01: That's the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit points out sin.
SPEAKER_01: Then I get to come in here on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, and come before the Lord in the Lord's communion table and say, Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm examining myself.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for forgiving me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm starting out a brand new week.
SPEAKER_01: I'm starting out a brand new week, ready to go.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's why communion is very important.
SPEAKER_01: Many years ago I was driving around listening to my car radio, and I heard a man describe a church of the name of it.
SPEAKER_00: But he was describing how this church it was packed to the gills.
SPEAKER_00: Oil, wind, fire, rain of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He was visiting the people.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Fire every day.
SPEAKER_00: And he went there on a Sunday to visit the church.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It was empty.
SPEAKER_01: The church was empty.
SPEAKER_00: And he began asking himself the question: why did this happen?
SPEAKER_01: Can I give you another example before we go on to some other propositions?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you another example.
SPEAKER_01: When we started this church in 1997, the hottest thing in Christianity was the seeker center.
SPEAKER_00: And the hottest thing.
SPEAKER_01: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: Cafe, donuts, muffin.
SPEAKER_01: You just come into that church and it was like, who wants to leave?
SPEAKER_01: Massive.
SPEAKER_01: A few years later, after that after the founding pastor issued a statement, and I'm going to read it to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little long, but would you bear with me?
SPEAKER_01: Because I want to make a point.
SPEAKER_01: Examine the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing more accurate.
SPEAKER_01: He says, we made a mistake.
SPEAKER_01: What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become self-feeders.
SPEAKER_00: How to do the spiritual practices, it reminds people using accurate terms.
SPEAKER_01: I like it when people speak with terms that mean what they say.
SPEAKER_01: You know what religion means?
SPEAKER_01: Well, James says good religion is taking care of orphans and widows.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know our praise when we come in on a church building that's religious?
SPEAKER_00: Devoted to expressing one's faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Over here.
SPEAKER_00: And Sharon actually prayed.
SPEAKER_01: We pray together every day.
SPEAKER_01: But when we prayed together this morning, she prayed a prayer that I I felt obligated to agree with.
SPEAKER_00: Obligated because we want to be one in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So we're we're praying, and she just blurts this out.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help him not to go on any rabbit trails.
SPEAKER_00: You prayed that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you said go off on a tangent or something.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, like David?
SPEAKER_00: Don't do like David.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's what you said.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you said.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like David.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have to do an altar call.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: I've and listen, if you said this, I know you said it with the best of heart and pure innocence, but I've heard people say this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then you need to leave.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're here because of religion.
SPEAKER_01: It's a religious practice.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus was the most religious person that's ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: He praises praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: That's a religious practice.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that the Jews teach us how to praise?
SPEAKER_01: Romans 15?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Praise is not something we from the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Just read it.
SPEAKER_00: What it means is religious practices serve a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved because of religious practice, we're not affirmed because of religious practices.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing about it is, it helped it spiritual disciplines keep us in the right.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a humble thing to admit that we need structure.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I need structure.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I didn't, but I do.
SPEAKER_01: But that I'm off on Sharon, I'm off of this thing now.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And ironically, here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he said.
SPEAKER_01: I won't go, it's not on my paper here, but I'll tell you because I've read this many times.
SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot of research on it.
SPEAKER_00: Was thinking that if we could get people to do things, they would grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: If we could get people to be church ministers, workers, greeters, and ushers.
SPEAKER_00: If we could just keep them busy.
SPEAKER_01: You see.
SPEAKER_01: There's a book.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm on another short tangent.
SPEAKER_01: This will be my short tangent.
SPEAKER_00: There's a book by excellent book.
SPEAKER_00: I've met him.
SPEAKER_01: We had we've sponsored a seminar for him.
SPEAKER_01: He was in charge, he was a bad staff.
SPEAKER_01: So exhausted and yearn to be a greeter at Wall because of so many things.
SPEAKER_01: Things don't make people grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: The church functions properly.
SPEAKER_01: But the things that make us grow and become more like Christ, prayer, Bible study, ministry amongst ourselves in the community.
SPEAKER_01: That's what makes us more like cross the boundary of being lost to being saved and become Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the question that I had because of after looking at this.
SPEAKER_01: Is the seed that has been planted in a life of a Christian producing fruit?
SPEAKER_01: Why ask this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he used Galatians chapter 5, and he missed, he mentioned the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the fruit of the spirit, when think of process.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear me?
SPEAKER_01: So listen to me when I say this.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is not an event, it's a process.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to think in singular events as Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Where God thinks in process.
SPEAKER_01: We are not yet mature, but we're being matured.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So we're, and that's why we need to lean on that compassion and kindness of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 8, 15, I'm going somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: But the seed on good soil stands for those.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is what the seed, remember the seed, a person who crosses from death to life, is like a seed planted in the ground, right?
SPEAKER_01: So that seed is planted, and it says, but the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and here it is, and by persevering produce a good crop.
SPEAKER_01: See, fruit just doesn't so fruit grows.
SPEAKER_01: So we make sure the soil is right.
SPEAKER_01: We make sure the reign of the Spirit is right.
SPEAKER_01: We make sure as much as we can to participate in what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know God's moving today?
SPEAKER_01: I want to be right in the middle of that river.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be right in the river.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to oppose it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to criticize it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to talk about other people.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be right in the river God has put us in.
SPEAKER_01: And that river, I believe, is happening in America today.
SPEAKER_01: That river is revival.
SPEAKER_01: God's beginning to move.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing it in families, we're seeing it in communities, we're seeing it on college campuses, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing it in arenas, we're seeing it under tents.
SPEAKER_01: God is moving.
SPEAKER_01: So we want to make sure that if he's planted a seed of Jesus Christ in our life, we want to make sure that we are as much as we can tending that garden.
SPEAKER_01: We are persevering in it.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit takes time to mature.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit responds to close attention.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It is an incremental process.
SPEAKER_01: They call it horticulture.
SPEAKER_01: We are Holy Spirit horticulturists.
SPEAKER_01: We really are.
SPEAKER_01: Yielding to the Spirit and allowing the fruitfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it?
SPEAKER_01: You know, let's just talk about it kind of in a selfish way.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about it in two ways.
SPEAKER_01: The fruit of the Spirit, the fruitfulness as a blessing, as a curse, and then more importantly, to go back to Galatians chapter 5, we're going to go and talk to about it as a community.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that if we don't, as individuals, take responsibility to make sure we are fruitful, it affects everybody.
SPEAKER_01: You got to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be there in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: It is a pronounced blessing of the Lord to be fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus 26, 3.
SPEAKER_01: If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crop and trees of the field their fruit.
SPEAKER_01: It's a blessing pronounced many times in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, unfruitfulness is a pronounced curse from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 18 5.
SPEAKER_01: For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
SPEAKER_01: Last week David made a number of mentions to the Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another proposition.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is now.
SPEAKER_01: Listen closely.
SPEAKER_01: The fruit of the Spirit is much more than a command for individuals to practice.
SPEAKER_01: It is a blessing for everyone affected.
SPEAKER_01: No fruit, big problems.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to look in our Christian walk about what does it mean to me?
SPEAKER_01: I told, I think I may have told David this the other day, maybe mentioned it, Randy.
SPEAKER_01: I made the mistake yesterday of visiting Randy and asking him a question.
SPEAKER_01: I took a picture of all the books he got out.
SPEAKER_01: Because I I just want to have it in my record book.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave me a book.
SPEAKER_01: Randy doesn't give books a lot, but he gave me a book.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know how to pronounce the title of it, but it was excellent.
SPEAKER_01: Praise now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just he's excellent stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So the proposition is the fruit of the spirit is much more than a personal command, it is a practice that blesses everyone it affects.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in Galatians, we we're not going to go through the works of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit, but there is a conclusion in verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where we see that he broadens it out from the command.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we all read it like that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we command, oh, okay, Lord, I want to be kind, I want to be good, I want to be patient, you know, I want to be fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what he says in verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying or envying each other.
SPEAKER_01: Conceited, provoking, and envying each other.
SPEAKER_01: David probably doesn't even remember, but this morning during pre-service prayer, he mentioned envy a number of times.
SPEAKER_01: You see?
SPEAKER_01: Mentioned envy a number of times.
SPEAKER_01: So the conclusion of Paul's exhortation to bear fruit of the Spirit is that otherwise we will become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
SPEAKER_01: You hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Conceited simply means glorifying ourselves without content, fruitlessness.
SPEAKER_01: Envy is the object of one's jealousy or fiercely pursuit of a thing or a person.
SPEAKER_01: Note this.
SPEAKER_01: This thing about envy is listed in virtually every vice list in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: You know what a vice list is?
SPEAKER_01: You read some of them this morning during preservice prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians chapter 6 has a has a vice list in it.
SPEAKER_01: These shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Almost in every list in the New Testament, envy is listed.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my proposition.
unknown: It's so true, but the night is not as bad like a wall.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, that'll preach.
SPEAKER_01: Leaven.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's also, yeah, praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Now James says in verse chapter 3, verse 16, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, if you don't practice the fruits of the Spirit, if you don't be a fruit examiner, if you don't evaluate yourself, if you don't test yourself, you can produce bad fruit, and that's going to infect the whole body.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to infect the whole body.
SPEAKER_01: As a pastor for many, many years, I will say this, please keep this in mind.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most alarming realizations that I had later in years in ministry is how unaware we are of what we do and how it affects the body.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big time issue.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's his conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the next proportion.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry, the proposition, that there is a communal effect of this bad fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Bad fruit produces a bad community.
SPEAKER_01: Proposition number five.
SPEAKER_01: Are y'all following me?
SPEAKER_01: Proposition number five.
SPEAKER_01: We must therefore have a passion to produce good fruit.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons for that, and I'm going to give you one reason.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons, and this is a, man, remember we started out.
SPEAKER_01: Have I made the right decision?
SPEAKER_01: Did I make do the right thing?
SPEAKER_01: Are we going in the right direction?
SPEAKER_01: Fruit, say fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is the acid test of the will of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we can make a decision, but do we have the courage somewhere down the line to ask ourselves this question?
SPEAKER_01: Is it producing fruit?
SPEAKER_01: Can I give you an example that's probably gonna upset some people?
SPEAKER_01: As a parent, I'm gonna make a decision that rather than be in church on Sunday morning, my kids are gonna be playing sports.
SPEAKER_01: Do not kid yourself.
SPEAKER_01: That decision will produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And the harsh reality of it is parents, I've heard this.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard parents growing up, they they their kids get to be a teenager and they say, Well, you know, they don't want to go to church, I'm just gonna leave it to them.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And when the fruit comes, it's real.
SPEAKER_01: It can't be denied.
SPEAKER_01: It's real.
SPEAKER_01: But how many of you know his compassions are new and fresh like they do?
SPEAKER_01: There's always opportunities to change, make decisions, turn around and go another direction.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Proposition five.
SPEAKER_01: We must have a passion to produce good fruit.
SPEAKER_01: This fruit is an acid test of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: You know what the acid, that phrase acid test, what it does, what it means, is they take nitrate acid.
SPEAKER_01: This is where it came from.
SPEAKER_01: What the word, the term, the phrase acid test means is it reveals the true nature of something.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a that's not a strange concept to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same concept that he uses.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, this is the acid test.
SPEAKER_01: So we can take it, and I can tell myself, Pete, this is the acid test of your life that you're living.
SPEAKER_01: Church, this is the acid test.
SPEAKER_01: This is what does it bear fruit?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm not going to go there, but I I mentioned this to David, I think, yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Paul took up this offering for the saints in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He took up this offering for the poor in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And he involved all the churches that he was ministering to.
SPEAKER_01: And well, at the end of Romans, again in Romans chapter 15, some of the versions, they've changed it a little bit, but some of the older versions say, Before I visit you, I've got to go to Jerusalem and and to deliver the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: What was the fruit?
SPEAKER_01: The fruit was their giving.
SPEAKER_01: So that's that that's that's when we think of fruit, we think of those outward expressions of the impact of the kingdom of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So, Jesus says in Matthew 17, I'll be on, I'll be done in a minute, but I do have all day according to my watch.
SPEAKER_01: By their fruit you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_01: Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
SPEAKER_01: You're familiar with that.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
SPEAKER_01: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, he says, by their fruit you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_01: You can say that to we can say that to ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, by my fruit, I will recognize me.
SPEAKER_01: By my fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Am I growing cold towards the things of God?
SPEAKER_01: One of the great Bible scholars, Merrillunger, wrote a book, wrote three books on demons.
SPEAKER_01: First book, he said there's no problem.
SPEAKER_01: Second book says there might be a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Third book said there's a real problem with demons and Christians.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: That's in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_01: Three books.
SPEAKER_01: One was like in 1946, the other one was in 73.
SPEAKER_01: So and even Billy Graham said this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There's abundant evidence that people who endabble in things like Ouija boards, seances, that even Christians will begin to manifest the inhabitation of spirits.
SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: By your fruit, Ouija board, no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Well, all of a sudden, this person, and this is what Billy Graham says, they begin to get cold towards the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: They begin to think sin is not a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: They begin to say, Well, that's just who I am.
SPEAKER_01: God never meant to leave us who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to change us radically.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, 16.
SPEAKER_01: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit that will last.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, it's not a one-time event, it's a produce, it's a process.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 7 and 4.
SPEAKER_01: Just bear with me.
SPEAKER_01: I want to share these scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, my my favorite is when John the Baptist saw the Pharisees coming to be baptized again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Bear fruit under repentance.
SPEAKER_01: The acid test is the test that reveals.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna quote from Willow Creek again just as a as a as a reminder.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, spiritual growth doesn't happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs, but through the age-old spirit, spiritual practice of prayer, Bible reading, and relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And my question today for us, not a proposition, and I will have one more.
SPEAKER_01: What is the fruit of this house?
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you some of them.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want you to be, as Sharon Catherine said earlier, we don't apologize for dependence on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We don't apologize for the vibrant reality and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We don't wish Jesus were in this meeting.
SPEAKER_01: We know Jesus is in this meeting because we have a manifestation of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Praise and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Preaching, prophecy, and people, which means community.
SPEAKER_01: People, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: I could elaborate on it.
SPEAKER_01: People.
SPEAKER_01: Garner just went to Brazil, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's community.
SPEAKER_01: That's people.
SPEAKER_01: You're concerned with people.
SPEAKER_01: Why'd you go there?
SPEAKER_01: Because people need to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And there's many different reflections of that, many manifestations of that.
SPEAKER_01: So we can ask this question what is the fruit of this church?
SPEAKER_01: Now remember this.
SPEAKER_01: The fruit is growing, the fruit is being tended to.
SPEAKER_01: The fruit needs constant attention.
SPEAKER_01: The fruit is not mature.
SPEAKER_01: We have not arrived.
SPEAKER_01: We are a work in progress.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't give up.
SPEAKER_01: We keep watering, we keep fertilizing, we keep planting, we keep doing the things that God's called us to do.
SPEAKER_01: We're not doing some things we should do.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing too much of things we shouldn't should shouldn't do, maybe, but eventually God brings the adjustment.
SPEAKER_01: God brings the adjustment because we're tending the vine.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The final proposition.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is big.
SPEAKER_01: Fruitfulness is a process that's affected by intervening events and decisions.
SPEAKER_01: I can plant and I never I by the way, my personal philosophy of plants is never plant one.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't mind pruning them, I don't mind tending to them, I don't mind fixing them.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think in 47 years of marriage, I don't know that I have planted some bushes at the command of my wife.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing fruit can be pruned, it can be watered, it can be nourished, and it can be neglected.
SPEAKER_01: And the fruit is affected by all of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in John 15, by the way, John chapter 15 is what I call the chapter on fruit.
SPEAKER_01: He cuts off, 15 2, he cuts off every branch in me, in me that does not bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: So let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for the pruning.
SPEAKER_01: Catherine referred to it today when she was prophetically ministering.
SPEAKER_01: We may not understand the events that we are seeing, involved with, partaking of, experiencing, but trust me, God is pruning.
SPEAKER_01: God is pruning.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's pleasant, sometimes it's not.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, 4, remain in me.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm already in you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Paul says in 1 or 2 Corinthians 13 5 that we need to test ourselves and see if you remain.
SPEAKER_01: And I will remain in you.
SPEAKER_01: No branch can bear fruit by itself.
SPEAKER_01: We can't do it by ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know we need each other?
SPEAKER_01: I need you, you need me.
SPEAKER_01: We need our five-fold ministry.
SPEAKER_01: We need our brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We need obviously the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Remain in me and I will remain in you.
SPEAKER_01: No branch can bear fruit by itself.
SPEAKER_01: It must remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_01: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_01: Last Scripture, 15 5.
SPEAKER_01: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_01: If a man remains in me and I in him, this is a great promise.
SPEAKER_01: He will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Would you stand?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you to disagree with me.
SPEAKER_01: I have a proposition.
SPEAKER_01: I have a proposal.
SPEAKER_01: And I would like you to agree with me as I pray this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm asking us, as I pray in just a moment, I'm asking the Holy Spirit to minister to our fruitfulness.
SPEAKER_01: I'm asking you to agree with me to allow the Holy Spirit to examine our fruitfulness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big step.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, is what I'm doing, is what I'm thinking, is what I'm planning, is what I'm wondering.
SPEAKER_01: Is it producing fruit?
SPEAKER_01: I I'm speaking this to me.
SPEAKER_01: I've had to make some adjustments even this week.
SPEAKER_01: Just some declarations to my own soul.
SPEAKER_01: David had to do that.
SPEAKER_01: David had to say, Garna, bless the Lord, O my soul.
SPEAKER_01: He had to do that in the midst of difficult circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And what we have to do in the midst of this great revival that we're praying for is, Lord, examine my fruit.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, in Jesus' name, we're asking right now, and I'm leading the pack.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, examine the fruit of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make sure that I pass the test.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm saved.
SPEAKER_01: I know I have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I know I have an eternal reward.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he told me that if I was in him, the deeper I was in him, the more fruit I would produce.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, Come, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be more like that great fruit producer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we want to bear fruit under repentance.
SPEAKER_01: We want to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: We want to bear fruit that affects generations.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you and praise you for this, Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that this week you would open up our eyes and show us where the water is needed, where the oil is needed, where the fire is needed, where the wind is needed.
SPEAKER_01: Come, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Minister to this body, Lord, as we bear fruit and we short circuit the plans of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you all.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget there's a women's conference coming up.
SPEAKER_01: Sometime.
SPEAKER_01: October.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I saw that announcement, but you didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: So praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you all.
SPEAKER_01: We will see you when we convene again.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.